The real-time strategy game Forge of Empires by the company InnoGames from Hamburg has reached the revenue milestone of 1 billion euros, it proudly announces. However, despite the success, the studio cut 75 jobs in April.
This is the success report: InnoGames announced in early August that its construction strategy game Forge of Empires has achieved some impressive figures since its release in March 2012:
- Over 130 million players have registered for the construction strategy game so far.
- InnoGames has now surpassed the mark of 1 billion euros in revenue. In 2019, InnoGames as a whole had already reached this revenue mark.
- Most of the money, from 2012 to 2022, came from the USA (36%), followed by Germany (19%); France (8%) and the UK (4%).
Forge of Empires also reaches new players through television advertising:
A third of the revenue comes from long-term players
This is what the studio says: They primarily attribute the success to long-term players:
- 34% of the revenue comes from players who have been playing for 3 years.
- 18% of the revenue comes from players who have been with it for 5 years.
The studio emphasizes that the recipe for success is to give “loyal long-term players” reasons to stay in the game while making Forge of Empires accessible and attractive to new players at the same time.
For this, they listen closely to the community’s feedback.
An important step is also that players can easily switch between browser and mobile device (iOS/Android) in Forge of Empires.
So is everything great at InnoGames? No, not quite. InnoGames is, after Ubisoft Düsseldorf, the largest employer in the video game sector in Germany with 350 employees, but there used to be more.
In April 2023, InnoGames cut 75 jobs (via gameswirtschaft). This is part of a “comprehensive strategic realignment,” the studio reported.
In 2022, the company had still gained points when it published specific salary ranges for individual areas within the company.
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