the extremely important landmark database is with Niantic. other companies can do a variation on it. I spent months working on a similar game using the Google maps placeid system and its certainly possible to create a passable version (coffee shop property warfare is what I was doing) but it's going to feel very empty compared to this game
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Pokémon Go: unprecedented retention, 2x the average ARPDAU, higher than Candy Crush
- Thread starter maxcriden
- Start date
the extremely important landmark database is with Niantic. other companies can do a variation on it. I spent months working on a similar game using the Google maps placeid system and its certainly possible to create a passable version (coffee shop property warfare is what I was doing) but it's going to feel very empty compared to this game
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
Creating products that are popular for extremely short periods of time is no way for Nintendo to be running their business. I use the Wii to Wii U transition as my textbook case of this, as it's still relevant.
Also, you think Wii era Nintendo was what lead to Pokemon Go's success and not the fact that Pokemon is one of the biggest cultural phenomenon's of the past 50 years? You're giving Nintendo as a label too much credit here. It's a Pokemon game on iOS and Android. Nintendo's label has little to do with it.
This is equally as silly to harp on about. It has unprecedented retention in it's first week, great. But companies strive for retention over multiple weeks, months and possibly even years, and you can bet Nintendo is too. As I've said over and over again, this is amazing to see and I hope it continues, but what's so shocking about people saying the real test now is for it to still be relevant over a long period of time. There's absolutely no point in finding this much success otherwise. See my example of Wii to Wii U above.
We obviously won't know the answer to that until both months and years have passed so why is everybody harping on about the obvious, the data being shared today is talking about what it has achieved so far and it's both valid and newsworthy data . Saying "It has yet to prove that it will have staying power" is stupid because it obviously hasn't even had the chance to prove that yet. It's like somebody talking about day one sales of a console and retorting with "I doubt that it'll sell that amount every day until the day it's sunsetted" which is irrelevant in that scenario because the news is about the day one sales alone and it failing to retain those sales thereafter doesn't take away from the feat it achieved or the records it smashed. Pokémon Go has unprecedented retention and 2x the average ARPDAU which is higher than Candy Crush, this is the news.
FreedomFighter
Member
I think it's consistently brought up BECAUSE it's Nintendo and Pokemon Go. I suspect some dislike that the game is so popular perhaps.
Scully Scully Scoo
Member
remember a thread on here saying minecraft is bigger than pokemon smh
ive never witnessed anything like this, middle aged women at work are catching pokemon.
ive never witnessed anything like this, middle aged women at work are catching pokemon.
Mihael Mello Keehl
Banned
How about 10 years later? Jesus christ
timetokill
Banned
I don't know why (outside of fanboyism) that people are seemingly upset about these news articles. It's an absolute cultural phenomenon with ramifications for Nintendo and mobile gaming as a whole.
In a year we can talk about whether it held. For the time being what we're seeing is unprecedented and amazing on every level.
In a year we can talk about whether it held. For the time being what we're seeing is unprecedented and amazing on every level.
DashReindeer
Lead Community Manager, Outpost Games
I know everyone wants to rush to get out articles about this game while it's still in the public consciousness, but this was a little premature if they only have Day-1, Day-2, and Day-3 retention metrics.
While those numbers are insanely highly and the kind of thing most new mobile games would dream of seeing, Day-7 retention is a much better indication of what your longterm churn is gonna look like than Day-1 or Day-3 end of being. For comparison, most games lose 70+% of their players by day 3.
The real thing to me, and perhaps this is purely due to the sheer mass of DAU they have, but that ARPDAU isn't exactly impressive. Sure, it's good when measured against puzzle games, but most popular RPG style games have a much higher ARPDAU. The last game I worked on ranged from $0.50-$1.00 at different periods in the game's lifespan.
I'd love to see more metrics on this game. Their conversion rate I imagine is pretty high, but knowing ARPPU on top of that will tell us a lot in terms of predicting how well this thing is gonna do in the long run.
