2015 results : Kirill Petrov from i-Free about TVs as a gaming platform and disappointing trends in mobile marketing
Kirill Petrov, co-founder of i-Free and Managing director of Zillion Whales, told App2Top about the main trends and the best games of 2015.
Event of the Year
The turning point was the release of the new Apple TV. Its appearance – together with the launch of new Android TVs, as well as active support for the Google direction – may mean that in the near future TVs will become a full-fledged gaming platform after all. Yes, there are still a lot of issues that need to be resolved (for example, UI problems), but it seems to me that this will definitely happen. The appearance of a new Apple product, taking into account the large number of SmartTVs connected to broadband Internet, can just give a boost to the market.
So, perhaps over the next two years we will witness the emergence of a new full-fledged gaming platform, opening the gaming market to millions of people.
I assume that the very nature of the use of televisions, which are often in living rooms and which are watched by the whole family, will lead to an increase in demand for various party games and games for the whole family.
Apple TVTrend of the year
Despite the ambiguity, I would call VR a trend. It has not yet fully entered the consumer market, but the number of announcements of various VR helmets, interfaces, game projects, as well as support for virtual reality by Sony – all this suggests that many deep processes are taking place within the industry within this area. Within a year or three, all this will spill out onto the market and capture the attention of consumers.
How much this will change the usual idea of games and affect the industry is a question of the future, but given the strong effect of immersion in virtual reality, which many have already experienced, and given the queues of those who want to try the VR experience at exhibitions, it seems to me that the future lies with this technology.
Achievement of the Year
In the field of mobile games, I would call the success of Crossy Road an achievement. If a few years earlier King with Candy Crash Saga demonstrated how effectively you can monetize a casual game based on f2p mechanics, then Crossy Road showed how you can effectively monetize a casual game with the help of advertising. You can borrow a lot of interesting and competent ideas in this area from the game. Of course, this is a great success of the creators.
Disappointment of the Year
For me, the marketing trends in mobile stores have become a disappointment.
Today, in fact, there are only three effective tools left to promote games – buying traffic, feathering and using promoted franchises. Previously (due to the ranking system and promotion in the tops) there were chances for small original/niche products to get into the tops, to keep the attention of their audience. This year the situation has become worse.
In particular, in Google Play now, in order to get to the top new section or to the categories, you need to make a few non-obvious clicks. The user’s attention is thereby greatly blurred. The role of hints and editorial choice of the store teams themselves, in turn, has become much higher. Yes, complex analytical functions, the ability to count conversions, and conduct a/b tests have appeared in stores. But, anyway, from the point of view of marketing, they are still far from distributing products, say, to Steam, in which there are complex communities, a system of curators, a system of coupons, discounts and sales, in-game cards, and so on.
The role of the feature in Google Play is growing Game of the Year
In general, in our team, we consider The Witcher 3 to be the brightest game of this year. He raised the bar of quality, elaboration of the world of such games to a new level. But for me personally, the game of the year was Life is Strange. I really love quests and interactive dramas, I believe that they can truly elevate the genre of games into the category of art, expand the user audience through new segments and make games more significant phenomena for culture. And here Life is Strange is a very good example.
In this regard, the position of the founder of Quantic Dream (the creators of Heavy Rain, Fahrenheit, Beyond two Souls), David Cage, is close to me. Just below I want to give the following quote from him:
“As I got older, I started asking people around me what games they were playing. They answer that they don’t play games at all anymore. They still watch TV, go to the movies. They don’t play games, not because there is no time, but because there are no suitable games. To bring back this huge audience, you can offer her casual games – take at least Angry Birds, a very exciting game. Or you can come up with entertainment for the whole family – like the Wii, which managed to attract those who otherwise would not play games. It’s great. With the help of casual games and family games, you can reach a huge audience that plays rarely or does not play at all.
We give these people “adult” content, “adult” gaming experience, we say, they say, this is all for you guys – and so we try to convince them to start playing again. This is all for those who expect something more from the game than just entertainment and adrenaline.”
Life is StrangeYear for the company
If we talk specifically about Zillion Whales, then for us this year, like probably the next one, is held under the auspices of Mushroom Wars. In the summer, we released a sequel to the MushroomWars: Space franchise we received from Creat Studios, sold licenses for it to large Chinese and Korean companies, and also focused on creating Mushroom Wars 2.
For us, this product is a completely new level – there will be a completely different art, the game itself is made on a different platform. With the project, we go first to Steam, then to the console and only then to mobile platforms.
We believe in this game and we can already see that users like it – a closed beta test started just the other day. Our whole team can’t tear themselves away from their creation and plays the game even in their free time. We are trying very hard and want to make a really bright product.
Actually, if someone from the readers of App2Top is interested in looking at the game in its current form and participating in its improvement – welcome to beta – 
www.mushroomwars2.com . Promo code: APP2TOP.
