It probably says a lot about a game’s
success when the advertisement is featured in a Super bowl game. And let’s not
forget that an acting heavy-weight like liam neeson playing
the role of the gamer.The story of Clash of Clans started
in Finland where the company that created it, Supercell, first opened its
doors. Now, if you’re thinking that Finland is an odd place for a gaming
company, a successful one at that, think again. The company is Nokia.
So, let’s just say that the Finnish know their technology. Supercell began its
journey in 2010 as a small company of about 15 people working in small teams to
develop cross-platform games. This was well before Clash of Clans was even an idea.
After all, a year in the IT and Gaming industry is equal to ten years in the
normal world.
Between 2010 and 2012, Supercell had opened an
office in the States and was working developing games tailor-made of
mobile-platforms. The company had moved away from cross-platform game by this
time. The company’s first real successful game was actually Hay Day, which had
great player engagement from day one. It was a mobile farming game, though and
the developers at Supercell were looking for something different.
Their superstar game Clash of Clans started
out as something code-named Magic. They wanted to bring the
real, hardcore gamers who loved real-time strategy games to the mobile
platform. And that wasn’t an easy thing to do. Hard-core gamers are notorious
for scoffing at the mobile gaming industry, calling the games childish and
simplistic. Clash of Clans had to find a delicate balance between have the
right amount of difficulty for the seasoned gamer and also the simple,
easy-to-use allure for the amateur gamer. Fortunately, it did exactly that.
‘There
is a hint of a “game” aspect here, something that many mobile titles
actually can’t boast,’ Paul Tassi, a gaming journalist for
the Forbes, stated in his review of the Clash of
Clans, concluding by calling his experience with the game ‘fun’.
The aforementioned game aspect is that Clash
of Clans is an MMO game like the massively popular World of
Warcraft and the epic Final
Fantasy series. It has a social aspect to it
that not many mobile games have. Moreover, the plot builds up; the levels get
tougher and more challenging. There is a lot of strategy involved in fortifying
your base, training your ranks of barbarians and planning an attack.
Clash of Clans ranked the #1 top grossing
game in US and earned its makers their millions. The way they made their
profits was through the concepts of Freemium and Pay-to-Wait. Basically, while
the download of this game was free, you needed to pay for getting certain
things that’d improve your gaming experience. With pay-to-wait, you had to wait
for the higher level to unlock, and this could take anywhere between a few
minutes to many hours, or you paid to go ahead.
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