Turkish Delight !

Case Study: Knight OnlineMonetizing a Free2Play game and keeping it alive and fresh over 8

years

Rahul SandilGamersFirst

1s e c t i o n

ONEBackground• Key Market Indicators• Founded GamersFirst

in 2001• Found Knight Online in

2003

Key Market Demo

Average age :2570% < 30 yrs

1/3 of population > 14 are gamers

25,000,000 gamers in total

63% of gamers are 14-17 years old 15 000 PC cafes

6 hours of game play/week

3G subscribers: 40M in 2011 (7M in 2009)

1/3 of all mobile phones are

smartphones

250 online video/ month watched on avg

per subscriber

TURKISH ONLINE USERS

35M INTERNET USERS

5TH BIGGEST INTERNET POPULATION IN EUROPE

13TH BIGGEST INTERNET POPULATION IN THE WORLD

9 M TURKISH ONLINE SHOPPERS

70% are YOUNGER THAN

30 YEARS Vs.

39% are YOUNGER THAN 30 YEARS IN UK

TURKISH ECOMMERCE

US$12.4 bnIN 2011

THE WORLD‘S2NDFASTESTGROWINGECOMMERCEMARKETIN 2011

68% Growth

Social MediaTurkey is Ranked

1st FriendFeed

4th

Facebook9th

Twitter

Combined CCU of Top 5 MMOs

175,000

BACKGROUND• Found Knight Online in 2003• Already released in Korea in

2001, it set the land speed record for failure…

• Which meant that by the laws of Inverse Demographics (which I just made up), it would blow the roof off of the North American Market!

• Game was translated to English and published by K2 shortly afterwards

2s e c t i o n

TWOHORIZONTAL EXPANSION

ALT TITLE: MORE TURKEY PLEASE

2s e c t i o n

TWOHorizontal Expansion– Initial wave of Turkish players

in 2006– Within a year game overrun

with Turkish players (in a good way)

– Gaming phenomenon!!

HORIZONTAL EXPANSION• 1 in 10 Turkish citizens

has played Knight Online

• OEM “hardware” appears: The KO Pedal

• Turkish player data:– Conv Rate: 8% - 12%– ARPPU: $18-$26– Average LTV: $80-$120

HORIZONTAL EXPANSION• 1 in 10 Turkish

citizens has played Knight Online

• OEM “hardware” appears: The KO Pedal

• Turkish player data:– Conv Rate: 8% - 12%– ARPPU: $18-$26– Average LTV: $80-

$120

UNTIL THE DARK TIMES…EVERYTHING WAS LOOKING GOOD . . .

• Hackers/cheaters begin to appear en masse

• DDOS attacks in 2007 cripple game servers for months

• Turkish government BANS Knight Online (possibly preparing for 2011’s attempt to ban the internet)

• Net result?

• Hackers/cheaters begin to appear en masse

• DDOS attacks in 2007 cripple game servers for months

• Turkish government BANS Knight Online (possibly preparing for 2011’s attempt to ban the internet)

• Net result?

• A few million more unique logins appear

• Max CCUs double• Number of

transactions quintuple

3s e c t i o n

THREEThree Cs of Monetization• Community• Currency• Content

• Combos and Sliding: Two features that started their lives as bugs

• Daily/Weekly/Monthly Live events

• Localized GM/CS• Embraced Social Media

early

1. COMMUNITY

• Pricking with E-Pins• KOL everywhere!• Everyone Makes

Money [on the secondary market]

2. CURRENCY

• PVP: The UGC gift that keeps on giving

• Everyone Loves a Trader• Annual Content

Updates3. CONTENT

LEARNINGS

s u m m a r y

SUMMARY

DON’T Play

Tipping the Scales

Play

I want items

Tipping the Scales

DON’T Play

Play

I want items

I don’t want to spend money

Tipping the Scales

I want items

I don’t want to spend money

Tipping the Scales

DON’T Play

Play

I want items

I don’t want to spend money

I want to PVP

Tipping the Scales

DON’T Play

Play

I want items

I don’t want to spend money

I want to PVP

My clan needs me

How did my friend get that?

I can pay with Cash

Tipping the Scales

DON’T Play

Play

DON’T Play

I want

items

I don’t want

to spend

money

I want

to PVP My clan

needs me

How did

my friend

get that?I can pay

with

cash

Wow – The GM’s

speak Turkish !!

Tipping the Scales

DON’T Play

Play

Life Time Value of Paying Player

$80 - $120

Peak CCU45k -55k

Conversion to Paying

8% to 12%

Tipping the Scales

DON’T Play

I wan

t item

s

I don’t

want to

spend

money

I want

to PVP My clan

needs me

How did

my

friend

get that?I can

pay

with

cash

Wow – The GM’s speak

Turkish !!

THANK YOU(ALT TITLE: SHAMELESS TWITTER WHORING)

@rahulsandil