This is Part 2 of a 2-part series covering the selling of cosmetics in social mobile F2P games. Part 1 was a primer on why you should care about monetizing cosmetics, the various different categories, and the benefits for players and developers. In Part 2, we’ll look at macro and micro factors that contribute to a successful cosmetics implementation, supporting features to maximize the benefits, production requirements to be aware of, and pitfalls to avoid.

We already know from Part 1 that, on average, players are 3x more likely to consider spending on cosmetics than power and that decorative skins can be found in almost half of the top 20% highest-grossing US mobile games and 3/4 of the top 20% highest-grossing Chinese games.

So players like them, and top-grossing games from around the world very commonly utilize them — but how can you tell if your game is a good fit for this monetization model? And furthermore, how can you execute it well?

In this essay we’ll look at:

• High-level game design factors that contribute to cosmetics desirability
• Cosmetics-specific design considerations
• UI/UX techniques to highlight cosmetics
• Supporting meta features
• Production requirements
• Pitfalls

Now, let’s dive in…

Well-suited

Before you even start designing the cosmetics economy of your game, first, consider the macro factors that influence how much players value the cosmetics you can offer. If players don’t care, they won’t spend.

As we talked about in Part 1, there are various types of value players can derive from cosmetics, and there are certain design conditions that will enhance that value.

These conditions include:

• High visibility of player character/items
• High visibility of other players
• Thematic and aesthetic foundation
• Celebrity appeal

High Visibility of Player Character/Items

This is a bit of a no-brainer, but the more visible the player’s avatar, or the things they own, the more they’ll care about how they look.

Take Fortnite, for example. As a 3rd-person shooter, the player’s character is right there, all the time — and so it’s unsurprising that avatar-based cosmetics are the focus. Similarly, unlike many battle royales, there’s no first-person mode (although if you believe the leaks, that might be about to change). Why? Perhaps because a first-person camera doesn’t allow the player to bask in the glow of their beautiful banana skin.

COD Mobile, on the other hand, defaults to first-person, meaning the player’s weapon is highly visible at all times, and so gun skins are very much the focus there — so much so that tiny gun attachments are legitimately appealing.

At the other end of the violence spectrum is social MMO Avakin Life, where pretty much anything you can see from the wide and loose 3rd-person camera can be cosmetically customized. The player cannot only deck out their avatar but also design their dream home, complete with all manner of furniture items and interactive props. This makes sense given the design and fashion fixation of its young player base, but also given the camera perspective.

In each example, the most visible items that belong to the player are the focus of cosmetics efforts. Cosmetics work best in cases where the core gameplay facilitates putting what belongs to the player front and center.

We’ll talk later about techniques for maximizing visibility of the player’s appearance or possessions, which is particularly important in cases where the moment-to-moment play itself doesn’t already do that for you.

High Visibility of Other Players

Social comparison is a major motivator for many behaviors, and spending on cosmetics is a prime example. You don’t see many (if any) single-player games monetizing primarily on cosmetics because there’s no one around to show off to or be jealous of. Players want to look as cool or cooler than other players, but they will only do this calculus if other players are readily available to look at.

There are three primary ways to accomplish this: competitive play, squads, and neutral social zones.

Let’s start with the obvious case of comparing against the competition — of trying to intimidate other players with your sparkly particles and animated textures. Here the comparison is likely to be somewhat impersonal, and perhaps frantic and fleeting, but there’s nothing quite like being taken out by someone wearing a skin you respect to rub salt in the wound.

If players are able to squad up, it places their character alongside others and allows them to do all sorts of monetization-inducing comparison. Critically, the comparison is being done against friends or allies in a persistent fashion, so the juxtaposition isn’t just anonymous and brief like on the battlefield, but intimate, frequent, and ongoing. As mentioned in Part 1, it’s not unusual for peer pressure to send players scrambling for the item shop to make sure they’re coordinated with their squadmates in matching outfits.

Note that these benefits of squad play don’t even require the players in the squad to engage in cooperative gameplay, as demonstrated by Fall Guys (which isn’t technically on mobile, but the existence of Stumble Guys shows it could be). Here players can “squad up” and appear in the same match, but they’re competing against one another just the same.

