Is there a transition from mobile to Steam, and if so, what might this phenomenon be attributed to? The editors of App2Top spoke with teams that have experience with both platforms: HeroCraft, Brickworks Games, Lipsar Studio, Kylyk Games, and Nekki.
How prevalent is the migration or partial migration of mobile developers to the premium segment on Steam?
Sergey Ulankin — Head of PC — HeroCraft
No statistics can give a precise answer: many teams change their names, launch under different legal entities, and do not advertise their mobile past. However, subjectively, from communicating with developers, especially in the indie segment, many have mobile experience. This can range from independent development to working within large mobile studios. Particularly in the Russian-speaking segment of the industry, the mobile sphere was and remains the main source of personnel and even entire teams that later move to Steam.
Georgiy Beloglazov — Founder and CEO — Brickworks Games
Right now, it’s not so much an exodus but more of a pilgrimage: several friendly studios from mobile are trying their hand on the Steam platform, experimenting with vastly different projects and target audiences. The reason is generally the same — the free-to-play mobile development model has hit a ceiling, with no new global market emerging. Therefore, they need to apply their competencies where the risks don't seem as high.
Gleb Durnovo — Co-founder — Lipsar Studio
Honestly, I haven’t measured it. From my acquaintances, I can say that many mobile developers are looking towards Steam, but not all are making the decision.
Kyunney Vinokurova — Co-founder and Game Designer — Kylyk Games
I think it's isolated cases. In Russia, there are many successful mobile companies that can provide excellent working conditions and good salaries. Transitioning to a new platform often leads to a downgrade in earnings and comfort without any guarantees of success. Thus, it's hard to speak of mass migration.
Dmitriy Pimenov — COO and Game Director of SPINE — Nekki
Speaking about the CIS market, the trend is quite noticeable. About five years ago, most of the large companies I knew began developing projects for consoles/PC. Sadly, many of them didn’t even survive to the announcement stage. Regarding the global market, the situation is different — in my opinion, this is due to different histories of the industry in the CIS and other parts of the world.
What might this phenomenon be related to (personal example allowed)?
Sergey Ulankin — Head of PC — HeroCraft
Due to a general trend: mobile developers increasingly look to Steam, both in the premium and free-to-play segments. The reason lies in the contrast between platforms. On mobile, competition is extreme, traffic is expensive, organic reach is nearly dead, and indie teams have minimal promotional opportunities. In contrast, Steam offers relatively low competition in certain genres, multiple marketing channels beyond paid traffic, and a stable, growing, solvent audience. Even free games that have long been successful on mobile, like Summoners War, can gather new audiences and achieve great results when released on Steam.
Georgiy Beloglazov — Founder and CEO — Brickworks Games
In our case, it came from a desire to return to our roots and create something beautiful. Sublustrum was initially conceived as a non-commercial project, a musical album in the format of a video game. Its remake continues these traditions, but now with a larger budget and a more experienced and diverse team. Such projects are difficult to integrate into mobile pipelines and performance marketing, so we immediately turned our attention to Steam.
Gleb Durnovo — Co-founder — Lipsar Studio
Mobile project development increasingly resembles a lottery of “guess the CPI.” Even gameplay-wise good projects can be buried if CPI and LTV do not align. Traffic is expensive and competition immense.
Likely, there are many people in mobile who wish to make games rather than optimize metrics. Thus, they cannot help but look towards PC and consoles.
Kyunney Vinokurova — Co-founder and Game Designer — Kylyk Games
In our case, the transition from mobile to PC development was linked to our desire, after more than 10 years in mobile game development, to do something different and learn something new.
Dmitriy Pimenov — COO and Game Director of SPINE — Nekki
As for Nekki, the move to consoles and PC was primarily motivated by the desire to predict the future of the industry. When we started designing SPINE, we believed the industry’s near future would be cross-platform and a merging of console and mobile markets. Thus, our project was initially conceived as cross-platform.
Ultimately, we feel the industry is not transitioning to cross-platform as quickly as we expected (which led us to develop SPINE as a premium game without mobile support).
Discussing the reasons behind this migration, I’d point out the following:
- First, many companies, around four to six years ago, accumulated enough money to consider alternative investments (partly due to increased revenue during the pandemic).
- Secondly, there was sufficient experience and expertise in game design and content production that they wanted to apply to something more complex in production. Many developers are romantics at heart, drawn to the premium segment where they can fully showcase their design capabilities (I understand, I am one of them), so teams often view the transition warmly.
