Shanda's Million Arthur 2-Week Revenues Hit RMB 30 Mln
Tencent Tech, 8/06/13
According to an insider at Chinese online game developer and operator Shanda Games (Nasdaq: GAME), the company's mobile card RPG Million Arthur took in revenue of RMB 30 mln in its first two weeks since being officially released on July 19.
Shanda has advertised Million Arthur much like the company would a PC-based game, purchasing advertising space on game portals and internet search engines such as Baidu and Google, hiring celebrities on Sina's Weibo microblogging platform to endorse the game, and even opening a public account for the game on Tencent's Weixin (Wechat) mobile messaging application. This differs from traditional mobile game marketing strategies, which involve partnerships with mobile download channels to receive "featured" app status, and other cooperation.
Typical mobile download platform partnerships for mobile games such as Locojoy's anime-based mobile social card RPG I'm MT Online and Linekong's side-scrolling action mobile online game Excalibur provide for a 50-50 platform/developer revenue split. Shanda's strategy of side-stepping download platform promotion partnerships should guarantee the company a larger share of Million Arthur revenue.
Editor's Note: Million Arthur is available for download on many major app platforms in China, although the company has not partnered with app platforms on in-app-store promotion. For more background on this topic, please see "Shanda Games to Launch OB of "Million Arthur" in China" MD 7/11/13 issue and "Shanda's "Million Arthur" Hits #2 on China iOS App Chart" MD 7/18/13 issue.
Keywords: Shanda Games marketing revenue wireless Million Arthur mobile gaming strategy mobile online gaming GAME