Content Creator Programs: The Hidden Secret for Mobile Growth & Monetization
At the recent Pocket Gamer Connects conference in London, Justin Sacks, Nexus CEO had the opportunity to sit down with Dan Laughlin (Gamesight, CRO) and Stephen Hutchins (Titan Forge, Publishing Director) to discuss all things creator programs.
If you missed the panel, you can view it below or read on for a summary of the key topics discussed.
Why Build a Creator Program?
Titan Forge, the largest studio under publisher Hi-Rez’s umbrella, is the team behind the massively successful “SMITE: Battleground of the Gods.” With their tremendous presence in the competitive MOBA space, and a hotly anticipated sequel on the way, Titan Forge owes much of their success to their passionate gaming influencer community. “We wanted to find ways to reward them for what they were doing,” explained Stephen Hutchins, Director of Publishing for Titan Forge. “By providing them a way to not only earn a living through the program, but also to have a direct communication link with the company itself, we could give them direct one-to-one communication with the developers, give them exclusive updates on features, it allowed them to get ahead of it and make better quality content on an ongoing basis.”
But why do all of this? Why go through all of the trouble to provide resources and direct some revenue to the superfans who already promote the game for free? Retention. The passion of a content creator burns brightly, but risks burning out. Once content creators have abandoned a game for other, more trending products, it can be hard to reel them back in. “They’re such an important part of our community.”
This benefit goes beyond content creators generating sales, explained Sacks. “Where creator programs are most effective is things like converting free players into paying players, reactivating churned players, [and] moving players along the monetization curve.” For these reasons, a creator program is often the single best system any live service developer can implement in a game.
Where Does a Creator Program Belong?
Of course, implementation is one thing. Getting approval for the necessary resources is an entirely different struggle. “This is a kind of big question mark I run into with our [Gamesight] customers,” Laughlin explains. “Is that coming out of the community budget? Is it a UA program? Where does that sit?”
According to Hutchins, the SMITE Creator Program has been managed by various Titan Forge departments, finally landing in community management. “Sometimes it’s sat within a specific department. Currently, it sits within our community department. Over time, it’s become something we try to have a wide number of people engage with throughout the organization.”
But, as Sacks mentions, a good Creator Program touches many departments simultaneously. It can just as easily be viewed as a primarily marketing or monetization-related system. “We work really closely with your biz-dev team, your executive producer, and a bunch of different folks,” Sacks tells Hutchins.
Addressing the question of budget, Sacks harkens back to the metrics Nexus has gathered. “We now have enough great partnerships, case studies, and testimonials, that we can be a little more highly predictive of where we’re going to work particularly successfully. We can show the metrics of how this actually touches reactivated players, or how we can move players along monetization. That’s really helpful in the conversations.”
What Games Need a Creator Program?
“A creator program could and should be the most relatively impactful system that you put into a game,” Sacks declares, with a caveat. “...if it’s the right game.” Obviously, not all video games are live service, but for those games that are constantly updated with new content, it’s a no-brainer. “If it’s a thirty-minute RPG single-player experience, it’s probably not going to make sense to have an evergreen influencer program.”
So if that’s the case, what games benefit from a creator program, and why? According to Sacks, it comes down to the following criteria:
Is your game a live service title?
In this instance, a live service game (or game-as-a-service) is any game that is regularly updated to keep players engaged and coming back. This can be any combination of free and paid content updates, but typically live service games feature in-app purchases in some shape or form. This ties into the most important prerequisite of a successful creator program–empowering influencers to earn money by revenue share.
Is your game a legacy title?
Here, we’re referring to games that have already been around for a while now, and not brand-new or unreleased titles. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a creator program right out of the gate, but due to several factors (some of which we’ll explain below), there’s no way to guarantee the program will have immediate success.
Does your game have a meaningful playerbase?
This is one of the related reasons that a legacy title is preferred. But what does “meaningful” mean here? It can mean that there are a large number of players who regularly log on to your game, checking for new content and engaging with the experience as intended, but even if your numbers aren’t skyrocketing, a smaller population of passionate spenders can be equally meaningful.
Does your game have content creators interested?
Though it should go without saying, a creator program cannot survive without content creators in place. If your game has a community of content creators, then it has passionate fans who are frequently prompting online discussion of your game’s latest updates. Players are already engaging with these content creators on a daily basis, so if they’re out there, they’re an untapped asset for live service publishers.
A big thank you goes to fellow panelists, Dan Laughlin of Gamesight and Stephen Hutchins of Titan Forge Studios for their participation and insights during the panel. Don't hesitate to reach out if you want to take the next step toward building your own creator program!
