Machine Zone
Company
Documents about Machine Zone
S07, E33: An oral history of mobile user acquisition (with Nebojsa Radovic)
The evolution of mobile user acquisition has undergone a fundamental transformation, moving from the labor-intensive, manual operations of the mid-2010s to a lean, AI-driven landscape.
- Mobile user acquisition has shifted from manual, high-headcount operations—where competitive advantage relied on custom reporting and publisher-level targeting—to automated, AI-driven environments where success depends on creative volume and signal engineering.
- Algorithmic platforms like Google's UAC have democratized access to global audiences, making it easier for developers to launch games but significantly increasing competition and making profitable growth harder to achieve.
- Modern UA performance is heavily dependent on 'signal engineering,' which requires feeding high-quality data (such as 20+ daily purchases per campaign) into algorithms to exit learning phases and optimize LTV.
Week in Mobile Games E50 - AppLovin layoffs, celebrity marketing & Supercell's soft launch aversion
The mobile gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural adjustment, characterized by aggressive cost-cutting and a reevaluation of traditional growth strategies.
- AppLovin has conducted at least six rounds of layoffs since August 2023, with the latest impacting 97 staff members as the company shifts focus away from its Machine Zone midcore games business.
- Minecraft mobile player spending increased by 32% on April 4, 2025, the same day the Minecraft movie was released, contributing to a strong Q1 2025 where revenue grew 19% quarter-over-quarter to $42.3 million.
- Supercell is facing challenges with its latest titles, including Squad Busters, leading to internal discussions about whether the studio's growing aversion to long-term soft launches is hindering the success of new releases.
What's the deal with Game of War's terrible playable ads
The mobile gaming industry faces a growing disconnect between promotional content and actual gameplay, exemplified by the aggressive advertising strategies employed by Machine Zone for titles like Game of War and Mobile Strike.
- Machine Zone utilizes deceptive playable ads for titles like Game of War and Mobile Strike that feature mechanics, such as tower defense or dungeon runners, which are entirely absent from the actual core gameplay.
- The industry-wide practice of prioritizing high-volume user acquisition through misleading ads creates a disconnect that frequently leads to immediate player frustration and uninstalls.
- Aggressive, non-representative advertising strategies risk long-term brand degradation and damage the retention metrics of both the advertised product and the host application.
FTUE: War and Order
War and Order, developed by Camel Games, serves as a prominent example of the mobile strategy genre, heavily influenced by the mechanics popularized by titles like Game of War.
- War and Order by Camel Games utilizes a prescriptive, high-speed onboarding tutorial to rapidly immerse players in base-building and resource management mechanics.
- The game prioritizes aggressive early-game alliance integration as a primary strategy for long-term player retention and monetization.
- The development strategy focuses on bridging Chinese technical expertise with Western market preferences, utilizing a portrait-mode interface for global accessibility.
Machine Zone, Supercell and King spent $200M on US TV ads in 2015
The mobile gaming industry experienced a significant shift in marketing strategy during 2015, characterized by a rapid expansion into traditional television advertising.
- US television advertising spend for video games reached $630 million in 2015, marking a 47% year-over-year increase driven primarily by mobile-only studios.
- Machine Zone, Supercell, and King collectively spent nearly $200 million on US TV ads in 2015, with individual spends of $93 million, $60 million, and $41 million respectively.
- Top-tier mobile developers are utilizing a 'brute force' marketing strategy, leveraging calculated player lifetime value data to justify massive investments in broad-reach traditional media.
IAP Inspector: Mobile Strike
Mobile Strike, a strategy title from Machine Zone and Epic War, employs an aggressive monetization strategy centered on constant sales prompts, time-gating, and social pressure.
- Mobile Strike utilizes a social monetization model where in-app purchases trigger gifts for alliance members, creating peer pressure to spend to benefit the group.
- The game design prioritizes high-spending users over casual players by gating progress behind mandatory time delays that can only be bypassed through real-money purchases.