Then you have the idea of neutral social zones where random players coexist without trying to garrotte one another. Diablo Immortal offers an example of this, where its peaceful MMO areas see random strangers running past in elaborate angelic armor.

The pre-match lobby of any battle royale is another opportunity for anonymous folks to size each other up based on their chosen outfits, and perhaps show off with a fancy dance or two.

In each case the presence of another set of eyes on your character, and the opportunity to compare and contrast their getup with yours, is a lucrative nudge in the direction of the cosmetics shop.

Thematic and Aesthetic Foundation

The more playful your game world and the broader the visual palette, the more options you have for cosmetics.

Free Fire is a good example of not committing too heavily to a specific flavor, somehow riding the line between cartoon and reality in such a way that they can basically do what they want with their aesthetics, and it’ll appeal very broadly in the process.

If Call of Duty Mobile stuck to its hardcore IP roots, their cosmetic options would be seriously limited; there are only so many colors of camouflage that any given player wants in their wardrobe. Fortunately for the developers, even the audience of that “mature” franchise will tolerate a fair amount of silly buggers when it comes to cosmetics, proving that — given sufficient time — Santa will eventually infiltrate every live service game.

That said, it’s possible they lost a fair amount of players as they gradually drifted from the grizzled army aesthetic and jumped the shark headfirst into the magic circle. If they had set a more playful tone earlier on, the transition might have caused less outrage and churn.

This is one of those topics that you don’t necessarily have control over, depending on various other decision-making factors. It will be very interesting to see how Battlefield Mobile tackles this, for example, given that franchise’s emphasis on authenticity.

Celebrity Appeal

If there are famous people playing your game, whatever they’re wearing will be highly sought after by the people who follow them. The greater the competitive play and esports potential, the more likely it is to attract pro gamers and a captive audience. According to this research into the cosmetics preferences of players of high-profile MOBA Dota 2, pro players act as guiding lights for fashion, with players styling themselves based on their heroes.

Similarly, the more viral and streamable your game is, the more YouTubers and big Twitch names will be drawn to it, and no one sets trends on the internet like influencers. It’s not unusual for the biggest streamers to become in-game characters by way of skins, complete with their own emotes.

Lastly, the potential for “virtual autographs” to be a part of the cosmetics economy will light up the eyes of any PM who’s also planning on introducing a trading marketplace.

Strong Foundation

We’ve explored the big picture factors that influence how viable a cosmetics economy is likely to be in any given game, but what about the fundamental components of the cosmetics implementation itself?

Let’s talk about:

• Modularity
• Diverse representation
• Rarity

Modularity

This refers to breaking the appearance of something into various component parts that can be independently modified. For players, the main merits of modularizing appearance are that they can personalize, differentiate, and debate, while also getting wider use out of any single purchased item by mixing and matching their way to cosmetic heaven. As a developer, the more subcomponents that make up your cosmetics, the more different price points you can offer, and the richer the reward space you have to play in when bulking out battle passes or loot boxes.

As discussed in Part 1, the degree of modularity ranges from relatively simple one-piece skins found in MOBAs like Arena of Valor all the way to the “paper doll” approach of Roblox that has 30 separate elements for the player to customize. Arguably the strongest and most balanced approach is one that has enough parts to be customizable, but not so many that there’s a total loss of aesthetic cohesion…

Obviously it depends whether you think your players are more likely to value absolute control most or high visual fidelity. Fortnite has arguably found a healthy compromise here, where licensed characters are clearly recognizable and visually appealing, but players can still bring their own signature style to the party.

As an aside, at first glance it might seem like modularity in a MOBA is pointless, since the camera is too far from the action to see much detail, but the 4,700+ residents of r/dota2fashionadvice indicate that your character doesn’t need to be clearly visible during gameplay in order to have a spirited debate about which belt they should wear.

Diverse Representation

Since cosmetic customization is a way for players to define themselves in the digital realm, it makes sense to give them a wide array of visual options in order to maximize the chances that they can see (and purchase) something that reflects their preferences. With the number of gamers worldwide expected to hit 3.07B in 2023, inclusivity isn’t just good for humanity, it’s good for business, too.

