We continue to summarize the results of 2019 together with the heads of gaming companies and market experts. Next up is an interview with Artem Nikolaev, co-founder of Azur Games.
How was 2019 for the company?
The year was really eventful and productive! We continue to develop, release new projects and expand as a company — now we have more than 200 people. Continuous work and the most daring experiments have helped us to reach a new level!
Last year we opened the Hyper Casual division and are successfully developing it.
So Stack Ball topped the world’s top downloads (more than 20.5 million downloads in two weeks) and became one of the most successful projects of Azur Games. In 2019, Stack Ball won the “Best Game” nomination from Google Play in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the game was also nominated in the “User’s Choice” category from Google Play in Russia.
In addition to the hyper-casual direction, Azur Games also continues to develop midcore. The company is not only an independent developer, but also a major publisher.
What events in the regional and global gaming industry do you consider central in the past year?
Firstly, we see a strong consolidation of players in the market. Companies that were previously developing have achieved huge financial turnovers. A striking example this year is Nexters, whose revenues have more than tripled, in particular after the investment of the founders of Playrix. Since January, almost every month the company’s earnings have increased by a million dollars, and over the year Nexters’ mobile revenues have grown more than tenfold!
This year, Playrix also became a strategic partner and investor of the Belarusian Vizor Games. I think this cooperation will help both companies to exchange experience productively, increase expertise and increase revenue.
Another relevant topic of this year was the dynamic development of the Chinese mobile games market. Tencent, which has the largest mobile game distribution platform in China, continues to grow actively. Its applications still lead the top in terms of time spent by users on the mobile Internet, and the revenue of the smartphone games division increased by 26% in the second quarter, despite the difficulties in the macroeconomic environment.
Continuing the topic of China, it should be noted that important for the industry was the news that after nine months of freezing, the process of official certification in China was restored. However, the number of licenses issued to foreign projects so far leaves much to be desired. China is one of the key business areas in the industry, so it remains to be hoped that the certification process will soon become more accessible.
In 2019, there was a tightening of competition: marketing and development budgets have become larger, and giants such as Blizzard and Tencent have once again raised the bar. Without a doubt, the arrival of AAA in mobile entails an increase in quality requirements on the part of the consumer.
What are the main trends in the market today?
The number of hyper-casual games on the market is rapidly increasing, and therefore it is becoming increasingly difficult to be in the top. Today, users are more selective and demanding about the quality of products of this genre, which in turn generates an increase in competition.
We are on the verge of transforming the hyper-casual direction into something more. It changes, absorbs the features of midcore, becomes more complex in meta and gives developers the opportunity to create unique projects in completely new genres that will definitely surprise players in the near future.
Azur Games is considering the possibility of transforming the hyper-casual genre into others, because the basis of our strategy is openness to experiments, which helps us to reach a new level.
The active growth of hyper-casual and casual genres remains an actual trend in the industry, despite the skepticism of the past years. Of course, an important element of success is the quality of the product and the competent monetization of advertising, thanks to which casual products have a high LTV and remain in the top.
New elements of monetization are appearing in games, and the share of products with modern monetization mechanics is growing and will continue to grow. Azur Games has many projects, and a structured system of working with each of them helps us achieve the best results.
Speaking of trends: users have long been ready for big games in their pocket, and in recent years, industry giants have begun to actively develop mobile. Of course, Blizzard, Tencent and CD Projekt have more resources to create a product and distribute it, so other developers will have to seriously think about how to develop their own projects in conditions of serious competition. However, despite the fact that large AAA games are extremely popular in stores, niche products will not disappear anywhere – people will continue to play them. The mobile market is unique in that it gives players the opportunity to choose in all its diversity.
Which third-party game releases this year, in your opinion, were the most important?
We are watching the successes of strong players in the hyper-casual games market. This year, the guys from SayGames were remembered for their releases: Sand Balls and House Paint are really high—quality products with impressive indicators.