Real Racing

For Real Racing 2, 31% of their reviews are helpful. Of those reviews, 8% are negative. Monetisation is talked about 29% of the time. When talked about, it is referred to negatively 10% of the time. 35% of negative reviews are about the game’s monetisation.

For Real Racing 3, 36% of their reviews are helpful. Of those reviews, 35% are negative. Monetisation is talked about 32% of the time. When talked about, it is referred to negatively 50% of the time. 45% of negative reviews are about the game’s monetisation.

What is interesting here is that these two games are in the same franchise. This gives us a good look at what a change in tactics may do for your game. Real Racing 2 is game that you must purchase with a price tag of £3.99 (£4.99 on iPad), however it still contains in-app purchases. On the other hand, Real Racing 3 has a more conventional Freemium model with in-app purchases. And what we’ve found is that Real Racing 2 has a player base that appears to be smaller than Real Racing 3. However users are far less vocal about the way the game is monetised.

There are a number of possible explanations for this, the first being that Real Racing 2 has a smaller but more dedicated user base. As such, they are more willing to both buy the game and pay for in-app purchases. Another possible explanation is that with going completely freemium, changes to the monetisation model have made the game appear to be of less value per dollar or pound spent. If we begin to dive into the monetisation reviews themselves, you can see a significant difference between the ways the games are played. For Instance when looking at monetisation for Real Racing 2 a typical Review will look like something like this:

“The best racing game on the app store. It has awesome graphics and great detail, its not impossible to earn cash, and if youre not very good at racing games on iphone, stick it on easy and you’ll have no problem adjusting to it! Never has any lag, even on my old 3rd gen ipod touch. Great game” — Canadian User

“Amazing quality with graphics, races are decent one of the best racing games available, but could do with a few more car choices, apart from that a very good game worth the money :)” — UK User

On the other hand when you begin to look at Real Racing 3 reviews that mention monetisation you begin to get a different picture:

“You’re going to make money, imagine how much you would make in smaller increments. Reduce the price of everything dramatically and people will buy more!” — USA User

“Really po’d with gold earnings and using them up too fast. Should be able to have a choice to buy and upgrade with either cash or gold. Upgrades cost disproportionately to gold earnings. It’s ok at amateur and pro am levels. At pro and higher levels all you can do is use gold for nearly all upgrades and most car buys. Also pr ratings on races has too much of a jump in relation to car pr, again having to use gold.” — Canadian User