With a rich digital advertising and performance marketing background, including leadership roles at ironSource and Tapjoy, Igor Melniks brings invaluable expertise to ZBD’s mission of transforming player experiences.
In this exclusive interview, we explore how ZBD’s unique approach is setting them apart in the market and how developers can leverage their platform to captivate and retain players.
In December, ZBD was the first company to receive a MiCAR license. What does that mean for the company?
As a payments technology company, ZBD enables payments to be made instantly from a game to any user with an internet connection. We’ve made our name in the real-money rewards space, enabling players to earn instant rewards in games from the likes of Square Enix, Playember, and Fumb Games.
The MiCAR license enables us to expand our range of crypto-related activities in the EU to offer services like crypto-to-fiat exchange, where we previously just distributed rewards and needed to send users to third-party providers to exchange their Bitcoin.
It also allows us to support more complex use cases for other businesses in the EU, like providing on and off-ramps for businesses that want to engage with cryptocurrencies in a regulated environment.
How do you see the role of rewards evolving within the gaming industry this year?
Rewards have certainly become a hot topic in mobile; visit any mobile games industry conference, and you’ll see a large number of booths from rewards companies, especially in the Rewarded UA space.
It reflects audience attitudes; our study of 2,006 Gen Z saw almost all of our respondents (91%) expressing an interest in earning money by using apps and playing games.
This year, I expect to see more game studios using rewards to meet this desire from players; and increasing their engagement and retention numbers in the process.
What were the key challenges that developers previously faced when trying to integrate rewards into their games, and how does your platform address these challenges?
Early rewards formats such as Rewarded Video have been successful in boosting player engagement and ad revenue, giving users rewards such as in-game currency and items for viewing ads.
The challenge with this format is that the rewards only hold value within the game themselves; when players are no longer engaged with the gameplay loop, there is little incentive to earn rewards in a game they are not motivated to play.
Same goes for early offerwall products. I actually spent many years working for TapJoy and, while we had great success for a time, the model of users completing offers in exchange for in-game currency and items simply started losing player appeal over time.
Real-world rewards, such as the Bitcoin earned with ZBD, offer a different approach. The rewards earned by engaging with a game can be spent outside of the game, creating a new incentive to return to entertaining games, and being rewarded in the process.
A good example of this is Bitcoin Miner. When the idle game first launched in 2018, it struggled to attract player numbers. Virtual “Bitcoin” could be mined, but it had no value outside of the game.
In 2022, Bitcoin Miner integrated ZBD’s payment tech, enabling players to earn actual Bitcoin by playing the game. This change from in-game rewards to real-world rewards resulted in a 1215% boost in D30 retention.
ZBD’s platform enables instant, low-cost transactions. How does this affect the scalability and efficiency of rewards for both developers and players?
Rewards from ZBD can be delivered a fraction of a cent at a time, thanks to our Lightning Network payment technology.
From a gamer’s point of view, this means rewards can be earned very easily, as even small achievements in-game can come with a monetary reward. It also means the player can cash out as soon as they’ve earned any amount, which solves a common pain point with real-money rewards where the minimum withdrawal threshold is too high for most casual players to even reach.
With ZBD, you earn easily and cash out instantly, whenever you want, for any amount. We’re literally talking cash outs 30 times smaller than a single cent.
Of course, developers also have the option to reward engagement with much more money, it’s really up to them. This flexibility, ease of use and real-time performance is what sets ZBD’s payments platform apart.
What steps does ZBD take to ensure security and compliance for both developers and players in the rewards process?
Security and compliance are the top priority – the fact that we were one of the first companies to obtain a MiCAR license wasn’t accidental. It is a testament to our high standards for security, operations, and transparency. Everyone says they’re secure and legit, we have the licenses to prove it.
Our systems are always being monitored and tested to make sure they meet security standards, and all our team members go through regular security and compliance training.
Can you give us a glimpse into how ZBD is making it easier for developers to integrate rewards into their games?
Of course! The ZBD API enables game developers to integrate our tech directly into the game’s source code and gameplay loops, with a dashboard to track activity in real time.
This option gives developers total customization and flexibility. But with great power comes great responsibility and devs don’t always want to do everything themselves. That’s why we’re introducing a Unity SDK that makes adding rewards very simple, includes all the security and fraud prevention tech in the package and comes with pre-built UI elements.
In short, while devs can go fully custom and build any payment use case they can imagine, we also provide a full-featured SDK to make it easier for them.
For developers considering integrating rewards for the first time, what advice or best practices would you give them to maximize engagement and monetization?
I’d break it down into a few steps. Follow these, and you’ll be on your way to rewarded success.
- Understand your user base: Know your players and tailor rewards to their interests and behaviors.
- Make sure rewards are both meaningful and achievable: Introduce rewards that are both substantial enough and within players’ reach to keep them engaged.
- Integrate rewards into the core experience: Try to avoid clearly tacked on rewards mechanics, make sure they feel like a natural extension of gameplay.
- Balance monetization and UX: Create a system where monetization and rewards are not intrusive. Ensure users have as seamless and enjoyable an experience as possible.
- Adjust rewards based on data: Like any new mechanic, it’s hard to get rewards right on the first try. Use data to continuously update and improve a game’s rewards model.
- Create community/social sharing: Develop a community around the game, encouraging players to share achievements and rewards on socials and messaging sites like Discord.
As someone who has joined GDC multiple times, what made you a regular, and what makes a great event?
GDC is great as it’s a meeting of the minds of games industry pros from across the world. If you want to meet anyone who’s anyone in games, this is where you’ll do it.
Over time, however, the primary value for B2B interactions has shifted. It’s not solely about drawing people into the conference halls, but rather about bringing them to San Francisco during the week, GDC takes place.
From meetings in hotel lobbies and the various bars and restaurants around the conference venue, to the increasing number of side events and even smaller conferences – like PGC – this yearly pilgrimage to San Francisco has long transcended just the GDC event itself.
For me, it’s primarily a very busy work trip, with long days of rushing from meeting to meeting. So it can be a bit exhausting, though definitely good for business.
But it’s also great to just see everyone from the industry and unwind at any of the many afterparties happening each day.
