Discover how custom game launchers can improve audience loyalty and increase revenue in this interview with Xsolla.
Do you remember the early days of PC gaming? In the past, gamers would visit a store and buy a physical copy of a game to run on a computer, but these days, online gaming platforms are the most common and effective method for PC gamers to find, download, and play new titles.
As the gaming industry has grown, a few vast tech and gaming companies have dominated the digital marketplaces where players access new titles from huge gaming libraries. These entities manage updates, optimize game performance, and interact with player communities by offering deals and incentives.
But there are downsides to game developers and players who utilize these platforms for distribution and playing. Game visibility, high platform fees, a lack of community building, and poor cross-promotion sales are why game developers and publishers, from the AAA level to indie games, either choose to create their own game launchers or seek out companies that provide game launcher services and tools.
Xsolla, a global videogame e-commerce company, offers an easy-to-use solution, Xsolla Launcher, explicitly designed for game developers and publishers to avoid the expensive and time-consuming undertaking of creating their own launchers while avoiding other companies whose solutions still require additional development to personalize and configure. Xsolla Launcher is a third-party client application or gaming hub that streamlines the process for developers to reach their player base with a customized home to download games, quickly deliver game content, sell exclusive virtual items, and increase engagement by building a community just for players.
To understand why Xsolla Launcher is the best choice to distribute your games, reach players, and increase revenue, we sat down with an industry expert and Xsolla professional, Roman Bazhora, to understand the features and benefits of this genuinely out-of-the-box solution.
Hello, Roman Bazhora. Thank you for taking the time to discuss Xsolla Launcher. Can you share your background and what makes you an authority in this space?
Of course. I am a product owner, and I work closely with the development team to ensure that the final product meets customer needs and expectations. I've worked in the gaming industry for over eight years. I've specifically been working with Xsolla for three years, strategizing and building products that make developers' lives easier and help their amazing games reach new players globally.
The solution
That's great. Let's dive deeper into Xsolla Launcher. I understand it launched in 2018, correct? Can you provide a breakdown of what it is and why it was built?
Yes, you are correct. Xsolla Launcher was launched in 2018, and we built this solution after speaking with many of our partners who expressed dissatisfaction with the launchers currently on the market and didn't have the time or resources to develop their own.
We listened and designed Xsolla Launcher. It's a client app that helps developers create a custom home for their games. You can distribute and cross-promote your games, deliver exclusive content, sell digital items, and interact with the fans of your game to build a stronger and more loyal community.
In 2022, Launcher was updated with new features and technologies to maximize customization without needing to code or do any additional work.
The competitor market
So, what makes your launcher better than other launchers offered by other companies?
Our solution requires no coding. Adding Xsolla Launcher is very easy and requires following a few steps to set up. You can also modify the look of your platform just by using Figma, which is also very user-friendly for changing the appearance and color to fit your specific branding.
Key features and benefits
Efficient and easy to integrate are all things developers look for in a game launcher. What features does Xsolla Launcher offer that will excite developers?
I've already mentioned the ability to make Xsolla Launcher look unique to your brand with Figma. Having a look and feel specific to your game titles goes a long way in creating a cohesive experience for your audience. But we wanted to be able to provide the developer with more.
With a customizable in-game store, developers can boost revenue by selling virtual currency and items, game keys, and bundles. It also makes it easy to cross-promote your other game titles that your players might need help finding on some of these big platforms that have game libraries with thousands of games all fighting for visibility.
The most appealing feature that makes our launcher unique is the ability to interact with your audience. You can build a loyal community by adding custom content tiles to directly feature news, social media, articles, videos, images, and more to your players.
Other features include binary patching for faster downloads and game updates, which save time, bandwidth, and game distribution options so that you can have your game launcher be a standalone delivery method or placed on a platform like Steam. We also include some of our other products, like Pay Station and Login, which give players the options for authentication and payment on a global scale.
Right now, we support more local currencies, pricing, and languages than most companies, making it possible for you to take Xsolla Launcher to a global audience too. And with such a large population of people comes high-quality data that we package to you and aggregate by activity, region, purchase, and hardware configuration, just to name a few. It's a well-rounded experience for the developer and the player.
You've already touched on some of the benefits your solution provides developers. Is there anything else?
Yes. In addition to Xsolla Launcher being cross-platform, visually unique to your brand, and providing more ways to connect to your players with content, having over 700 payment methods, and providing you with all the data you need to make better marketing decisions, there are also no upfront costs. Developers can create and deploy their custom launchers for free, and Xsolla only takes a small portion per transaction. That's a big difference between standard platform fees, which can be 30%, and other companies that require you to pay for their launcher and still make your team do frontend coding to make it work.
Case studies
These benefits are awe-inspiring. Can you provide an example of a company that can experience some of the benefits you mentioned while using Xsolla Launcher?
NX3 Games partnered with Xsolla with a few goals in mind for an upcoming launch of a new action MMORPG game that they released this year in January 2023. They wanted to launch AVATARA's new PC version with three goals: stable operations and solid foundation strategy, addressing fraudulent payments, and integrating more global payment methods. With Xsolla Launcher, NX3 saw positive results, with over 45K Launcher installations, 766K Launcher sessions, 34K active and authorized users, 45K successful payments made, and an average conversion rate of 68.73%. The company was very pleased and was able to expand its reach and access to its brand-new game.
Next steps
I imagine game developers and publishers will be eager to learn more after reading all this information. What’s the best way for them to find out more details and request a demo?
For more information, interested parties can head to our solution landing page, which has a high-level overview of what Xsolla Launcher is and does, with some additional resources like information sheets and ebooks. We always recommend booking a meeting with one of our team members via business@xsolla.com.
Roman Bazhora, Product Owner at Xsolla
Xsolla Launcher is a comprehensive out-of-the-box solution built for game developers to build a closer connection to their audience and to give developers control of game distribution through a branded storefront. It's an essential tool for developers from the AAA level to the indie game level and is backed by a team of experts with proven results.
Visit Xsolla's website to create your account and start exploring Xsolla's range of publishing and developmental tools today. For additional information, contact an expert from the Xsolla team and learn how they can help reduce your workload and provide a simple solution for publishing your game across multiple platforms.
