What Makes a Feature a Monetization Feature?

One of the biggest misconceptions about the Battle Pass as a feature is that it is a monetization feature. While the Battle Pass does monetize, it is not designed to monetize on a per player basis, and will only result in large revenues through High-DAU games. Small developers who look to these larger audience games for inspiration will be dismayed when they fail to generate enough revenue for their studios.

But this begs the question: What is a Monetization Feature? In this article I will go over some simple signs to look for when assessing the monetizable impact of a game feature. Some of these will be more clear-cut than others.

#1: Content Sold Directly to the Player

This is pretty easy to detect. In general, any new content added to the store or sales is meant to boost Monetization. Just examine whether the Developer populated sales or the Store with the new content.

For example, when Summoners War added Gemstones and Grindstones, they began putting them in select sales. Players who now need this new content will be incentivized to purchase those sames. Clearly Gemstones and Grindstones were something that was meant to boost Monetization.

#2: Content Includes New Ways to Spend

Content or Features that include a new way for Players to spend are generally designed to boost Monetization. The reasoning is that if the Content was designed for Retention, the Developer wouldn’t put barriers such as currency or item costs in the way of Players engaging in the content.

The Forge in RAID: Shadow Legends is a good example of a Feature being meant for monetization. Needing materials and soft currency to use a Feature are hallmarks of something designed to monetize. The more gating the input costs are, the more likely the Feature or Content was designed for spend.

Unlike #1, there are a few caveats here:

1. Preventing Players from Running out of Content: Content added to prevent Players from having nothing to do is generally not done for Monetization. Running out of content can cause a collapse in player monetization. So even if there are ways for new content to monetize (think energy required to do battles in an RPG, for example), the Developer is not focusing on Monetization when adding that content.
2. Aggressiveness in costing Matters: If Content or a Feature require a nominal cost for Players to engage, then it probably isn’t about Monetization. While there is no hard and fast rule as to how aggressive a feature should be with costs in order to be considered a Monetization feature, I would expect Players to really feel the pinch if they are being pushed to spend more.

#3: Content Forces Players to engage in existing Monetization Content

This aspect of Monetization is a little more nuanced than the other two. In general, we should assume that a Player won’t spend unless they feel like they have to. This means that a Player must objectively feel pushed or compelled to spend by content in order for that content to affect monetization. If a Player does not feel objectively compelled or pushed to spend by content or a feature, then that implicitly means the content is not made to push monetization.

Here are three examples of this principle in effect:

1. Summoners War adds Levels 11 and 12 for Dungeon Bosses

When Summoners War first launched, it launched with 10 Levels of Bosses. At some point they added Levels 11 and 12. These new boss levels didn’t drop anything new, but rather just had higher drop rates for higher rarity and star runes.

While spending would help a player with getting to Giant Boss Level 12, the only thing they would get was increased efficiency in farming Runes. Efficiency is a great motivator for some things like Events, but for core game farming, efficiency doesn’t really motivate Players to spend, especially if the cost to farm is low.

So were Giant Boss Levels 11 and 12 added to boost Monetization? Probably not. They were added to boost engagement and get high end players something to work towards.

2. Empire & Puzzles has element-focused Titans

Somewhat more effective is content that strongly encourages players to use specific things. Anything that gives bonuses for using specific Heroes of Equipment can be said to be ‘nudging” the player towards spending. Players who really want to do well with the content might spend to do so, but that requires that the player 1) need to spend to succeed; and 2) care enough to want to succeed with the content.

Are Titans in Empire & Puzzles more effective than Giant Boss Levels 11 and 12 in Summoners War at improving Monetization? Yes. But the effectiveness is limited by whether the player feels like they need to spend to succeed.

3. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and the Yoda Event

When I think about content that forces Players to monetize, the first thing that comes to mind is the Yoda Event in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. The idea is pretty simple: you have 7 Battles, each with their own restrictions:

Battle 1: Use 5 Jedis of 1 Star or Higher

Battle 2: Use 5 Jedis of 2 Stars or Higher

Battle 3: Use 5 Jedis of 3 Stars or Higher

Battle 4: Use 5 Jedis of 4 Star or Higher

Battle 5: Use 5 Jedis of 5 Star or Higher

Battle 6: Use 5 Jedis of 6 Star or Higher

Battle 7: Use 5 Jedis of 7 Star

Each time a Player wins one of the Battles, they get Yoda Shards. At some point, unless the Player has 5 Jedies of 5–7 Stars, they cannot proceed. They have to either farm for Jedi Hero Shards or buy them outright. The Player is stuck unless they spend. This is the clearest example of something that was meant to push monetization — the Player feels the need to monetize because they have no other choice or option.

Again, just because content pushes a player to monetize, how aggressive that push is determines whether the content is monetization-based or not.

Low DAU Games Need Monetization Features

As a Game Developer, looking for ways to push players to monetize isn’t always fun. You build a game for people to enjoy, and monetization in most cases ends up trying to limit the player experience in some way in order to get them to spend. If you are lucky enough to produce a viral hit, getting millions of DAU in the process, then you don’t have to rely on Monetization features to succeed (or at least you don’t need to be as aggressive with them). But most developers won’t be able to get there. When in doubt, create features for Monetization and then relax them if you find that keeping players is more important than monetizing them.