Hill Climb Racing
GameBy Fingersoft · Released Sep 22, 2012
Documents about Hill Climb Racing
🚙 30 Rewarded Ads, No Daily Cap: How Hill Climb Racing 2 Monetizes 2.5 Billion Downloads
Hill Climb Racing 2 is presented as a case study in rewarded-video-led monetization, with the game's physics-based arcade driving and layered power progression supporting a revenue mix of roughly 70 percent in-app purchases and 30 percent advertising.
- Hill Climb Racing 2 reportedly earns about 70% of revenue from in-app purchases and about 30% from advertising, with a parts gacha system driving most purchases.
- The developers run nearly thirty rewarded ad placements, many without daily caps, based on the view that paying users also watch ads heavily.
- Interstitial testing showed little retention impact even when frequency was delayed or reduced, while a 180-second cooldown after rewarded views reportedly lifted earnings by encouraging higher-eCPM rewarded impressions.
Why co-publishing might be your best option for entering the Chinese market
China represents a significant growth opportunity for global game developers, accounting for approximately 30% of worldwide gaming revenue.
- China represents approximately 30% of global gaming revenue, yet the market remains largely untapped by overseas developers.
- The co-publishing model allows developers to retain control over their IP and game operations, mitigating the risks associated with handing over source code to third-party publishers.
- Successful entry into the Chinese market requires a long-term commitment, with partnerships ideally spanning 5 to 20 years rather than short-term cycles.
🚨📢 BREAKING NEWS: New Hoyoverse game, D2C stuff, layoffs and a WhatsApp game
The current state of the mobile gaming industry is defined by a significant shift toward direct-to-consumer (D2C) monetization, ongoing corporate restructuring, and the integration of artificial intelligence in operations.
- Mobile game direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenues are projected to reach $17 billion this year, driven by 53% of publishers planning to port titles to browser platforms to bypass traditional app store billing.
- AppsFlyer secured over $1 billion in funding at a $2.7 billion valuation, signaling continued investor confidence in mobile infrastructure despite broader industry volatility.
- Corporate restructuring persists as Electronic Arts continues workforce reductions during a $55 billion acquisition process, alongside notable layoffs at Netmarble subsidiary Kabam.
Week in Mobile Games E70 - Squad Busters shuts down and Google Play's transformative changes
The mobile games industry is currently navigating significant shifts in development strategy, platform regulation, and corporate restructuring.
- Supercell is shutting down Squad Busters, which launched in May 2024, after the game failed to meet internal performance expectations despite generating over $100 million in lifetime revenue. In-app purchases will be disabled on October 30, 2024, and the game will receive its final update in December.
- Following an injunction in the Epic Games vs. Google case, Google Play in the US is now required to allow alternative payment methods and permit developers to communicate pricing options outside of the Google Play billing system as of October 29, 2024.
- Amazon is cutting approximately 14,000 corporate jobs, with significant layoffs impacting its games division, specifically in the San Diego and Irvine offices, alongside the closure of the game New World.
Building a Game Studio: The Blueprint for Purpose and Balance - Jaakko Kylmaoja, Fingersoft
The blueprint for building a sustainable and successful game studio centers on balancing high-performance product development with a caring, employee-centric organizational culture.
- Fingersoft achieved over two billion global downloads for its Hill Climb Racing franchise by prioritizing sustainable productivity over industry-standard burnout cycles.
- Operational efficiency experiments revealed that a six-hour workday model is more productive than a four-day workweek.
- The studio supports professional development through a dedicated educational budget of 4,000 Euros per employee every two years.
How to Bring a Game Company Still Owned by its Founders to the Next Level
Fingersoft, a Finnish mobile game studio, faces the challenge of scaling its operations while maintaining the agility that defined its early success.
- Fingersoft is transitioning from a founder-led startup to a structured organization to sustain its long-term viability in a market dominated by free-to-play models and consolidation.
- The company’s flagship title, Hill Climb Racing, has achieved over 1.4 billion downloads, serving as the financial foundation for its current operational evolution.
- Fingersoft’s core strategy prioritizes organizational adaptability and responsiveness to change over simple scaling, aiming to avoid the stagnation common in maturing studios.
Round Zero's game evaluation process: A date with real users
Round Zero, the publishing arm of Fingersoft, utilizes a data-driven evaluation process to identify and validate mobile free-to-play games.
- Round Zero leverages the Hill Climb Racing user base to test prototypes with 100 to 1,000 users over one-week campaigns to validate market viability.
- The evaluation process sets a 30% day-one retention baseline for initial tests, accounting for backfill traffic from lower-cost markets.
- The firm has tested over 100 games since inception, achieving an 80% pass rate for monetization testing.
Companies behind it
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