Game Sales Best Practices P1 Ebook

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GAME SALES BEST PRACTICES: HOW TO CREATE AN ONLINE GAME STORE Learn the basics of setting up the right store for your brand

It's no secret. Today, video game developers and publishers have a wide variety of platforms on which to sell their games. The possibilities can almost feel endless, but among all the platforms, one option often tends to get overlooked as a viable choice. And that option is selling directly to your audience from your own game store.

We've put together a two part series of Game Sales Best Practices to help you understand how an online store dedicated exclusively to your titles can lead to a boost in your revenue. In the second edition of this ebook, you’ll learn the essentials of promoting your store.

Let's first explore the benefits, challenges, and best practices to set up a custom, branded online store that facilitates direct game sales.

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BENEFITS | WHY DO YOU NEED A WEB STORE?

There are a few reasons why game companies should consider setting up their own online store through which to offer their games.

Direct relationship with your audience

As a developer or publisher, one of your most valuable resources is the relationship you have with your audience. If you are reaching shoppers directly through your own platform, then they are not simply just people looking at your wares on someone else’s services; they are your customers.

If someone signs up for an account to your storefront – even if they don’t buy something – you will have their email address and maybe even other contact information. Right now, that kind of information is perhaps the most important thing you can own and leverage to a positive effect.

You will be able to directly reach out to your audience, which is especially important for your marketing efforts. Once you have something to promote - a DLC, in-game items, a seasonal event, your other games, or even pre-orders for a brand new release - you can send an email directly to your community by connecting to reach an existing group of people who already like what you do and want more of what you offer.

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Your own storefront will also provide you with access to a wealth of useful data to help you assess the efficiency of your marketing campaigns. You'll be able to see the costs to acquire individual users, how many people who view products actually buy something, and even redirect traffic to another platform.

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INDEPENDENCE

With your own game store, you aren’t reliant on another platform for your business. You're free to run your store however you want. You don’t have to worry about what other game companies on the platform – or even what the platform itself – have planned. You're able to run sales and promotions or seasonal events on your own timetable. For example, if your games are popular in a part of the world with a very region-specific holiday, you can launch a massive sale or in-game event during the time period making the holiday even more special for your players.

You can also support whatever payment methods you want, enabling people all over the world to purchase your game with their preferred system. While a service like PayPal is very popular and widely used in many countries, it isn’t fully supported in others, including places like Macedonia, Cambodia, and Belarus. Depending on where your typical player base resides, you may need to accept payment methods that other platforms aren’t willing to support. If that's the case, then it’s worth setting up a web store for your games. People everywhere appreciate it when a company makes an effort to be available in their country, and it's very likely they might show that appreciation by purchasing your games.

It’s also good to have multiple revenue streams so that your team can weather inevitable changes – either industry-wide or platform-specific. In recent years, we’ve seen plenty of examples of third-party storefronts pulling game titles due to conflicts with their platform policies. Having your own game store ensures that you're still able to sell your game regardless of changing policies, storefront politics, or if a platform suddenly shuts down.

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Increased revenue

Fact: anyone selling a game has to pay a platform fee to whoever is running that storefront. The industry standard is a 70/30 revenue share – meaning 30% of revenue from the sale goes back to the storefront, while you keep 70%. New platforms have emerged in recent years that boast more favorable agreements, such as an 88/12 revenue share.

Let's do some math. Say, for example, your game generates $1 million in revenue. On a platform with a 70/30 revenue split, you’ll be giving away $300,000 and keeping just $700,000. With an 88/12 split, you'd keep $880,000 while the platform takes a $120,000 slice of the proceeds. All these numbers, of course, being before any other applicable taxes and fees. With your own game store, you’d be keeping 100% of the $1 million revenue, before any applicable taxes and fees. At a time when competition in video games is more intense than ever, the extra income could make all the difference in a company's long-term success.

Also, having your own ecommerce site means that you can monetize your older titles. After all, your back catalog can be easily lost among thousands of other games on a bigger platform - but they won't be in your exclusive game store.

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CHALLENGES | WHAT COMPLICATIONS CAN ARISE?

Setting up an online game store is not an easy ride. There are a number of potential challenges that developers and publishers need to be aware of before taking the leap.

You are ‘on your own’

By utilizing your own ecommerce platform, you are independent and there’s the potential for your team to make more money. But by going at it solo, in a sense, you will have to deal with a lot of extra stuff that you didn’t have to before. And if anything goes wrong, you have to be able to deal with it. If payments aren’t working, that’s something you have to handle. If your website goes down, you have to be able to fix that. If someone hasn’t received the games they paid for, that becomes your problem to resolve.

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You will need to plan for additional resources

It usually costs time and money to make an online storefront. Not only will you need to hire individuals to build it but also support it once it's live. It's wise to have a team that can perform updates, regular maintenance, and put out any fires.

