Monetising games Games have a number of revenue models, with novel ways of monetisation becoming an increasingly important consideration for developers and publishers in a competitive, ever-changing market. More traditional revenue approaches include boxed copies and ‘pay per download’ models, in addition to the increasingly common use of subscriptions, in-game purchases/downloadable content, and in-game advertising. It’s important to balance profitability and ease of income with the potential legal implications of the different monetisation options as part of the development process. Pay-to-play: physical and digital distribution is increasingly digital distribution of titles dominant with the Entertainment A critical chunk of income from a and Retail Association reporting game comes from the initial sale of that an estimated 90% of all games the game itself, with many games in the UK were sold digitally rather falling within the ‘pay-to-play’ than physically in 2022. model where players are charged an Whether digital or physical, a upfront fee to physically purchase pay-to-play model works well for or download a game which then many publishers and, provided the provides full access to the game’s game complies with certain content features. Traditionally, the typical requirements (and labelling rules approach would involve the sale for boxed copies), the publisher has of a physical boxed copy, however fewer legal issues to consider. This is 58