For my previous posts we have explored some concepts of business models for various games. Today we are going to see what it looks like when you bring these concepts together for a successful release. Our game of the day will be Clash Royale. According to the wikipedia page, Clash Royale generated $1 billion in its first year. As such, it's a great candidate to dive into and explore its moving parts.
For those of you unfamiliar with the title, it’s best described as a tower defense game played with cards against another player. Players build decks of 10 cards and play short matches with the objective of destroying as many structures of the opponents as possible (or if you destroy the main tower, you outright win the game). The game is a lot of fun and is free to play. Clash Royale is pretty generous with the rewards in the beginning stages, so if you want to get some real context of what we are discussing here today, I highly advise you try it out.
The business model used for this game, is actually a clever combination of the ones we have discussed previously with a few extra tricks thrown in to spice it up. Firstly it's a collectible card game where players collect cards (Units/Spells) which then allow the player to use those units in their decks.There are two in-game currencies: Gold, which is earned through game play and opening chests, and Gems which are purchased with real world cash. Cards can level up if you collect enough of the same card and use 1 of the 2 in game currencies, Gold (the real world equivalent currency in this game is Gems). Some cards are rarer than others (and more powerful). Clash of Royale uses a rarity model that breaks cards into the following categories: -
Common
Rare
Elite
Legendary
Cards have strengths and abilities that scale with their rarity and their stats grow with their card level. A common card with a significant level advantage over a legendary may win battles against the legendary, but in the long run the legendary cards are more powerful when leveled up. Cards are acquired buy opening chests or buying them from the store. There are also offers in the store to let players spend gold to purchase specific cards. So from the collection side we have two things going on: -
1. There is a drive for chasing rare cards (which generates sales). The surface message to the player is: Rarer cards are stronger, by having these units you will have an advantage over players who don't.
2. Players are encouraged to repeat purchase to collect multiple copies of the same cards to level them up. The message to the player here is: Even if you get the same cards you don't need, or you get the card you need, you should power up your cards as this will give you an advantage over players who don't.
The levelling up mechanic is something that makes the behind the scenes decisions to the player much more complicated than you might think. If two units of the same level go head to head, they will destroy each other. If one of the units is a higher level, it is more likely to win the fight and do more for the player. As the player, this then puts you in the position early on in the game with your account, where you cannot really hoard resources to spend them on the cards you want to power up. If you don't invest in levelling up your current cards, you will be at a disadvantage to the player who does (and as such they will rank up faster than you). If a player is spending their resources to level up all of their cards, when they eventually find the rarer cards they do want to level up, there is a good chance they are lacking Gold. By keeping the players Gold low, you can use the players excitement of opening the rare cards they have been chasing to translate it into selling them more Gold with Gems so that they can level up their shiny new unit.
Players wanting the rarer cards will need to open more chests which are acquired by winning matches or buying them from the store. It is possible to buy chests which have a guaranteed number of cards of the same rarity (for example, 40 epic cards), this makes it look as though buying chests is a great deal to the player since they are getting a huge number of really rare cards (even though you only need 1 copy of the card to include the unit in a deck).
The main game mode for Clash Royale is a ladder where players climb to new arenas as long as they keep winning and collecting trophies. This part of the game very nicely slices the player base up into the Player Pyramid. The higher up this ladder, the higher in the player pyramid this user is. What's really cool about this features is that it's the default mode of play, so all players will find themselves grouped into the different categories. by using the leagues as a point of measurement, you can look at the playing habits of the different user types and understand their purchasing/playing habits. With this level of data about your users you can start to track patterns of when the player plays and when do they quit the game. If you are running your game correctly (making a billion in your first year implies that you are), you can then use this data to refine your game design and targeting for each type of user. As we talked about in the player pyramid article, complexity can be a huge issue for getting into games (especially true for card games!). The ladder in Clash Royale actually limits which cards players have access to at each arena. This means the stronger more complicated cards will not appear until the player is winning and climbing the ladder. The amazing thing about this is that the player discovers these units slowly as they play and never have to be fully aware of all units in the game until they become a core player. If you were playing a game like Hearthstone, shortly after you climb a few ranks, you are essentially exposed to the entire card pool all at once. This can be terrifying and overwhelming to players unfamiliar of the card game genre and can result in high levels of early churning (players leaving the game). There are various rewards scattered up the ladder including rare units. As players progress they will feel as though they are constantly being rewarded which keeps them engaged. As a player advances, they will need more cards to level up their units which will push players towards the store to see continued success. That's not to say that skill is not a huge factor for the game, if an elite player with a basic deck plays against the new player with the powerful deck, the skilled player could win (it's just a lot easier with the more powerful cards). If two high level players face off and one has a basic deck and the other has the stronger cards, the player with the better deck will win every game. To reduce the power gap, getting the cards you want to play and maxing their levelling up is in itself a sales driver that pushes the buttons in the players mind to rationalize buying chests from the store.
