The lifespan of a game is often as critical as its initial success. For game studios and publishers, ensuring that a game remains relevant, engaging, and profitable over time is a complex challenge. This challenge is magnified by the evolving expectations of players and the rapidly changing landscape of technology. Gamer retention is key! Among the strategies available to extend a game’s life, one of the most underutilized yet powerful tools is the secondary market for ingame items such as skins.
The Challenge: Keeping Players Engaged Over Time
The gaming industry is notorious for its fast-paced nature. What is popular today can quickly become yesterday’s news. As game studios and publishers, you are constantly tasked with finding new ways to keep your player base engaged, to avoid the dreaded “player churn” that can decimate a game’s profitability. Traditional methods like introducing new content, running events, or offering discounts are effective but can become expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, these approaches often only provide short-term boosts rather than sustainable engagement.
The challenge is even more acute in games that rely heavily on ingame economies. When these economies become stale or fail to provide meaningful opportunities for players, the game’s allure fades, and players drift away. This is where the secondary market can play a transformative role.
The Secondary Market: An Untapped Opportunity for Gamer Retention
The secondary market refers to the buying, selling, and trading of ingame items (i.e. skins, gold, etc.) outside the primary game platform. These can range from cosmetic items like skins and outfits to functional assets like weapons, vehicles, or even virtual currency. Historically, secondary markets have been met with skepticism by some game studios, often due to concerns about security, compliance, and loss of control over the game’s economy. However, when managed correctly, secondary markets can significantly enhance a game’s longevity and profitability through gamer retention.
Why Secondary Markets Matter
- Player Investment: When players can trade or sell their ingame items (e.g. skins), it fosters a sense of ownership and investment. The ability to extract real-world value from ingame achievements incentivizes continued play. This is particularly relevant in games with extensive progression systems or rare items, where the effort to obtain certain assets can be significant.
- Economic Fluidity: A dynamic secondary market keeps the ingame economy alive. As items circulate, their value fluctuates, creating opportunities for players to engage in skin trading. This economic activity can keep players invested in the game, even after they have completed most of the primary content.
- Community Building: Secondary markets can also foster a sense of community. Players who engage in skin trading often share tips, discuss strategies, and form bonds over their shared interests. These social interactions can lead to a more loyal and engaged player base, as the game becomes more than just a solo experience – it becomes a part of a broader social network.
- Monetization Opportunities: From a business perspective, secondary markets offer additional revenue streams. By facilitating player-to-player transactions, studios can earn transaction fees or commissions. Moreover, the introduction of new, tradeable items can create waves of economic activity within the game, driving both primary and secondary sales.
A Real-World Example: The Success of CS Gamer Retention
A prime example of the secondary market’s impact on gamer retention is Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS). Launched in 2012, CS has remained one of the most popular multiplayer games for over a decade, thanks in large part to its robust secondary market for weapon skins.
CS’s secondary market is facilitated through the Steam Marketplace, where players can buy, sell, and trade skins. These skins range in rarity and design, with some fetching thousands of dollars. The secondary market has not only kept the game relevant by constantly generating interest and economic activity but has also created a thriving community of traders and collectors. This community, in turn, helps keep the player base engaged, long after they have mastered the game’s mechanics.
Valve benefits directly from this activity, earning a percentage of each transaction. This ongoing revenue stream has undoubtedly contributed to the game’s longevity and ability for gamer retention, allowing Valve to continue supporting and updating the game over the years.
The Solution: Implementing a Secondary Market in Your Game
For game studios looking to replicate this success, the key is to implement a secondary market that is secure, compliant, and integrated into the game’s broader ecosystem. Here’s how:
1. Security and Compliance
- Escrow Services: To ensure secure transactions, consider integrating an escrow service. This protects both buyers and sellers, reducing the risk of fraud. Our plug-and-play ingame items exchange offers this functionality, ensuring that every transaction is secure and compliant with relevant regulations.
- Regulatory Compliance: Depending on the regions where your game operates, there may be regulations governing virtual goods and secondary markets. Partnering with a platform that is a licensed financial intermediary, like ours, ensures that your secondary market adheres to all necessary legal standards.
2. Seamless Integration
- InGame Marketplace: To maximize engagement, the secondary market should be easily accessible from within the game. This can be achieved by creating an ingame marketplace where players can browse, buy, and sell items without needing to leave the game environment.
- Pricing Data and Transparency: Our exchange provides real-time pricing data, allowing players to make informed decisions. Transparent pricing builds trust and encourages more frequent trading, keeping the market active and the economy vibrant.
3. Monetization Strategy
- Transaction Fees: Implement a small transaction fee for each trade conducted on your platform. This provides a steady revenue stream that scales with the market’s activity.
- Premium Listings: Offer players the option to pay for premium listings, which give their items more visibility in the marketplace. This adds another layer of monetization while enhancing the user experience.
4. Community Engagement
- Event-Driven Markets: Create events that introduce new items or temporarily alter the market dynamics. For example, limited-time events can introduce rare, tradeable items that create a surge of activity in the secondary market.
- Content Creation: Encourage your community to create content around the secondary market – such as trading guides, market analysis, or item showcases. This not only engages your current player base but also attracts new players who are interested in these aspects of the game.
Addressing the Concerns: Overcoming the Skepticism
While the benefits of a secondary market are clear, it’s important to address common concerns that might be holding your studio back:
- Market Manipulation: One concern is the potential for market manipulation, where players or groups might attempt to artificially inflate or deflate the value of items. This can be mitigated by implementing safeguards, such as transaction limits or monitoring tools that flag suspicious activity.
- Loss of Control: Studios may worry about losing control over the ingame economy. However, by carefully designing the marketplace and setting rules for trading, you can maintain a balance between player autonomy and economic stability.
- Impact on Primary Sales: There is a fear that a thriving secondary market might cannibalize primary sales. However, evidence from games like CS suggests the opposite. A vibrant secondary market often leads to increased interest in the game, driving primary sales as new players join the community.
Conclusion: A Path to Sustainable Gamer Retention
The secondary market is not just a means of extending a game’s lifespan; it is a powerful tool for transforming your game into a long-term platform that continues to generate engagement and revenue long after its initial launch. By leveraging the secondary market effectively, you can create a game economy that is dynamic, player-driven, and resilient to the challenges of the fast-paced gaming industry.
Incorporating a secondary market requires careful planning, but with the right tools and strategies, the benefits far outweigh the risks. At our company, we understand the intricacies of ingame economies, compliance, and player engagement. Our plug-and-play ingame items exchange is designed to help you seamlessly integrate a secondary market into your game, providing real-time pricing data, secure transactions, and a new revenue stream that keeps your players – and your profits – coming back.
The future of gaming lies in creating experiences that are not only immersive and enjoyable but also economically engaging for players. By embracing the secondary market, you position your game not just as a fleeting success, but as a lasting platform in the ever-evolving world of gaming.
Find out how FiPME can help publishers increase gamer retention.
Reach out to Stefan Kämper to find out more.
