Maxim Babichev: "We are launching a platform that puts the happiness of small developers first"

In October, VKontakte announced a PC platform for indie developers. We asked about 40 questions Maxim Babichev, the head of the VKontakte gaming platform, about the future of the new store.

General vision of the new platform

Alexander Semenov, Senior Editor App2Top.ru : There is an announcement. There are few details. Tell me, what will the VKontakte indie platform be like?

Maxim Babichev

Maxim Babichev, head of the VKontakte gaming platform: I’ll start from afar.

The gaming platform originated in VKontakte a long time ago. In 2007, it became possible to integrate flash games with basic API capabilities.

In April 2008, the “Applications 2.0” platform was launched, which had all those basic functions that are now the de facto standard for social platforms: invitations, requests, the ability to share the result.

Since then, for a long time, social web games have been the only platform where developers could reach players from social networks.

In 2014, having joined the gaming platform team, I started developing a mobile gaming platform, and at the very beginning of 2016 we began to form the concept of Direct Games — a mobile html5 platform.

Around the same time, the idea came up to do something for PC game developers. For a long time, the idea remained an idea, sometimes surfacing in conversations with development teams.

Many people have asked why we won’t open a platform for PC games, because we have a lot of desktop traffic. But if someone thinks that the platform should be opened only because of a lot of traffic, then it’s better not to make a mistake and not open anything at all. The platform, in addition to the key function that it performs, must solve the tasks that exist for users and companies that the platform connects.

And with this approach, with the desire to solve some of the problems of modern platforms, we are moving towards the launch. We decided to focus on independent developers and small companies, because they are the ones who feel the heavy hand, unfriendliness and lack of attention from other platforms more than the pillars of game development. We are not launching an indie platform, but a platform that puts the happiness of small developers and companies first.

In what form exactly will the games be distributed? Are we talking about keys for other stores, distribution of DRM distributions, something else?

Maxim Babichev: The platform and the distribution of keys from third-party stores are not strongly correlated. So it remains to distribute distributions.

It is stated that the platform will be presented in https://vk.com/apps . That is, it will be another bookmark in the existing store?

Maxim Babichev: Yes and no.

Why “yes”? The platform will also be presented on the web. Where the entry points are located, what the link to the page with the library of games looks like, and everything else, everyone will see at the time of launching the platform.

Why “no”? We are launching a PC application with Play Machine games, and there, over time, although the built-in games of the web catalog will not go anywhere from the application, a new platform will take the dominant position.

If we talk about the web. You understand that the appearance of PC distributions in the general catalog will compete with social games and mobile games. This will complicate an already complex showcase.

Maxim Babichev: With social — maybe, but these games are not enemies, but brothers in the ecosystem, and we know how to breed such in different corners so as not to interfere with each other’s development.

Did I understand correctly that the platform for PC games will have a downloadable launcher?

Maxim Babichev: That’s just in the previous answer I mentioned the Play Machine. The name speaks for itself — a car with games. Everything will be inside this app.

Understood. I can’t help but ask this question: will he have any fundamental differences for the consumer from the usual distribution stores?

Maxim Babichev: We’ll tell you about it closer to the point.

How does VKontakte see the platform’s place in the overall PC ecosystem? After all, it is clear that the main audience is the CIS. The 100 thousand sales generated on it, unfortunately, are not close to 100 thousand sales with us, given the regional price tags.

Maxim Babichev For now, I will answer this way: the main audience of VKontakte is in Russia, and the price tags here are higher than in the CIS.

Good. Let’s move on. You have recently launched a “Game Store”. Why did you decide to develop a new site and a store as two independent directions?

Maxim Babichev: The platform and the store are two completely different things. The platform, like the store, unites content producers and players, but the store does not create additional value, and the platform creates it through the infrastructure around the games. The platform’s infrastructure simplifies the publication and distribution of content, triggers stimulating network effects for players, and creates new habits. The platform can open the way to the creation of new values around games by the hands of players (communities, memes, streams, etc.). The store can only sell you the key.

Developer Opportunities

Will there be early access on the indie platform?

Maxim Babichev: The platform is being formed as a place to launch already combat versions of games.

Now there are such popular features as presale, sale of special packs, sale of DLC. Will there be such things?

Maxim Babichev: Spaceships are not built immediately. I would be happy to say that we are creating a starship with normal gravity and a warp engine, but it is better to launch the Earth functionality with intergalactic plans in mind.

In a comment for our colleagues with DTF, you mentioned that the developer will get access to the same analytics that the developers of the Direct Games platform have. Can you cover this point in more detail?

Maxim Babichev: We want to give developers the opportunity to know as much as possible about their audience “out of the box”.

Do I understand correctly that you will embed your analytics into all distributions or require this from the developer?

Maxim Babichev: The main thing at this stage is that we want both to collect the maximum possible amount of data for ourselves in order to analyze and make informed decisions, and to give developers access to the figures in one window. We will leave the details of technical integration for later.

Are there any plans to make the site as transparent as possible? Add a toolkit in the spirit of Steam Spy?

Maxim Babichev: It is important for all parties to know the number of sales and the audience (in some form). Both players and developers. Including — to know your place among competitors. Therefore, these numbers will be available. Whether we will do this in some super convenient way, for example, open an API for this data, is still an open question.

