Results of 2017: Ilya Salamatov from 101XP about the main thing for the year
Vice President of Business Development 101XP Ilya Salamatov told App2Top.ru about the success of his company over the past year.
Ilya SalamatovHow was 2017 for you personally?
In one word, it is productive. I seriously believe that at the moment we have one of the strongest business development teams among companies in the CIS and I am very proud that we managed to form such a powerful international backbone that allows us to solve the tasks we face faster and more efficiently, which, in turn, opens up fundamentally new growth opportunities for us.
New industrial acquaintances have become very important for me. There are never a few of them, because you don’t always meet interesting people only among the tops of some Western majors.
If we talk about some results of networking, then contacts are growing both vertically and horizontally.
There is also one such funny moment: with many colleagues in the industry (I’m sure they notice it too) we can cross paths anywhere – in the USA, Europe, China or Korea – but not see each other at home. This is not a new trend, of course, but it feels like the boundaries are disappearing. And, by the way, I am genuinely surprised why quite a lot of representatives of our industry purposefully ignore such an important format of business development as international conferences.
From a pleasant and personal – it was almost possible to finalize the renovation in the apartment, only small furniture touches remained.
How was the year for the company?
Everything is going according to plan – we are moving ahead of schedule. Now we have more than 200 people on staff, in addition to HQ, there are 2 regional offices.
Large projects were launched in three directions at once: Icarus – on PC, Sword and Magic – on mobile, Naruto from Tencent – in the browser.
Sword and Magic
We are very pleased with the line of projects being selected for next year, I am sure we will be able to surprise many with the quality and level of our new games.
We have a very tight pipeline. Our goal is to become the leading publisher of online games in the West.
What event of 2017 do you consider the most important for the industry?
Very qualitative growth of domestic development. I can’t help but be happy for my colleagues from Playrix – it’s just some kind of cosmic growth. The most important thing is that they manage to repeat success, which indicates the correctness of the chosen business model, a good approach to recruiting and a high bar that they set themselves. Well done!
Glad for Zeptolab and their “Cats”, Nekki, glad for “Kefir!”, Game Insight and their Guns of Boom. I also think that a very competent approach in promotion was chosen for Escape from Tarkov.
One of the most striking trends, which, for some reason, is not talked about so much – the industry has begun to grow faster than all forecasts and expectations. New klondikes are opening up like Southeast Asia, which is growing at a pace similar to China and Korea.
Everything is fine on the console front, too, despite how much talk there was at the beginning of this cycle that this generation would be weaker in terms of sales and user base.
What trends of the outgoing year would you note?
As I wrote last year, it seems, the hybrid business model (premium purchase + store inside) has become even more established and, let’s say, trending. In general, it seems to me that this is the right way, we just haven’t reached the golden mean yet, when the balance will more or less suit everyone.
Asians continue their triumphant march. We’ve been hearing about the colossal earnings all year, first Lineage 2 Revolution, then Lineage M. Netmarble, NCsoft, Netease, Tencent. But this is all just the tip, in fact there are more companies, and in 2018 there will be even more successful Asian teams that will be on everyone’s ear.
Lineage 2 Revolution
It would be strange to talk about trends and not name PUBG.
From the third attempt (after the mods for Arma and H1Z1), we managed to crystallize the gameplay and correctly implement everything from the technical side. At the exit, we got a super hit, which will be talked about for many years to come. And, by the way, Fortnite is worth a special mention – the most successful pivot in recent times.
Name the third-party projects of this year that you liked the most.
Last spring I spent many wonderful hours playing Horizon – an absolutely magical game from all sides. Excellent engine, excellent storyline, animation, design, thoughtful and unexpected gameplay mechanics. The game is another proof that if you go long and hard to the goal, then everything will work out. The pinnacle of Guerrilla Games creations . But I’m sure they won’t stop there.
New Zelda and Mario. At least for the sake of these two projects, it is worth taking the platform, although there is still a whole pack on the way. It’s amazing how much the perception of the game process changes the console format itself. Switch manages to hook me with amazing accessibility: I took the device – and immediately in the game of a full-fledged AAA format. Instant access.
Despite the fact that I have missed all the new games in the series since Black Flag, I am happy to return to the world of Assassin’s Creed in Origins. When a thousand people are working on a game in different parts of the world, led by UbiSoft’s Montreal office, it feels like it. The best “assassin” for many years.
