The influence of interactions among game players on revenue

An analysis using a multi-agent model

Abstract

The game application market has grown rapidly with the spread of smartphones. Main sources of income for game applications are users' payment and online advertising. In this study, we focus on the former, which has been said to be difficult to predict earnings. We create a multi-agent model including players' behavior and their interactions to clarify the mechanism of revenue in the game application market. Considering that the difference in play-style affects payment behavior, we assume 4 types of players in this model. As a result of simulations, it is observed that a decrease in non-paying players triggers the payment of paying players, and an increase in non-paying players suppresses the payment of paying players.