How Samsung and Unity are helping to solve player liquidity in multiplayer mobile games
Pim de Witte
CEO, Ferox Games
Ferox Games is a small team of 7 developers working remotely on the next generation of mobile games. Last week, we launched Get Wrecked – a mobile, 2 vs 2, battle arena game where you are taken into fast-paced battles to fight to the death with your opponents – on the Samsung Galaxy App Store in Early Access. At Ferox, we’re very happy about the support we’ve received on this launch from Samsung and Unity. With their support, we’re expect to be able to scale.
Mobile is making a move towards multiplayer gaming. I personally believe that once the next generation of gamers gets a glimpse of the potential in multiplayer gaming, they won’t go back to single player experiences. Multiplayer makes it so that every game has an incredible level of variation in every game loop, which is something that single player games simply can’t offer.
In order to get that level of variation in your game loop player liquidity is required. This means that there have to be at least enough players online to match people’s skill level for every match they play. This is a common problem in multiplayer gaming that can only be solved by investing in user acquisition and AIs.
“Unity allows our tech stack to stand on the shoulders of giants and develop intelligent AIs with cutting edge technology to create truly unique experiences.” – Ali Boroumand, Tech Lead at Get Wrecked
Early Access with Games for Samsung program
The cost per install (CPI) on our genre of players can run well above $5. To tackle this issue, we invested heavily in AIs, and partnered with Samsung on a feature Early Access Launch on the Galaxy App Store.
Samsung devices are great for mobile gaming. According to Unity Hardware Stats, Samsung currently holds a 27% global market share in mobile gaming devices, and with the launch of the S8, we believe that this number will only grow. While not all of these devices have the Galaxy App Store installed out of the box, Samsung is able to reach most of them over time.
Samsung featuring Get Wrecked inside the Unity booth at GDC.
Unity’s IAP Integration
The integration was done very quickly. It was under 5 minutes of work in total thanks to Unity’s IAP integration. Unity is also able to provide us with the speed of development so that we can iterate and ship quickly, and thus increase our player liquidity, leading to better early access results.
We are very happy with the support of both companies and look forward to strengthening the relationship over time as we scale our game. In the meantime, you can download our early access release right now in the Samsung Galaxy App Store from your Samsung device. If you do not have a Samsung device, you can sign up for a beta invite, and we will notify you once we have an invite ready for you.
