A mobile game is a service

As part of a special project timed to coincide with today’s Casual Connect conference, the editors of the App2Top portal interviewed David Nixon, co-founder and CEO of Gemini Hive consulting company. David told us in detail whether independent developers have a chance to succeed on their own in the mobile games market, whether applications should be distributed according to the free-2-play model in order to make money, and what is needed to create a hit.

Today, the mobile games market is on everyone’s lips. In your opinion, is this a soap bubble or is it really worthwhile? Is it real? The mobile games market, of course, is real, and it has reached a decent size.

The smartphone revolution, affecting the whole world, turned out to be massive. Devices that allow you to download and use applications have become widespread, and the mobile games market is growing rapidly against this background.

However, it is fundamentally wrong to assume that it is paved with a golden brick, and all that is required for commercial success on iOS or Android is knowledge of a couple of techniques. Especially if we are talking about shareware projects. Developing and managing a free-2-play game on any platform requires much more experience and knowledge than usual. Their acquisition is a very difficult task for an ordinary development studio. 

However, the transition to “mobile rails” is the natural way of development of any modern casual gaming company. 

Do independent developers have a chance to succeed on their own in the mobile games market, or are big publishers running everything here?Independent developers can, but don’t want to.

The mobile games market, like many other segments of the gaming industry, is monetized according to the free-2-play scheme. According to this scheme, a game is not a final product, but a service. 

Successful competition in the market of services requires constant investment in advertising (to acquire users, work with the gaming community and marketing). So a free-2-play game is a whole ecosystem. And the work on the gameplay is only part of the work on the entire ecosystem.

It doesn’t matter what result you are going to achieve. Investments and experience are key requirements for working in this segment. As for independent studios, they, as a rule, do not know how to work in this market, and do not want to learn it.

It’s a matter of desire, not opportunity. You have to find money, gain experience in developing similar applications. You cannot become successful without them. So either you take it on your own, stuffing bumps, or you are looking for someone who is ready to help you with this. In the latter case, publishers usually act as assistants. 

But due to the fact that marketing and game development became extremely dependent on each other after the launch of the project, the balance of power in such cooperation has radically changed. Roles and obligations that were acceptable earlier have become irrelevant, unprofitable, as, indeed, games developed as a final product. 

To make money, should a mobile game be created using the free-2-play model?No.

But today it is very difficult to make a profit from a project distributed at a price of $ 0.99. So, if you are still going to follow the path of Premium distribution (that is, to distribute games not for free, but for money), you must answer the following questions:

Where will you get traffic from? Most likely, you will have to pay a decent amount for it, and the income from the game (especially if it costs no more than one dollar) will not be so large that you can earn on it. You need to understand how you will solve this problem in this case? 

Therefore, the next important question is: is there something special in your game that will allow you to set a price for it, above the “standard” $0.99? Brand? A very unique concept? Deeper gameplay?

If you don’t have good answers to these questions, then most likely your game will fail. 

Free-2-play vs Premium: Who will win in the end?Both schemes will evolve.

For example, Big Fish Games offers a subscription to its cloud service. You can play any paid games of the company on it. This is a very interesting solution and a good example of how game distribution models can evolve. 

None of these schemes is bad, they don’t have to compete with each other. It’s just that the game developer must understand and follow the rules that are inherent in the ecosystem, the platform for which he creates the product. 

What is the most important thing for a mobile game: a cool idea, implementation, marketing budget?All three components are necessary for success.

Should the video game industry be “elite”, that is, accessible only to really big players, or can it be open to everyone?As in any business, the cost of production meets the demand.

If there is a demand, there will be a place for small teams.

What is necessary to create a hit?Only desire, creativity, skills, budget and strong will.

And last but not least, will is the most important thing. In my experience, the key difference between a developer who can make a hit and one who is not capable of it is the ability to make strong-willed decisions that need to be made. It’s difficult, don’t listen to those who say otherwise. 

Do you have a smartphone? Yes, iPhone 4, but I plan to switch to a newer model soon.

What are you playing now?At the moment, I regularly play three games that I’m not working on myself.

Vague turn-based strategy of Ravenmark, CSR Racing, and Jetpack Joyride.

What will the casual gaming industry be like in five years?It will be bigger.

That’s all I can say.