报告题目

Optimizing Free-to-Play Multiplayer Games with Premium Subscription

报告人（单位）

Bin Hu (University of Texas at Dallas)

主持人

陈静

时间地点

时间：2022年 10月 7 日（周五）  上午10 点

地点：腾讯会议号271-437-108

报告内容摘要

We consider the optimal operating policies of a free-to-play multiplayer game with a premium subscription to maximize its lifetime operating profit. Accounting for social comparisons between free and premium players, we model the game attracting or losing players with a hybrid of the Bass diffusion model and the replicator equation in evolutionary game theory. Leveraging optimal control theory, we characterize optimal dynamic pricing and advertising policies and show that the developer should prioritize initial growth through aggressive advertising, while postponing the introduction of a premium subscription. Surprisingly, the optimal subscription price may start high and gradually decrease. We further show that the developer should strengthen social-comparison effects, that payment-based matchmaking can be an effective monetization driver, and that our main findings remain robust when allowing individual in-game item purchases/partial premium subscription. These findings are potentially instructive for game developers adopting the premium subscription model.

个人简历

Dr. Bin Hu is an Associate Professor in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. He received his PhD in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, and his BS in Mathematics from Peking University. Before joining UT Dallas in 2018, he taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Hu’s research interest is in supply chain management, procurement and sourcing, and innovative operations, and primarily employs analytical economic, game-theoretic, and optimization models in his research. He currently serves as a Senior Editor at Production and Operations Management and an Associate Editor at Naval Research Logistics.