This next monetization strategy is something we haven't covered on this blog so far. It's basically the technique where you train your user and build habits where they keep engaging with your game. It might sound unnerving to hear that an intelligent person can be subtly manipulated and trained by a free-to-play game. It's really easy to do and if it flies under the radar enough that it doesn't offend the user’s intelligence. It's a trigger that builds up that helps rationalize purchases with real money after the player invested in the game. The feature for this in Clash Royale is done by using the chests you win from winning games. Every time you win a game you get a chest. You have a limited number chest slots. This is the maximum you can have at any given time (excluding paid-for chests brought with real money). When you get a chest, it cannot be opened right away, the chests have timers. As you rank up, you get temporary bonuses that reduce your timers allowing you to open chests faster. Timers for chests are typically 8 and 24 hour (with the boost this goes down to 3 and 8 hours). Players have to come back later and reopen the game to get the rewards. Players also cannot queue up chests to be opened, you have to log in and pick your next chest to be opened before the timer will count down on your next chest (there is a feature to allow you to queue multiple chests if you purchase the battle pass). This sets the player up for mental rewards every time they log into the game while creating the urgency to make sure that they keep queuing up chests to not lose value. Any time the player doesn't log in as soon as the chest is ready and sets up a new one, they are losing value (time that would have been used to open the next chest). This is especially true after the player has been rewarded by getting the boost for ranking up, the urgency trigger is sent to the players brain to say: “Quick make sure you open all of your chests before the timers go up!”
Even the timers for the chests are strategically planned to keep players working with a sense of urgency to log in and get the rewards. For the 3 hour chests, if you were in school and opened 1 just before classes started at 9, the next one would be good to start unlocking at around 12 just in time for lunch. then the next one can be set up to open at 3 pm which is probably close to when the school day ends for most kids. Then in the evening they can win some games and restock their chests for the next day. If you don't have the boosts, 8 hours is the length of a normal work day, you can start in the morning, then get the reward right as you are leaving work (which is probably the time you feel most at ease). Over time these triggers help players rationalize purchases with real world currency because the game makes them feel good and they are having fun. Really part of what's happening is that you are checking in on the game every time you hit a point of relaxation or fun in your day and are already in a mood where you are more likely to be persuaded, the game is rewarding the user with dopamine hits during these times. Think of it like the Pavlovian dog experiment, where the end of the chest timer is in your pocket and the food is rare cards.
With the chest limit and the huge timers to open them, one of the issues the game faces is that players feel like they are losing value if they win more games than they have chest slots and cannot store a new chest. Players can spend Gems to open their chests faster, but another thing that players collect are Crowns. These crowns advance the Battle Pass (Pass Royale). There is a free version we all get, and a paid for version that gives extra rewards every level. Because this is always advancing, even after you win your games with full chest slots, you can still get rewards if you keep playing. This keeps the user engaged for more games after their chest slots are full to offset the loss of value feeling they get by being unable to take on more chests. We spoke at length about battle passes and how they offer value to the player over a whole season for a low price. Clash Royale doesn't really bring anything new to the concept, you can read my previous article to understand how the Battle Pass works.
Clash Royale is a hugely successful game. It's fun to play and the core mechanics are not hard to understand. The most impressive thing behind it is the number of ways they keep users engaged and get them to rationalize real world purchases. The game uses multiple methods to monetize. By being flexible with their different strategies, they can appeal to a wide range of users that have different needs in game (be it selling gold to the guy who hit the jackpot and needs to level up his cards, or the battle pass to the girl that just wants to grind the competitive ladder without stopping). It's also amazing how well these different products within the game all flow into one another without creating self cannibalization (the process in which you put out 2 conflicting products and you lose sales from one or both of them because you have divided your user base).
I hope this initial exploration of Clash of Royales business model gave you some new insights into the industry. If you have any thoughts, comments or questions, please feel free to hit me up on twitter, leave a comment or shoot me an email to let me know.
- Matt
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