This Week in LiveOps #4: Pocket Champs, Candy Crush Saga, and AI’s impact on LiveOps?
This Week in LiveOps #4: Pocket Champs, Candy Crush Saga, and AI’s impact on LiveOps?
This week we're taking a look at Pocket Champs, which has seen success with time-limited PVP solo tournament events. We'll also look at how they (successfully) added an overused feature to their game!
There isn’t a one size fits all LiveOps strategy in the race to transition from hyper to hybrid-casual games.
Case in point, Pocket Champs by Madbox.
Pocket Champs is a multiplayer idle racing game, where you train your Champ, collect and upgrade gadgets to win the race against AI and real human players. Champs look like Beans in Dumb Ways to Die, but you want them to thrive, not die.
According to AppMagic, the game has had a good run over the past 12 month, generating 19.7 million downloads, a $.049 cumulative RPD (revenue per download), and $10 million in IAP revenues (and that does not include in-app advertising revenues).
Based on our deconstruction of week+ of LiveOps in Pocket Champs, the game has gone all-in on time-limited PVP solo tournament events + related time-limited special offers that unlock progressively as you play the game.
According to Antonio Bastos de Córdoba, Games Lead at Homa Games, the game also innovates with its Fortune Wheel permanent event.
Fortune Wheel combines a PVP solo tournament event with a spin-the-wheel meta (Gacha Mechanic).
When players compete and win the race, their reward is a Fortune Wheel where you can spin to win variety of prizes, and spin again if you click to watch a rewarded video (”RV”).
“They have turned one of the most overused features into a prize that you really EARN by also actively deciding to participate in a game mode that sets aside your main progression. This creates a strong sense of ownership in the reward, which I'm sure has boosted the conversion rate in the RV to spin the wheel again.
In conclusion, you don't always need to reinvent the [Fortune] wheel.”
🗣 LiveOps News. Read all about it!
Hybrid-Casual Games - Hype or the Real Deal?
If you are a hyper-casual game developer looking to make the leap to hybrid-casual, or just hybrid-curious, Craig Chapple’s The Hybridcasual Gamble for Deconstructor of Fun is a must-read.
What makes King’s LiveOps So Sweet?
Neil Long at Mobilegamer.biz has an excellent interview with King’s Todd Green, General Manager of the Candy Crush Franchise:
3 Key Points:
An example of a LiveOp event that continues to drive Candy Crush Saga growth and revenues is 2023 All Stars tournament, where players compete to win a share of $250,000 and three championship rings worth over $60,000.
The 2023 All Stars Tournament is so effective, that King is advertising this LiveOp event with UA and signed up rapper Saweetie to promote the event.
In the event you don’t have $250,000 in prize money to give away and access to celebrity tie-ins like Saweetie, Green shares advice that is relevant to anyone interested in LiveOps (we added bold to emphasize):
“We are unusually strong at developing and operating live games over time,” says Green. “We balance data-driven analysis and creative excellence. That enables us to listen to our players and create something spectacular for them. Every player’s journey is unique, and our player base is broad.”
🤖 Let the debate about AI and LiveOps begin!
Joakim Achren ignited a passionate debate at LinkedIn on the impact of AI for the future development of LiveOps.
The comments (all 49 of them, as of today) can be grouped into two categories:
Point: You can’t stop progress. AI will continue to improve, allowing game developers to scale up LiveOp content at a faster pace with smaller teams.
Counter-Point: This sounds good on paper, but in reality LiveOps are driven by innovation and creativity, not a content treadmill.
Jump into the debate on LinkedIn.
AI is already making an impact on the role of game illustrators based in China.
💼 Job Listing of the Week:
RecRoom is looking for a Product Marketer with LiveOps experience.
📣 And Now a Word from UserWise
Did you know you can now link the audience from the pre-game ad campaign → to the LiveOp event in your game, with a deferred deep link and UserWise?
Yes, you can!
Run LiveOps-based creative like King does with Candy Crush Saga and take Audience Linking (UA buzzword for 2023) to the next level to optimize CPI & LTV with UserWise. Schedule a demo to learn more!