Competitive Research and Actionable Product Recommendations

RPG REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MARCH

2021

IMPACT DRIVER 3

Hero Release Companion Event New Monster Update Special Event in Summoners War Product Insights

IMPACT TRENDS 8

Content and Feature Releases by Type Content and Feature Market Share Impact

MARKET WATCH 11

Soft-Launch & Breakout Apps Notable Feature & Event Releases Notable Content Releases

APPENDIX 18

Summoners War Release Schedule Endnotes Liquid & Grit RPG Personas Premium Partnerships RPG Mechanics Taxonomy

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IMPACT DRIVERFeatures and events that boost revenue, retention, or downloads

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RPG > EVENTS > COLLECTIONS

Hero Release Companion Event New Monster Update Special Event in Summoners War

Summoners War

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Revenue Downloads

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REVENUE ANALYSIS

Summoners War’s revenue was +86% while downloads were -7% 25Do25D during the New Monster Update Special Event.

25Do25D = 25 days over 25 days. Graph data is iOS, U.S. only.

New Monster Update Special Event

See the Appendix for a full release schedule.

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FEATURE TEARDOWN

Players summon heroes to earn rewards that culminate in a summon of a new hero. New heroes are used to complete challenges for additional rewards.

Details • Players earn scrolls by making purchases, completing challenges, or collecting points. • Scrolls summon random heroes. • A sale offers bundles that include rare scrolls.

• Each three- or four-star hero summoned awards one or 10 points, respectively (1). • Summons of newly released heroes award 10 additional points. • Players earn scrolls every 10 points and additional rewards at 20-point milestones (2). • Collecting the maximum 100 points awards a scroll that summons one of the two

newly released heroes (3 and 4). • The other new hero must be earned through normal summons.

• Players use the new heroes to complete challenges for additional rewards (5). • During the event, one of the new heroes was rebalanced to be weaker. • All players were given 10 scrolls and 200 crystals as an apology. • Players can refund any items used to upgrade that hero (6). • Requesting a refund resets the hero's upgrades.

Additional Information • See the New Monster Update Special Event library for more images and videos.

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Offer tasks to unlock new content and tasks that use the new content. The New Monster Update Special Event includes two progressions: one to unlock new heroes and another to use those heroes once unlocked. By designing events that both require and facilitate actions in other game systems, you can give new heroes immediate significance and prolong engagement. This is likely why hero releases that coincide with other event releases have nearly seven times the impact on revenue market share MoM of those that do not.1

Offering an exclusive reward at the end of the second progression—like a hero skin, unique gameplay, or a special piece of story content—would further engage high achievers and help drive spend. Two studies of popular F2P games found that players were most motivated to spend money in order to look unique and that non-utility rewards were an essential part of players' desire to create personal narratives and experiences.2

For an example of a creative hero event with an exciting finish, check out Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes' Clash on Kamino, which helped increase revenue +40% 2Wo2W. During this event, players tried out a new hero as part of a series of missions—and then switched sides to battle against the new hero in a big finale (1).

Give equipment releases their own progressions. Although RPGs release new heroes about twice as often as new equipment, equipment releases have almost double the average impact on revenue market share MoM—making equipment the most impactful type of content and even outperforming most major feature types.3 For more analysis on content release market share impact, check out page 10 of this report.

Just like hero releases, equipment releases can also use progressions to enhance narratives and drive retention as players strive for more powerful upgrades. For instance, Guns of Glory's Pursuer Set has its own leveling system that requires players to use the equipment to kill certain monsters in order to earn equipment-specific XP (2).

PRODUCT INSIGHTS1

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Footnotes have moved to the Appendix to provide more information about our sources and suggestions for further reading.

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Tracked RPG apps: AFK Arena, BLEACH Brave Souls, Dragon Ball Legends, Empires & Puzzles, Epic Seven, Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, Fire Emblem Heroes, Game of Sultans, Guns of Glory, King of Avalon: Dragon Warfare, Last Shelter: Survival, Lords Mobile: War Kingdom, MARVEL Strike Force, RAID: Shadow Legends, Rise of Kingdoms, Star Trek Fleet Command, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Summoners War

IMPACT TRENDSRevenue and market share impacts for event, feature, and content releases

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HEROES DOMINATE RPG RELEASE CALENDARS

Heroes are the most released type of content by far and have a disproportionate number of standalone releases relative to other content (equipment and abilities).