- The core progression loop is intentionally restrictive, providing insufficient starting currency to force a choice between immediate spending or exiting the game.
Monetizer: Mobile Strike
Mobile Strike, developed by Machine Zone, represents a highly aggressive and successful model of mobile game monetization.
- Machine Zone’s Mobile Strike prioritizes an aggressive, data-driven monetization model over high-fidelity graphics or skill-based gameplay to secure its position as a top-grossing title in the North American market.
- The game’s economic structure relies on time-limited retail offers, countdown-driven sales, and complex currency systems designed to incentivize monthly spending that can reach hundreds or thousands of dollars per player.
- Monetization is driven by an alliance-based social architecture where individual microtransactions provide collective benefits, effectively leveraging peer influence to increase player spending.
FTUE: Mobile Strike
Mobile Strike, a contemporary military-themed strategy game developed by Epic War (a subsidiary of Machine Zone), utilizes a highly structured, tutorial-heavy onboarding process designed to rapidly integrate players into its complex resource-management and alliance-based ecosystem.
- Mobile Strike, developed by Epic War (a subsidiary of Machine Zone), utilizes a highly structured, tutorial-heavy FTUE that prioritizes immediate engagement with core resource-management loops over narrative or visual spectacle.
- The onboarding process employs forced progression and visual cues to teach players the game's five soft currencies and complex menu-driven systems.
- The alliance system is introduced early in the FTUE to drive long-term player retention, social stickiness, and collaborative monetization.
N3TWORK's Neil Young on the first $10 billion mobile game
The mobile gaming industry in Western markets remains in its infancy, despite widespread smartphone adoption.
- The mobile gaming industry in Western markets is in its infancy and has the potential to expand to ten times its current size by evolving game design and monetization.
- The industry is expected to produce a single mobile game capable of generating $10 billion in annual revenue within a five-year horizon.
- Western developers are increasingly adopting sophisticated monetization systems pioneered by Asian companies like DeNA and Machine Zone to increase per-user revenue.
Implications of Supercell's $1.7 billion 2014 revenue
Supercell’s 2014 financial performance serves as a primary indicator of the current state of the mobile gaming industry, characterized by extreme market concentration and high barriers to entry.
- Supercell generated $1.7 billion in 2014 revenue with $580 million in profit, marking a threefold increase over their 2013 performance.
- The mobile gaming market is characterized by extreme concentration, where a small group of elite firms including Supercell, King, Machine Zone, and Gung-Ho dominate the top of the charts.
- Top-tier developers maintain their market position by reinvesting 20% to 30% of their revenue into aggressive user acquisition and high-profile marketing campaigns.
Were Super Bowl ads worth it, and Glu's Katy Perry lift
The mobile gaming industry is currently undergoing a strategic shift toward high-profile brand advertising, exemplified by the significant investments made during the 2015 Super Bowl.
- Mobile gaming companies, including Supercell and Machine Zone, spent approximately $15 million on 2015 Super Bowl television spots to shift from performance-based digital marketing toward high-visibility brand advertising.
- Glu Mobile’s stock price increased by 30 percent in a single day following the announcement of a five-year partnership with Katy Perry, building on the success of their celebrity-driven simulation model.
- The mobile gaming market is characterized by a 'winner-takes-all' dynamic where a single breakout hit, such as Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, can stabilize a company's finances after years of losses.
Mobile games industry news (w/e 9 August 2013)
The mobile games industry in mid-2013 is characterized by a transition from rapid, unchecked growth to a more competitive, plateauing environment.
- The mobile games industry is transitioning from unchecked growth to a competitive, plateauing environment, forcing companies to pivot toward international, free-to-play models.
- DeNA reported a 10% revenue increase to $526 million in Q2 2013, though operating profits declined due to heavy investment in international expansion and continued reliance on Japanese feature-phone platforms.
- Glu Mobile experienced a 17% revenue drop as it struggled to transition from legacy carrier-based business models to modern free-to-play structures.