Soft-launch kill criteria checklist for F2P (retention, payers, economy)
Soft launches linger without kill criteria tied to economy health. Checklist with Play testing/pre-reg constraints and retention definitions.
Soft launches that lack pre-written kill criteria become unpaid jobs programmes.
Checklist
- Retention floors — Define D1/D7 return-rate floors before paid UA; retention is return rate and genre curves differ (GameAnalytics).
- Payer / FTUE floors — Write D7 payer rate and FTUE-complete minimums for the soft-launch geos.
- Economy health — Sink/source balance and first-purchase attach gates owned by live-ops.
- Calendar cap — Time-box the soft launch; note Play pre-registration itself is limited to 90 days per country before production launch is required.
- Test before pre-reg — Same Play article recommends a test track before switching on pre-registration.
- Two-strike kill — Two frozen cohorts below floors ends the soft launch.
Facts vs limits
| Fact | Limit |
|---|---|
| Retention definition and Play 90-day pre-reg cap are documented | Numeric floors are studio-set, not market medians |
| Test-track recommendation is documented | iOS TestFlight process is parallel hygiene |
CSV.
