I love when people underestimate me and then become pleasantly surprised
Kim Kardashian’s quoted words have a creepy level of prescience since the news of her highly successful mobile game, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.
Whether you are a Kardashian acolyte or just a curious observer, KK:H has risen in the mobile game charts as a top contender. Bloomberg reported this week that KK:H has “risen as high as second among most-downloaded free to play games”. This success has bolstered Glu Mobile who tout themselves as the “Leader in Freemium Mobile Gaming”, causing their shares to rise 42%.
Glu Mobile has struck gold with the new Kardashian life simulator and they don’t show signs of stopping now. Whether or not Glu Mobile was thinking of reallocating resources to other endeavours, the level of success will also bring with it a new set of challenges for the mobile company. Bloomberg speculates that “the bump in Glu Mobile’s stock, while rewarding investors, heightens pressure on the company to keep developing titles that can sustain its revenue growth”.
The free-to-play game model has worked especially well when it’s combined with the mobile platform, snatching away your precious time with a meticulous grind. Not surprisingly, KK:D has already attracted compulsive gamers to buy tawdry in-game clothes, accessories, and exotic locals. It’s not uncommon for prices of in-game currency to become exorbitant, especially when “Users can spend as much as $99.99 for 175,000 virtual dollars” reports Bloomberg. While those numbers might seem ludicrous to even the most dedicated Kardashian fan, there is a rather dedicated group of players, around “3 percent to 4 perfect do”, who will compulsively buy in-game objects and skip ahead of long in-game wait times by using real world money.
Even if dressing up your character in the latest fashions, going out to eat with that special beau, or smizing at the paparazzi isn’t your bag, KK:D is connecting with its fan base well enough to garnish favorable ratings and well rounded reviews:
Time magazine was quoted as saying In fact, dozens of smart phone users who gave the (free!) game mediocre ratings explained in their comments that they didn’t dislike the experience, but rather thought the app does not feature enough opportunities to interact with Kim
Whether or not it seems real, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is primed to take the mobile world by storm with a dedicated following of Kim K fans and fame addled believers.
