Mobile Strike
Game
Documents about Mobile Strike
How Much Does a Soft Launch Have to Cost?
Eric Seufert's 2016 essay addresses a gap in mobile game soft launch practice: how much data is enough to reach a conclusive decision, and therefore how much a soft launch must cost.
- A soft launch is primarily a marketing test, as three of the four fundamental questions—ad click-through rates, target demographics, and virality—are answered through marketing data rather than in-game metrics.
- In-game metrics, such as retention and session length, only address the single question of profitable unit economics and require an assumptions-based model to project performance at scale.
- Developers do not need massive traffic volumes for a successful soft launch; consistent, smaller cohorts of hundreds of users per week are sufficient to generate reliable, non-fluke data.
iOS Gaming Leaders: February 2016
Sensor Tower's February 2016 review of the iOS games market finds that global App Store game downloads fell 7.5 percent month over month, from 688 million in January to 636 million in February, continuing a seasonal pattern.
- Global iOS game downloads declined 7.5% in February 2016, falling from 688 million in January to 636 million.
- U.S. iOS game downloads dropped 15% month-over-month to 158 million, though this figure represented a 9.7% increase year-over-year.
- The indie title 'Color Switch' maintained the No. 1 spot for U.S. downloads and reached the top of the worldwide download charts, following a 23-day streak as the top iPhone app in the U.S.
iOS Gaming Leaders: January 2016
Global iOS game downloads rose 12.61 percent in January 2016 over December 2015, climbing from an estimated 614 million to 692 million installs.
- Global iOS game downloads reached 692 million in January 2016, a 12.61% increase over the 614 million installs recorded in December 2015.
- Worldwide iOS gaming revenue totaled $969 million in January 2016, representing a 2.91% decline from the $998 million generated in the previous month.
- Machine Zone's 'Mobile Strike' entered the U.S. revenue top 10 for the first time, placing eighth and marking the publisher's second title to reach that milestone alongside 'Game of War - Fire Age'.
FTUE: Ark Wars
Ark Wars functions as a classic, menu-driven mobile strategy game that utilizes a sci-fi aesthetic to differentiate itself within a crowded market of management-heavy titles.
- Ark Wars utilizes a traditional, menu-driven mobile strategy framework that mirrors the core mechanics and resource management loops of established genre leaders like Game of War and Mobile Strike.
- The game relies on a highly guided, task-based tutorial that focuses on facility upgrades, soldier training, and hex-based combat to onboard new players.
- Monetization is integrated early into the user experience through time-dependent sales, premium currency, and speed-up items designed to accelerate construction and training.
2016 Predictions for Mobile Gaming
Mobile gaming analyst Eric Seufert's end-of-2015 outlook argues that 2016 will be shaped by three trends from the prior year: app marketplace saturation making downloads harder to win, a resulting emphasis on cross promotion as a defensive tool for retaining users, and video advertising making light, viral "gimmick" apps…
- The increasing reliance on video advertising will obscure traditional 'Top Grossing' chart rankings, as apps with lower chart positions may generate more revenue than higher-ranked peers through superior ad monetization.
- Non-gaming apps, such as streaming and lifestyle services like Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube, are increasingly likely to displace games from the Top 5 Grossing positions in Western markets.
- Established 'perennial' top-grossing titles like Candy Crush Saga, Game of War, and Clash of Clans face a high risk of permanently exiting the Top 10 as their own developers cannibalize their user bases with 'spiritual successor' sequels.
iOS Gaming Leaders: November 2015
Ketchapp's endless-style arcade game Twist emerged as the surprise leader of November 2015 iOS gaming charts, topping both U.S. and worldwide downloads.
- Ketchapp’s game 'Twist' became the most downloaded iOS game globally and in the U.S. in November 2015, significantly outperforming new releases from major publishers like King and Machine Zone.
- Machine Zone’s 'Game of War' maintained the top position for global and U.S. revenue, while Supercell’s 'Clash of Clans' experienced negative month-over-month revenue growth for the second consecutive time.
- The top 10 revenue-generating games showed a stagnant trend, with half of the titles experiencing month-over-month revenue declines and no new entries appearing on the top 10 lists.
IAP Inspector: Mobile Strike
Mobile Strike, a strategy title from Machine Zone and Epic War, employs an aggressive monetization strategy centered on constant sales prompts, time-gating, and social pressure.
- Mobile Strike utilizes a social monetization model where in-app purchases trigger gifts for alliance members, creating peer pressure to spend to benefit the group.
- The game design prioritizes high-spending users over casual players by gating progress behind mandatory time delays that can only be bypassed through real-money purchases.
- The core progression loop is intentionally restrictive, providing insufficient starting currency to force a choice between immediate spending or exiting the game.
FTUE: Vikings: War of Clans
Vikings: War of Clans serves as a prime example of the resource-management strategy genre, heavily influenced by established titles like Game of War and Mobile Strike.
- Vikings: War of Clans utilizes a structured, menu-heavy loop focused on base building, military expansion, and the management of five distinct resource types.
- The onboarding process relies on a high-volume, guided tutorial that uses immediate build completions and resource gifts to maintain early-stage player momentum.
- The game employs a familiar, industry-standard mechanic set modeled after titles like Game of War and Mobile Strike to target a hardcore demographic already accustomed to mobile strategy systems.
Monetizer: Mobile Strike
Mobile Strike, developed by Machine Zone, represents a highly aggressive and successful model of mobile game monetization.
- Machine Zone’s Mobile Strike prioritizes an aggressive, data-driven monetization model over high-fidelity graphics or skill-based gameplay to secure its position as a top-grossing title in the North American market.
- The game’s economic structure relies on time-limited retail offers, countdown-driven sales, and complex currency systems designed to incentivize monthly spending that can reach hundreds or thousands of dollars per player.
- Monetization is driven by an alliance-based social architecture where individual microtransactions provide collective benefits, effectively leveraging peer influence to increase player spending.
FTUE: Mobile Strike
Mobile Strike, a contemporary military-themed strategy game developed by Epic War (a subsidiary of Machine Zone), utilizes a highly structured, tutorial-heavy onboarding process designed to rapidly integrate players into its complex resource-management and alliance-based ecosystem.
- Mobile Strike, developed by Epic War (a subsidiary of Machine Zone), utilizes a highly structured, tutorial-heavy FTUE that prioritizes immediate engagement with core resource-management loops over narrative or visual spectacle.
- The onboarding process employs forced progression and visual cues to teach players the game's five soft currencies and complex menu-driven systems.
- The alliance system is introduced early in the FTUE to drive long-term player retention, social stickiness, and collaborative monetization.
Companies behind it
As the documents state it.