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# Whales, the lifeblood of free-to-play
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/whales-lifeblood-free-play/
- Published: 2012-11-02T16:30:20.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T14:50:32.000Z
- Description: A portrait of a free-to-play cash cow: It was a typical weekday night after work: Lee slipped off his shoes, climbed into bed with his iPad, and booted up Clash of Clans. The free-to-play strategy game, in which he went by the name “Metamorphaz,” had quickly become a favorite stress-reliever for him
- Author: Teddy Papes
- Tags: News, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/previously/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ws.jpg)

A portrait of a free-to-play cash cow:

> It was a typical weekday night after work: Lee slipped off his shoes, climbed into bed with his iPad, and booted up Clash of Clans. The free-to-play strategy game, in which he went by the name “Metamorphaz,” had quickly become a favorite stress-reliever for him. In less than a month of playing around two hours a day, he’d spent nearly a thousand dollars.  
>  
> Clash of Clans

– – –

> Game developers have a word for players like Lee: whales.  
>  
> “A whale is a player that is [willing to invest a significant amount of money](http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1016417/-100-000-Whales-An?ref=killscreen.com) in your game,” said Jared Psigoda, CEO of the browser game publisher Reality Squared Games, at Game Developers Conference Europe in August. “For most publishers out there … a handful of players make up a significant percentage of revenue, specifically once you get into the mid-hard-core, free-to-play type model.”

The term “whale” usually applies to high rollers at casinos — the people they can milk for a healthy chunk of cash (think Michael Jordan) — but it has been repurposed for the free-to-play world.

The circumstances surrounding whales are complex for both [developers](http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-10-12-designers-question-the-ethics-of-f2p-design-at-gdc-online?ref=killscreen.com) and the gamers who play free-to-play but don’t splurge. Read the Wired [article](http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/11/meet-the-whales/all/?ref=killscreen.com) for more on the player perspective.