Halfbrick has a $5m AUD revenue pool for third parties who join its games subscription service – and has pledged to take a very different approach to how Apple runs its Arcade offering.
The Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride maker told us back in September 2023 that it is going all-in on its subscription service, Halfbrick+. And now alongside its own titles it is looking to add third party games to the catalogue.
Nimble Quest, Mega Jump, Warbits+ and Steppy Pants will all launch on Halfbrick+ in the coming months, Halfbrick told us, with those developers set to take a share of a $5m AUD (~$3.6m USD) revenue pool.
The Australian firm also promises to be transparent, helpful and respectful with its partners, especially when it comes to calculating monthly payouts.
“We want to be the antithesis of other game subscription services,” says Halfbrick+ product manager Eli Hodapp. “Often participating developers in subscription services will have very little information on how the service is actually doing, or what they can do to improve their game to positively impact their revenue.”
Hodapp ran mobile game site TouchArcade before moving to subscription startup GameClub, which was sold to Take-Two in March 2023. He’s now on the lookout for partners, and has that $5m AUD revenue pool to help attract games that ‘align with Halfbrick’s sensibilities’.
Hodapp was not able to share subscriber numbers publicly, but said that Halfbrick+ has 600k MAU, and has generated 11m game downloads to date. It has a 2% conversion rate to paid plans, and gets around 30k organic downloads daily.
“I saw your article on Apple Arcade, and wanted to reiterate some important distinctions on how we’ll be operating Halfbrick+,” Hodapp told us. “No one will be waiting six months to be paid. We promptly pay developers at the end of each reporting period.”
“Developers I’m working with inside of Halfbrick+ have all of my contact information, and if I’m awake, I respond,” Hodapp continued. “One of Halfbrick’s core tenets is complete transparency, and that extends to developers that we work with for Halfbrick+. If someone asks me something I don’t know, it’s my priority to get an answer.”
“Halfbrick’s tech team is accessible, and we’re actively looking for and addressing any kinks with our SDK. We’re creating and refining our documentation to make sure our developer support processes are really great, and continually improving.”
“Discoverability and cross promotion inside of Halfbrick+ is also something we’re putting a lot of effort into,” he continued. “We actively drive traffic into all games on our service, because we know that a rising tide lifts all boats.”
“I want to be very clear that I don’t mean any of this as a slight against Apple – it’s impossible to be very good at all things all the time. Our size and circumstances means we’re able to offer a different level of intimacy and transparency in our relationships. We aim to keep those developer relationships consistent by focusing on curation and mutual growth.”
Hodapp says that third party titles need to be replayable, able to foster regular engagement, have a decent existing fanbase and naturally conducive to updates and live ops if they’re going to be right for the service.
Halfbrick will continue to run its existing free to play games, but increasingly use them as a way to get players into Halfbrick+. “These titles are currently providing us with a revenue base while we grow Halfbrick+ into a long-term sustainable service and business, but they also can serve as a front door to Halfbrick+,” adds Hodapp.
“We’re working through the challenge of figuring out the best way to do this for long-term sustainability and without disrupting the existing player bases too much. Some people will inevitably wind up preferring Halfbrick+ while others choose to stay inside of the game they’re already very invested in, we don’t expect to convert every free to play player to subscription.”
