Developers’ reaction to the introduction of 10% payouts from Bonus Shackles by Odnoklassniki

Bogdan Kuznetsov – CEO of Crazy Panda

The motivation of Odnoklassniki is clear: the platform wants to compensate for its costs of issuing shackles. On the part of the developers, this is an ambiguous situation, because the developer calculates the balance of the game based on the calculation that the game account is replenished with real money, and in-game mechanisms are used to issue game currency. Given that we will not be able to control the share of Bonus Shackles coming into the game, we see serious risks in this initiative.

If you switch to a new scheme, as I said above, there are serious risks to shake the balance of the game and, accordingly, reduce revenue. By refusing to switch, we may lose the current flow of bonus shackles, however, if they cost 5 times cheaper, I don’t see any big losses in this.

In the current form, we do not plan to allow users to use Bonus OKi. We see the only compromise option: when replenishing the game account with bonus OKami, the player will receive proportionally less game currency than when replenishing with regular OKami. We have already offered this option to Odnoklassniki and are waiting for their decision.

Sergey Meshchaninov – CEO of Overgamez

We understand that Odnoklassniki want to earn more (and this is normal for any business). This is why such an initiative is being carried out. But Overgamez, like many other colleagues on the shop floor (and we are already discussing this innovation in our chat rooms, of course, there are no satisfied with this innovation there), are disappointed.

Here it turns out such an interesting situation that the platform already takes 50% (and not 30%, like FB, Google or Apple), and in this case it will already take 90%. This can reduce marginality to a minus.

Suppose I buy traffic (in the same Odnoklassniki through Target.Mail). One paying user comes out to me in 100 rubles (all figures are taken for convenience and do not reflect our actual purchases). For a lifetime, let’s say this user brings me 400 shackles. 400 shackles with pure money is:

• 400 fetters multiplied by 0.42 rubles = 168 rubles (after the commission OK and VAT).
• 168 rubles minus 100 rubles = 68 rubles of profit per user.

You can live and develop the game.

And if I buy a paying user for the same 100 rubles, but he will have a bunch of bonus shackles that he wants to spend in my game, then the math will be completely different.

The player spent 400 Bonus Shackles. We got from them:

• 400 fetters multiplied by 10% (roughly) = 40p

That’s it, math doesn’t beat, we bought traffic in the negative.

Therefore, the initiative does not seem to us to be fully thought out, and I assume that most games will not accept bonus points, otherwise it may break them all the mathematics of purchases and in general, the game mechanisms of making a profit that have been worked out for years, since you will never know if you will be paid normal money or bonus crumbs.

We do not plan to join this initiative and allow users to spend bonus OKI.

In addition to the nuances that I listed above, we also need to take into account that we are a publisher, it will be very difficult for us to explain to our partners from different countries why we receive and fumble with so much money here, and here is a completely different (and much smaller) amount. They won’t understand, and I wouldn’t understand myself in their place and thought it was some kind of nonsense.

And since we do not plan to connect, I do not think that the revenue will somehow change. Most likely, our players will simply spend bonus okies on some other network services (gifts, invisibility, etc.), and they will continue to spend real OKIES in our games, as they spent before.

Here it is more important to correctly convey to the players the nuances of bonus shackles from the network, because I foresee that questions may arise, a la “I have 100500 shackles, but why can’t I spend them in your game, what the hell?”.

In general, for us, this whole story seems a little premature and strangely working. It’s a pity that the guys from Odnoklassniki did not discuss it with the developers in order to work out, perhaps, a more correct and convenient solution.

On the other hand, it is good that there is a choice and each developer is free to decide for himself whether he wants to accept bonus OKI for 10% or not. Democracy after all.

Pavel Ryakkonen – Co-founder and CEO of Nevosoft

The attitude to the situation will be clearer after clarifying the important details. For example, at the moment it is not completely clear whether there will be an opportunity in the game to separate purchases for Bonus Okies and regular ones. If yes, then it would be possible to have some positions in the game available for both regular OKs and bonus ones, or only for bonus ones, but at a different price. If there is no such opportunity, and the game will not “see” the difference between bonus and regular eyes, then I do not see anything good in this perspective.

It’s one thing when developers are engaged in the development of their game, launch promotions, discounts, distribute bonuses and somehow organically link it to the economy of the game. And it’s quite another thing when the platform actually issues currency into the system and shifts these costs to developers, reducing their share of profits.

It can be assumed that the platform does this out of a desire to get as many paying users as possible, giving them more currency for the same money – this is exactly how it was perceived when bonus OKI was introduced. But when this is done by reducing the developer’s share, it does not cause a positive. Yes, in fairness, it should be noted that the developer has the right to refuse to accept bonus OKI for payment, but for this decision, apparently, you will have to pay by reducing visibility on the platform. As a result, we get a situation where developers are confronted with the fact and there are not so many options for most. I don’t think this contributes to the development of the platform.

By the way, working on a card of discounts and bonuses for consumers of digital content – DigitalStar.Cards – we are just working on ways to increase user loyalty, which do not reduce the income of any of the parties, but on the contrary, increase it. For example, when we offer the holders of the Digital Star card some exclusive content in the game, an additional daily bonus or the opportunity to get a little more virtual currency for the same money. That is, in no case does the developer’s share decrease, and the issuance of bonuses is controlled by the developer himself. Only the creators of the game can decide which bonus can be given painlessly for the economy of the game, and which can cause distortions. Well, I hope our experience will be useful, in general, we are ready to help in this regard.

Sergey Bruy – Co-Founder and Managing Director at Vizor Games

When they start paying you less unilaterally, it’s always not pleasant. We understand that this is an extremely small part of the payments and it is unlikely that we will feel these reductions at all, but we will most likely not sign this agreement. This is due solely to the fact that we do not understand what “Odnoklassniki” plans in relation to the “Bonus Eyes”. If they are distributed a lot and in simple ways, some players may refuse payments in games, hoping to receive free currency. This is an elementary mental trap. Accordingly, we will lose not 90% of the payment for ourselves, but potentially more. Therefore, it is much easier to opt out of this option.

Konstantin Sakhnov – Director of the Gaming Department at Rocket Jump

The motivation of the platform in this case is clear. Each side strives to protect its interests. Since the commission from Bonus Shackles will now differ from the commission of SHACKLES purchased for real money, I think that the in-game purchase rate for Bonus Shackles will also be excellent for most developers who have decided to enable the reception of Bonus Shackles in their games.

Ilya Pshenichny – Director of Business Development at Playkot

There is not enough information yet to say something definite. To begin with, we need to find out what the distribution of regular / bonus shackles is in the hands of users. We have requested comments from the platform.

I would like to note that such product decisions [allowing users to use Bonus OKI in games] are made at the level of each specific project, not the entire company. Therefore, first we will get more information, and those projects in the revenue structure of which Odnoklassniki play a significant role will already make a decision.