Results of 2019: Pavel Ryakkonen from WN Media Group about the main thing for the year

We continue to summarize the results of 2019 together with the heads of gaming companies and market experts. Next up is an interview with the founder and CEO of WN Media Group Pavel Ryakkonen. He spoke about the creation of a new company and what White Nights has achieved this year.

How was 2019 for the company?

This year has been really difficult and eventful on all fronts.

To begin with, WN Media Group was created in 2019. Today it includes seven projects, four of which were launched just in 2019.

I will try to focus on the successes of each of them.

We are very pleased with the results of our leading direction — White Nights Conference. During the year, we held four events under this brand: in Berlin, Barcelona, St. Petersburg and Moscow. In total, they were visited by more than 4,500 people. I am sure that this figure will increase next year.

In February, we launched a job search service in game dev TalentsInGames.com . This is a big undertaking. We strive to become an effective job search platform in the gaming industry. A lot has already been done, a lot has been understood about the labor market, permanent partners have appeared. In 2020, we want to enter the international market with the project.

In the summer we launched another series of conferences. It is launched under the brand of our service and is called Talents in Games Conference (TIG). If White Nights is primarily devoted to business development, where in addition to novice developers, founders of companies, top managers, leading specialists gather, then TIG is a story about the exchange of experience of specialists: developers, artists, game designers, etc. The first TIG took place in St. Petersburg, and then we held another one in Minsk in the fall. Two events gathered more than a thousand participants and a very warm feedback from the gaming community. We consider this a great debut and plan to further develop the format.

By the way, about the events. On a regular basis, we also started holding HR breakfasts. These are small chamber meetings of gaming HR specialists. They share insights, problems, and cases on them. This helps to establish communication between HR professionals in the Russian-speaking industry.

Our media direction is also doing well. App2Top.ru by the end of the year, the coverage has grown significantly. During the year, it was visited by more than a million readers. This is a great figure for a niche b2b publication. Next year we plan to surprise and delight our readers with a number of innovations. I am sure that thanks to them, the business indicators of the site will grow significantly.

In addition to App2Top.ru we have launched another media outlet. This time in English. It’s called Game World Observer. So far, the resource is only taking the first steps, but there is interest in it, and its audience is steadily growing. His key feature is exclusive interviews with indie teams. They come in great.

We have also restarted the Publisher Wanted service. Its goal is to help developers establish connections with investors and publishers. He is still at an early stage of surgery. We plan to take its development seriously next year.

WN Media Group also includes the WN Games development studio. Now we are actively pumping expertise in the genre of social casino (social casino). Our main project is Treasure Slots Adventures. He feels good on social platforms, but we plan to promote him primarily on mobile.

What events in the regional and global gaming industry do you consider central in the past year?

2019 was held in Russia under the banner of deals and acquisitions. Two companies performed most vividly in this field: Playrix and Mail.Ru Group.

For Playrix — a dozen deals and an increase in the number of 600 people only thanks to new teams. Despite the fact that the company does not advertise purchases, it is very active in terms of PR.

Among the regional stories, the story of the Rambler also deserves mention. Her lawsuits against Nginx and Twitch excited everyone. Thank God, both situations quickly came to naught. However, despite this, they left a very unpleasant residue.

Global Newsmaker of the Year — Epic Games. The launch of the PC store in December last year made a lot of noise. The story of exclusives is still being discussed in the press. In addition, Fortnite does not disappear from the editorials. Then the developers are trying to sue for dancing, then there are cross-activities with the latest blockbusters in the game, then a championship is held or a new map is released. It is almost an exceptional case when the game and everything connected with it is constantly discussed.

What are the main trends in the market today?

Among the obvious trends: subscription services and cloud computing. But it’s too early to talk about their success. We don’t know how and how much you can earn on Apple Arcade, and we also see the problematic start of Google Stadia. Perhaps in a year or two there will be some certainty. She’s not here now.

I am pleased with the arrival of new successful developers and publishers on the hyper-casual games market. This spurs the development of the direction, the emergence of new mechanics, as well as the complication of existing ones. By the way, there are many strong players from the CIS among the new teams.

Another trend is another oversaturation of the market with games in the match-3 genre. The example of Playrix inspires a lot of people. As in the days when Candy Crush Saga was just released, everyone is trying to grab a piece of the market by copying and developing successful solutions.

Which third-party game releases turned out to be the most important this year? Plus, which games did you spend the most time on in 2019 as a gamer?

Of the mobile novelties, I liked Call of Duty the most. Out of professional interest, in particular, in the direction of social casino, I would like to note the super successes of Coin Master (not social casino, but close).

If we talk about personal preferences, then I remain a fan of the NHL series from Electronic Arts. This is something irrational, and not about finding and exploring new original mechanics or some other aspects of the game.