RPG Content and Feature Releases (Past 12 Months)

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Standalone Simultaneous

Only features or content with 10 or more standalone releases in the past 12 months are shown.

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HEROES BENEFIT GREATLY FROM SIMULTANEOUS RELEASES

Heroes that are released with other events or features average nearly seven times the impact on revenue market share MoM as heroes released alone.4 Ability content has an even larger difference between standalone and simultaneous releases, although this is not reflected in the percentage change due to its negative standalone impact.

Impact models are made by Liquid & Grit by combining our data with revenue data from Sensor Tower. Only feature or content types with 10 or more standalone releases in the past 12 months are shown. MoM = Month over month.

Percentage Change: Standalone vs. Simultaneous

Equipment

Missions

Expansions

Flows

Heroes

Notices

Clubs

Abilities

-150% 0% 150% 300% 450% 600%

Revenue Market Share MoM (Past 12 Months)

Equipment

Missions

Expansions

Flows

Heroes

Notices

Clubs

Abilities

-10% -5% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20%

Standalone ReleasesSimultaneous Releases

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MARKET WATCHNew apps and notable releases from established competitors

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Valleys & Villages by Osmium Interactive Pte. Ltd.App Details • In this combat-free strategy app, players build bases, gather resources, and upgrade villages. • Players assign tasks to villagers (1). • Completed tasks allow players to upgrade their villages. • Players can customize villagers and purchase additional costumes (2). • Villagers' productivity is based on energy consumption, stamina, and boosts.

• An unlockable multiplayer area allows players to explore each other's villages (3). • Research, trade, and construction tasks fill a meter that increases production capacity at milestones.

Launch Information • Soft-launched in Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand, and

Hong Kong on 9/21/20 • Average daily worldwide revenue (90 days): $73 • Average daily worldwide downloads (90 days): 85 • View Valleys & Villages on the App Store

SOFT-LAUNCH APP

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Liquid & Grit's Take Peaceful village sims like Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley have huge fan followings, practically forming their own genre. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the 20 best-selling games of all time and is on pace to be the best-selling Nintendo Switch game.5 However, despite the potential to pull in large numbers of new players, Valleys & Villages is off to a slow start for an app in a largely uncontested field. Someone is going to have big success with this formula—but who that will be remains an open question.

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Auto Brawl Chess: Battle Royale by Panoramik GamesApp Details • Gameplay involves round robin-style tactical PvP matches with lite merge mechanics (1). • Each match, players choose a warlord that boosts heroes on the board (2). • During rounds, players summon heroes for auto-battle combat. • Players earn coins for winning rounds plus interest on coins owned at the start of each round. • Coins are used to purchase additional hero slots and heroes (3). • Duplicate heroes can be merged for upgrades.

• At the end of each round, the winning player damages the opponent's warlord. • Players are eliminated when their warlord is defeated. • All remaining players switch opponents each round until only one winner remains.

• Other features include clubs, leaderboards, a battle pass, and daily and weekly challenges (4). Launch Information • Released worldwide on 9/14/20 • 81st highest-grossing RPG app as of 3/1/21 • Average daily U.S. revenue (90 days): $5,540 • Average daily U.S. downloads (90 days): 550 • View Auto Brawl Chess: Battle Royale on the App Store

BREAKOUT APP

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NOTABLE FEATURE & EVENT RELEASES I

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App Release Description

AFK ArenaSpring Spree

challenge event

• This multi-event tied to the winning hero from the Esperian Idols hero popularity contest includes a daily login calendar, raffle, competition, quest event, and event store.

• Players enter the raffle via Facebook or Twitter. • Raffle rewards include the hero and hero skin from Esperian Idols.

• An IAP sale offers a discount on the new hero skin (1). • Players earn event currency from daily logins, purchases, daily quests, and the Fields of Ice quest

event. • Event currency can be exchanged for rewards in an event shop. • Unused event currency converts to gold at the end of the event.

