26Mar

The mobile gaming industry is gearing up paving new opportunities for startups

Brightbridge_admin Business 1491

Mobile gaming is trending and turning to be a new entertainment player in the town. It has been estimated that about 500 Mn(Meganewton) are made every month in India. Over 120Mn gamers play mobile games at least for 30 minutes a day. By 2020, the domestic gaming industry is expected to touch $943.8 Mn (INR 6000 Cr). This surge will open enormous opportunities for the developers and employees in the mobile gaming industry. Decidedly, the startups in the mobile gaming ecosystem will see an impeccable growth.

Due to the rapid increase in smartphone and tablets, the internet consumption habit in mobile devices has changed a lot. This creates wide possibilities for game creators to develop new apps. The progress in this mobile gaming technology serves as a powerful marketing tool for brands. Therefore the number of startups entering the mobile space is increasing due to the immense internet penetration.

New Startups Entering Mobile Gaming Space

Startups entering the mobile gaming realm should be cautious in selecting their niches and genres. Keep in mind that startups have to compete with global companies who are expert in the industry having an end to end development studios. The biggest challenge for startups will be user acquisition for their titles post-launch.

Before jumping into the game, here are few questions to ponder.

How attracting will be the gameplay?

what rewards the game offers the users to return?

Is there an option for social interaction with other users?

Does the developer able to deliver fresh contents to retain the users?

If you can work correctly on all these questions, your chances of success are high!

Know about the cost of development

The cost of development will let you plan on your financial expenditures. Here we will discuss the three main costs incurred in developing a mobile gaming app.

Development

Development of a social game approximately costs $100k-$300k. It takes 2-3 months to build the app. If you are an independent developer you can build an app less than this cost, based on your team size. Some team spends their investments by hiring full staffs whereas few teams consist of founders and freelance workers. A company hiring a full team might have to spend $100k owing to the salary paid. Therefore it is highly recommended to start a company with a small team including the founders. This will cost you to develop a gaming app under $50K.

Marketing

Marketing your app will be the most daunting task. If you want to reach hundreds and thousands of users, you can find ways to utilize social media platforms to drive target audience. There are several options to market your app, which includes buying ads from other social games and FB ads. For instance, if you want to market a Facebook game, you can use Facebook Ads. These ads cost from $.50-$3 per application install. If money is not a concern you can buy lots of ads and market your new titles.

Operation

Independent developers need to host the cloud solution like Amazon EC2 or Rackspace. This is because you only pay for bandwidth used. The pricing is listed on the provider’s website and is not expensive when compared to the cost of development. When calculating the operational cost, the salary for your live team members should also be considered. Say you have 1 server developer, 2 artists, 1 tester and 1 flash developer, the cost would amount to $10k to $30k monthly.

Bottomline

Developers have “N” number of opportunities with the mobile gaming industry. Startups need to be proactive and choose your niche carefully. A great strategy is essential to gain new users and to monetize them. Join free ad networks such as Applifier, Appstream, or VIP games. This networks will help you to spread your game via ad banners on the top of other social games.