Summing up 2013: interview with KamaGames

There’s just a little bit left until the New Year. It’s time to look back, see what’s left behind, what’s happened in the mobile industry over the past 12 months. We interviewed our colleagues in the industry about what, in their opinion, happened important this year with the market and with them. In the first material – an interview with KamaGames.

I answered the questions Evgeny Kochubeev, Director of KamaGames publishing direction.

Evgeny KochubeevWhat event/trend would you call the key in the outgoing year in the mobile applications and games industry?

There are three such events for me.

The most significant: in October, the United States lost to Japan in terms of revenue from mobile applications. Asian markets have been showing rapid growth over the past few years, and now Japan is the most earning country in the world.

The most interesting thing is that none of the games released in the App Store in 2013 could get into the list of the 10 most “earning” games of 2013. There were many beautiful, interesting and well-implemented games, but none managed to achieve the necessary indicators. There may be several reasons for this, for example, the fact that it is almost impossible for any game in a year (and in fact even less) to gain the same audience as Clash of Clans or Candy Crash Saga. The reasons for this are the fierce struggle for the user, whose cost can now reach up to $ 7, and the declining activity of the rating leaders who do not want to give up their positions. I think we should not expect a change in the situation in the next six months.

The most important thing is that the retention of players in mobile games is beginning to dominate their attraction.

What event would you call the most important this year for your company?There are several of them.

In 2013, we were able to overcome the milestone of 50 million unique players in our games. Now we have 57 million, and we have set ourselves the goal of doubling this number over the next year.

Another important moment for our company this year was the expansion of the line of casino-style games. With the successful launches of slots and roulette, we have once again confirmed that we are one of the world leaders in this direction.

RoulettistThe launch of our publishing direction stands out, but we will talk about its results only in 2014.

Please name one or two games (not of your company) that you can call the best projects on mobile platforms based on the results of the outgoing year.For me, this is a Battle Camp.

The game has been playing for more than a year, but it managed to break into the grossing charts only in early October. This project is a very good example, clearly demonstrating that if you work hard on the game for a long time, carefully check each new update, constantly improve, introduce new mechanics, fearlessness in experiments and full faith in what you are doing, you will succeed. The guys from PennyPop have been confidently staying in the Top 100 for the last three months, and last week they were in 33rd place in the US Top Grossing.

I can’t help but mention Giant Boulder of Death. In my opinion, this is the best runner over the past year, with which we solve our disputes. Whoever has more points according to the results of the “sunset” is right :-) Now our record is 150,000.

Thanks for the interview!By the way, you can personally meet with the KamaGames team at the February Winter Nights: Mobile Games Conference.