SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --
Overview
In August 2025, Yodo1’s Transformers: Earth Wars achieved two key milestones that demonstrate how studios can build sustainable DTC alternative payments momentum:
- The share of player spend flowing through Yodo1’s alternative payments webshop rose from 25% to 57% since January (2.2× growth), as more players chose to purchase outside traditional app stores.
- 1.8× growth in first-time webshop purchases from a first-time purchase promotion that converted non-spenders.
Since partnering with Neon, a DTC webshop payment provider, Yodo1 has turned Transformers: Earth Wars’ webshop into a long-term growth engine, not only improving margins but also shifting player behavior from buying in-app out of habit to buying directly by choice.
Challenge: Shift Player Spend Toward the Webshop
The main challenge was to increase the share of Transformers: Earth Wars players making purchases in the webshop rather than inside the app, while also driving consistent traffic and improving overall visibility.
Game studios prefer revenue from webshops (DTC) through alternative payments instead of in-game purchases because:
- Lower fees: In-game purchases carry a ~30% platform fee, versus ~0–5% via DTC.
- Direct player relationship: Studios can collect emails, run targeted promos, build loyalty loops, and better track LTV.
- More pricing freedom: DTC enables flexible discounts, bundles, regional pricing, A/B tests, instant updates, and promotions not possible within app stores.
- Higher reinvestment potential: Better margins mean more budget for UA, LiveOps, and player value.
- Reduced platform dependency: DTC webshop revenue is resilient to App Store policy shifts, privacy changes, and platform volatility.
- Transparent analytics: DTC provides full-funnel visibility, from item preferences to repeat purchase behavior.
Given these benefits, it was clear that increasing DTC revenue through alternative payments was key to strengthening long-term monetization and reducing risk. Yodo1 and Neon needed to:
- Shift players’ purchasing habits toward the webshop
- Communicate the value of DTC offers to players
- Integrate webshop incentives into the game without disrupting core gameplay
- Drive consistent traffic to the webshop
- Improve visibility of DTC offers across all channels
To do that, they focused on four core areas.
How Yodo1 Increased Webshop Revenue
1. Extending LiveOps beyond the game to DTC webshops
Webshops perform best when they act as a natural extension of a game’s LiveOps strategy, offering more value and exclusivity tied to in-game events. For Transformers: Earth Wars, Yodo1 made the webshop an active part of their content strategy. Every Friday before major in-game events, they refreshed offers with themed bundles that complemented event mechanics, allowing players to stock up in advance and making webshop visits part of their weekly ritual.
This strategy extended event engagement beyond the game itself, turning LiveOps into a bridge between gameplay and direct commerce.
2. Consistent In-Game Promotion Linking to Alternative Payments
The Epic v. Apple ruling on April 30, 2025 opened the door in the U.S. for direct alternative payment linking from an iOS in-app game experience to a webshop. Shortly after, Yodo1 began embedding consistent in-game prompts that directed players to the webshop to drive awareness and traffic.
These reminders paired with predictable LiveOps refreshes caused players to expect something new from the webshop every week, establishing a habit loop that sustained long-term webshop traffic and sales.
3. First-time purchase promotion
While traffic grew, Yodo1 also prioritized converting new buyers with a first-time purchase promotion that targeted players who’d never made a webshop purchase. The promotion flow was simple, but effective:
- A free gift was promoted to players who had never purchased at the webshop.
- In the U.S. on iOS, the free gift was advertised via an in-game pop-up.
- Elsewhere, it was communicated across out-of-app channels like Discord.
After claiming the free gift, players would see a CTA to enter their email address to receive a promo code for a 50% discount on one item during their first webshop purchase.
After submitting their email, the promo code would be displayed on screen and automatically applied to the player’s shopping cart, which persists until they complete their first purchase.
Upon launch, the promotion drove immediate growth resulting in 1.8× growth in daily average first-time purchases, and to date 80% of all first-time webshop purchases are attributed to this promotion.
Once players experienced the speed and ease of the alternative checkout flow, many went on to make additional purchases without incentives, demonstrating how small UX wins can create long-term value.
4. Re-engaging High-Value Players Through Direct Outreach
To maximize long-term retention and revenue, we also implemented targeted outreach campaigns:
- Yodo1 contacted spenders with a low percentage of webshop purchases to make them aware of the benefits and exclusive offers available on the webshop.
- Yodo1 also reached out to spenders who had stopped visiting the webshop, encouraging their return with discount codes provided by the LiveOps team.
These personalized nudges helped recover at-risk spenders and strengthened the overall DTC payment funnel.
Results
Within eight months Transformers: Earth Wars more than doubled its share of player spend through direct-to-consumer channels. App store purchases dropped proportionally as more players chose the webshop for value and exclusivity. These results highlight how event extension, clear in-game linking, and first-time conversion incentives can drive both short-term lift and lasting behavior change.
About Neon
Neon is a global payments and e-commerce platform designed to help game publishers earn more money and independence from app stores. We believe commerce should be open and transparent: clear decisions, actionable insights, and aligned incentives. Founded by payments, fintech and gaming veterans, Neon focuses on product and partnership excellence: we share the playbook, co-pilot decisions, and abstract away risk and complexity for our customers. We’re replacing old-school, black-box relics with clear, modern, and developer-centric infrastructure.
About Yodo1
Yodo1 specializes in operating popular / high performing, IP-driven live-service games and brings deep experience from running Transformers: Earth Wars in China, now applied globally. This expertise, combined with the experience of developers deeply familiar with the game, allows Yodo1 to deliver a diverse and comprehensive event grid, paired with community-first updates for years to come.
Contact Info
Andrew Dubatowka
andrew@neonpay.com
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