Revenues from in-game purchases will overtake the traditional pay-per-download model as the primary source of monetising mobile games by 2013, according to a report published by Juniper Research.
With Apple’s in-app billing mechanism showing the way forward, total end-user revenues will surpass $11bn annually by 2015, nearly double what they were in 2009 ($6bn).
An increasing number of free games are being offered to attract players, with in-game purchases - which include extra gaming levels or gameplay items - being utilised by developers and publishers to monetise the game once the user has been given a taste of what the game has to offer. However, discoverability remains a problem for developers and publishers on some app stores.
