Monopoly Go Devs Spent More On Marketing Than It Cost To Develop The Last Of Us 2

32 Comments

  1. Bauser99

    Utterly pathetic state of the industry… We can tack on video games under movies in the list of “artistic media ruined by the profit-motive”

  2. MeisterVaxl

    Since its free on andriod, i guess all the revenue comes from ingame purchases.

    When will people learn

    Edit: spelling

  3. StrngBrew

    I just thought this was crazy. We talk so much about the unsustainable cost of developing AAA single player games then we see this about a free to play mobile game.

  4. Radiant_Dog1937

    And yet, I’ve never seen their ads.

  5. thhbeard

    Is that why I’m constantly seeing ads for this dumbass game?

  6. Notmymain2639

    Hasbro who only has WOTC as a reliable profit center showing why that is the case… Fucking morons.

  7. Le_Point_au_Roche

    Game Developer’s Conference used to be mainly about PC games, where if a big game sold a million copies that was insane.

    Then console gaming came to GDC and the conference grew from 2,500 to 25,000 people.

    Mobile gaming was another scale. People were saying The Clash of Clans people made $130 million dollars in a month.

  8. Kanden_27

    I downloaded Risk a while back because I was craving playing that game. At least against bots. Loading into a game and even finishing a game was met with ads that you can only skip after an about 30 seconds. Most were for monopoly go. 

  9. Fffire24

    The game doesn’t even require you to spend money so wondering how they make anything.

  10. Epic’s Tim Sweeney said something along the lines of 30% of a game’s budget goes to the store (Steam, in this case), and another 30% is spent on marketing.

    “Actual” development cost is only a small part of the budget of any game that wants to sell well. Marketing, or the art of getting something sold, is one of the biggest expenses in getting things sold.

  11. The part that gets me is how apparently spending this much was a good idea since the article states they made $2 billion. Absurd.

  12. InitialQuote000

    Monopoly go is hardly even a game. No decision-making that does anything from what I can remember. Just random dice rolling and hoping you win big to in order to… Roll dice more?

    Sometimes I get why people get sucked into these games because there is at least some “game” there, but this I truly had a hard time seeing any sort of “game” at all.

  13. I’ll admit I got hooked on the game for a bit too long, but it’s just a “line go up green numbers” game that tries way to hard to waste your time

  14. MarkGaboda

    They also have a bigger target audience with higher earning potential. 

  15. Haystcker

    I read an article that the game has made $2 billion dollars, $1.5 billion in profit.

    So I downloaded it to try it out.

    It’s literally not even a game. It’s like a cookie clicker idle game with an energy system and every mobile game psychological trick there is. Shiny graphics, explosions of money every few seconds, etc.

    There is no strategy, no gameplay loop at all. It’s a slot machine and occasionally you’ll get a mini game to choose someone else’s building to attack, but you literally just touch the building and an animation plays. Or another ‘mini-game’ you basically play a scratch-off lottery ticket to find 3 matches to get another explosion of money on the screen.

    This is literally not a game. It’s just a dopamine simulator.

  16. Mental5tate

    $2 billion in revenue?!?! People must really like playing Monopoly…

  17. OsirisAvoidTheLight

    Gots my parents hooked like it was crack

  18. TrickOut

    Monopoly GO makes more money than any Sony single player experience could ever hope to make

  19. SirSabza

    And yet i’ve never even heard of it until this reddit post.

  20. Seasick_Croc

    Monopoly Go is not a game. It has no player choice. Its literally pressing a button in the skinner box and watching lots of pretty things happen. Then giving it money.

    The closest “genre” that exists is a “clicker” or “auto clicker.” Some call it “casual casino” — but its certainly not branded like that to the player. Its branded as a version of “monopoly,” a real game that gives lots of us warm feelings from our childhood. Its the skin to the skinner box.

    Do not play this game. Do not let your parents and grandparents play this game. It is predatory and gross. They should literally gamble before playing this game. More honest.

  21. EpicSausage69

    It makes sense. I see ads for it literally everywhere.

    The game itself is dumb though IMO. I love the traditional monopoly board games but the mobile game just has almost nothing to do with it in the sense of how it is played. You essentially just go around the board and can occasionally attack other player’s properties. Once you earn enough money you can move on to the next board. It just doesn’t make sense.

  22. TouchMint

    The reason mobile gaming is where it is today. Basically scam gambling apps instead of real games. 

    Most real games have such a small chance to make it when this garbage is splattered everywhere with a 500 million dollar marketing budget. 

  23. This also happens with AAA games from major studios and it’s why repainted garbage can sell well. At one point CoDs total spend was 50/50ish marketing/dev. I assume it still is but am too lazy to google it.

    Turns out if you get enough eyeballs on your product you can sell it regardless of quality.

  24. kosmos_uzuki

    I tried to play this game, but it was nothing like regular monopoly. Which would have been great to play with others. Did I miss the right mode?

  25. dairyqueen79

    Not just the cost to develop Last of us 2, but also Horizon Forbidden West combined.

  26. timelyparadox

    That is how mobile games work, most of games i worked with spent big portion of revenue on the advertisement to get those few whales.

  27. RelentlessRogue

    This is hilarious and shows just how toxic mobile games can be.

  28. AandWKyle

    when the game you’ve built is absolute trash, you need to trick people into playing it

    I haven’t been in the mobile gaming space for YEARS. I recently started playing mobile games because theres an app that gives you gift cards for playing and I’m laid off an need groceries.

    One of the games the app pushed A LOT was this stupid monopoly game

    And it’s gotta be one of the stupidest fucking things I’ve ever had the misfortune of experiencing.

    YOU DONT EVEN PLAY MONOPOLY.

    It is literally a single loop over and over and over again – there is no gameplay, just “click here. now click here. now click here.”

    And I feel like the people who enjoy this game must be as close to braindead as you can be without actually being braindead.

  29. racer_24_4evr

    I don’t understand how people get into these games that require in game purchases.

  30. JacktheBoss_

    Their shitty commercials are so annoying.

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