What is (GaaS)?
GaaS refers to “Game as a service.” It helps game developers to monetize this service even after releasing the stable version of the game. It includes playing experience, game development, deploying, and maintenance or modification. Users have to pay for unlocking some extra feature or for a subscription. A custom software development company develops these service-based games. GaaS is all about maintaining user interest and keep upgrading the existing experience. Streams directly into our system through the cloud, so we do not have to buy any physical installation material or install it from servers. It allows us to play games without specialized hardware and graphical components. All of this retrieved all graphics-related files from the cloud.
What differentiates GaaS from GaaP?
The game as a Product (GaaP) is a one-time product-based game that might be paid or free to use. Unfortunately, it is only updated once and then released to the market. On the other hand, the game as a Service (GaaS) keeps on upgrading as it is hosted on cloud servers remotely.
GaaS Payment Cycling:
There are three types of pay cycles for Game as a Service:
1) Fixed Cycling: The user pays a uniform amount of money daily, weekly, monthly, or annually.
2) Consumption Cycling: The users pay only a certain amount of money according to their utilization.
3) Graded Model Cycling: The amount based on unit scaling.
Moreover, users have flexible payment options. They can pay the required amount through cryptocurrencies as well.
GaaS includes a recurring business revenue model in which players can buy:
1) Microtransactions
2) Downloadable Content (DLS )
1) Microtransactions: The business model includes low-cost transactions for buying or unlocking some extra features within the game. There are several ways for game developers to monetize their games through microtransactions.
2) Downloadable Content (DLS): This business revenue model includes additional content installation into an existing game to extend the gaming experience.
Tactics of the GaaS model:
Treasure Boxes:
This tactic of GaaS is the most popular among game developers.
The process works like that users have to pay a small transaction fee for unlocking a unique item.
Paid Gaming:
There are a lot of paid games, either physical or online, in the market that wants a certain amount of payment to get started. Another approach toward paid gaming is allowing players to enjoy free trial versions or pay for the game levels after some time. This way, the user chooses whether to move on with paid version or not.
Advertisement:
As GaaS is expanding its wing, paid advertisement is also taking place in this sector. As a result, game developers enjoy the vast revenue generated by displaying the ads. Ads can be in a video on loading screens, an image shown at the bottom, or any vacant space on the page. In addition, players can see the ads to regain their life or avail themselves of the rewarded entry points. In that way, users are not distracted and find it attractive. Day by day, new techniques for engaging users through advertisement are appearing.
Addition of New Features:
Adding new features in the game is crucial to maintain the proactiveness of users as they wanted the team of developers to keep updating the existing playing experience because they have paid for it. Therefore, developers themselves release the new updates monthly as they seek this as a source of income. Both free and paid resources are following these clever tactics.
Combo Packs:
Developers introduced the game’s combo pack to engage more people at a discounted price. In a combo pack, they bundled up the popular games with non-profitable games to increase their leads on both existing and nonpopular ones. In this way, they market their non-profitable games to get the users’ attention. As a result, the game’s unit price will reduce, but they get new leads in return for a discount. They also offer several perks with a combo pack to show cost efficiency regardless of the market.
Cloud Game Streaming:
Cloud games streaming is among one of a vital factor of GaaS. This Cloud game-streaming is a platform that allows users to access a variety of games all under one roof. They do not have to do the installation or downloading hassles. Instead, they pay monthly or annually to get access to several games. Again, this process is also cost-efficient as users have to pay only the subscription fee. Furthermore, as game services stream directly to your device, there is no need to add high-level hardware or graphical components. Some examples of cloud games streaming platforms are Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, Microsoft Project xCloud, and Sony PlayStation Now.
Earning through Games:
The users like the approach of generating income through playing games. There are several gaming applications in the app stores to start earning. Apps like Winzo, BaaziNow, MPL are real-time examples of these applications. Developers get a small commission from users’ income through playing and winning it.
(GaaS) examples:
Some of the games that follow the approach of GaaS are as follow.
Fortnite:
The first edition of Fortnite, released in 2017 by epic games, is among the most successful game as a service. Over 350 million gamers spent almost 3.2 billion hours. Epic games update the release of Fortnite games four times a year. The developers earned a revenue of 5.1 billion in 2020 through microtransactions.
Candy Crush Saga:
Candy Crush Saga launched in 2012, and Activision Blizzard now owns it. Initially developed as a free-to-play web-based game, then converted to a mobile app. As of 2020, it comprises a revenue of $1150 million from 273 million users through microtransactions.
Pokémon GO:
Niantic developed Pokémon GO as a free-to-play game in 2016. They earn from the Pokécoins to buy some characters or unlock the levels/maps, community events, and anniversaries. As of 2020, they have an active user community of 166 million, giving them a revenue of $1.23 billion again from microtransactions.
World of Warcraft:
Another pioneer of GaaS is World of Warcraft, released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Unfortunately, the stable version is only accessible for Windows and Mac users. Users buy a monthly subscription fee to be a part of this game. There are 5.2 million gamers involved in this game, according to the report, last time shared publically to generate over $8 billion net earning.
Dota 2:
Valve developed Dota in 2010, a free multiplayer battleship game. Players do not have to buy anything as it is free to use. Instead, Valve earned through the loot boxes and the subscription introduced in 2008 as Dota Plus. In November 2021, it attracted almost 1 million daily users. Dota 2 is making over 18 million every month.
Challenges faced by GaaS:
Since there are several updates in the GaaS model, it is tough to keep it updated multilingually. As a result, the QA testing cycle has only a shorter time to test all the advanced and updated scenarios. User engagement is also one of the most discussed challenges in the GaaS approach as someone should be there to listen to user feedback and notify them about new updates, etc.
Conclusion:
It is so complicated to discuss GaaS now as we are in the experimental stage of GaaS; there is much more to come in this game development services industry. The rise of 5G is also waiting to show its wondrous magic. So, if someone plans to launch a mobile game, it is better to go for the GaaS model
