Vasily Sabirov, a leading analyst at devtodev, told what the outgoing year was like for him and his company.
Vasily SabirovHow was 2018 for you personally?
It was a very busy year. There is a feeling that I have lived several years at once this year. About 60 flights, 11 countries, 100 books read, even two rap battles won (I never would have thought that I would come to this), about 30 public appearances. The year was very busy and interesting and, fortunately, passed without shocks and statistical outliers, all within a comfortable confidence interval.
How was the year for your company?
This year we didn’t have any major and high-profile releases: all year we have been doing, in fact, a new devtodev system, which we will present in December.
A lot has changed in the system. The backend has been completely redesigned: now the data in the system will be distributed more evenly, and the speed of query execution and reporting will be higher.
We have also completely changed the system interface. The new system will have little resemblance to the old one, it will be more saturated with reports, more logical, convenient and insightful. We have delved deeper into the issues of the game economy, developed several more reports that allow us to quickly localize the problem in the game economy and begin to fix it.
We have added more flexible segmentation capabilities to our service (for example, it will be possible to form a user segment from a specific step of the funnel), and also implemented forecasting functionality. And that’s not all.
Also, our customer support outsourcing service for gaming projects has become a separate product. We have a large team that helps games solve users’ problems and respond to their requests 24 hours a day and seven days a week in seven languages. We think it’s important: as analysts, we are well aware of the importance of long-term retention in free-play games, especially if we talk about “whales”. And therefore we are very glad that we now have such a service.
In addition, in 2018 we opened another office, this time in Perm. We plan that the Perm office will become a kind of analytical hub, an analytics center within devtodev.
Back in 2018, we launched a big and cool course on game design. After that, we finally decided for ourselves that education in game development is one of our products.
It turns out that in 2018 we have clearly formulated and identified four products that devtodev currently provides:
- directly analytical system;
- outsourcing analytics for games;
- education in game dev;
- outsourcing customer support for game projects.
And finally, from the recent — we have become Unreal Engine partners, which we are very happy about.
What event of 2018 do you consider the most important for the industry?
I will note two events.
Firstly, I think that in the future we will remember 2018 as a period of unconditional dominance of Fortnite over all other games. The game, of course, appeared much earlier, but it was in 2018 that it managed to become the most profitable free-to-play game of all time (on consoles) and one of the most popular games in the world. It is worth admitting that this year we all lived under the flag of Fortnite from Epic Games.
Secondly, now, in December, many have already forgotten, but in May one important event happened that affected all of us. This is the entry into force of the GDPR, the general data protection regulation. As an analytical system, the presence and launch of GDPR tells us that we have entered a new era in working with data, and now this regulation should always be taken into account.
For devtodev as a Lithuanian company, GDPR compliance was mandatory, but we were ready for it for a long time. Who, if not an analytical platform, should understand the importance and responsibility associated with the processing and storage of user data.
What trends of the outgoing year would you note?
The big one is seen from a distance. It would be more appropriate to talk about the trends of 2018 already in 2019.
But we can tell you about some trends and trends, under the influence of which we lived 2018. I have already said about Fortnite, now about others.
Firstly, these are hyper-casual games. Simple and uncomplicated projects (all these merge mechanics, one-button swipe control, almost complete absence of IAP and only advertising monetization) have changed the usual understanding of the game, gameplay, and gaming. I think this is a very positive trend. Hyper-casuals can seriously increase the audience of players.
Secondly, I think an important trend this year is the fall in the exchange rate of cryptocurrencies, as well as the decline in interest in blockchain games. In 2017, we still did not know what would happen to this market, now the situation has become a little clearer. I’m not in a hurry to bury them, but it’s worth admitting that the HYPE has gone down significantly.
Thirdly, the appearance of new game distribution platforms attracts attention, I mean first of all VKontakte and Epic Games Store. Games have been pulled from Steam for a long time, this is not a new trend, but the end of 2018 made it clear: these games will have somewhere to come.
Fourth, the general mobilization of games has become a trend in 2018 and several previous years: more and more high-profile titles are coming out on mobile platforms. Someone does it well, and someone (Blizzard) immediately scoops from the fans. But there is a trend for mobile gameplay.
And fifth, I note the active development of the Nintendo Switch as a platform. Now you can play AAA games even lying on the couch, even sitting on an airplane. Switch gives you a new feeling of the game, as if you are holding the game in your hands. I wish success to this platform.
What are the third-party projects of this year that you liked the most?
I will name three mobile games that I liked the most in 2018.
The Florence game, a short love story, was remembered by me with bright new mechanics, primarily narrative ones. This is the kind of game that can be advised to people who have not played games before.
The game G30 by Ivan Kovalev is remembered for its depth. With an outwardly simple gameplay, it impresses with a plot, a love of text, details and some, I’m not afraid of this word, existential experiences.
And finally, the game Maginary, an interactive book in which you are the main character. Maginary was remembered for its very interesting plot and the most beautiful way of converting a player into a payment that I have ever seen.