2020 results: Maxim Babichev from AppQuantum on the main thing for the year

We continue to summarize the results of 2020 together with top managers and experts of the gaming industry (and related ones). Next up is an interview with Maxim Babichev, Head of Publishing at AppQuantum.

Maxim Babichev

How was 2020 for the company?

As for many, the year has passed under the sign of serious challenges. After the end of the lockdown, we went to work in a new state-of-the-art office, which was being built during the remote work period.

We have grown from 8 people at the beginning of 2020 to almost 40. In the process of growth, we reorganized onboarding, rebuilt the task setting system, began conducting reviews and one-on-one, systematized planning and much more. Now the company can scale to a larger number of people without loss of communication.

We also opened an R&D direction, launched a blog on Medium, where we will share our expertise, visited White Nights, Gamescom, DevGAMM, Reboot Develop Blue, Keep calm, do games. We recorded a video on how to work with Unity's GameTune and made an educational webinar on A/B testing.

We have reviewed more than 100 potential candidates for publishing, and we continue to cooperate with a dozen of them. In 2020, the audience of our games grew by 30 million people. Our apps have appeared on the Amazon Appstore, HUAWEI AppGallery, Xiaomi GetApps, Samsung Galaxy Apps and on several local stores.

What new trends in your niche do you consider worth paying attention to?

1. Advertising monetization. All kinds of preset optimizations and incessant tests are part of the daily routine. Now it's not just a way to monetize those who don't pay — it's an opportunity to diversify the gaming experience in games of certain verticals.
2. Preparation for the IDFA key(s).
3. A heated struggle with the commission of the storages.
4. The growing literacy in mobile analytics among developers.

What new market trends would you note in general?

1. The rapid development of the subscription model. At the same time, not everyone understands how to work with it — from testing the subscription window to marketing. Rather, they blindly follow the trend. Subscriptions have changed the market so much that buying a program today seems like a bad idea.
2. Cross-platform gameplay is gaining momentum.
3. Augmented reality games continue to gain momentum. The soon-to-be-released Witcher: Monster Slayer will show it.
4. Large franchises are becoming more confident in mobile. Diablo: Immortal, Path of Exile Mobile, League of Legends, the same Witcher are on the way.
5. During the lockdown period, many colleagues have published worthwhile educational books, retrospective views, and memoirs. I especially recommend the works of Vasya Sabirov and Lesha Savchenko.

What will be the stake in the development of the company in 2021?

We will continue to strengthen our positions in the Asian markets, focus on developing long-term relationships with studios and speak more at conferences with expertise. But the main goal is to continue publishing high—quality games for millions of gamers around the world!

Which third-party game releases are you interested in this year? Which ones did you pay attention to as a gamer?

The coolest release that came to me and my family is Fall Guys. We play it almost every night. It's nice to hear my daughter laugh when our "weirdo", as she calls him, does not jump to the right place, crashing into the platform with a funny sound.

My attention was also drawn to the remake of the first two parts of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. I'm a big fan of both the sport itself and the entire series of games, so I ride through familiar levels, smash walls, launch helicopters into the air and perform long combinations of tricks through already forgotten gaps. Such nostalgia.