Week in Views – Industry survival tactics, bold statements and big brands with b

• 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

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.

The games industry survival guide for 2024: Cockroaches, pivoting and bracing for the new normal

This opinion piece was first published in the new PocketGamer.biz newsletter. Sign up for more pieces like this straight to your inbox right here.

Let’s face it, it’s still extremely tough out there for developers.

Attending UK games industry conference Develop: Brighton this week, there was an atmosphere of anxiousness and a realistic outlook on the current state of the industry. But there was also a feeling of hope – that things will get better following a couple years of mass layoffs, studio closures and game cancellations.

The event kicked off with Super Evil Megacorp CEO Kristian Segerstrale sharing his own opinions on the state of play. His comments were a mixture of the stark realities of the challenges the industry faces, with a hopefulness of better times to come. An experienced founder, he’s no stranger to industry shifts and tough times.

Super Evil Megacorp rode the highs of its mobile MOBA Vainglory to employ over 100 staff. But then came the crash as growth stalled. The studio faced a reckoning that led to a reset of its strategy and cutting its team to around 20 employees. It has now since grown back to over 100 staff across three development teams, making new games every one to two years.

“The best companies in the long-term are punched in the face a few times on their journey,” he said, adding that when the industry punches you in the face, “the best thing you can do is learn from it”.

Other founders provided similar sentiments in their talks, born out of experience. In the Games Industry Survival Guide session, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson discussed surviving the dot-com crash and the company’s struggles with gaining investment and even just paying staff. It eventually got its title, Eve Online, out the door – a game that continues to thrive to this day.

Fundamentally Games COO Ella Romanos said that now is the time to review company strategies and potentially pivot. Interior/Night CEO and creative director Caroline Marchal said the team had taken up creative work to keep the lights on, recommending that other founders have a board of directors or advisors to lean on for frank and honest advice.

Revolution Software CEO Charles Cecil recalled the global financial crisis of 2008, with global publishing giant THQ closing down just a few years later. He said developers should prepare for “the new normal”.

“It’s tempting to say just survive to 2025, but we need to do more than that,” he stated, adding: “When things get better, it will be different.”

Animoca Brands keeps the pressure on as co-founder writes web3 ‘explainer’ for the industry

OK. What’s web3’s biggest problem right now? Balancing your tokenomics? Raising capital in a bear market? Getting the science of your NFT releases and airdrops just right? No, it’s everyone (apart from you) understanding what the heck you’re talking about.

So Yat Siu – the co-founder of web3 giant Animoca Brands – writing open letter literally answering the question “What is the exact purpose of a token and why would a project want one?” struck me as honest, open, genius this week. No smoke or mirrors required. This guy – rather than confuse and ‘buzzword bingo’ his way out of web3’s perception problem – simply wants you to understand and love web3 as much as he does.

And in a week where millions have changed hands once more and the first whiff of recovery (following two years of hurt) is in the air, it’s this kind of confidence and passion that might just break down barriers and give web3 the momentum it deserves. 

I wish that all CEO’s were as smart and willing to step up to the plate, own their situation then use it to inspire others to come along for the ride.

How Rockbite Games escaped closure, found a publisher, and earned a hit

Attending Develop Brighton this week, I noticed many industry conversations about the games industry’s challenging times in the last few years. In keeping with that theme, we also had a feature from RockBite Games, who shared their candid studio journey from having a hit game early on to making a profit, burning through that profit, and then facing the harsh reality that they may have to close the studio. 

It’s a narrative we often hear. In Rockbite’s case, they were brutally honest about some of the typical start-up mistakes they made, bringing in healthy revenue but then placing it in the wrong places, moving into a huge office space, and renovating the whole thing when really more focus should have been on creating more games and better games. 

With closure staring them in the face, the team decided to reluctantly join up with a publisher. They had many concerns about this, but it’s probably what saved them in the end. With that extra support, they went on to release Idle Outpost, which has over 7.5 million installs and continues to scale. Long may it do so.

This past week of networking and stories such as these reinforced that, yes, the games industry is in a tough place, but it’s also a resilient industry with so much talent and passion. Stories such as Rockbites, where they are willing to share their successes and failures, can help others avoid making those same mistakes and hopefully shape an even better industry.

Disney and GungHo strike deal to launch Disney Pixel RPG later this year

Disney Pixel RPG is the latest mobile manouevre from the media empire to gamify its beloved characters, and who better to partner with than Puzzle & Dragons maker GungHo. The game’s expected to release on September 9th as something of an introduction to RPGs themselves – accessible enough for Disney fans who aren’t hardcore gamers but deep enough for those more experienced players.

Characters will range from classics like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pooh, to more modern toons like Stitch and Baymax. So clearly accessibility is a big theme – with Disney covering wide ground in its IP allowance to grab fans of every age.

For example, a pixelated, playable Stitch sounds perfect to me, complete with his sunglasses and ukelele from the movie. I expect we’ll see many more references to come…