2015
Company
Documents about 2015
How Final Fantasy Went Old-School Again
Final Fantasy Resonance, released in 2026, represents a strategic pivot for Square Enix, reimagining the 2015 mobile gacha game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius as a traditional, premium console and PC role-playing game.
- Square Enix released Final Fantasy Resonance in 2026 as a premium console and PC reimagining of the 2015 mobile gacha title Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.
- The project successfully transitioned the mobile game into a traditional JRPG by removing free-to-play gacha mechanics and utilizing the company's signature HD-2D art style.
- The game achieved early commercial traction with over 26,000 concurrent players on Steam shortly after its launch.
Some New Things I Learned About Grand Theft Auto VI And Rockstar
The development of Grand Theft Auto VI represents a massive, decade-long undertaking characterized by extreme organizational growth and iterative design challenges.
- Rockstar Games has doubled its workforce from approximately 2,400 employees in 2018 to 4,700 today to support the massive scale of Grand Theft Auto VI development.
- The studio has shifted toward a highly structured, data-driven management style, exemplified by the art production team growing from 5–6 people during GTA V to 65 for the current project.
- Development began as early as 2015, with the project undergoing a strategic pivot to prioritize Red Dead Redemption 2 before integrating foundational systems like advanced NPC mechanics into the new title.
Why Grand Theft Auto VI Took 8+ Years to Make
The development of Grand Theft Auto VI represents a massive, multi-year undertaking that reflects the evolving complexities of AAA game production.
- Development of Grand Theft Auto VI began in earnest in 2019, following a 2015 conceptual phase that was paused to prioritize the completion of Red Dead Redemption 2.
- Rockstar Games scaled its workforce significantly during the project's lifecycle, growing from approximately 2,400 employees in 2018 to a projected 4,700 by 2026.
- A 2022 security breach involving leaked gameplay footage triggered a controversial return-to-office mandate, ending remote work flexibility for staff.
Tencent, Playtika and SuperPlay shenanigans, further Google Play changes. Monopoly Go, MTG, more
The mobile games industry is currently navigating significant shifts in corporate ownership, platform accessibility, and market performance.
- Google has dropped its requirement for a 'registered app stores' program, allowing third-party app stores like the Epic Games Store to operate directly within the Google Play Store as of late July 2024.
- Tencent is reportedly in talks to acquire Superplay, the developer of Dice Dreams and Domino Dreams, for up to $1.5 billion following the studio's significant performance growth under Playtika.
- MTG reported Q2 group revenue of $306 million with a 24% profit margin, driven by Raid: Shadow Legends, which earned $111 million, while direct-to-consumer revenue grew to 38% of total group income.
My Five Favorite E3 Stories
This retrospective explores the cultural and operational evolution of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) through a series of personal anecdotes from a veteran industry journalist.
- The 2011 Wii U announcement serves as a case study in failed corporate communication, where a lack of clear identity during the reveal contributed directly to the console's subsequent market failure.
- E3 functioned as a critical, high-pressure environment for direct interaction between developers and the press, a dynamic that has been largely replaced by more controlled, digital-first marketing strategies.
- The 2015 'Judges Week' demonstrated the value of early-stage previews, as journalists were able to interact with unpolished builds of titles like Fortnite years before its global pivot and success.
Is the Western mobile games industry losing to China?
The mobile gaming industry in Western markets—defined as North America, Europe, and Australia—is experiencing a significant shift in market share, with Chinese, Hong Kong, and Singaporean publishers now controlling 30% of total revenue, up from 16% in 2019.
- Chinese, Hong Kong, and Singaporean publishers have nearly doubled their Western mobile market share from 16% in 2019 to 30% in 2026.
- Chinese publishers now control 60% of the strategy genre revenue, a massive increase from 11% in 2015, driven by integrating hyper-casual mechanics into 4X strategy frameworks.
- While the overall mobile market grew by 3% in Q1 2026, total downloads dropped by 13%, signaling that revenue is increasingly consolidated among established titles at the expense of new entrants.
