1. 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

2. 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

3. 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 years old
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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. Combined CCU of Top 5 MMOs
175,000

8. 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

9. 2
s e c t i o n
TWO
HORIZONTAL EXPANSION
ALT TITLE: MORE TURKEY PLEASE

10. 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!!

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. 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?

15. 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?

16. 3 THREE Community Currency Content Three Cs of Monetization
s e c t i o n
THREE
Three Cs of Monetization
Community
Currency
Content

17. 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

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

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

20. s u m m a r y
SUMMARY
LEARNINGS

21. DON’T Play
Play
Tipping the Scales

22. DON’T Play
Play
I want items
Tipping the Scales

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

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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

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