I went to the Google Play store and looked at the Hero Wars: Alliance trailer myself and I’d disagree that, at least from the gameplay trailer on the play store, that it is mostly false advertising versus completely false advertising (as he says around the ~1:30 mark). When you are presented a gameplay trailer you are expecting to see actual gameplay of said game. You can show a mini-game in said trailer and even have a trailer that focuses just on the mini-game, so long as that is made clear. Watching the trailer, however, their is nothing to let you know that this is not the core game being shown. It is completely false advertising. Just because that aspect of the game exists somewhere in the actual game does not change the fact that the trailer presents itself as the core gameplay. Interestingly enough, the picture slideshow of the game on the play store does mention that the stuff they primarily advertise is a mini-game. I wonder if it was because of the video?
Around the ~4:30 mark he begins speaking of the difference between the typical video game advertising model and the mobile game advertising model, and says that (hand transcribed with the help of auto generated subtitles)," Mobile games have discovered a new formula. See for most video games. I’m talking traditional triple A franchise offerings or even indie pc titles from small studios. For most video games the advertising formula works like this: create a product, advertise the product and target customers who might be interested in what the product actually is. now to be clear this can absolutely involve deceptive practices think back to something like Anthem or the division and how those games were portrayed at the likes of e3 those were particularly egregious examples but you get the point. The basic foundation still exists where the product you make has to be advertised for what it is rather than something completely different. You can’t make a third person looter shooter, just as an example, and then play footage of the Sims to get customers. It just wouldn’t work. However, in mobile gaming for some reason, there’s no easy way to say this, it does actually work."
I partially disagree with his framing of mobile advertising. Mobile games do show a product you want. The way they advertise is to show people something they want to play, that’s how they get people in the first place. The main difference to me between the two is that mobile games focus completely on getting people into the game and then using predatory tactics to keep people addicted to the game and keeping them spending money while the typical game focuses on selling the game. The way they are advertising is no different. Mobile games have not found a different formula in advertising. They are just selling a completely different thing altogether. They are selling a predatory product that aims to have you spend as much money as possible while keeping you addicted. I feel like the reason why this doesn’t work with typical games is that mobile games are free to play, while AAA and indie games typically are not, so this means you have an easier time getting people to play your game. Also I feel like part of the mobile games success in proceeding like this is due to the fact that because they are free to play their is probably less scrutiny given to false advertising and what not. After all while you were mislead into what kind of game this was, you weren’t necessarily defrauded out of money. Regular games couldn’t afford something like this because most people would take stuff like that much more seriously because you paid for a completely different product than what you expected. With mobile games you are tricked into playing something you never intended but for a lot of these games by the time you’re paying money you are actually playing the main game. I think the reason the formula works is because the games are free to play and by making the product as addictive as possible.
Here’s a video where a CEO of a mobile game company goes through trips and tricks on how to best monetize your mobile game. It shows that a lot of the focus when it comes to mobile games is not making a good product but instead creating a predatory product to get money from people. Around the ~18:00 minute mark he warns against making a game to skill based simply because people will realize their is no reason to pay you. I think the presentation is pretty well put together and easy to listen to and follow. I didn’t realize how much of the design in these games is that intentional in getting me to spend money. I used to play Dragon City and remember spending a lot of money. I think I spent around ~$400?