Deconstructor of Fun

Welcome to TWIG #91! This week we cover: #1. Sony invests $250m in Fortnite’s Epic Games (Financial Times) #2. Why Tencent is looking to buy Warframe parent company Leyou (Venture Beat) #3. App Annie: Mobile gamers broke app store records in Q2 2020 (Venture Beat) #4. Everything we learned on Ubisoft Event (Kotaku) SHOW LINKS: As per the News updates, check out the incredibly handsome Joe Kim's bl...

Which one is better: acquiring a new user or getting a lapsed user to re-engage? Well, it depends. Most of us have been investing into getting new users while struggling at re-engaging our lapsed users. But our lack of success in re-engagement is likely more to do with how we go about it rather than the strategy of getting the lapsed players to return. In this episode we discuss re-engagment both...

Welcome to TWIG #90! This week we cover: #1. PUBG Mobile Doubles Lifetime Revenue to $3 Billion in Just Seven Months (Sensor Tower) #2. Apple Cancels Some Arcade Games in Strategy Shift To Keep Subscribers (Bloomberg) #3. Amazon and Google are in games for the wrong reasons (GamesIndustry.biz) SHOW LINKS: Game Changers is a webinar series featuring exceptional women in the gaming industry. Our goa...

We’re here today to talk about the kinds of online, live services technology that are required for multiplayer PVP games.    More specifically we will cover online services (accounts, matchmaking, player stats, and store) rather than the multiplayer networking side.  Speaking with us today is the founding team from Pragma.gg who have incredible backgrounds in online back-end service...

Welcome to TWIG #89! We are joined this episode by the legendary Emily Greer founder of Kongregate and her new game studio Double Loop. A must watch at GDC and one of the OGs of the F2P games industry. This week we cover: #1. Abuse in the industry isn't down to a few "bad apples" | Opinion #2. iOS 14: IDFA is not dead yet, but it’s definitely on life support #3. Former PlayStation Boss Says AAA Ga...

Today we’re going to be talking about 2 different perspectives on the future of performance marketing.    Positive View: The changes currently impacting UA will shift the role of a UA marketer but ultimately the changes will not be so dramatic and besides potentially adding some additional skills or shifting to be a bit more strategic and having leaner teams, and the changes will mean mo...

Welcome to TWIG #88! This week we cover: #1. Microsoft is shutting down Mixer and partnering with Facebook Gaming #2. EA details game slate with 'Star Wars,' Switch news #3. Epic Games and Match Group join Spotify in protesting Apple’s App Store fees #4. Apple Rejects Facebook’s Gaming App, for at Least the Fifth Time #5. Epic Offering 750M at 17B Valuation Do you have feedback or comments for us?...

Huge changes are coming to the role of user acquisition (UA) and what it means to be a performance marketer in mobile.   #1. What are the big changes coming and the trends that are driving the changes?  #2. How big will brand marketing be in the future? Will it take over performance marketing?  #3. What new skills will performance marketers need to build to prepare for the future? F...

Welcome to TWIG #87! This week we cover: #1.; Call of Duty Publisher Wins First Amendment Trademark Suit Against Humvee Manufacturer (Gamma Law) #2. Selena Gomez Sues Mobile Game Company for $10M for Stealing Likeness (Gamma Law) #3. This is the PlayStation 5 (The Verge) #4. Valorant is Performing Below Expectations According to Twitch Stats (GameLife) #5. How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies...

Despite lots of talk about the use of data science in game studios, surprisingly, there's a lot of misunderstandings about how data science is actually used and how best to utilize data scientists. Today we discuss the following with Andre Cohen who is Head of Data Science at our friends over at Tilting Point: #1. What is the role of data science within a games studio? #2. What are the primary app...

Welcome to TWIG #86!  This week we cover: #1. Why Zynga bought Peak Games #2. Glu Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock #3. Game and UA Teams That Work Together, Grow Together Hosts this Week: Today we are joined by guest host Nebo Radovic from N3twork: Nebo Radovic: @eniac (Twitter) Do you have feedback or comments for us?  You can reach us on Twitter at:  Joseph Kim...

Join us for potentially the MOST IN DEPTH AND TACTICAL discussion on optimizing ad creatives for mobile marketing published ever in the world!  Joining us for that discussion is the former Head of UA for Superscale: Matej Lancaric.  Matej was with Superscale at the time of the recording, but now independent.  Matej talks to us today discussing how to develop a framework for managing...

