CEO of Creative Mobile Vladimir Funtikov told App2Top what happened to the company over the year, and also highlighted the main events.
Year for the company
An amazing year full of twists and turns: for the first time we licensed IP from the film industry, in just a couple of months we assembled an excellent team, ventured to try a completely new genre.
The year began with “pitching” and negotiations in Los Angeles. A couple of months later, we launched an experimental project with a rap artist at a colorful party in New York. A month later, I assured the designers of West Coast Customs that we could accurately reproduce the matte film from Justin Bieber’s Ferrari in my game, and then discussed gaming economics with a convicted financial fraudster.
There was more strange, crazy and shocking than ever.
Unfortunately, in the world of frituplay, people rarely pay for interesting stories, so there is still a lot of work to be done before new beginnings bring profit. In general, I would call 2016 the year of the search for new ways. We finish it with a great atmosphere in the team, great opportunities, but also great risks.
Event of the year in the world
I dare to combine the releases of Pokémon Go and Super Mario Run into a global event “Nintendo on other people’s mobile platforms”. This is a serious change of course, a kind of recognition of the power of mobile platforms. However, the circumstances of the release of both games are interesting in themselves.
Super Mario Run received perhaps unprecedented support from Apple, came out with an original business model, instantly turned out to be #1 and at the same time received terrible criticism from players.
Many colleagues scolded Nintendo in advance for its suboptimal approach to monetization. This is hardly so important: the company is likely to collect its money from fans in other ways (do not forget about the release of Switch next year). But tens of millions of players who see a game about a favorite character with a rating of 2.5 stars is hardly good news.
Pokémon Go simply broke the template for everyone, forcing millions of people far from games to “farm” Pokemon in flocks through the bushes and “hatch” eggs with a cheerful gait. An enchanting combination of bomb IP, technology, marketing and luck. At the same time, the project is not even close to a good game in the understanding of most industry professionals.
The cherry on the cake is the reaction of the market, which then bought up Nintendo shares, then was disappointed after learning the tricky structure of brand ownership, then believed in the power of Mario, then was disappointed again.
Trend of the year
The situation of most small companies has worsened. Life was not a fairy tale on mobile before, but in 2016 there was a noticeable movement of Asian publishers to the west: from large investments and successful releases to working with top Western IP.
There have been a number of acquisitions, many successful studios in the past have closed or announced cuts.
Steam has become oversaturated with indie projects and has ceased to be a cozy haven: now it is much more difficult to get traffic on it.
Largely due to the deterioration of the situation on familiar platforms, the cult of the new savior in the face of VR has grown stronger. Someone is furiously smashing their foreheads on the raw market, someone is looking for someone to give their “tithe” to get > 1000% growth in a couple of years. Of course, the ecosystem has made a huge leap: devices in different price segments have gone on sale, intelligent content and profitable projects have appeared. But at the same time, objective indicators strongly sag relative to forecasts. The breakthrough into the mainstream has not happened yet.
Game of the Year
Pokémon Go. Clash Royale deserves a special mention, which remains in the top after 9 months and is objectively a better, whole and balanced product, but what happened in the summer is simply unforgettable.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to wish my industry colleagues to find as many fresh ideas and new friends as possible in the new year. When good people are around, and there is a thirst for new achievements in your head, you can solve any problems even in the most difficult market.