Understanding consumer experiences of in-app purchases in freemium model competitive mobile games
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Marketing
Language
en
Pages
67
Series
Abstract
Freemium business model has become a go to monetization method for mobile games. Criticism of in-app purchases in competitive freemium mobile games is a popular agenda in the gaming world. Prior research addresses some of the factors that may cause resentment of in-app purchases but does not cover the effects non-monetary sacrifice and the changing monetization mechanics have on the attitudes towards freemium mobile games’ in-app microtransactions. This study is based on a netnographic research into 15 online forum posts and 1038 comments. The results demonstrate that perceived unfairness of microtransaction prices, perceived unfairness of the amount of non-monetary sacrifice needed to compete/progress in a game without paying for microtransactions and the perceived procedural unfairness of setting monetary price on progressing in a game may lead to resentment of microtransactions in competitive freemium mobile games. The study analyses different circumstances that affect perceived unfairness of prices and non-monetary sacrifices involved with playing freemium mobile games. The findings may be useful in designing microtransactions for freemium competitive mobile games.Description
Thesis advisor
Weijo, HenriKeywords
mobile games, freemium, price fairness, microtransactions, in-app purchases, free-to-play, pay-to-win