Partners and projects

Who can publish there, and who can’t? If it comes, for example, native to you Mail.Ru A group that has never been indie, what do you tell him?

Maxim Babichev: We are starting to work with independent and small developers who are ambitious enough to launch projects exclusively with VKontakte. If some large companies (EA, Ubisoft, Mail.Ru Group or someone else) are just as ambitious, we are sure that all parties, and first of all the players, will only benefit.

If we talk not about teams, but about projects. Will there be any strict requirements for them? And which projects will be preferred and why?

Maxim Babichev: When selecting projects, we will ask the creators: “If this was the last game that you can launch, would you like to be remembered as its creator?” Overloaded, boring, dull projects without a soul, causing a sense of deja vu, will not pass our internal censorship.

Single-player games, premium games, pixel art, original ideas, proven mechanics, bold solutions, naturalistic graphics, cooperative play, free-to-play will be encouraged.

How will the project be submitted? After the test period, will the submission be automated or, as on GOG, will it take place on an individual basis?

Maxim Babichev: We will personally make friends with everyone who wants to launch with us on the platform, so individually, yes. While the spacecraft is confidently flying in this direction.

How many projects are you planning to post per month? Or will there be no restrictions?

Maxim Babichev: Quality is more important than quantity, so it’s not enough.

Visibility and findability

One of the central problems of big markets is visibility and findability. How do you plan to work in this direction?

Maxim Babichev: A platform focused on a small amount of high-quality content is devoid of this problem.

Will the developers themselves, like on Steam, have their own pages?

Maxim Babichev: Such a thing has not been enough for social games for a long time, so yes, we plan to add developer pages in the context of the entire VKontakte gaming platform.

There has long been a fashion in stores for collections that attract attention to thematic projects. How will this be the case?

Maxim Babichev: The VKontakte catalog has been actively using collections, collections, thematic sales, discounts, promotions for a long time. All this will get into the new platform.

What about managing price tags and discounts? Will developers be able to manage them?

Maxim Babichev: Together with the developers, we will assemble a convenient system from pieces, taking the best from others, throwing out unnecessary and adding our own.

Conditions and opportunities

You said earlier that first of all those projects that have not been published anywhere before will be considered. And how will you reward their exclusivity? Is it a feature, some kind of traffic minimum, something else?

Maxim Babichev: We are still determining all the organizational and procedural aspects and will be ready to talk about them closer to the launch. At the moment, we are focusing on the preparatory stage of development — working out the concept and tasks. And, of course, the games will be released with artillery support of the platform, features, media coverage.

What share of sales will VKontakte take?

Maxim Babichev: We will save this information for now until the launch in 2019. And already now I can say that, most likely, we will offer developers several models of interaction and the financial part of the issue will depend on the chosen one.

Will it be possible to promote the game using VKontakte tools?

Maxim Babichev: This can still be done without our help, which is what a lot of game developers are doing.

Will there be any discounts in case of buying traffic through VKontakte?

Maxim Babichev: Very likely.

In general, will there be some kind of feature? Have you decided how much traffic you can pour into the project through it?

Maxim Babichev: The promotion of games, of course, will be. And we’d better discuss the numbers after the launch.

Is a referral system planned?

Maxim Babichev: We are still thinking about it.

Will the traffic in general be tracked using analytics?

Maxim Babichev: Yes.

The main question is the capabilities of the platform. You’ve probably already estimated the size of your potential audience. Can you share it?

Maxim Babichev: The platform is limited from above by the number of people who use VKontakte from the desktop. This is tens of millions of people every month. Unfortunately, not everyone plays games, so we estimate, very approximately, that the audience with realistic layouts can amount to several million players per month among all games in some adequate time after leaving beta testing.

What is a good scenario in terms of downloads (are there calculations on how much the project will be able to receive on average at any N-price)?

Maxim Babichev: Of course, we have carried out calculations, but we are not ready to discuss in detail before the launch.

What will you consider the success of the platform?

Maxim Babichev: If we manage to evoke wow emotions from developers and players. If this works out, developers and companies will be happy to launch breakthrough, unique and bold projects for VKontakte players.

Will the audience of the game on the platform be able to interact with each other and with the developers in the game card?

Maxim Babichev: We will save this information until the launch. Some things are planned, but as usual, not everything planned now will reach the release in a few months in the same form.

Will there be a system of user ratings?

Maxim Babichev: Asterisks of ratings are planned. We will transfer them as part of the social gaming experience and to a new platform.

Will game developers be able to establish support through VKontakte?

Maxim Babichev: We have a lot of tools for this. The messages from the official community of the game are likely to be the most native and convenient for players. These messages have a whole set of great features, for example, integration with CRM via API or the ability to make a chatbot to answer popular questions.

In general, will there be a minimum of impressions on the main page?

Maxim Babichev: The basic promotion will necessarily include a feature (maybe more than one).

Will there be an opportunity to return money for the game on the site?

Maxim Babichev: Almost certainly yes, but certain restrictions will be imposed on the refands (for example, the period from the moment of purchase, the time spent in the game, or some other conditions).

If a developer releases several games, will he then be able to sell them in a single bundle?

Maxim Babichev: This is a very interesting mechanism that can be promoted both in the catalog itself and on the developer’s page, for example. We will definitely give this opportunity over time.

I see. Thank you very much for the interview.

Recall that the launch of the site is scheduled for the first half of 2019.