The App Store is becoming the Game Store

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Top Highlights

• The lesson for product builders: if you could make your product feel like a game, you could make elephants run.

• We’re wired to game. That’s why when products enable us to be gamers, we thrive.

• Think of a popular Shopify store that sells limited edition t-shirts. Instead of simply selling to the first 50 people who show up on the site for the drop, could an apparel company put their community through a series of rigorous challenges — giving purchase access only to those dedicated enough to complete the quest?

• While Duolingo at the surface looks like a language app, at the core it is very much a game. And a highly lucrative one. Duolingo generated $415M in revenue in 2022 and has been cash flow positive since IPO in 2021.

• Buying that shirt becomes a no-brainer. The ability to purchase becomes a status symbol. If you’ve done the work to get that shirt, and other people in the community know it — your perceived value goes up.

• Framework for creating game-like experiences This is the framework Late Checkout uses when building game-like products and I want to share it with you. Pick a growing underserved niche/lifestyle (ex: keto diet) Pick an outcome/goal that is difficult to achieve (ex: learning and staying on keto) Pick the set of content you want delivered (ex: educational content and reminders) Deliver your content wrapped in a game (ex: challenges, quests, multi-player, community etc)

• The App Store is becoming the Game Store.

• I believe more and more companies are going to adopt and attach game-like mechanics to their experiences. It’s where the world is going.

• all human beings play some form of games. Going for a run is a game, cooking pasta is a game and climbing the corporate ladder is definitely a game.

• we’re witnessing the gamification of the App Store and what that means for you.

• This is the framework Late Checkout uses when building game-like products and I want to share it with you. Pick a growing underserved niche/lifestyle (ex: keto diet) Pick an outcome/goal that is difficult to achieve (ex: learning and staying on keto) Pick the set of content you want delivered (ex: educational content and reminders) Deliver your content wrapped in a game (ex: challenges, quests, multi-player, community etc)