BITKRAFT Summit 2025 Day 2: India Insights - Anuj Tandon
The Indian interactive media and gaming market is currently undergoing a significant transformation, driven by strong macroeconomic growth and a massive, young, internet-connected population.
- India's mobile gaming market has seen significant growth in in-app purchase revenue, rising from under $200 million four years ago to over $1.2 billion today.
- The Indian government has provided regulatory legitimacy to the gaming and esports sector, including the creation of the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) to train specialized talent.
- Domestic capital is increasingly driving liquidity in the Indian market, enabling startup exits to public markets, as evidenced by the performance of the publicly listed gaming company Nazara.
The Hardware Nobody Asked For… That Might Change Everything
Valve is preparing to launch a new Steam Machine console in early 2026, marking a significant shift from its failed 2015 hardware experiment.
- Valve plans to launch an internally developed Steam Machine console in early 2026, priced between $550 and $700 with performance targets comparable to the PlayStation 5.
- The console will run SteamOS and utilize Proton to provide couch-based access to the existing Steam library, positioning the device as a strategic play to capture market share from Xbox.
- A major technical limitation is the inability to run competitive multiplayer titles that rely on kernel-level anti-cheat software, excluding many popular games from the platform.
How to Grow a Game Studio Through Challenging Times | Develop:Brighton 2024
Sustaining a game studio through long-term industry volatility requires a disciplined balance between creative ambition and pragmatic business operations.
- Studio growth requires a balance of three core pillars: a clear plan, a consistent pot of cash, and the right people to execute the vision.
- Glowmade scaled from three founders in 2015 to a team of over 60 developers by 2024, navigating significant financial volatility and project pivots along the way.
- Maintaining a studio culture based on core values—specifically 'nurture,' 'fulfill,' and 'be brave'—was critical to retaining staff during the 2020 pandemic-era furloughs.
Pivoting To Survive: Stan Vishnevskiy's Journey on Founding Discord
Discord emerged from the strategic pivot of Hammer and Chisel, a game studio that transitioned from developing a mobile MOBA to building a dedicated communication platform.
- Discord achieved initial traction by manually convincing users on Reddit to try the platform, resulting in a steady growth of over 100 new users per day during the early launch phase.
- The company successfully pivoted from a failed game studio model to a social communication platform by ruthlessly prioritizing product-market fit, even when it required difficult personnel decisions.
- Discord maintains technical agility by distinguishing between 'one-way' and 'two-way' architectural doors, allowing the team to make temporary compromises that can be refactored later as the platform scales.
Building the 'Minecraft' Creator Platform Block-by-Block
Minecraft has successfully transformed from a sandbox game into a professional creator ecosystem by formalizing user-generated content through the Bedrock platform.
- Since launching in 2015, the Minecraft Marketplace has generated over $500 million in gross revenue and facilitated more than 1.7 billion downloads, supporting a professional creator ecosystem.
- Mojang Studios categorizes its user base into players, hobbyists, and professional creators, with the latter group transitioning from intrinsic motivation to business-oriented content production.
- To address the limitations of the C++ Bedrock codebase, Mojang is developing a formal Creator API and tooling to match the extensibility previously only available through Java decompilation.
two & a half gamers session #6 - Supercell rant, why do fake ads work? UA fundamentals Q&A
Supercell’s recent financial performance, characterized by a 45 percent revenue increase to 2.24 billion dollars in 2021, masks underlying structural challenges.
- Supercell reported a 45 percent revenue increase to 2.24 billion dollars in 2021, yet the company faces structural stagnation due to a lack of new global title launches since Brawl Stars.
- Supercell is pivoting toward PC and console markets to modernize monetization and user acquisition strategies that previously prioritized brand purity over aggressive performance marketing.
- The mobile gaming industry is facing significant disruption from privacy changes, specifically the impending phase-out of advertising IDs on Google platforms.