2015
Company
Documents about 2015
Funded Company Acquired for £23 Million: UK
The acquisition of Sunderland-based developer Coatsink by the Swedish firm Thunderful Group highlights the successful trajectory of UK-based independent game studios supported by early-stage public funding.
- Swedish company Thunderful Group acquired UK-based developer and publisher Coatsink for an upfront consideration of £23 million.
- The acquisition deal includes an earn-out component that could bring the total consideration to a maximum of £65.5 million.
- Coatsink will continue to operate as an independent development studio while functioning as part of the Thunderful Games division.
Designing Social Play for Sky: Children of the Light
The design philosophy behind Sky: Children of the Light centers on fostering genuine interpersonal connections by prioritizing empathy and social simulation over traditional goal-oriented multiplayer mechanics.
- Social play is defined as any activity performed near others that encourages the simulation of another person's thoughts and feelings, effectively requiring players to practice empathy rather than just coordination.
- Goal-oriented gameplay often discourages social interaction, as players focused on objectives tend to ignore others; therefore, thatgamecompany places cooperative tasks on optional side paths while keeping main story progression single-player.
- The 'hand-holding' mechanic serves as a core social tool that allows one player to guide another, fostering intimacy and requiring the guide to actively anticipate the needs and interests of their partner.
WhatRunsWhere vs SocialPeta: The Most Powerful Ad Intelligence Tool
The comparison evaluates two leading digital advertising intelligence platforms—WhatRunsWhere and SocialPeta—to determine which offers greater analytical power for marketers.
- SocialPeta offers significantly broader market coverage than WhatRunsWhere, monitoring 73 global ad platforms and over one billion ads across 45 countries.
- WhatRunsWhere provides granular tracking within a more limited scope, covering 120,000 web publishers and 95,000 Android app publishers across seven developed markets.
- SocialPeta targets medium-to-large enterprises with annual contracts starting at $5,000, while WhatRunsWhere offers monthly subscription plans ranging from $299 to $399.
Store Intelligence Data Digest: Q3 2020
Sensor Tower's Q3 2020 Store Intelligence Data Digest examines how COVID-19 reshaped mobile app and game behavior worldwide, drawing on download and revenue estimates across the App Store and Google Play.
- Global mobile app downloads reached 36.4 billion in Q3 2020, a 22.8% year-over-year increase driven primarily by a 30.3% surge in Google Play installs.
- Among Us achieved a historic milestone as the first title since 2018 to exceed 100 million global downloads in a single quarter, with 24 million of those installs occurring in the United States.
- United States consumer spending reached a record $5.8 billion in Q3 2020, with Simulation and Casino genres serving as the primary growth drivers at 59% and 51% increases, respectively.
Embracer Group Acquires Palindrome Interactive
Embracer Group has finalized the full acquisition of Palindrome Interactive, a Skövde-based strategy game developer, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Amplifier.
- Embracer Group has acquired the remaining 50 percent stake in Skövde-based developer Palindrome Interactive through its subsidiary, Amplifier.
- The transaction includes an upfront payment of 21.5 million SEK in cash and Embracer B shares, plus 20 million SEK in performance-based earnouts tied to net contribution targets over the next decade.
- Palindrome Interactive is a 14-person studio specializing in single-player strategy, empire management, and turn-based combat.
How LBC Studios Used Social Media & Innovative Marketing Strategies to Grow Their Hempire PGCD #2
LBC Studios, a Vancouver-based mobile game developer and publisher, utilizes community-focused social media strategies and data-driven marketing to overcome significant advertising barriers in the cannabis-themed gaming sector.
- LBC Studios has generated over $30 million in gross revenue and achieved 12 million installs for its flagship title, Hempire, since its 2017 launch.
- The studio maintains a strict business model that prioritizes a 30-day payback window for all user acquisition (UA) costs.
- To overcome advertising restrictions on cannabis-themed content, the studio iterates on 12 to 15 active creative assets weekly, ranking them by IPM and ROI to optimize spend.
To Dream a Game
This document is an interview published in the 2020 issue of the gamevironments journal, in which Luis Wong of LEAP Game Studios discusses Tunche, an upcoming beat 'em up under development.
