The Battle Pass Q&A you didn’t know you Needed
Battle Pass integration in top grossing games has skyrocketed over the past few years. Unfortunately, we’ve seen mixed results in the implementation of Battle Pass in games. During a recent event we discussed how to implement Battle Pass successfully. Here are the answers to some of the top questions. If you have more questions that I didn’t cover here, please send them to us here at ggDigest. Enjoy!
How do you price the Battle Pass?
This is always a tough question to ask as pricing is really relative to the perceived value you plan to offer based on player expectations in your game. But there are two things you should keep in mind when pricing your Battle Pass:
- The value you give for the price of the Battle Pass should be significantly greater than what a Player can get with a one-time purchase.
AFK Arena is a good example of this. For $25 you get a lot more bang for your buck then other similarly-priced one-time sales:
Presenting the Player with a lot more perceived value with a Battle Pass than anything they can immediately buy is a good way to make Battle Pass more appealing from a spend perspective.
2. Err on the side of the price being higher so you have room to reduce the cost if needed.
Higher Prices can be lowered without much backlash from Players. But raising prices can violate Player Expectations and should be avoided if necessary. So start higher for your initial season and then lower it for future seasons if you don’t get enough engagement. You can also run mid-season deals to get more players into the Battle Pass at a discount.
How do you determine the duration of a Battle Pass?
Ideally you are using your Battle Pass to push your Players to engage in the game in a certain way. While there is no definitive answer to how long a Battle Pass Season should run for, you should make sure that the duration is compatible with everything else happening in the game.
So if you have a live-ops cycle that Players are accustomed to, it might be good to make your Battle Pass the same length of your live-ops cadence or some multiple thereof. Monthly or Quarterly are easy to use as well. Again, there are no right answers here, but the more synergy Battle Pass Duration has with everything else you are doing in your game, the better.
What are the Best Industry Examples of Battle Pass Implementation?
As a Game Designer, I am a big fan of using features to solve or mitigate existing problems in your games in addition to improving on what is working. So in my opinion, the best implementation of the Battle Pass are those implementations that did the best to fix a problem or improve a situation in their games.
One of the best implementations of Battle Pass is from the OG itself — Fortnite. As a Battle Royale Game with no sort of progression system in the game, Fortnite really ran the risk of having Players get tired of it early and churn if they were forced to compete in the Battle Royale over and over again. But the brilliance of their Battle Pass is that suddenly you had a ton of non-Battle Royale things to do that would help you progress as much or more as those that dominate the Battle Royale.
Fortnite utilizes their Battle Pass Challenges to keep their players engaged in ways that aren’t too time-consuming, that are easily done through Mobile or on PC/Console, and that still show off the great vanity items that players earn. In the case of Fortnite, the Battle Pass solves a huge direction/engagement problem the game would have otherwise had without Battle Pass.
Another good implementation of the Battle Pass is in 8-Ball Pool. During the Discussion Panel on Battle Pass, I strongly argued that Battle Pass is mainly an Engagement/Conversion Feature, and not a Monetization Feature. The Pool Pass in 8-Ball Pool is an example of how the Battle Pass can strongly impact monetization. Because 8-Ball Pool requires chips to play Matches, using the Battle Pass to increase engagement will by definition increase the chips sunk to play Matches.
Combined with incentives to play higher cost Tables to complete Daily Missions and get Pool Points, the Battle Pass has proven to improve 8-Ball Pool’s core monetization.
There may be other examples of the Battle Pass being implemented in a way that solved core problems or improved existing performance. If you have examples, please shoot them our way at ggDigest!
How do you think Battle Passes can add Drive more Value?
Like my other answers, the answer to this is kind of relative to what is going on in the game. But at a high level, the Battle Pass will add value if the engagement it drives adds value. If you are working on a Game that has low retention and poor session metrics, it’s possible that adding a Battle Pass can improve that if Players have more direction and more direction creates a better Player experience. Should the Battle Pass improve retention and player session metrics, then it is clear adding it to your game created a ton of Value.