While those numbers are insanely highly and the kind of thing most new mobile games would dream of seeing, Day-7 retention is a much better indication of what your longterm churn is gonna look like than Day-1 or Day-3 end of being. For comparison, most games lose 70+% of their players by day 3.
The real thing to me, and perhaps this is purely due to the sheer mass of DAU they have, but that ARPDAU isn't exactly impressive. Sure, it's good when measured against puzzle games, but most popular RPG style games have a much higher ARPDAU. The last game I worked on ranged from $0.50-$1.00 at different periods in the game's lifespan.
I'd love to see more metrics on this game. Their conversion rate I imagine is pretty high, but knowing ARPPU on top of that will tell us a lot in terms of predicting how well this thing is gonna do in the long run.
And_Gignac
Member
some people were saying the game would be forgotten after a week.
Where the goalposts will move now?
FreedomFighter
Member
How is this stratospheric performance NOT news/thread worthy though?
Could just ignore the threads to be honest, if the news is that irritating.
Since this performance is extraordinary, I like to see just how it is doing - which is the purpose of this thread. I really don't see why anyone is getting peeved by it really.
And if your favorite game came out a week before NPD and cream gave us numbers to show just how well it performed on the charts, would you be complaining about that as well? I highly doubt it.
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
except you keep ignoring that... the lack of success of the Wii U does nothing to diminish the phenomenon of success that was the Wii.
which goes to what everyone is saying. We are enjoying and excited by this game's success. Worrying about whether Nintendo capitalizes on that is just shit posting against the current excitement behind the game.. i.e. the "OMG this game is HUGE!" "Yeah but will it still be huge 10 years from now?"
No one cares. That's not what this thread is about so why try to make it that way? Just to be a wet blanket?
Nearly all of the top-grossing games on iOS have been there for months if not years. Smartphone games are services and as such the most successful ones are the titles that have successfuly maintained their audience.
Since people are mentioning Pokemon Go alongside the likes of Clash of Clans of Candy Crush longetivity is obviously a key factor.
Which is probably not entirey fair, since Pokemon Go is more likely to be this year's summer phenomenon, but well, it'll still be very interesting to see where it will normalize once the big hype fades away.
DeuceGamer
Member
I'm curious how much it legitimately cost to develop it. Is the game already profitable? I know Nintendo and Google invested something like 20 million into Niantic, but was that only for 1 game and has it already made that back?
I read in the New York Post that the game is already projected to rake in billions yearly, so I imagine they'll make back their investment if they haven't already.
In terms of how much it cost to make, I don't know, but the database of locations was imported from Niantic's previous title, Ingress, so that right there probably saved a great deal of time and money.
And_Gignac
Member
The game your worked on was dependent on whales?
Was it a cultural phenomenon prone to attract casuals?
Did it have 26 million active users?
Those are important questions. You can compare metrics of small games (which surely will skew to people who spend more on it) to games that are downloaded by casuals too.
Also, this metric will only increase for Pokemon GO, that's how naturally monetizing works. That it has such a huge averse metric just a week after and with 26 million active users is amazing.
How the fuck do you have every available one in four days? It's hard to say it's a shallow and short lived game if you smoked crack, mainlined a bunch of meth, and played it non-stop for 96 hours without sleeping.
I haven't even seen 75% of the ones in the game yet.
I'm gonna need to see the receipts, good sir
It seems humanly impossible to have found everything but the legendaries already
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
I'm not saying it diminishes the success of the Wii. The Wii was huge, but in the end what did Nintendo get out of it long term?
And basically, your gripe with me boils down to the fact you're upset that I'm not singing nothing but praises about the game's success, and questioning it's long term success? Weak.
The nice thing about having this on Android is I have a mountain of Google Play credit I get for free from answering Google Opinion polls over the years.
Haven't spent a dime but never run out of things. Have some lures and incents if I want to drop one too.
People around me are way too crazy though, the gyms are fucking S T A C K E D with high level dudes.
Haven't spent a dime but never run out of things. Have some lures and incents if I want to drop one too.
People around me are way too crazy though, the gyms are fucking S T A C K E D with high level dudes.