Rarity

Say what you will about artificial scarcity, the word “Legendary” sure does seem to get people going. Building in the concept of rare items gives you another lever to pull when it comes to defining the value of something. The rarer it is, the stronger a status symbol it will be, and the more people will be willing to pay or grind to get it.

Without rarity, you also can’t build a strong gacha — although it’s worth noting that Fortnite includes the concept of rarity even though it doesn’t have any randomized reward systems, instead attaching the Legendary tag to skins that are particularly difficult to earn in the Battle Pass.

Maximum Exposure

With an understanding of some of the high- and low-level design decisions that contribute to the success of cosmetics, let’s take a quick look at in-game UI/UX techniques that will shine the brightest light on player appearance. Note that some of these are subgenre-specific, so your mileage may vary.

The pre-match squad lobby is an ingenious way to show all your characters up close and personal, which is super valuable in games where the core gameplay doesn’t do that by default, such as in Brawl Stars, where the top-down action itself is viewed from afar. The lobby also creates a prime moment to coordinate your character classes and costumes with your squadmates, and emote at each other like lunatics.

We’ve already touched on the pre-match warmup/lobby, which is not only a clever way to run down the clock while the server fills out (and to build tension) but also an opportunity to rub shoulders with the soon-to-be competition. This is the calm before the storm, and also an incidental catwalk.

What better way to enjoy having been killed than to watch as your aggressor loots your corpse in their fancy skin via spectator mode? Not only are you sitting there critiquing their fashion sense, but they know you’re doing so — and that creates a moment where every successful takedown is also an opportunity to passively peacock, further encouraging investment in cosmetics.

The post-match results sequence is another opportunity to stare into the blinged-out face of your enemy and weep, or perhaps to gloat as every other player watches you victoriously emoting.

Replays are another great way to highlight the spectacular cosmetics being utilized. Below we can see an epic goal explosion from Rocket League playing out in slo-mo, which isn’t technically on mobile, but the principle is sound: show cool things happening from cinematic angles and at glacial speeds, and players will be able to appreciate the visuals that much more.

Bling Scaffolding

There are a multitude of supporting meta features you can add to reinforce your cosmetics economy. The merits of the battle pass and seasons model have been discussed in great detail many times over, so let’s focus on why it’s a valuable tool for driving cosmetics desirability. Essentially, the battle pass is a convenient vehicle to introduce temporal exclusivity and induce FOMO.

If the player knows that the cosmetics in the battle pass can only ever be earned through extensive play (or paying for tiers), and that access to those cosmetics goes away forever with the conclusion of the season, then the incentive to work hard for those skins is strong. At the same time, those cosmetics will become forever associated with that season, and any player seen wearing one of them will be instantly recognizable as a veteran of that era.

Another FOMO-inducing feature is having a rotating set of items available in the Store that’s refreshed on a regular basis, which brings players back frequently to see what’s on sale, and encourages them to urgently impulse buy anything that catches their eye. Believe me when I say this works wonders on 7- and 12-year-olds, sending them running for their savings jar to snap up a set of very rare wheels that “might never be in the Shop ever again!”

The “Lucky Draw” is a heavily gamified monetization mechanic that’s basically gambling for highly desirable cosmetics. Each time the player spins and collects a prize, their chances of getting the jackpot item increase, tugging hard on sunk cost, and drawing significant criticism in the process.

Implementing an “evolution” system — such as can be found in PUBG Mobile and Free Fire — allows players to upgrade a specific skin to unlock additional visual effects. Upgrades sometimes come from collecting gun fragments, and sometimes from completing metagoals, but either way the player ends up advancing through a skin-specific progression system to attain a truly outrageous-looking piece of kit.

Another controversial approach is making ownership of cosmetics time-limited. Although this might seem like a raw deal for the player, it does allow the developer to give out highly desirable items for a short period of time at a much lower price than they might otherwise have charged, so in a slightly perverse way it arguably benefits the player. Given that many COVID-era gamers play to hang out with their friends as much as anything else, this ability to “rent” or “try before you buy” a wide variety of cosmetic items to mix and match is potentially very appealing.

