App2Top brought together the heads of Hit‘n’run Digital Studio, KPD, FlyinDogs and SERIES to talk about the situation in the visual novel market. We discussed the cost of development, the competitiveness of the market and the myths associated with the niche.

App2Top brought together representatives of AdQuantum, Appska, Tenjin, AppsFlyer, Adjust and Appier to talk about the current situation in the mobile game advertising market. We discussed AI, the transition to the web, traffic prices and much more.

The visual novel market is diverse. There are applications with storefronts, there is a large segment of horror and no less large — short stories “for adults”. But within the framework of the current round table, we decided to dive into such a niche as visual novels for web platforms. Our experts and guides in this niche were representatives of Dats Games, Arcanum Games and Yandex Games.

In mid-February, OpenAI introduced a new generative network that is capable of generating very high-quality video by text format. It’s called Sora. We talked about its prospects in the gaming industry with teams that have already implemented other neural networks into their pipeline. Our experts include representatives of Charisma, Playkot, Lost Lore, Skywaylab and ZiMAD.

At the end of January, Apple announced a number of innovations in iOS. These include support for third—party stores and payment systems. However, those who want to use the new functionality will have to pay for each installation. We talked about the innovation with experts from Skich and INFUSION GAMES.

Against the background of loud statements that “hypercage is dead“, changes in business strategies by leading hyper-casual publishers and statements by analysts about the crisis in the niche, we talked about the situation with five market experts.

Premium projects usually have a section with titles, where they indicate, if possible, all those involved in the creation of the project. However, for some reason this is not accepted in mobile development. Why did this happen and what can be done (and whether it is necessary) to fix the situation, we asked the leading mobile gaming companies.

This spring, Dota Auto Chess has become a major phenomenon in the market of free-to-play PvP games. The game, which started as a mod, managed to get not only a native version, but also two clones — from Valve and Riot Games. Together with the game producers, we analyze the reason for the popularity of the game.

In 2018, the trend towards decentralization of digital PC retail has become more noticeable. More and more companies are leaving Steam and moving to their own sites. In parallel, near-gaming services have become more active. They set about launching their own grocery storefronts. We talked about the reasons for the current situation with experts of the gaming market: Sergey Galenkin, Ivan Pomytkin and Nikolai Bondarenko.

Five teams involved in online projects told App2Top.ru how does the toxicity of gamers affect the performance of games and what can be done with such an audience.