GI Podcast | Court rulings provide opportunities for mobile developers

Hello, I'm Lewis. I'm the features editor for gamesindustry.biz and welcome to this special podcast sponsored by Exola. And with me today are Chris Huish who's the president of Exola and Berkeley Eggones who's the chief marketing and growth officer. So there's been a lot of changes in the mobile industry recently uh particularly in terms of legislation. So Berkeley, can you explain a bit about what's happened
from the terms of service and now some of the court rulings not only in United States but also in Europe with DMA have opened up opportunities for game developers or anybody driving monetization from their mobile app.
So the DMA, this is the
digital markets act 100%. So that allows developers to take back control of their direct to consumer strategy and the approach that they're taking and provide direct links from within the app experience to a web browser experience so that you can provide valuable incentives, new promotions, new incentives for players to come back into the game and play on the mobile device.

So you're paying on a mobile browser. could be a laptop, it could be a tablet, could be the mobile phone itself, but getting you back into the phone, into the device, whether it's Android, iOS, to play and enjoy their favorite games.
So, Chris, I think there's been some changes on the Apple front as well.
Yeah, absolutely. So, um, Apple has also had to open up their store. Again, there have been in North America, there have been some legal court rulings that have made them open up to um linking out and for developers to be able to direct their players outside of the app store. Uh now we're getting into alternative billing within the store and all on the platform on on the games. Uh so there's been changes there. And then the digital markets act has also impacted Apple as well. So the net win for everybody is that it allows developers to build much more direct one-to-one relationships with their players and pro provide better value for the players
and presumably to make more money as well because Apple were taking their 30% cut and that's not necessarily the case now right
that is true in the United States that

um has opened up the opportunity to generate upwards of 25% more revenue which you can put back into your game of profits for um developers in the United States and their players in the OS to monetize that experience. It's a little more tiered with DMA when it comes to Europe um when it comes on iOS, but it it does give that opportunity not only one to gives you the control, but the financial benefit there as well from the game developer um to be able to generate more revenue, more profits, and put it back into the game. It could be for the next version. and it could be for patches that need to be done um and to really support the business and provide more offers and more incentives to players to honestly make more purchases for the game experience. And so they're back into it. So the game developer wins
and things are changing really quickly, right? I mean, we're recording this at Gamescom in August right now, but I believe we're waiting for a ruling about Google as we speak.
So, uh they Google originally had until August, I believe 13th to comply. uh

they got a oneweek extension which would put it on today, August 20th. So we literally are waiting uh to see if they have to be forced to open up their you know their store completely and allow alternative stores in and all of the other benefits. And when we do talk about benefits, as Berkeley had mentioned, there is a big margin win for developers, but we're also seeing that because games and game can develop these direct relationships with their players, uh, and companies get the full picture of who those players are by going to web shops or going direct to the players. They're able to provide much better value for players. And in return, the players are responding uh very, very well. They're increasing their spend. We're seeing that on average that is around maybe a 8 to 14% a uh average revenue per paying user lift. But when you get to your real highly engaged players, your VIP players were seeing north of 25% lift. So that means that if they were spending $100 within the app

store on your game, if they're going to a web shop and you're able to provide much better value, and that could be unique offers, special bundle bundles. Um, you know, it could be something unique for that individual player based on their their behavior, their play styles. Um, that can that would mean you're getting $25 or more additional revenue from those players. So you're kind of lowering prices for your goods but actually making more money.
Yeah, absolutely. And it's not necessarily lowering prices. It's actually bundling together different offers, right? Which you can't really do within the app store. Um it's providing something that is uniquely valuable to that player perhaps at that particular point in time on where they are in the game or how they've even engaged with your web shop, what things they've looked at. And so you get all the power of e-commerce at your disposal now. And that is resulting in just much better value. Not necessarily lower prices, just better overall value for however the player determines that

value. Some players it might be they get 10 20% more gems, right? For other players, it may be, oh, here's a unique item that I would I'm unable to get elsewhere. It could be any any number of things. And um it's just a boon overall.
So Exola is well placed to take advantage of this, right? I mean there's the Exola web shop. Can you tell me a bit about that? So this is the whole the web shop is the platform that we've created to enable this possibility um to come to life. We've launched since 2021 over 600 web shops with game developers always following the terms of service rules and policies and recommendations um that we provide and be able to do. And that's generated over 3 billion in incremental revenue for the mobile gaming business um through the partners that we've had the humble opportunity uh to work with to really and we've learned a lot with the developers and they've learned a lot of things and tips and tricks and best practices to do. We got some developers that are running offers on Tuesdays and Thursdays or Tuesdays and Fridays because they've gone full into their data points and understand

