Google introduces new way for people to earn in-game currency, virtual goods or other benefits in Android games without using actual money

[Deleted member 3812]

Google has introduced a new way for people to earn in-game currency, virtual goods or other benefits in Android games without using actual money, people would need to watch an ad before the benefit is awarded: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/06/g...-tools-to-make-money-from-users-who-wont-pay/

Google today is introducing a new way for Android developers to generate revenue from their mobile applications. And no, it's not subscription-related. Instead, the company is launching a new monetization option for apps called "Rewarded Products." This will allow non-paying app users to contribute to an app's revenue stream by sacrificing their time, but not their money. The first product will be rewarded video, where users can opt to watch a video ad in exchange for in-game currency, virtual goods or other benefits.

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https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2019/03/supplement-your-earnings-with-rewarded.html

One trend has been to reward users for a monetizable action, like watching a video, with in-game currency or other benefits. This gives users more choice in how they experience the app or game, and has been an effective way to monetize non-paying users.

To support this monetization method, Google Play is excited to announce rewarded products, a new product type now available in open beta in the Play Console.

Rewarded products make it easy for Google Play developers to increase their monetized user base. Our first rewarded product offering will be in a video format. Users can elect to watch a video advertisement and upon completion be rewarded with virtual goods or in-game currency. In the example below, the user selects "watch ad", views the video, and then is granted 100 coins.

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[Max|Payne]

But isn't that what many games do already? Besides, they'll just adjust things so you still get less from watching ads than from spending real money.

 

[FiXalaS]

I've seen this in a couple of apps before. Dunno about new

 

[BernardoOne]

not new at all, but i guess a standardized method handled by Google's API beats the current systems.

 

[Protome]

This isn't really a new thing, it's just Google is also doing it now...

 

[amon37]

Many idle games have watch ads to boost stuff in game

 

[Deleted member 7450]

I've been using this with Alto's Adventure for a long time. :V

 

[juxjuxjux]

I've seen this in a couple of apps before. Dunno about new

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This is Google supporting it at a platform level, which is new.

 

[Lashley]

This isn't new

 

[Tygre]

Games and apps have been doing this forever.

I suppose it's interesting that Google is moving to handle this at a platform level, but that's a business move not an innovation.

 

[Stalker]

This is why I don't want to play Mobile games

 

[Eoin]

You'll struggle nowadays to find many free-to-play apps that don't have this, in some form.

Plenty of them even have playable ads.

 

[Aokiji]

Google has introduced a new way for people to earn in-game currency, virtual goods or other benefits in Android games without using actual money

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The first product will be rewarded video, where users can opt to watch a video ad in exchange for in-game currency, virtual goods or other benefits.

Click to shrink...

 

[Shoichi]

Prettty sure this method isn't anything really "new"...

I've watched numerous video ads for free resources/in-game currency for many different games lol

 

[Phellps]

The games that already have this are using third-party tech to display ads.
Google officially supporting this, probably via their own ad service, is new.

 

[Deleted member 27751]

The games that already have this are using third-party tech to display ads.
Google officially supporting this, probably via their own ad service, is new.

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Yes, but the actual technology isn't new as free games have been doing this for yonks. It's just Google realising they are missing out on the pie.

 

[Deleted member 9317]

Man, this Google company is going places.

 

[Rackham]

How much time for how much currency?

 

[caylen]

Google offering this directly as an SDK is a bigger deal than people might think, since it means there's a far bigger (honestly, the biggest) ad inventory provider with a formally supported service & standard that is notoriously good about paying out quick.

Yes, it's been done before, but most other providers had a lot of jank that had to be set up on a game by game basis, so a standardized toolkit by an industry leader is meaningful. IIRC Unity was working on a service like this too for that exact reason?

I hope this implementation leads to better game experiences for people who cannot or choose not to spend (removing "paywall" gates in a title's core loop), but it will probably start with a lot of really terrible ad spams as developers try to figure it out.

 

[KratosEnergyDrink]

Google Admob offers Rewarded Video ads for quite some time now. This is really nothing new...

and for developers it is no big deal anyway, those rewarded ads are not very lucrative compared with other methods.

 

[trugs26]

I don't get it. What's new? I've seen this done in many apps already.

I guess they're just making it for devs to do it easier?

 

[Conciliator]

Yeah watching an ad to get X premium "currency" in free2play games is hardly a new innovation

EDIT: Oh I see, it's the fact that they're protocoling it. Anyway, what terrible game design regardless.