- Later, another factor emerged: the mobile project market became overcrowded, traffic acquisition projects stopped paying off well, and launching new free-to-play games became more unpredictable. I believe this led studio heads to seek new niches for themselves. The console-premium segment, in terms of marketing, is more predictable and has been on a steady path in this regard for many years.
What challenges should teams transitioning from mobile to Steam be prepared for?
Sergey Ulankin — Head of PC — HeroCraft
The main challenge is that Steam operates very differently. Especially in marketing. The mobile cycle: finish the game, conduct tests — and immediately go global, then start active marketing. On Steam, it’s the opposite: a year of preparation, active marketing before release, community building, wishlist gathering, and public development. If this is not done — the release fails.
The second big difference: Steam is not just a store but a community platform. Users don’t just silently download and pay, they actively discuss the game with others, sharing observations, ideas, and complaints. Forums, discussions, reviews, posts — all this is an integral part of the game’s perception. Business decisions directly affect feedback.
For instance, today I spoke with a developer who has the same game on mobile and Steam. On mobile, they had a battle pass that could not be completed without spending. The game thrived! But on Steam, an initiative user calculated the in-game economy and posted about it in discussions. This caused a storm of negativity and a drop in ratings — ultimately, they had to change the balance on Steam.
Georgiy Beloglazov — Founder and CEO — Brickworks Games
First and foremost — relearning how to work with the community. We are just beginning this process, but we already understand that the audience here is much more demanding and, shall we say, principled. Moreover, interactions are generally built on expectations. I can’t say this is always a positive for both developers and players.
Gleb Durnovo — Co-founder — Lipsar Studio
For PC, games need to have engaging gameplay. On Steam, player reviews are crucial. The marketing is entirely different: developers’ efforts are directed towards improving gameplay rather than boosting product metrics and analyzing tutorial funnel steps (analytics in Steam, in general, is lacking).
Kyunney Vinokurova — Co-founder and Game Designer — Kylyk Games
Expect a lack of money and resources, especially if transitioning from large mobile companies. In mobile development, budgets are often tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, whereas in PC development, it's millions of rubles.
Dmitriy Pimenov — COO and Game Director of SPINE — Nekki
The answer to this question, I think, will be individual for each team. Of course, there are technical issues. For example, Unity, a favorite engine among mobile developers, might become a hindrance when aiming for modern graphics. Switching engines is quite expensive, requiring retraining and bolstering the team. Many have faced this.
Another problem: in the CIS, there can be a severe shortage of talent. There's practically a war for experienced developers, game designers, and content creators.
One reason for this issue is the low level of English proficiency within teams. This makes international hiring challenging. Thus, companies are limited to local specialists, among whom there are few genuinely experienced ones, as not many major premium games were developed in the CIS previously. Moreover, experienced employees often know or are learning English, leading to them being recruited by international studios.
There can also be challenges like this: most of your long-established business contacts might simply cease to work. For example, the Shadow Fight series, which I previously worked on, has over 500 million players. Yet, during our initial meetings with console publishers, they shrugged, saying they had never heard of our series.
Little information flows from the mobile world to the console segment, so even if you have decades of mobile game development experience, console publishers will still view you as a new team that must prove its worth every step of the way.
What questions commonly arise for teams during this transition? Which ones should be addressed first?
Sergey Ulankin — Head of PC — HeroCraft
Typical queries:
- What marketing channels are effective in their genre?
- Is their genre/setting/aesthetic alive on the platform?
These are valid questions. The first step is to study the market: are there analogs? How were they marketed? Where is the audience?
For example, if you have a horror game with a gimmick, almost all marketing goes through TikTok. If you don’t know how to work with TikTok, you need to either learn or reconsider your strategy. This saves a lot of time and money.
Georgiy Beloglazov — Founder and CEO — Brickworks Games
The most appropriate question to ask is: where will we acquire the missing competencies for the team? Will we gain this experience on our own by releasing several trial games, turn to a publisher, or hire specialists relevant to our needs? The choice is not always obvious.
Gleb Durnovo — Co-founder — Lipsar Studio
Many have to remember what it’s like to actually make games.
Thus, they often ask the most basic questions: what genre should we choose, what setting, how to promote, how to test a hypothesis...
Kyunney Vinokurova — Co-founder and Game Designer — Kylyk Games
It seems the classic question is where can we find money/publishers?