what the consumer behavior is going to be, what draws attention in the value statements that going into it. So, we're seeing transactions $100, which was normally the cap in the app store. Now 250, now 500, now $1,000 transactions and above for a mobile game to level up that experience. And that's the value that Chris is talking about is something you can't get in the app store. You're able to provide that from a web shop in a mobile browser laptop tablet um experience. So you could in theory eating breakfast on your lap and using your laptop make the purchase you jump on the subway or the train going into the office or to school and you're playing on your mobile device and that purchase is already in your game experience. So I guess the idea is that people can transfer seamlessly between the Apple game say and and the web shop and then come right back.
Yeah, absolutely. And and that's really the the benefit the win for for consumers for players with the legal challenges that have happened in the in

the states with the regulations in Europe and also other countries around the world. Japan, South Korea, and other countries have adopted regulations to open up the platform and allow players to be able to move back and forth between their game, go to their the web shop or the company page for for that game. And, you know, as Berkeley mentioned, that allows the developers to be able to deploy live ops uh you know, capabilities uh on their web shops where they can do these events and limited time offers and all of the things that you are unable to do within the app store. I mean, even something as simple as adjusting pricing dynamically or on the fly.
Speaking of that, you've got a few more products, haven't you? Um, the SDK, for example. What's changed with that?
So, we the SDK, we have multiple SDKs that allow game developers to be able to work with different platforms. We just launched our um Exola SDK for Unity, which is amazing. It puts all of our capabilities into one SDK for Unity developers so that they can actually now

leverage um the payments and the commerce uh benefits that we provide. Uh so that they can embed that into their games and and take advantage of connecting web shops directly to their games. Uh live ops tools, a whole host of other things in a in a single SDK that always stays updated and makes it really easy for Unity developers. We also do that on Windows Epic Game Store. you know there we have uh dual pricing uh uh functionality or not dual pricing but um we have just dual checkout uh our or capabilities sorry where you could actually yeah do I want to buy something through my Epic Games account or through my Exola account bundle that all together um so there's a whole host of benefits for for the users at the end of the day and you know we really believe in trying to make it as frictionless as possible for developers to leverage all of these capabilities
what kind of advantages does exotus solution offer forever your competitors say.
So it's not a one-sizefits-all. You have options that you can go based on your monetization strategies to go across and how you want to develop it gets it helps

them speed the market. Being able to control the destin the the entity and where they're going in their whole monetization strategy, the approach they want to do. We want to provide all the things that make that possible for them to do it. Whether it's you want to go through a web shop, you want to use the SDK, you have multiple scenarios that you can based on your business needs, what you can do to provide that flexibility and those options.
Just to finish off, there's been a lot of change in the mobile industry over the past few years and the games industry as a whole. So, how do you see things changing over the next few years, particularly as we're reaching a maturing market? So I think we're really seeing just the acceleration and and kind of the the not the end point but the real beginnings of of the benefits of direct to consumer. And so I think on on mobile for instance, you know, what I would love to see is is a renaissance of publishers where now you could have companies that can have their own a publisher can have their own store within the app store and drive user acquisition to that store and then when the players get in there, there's a

smaller curated set of games uh that include those developed by the publisher but also third party games that the publisher brings in. And I think you know that's something that's been missing. Discovery has been so difficult. So, that's just one avenue that really could open up from this direct to consumer trend and and all of the regulations that's supporting that. Um, and then we have other things like just the ability to really think outside the box and and we just launched a Discord bot that allows developers to be able to transact within Discord and provide offers and sales to their communities right where they are. So, there's a multiple benefits that I think are coming from this. Some are here now, some hopefully come in the near future. And how about you Berkeley? How do you see things changing?
I do see the future of games being more mobile because you look at Gen Zed and Alpha that are coming. Their first engagement on a device of any technology is a phone. And what are they doing? They're playing a game. Let's be honest. It's you'll see it at restaurants, you see it in daycare, you see it different

things that are going on. They're going to grow up and be the first couple of generations that are going to grow up on a mobile device. That's where their development is going. that's going to enjoy content, that's going to watch shows, that's we're going to share with their friends. Um, social media obviously and things like that that go into it. So, you're going to see that happen and more tools, more types of engagement experiences are going to come on that mobile device and be in the foundation. It's going to catch up. You see markets like Southeast Asia, you see Africa is very focused on the mobile. Everything's on the mobile phone because of Wi-Fi challenges, opportunities, technology challenges that are made available and the access that's there. They do everything on the mobile device, whether it's paying for groceries, the gas, the bills, whatever. People in a lot of these countries are doing that. So, you're going to see that user behavior come, I think, more to the west. You're going to see more of that activity happening on the mobile device. In this future generations are coming and developers are going to have to build content. You're going to see movies building content, music being

focused on mobile. You know, you're starting to see some of that obviously now. Uh, but I think it's going to go I think the multiplier effects are going to be huge. you're not going to see. I mean, we're walking around with phones and laptops or tablets now just, you know, in two years, 3 years, it's just we're all going to have mobile devices just for running around doing our thing.
Well, it'll be interesting to see how things change in the future. So, it just leaves me to thank you, Chris, and Berkeley for coming in. Uh, I think we've all learned something today. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
Thank you.