We continue to summarize the outcomes of 2025 with gaming (or related to the gaming industry) teams. Up next is an interview with Andrey Tyagunov, co-founder of NavyField Mobile.
How was the year 2025 for your team? What were you able to achieve, what are you proud of, and what, on the contrary, did you not manage to accomplish?
This year was eventful yet educational and interesting for us. We managed to combat the trend of declining sales and increase the average purchase by introducing new game content and mechanics. We launched another server to ensure players in the European region could play more comfortably. Released a version for Russia's RuStore. Additionally, we became finalists in the Xsolla WebShop Arena contest. What pleases us especially is that thanks to this webshop, we could resume accepting payments from players in China. We managed to prepare a version of the game for Steam, planning to release it in January 2026.
What conclusions did you draw as a development studio by the end of 2025?
Firstly, there’s a greater focus on community engagement. We see that the effectiveness of advertising is declining, and the costs of attracting new players don’t notably pay off. Meanwhile, by continuously maintaining the interest of existing players, bringing back old players, and supporting their loyalty, we significantly improved our performance.
Secondly, adopting alternative game distribution channels and alternative player acquisition methods. These have been helpful in driving incremental sales. We have separate versions for Steam, Epic Games Store, Huawei AppGallery, Samsung Galaxy Store, RuStore, and others.
And of course, continuing to bring in new partners, investors, and not shying away from experimenting.
Has the practice of interacting with publishers/investors changed? Has it become easier or harder to work with them?
Our project is a mobile free-to-play game set in World War II at sea. It has a very niche audience (from a regional perspective, a significant portion of players are from Asia) and primarily operates on "whale" monetization, which involves manual, sometimes pinpoint work with advertising and audience. Currently, we do not have an investor, and negotiating investments in 2026 won't become any easier. We are primarily focusing on finding a publisher in China, as it is clearly the most interesting market for us in terms of development.
How was the year for the niche/genre in which you work?
For us, the niche is more likely shrinking in monetary terms rather than growing. We see a trend toward decreasing average spend and fewer payments. For instance, our "whale" players have become much more "selective." We see a growing dependence on promotions — an increasing share of sales comes through discount offers.
What trends do you anticipate strengthening or emerging in your niche/genre in 2026?
As I mentioned, the trend of declining advertising effectiveness for attracting new players continues, and I am confident it will persist in 2026 — community engagement and introducing new LiveOps mechanics will be essential in 2026.
We expect the focus on in-app payment in mobile free-to-play games to shift even more towards alternative payment platforms.
The dependence of sales on promotions will continue to grow.
What are the team’s plans for 2026?
We will work more closely with the community, add new content, including experimenting with new game mechanics and LiveOps. We will continue to develop our webshop. We will release a version for Epic Games Store and a separate PC version for players in Russia. We will attempt to enter the Chinese market independently, using alternative stores, while also seeking a publisher in China. Currently, we are considering starting the development of another game and are looking for an investor for this project.