Game of War took the world by storm in 2015 with a high-profile Super Bowl commercial
featuring scantily clad supermodel Kate Upton—an advertising gimmick for which developer Machine
Zone reportedly paid $40 million.
Since then, the online strategy game has become one of the top-selling mobile apps in history.
But what's really happening behind the scenes?
Here's what you may not know about Game of War: Fire Age.
Celebrity faces
After spending millions on Kate Upton's eye-catching commercial during Super Bowl XLIX, Machine
Zone went for a change of pace—and a change of face.
The next superstar to appear in a Game of War commercial was none other than pop star
Mariah Carey.
"Time to be heroes, guys."
The dragon-slaying diva spent a total of two seconds on screen but reportedly earned a
seven-figure paycheck.
To be fair, it was still more effort than she put into her New Year's Performance.
Zing!
"It just don't get any better."
Of course, part of that cash probably to license rights for her song "Hero," which is played
relentlessly during the ad.
Was it as effective as the Kate Upton spot?
It's hard to say, but 2015 was definitely a grand-slam year for Game of War according
to the numbers.
Cha-ching!
It's not easy for a free game to bring in a cool million a day, but it helps if you
build your entire business model around getting players to buy stuff inside the game.
And if there's one thing Game of War is good at, it's making sure its players have a reason
to drop loads of cash on their virtual kingdoms.
Game of War is what's known as a "freemium" game—it's free to download and play, but
if you really want to have a chance in the game, you need to pay for the premium content.
"With mobile apps, we now have the ability to make games that are boring and stupid.
But, if you pay for incentives, you're rewarded!"
"Freemium.
The 'mium' is Latin for 'not really.'"
In fact, Game of War makes it a point to push premium deals at just about every loading
screen.
Obviously, not every player—or even most players—will spend money to get in-game
advantages, but there are enough who are willing to do just that to make Game of War one of
the top-grossing mobile apps of our time.
It also helps that gamers are spending way more than the average on this app -- six times
as much, in fact.
According to the stats, whereas ordinary mobile gamers spend about $86.50 to play, Game of
War fans are dropping an average of $550 a year, mostly to rack up on those gold packages
that cost a whopping $99.99 apiece.
"I gotta do it, man."
A heaping heist
Game of War is so addictive that one guy stole $1 million to pay for his playing habits.
Actually, he stole $4.8 million, but he spent $1 million of his lifted loot on Game of War.
Californian Kevin Co reportedly spent seven years – from 2008 to 2015 – embezzling
funds as an accountant for a company specializing in construction equipment.
He used most of the money for big ticket items like cars and sports seats, your standard
embezzlement candy, but somewhere along the way he decided that a free mobile game was
worth $1 million of his hard-stolen money.
There's no record of exactly what he bought in the game, but really, does it matter?
That Precious Golem Ring won't help him in prison.
Critical cuts
For all the money Game of War is raking in for Machine Zone, it may be one of the most
hated games of the past few years.
Critics have pointed out its practically nonexistent gameplay, the massive wait times to do anything
useful, and the circular nature of the entire system—you basically build things so you
can build more things in the future.
But more than anything, most critic reviews call out Game of War as nothing more than
a shameless cash grab.
Basically, if you aren't a big spender, you can spend months building your kingdom just
to be slaughtered by a newcomer with deep pockets.
"Build quickly… or be destroyed quickly."
But for all that hate from on high, Game of War must be doing something right.
On top of raking in more cash than some countries' entire gross domestic products, Game of War
also garnered a respectable rating on the Google Play store from its million-plus reviewers.
As much as critics seem to love hating it, you can't argue with the numbers.
With over 50,000,000 downloads at this point, Game of War is definitely popular.
But how popular is it really?
Well…
It's still not top dog
In spite of the tens of millions of dollars Machine Zone has spent to reach the top, Game
of War is still only ranked fourth in top-grossing iPhone games, behind Candy Crush Saga, Pokemon
GO, and Clash Royale.
And that's pretty far behind, too, if you go by the numbers.
Although Game of War pulled in over $1 million a day in 2015, their daily revenue has dropped
to $720,000 while Clash Royale is currently raking in over $2 million each day.
Holy hell.
Real world impact
While Machine Zone started out as a game developer, the company's CEO, Gabriel Leydon, has always
had bigger plans.
He told Bloomberg that Machine Zone is more than just a few hundred guys building a popular
mobile app, saying, "We're a technology company…we're not really a game company."
He certainly seems to be on the right track.
The company rebranded itself as simply 'MZ' in April of 2016, and in May 2016, they signed
a contract with the New Zealand government to use Game of War's technology to improve
the country's public transportation.
Using the system the game incorporates to keep track of millions of players simulataneously,
Leydon's real-world system will track and manage the network structure for an entire
city.
"Soon the entire… entire cities will be networked in one real-time environment, which
will create a level of efficiency that the world hasn't seen yet."
Is that ambition savvy or just plain scary?
You be the judge.
"Krusty wants out!"
Thanks for watching!
Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!