As part of an interview with App2Top.ru William Taht, Executive vice president for Games at Rovio, spoke about how much, on average, each individual division of the company earns from IAP, and how much from advertising.
William TutAlexander Semenov, Senior Editor App2Top.ru : In a 2016 interview with Gamasutra, you noted that 2014 and 2015 were difficult times for the company.
Has the situation changed now?
William Tat, Executive Vice President of Games at Rovio: We are conducting a systematic offensive. But seriously, everything is going great and we are growing very fast.
What helped overcome the crisis?
William: A well—thought-out strategy and operational approach (that is, a way of studying phenomena and events, in which they are described in the form of an ordered sequence of signs, measured characteristics and elementary actions – approx. editors) to top projects in the gaming market, and at the same time — active work on improving the corporate culture.
How would you describe the direction or strategy within which Rovio is moving today? Can you tell me more about it?
William: Rovio is an entertainment company that primarily focuses on gaming projects. This means that games and everything connected with them are a key element of our development.
A number of your projects were developed in third-party offices, how much do you adhere to this strategy now?
William: Some of our top games were developed in collaboration with talented studios from all over the world. At the moment, we are still supporting these projects together with the teams that created them. So yes.
If we talk about projects being prepared for release, the role of third-party developers in their creation has significantly decreased.
The games Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Friends and Battle Bay are those of our top projects that were developed and released exclusively by our own team.
Angry Birds 2Do I understand correctly that you are launching projects with more caution now than two or three years ago?
William: Almost. All decisions concerning the launch of new projects and their support are carefully worked out and are part of the overall development strategy of the company.
All the games that we are currently releasing are designed for long-term operation, audience growth and purchase of users if necessary.
What metrics should the project have so that you don’t close it immediately after the soft launch? And to what level do you usually bring them for a global launch? Or do you decide the fate of the project by looking at something else, not just business indicators?
William: I think, in general terms, I answered this question a little earlier. We aim to produce only the best projects — those with the potential for growth.
The uniqueness of Angry Birds 2 largely lies in the fact that the project did not immediately become a box office. It was tuned for a long time after the world release. How long has the project been going to reach self-sufficiency and a plus?
William: I cannot discuss the issues of gaming profitability. But I can say that the game has very good indicators. We are convinced that the best is yet to come for the project.
Rovio recently released Angry Birds Evolution. In it, you decided to change the tone, made the setting more adult. What for?
William: Some time ago, we publicly stated that our goal is to increase the age of the gaming audience. So Angry Birds Evolution is designed to demonstrate clearly what this means.
Another high–profile release this year is Battle Bay. I see this game as an attempt to enter the territory of Wargaming and Pixonic. How much more difficult was its development than working in a more traditional casual direction for you?
William: The game is really different from what Rovio has been releasing in the last few years. The project was in development for some time, after which he spent a little more than a year in softlonch. Since this is our first “pen test” in realtime TvT (team vs team, “team against team”), we did not expect that everything down to the last pixel would be perfect at once. We slowly brought the project to mind and made all the necessary changes to it at the softlonch stage.
Battle BayHow much, on average, does it cost to develop one Rovio game today?
William: The budget depends on the scale of the project. I can’t say anything more on this topic.
The gaming division earned €56.6 million in the first quarter. Can you share which part came from advertising and which part came from IAP?
William: Naturally, this proportion varies from game to game. Now, for each individual division of the company, approximately 85% of revenue is IAP, and 15% is advertising revenue.
What are the three most profitable projects of the company now?
William: One of them is Angry Birds 2.
William will personally be able to ask questions at the PGC Helsinki 2017 conference, which will be held in Helsinki from September 19 to 20. If you don’t have a ticket yet, you can buy it with a 20% discount using the promo code WN20 here.