Let's look at some more math. On average, each team member has a monthly burn rate of $8,300 – that’s $99,600 per year. If it takes five employees two years to build your store, you’re looking at spending $996,000 out-of-pocket before even launching your platform. Even with the extra money that the store will potentially bring, that’s still a pretty steep output.

Of course, there are more affordable ways to make websites. You can use the services of a general ecommerce business like Shopify or SquareSpace to build your store or a more game industry-specific option like Xsolla's Site Builder.

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You’ll need to spend more on marketing

Naturally, if you are on someone else’s platform, you can benefit from their audience and their marketing efforts. A bigger, third-party game store can certainly attract a large audience, which means more prospective buyers can see your game. By going with your own platform, you won’t have that particular digital footfall. You’ll need to spend more on marketing and PR – as well as community and social media management – to attract an audience to your platform.

However, a bigger store that isn't dedicated to only your games has to cater to all their game developers and publishers. Getting featured and even getting seen may become quite difficult when your games are only a handful in that platform's extensive library. You will still have to spend time and money coordinating your own promotional efforts, otherwise it might be difficult to organically grow your audience on that platform.

You have to think globally

The other main thing to consider when building your store is the payment methods that you need to support. If your game is already out, it’s wise to study where in the world it is popular, so you can determine what payment systems you want to support. As we mentioned earlier, services like PayPal aren’t universally embraced around the globe, so that will help you figure out what payment methods your players prefer.

If your game isn’t out yet, it’s worth looking at pre-order data for your title to gauge where there’s interest. Review forums and social media, learn where similar genres typically do well, and you'll be well-positioned to understand which global regions and payment systems will benefit your game store.

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BEST PRACTICES | HOW DO YOU SET UP A SUCCESSFUL GAME STORE?

From the content to the layout, there is much to think about and decide when you're building a game store. Below, we use Team17’s store to illustrate the key elements to consider. Team17 used Xsolla Site Builder to create and launch their game store, which enabled them to apply game industry-specific templates and resources.

Clear layout and navigation

Make it immediately obvious to your audience what the purpose of your site is and where they can find what they need. When viewers load your online game store, they should be able to see the most important thing you want to showcase 'above the fold.' That means that this is information they will see right away, without having to scroll down or click to go to a different page.

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For example, Team17’s store has a carousel that features their biggest releases and most popular franchise, Worms. Each slide showcases game artwork to let people know what to expect from the gameplay and brief descriptions, which include genres, price, and whether it's already out or upcoming. Notice that the price tag makes it clear when a game is discounted.

Below the main featured games is another carousel that lists their bundles and deals, essentially other games from Team17. It clearly lays out how many games buyers will receive in each bundle, the price, and the ability to add to their shopping cart.

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If your store has a lot on sale – multiple games, a variety of DLC, or additional content – then it’s worth including a search bar to help buyers easily find what they're looking for specifically. Filters also help people quickly narrow down their search. For example, on Team17’s site, you can search for something specific or click through the ‘Release’ and ‘Type’ option filters to show a broader list.

Your navigation bar should also be easily visible at all times, and ensure you can easily add new sections to it - for example, a page for any active promotions. Make it obvious to your customers that they can easily find and pick up what's on sale.

For individual game pages, the publisher opted for a big block of text directly at the top of the site. Right away, viewers will understand exactly what the game is and what platforms it is, or will be, available to play on.

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Further down the individual game pages, it clearly explains what you can expect from the game, broken down into key features with accompanying pictures, GIFs, and videos, as well as the recommended hardware specs. If you are not sure what kind of information to include in your descriptions or individual game pages, you can find out more about writing this type of marketing copy in our short article here.

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Engaging visuals

We've all heard that 'an image speaks a thousand words.' In addition to having clear text descriptions of your games, it’s important to have compelling visuals, too.

For their game store's homepage, Team17 opted to include a series of small, key artwork that sits nicely alongside the description and information about its game library. In the background, the indie label uses a purple color that invokes their branding.

On the individual game pages, the company chose to go with either key art or a trailer in the background, to give visitors visual context about the game. As you can see, the background does not visually compete with the game description for attention, but rather serves to complement it. For this type of item, use artwork that can clearly be discerned as belonging to the game and also scales nicely to different size viewports from a PC browser window to a mobile phone.

If your game is action-oriented or best displayed in motion, then you should use GIFs or videos to help illustrate the experience - but they should not be included at the top of the page. As Team17 has done for Worms WMD, it's best to add videos lower down the page.

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Above the fold, we recommend using only static artwork. They are almost guaranteed to load in quickly and correctly, and websites online need to capture and hold your audience's attention in mere seconds so they don't click out. That's not to say you shouldn't include videos as appropriate. For their Worms Rumble, Team17 added a trailer in the background of their game store page for a striking effect.

