MZ must have given this great thought and found that planting the seed with early retailing encourages players to spend cash down the line. In fact, as far as first impressions go, it could hardly be worse, greeting the player opening the app for the first time with a special offer splash screen before they have played a single minute. From the off, Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire is remarkably similar to Mobile Strike in terms of structure and UX. Launching a game in one of gaming's longest-running and best-loved franchises has exposed Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire to a different audience entirely, and the response from Final Fantasy fans has been as negative as one would expect.

The fact remains, however, that MZ's games are often too much to handle even for regular mobile gamers. This column described Mobile Strike as being “overly tight-fisted with its hard currency and reliant on wait timers to grind down players”.īut it's unlikely MZ lost any sleep over that, as it happily bankrolled an Arnold Schwarzenegger-fronted Super Bowl ad and established the game as yet another top grossing stalwart. MZ's games are often too much to handle even for regular mobile gamers. The US firm has made its name by launching free-to-play mobile games that flagrantly disregard many best practices, with aggressive retailing of the kind that most Western gamers simply aren't used to seeing.Īnd yet, its track record for monetising with incredible efficiency is indisputable. The new mobile game comes from Game of War and Mobile Strike developer MZ.Īny study of the monetisation of an MZ game from a player's perspective is a difficult proposition. This time we're taking a look at Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, a free-to-play mobile take on the long-awaited 2016 console title.

The end goal is to see whether the game makes a good enough case for us to part with our cash, or whether players are content - or engaged enough - to 'freeload'. In each instalment, we consider the incentives or pressure applied to make in-app purchases, their perceived value, the expansion offered by IAPs and the overall value of the experience. Welcome back to the In-App Purchase Inspector - our regular look at free-to-play games from the consumer's perspective.

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