Mike Williams for Gamesindustry.biz:

[SkyVu Entertainment founder Ben] Vu explained that cross-promoting other developers’ games via services like Chartboost was his primary method of reaching users, but the rising costs are a big problem.

“This mismatch is insane,” Vu said. “You have to pay attention to this, down to the hour or the minute.”

[Machine Zone CEO Gabe] Leydon cited costs as high as $7 for acquiring users, up from 50 cents a year ago. He sees a number of “billionaries” coming into the market with large brands to sell, with Asian mobile developers close behind. Weber backed up Leydon’s claims, explaining that it’s difficult to find the top-end of user acquisition costs.

The problem is that some companies are turning the “free-to-play” game industry on its head by spending more to acquire customers than they’ll see in a lifetime of ad revenue for that title. While it sounds foolish – and by some measure it is – Leydon sees it as a side effect of those “billionaires” settling in for a long-term war of domination on the iOS App Store, Google Play and Windows Store.