• Players earn a second event currency from gifts, purchases, and the Legends' Challenger Tournament competition feature. • A leaderboard ranks players based on this second event currency (video). • Top-ranked players earn one of four tiers of exclusive avatar frames.

Dragon Ball Legends

Gather Energy from Adventures! Campaign club event

• In the Prepare the Spirit Bomb! collection event, players unlock timed challenges from daily login rewards, events, and an exchange shop. • Players activate challenges by spending soft currency. • Up to seven challenges can be active at any given time. • Completed challenges and daily logins award energy (video). • Energy can be exchanged for rewards in a shop.

• Six reward tiers have both individual and app-wide energy requirements (2). • Players must meet both requirements to earn each tier's rewards.

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NOTABLE FEATURE & EVENT RELEASES II

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App Release Description

Epic Seven

Seven Sweethearts: Our First Spring

Side Story quest event

• A branching story unfolds in eight stages based on players' dialogue choices. • Each hero has their own story.

• Stages can be played at four difficulty levels (video). • Higher difficulty levels are unlocked by beating the previous difficulty.

• Certain dialogue options increase or decrease hero traits (1). • Different heroes require different trait levels to complete their stories. • Higher difficulties level up traits faster.

• Each story path culminates in a good or bad ending. • Endings award exclusive illustrations the first time they're completed.

• Players can replay stories a limited number of times. • Starting a new round resets story progress and hero traits.

• Battles award event currency that can be exchanged for rewards in a shop. • Event achievements provide additional rewards.

Fire Emblem Heroes

My Summoner profile feature

• Players create a custom hero to use in the Mjölnir's Strike club event (2). • Customization options include name, greeting, appearance, accessories, and skills. • Custom heroes can equip skills possessed by allies or skill books. • Players can purchase an exclusive accessory for their hero or equip any accessory used by an

ally (video).

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App Release Description

Last Shelter: Survival

Ruins Adventure challenge event

• Players complete two series of battles: solo boss battles and club boss battles (video). • Club battles require members to complete certain numbers of solo battles first (1). • Each club boss has specific battle conditions, such as requiring heroes of a certain gender. • Defeating the club boss awards a random prize to participating players.

• Players earn rewards at the end of the event based on completed solo battles.

Star Trek Fleet Command

Ticketed Events challenge event

• Purchases, free chests, and certain challenge events award tickets. • Players can use tickets to unlock one of three challenge events each day (2). • Completed challenges award points for rewards at milestones (video).

• Completed events award points for the Doomsday Creature challenge event.

Star Wars: Galaxy of

Heroes

Conquest expansion feature

• Players complete multiple series of missions on quest maps (3). • Completing the event once unlocks a higher difficulty option for future event iterations. • Map spaces include battles, permanent and temporary bonuses, merchants, and bosses. • Battles award keycards that fill a meter for rewards. • Players can only activate a limited number of permanent bonuses at once. • One temporary bonus of each bonus type can be active at any given time. • All bonuses reset after each iteration of the event.

• An event shop lets players exchange event and soft currencies for bonuses, heroes, and more. • Event currency carries over to subsequent event iterations.

NOTABLE FEATURE & EVENT RELEASES III

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Quickly review all features and events

Filter the Library Tool by month and year to see all new releases.

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App Release Description

AFK Arena

Respen - The Windchild

hero• Players can try out this wind-themed hero for a limited time (video).

Phoenix's Vow Skin equipment

• This skin for Talene was the result of the Esperian Idols hero popularity contest (1). • Players can earn the skin during the Spring Spree event by entering a raffle, exchanging event

currency in an event shop, or purchasing it directly (video).

BLEACH Brave Souls

CFYOW Round 9 & CFYOW Round 10

heroes

• Overlapping summon events each include three new five-star heroes. • Every fifth x10 multi-summon guarantees a five-star hero.

Empires & Puzzles

League of Villains heroes

• These heroes can only be summoned during the League of Villains competition event. • League of Villains heroes provide boosts for the event's battles and scoring.

Epic SevenLucy hero

• Lucy was released alongside the XIV. Temperance equipment and the Seven Sweethearts: Our First Spring Side Story quest event (2).

RAID: Shadow Legends

20 Brand-New Champions

heroes• 20 heroes launched with a fusion event to summon legendary hero Astralon (3).