Initially, probably nowhere. At the start, development is pure enthusiasm without any guarantee of results. If there is a first result, and if it turns out successful, then there may appear those willing to fund it.
Dmitriy Pimenov — COO and Game Director of SPINE — Nekki
I think the most frequent questions include:
- Why are we doing this?
- How do we guarantee success in a new market for us where many companies have been around for decades?
The answer to the first question is personal, whereas for the second, I’d advise finding a good niche that matches your accumulated skills (for Nekki, that niche was animation) and strive to create a genuinely good game in it, bringing in experts, conducting honest playtests and reviews, not shying away from problems and the truth (otherwise, you might end up in a situation like The Day Before).
Do game teams that previously developed mobile games find what they’re searching for on Steam?
Sergey Ulankin — Head of PC — HeroCraft
If they seek audience and money — yes. If they make good games and know how to market them — surely they find it. If not — no. It’s simple.
Georgiy Beloglazov — Founder and CEO — Brickworks Games
First, you need to understand what you're looking for. Profit, especially a large one, isn’t always found.
Gleb Durnovo — Co-founder — Lipsar Studio
I think those who genuinely search — will find. However, they probably succeed on this new platform not on the first try.
Kyunney Vinokurova — Co-founder and Game Designer — Kylyk Games
Speaking for ourselves, we found what we sought. We wanted to make a game we personally enjoy.
In mobile development, you focus on numbers and replicate successful solutions. There’s nothing wrong with that; it’s the nature of business and industry.
On PC, you’re more guided by your feelings, creating what you like rather than what shows the best numbers. However, it’s important not to go to extremes: players’ opinions must also be considered, as ultimately, we make games not just for ourselves but for them.
Dmitriy Pimenov — COO and Game Director of SPINE — Nekki
It seems so. According to my observations, those who survive to release continue to develop this direction within their studios. The premium segment is quite straightforward — design and develop a good game, and you’ll receive good ratings.
Do such teams find money in this market? Both yes and no. On free-to-play, you can earn much more, but its predictability is lower.
In the premium segment, I think it’s challenging to find exorbitant income. However, it seems to me a stable niche, where long-term efforts — releasing new games, growing the team, creating a brand — pay off. Over the years, people still want to play premium games where playtime is finite and the developer strives to convey a specific emotion. Such games are always in demand every month.
Will there be enough space on Steam for all these teams and their games?
Sergey Ulankin — Head of PC — HeroCraft
There’s an interesting trend observed. The number of games with more than 1,000 reviews — a sign of commercial viability — is increasing. However, the number with more than 10,000 — a sign of a hit — is decreasing. This means the market is moving toward a "strong middle": fewer megahits but more stable games capable of supporting small teams. It's not a path to millions, but a path to stability. And there are still many such niches.
Georgiy Beloglazov — Founder and CEO — Brickworks Games
We haven't conducted such an analysis. Plus, it wouldn’t have affected our decision to develop Sublustrum. It's important to understand that we didn’t choose a game to develop for a specific platform; we decided which platform best suited our project. In general, for teams with mobile development experience, it might be worth considering the non-gaming application market now.
Gleb Durnovo — Co-founder — Lipsar Studio
There will never be enough space in the game market for everyone. However, talented and patient creators who can secure investments and improve their games from project to project have every chance. The key is not to expect quick success or millions.
Kyunney Vinokurova — Co-founder and Game Designer — Kylyk Games
Of course, there will. Now is the perfect time to create games. Access to tools, audiences, distribution platforms, and answers to all questions, are just a few clicks away.
Dmitriy Pimenov — COO and Game Director of SPINE — Nekki
There will definitely be enough space. People who buy games constantly crave new ones. However, a new challenge emerges — the issue of visibility. According to recent data, about 50 new games are released on Steam daily. Yes, many are shovelware projects. Nevertheless, games without high production value but with a really strong and clear emotion often reach the top. This implies your multi-million project will compete for attention with indie hits like Peak and Schedule I. Thus, you have to be cautious with the project scope, knowing that the more expensive your idea, the riskier it becomes, regardless of its brilliance. For AAA publishers, unfortunately, this often means being very cautious and "vanilla" in design to please all players at once and recover expenses. For indie developers without a marketing budget, becoming noticeable is increasingly challenging. However, for the end player, an abundance of games is a huge plus: there's always a fresh game in the top deserving of attention.