Case Study: Knight Online Turkish Delight ! Rahul Sandil GamersFirst Case Study: Knight Online Monetizing a Free2Play game and keeping it alive and fresh over 8 years

1 ONE Background Key Market Indicators Founded GamersFirst in 2001 s e c t i o n ONE Background Key Market Indicators Founded GamersFirst in 2001 Found Knight Online in 2003

Key Market Demo Average age :25 25,000,000 gamers in total 70% < 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

US$12.4 bn 2ND IN 2011 68% Growth FASTEST GROWING MARKET TURKISH ECOMMERCE US$12.4 bn IN 2011 THE WORLD‘S 2ND FASTEST GROWING ECOMMERCE MARKET IN 2011 68% Growth

Social Media Turkey is Ranked 1st FriendFeed 4th Facebook 9th 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

2 s e c t i o n TWO HORIZONTAL EXPANSION ALT TITLE: MORE TURKEY PLEASE

2 TWO Horizontal Expansion Initial wave of Turkish players in 2006 s e c t i o n TWO Horizontal 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

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

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 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?

3 THREE Community Currency Content Three Cs of Monetization s e c t i o n THREE Three 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

2. CURRENCY Pricking with E-Pins KOL everywhere! Everyone Makes Money [on the secondary market] 2. CURRENCY

3. CONTENT PVP: The UGC gift that keeps on giving Everyone Loves a Trader Annual Content Updates 3. CONTENT

s u m m a r y SUMMARY LEARNINGS

DON’T Play Play Tipping the Scales

DON’T Play Play I want items Tipping the Scales

I don’t want to spend money I want items Tipping the Scales

I don’t want to spend money DON’T Play Play I don’t want to spend money I want items Tipping the Scales

I don’t want to spend money DON’T Play Play I want to PVP I don’t want to spend money I want items Tipping the Scales

How did my friend get that? I don’t want to spend money DON’T Play Play I can pay with Cash How did my friend get that? I want to PVP I don’t want to spend money My clan needs me I want items Tipping the Scales

Tipping the Scales DON’T Play Play DON’T Play I don’t want to spend money Wow – The GM’s speak Turkish !! DON’T Play How did my friend get that? I can pay with cash I want to PVP My clan needs me I want items Tipping the Scales

Tipping the Scales Life Time Value of Paying Player $80 - $120 Peak CCU 45k -55k Conversion to Paying 8% to 12% Wow – The GM’s speak Turkish !! I don’t want to spend money DON’T Play How did my friend get that? I can pay with cash I want to PVP My clan needs me I want items

THANK YOU (ALT TITLE: SHAMELESS TWITTER WHORING) @rahulsandil