Deconstructor of Fun

Jori Pearsall now Chief Product Officer at mobile financial access firm Tala has had a stellar career in mobile gaming working at companies like GREE and then most recently leading Product at mobile giant Scopely.  What has Jori learned from his time working in mobile games and free to play? What can he apply from our industry to his new industry? Listen to Jori speak on the biggest lessons h...

Lots of coronavirus talk these days and especially about current impact to gaming, etc.  We wanted to take a slightly different approach to this.  Let's talk deeper, let's talk long-term, let's talk about philosophical implications.   Today Niklas Herriger and I talk about:   #1. Long-term economic impact  #2. Dealmaking & psychology in crisis  #3. What do you do...

At its core, improving marketability means the increase of IPM (installs per 1000 impressions), which in turn leads to decreased CPI (cost per install). In lame man terms: the better your ad and your App Store page performs, the cheaper it is to acquire players. But while the formula is straightforward, increase of marketability doesn't necessarily result in positive effects. In fact, incorrect us...

What do you know about the Latin America gaming market?  Well find out about the key players, specifics of the market, and how to achieve success in LATAM with guest speakers from Jam City, Jairo Nieto and Alejandro Gonzalez , and with Lockwood Publishing's (Avakin Life) Carlos Estigarribia !   Hosts: Joseph Kim @jokim1 Josh Burns Youtube video of the podcast: GameMakers YouTube

AppAnnie recently published a report on The Impact of Coronavirus on the Mobile Economy. In this podcast, we speak to AppAnnie's Lexi Sydow and Amir Ghodrati (again!) to go over key takeaways from their report. In particular we cover: #1. Download impact on games and other key verticals #2. Top games, types of games #3. Biggest winners and losers #4. Differences between China and the US Host: Joe...

Welcome to TWIG 77! This week we cover: #1. Riot Games’ Teamfight Tactics Surpasses 4.5 Million Downloads on Mobile #2. Amazon Pushes Into Making Video Games, Not Just Streaming Their Play #3. Microsoft: Staggered launch would hurt Xbox Series X #4. The Kick-Ass Founding Team Do you want to come on the podcast with us? Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph...

Roblox has grown like crazy since its launch in 2006. Today 10 Roblox games have been played over 1 billion times and Adopt Me! has surpassed 4 billion plays. Since the launch of the mobile app, Roblox is also regularly a top 10 grossing mobile game as well. Today we cover: The history of Roblox and how it became successful How Roblox monetizes now and in the future What’s coming up for Roblox The...

Welcome to TWIG 76! This week we cover: Epic Games Publishing Announces Partnerships with gen DESIGN, Playdead, and Remedy Entertainment (Epic Games Website) Declining Cost-Per-Install Should Benefit Mobile Game Companies (Stephens Report) Forte recruits 5 more high-end game studios to make blockchain-based games (GamesBeat) Links: Jeff Cohen of Stephens - hit him up to request access to his resea...

Don’t be fooled: the mobile app economy will implode just like everything else.  Question is, how should games companies operate through the recession or even depression? What should the UA strategies look like for the different types of game portfolios? And what will the market look like when it’s all said and done?  I had lots of questions. Kudos to Eric Seufert and Brian Murphy for sh...

Interview with Damien Yvray, Lead Game Designer at Ubisoft Paris Mobile on Might & Magic Chess Royale!   Overview of Ubisoft’s strategy and efforts in mobile  Might & Magic Chess Royale:      Origin story  What is it and how is it different?   The current auto chess craze and Ubi's approach at attacking the market You can also watch the video intervi...

Welcome to TWIG 75! This week we cover: Mobile studio Scopely nets $200 million for more acquisitions Sony reveals full PS5 hardware specifications Mobile versions of Call of Duty and PUBG driving game revenue at Tencent Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff

Welcome to TWIG 74! This week we cover: #1. Coronavirus impact on mobile games Even Virtual Goods From China Are Taking a Hit From Coronavirus (Bloomberg) Corona's impact on mobile ad spend (LI Post by Andre Kempe, who runs an app marketing agency) Coronavirus contributes to mobile game downloads climbing 39% (Business of Apps) #2. China approves 27 games including Brawl Stars #3. The exclusive as...

