Finnish game developer Supercell has released an optional update to the freemium mobile MMO strategy game on August 24 which significantly improved the responsiveness in troop selection during battle.
Supercell terms its new optional update as V. 7.156.10 and is now available in the Apple Store and Google Play Store, cites the International Business Times of India.
The update has addressed the slow reaction in troop selection and spells during the battle and thus greatly enhances players’ chances of winning battles versus other clans.
“Clash of Clans” is arguably the most popular mobile game today and reports have it that the developer is actually earning $5 million a day. The game enables players to build a village and allows them to put up defences against active enemy attackers and keep levelling up as they gain in various points and XP.
Previous to the latest optional update, the update to “Clash of Clans” brought new features to the game including the The Dark Spell Factory, a second Air Sweeper, new Leagues Dragon level 5 and more.
Spending less time playing
A recent report by Yahoo’s analytics firm Flurry indicate that gamers have been spending less time playing mobile video games this year compared to last year, and that holds particularly true for the No. 1 mobile video game “Clash of Clans.”
According to the report by the firm, mobile device users last year spent 32% of their time playing mobile video games but the number has dropped to 15% this year. While there are still a few months left before 2015 draws to a close, it is likely that the percentage would remain generally stable.
In terms of minutes played or spent on gaming, Venture Beat says that it’s a 37% decline, so from a previous figure of 52 minutes spent on gaming every day, it went down to 33 minutes.
Flurry believes that there are many factors in the drop of amount of time being spent on games by gamers but accordingly, new technology and the very nature of the mobile games themselves is the culprit.
Simon Khalaf, Yahoo! senior vice president of publish products, in a blog post, said that gaming is a hit-driven industry and there has not been a major new hit in the past six to nine months. This has made titles like Supercell’s “Clash of Clans,” King’s “Candy Crush,” and Machine Zone’s “Game of War: Fire Age” continue to dominate the top-grossing mobile gaming charts with hardly any room for a major new entrant.
However, what becomes imminent at this point is that since the game developers continue to earn more money, it only means that despite playing less this year compared to last year, gamers are now spending more money so that they would be able to play the game less and focus on other things that they have to do on a daily basis, like work or go to school.
The Yahoo! executive concludes that gamers are now buying their way into mobile games versus grinding their way through them. They shell out money to effectively beat games or secure better standings rather than working their way to the top.
The situation now is that gamers are playing mobile games less while developers continue to make more money.
The secret to its success
With the immense success of “Clash of Clans,” many mobile game makers are actually wondering what is the secret recipe of Supercell.
The Finnish developer seems to have replicated it with another freemium strategy mobile game, “Boom Beach,” which now ranks at the 5th in the list of top grossing games in the App Store.
“Clash of Clans” server programmer Jonas Collaros, during the recent Game Developers Conference claimed that the secret to the mobile game’s success is not a secret at all.
He explained that Supercell’s success is based on the company’s simple principle that the game should be made free to gamers. Collaros said that reason alone has enabled gamers to download the game and make “Clash of Clans” part of their daily lives.