Time limits also have the interesting side effect of frequently encouraging the player to return to their wardrobe and equip something different when their old gear disappears, so it indirectly keeps them looking fresh. Some players will undoubtedly be miffed when you take their stuff away, but as a method of increasing affordability at the expense of permanence, time limits are undeniably effective.

COD Mobile has introduced an event-earning bonus attached to specific cosmetics, where competing while using a specific gun skin will earn you 50% more points with which to climb the event leaderboard. While this might seem like pay-to-win, and arguably it is, it’s worth noting that the reward for topping the leaderboard is yet more exclusive cosmetics…

And finally, to round things out, PUBG Mobile has been experimenting with a collection meta, where players can earn additional rewards for acquiring an entire set of cosmetics, although how successful it will be remains to be seen.

Treadmill Runway

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of running a successful cosmetics economy is the prohibitively high set of production requirements. Each season can take many months of planning ahead, accounting for concept art, licensing of IP, outsourcing management, importing assets, rigorous QA cycles, and many other steps besides. That’s not to mention the parallel marketing efforts required to really promote and do justice to the resulting virtual wares.

It takes a huge amount of money, coordination, and time to make stuff that looks this good and then flog it to people. There’s no magic bullet here, other than to acknowledge that you’ll need a sizable team with solid logistics to monetize cosmetics at scale. If your production can’t handle a major operation like that but you still see potential in cosmetics for your game, consider equipping a multi-stringed monetization bow and selling power as well. It’s challenging to do sustainably, but it’s far more economical than selling skins in terms of development cost.

Pitfall Guys

As discussed in Part 1, there are many benefits to be had from building a successful cosmetics business, but there are a few key downsides to consider too.

Lumpy Revenue

Skins only sell if the player base likes the look of them, and so one season you might nail it and appeal to the audience’s aesthetic preferences en masse, and the next you might misjudge it, resulting in a revenue rollercoaster. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and if you can’t consistently appeal to that subjective nature, there’s a lot of risk involved.

As mentioned just above, one way to mitigate the risk is by diversifying your monetization methods by selling both cosmetics and power. If you can solve the long-term game design issues inherent in selling competitive advantage, the two sources of revenue will supplement each other, making for greater predictability.

Pay-to-Win Cosmetics

Conventional wisdom says that skins don’t mess with the integrity of the competition, which is arguably one of their greatest strengths as a way to do business. However, occasionally a skin comes along that’s the exception to the rule.

The notorious Roze skin in Call of Duty Warzone is one such example — so dark that it made camping in shadows dangerously effective.

There are also cases where players can find obscure and ingenious ways to eke out gameplay advantages from otherwise innocent-looking emotes.

The moral of the story is that players are far more numerous than you, they’re more devious than you, and they will find ways to capitalize on your mistakes, so you’d best have systems in place to respond quickly when they do, both in terms of community management and deploying fixes.

Pay-to-Lose Cosmetics

This is one of the most counterintuitive aspects of selling skins. When creating an exciting visual variant for players to lust after, it makes a basic kind of sense to make something flashy and impressive. However, the downside to these shiny things is that they tend to be more obvious, such that they can actually put players at a slight disadvantage. COD Mobile players also talk about how the Legendary guns might look cool, but – when using them – the extra VFX actually make it harder to see what’s going on in the middle of a firefight.

Dota 2 players have said something similar, with more flashy items making attacks easier to see and avoid. Interestingly, despite this, pro teams apparently continue to use them regardless. Although it’s easier said than done, the solution is arguably to find fresh cosmetic styles that appeal to players but don’t make them stick out like a sore thumb on the battlefield.

Skin Deep

We’ve covered the benefits for players and developers, complementary macro and micro design elements, supporting UI/UX and meta features, and pitfalls to watch out for. That wraps up our essay series on monetizing skins! Hopefully it helps you on your long and winding journey to cosmetics success.

A big thanks to Thomas Baker for writing this essay. If Naavik can be of help as you build or fund games, please reach out.