Welcome to TWIG #84! This week we cover: #1. Twitch gets a new channel for news, exclusives, and more (The Verge) #2. Sony Confirms PS5 Event for June 4 (Gamespot) #3. Mark van Ryswyk On Why The Pandemic Is A Unique Moment To Reach New Consumers (Alist Daily) #4. Interview: Why Scopely and PierPlay spent three years perfecting Scrabble GO (Pocketgamer) Today we are joined by guest host Josh Burns...

The focus of our conversation today will be about how to think about user acquisition during times of crisis or more generally under situations of sudden change. When a change happens e.g., Real money gaming impacting social gaming, recession, a new game mode like Autochess cannibalizes other strategy games or game modes... What do you do? Just wait for data? How can we think about a framework or...

Creatives are the talk of 2020, everyone claiming they are the last lever. But, what does that actually mean for a studio today? What do they need to do? What does the future studio look like? How does the UA teamwork with the creative team and the developer team? How can studios maximise the impact of creatives and identify the biggest opportunities? Lots of questions. But luckily, Steven Chard,...

Welcome to TWIG #83! This week we cover: #1. Ubisoft Sues Apple and Google Over Mobile Rainbow Six Siege Clone (IGN) #2. Ubisoft announces Ubisoft Forward on July 12 (GamesIndustry.biz) #3. Crucible is Amazon’s attempt at a shooter League of Legends (Polygon) Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta) Eric Kress: @ekress Adam Telfe...

In gaming, sandbox creator platforms to become the next ROBLOX have been the talk of investors over the past few years. The latest entry into the space is Manticore with their CORE platform led by ex-Zynga executives Frederic Descamps (CEO) and Jordan Maynard (CCO).   How will Manticore's CORE platform compete against ROBLOX? Who are they targeting? How will developers on CORE make money? &nb...

Welcome to TWIG #82! This week we cover: #1. 10 LEARNINGS FROM 10 YEARS (Supercell Blog) #2. Game of War developer Machine Zone acquired by AppLovin (gamesindustry.biz) #3. Valorant and Twitch build symbiotic relationship of success (Venture Beat) #4. Ubisoft says 11 games sold over 10 million copies each in PS4/Xbox One era (Venture Beat) KEY LINKS: Joe Kim's AppLovin post: I am AppLovin! Behind...

Welcome to TWIG #81! This week we cover: #1. Cloud Gaming: Why It Matters And The Games It Will Create #2. Fortnite ’s “Party Royale” mode ditches the guns, asks players to “chill” #3. 10 Years of Excellence - Deconstruction of Supercell #4. Design + Behavioral Economics = Apple Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta) Eric Kress...

We're joined by Joe Schaeppi who is the CEO of 12trait. 12traits is a different kind of tool to understand your players. It doesn't look that much at what they did. Instead 12traits focuses on understanding the players through deep psychological insights. Why is understanding your players more intimately important? Well, it allows you to create experiences which optimize for healthy long-term enga...

Welcome to TWIG #80! This week we cover: #1. Xbox Game Pass now has over 10 million subscribers #2. SuperEvilMegaCorp Announces “Catalyst Black” #3. Xbox Series X still set to launch on schedule, but games could be delayed Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph Kim: @jokim1 Eric Kress: @ekress Adam Telfer: @adamwtelfer Miska Katkoff: @m_katkoff

Two world class industry experts in mobile social casino talk to us today about the latest overview, updates, trends, and predictions for the market. Our guests today include:   Brett Nowak, CEO of market research firm Liquid & Grit (www.liquidandgrit.com). Brett was formerly Lead PM on Zynga Poker at Zynga, and was a Director of Product at Blue Shell Games before starting Liquid & Gr...

Welcome to TWIG #79, apologies we were off last week. This week we cover: #1. Clash of Clans: Bigger, Better Battle Pass #2. Three questions to ask to level up your Battle Pass monetization #3. Travis Scott's Fortnite Event Draws Record Audience #4. Epic gives in to Google and releases Fortnite on the Play Store Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph Kim: @...

Marvel Puzzle Quest was first launched back in 2013 and has been going strong for over 6 years now grossing over $100M in life of product revenue. Demiurge has had a bit of a roller coaster history and Al has successfully led the studio through both good and challenging times. Find out more about the story behind it all including the most recent re-acquisition of the studio from SEGA and the futur...

Welcome to TWIG #78, apologies we were off last week. This week we cover: #1. Valve: More games are finding success on Steam than ever before #2. PS5 has limited release plans in 2020 #3. Silicon Valley is racing to build the next version of the Internet. Fortnite might get there first. #4. Facebook to Introduce an App for Gaming LINKS: Google Play Updated Developer Policy: "Deceptive Behavior"&nb...