Free Arctic Results
by Andy Schatz · 01/02/2009 (7:28 pm) · 3 comments
Sorry to keep cross-posting from my blog, but I've had lots of good stuff to talk about lately...
Anyways, over Christmas week I decided to give Venture Arctic for free. Here are the results of that experiment.
The full post with all the stats
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December 24. I wake up feeling a little impulsive.
I've been trying to get people to play Venture Arctic for a year and a half now. I'm sure I haven't done everything perfectly, but too few people played this game considering that it is (IMO) groundbreaking, fun, and noteworthy.
So I decided to give it away over the Christmas holiday, while people are at home, disappointed that the game they got under the tree sucks because it was made by a marketing department. Here are the results of that experiment:
Primary Objective Accomplished! 1548% increase in people playing Venture Arctic over the previous 7.5 day period. A free game, coupled with being a newsworthy giveaway, made people flock to the site to try the game out.
Secondary Objective Accomplished! 32.6% of people that got the free game also signed up for the newsletter. Newsletter signups are typically much higher conversions than average customers, so it's nice to have identified all of these interested customers.
Tertiary Objective Accomplished! This one wasn't even on my radar: 117% increase in revenue compared to the previous 7.5 day period. When you purchase a game at Pocketwatch, we offer 50% off any other game in our catalog. With all the people coming in to get free version of Venture Arctic, a number of people bit on the cross-sell and bought Venture Africa for $9.99. We also sold a site license of Venture Arctic to a school.
More results on the blog...
Anyways, over Christmas week I decided to give Venture Arctic for free. Here are the results of that experiment.
The full post with all the stats
SUBSCRIBE
December 24. I wake up feeling a little impulsive.
I've been trying to get people to play Venture Arctic for a year and a half now. I'm sure I haven't done everything perfectly, but too few people played this game considering that it is (IMO) groundbreaking, fun, and noteworthy.
So I decided to give it away over the Christmas holiday, while people are at home, disappointed that the game they got under the tree sucks because it was made by a marketing department. Here are the results of that experiment:
Primary Objective Accomplished! 1548% increase in people playing Venture Arctic over the previous 7.5 day period. A free game, coupled with being a newsworthy giveaway, made people flock to the site to try the game out.
Secondary Objective Accomplished! 32.6% of people that got the free game also signed up for the newsletter. Newsletter signups are typically much higher conversions than average customers, so it's nice to have identified all of these interested customers.
Tertiary Objective Accomplished! This one wasn't even on my radar: 117% increase in revenue compared to the previous 7.5 day period. When you purchase a game at Pocketwatch, we offer 50% off any other game in our catalog. With all the people coming in to get free version of Venture Arctic, a number of people bit on the cross-sell and bought Venture Africa for $9.99. We also sold a site license of Venture Arctic to a school.
More results on the blog...
About the author
#2
I was a little disappointed in the game play. Me and my daughter don't like the Artic version as well as the Africa version game play wise. It seems to be alot more difficult (especially for her) to play unless it is on the Kid Mode and then it loses the Goals and don't seem to have a way to "Beat" the levels. I was actually hoping it would have been more like the original. We are still playing it a little here and there and it seems to get better the more you play but I would say that is why you had more of a problem selling/people playing it than the original if that was the case.
Either way, I appreciate it and keep up the good work. Maybe I'll release something half as good in the future...
01/02/2009 (8:34 pm)
Hey Andy.. Thanks for the Free Game. My wife and I bought Venture Africa several months ago for my 6 year old daughter who had been wearing the demo version out. She stills loves to play it. When I saw the free artic version I jumped on it.I was a little disappointed in the game play. Me and my daughter don't like the Artic version as well as the Africa version game play wise. It seems to be alot more difficult (especially for her) to play unless it is on the Kid Mode and then it loses the Goals and don't seem to have a way to "Beat" the levels. I was actually hoping it would have been more like the original. We are still playing it a little here and there and it seems to get better the more you play but I would say that is why you had more of a problem selling/people playing it than the original if that was the case.
Either way, I appreciate it and keep up the good work. Maybe I'll release something half as good in the future...
#3
01/02/2009 (9:29 pm)
Yeah, the fact that it's quite a bit more difficult I think was one of the big problems with the game. I tried to fix it, but ended up spinning my wheels as making the game easier actually depended on making the AI smarter...
Torque Owner Keith MJK