Developing internal tools for creating and managing mobile games is costly for companies, reports the technology platform Metaplay. This conclusion was reached after surveying 125 top managers from large American mobile studios.
Main points from Metaplay's research:
- On average, American mobile studios have 52 employees working on backend services;
- 78.4% of top managers reported to Metaplay that their studios spent at least two years developing backend services. The average duration is 36 months;
- 40.8% of top managers said their studios pay specialists working with internal tools less than $100,000 a year. However, when looking at all respondents' answers, the average salary for such employees is $138,864;
- Based on this data, Metaplay calculated that the decision to create their own backend services costs studios an average of $21,662,784;
- Nearly half of the top managers admitted that the decision to create backend services and allocate people to such teams slows down game development. One in five studios saw a drop in revenue following this decision.