Summoners War

Onmyouji and Onimusha

heroes

• These heroes were released with the New Monster Update Special Event (4). • Once unlocked, players use and upgrade the new heroes to complete challenges.

NOTABLE CONTENT RELEASES

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APPENDIX

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Summoners War

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Revenue Downloads

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SUMMONERS WAR RELEASE SCHEDULE

Graph data is iOS, U.S. only.

Releases

12/31–5/31: 7th Anniversary D-Day Event collection event 1/31–2/28: Guild Mission Event club event 2/9–3/3: Valentine's Day Special Pack! purchase event 2/15–3/3: Special Legendary Package! purchase event 2/19–3/1: Devilmon Package purchase event 2/21–3/7: Check-in & Point Rush Event challenge event 2/25: IDFA Permission notice feature 2/25–3/8: Limited Edition Rune Package! purchase event

2/25–3/21: New Monster Update Special Event collection event 2/25: Onmyouji & Onimusha hero content 2/25–3/15: Onmyouji & Onimusha Special Summon reward event 2/25–ongoing: New Monster Update Special Pack! purchase event 3/12–ongoing: Fire Onimusha Upgrade Cost Refund reward event

2/26–2/28: Rune Crafting Materials 2x Drop Amount Event accelerator event 2/27–2/28: Trial of Ascension Free Entrance Event accelerator event No IAP changes during this period.

New Monster Update Special Event

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ENDNOTES1 In the past year, standalone hero releases averaged +0.87% revenue market share MoM compared to +5.85% MoM for hero releases that launched simultaneously with other events or features on the same day. See the impact analysis on page 10 for more information. 2 Who Purchases and Why? Explaining Motivations for In-game Purchasing in the Online Survival Game Fortnite

Deconstructing Cosmetic Virtual Goods Experiences in Dota 2

Two studies of Fortnite and Dota 2 players used different methodologies to assess players' relationships to cosmetic and other non-utility rewards. The Fortnite study conducted surveys about purchases and cosmetics, while the Dota 2 study analyzed data from community discussions on a broader range of non-utility rewards.

Both came to similar conclusions: Players are highly motivated to acquire cosmetics and other non-utility rewards to personalize their experiences, more so than for reasons of social pressure or performance. The Dota 2 study in particular found that this motivation toward personalization exists within a network of influences, including game lore, meta conversations in the community, aesthetics, and players' own narratives about their experiences.

Novel gameplay settings, story content, or non-utility accessories could also function as motivating rewards by allowing players to further personalize their experiences. Incorporating more diverse rewards allows you to create wider-reaching—and therefore more meaningful—relationships between them. For example, a series of missions to unlock a new hero could culminate in using that hero in a unique battle or allowing the most elite players to achieve a "secret" story ending. 3 Equipment releases with simultaneous event or feature releases averaged +11.12% revenue market share MoM compared to +5.85% MoM for hero releases. Standalone equipment releases also outperformed standalone heroes, averaging +7.3% MoM compared to +0.87% MoM. See the impact analysis on page 10 for more information. 4 Market share impact is the average percentage change in an app's revenue market share for a given time period following a new release. This analysis helps isolate the impact of individual releases from external forces that affect large segments of the market at once, like holidays or COVID social distancing measures. 5 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Set To Become Best-Selling Switch Game

The 20 Best-Selling Video Games of All Time

Wikipedia: "List of best-selling video games"

Different metrics place Animal Crossing: New Horizon at the 12th or 16th best-selling game of all time, with over 31 million copies sold. It will likely pass Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the best-selling switch game later this year.

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LIQUID & GRIT RPG PERSONAS

We collected and analyzed survey data from 1,415 mobile RPG players in the U.S. The results produced seven RPG player personas with distinct values, gameplay preferences, and spending habits.

See the full RPG Personas Report for detailed breakdowns of each player type.

Felicia Fiction seeks immersion through single-player stories with strong aesthetics. She likes turn-based or action RPGs that involve customization, meaningful choices, and emotionally difficult challenges. She spends money to personalize her experience.

Caleb Competition is drawn to multiplayer competitions, clubs, and hardcore gaming. He prefers MMORPGs with action gameplay and difficult challenges. As a result of his competitiveness, he makes purchases to be the best.

Andrew Achievement likes completing single-player tasks and overcoming challenges. His favorite subgenre is puzzle RPGs with innovative challenges and entertaining mini-games. He spends money to advance his progress.

Ethan Epic is a hardcore gamer who thrives on difficult challenges in both story-driven solo experiences and multiplayer competitions. Ethan plays the widest range of RPG subgenres and strives to optimize his play with out-of-the-box tactics and strategies. He spends primarily to support the games he likes.

Chloe Casual prefers single-player puzzle RPGs with casual mechanics. She likes custom cosmetics and spends primarily for personalization or access to special events.

Dean Desktop turns to mobile for convenient, short bursts of play. As a result, he is the lowest-spending player persona and is primarily interested in story-driven, single-player experiences. He likes action, survival, and turn-based RPGs with meaningful choices and active combat.

Steven Social is driven by social interactions, including both collaborative and competitive activities. He is the highest-spending persona and prefers MMORPGs or fighting RPGs. He spends money to be the best and show off to others.

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PREMIUM PARTNERSHIPS

Liquid & Grit partners with these premier market research and analytics companies to infuse our reports with the most relevant and detailed gaming user personas, data, and statistics available.

Quadrant Strategies Kinrate Analytics Sensor Tower

Market Research Quadrant Strategies

Player Personas Kinrate Analytics

Mobile App Store Intelligence Sensor Tower

Quadrant Strategies is a market research consultancy that uses research to help the world's most prominent technology, gaming, and entertainment companies develop strategies for building their user base, increasing user engagement and spend, and strengthening their marketing and brand plans.

We do that using a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including gamer segmentation and persona development, feature testing, message creation, and loyalty and engagement modeling. The work of our senior leadership goes back many years, and includes long-term engagements for console and gaming-PC hardware-makers, individual games in a range of genres, and across consoles, PCs, and mobile, and for some of the top game franchises.

Kinrate Analytics offers game developers, consultants, publishers, and cloud gaming operators the best cross-platform game recommendation engine for targeted marketing, as well as a novel profiling-as-a-service solution for intelligent market segmentation and social networking.

Other services include advanced market prediction analyses for identifying emergent gaming trends and access to unique AI-enhanced data of 140 thousand game titles and 48 million game players.

The products of Kinrate Analytics have been developed in university-led research projects in collaboration with economists, psychologists, game scholars, and data scientists.

Sensor Tower is relied upon by financial analysts, VCs, and publishers who need to leverage data to identify the fastest-growing apps, emerging markets, and more.

Clients harness Sensor Tower's suite of app intelligence tools to:

‣ Evaluate app economies and app vitality. ‣ Drive organic growth with the leading App Store

Optimization platform. ‣ Get the best global download and revenue

estimates for the App Store and Google Play. ‣ Discover top creatives and better shape user

acquisition strategy.

RPG MECHANICS TAXONOMY

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Family Definition

Accelerators Increases the power, impact, or efficiency of play

Banks Saves a % of spend that can be unlocked later

Bonuses Free bonuses given to players (e.g., retention or W2E)

Challenges Goal-oriented tasks for players to complete

Clubs Groups that accomplish goals or compete with other groups

Collections A set of items players collect (often for a completion prize)

Competitions Players competing against other players

Cosmetics Improvements or updates to the app or a feature

Currencies Changes to currencies, economies, stores, and items

Custom Design Options to customize aesthetics

Expansions Additional rooms, worlds, play modes, VIP lounges, etc.

Flows Specific flows, like the NUX, ratings, and surveys

Family Definition

Hazards Level elements/blockers that make levels more difficult

Interactions Social features with direct or indirect interaction

Leaderboards Stand-alone leaderboards

Levels Anything to do with leveling

Mini-Games Smaller, shorter games within a game (e.g., scratch cards)

Missions Linear sets of tasks that players must complete

Notices Feature or product announcements

Other Miscellaneous features and outliers

Profiles Players' setups, profiles, settings, and controls

Purchases Anything to do with purchases

Quests Tasks that players complete to progress along a map

Rewards Rewards players receive for engagement or spend (other than those in the bonuses family)

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