The model of promoting games with the help of stars in the case of Glu Mobile has failed. This became known after the publication of the company’s financial statements.
Glu Mobile strategy was formed after the success of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. And it looked the same as the strategy of promoting projects on hyped IP. The role of a popular IP went to a celebrity.
The main principle that Glu adhered to was that a star should have at least 100 million followers in different social networks, which, according to the company, meant that the project already had a ready audience.
Over the past few months, Glu has released titles according to this scheme and announced the release of several more.
As it turned out, this strategy does not always work. So, the title with Katy Perry (Katy Perry) at the time of the release of this material ranks 800th in downloads in the US App Store.
Rating history Katy Perry: Pop
Glu CEO Niccolo de Masi told about the failure during a conference call with investors.
According to de Masi, in the case of Katy Perry: Pop the team is to blame for the failure: “Incorrect technical solutions coupled with a newly hired team caused the key metrics [of the game] to be far from those required to return the investment.” In order to improve financial performance, Glu laid off 50 employees.
The same thing happened with the game based on Bond. The title James Bond: World of Espionage is not even included in the top 1000 App Store downloads at the moment.
However, the company plans to stick to the same strategy. Whether this will yield the same results as in the case of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood – time will tell.
A source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz