The M&A roll-up strategy claims another victim, Destiny: Rising comes to mobile, and the Game Freak leak | Week in Views

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The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can’t let go of…

So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we’ve created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week.

October’s Mobile Movers: Stillfront CEO leaves, Alictus co-founders depart, Supercell CMO exits, and more

There were a few interesting incomings and outgoings this week in our Mobile Movers. One of the most notable was the news that Stillfront Group CEO Jörgen Larsson was leaving the publisher, replaced, at least on an interim basis, by Alexis Bonte.

The new comes as the company plans to split its operations into three business areas: Europe, North America and MENA/APAC. The publisher’s share price has dropped and its looking to cut costs and grow revenue.

The situation is another sign of the questionable roll-up strategy companies employed, particularly in Europe, over the past decade or so. Embracer Group saw its business come crashing down, itself now splitting into three completely separate public entities. Curiously, CEO Lars Wingefors continues to have key stakes in those companies, but I digress.

Modern Times Group (MTG) made some interesting acquisitions, but it’s also sold parts of the business like Kongregate. Looking at the company’s share price, from that perspective, it’s no better off now than it was in the latter half of 2009.

Obviously the last couple of years have been particularly tough for these kinds of strategies, with investments drying up and money no longer effectively free for wild spending sprees. But the previously unproven roll-up strategy seems to have found an answer for whether it works: it doesn’t. After years of acquisitions, it appears only further M&A can fuel growth, despite all the talent these studios have picked up.

Keywords Studios is one company that did, in fact, make it work. But I’d caveat that with a strong focus on its core business of providing services for other developers and publishers. There was a clear vision for the company, its offering, and how each deal comes together.

An assembly of studios working on disparate projects, no matter how talented, seems like a house of cards waiting to fall in the face of non-stop M&A.

NetEase partners with Bungie for Destiny: Rising mobile game

We’ve been hearing about a Destiny mobile game since 2018, when NetEase acquired a stake in its developer, Bungie. Fast-forward a few years, and it’s happening with Destiny: Rising. 

The game is being developed and published by NetEase, so straight away makes me intrigued on how the game itself will play. It’s got the classic modes such as single-player and competitive multiplayer, but without Bungie directly being involved, it will be interesting to see a NetEase interpretation of the Destiny formula.

Will this feel like an authentic Destiny experience on mobile or something else? From the trailer at least it looks like the game we would expect to see. 

One thing I’m particularly interested in or, should I say, hesitant about is how NetEase will monetise the game.

Thinking about Destiny 2, some fans already feel that the game is ‘pay to win’, with certain exotic weapons only obtainable by paying. So take a game like that and make it mobile, a platform where monetisation is often even more prevalent. Then add NetEase to the mix, which on occasion has been known to heavily monetise titles, and it makes me wonder how the game will hit the balance between making money, and retaining players. 

Obviously, NetEase will want to ensure the game’s profitability, but I think striking that balance might be the make-or-break aspect. If it leans too far into the ‘pay to win’ territory, player frustration will show, and it’ll show fast.

I’m intrigued to see how this one turns out, and while its good to seeing it finally happening I can’t help but wonder if Destiny on mobile is a ship that should have already sailed. 

Game Freak hack exposes employee information and source code in major security breach

Pokémon developer Game Freak was recently hacked with over a terabyte of information accessed, including 2,600 items containing the names and email addresses of current, former and contract employees.

We discussed the unfortunate situation for the employees more in-depth in our Week in Mobile Games podcast (coming soon!), but here I’ll just say that it has been interesting to see more of the development process behind the Pokémon themselves.

I’m avoiding spoilers on anything regarding unreleased games, but seeing the spritework for old Pokémon mid-development, and seeing how drastically some changed, is fascinating for a big fan of the franchise.

It’s the sort of thing I’d love for Game Freak to release officially, as a collection of designs and its creations process. Because of course, as fascinating as concept art and early sprite art is to see, discovering them through hacking just isn’t the right way to go about it.