Trion Worlds has pumped new life into its fantasy online role-playing game Rift: Planes of Telara by adding in-game rewards from gamer social network Raptr. The results of new rewards: 470 percent more daily active users and 58 percent longer play sessions.
After five years of development, Redwood City, Calif.-based Trion launched Rift in March 2011. By August 2011, Trion said more than 1 million people had played the game, and in January 2012, the company said it had generated $100 million in revenue. In November, Trion teamed up with Raptr to revitalize Rift’s community.
The campaign integrated Raptr Rewards — where members can get certain kinds of in-game rewards — to acquire and retain new gamers. The tiered virtual rewards produced results as the number of new online players “skyrocketed,” according to Raptr’s Tom Curtis. The goal was to get new people into the universe and give Rift players more reason to return.
The companies create four rewards, including a free copy of Rift with a one-month-free subscription. This reward was for Raptr gamers who had reached the “experienced” rank in other role-playing games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, World of Warcraft, and Torchlight II. If the players met this requirement, they could get quick and easy access to Rift. To get more rewards, Raptr gamers had to play Rift and reach different ranks within the MMO, including “newbie,” “elite,” and “experienced.” They could do so by logging more time in the game. In exchange, they got rewards such as “Smithy Goggles” and the “Exotic Spider Mount Spindrel.”
Rift daily active user numbers grew 470 percent among Raptr users. Existing users played 58 percent more per day, or 6.3 hours.