In this episode I'm joined by Joakim Achren, seasoned Finnish games entrepreneur, turned online coach and mentor for aspiring games entrepreneurs and business folks.  You can find the content he provides at (www.elitegamedevelopers.com). The content that EGD offers includes: The podcast where Joakim talks to founders, investors and other people who work closely with gaming startups. Here, hav...

Welcome to TWIG 73! This week we cover: #1. Former Glu CEO Niccolo De Masi is on the prowl for mobile app acquisitions #2. iOS games in China to require a Publishing License - Why now, and what is the impact? #3. How will Valorant’s cosmetics and microtransactions work? #4. MZ's: Crystalborne Game Launch Links for this episode: Tim Sweeney's Tweets supporting NVIDIA's GeForce NOW Super Evil Megaco...

Stillfront Group has been on a tear acquiring a number of marquee game studios. With the acquisition of Storm8, they have now grown their global gaming network to 13 total studios. Even further, the Swedish publicly listed company's stock has almost tripled in the past year.   Stillfront acquired Storm8 for $300M on January 21, 2020.   Who is Stillfront?  What is their overall strat...

Welcome to TWIG 72! This week we cover: #1. GDC 2020 has been canceled #2. State of Word Games: Rising Revenue, Emerging Markets #3. EPIC Questions SuperData on Fortnite Figures #4. Roblox raises $150M Series G, led by Andreessen Horowitz, now valued at $4B Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff

Welcome to TWIG 71! This week we cover: #1. Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 2 is live: Everything you need to know #2. What the Facebook View-Through Attribution changes #3. Bethesda follows Activision in pulling games from Nvidia’s GeForce Now #4. Call of Duty to launch free ‘Warzone’ battle royale Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @j...

Welcome to TWIG 70! This week we cover: #1. Unity Technologies Targeting 2020 IPO: Sources #2. MY TAKE ON SUPERCELL IN 2019 AS WE ENTER OUR SECOND DECADE #3. Tim Sweeney at DICE #4. Rovio profits tumble as Hatch continues draining resources Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff LINKS: IronSourc...

The #1 mobile game development platform is getting a huge upgrade.  Find out about the 3 HUGE changes that Unity will be introducing that are all potential game changers.  In particular, we cover:  #1. The DOTS Architecture  #2. Scriptable Rendering Pipeline  #3. Multiplayer Netcode   What are the key implications all mobile PMs and executives need to know? Will these...

How should video games and video game developers address kids safety?   Today we speak to Laura Higgens the Head of Digital Civility at Roblox to discuss how Roblox deals with kids safety.   In particular, we will focus on issues such as:   #1. Current legal environment and requirements for game makers? #2. Policies for kids safety - what are options or alternatives?  #3. How t...

Welcome to our new mobile gaming markets series. In this series, we will talk to experts about different countries and geographies in the world.  We will get an overview of the specific market - Japan in this case - and key games, publishers, and platforms for the market.  Further we'll talk about the specifics of each market and what it takes to be successful. Hosts: Joseph Kim, @jokim1...

Welcome to TWIG 69! This week we cover: #1. Elodie Games raises $5 million for crossplay co-op games #2. P hil Spencer: "We see Amazon and Google as the main competitors" #3. Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser leaving the company #4. Ubisoft’s Uplay revenue is up 73% compared to last year #5. Call of Duty Players Spend More In-Game After Season Pass and Loot Boxes Removed Hit us up on Twitter or...

Welcome to TWIG 68! We've got the full crew today coming at you with a bunch of exciting news. Specifically: #1. ByteDance Takes Aim at Tencent's Core Gaming Business #2. Sensor Tower: Nintendo mobile games have earned $1 billion #3. Sea’s Garena acquires Dauntless game maker Phoenix Labs #4. EA Made Almost $1 Billion From Microtransactions Last Quarter #5. Ubisoft Acquires Mobile Game Studio Koli...

AppAnnie released their State of Mobile 2020 Report . In this podcast, we speak to AppAnnie to go over key takeaways from the report especially for mobile game developers. In particular: #1. High level overview of the main health of the mobile economy and or the mobile gaming sector #2. Key trends related to usage and monetization of mobile games and geo/country   #3. A look at some of the to...

Welcome to TWIG 67 everybody! Well the FoxNext transaction finally completed. As we've speculated on quite a bit with lots of different names and scenarios well we found out what finally happened in the end. In addition, the very interesting Stillfront Group acquired Storm8. And of course Funcom. Catch up on our thoughts and analysis on the latest M&A news from this past week now! This week we...