Similarly, if you mainly monetize off of your events, but find engagement in your events lackluster, implementing a Battle Pass that drives increased engagement in your events will have created Value if the monetization from events increase.
The Battle Pass is certainly capable of driving Value. The question is whether game companies can implement it in a targeted way that actually solves a problem the game is having, and not just shove it into the Game just because it is popular in Fortnite.
If a Battle Pass is too difficult to complete, would it not discourage picking up the Battle Pass?
There have been a lot of questions about how much effort or time it should take to complete a Battle Pass. In general, you should leave enough room for Players who don’t want to complete some of the more odious challenges to skip them and still complete the Battle Pass without paying if they engage in the game enough. A Battle Pass that allows players to complete it in 70% of the time it is available gives Players room to pick and choose what challenges they want to complete.
Giving players some breathing room allows you to make the Challenges more difficult and hopefully drive more indirect monetization. For Spenders who don’t spend the same amount of time as free players, the higher difficulty challenges combined with the less time they spend playing may push them to spend to complete the Battle Pass.
What do you think Clash Royale should have done to implement a successful Battle Pass?
Personally, I would have Players progress through the Battle Pass in Clash Royale by opening Chests rather than earn Crowns. Earning Crowns doesn’t cost Players anything but Time. And given that the Battle Pass was giving away a lot of objective value, it is very possible that Clash Royale’s Battle Pass cannibalized monetization, which is exactly what you don’t want to do when implementing Battle Pass.
Had Supercell instead give out Battle Pass Points every time a Chest is opened (whether through timed chests or purchased chests), then Progress through the Battle Pass is pegged to a time cost that Players can spend Gems to speed up. This almost certainly would monetize better than Clash Royale’s current implementation of the Battle Pass. Now it’s entirely possible that Players will view this design as too greedy. But the design directly touches on Monetization in a way that using Crowns to progress doesn’t.
How important is the revenue from tier skips in the overall BP model?
I don’t have any inside information about how much revenue comes from Tier Skips versus Battle Pass Activation. I strongly suspect that Tier Skips don’t generate a lot of revenue outside of the Battle Pass Activation + Tier Skip bundles.
These more expensive IAPs not only activate the Battle Pass for Players, but also have them skip the first X Tiers. Outside of those Bundles, you probably don’t see much revenue generation until when the Season is nearly over and stragglers pay to complete the Season before time runs out.
Note that these Tier skips should only be available for Games whose Battle Pass is designed for engagement only. Its OK to sell Tier Skips in engagement-oriented Battle Passes because you are more concerned with Players coming back and grinding their way to completing the Battle Pass, so selling Tier Skips is just icing on the cake. But the moment you design your Battle Pass for monetization, TAKE OUT THE TIER SKIPS. Tier Skips will undermine any sort of monetization you expect to receive from Players completing challenges.
Is it OK to give out enough Premium Currency in a Battle Pass to purchase the next one?
Again, this depends on the motivations for adding the Battle Pass into your game in the first place. If the Battle Pass is merely for engagement, then yes it is fine to give enough Premium Currency to purchase the next Battle Pass.
Because you are deriving benefits by having Players return to your game and engage in your gameplay to complete the Battle Pass, it is perfectly fine to give them enough currency for the next Battle Pass. Best-case scenario, you sink the currency you gave out and the Player must pay for the next Battle Pass anyways. Worse-case scenario, the Player has enough Premium Currency to activate the next Battle Pass and you have that Player retained for another season.
In general though, I think its better to have Battle Passes activate through IAPs instead of Premium Currency…
When is the best moment to introduce your player to the BP?
In general there is no right answer to this. I personally wouldn’t introduce it while Players are still learning the ropes of the game — i.e. Not on Day 1. I would also ensure that most of the features the Battle Pass Challenges will utilize are unlocked when a Player first sees the Battle Pass. While theoretically you don’t need the Player to have unlocked everything to start engaging in the Battle Pass, it is a bad player experience to have challenges that they can’t immediately complete or work on.
That’s it from me. Please send more design questions to us and we’ll answer them here at ggDigest!
