Does anyone know/could clarify what the 350 million users specific to iCandy represent?
Being actively sceptical. Probably a number of holes in my thinking, so appreciate any insight!
The thing about the mobile gaming market is that brand names don't carry as much weight as their counterparts in the console industry. Where younger generations have grown up with big publishers and developers such as Activision, Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, Nintendo etc. over the past 10-20 years, mobile gaming is still very much an emerging market. Gamers as well can be very loyal to certain brands given good consistent content of a high quality. In my experience, mobile gaming is very much a cycle of game of the week or month, where we are constantly trying new games, getting bored with them, then repeating the cycle - given that these games are free/at little cost. The app industry is very easy to break into, given a variety of programs or agency's available, low barriers of entry (especially into the Android market), low costs - very diversified market. There is no particular loyalty towards any specific brands. Sure there are a few major developers like Supercell, King or Playrix which have value in their name, but that is not what we have in the iCandy deal. The key is retention, which is what these big developers have achieved through the likes of Clash of Clans, or Candy Crush. Although iCandy stated that a suite of their games have an average of 50% retention rates, they aren't games which themselves or their partners have topping grossing charts consistently.
So what does this 350 million users represent? Is it individuals who have downloaded an iCandy/partner game on to one device (and deleted)? Created an account with iCandy? Played the game more than X times/every X days/weeks? It's very easy to say that we have had 350 million users on a historical basis, but how many of that 350M still play iCandy games to date.
Even advertising ArcadeX on those iCandy games will be intrusive - any pop up ad will frustrate users. I'd be even more suspicious if I saw an ad where it promises that prizes or cash can be won which ArcadeX represents, to the point that it'd be too good to be true/scammish in nature.
To sum up, not frothing about this deal like others here - at least it comes with the potential to add users give exposure to ArcadeX. I'm sure its just diversifying their platform which is helpful, but the AAA gaming industry is where the bulk of esports industry lies - not mobile gaming. Time will tell if it can break into the industry.
Last question, is there an age limit with ArcadeX - my thinking being that winning prizes online usually comes with an age limit such as 16/18+. A lot of online competitions (unrelated to gaming) like 25 words or less type comps have these age limits even though they could be catered to children/teens. McDonalds Monopoly had a 16+ age limit for example in Australia. This could alienate quite a large user base in children - not without saying that they could simply say they're over that age limit lol.
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