Mobile games micro-billing big in 2009, says Come2us

Acccording to Pocketgamer.biz, Com2uS plans to make micro-billing a feature in more of its mobile games this year, says Joony Koo, senior manager in the publisher's international business team.

This includes the upcoming baseball and RPG games from Com2uS, as well as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for iPhone.

Especially the MMO-migration into handheld devices is an exciting feature, which we here at Mobile Games look foreward to. Combined with up-coming features from AR (Altered reality)-games this should have really ground-breaking potential.

Koo says, more of these games [featuring microbilling] have been launched in Korea, supported by marketing from mobile operators and the publishers.

"The developments in the industry demonstrate once again how lucrative the micro-billing model can be," he says.

"Role-playing games, for example, are seeing additional revenue from micro-billing at rates as high as 90 per cent of their initial sales, while casual games are generating as much as 60 per cent of their initial sales profits in micro-billing transactions."

"For example, in a multi-player home-run derby game coming from Com2uS this April, items such as bats, clothes, helmets and baseball stadiums can be purchased and sent to friends," he says.
As such we at Mobile Games think that there are even more potential in thuis type of games, if not only at the microbilling as a business model: 2009 and 2010, will feature products born online and given life offline, where the opposite usually is the case.

One of the first games to feature microbilling is the sequel to the popular role-playing game Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor, coming this June, players are able to purchase and trade items and maps with each other via micro-transactions.

But it's the company's ambition for micro-billing within iPhone games that are most intriguing:

"Even massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), which are often subscription-based, are delving into micro-transactions as they enter the open-content markets for touch-based devices," he says.

"Com2uS is developing an MMORPG for iPhone and iPod Touch, expected to launch in late 2009, with a built-in micro-transaction system."

However, Apple's policy towards micro-billing is still somewhat clouded - it's unclear whether it's allowed or barred from the App Store.