2015
Company
Documents about 2015
Fifth Round of Funding Announced: UK
The UK Games Fund has initiated its fifth round of funding, inviting expressions of interest from early-stage video game development studios across the United Kingdom.
- The UK Games Fund has opened applications for its fifth round of funding, with an expression of interest deadline set for January 28, 2019, at 12 noon.
- Round 5 funding is specifically targeted at early-stage projects, offering a support package valued at £10,000, which includes a £5,000 grant.
- The funding package is designed to help studios refine pitching skills and develop a playable demo for exhibition at a major consumer games show in the Autumn.
The Imbalanced State of Free-to-Play Game Research: A Literature Review
Kati Alha's literature review, presented at DiGRA 2019, maps the research landscape of free-to-play games and argues that the field is heavily skewed toward behavioral-economic optimization.
- The review's Scopus search identified 92 documents, with Computer Science accounting for 43.8% and quantitative methods dominating (44 of 64 method-classified studies), while North American and European bias is strong.
- Research volume on free-to-play games rose sharply around 2014 to 2015, coinciding with the model's commercial success on mobile platforms.
- Research concentrates on player churn and in-app purchasing, with about 1% of users generating roughly 85% of revenue (Voigt and Hinz, 2016) and advertising showing weak effects on retention (Burns et al., 2016).
Roblox Q3 2018 Mobile Revenue Analysis
Roblox demonstrated significant financial momentum during the third quarter of 2018, achieving $92 million in mobile revenue across the Apple App Store and Google Play.
- In Q3 2018, Roblox generated $92 million in mobile revenue, marking an 87% year-over-year increase.
- The U.S. market is the primary revenue driver, accounting for 67% of total mobile earnings, followed by the U.K. at 10%.
- Roblox's cumulative mobile revenue across the App Store and Google Play reached approximately $486 million by the end of Q3 2018.
Roblox Revenue Hit $92 Million Last Quarter on Mobile
Roblox demonstrated significant financial momentum in the third quarter of 2018, generating $92 million in worldwide mobile revenue.
- Roblox generated $92 million in mobile revenue during Q3 2018, representing an 87% year-over-year increase.
- The platform has achieved consistent quarterly year-over-year revenue growth since Q3 2015, reaching a total lifetime mobile gross of $486 million.
- Q3 2018 mobile revenue grew approximately 8% ($6.5 million) compared to the previous quarter (Q2 2018).
Agon und Ares: Der Krieg und die Spiele
This review by Bernd-Peter Lange assesses Ernst Strouhal's edited volume "Agon und Ares.
- Ernst Strouhal's edited volume "Agon und Ares. Der Krieg und die Spiele" (Campus Verlag, 2016) collects essays from a 2015 symposium at the Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaft in Vienna, examining war-themed games across cultures and centuries.
- The collection's theoretical frame draws on Huizinga's view of play as a source of culture and Roger Caillois's typology, with particular attention to agonistic games and the cultural history of board games, which Strouhal identifies as a neglected field.
- Strouhal's central claim is that chess and war are not deeply congruent: chess pursues planning, while war is contingency management, though several essays show that chess structures and military metaphors still shaped game design.
Playing the (International) Movie: Intermediality and the Appropriation of Symbolic Capital in Final Fight and the Beat 'em up Genre
Zanotti's article examines how Japanese beat 'em up video games of the 1980s, most prominently Final Fight (Capcom, 1989), remediated the conventions of American urban vigilante and gang cinema into interactive form.
- Zanotti argues that Japanese beat 'em up games of the 1980s, led by Capcom's Final Fight (1989), remediated American urban vigilante and gang films into interactive form, appropriating Hollywood's symbolic capital to achieve international success few other Japanese cultural sectors matched that decade.
- Films such as Death Wish, Dirty Harry, The Warriors, and Streets of Fire supplied the genre's narrative and moral framework, in which a lone hero restores personal rather than systemic order through endless street brawls.