- LEAP Game Studios, founded in August 2012 by four friends in their early twenties, reached milestones including one of the first Peruvian console releases in 2015, a PlayStation Plus title, and a publishing contract for an original intellectual property.
- Tunche is a cooperative action beat 'em up for up to four players, set in the Amazon rainforest and rendered in hand-drawn animation, with combat-focused mechanics intended to differentiate it within its genre.
- Tunche's design draws on Amazonian myths and folklore, including the title creature and characters such as Rumi and the giant dolphin Boutu.
Towards a Monopoly: Examining FIFA's Dominance in Simulated Football
FIFA's near-dominance of simulated football is examined in this analysis, which asks why Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) lost the market to Electronic Arts' FIFA despite broadly comparable critical reviews.
- The report argues that PES's decline against FIFA stems from financial and licensing factors rather than inferior gameplay, despite broadly comparable critical reviews of the two series.
- Sales figures show the divergence starkly: FIFA 17 sold 17.02 million copies in 2016 while PES reached only 1.26 million, and later reports suggest FIFA 19 outsold PES 2019 by roughly 22 to 1.
- Ultimate Team (FUT) became the franchise's centerpiece, holding a 64 percent player share in 2014 and growing 15 percent year-on-year in matches between 2018 and 2019 under a year-round, transaction-based live-service model.
Zynga vs. Supercell: How One Ascended and the Other Declined
This analysis evaluates the divergent trajectories of two major mobile gaming publishers, Supercell and Zynga, as of mid-2020.
- Supercell focuses on internal innovation and creating hit new games, while Zynga relies on a strategy of aggressive M&A and the optimization of existing live-operated titles.
- Zynga’s growth strategy has successfully vaulted it up the mobile gaming rankings, with the acquisition of Peak Games projected to move the company from 8th to 4th place in Q1 2020 revenue.
- Supercell has experienced a decline in revenue and profitability in recent years, leading to speculation that its valuation has fallen significantly from its 2016 peak of $10.2 billion.
A Statistics-Based Approach to Picking a Game Setting That Best Matches Your Chosen Genre 2020
This research provides a statistical analysis of mobile game settings and their correlation with genre performance, aiming to guide developers in making informed design choices that optimize target audience reach and cost per install.
- The Real Life setting is the most effective for market reach in the West, accounting for 31% of all analyzed games and 42% of cumulative downloads due to its high accessibility and minimal tutoring requirements.
- Fantasy and Oriental Fantasy settings dominate revenue charts in Tier-1 East markets (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan), while Real Life settings are primarily driving growth in the hypercasual sector.
- Complex settings like Fantasy are statistically correlated with high-grossing, sophisticated genres such as RPGs and 4X strategy games.
Zynga vs. Supercell: The Quest to Be the World’s Most Valuable Mobile Gaming Company
This analysis evaluates the divergent strategic trajectories of Zynga and Supercell, two prominent mobile gaming publishers, to determine their long-term viability and potential for market leadership.
- Supercell’s long-term strategy focuses on innovation and creating 'forever franchises' through decentralized, autonomous teams, while Zynga relies on a strategy of aggressive M&A and the optimization of live operations.
- Zynga’s growth has been driven by a series of accretive acquisitions, including the acquisition of Peak Games, which would vault them from 8th to 4th place among top mobile game publishers by Q1 2020 revenue.
- Supercell has experienced a decline in revenue and profitability in recent years, leading to speculation that its 2016 valuation of $10.2 billion may have significantly decreased, potentially evidenced by a 2019 Tencent stake acquisition at a lower valuation.
Report on App Categories
This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the non-gaming mobile application market, focusing on shifting market shares, revenue performance, and lifetime value (LTV) across various categories.
- Video apps, led by YouTube, Twitch, and BIGO LIVE, represent the highest growth category in Western markets as of early 2020.
- Video-on-demand services account for 20% of total in-app purchase revenue in Eastern markets.
- Asian markets demonstrate a higher density of apps with high average lifetime value (LTV) compared to Western markets.