Reblog of a good post on Player Valuation for Marketing in Free to Play Games

Aggressive monetization and targeting of high value players is receiving more and more attention from game developers, especially in the mobile channel. This had led to a more analytical approach to game creation. Now before I discuss the industry standard metrics of CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost), ARPU (Average Revenue per User) and LTV (Lifetime Value), I want to touch on something I am concerned is becoming overlooked in the Free to Play Market, the value of non-paying players.

Free to play is just one of many video games business models and the basic premise is that whilst the game itself is free to play or download, certain elements of the game are monetized to create revenue. This can be items, characters, time savers etc. that create the revenue that pays for the development and subsequent profitability of the game.

As the use of Free to Play expands amongst game makers…