- The article traces the genre across 1980s and early 1990s arcade titles from Capcom, Data East, Irem, Konami, Technōs Japan, and SNK, contrasting them with earlier martial-arts fighters like Karate Champ and Urban Champion that lacked the urban vigilante framing.
Bread and Games: Playing Is, and Has Always Been, a Political Act
The intersection of entertainment, politics, and corporate strategy serves as a primary focus for analyzing the modern media landscape.
- Gaming is increasingly treated as a mainstream media category rather than a siloed vertical, evidenced by YouTube folding its dedicated gaming app back into its main platform to leverage 200 million daily unique visitors.
- European gambling authorities are moving toward stricter regulations for younger audiences due to the blurring lines between interactive gaming and gambling, specifically regarding loot boxes and skin betting.
- AT&T is pivoting its post-merger WarnerMedia strategy toward aggressive, data-driven content spending to compete directly with Netflix.
Clash of Clans Daily Revenue Still Exceeds $1 Million After Six Years
Clash of Clans continues to demonstrate significant commercial longevity, maintaining a daily global revenue exceeding $1 million six years after its initial release.
- Six years after its launch, Clash of Clans continues to generate approximately $1.5 million in daily worldwide revenue as of August 2018.
- While current daily earnings remain significant, they represent a decline from the game's 2015 peak, when it averaged $5.5 million per day during the same seven-month period.
- Clash of Clans has surpassed $3 billion in total lifetime revenue on the Apple App Store alone.
Eleven New Companies Join the UK Games Fund Community
The UK Games Fund has announced the selection of eleven new companies to receive grants for the development of PC, console, and virtual reality projects.
- The UK Games Fund awarded grants to 11 new companies in its fourth round of funding to support the development of PC, console, and VR prototypes.
- This cohort represents the most demographically diverse group since the fund's 2015 inception, with 40% of the project development teams being female-led.
- For the first time in the fund's history, no London-based companies were selected for the final round of grants.
The Clash of Chinese MOBAs: Honor of Kings vs. Onmyoji Arena
The mobile Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) market in China is dominated by Tencent’s Honor of Kings, which has maintained a top-grossing position since its 2015 launch.
- Tencent’s Honor of Kings dominated the Chinese mobile MOBA market following its November 2015 release, generating $800 million in revenue in Q1 2017 alone.
- As of July 2018, Honor of Kings maintains the top-grossing position in China, while NetEase’s competitor, Onmyoji Arena, struggles to maintain a rank between 100 and 200.
- Honor of Kings successfully leveraged a two-tier guild system (Legions and Squads) that includes leveling mechanics and social currency rewards to drive higher player retention than Onmyoji Arena’s simpler milestone-based system.
Popular and Positive: UK
The UK Games Fund continues to experience high demand for its support programs, reflecting a robust and geographically diverse startup ecosystem within the British video game development industry.
- The UK Games Fund received over 100 applications for its latest round, maintaining consistent demand since the program's inception in Autumn 2015.
- Applicants successfully self-selected between the direct funding route—targeted at developers with professional experience—and the Pitch Development Programme for less experienced teams.
- The Pitch Development Programme provides selected teams with a support package valued at £10,000, including cash and in-kind services.
How Local Policies Shape Game Production: A Nordic Perspective
This paper examines how national and local policy frameworks shape the development of game production in the Nordic countries, with particular attention to Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
- The paper argues that the spatial organization of Nordic game production is tied to local histories, networks, and policy environments, and that how governments classify games (as cultural heritage, technology projects, or business ventures) concretely affects their funding, regulation, and the games made.
- Norway channels game funding mainly through the Norwegian Film Institute, favoring projects that foster national cultural heritage, while Finland has historically routed most industry funding through Tekes, the national technology and innovation agency, emphasizing technological and economic aims.
- Sweden has lacked a coherent domestic policy for game development, though recent years have seen movement toward a Finnish-style model.