The Wii was a huge windfall for Nintendo, to the point they can fail a few more times than they could before.
Success now is insurance for later.
Straight Edge
Member
.25 per day per user is amazing
Plinko
Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Enough cash to last them 2-3 more failed consoles.
ShockingAlberto
Member
Niantic has been staffing up huge for about six months now. I guess some part of them saw this coming.
*shaking fist in anger at Scooby Doo and the gang*
"And Nintendo would've been doomed, too, if it weren't for you meddling POGO players!"
DashReindeer
Lead Community Manager, Outpost Games
I've been prowling the hell out of their career page this week. Should've looked at them earlier, but better late than never.
NIANTIC: "Welcome aboard, DashReindeer!"
DASH: "Oh wow! I finally got my dream job at Niantic!"
NIANTIC: "Are you ready to live the dream?"
DASH: "Yes, sir! I'll do my best!"
NIANTIC: "Then here's your first assignment: I need you to go out into the field and place Pidgey for people to find."
DASH: (laughs) "Ha! Good one!"
NIANTIC: "...I'm serious."
*supervisor hands Dash a bag that is suspiciously writhing and squirming*
*Dash looks at the bag in terror*
ShockingAlberto
Member
I don't work in tech but I work in San Francisco and pretty much every job site had 10-20 different listings for them since late 2015.
DashReindeer
Lead Community Manager, Outpost Games
Yah, just wasn't actively looking until very recently unfortunately for me. Don't know anyone over there either, so it wasn't exactly on my radar.
Also, I'll place as many Pidgies you want me to, in case you're listening, Niantic recruiters.
Pancakes R Us
Member
Daily active users? I want to know about monthly active users so we can compare it to Xbox Live.
Two weeks from now:
*A young boy watches as Dash, dressed in Niantic attire, appears to push something invisible into the middle of a park. It appears to be large and very heavy. But nothing is there.*
*The boy pulls out his phone.*
BOY: "Oh, it's Snorlax!"
*Dash stops pushing and wipes the sweat from his brow*
DASH: "Phew... what's next?"
*Dash looks at his list*
DASH: "Five Onix... at the top of the Empire State Building. Crap."
PeakPointMatrix
Member
Whoa, how many have you caught? My GF and I only have 89, and I've been to NY, Philadelphia and California in the last week. How could you possibly have almost all of them!?
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
How much money Wii made them is known. And technically yes, they can survive a few more failed consoles, but that's a technicality at best. You honestly think their shareholders will be okay with even 1 more failed console?
They simultaneously alienated tens of millions of the core game buying market, while complete failing to retain the audience the Wii had. I don't think Nintendo is doomed, mind. I just don't feel as though their home console business has much of a future, but we're getting off topic.
My point is that Nintendo of all people should know not to bank on short term successes. It's a fool's errand for a company like them and they need to establish long term health, not bursts of life with 4-5 year stretches of uncertainty. I don't want that, and I'm sure they don't either.
The Horror the horror
Banned
For real.
Nintendo is one of the few companies that think about long-term health even if it's not necessary
Kurt Angle
Member
it's Pokemon that got this to where it is
no other ip would come close. niantic themselves I think had a similar game
SinCityAssassin
Member
Ingress was critically popular, but was still a niche game. Slapping Pokemon onto that system is what made it explode. Outside of China, you have no chance to catch up to Go now.
Maximus.
Member
In its current form I can't see the staying power. Factor in some regions the game isn't officially out but people have the game and it'll cause a barrier to entry to try all features easily. They need to add more features to make it worthwhile. I can't believe battling isn't a part of the core gameplay.
UNPRECEDENTED!
the game just came out...all we can do is guess
People keep bringing up that the question is whether this app has any longevity, but in my and other people's opinions that doesn't really matter more than the fact that this insanity is happening at all. The question of longevity doesn't interest me at this moment because there is currently no way to predict that substantially, so how do we exactly discuss it?
For a guy with a Reggie profile picture you sure are cynical about Nintendo.