Virtual Commodities, Real Money

The goal of every game out there is to make money for the company that created the game. Even though we would all like to think that the all the company wants is for its customers to have fun, without enough money to keep the doors open, even the most fun game will not be considered a success by its creators. Although they want to make money, many people refuse to pay for games, playing only those games that they can find for free online. In order to make money, game creators have found creative ways to make money on games that they release to the world for free.

Improved Advertising Experiences

The traditional method of monetizing free 3D games is to offer them, and simply fill them with advertising. Although this is the basis of most free game’s revenue, the traditional method for advertising has been shown to be ineffective. Once the user clicks the ad, they are taken from their game and moved to the advertiser’s site. This disruption is not usually what users want, and they quickly close the site and ignore any future advertisements. Improvements to the ways in which advertisers are integrating themselves into games have shown to be very effective. Since they no longer interrupt the game, but try to integrate themselves into the games, they are more successful than ever before and providing a revenue stream that is much larger than that which was made by initial attempts to advertising in free games.

Virtual Bonus Goods

One other way that game advertisers have been trying to get the user’s attention is by bundling virtual goods with their real life items. For example, by purchasing a particular item from a store through one of the game’s advertisements, you will get a certain amount of free, virtual “money” that you can use inside of your game. This also has a viral element, as they want you to mention this deal as you chat with your friends, spreading the word of their advertisements for them and generating even more money. There is nothing wrong with this strategy – it is advertising like this that lest many of the games that are online now remain free for everyone to use and play. Without well integrated advertisements such as these, there would be far fewer free games online.