Monetization of free-to-play video games: Examining the business logic and model

Abstract

As the biggest video market in the world, China is different from the western market because most of the video games popular in China are Free-to-Play. All games on Tencent's (the biggest video game provider in the world) Chinese official web are Free-to-Play (Lucas, 2018). Many western game companies fall to develop the Chinese market because they do not know the logic behind of Free-to-Play business model. This paper aims to find the factors that affect costumers' consumption in Free-to-Play video games. In previous literature works, playing time and age of game players were found to have a highly connected relationship with customer consumption. Through the primary data from an online survey, the researcher confirms that playing time has a positive effect on customer consumption and explains the logical reason for it. For the age of the game players, the analysis shows a weak positive correlation between age and consumption, which needs further research by other researchers in the future. The findings of this paper advise game companies who want to succeed in the Chinese market to know the Free-to-Play game model and improve the usability of the game. if they can enhance the customers for longer times, they will get more benefits.