The founder of the company Nekki Dmitry Terekhin said App2Top.ru , which industrial trends and games he considers the main ones in the outgoing year.
Dmitry Terekhin
How was 2017 for you?
For me, 2017 was the year of knowledge. I’ve read a lot of cool books, discovered a lot of new topics.
In September, I started my Telegram channel dedicated to mental models and the development of thinking. I try almost every day to write a note about one mental model (now there are more than 70 of them) and apply them in my work.
How was the year for the company?
Very productive!
On November 16, Shadow Fight 3 was finally launched – our most ambitious project, which we have been doing for almost 3 years. Launched successfully – we are breaking our records, preparing to add tons of new content and modes. And, of course, we are looking for the best people from the industry!
Also this year we worked on a new version of our football manager 11×11 – we translated it into 3D, made a completely new interface and improved all game mechanics. The world launch will take place next year, and this will be very relevant in connection with the World Cup in Russia.
What event of 2017 do you consider the most important for the industry?
If we talk about mobile games, then probably the most important thing is the market growth ahead of forecasts, exceeding $50 billion and accounting for almost half of the entire games market. Competition is as high as ever, companies are maturing – it will be hot!
From the point of view of the entire gaming industry, the brightest event for me is the release of the Switch console and, of course, Zelda. I got more than a hundred hours of pleasure and vivid emotions, while for the first time I felt a real “cross-platform” experience when it was nice to play the game both on a portable device and on a big screen. Tired of playing in front of the TV – pulled out the console and lay down on the sofa with it or went into another room. I believe that this is the future.
What trends of the outgoing year would you note?
Probably the most sensational of the latter are the loot boxes. It seems that this monetization model has become dominant, but it seems that it will soon become quite annoying. I wonder what new will happen with monetization next year? I would look at how mobile PUBG will be monetized.
Another monetization trend is video advertising. Top games are no longer shy about embedding advertising in the game cycle. The video doesn’t annoy the players because they choose to watch it themselves to get a reward. In Shadow Fight 3, I think it turned out very well – as a result, our video advertising revenues reach 40%.
And another long–term trend is the growth of the Asian market and, first of all, of course, China. For us, it has already become the number one market, surpassing the United States in revenue. Therefore, we decided to send more resources there. Now we are looking for a business development director in China and are starting to prepare an event dedicated to the Chinese New Year in the game.
Name the projects of this year that you liked the most.
I can’t help but pay attention to another trend this year – the success of games created by Russian developers.
Google Corporation recognized C.A.T.S. as the best game on Android; Kefir! made its perfect debut in mobile; Game Insight successfully entered the midcore niche; Pixonic’s War Robots continue to gain momentum, well, the guys from Playrix are just tearing up the whole world.
It is very cool!