Xsolla has many resources to help you create the type of marketing materials you need to create a successful game store, and we're always happy to help answer any specific questions you might have. If you want to learn more, we recommend this article on how to prepare marketing graphics, and this additional guide on how to prepare video assets for your marketing.

Lastly, on the visual end, it’s also worth mentioning that you should add images that link to your social media presence. That way, your customers can follow you on their preferred platform, and it brings them into your full online ecosystem where you can reach them directly. This is easily accomplished as a series of platform logos at the bottom of your website’s pages.

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Easy purchase options

Besides clearly explaining what you are selling, you must make it as easy as possible for customers to purchase your game. For Hell Let Loose, Team17 included two big purchase buttons on the page. One of these is on the top menu bar, while the other is at the center of the screen near the essential information about the game.

Having two calls-to-action might seem excessive, but the button at the very top of the page is a permanent fixture, while the one at the center of the page will disappear as viewers scroll down. It’s also crucial to have these buy buttons be one of the first things people see when they load up the page. They might have visited your online store simply to buy your game, and will be thankful they don’t have to sift through complicated menus to do so.

On the other side, you might want to have a shopping cart where buyers can add multiple items for purchase. This is a good idea if you have multiple titles on sale on your site, or have a variety of extra content like DLC, expansions, or in-game items.

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Not only will this make it easier for customers to buy several goods in one go – as opposed to buying numerous games individually – it can be a way for people to build up for a later purchase. They might not have the money right now, but as soon as they do they can get your games right away. Your team can send reminder emails to customers about their abandoned cart, which could be the gentle nudge they need to finally complete their purchase.

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Reviews and positive feedback

Has your game been a huge success? Then shout about it from your digital rooftop! There’s nothing wrong with putting quotes from reviews, press, or influencers, and even showing off your Metacritic score or awards your studio or games may have won.

Allow and encourage your customers to also leave reviews of their own, which can add a degree of authenticity and openness. This will give prospective buyers more confidence about the product they are purchasing from you. If they’re on the fence, positive reviews will ensure them it's a good buy.

Be mindful that this route does come with its set of challenges. For example, people who don’t like your game – for whatever reason – might “review bomb” your title. In other words, they’ll leave negative feedback for no other reason than to harm you. A company approving reviews it has on its website isn’t a great look, but you should have someone on hand to moderate feedback in the event something like that happens.

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

We know you know about SEO. Search Engine Optimization simply means: make it easy to find your store online.

For people to be able to search and immediately find your game store, you need to make sure that its copy is clear and contains the same keywords as your advertising. If an individual sees marketing for your game, they should be able to type in the same phrases they saw and be able to quickly locate your site. Include relevant words in the copy of your site, such as, ‘video game’, ‘MMO’ or ‘Steam’ – as well as more specific words, like your game’s name, the name of your studio or publisher.

Using keyword-rich descriptions of your game, as well as reviews, can bump your site up the rankings, ultimately making it easier to discover. To find out more about SEO, you can review our top features for a performance-optimized web page.

Seamless game key delivery

The final thing you need to think about is how you are going to deliver game keys to your customers. For this, you need to know how to generate these codes.

On Steam, for example, you request keys through the Steamworks portal, and they give you codes that can then be passed on to your buyers. It’s a similar process on most digital storefronts. If you are having a hard time finding how to generate keys for a specific platform, then reach out to your account manager for help.

Once you have your keys, you can upload them into a backend system from which you can distribute them, and then you need to be able to deliver them to your buyers. Typically, when a customer purchases something from you, that backend system will automatically send them their specific key via email.

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There are a variety of different systems that can be employed for this game key delivery purpose, including Humble Bundle’s Humble Widget, BMT Micro, and Fastspring. These all can handle customer payments and distribute keys to customers in return for a slice of revenue. Xsolla Site Builder also offers this functionality, a mechanism that is created specifically for video game companies, and our Payments solution is already integrated with more than 700 payment systems around the world.

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NEXT STEPS | MEET: XSOLLA GAME SALES SOLUTION

Building your own game store can take considerable time and effort. If you want to reap the rewards of having this kind of platform, then you might be interested in the Xsolla Games Sales solution.

Our Game Sales solution does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to launching an online game store and allows you to spend more time doing what you love: developing and creating content for your players. With our Site Builder, you can easily create an online store without needing to write any code, whether by customizing templates specifically designed for the video game industry or simply plugging our store API into your existing website. And our marketing tools make it easy to launch campaigns and monitor their performance.

We encourage you to find out more about our Games Sales solution and create your free Publisher Account to easily set up and manage a winning strategy for your online game sales. If you have any questions, you're always welcome to contact an expert from our team.

Now, continue with the second edition of our Game Sales Best Practices, where we explain how to promote your store and optimize it to boost direct sales.

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