Tech sector responds to Google policy updates | Pocket Gamer.biz

On Monday we reported on Google’s new ad policy, and how it’s projected to harm the hypercasual genre which is set to be most affected by the specific type of advert that the new ad policy is targeting.

Since then, we’ve spoken to numerous names within the industry regarding the decision and gathered some of their thoughts on how this will affect monetisation and advertising in mobile games within the genre.

The general consensus seems to be that while the change will be disruptive, it will encourage developers and publishers to adapt their monetisation strategies, offering a more seamless and inviting gameplay experience.

“Google’s changes will most certainly rock the hypercasual monetization ecosystem, but it won’t be Armageddon don’t worry, unless monetization managers don’t adapt their monetization strategies quick enough! Whilst AudioMob is completely unaffected by Google’s changes and welcomes them, these changes aren’t an indication to remove video/display monetization, far from it. Remember, Google makes a lot of its money from delivering ads, and this shift will encourage the industry to optimize the use of intrusive ads, and increase the usage of less intrusive advertising formats,” said Audiomob CEO and founder Christian Facey.

“These changes will bring much-needed balance to the ecosystem, which will ultimately be better for players. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how hypercasual game monetization will shift over the next 12 months.”

Crazylabs founder and CEO Sagi Schliesser believed that the change would help raise the bar and drive innovation in the market, stating: “Hypercasual is often analyzed, incorrectly, on how it monetizes. What we see every day are hundreds of millions of mobile gamers, which choose to play fun, snappy, diverse and easy to learn games accordingly named HyperCasual games. We welcome actions meant to get the bar of execution and quality higher, it will make the great publishers, like CrazyLabs, stand out and advance the genre further!” 

Frameplay CEO Jonathon Troughton was also optimistic about the changes, despite conceding that there could be a negative impact on revenue in the short term.

“We applaud Google for making moves to create a better experience for gamers, which is something we’re very much aligned with. The guidelines show Google understands that unexpected full-screen ads disrupt the gaming experience and ultimately frustrate players. Limiting and banning some of these disruptive experiences opens the door for better advertising technology that serves gamers and developers alike in a more synergistic way, which is everything Frameplay is about,” he said.

”Though there may be a short-term impact on revenue, we believe this change will have a positive widespread impact on long-term revenue solutions for game developers, many of whom have come to rely on this type of disruptive advertising, particularly in the free-to-play mobile space. Developers will be challenged to come up with new monetization experiences that exist more harmoniously with the gaming experience, which is exactly what Frameplay specializes in. “

These responses suggest that there’s a strong confidence in the hypercasual market, and that some leading names in both development of hypercasual games and advertising believe that the market can weather the storm, and see this as an opportunity to reevaluate current monetisation processes.

Earlier this year, we spoke to Ducky’s Ilya Trofimov about monetisation techniques in hypercasual games.