Introduction to Pocket Gamer Connects, Helsinki 2023 - Chris James, Steel Media Ltd.

[Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning and welcome to PG connects Helsinki 2023 how we [Music] doing not that well not that well it turns out how are we doing come on how we doing we good yes thank you cool um my name's uh Chris James I'm the CEO of still media if you don't know me um and I'm delighted to be back here uh for the eighth year in in Helsinki it's actually 10 years since we started coming here but we had a bit of a coid vacation everyone else um this is our fifth Conference of the year so far and our 44th overall and if you don't know us apart from this here's all the sort of stuff we do I'll get out of the way um we run obviously PG connects uh shows we run

various media like pocket game.com pocket. Biz a few of B2B sites Beyond games. Biz Awards events and loads of other stuff everything we do really is about connecting and supporting the games industry um mobile first but it could be any part of the games industry and and we're delighted to continue that here uh with our efforts to support the finished games industry which has been really crucial part not just of of our journey um but of The Wider games industry's Journey um this really is our second home uh we've been running uh PG connects uh for over a decade now I'll get out of the way of this for a second um so uh We've hosted in that time uh I say 44 conferences had 37,000 delegates uh C for over 100,000 meetings and uh back of a packet probably uh contributes over a billion dollars worth of deals another way to look at this is we've been doing this for a lot of our adult life that's us there can you see that to me 18 years ago do I look any different

yeah that thanks for that I I remember that later now I I I kind of similar hair but it's a little bit grayer but we've been doing this for a long time um and whilst it's not always uh wise to reflect on past glories um given the slightly challenging time a lot of the games industry kind or some of the games industry finds ourselves in I think I would like to reflect a little bit upon where we've come and and you know how the finish industry is evolved and how our part of it is evolved over the recent years so our theme for today is going to be or this morning's intro is going to be back to the future look at that photo montage work at its very finest uh I did that myself there's no there's no professional production company involved in this I know it's stunning so um as I mentioned before um we've been coming to to Finland for quite a while and it's played an important part in in my journey and our company's Journey um I wasn't around for snake I'm not that old um but uh when we first launched our business we came um we came to visit a company called uh

Digital Chocolate or Sam Digital Chocolate as it was it was my first experience of axe throwing which as it turns out you don't do as much all right that's not a thing that was just a thing that they took me to and nobody's ever done it since so and if there's any amateur axe throwers here let me know um but apart from from throwing an axe uh what I I learned from from that um is how how powerful it is if you can give creative uh people autonomy especially within a brilliant Studio structure that's something obviously that they that team Advanced further with super to sell they gave they gave autonomy uh to their team um the the other thing that did in those early years is I was a guest of Nokia I went out to a few NOK events me up in the Frozen north um and and I think again Nokia uh for for me like one of the UN really the untung hero of the whole mobile games industry not the Finnish kind of games industry um we actually made the first and only engage magazine it's a real thing there it is this is this is a collector's item um we we made that for for for noia and

engage didn't just sort of birth lots of hilarious memes it it also supported a lot of studios here a l of the bigger studios here including kind of likes of roio and and Mr good living so were kept kept going by that that bus and they were our first advertisers they supported us as well um so let's fast forward a few years um and here's here's here's our first first one of our first early events this wasn't a PGC it was a mixer uh and I could it's my first experience that my preppy enthusiasm didn't necessarily get replicated there that was uh tough crowd the fins I I did work out how to how to motivate the crowd though um and then that went from kind of abject disinterest to mild disinterest which I think was a big Improvement um so no I I do love I do love you guys um the the thing about this is that this whole event was um supported by Neo games who I'll talk about again in a minute and and Neo games obviously and those organiz ation have been crucial uh to supporting the

industry um fast forward some more events uh this was part of we did some events with the igda and attended a lot of igda meets and that was incredible the igda in Finland um has changed bits over the years but I don't know if you guys appreciate how amazing it is this is the best igda in the world the way that you kind of sort of people from from the finished games to has got together shared ideas completely flat you'd have CEOs of big companies talking to Startup students is incredible and it's a it was a real inspiration to us when we were looking at how we could create our events so I did that and then obviously the other side of that is investment um you have techs which has now called something else but that was great uh that was a great support um system which allowed the games industry to kind of flourish here gave you some initial money and match funded and then you had private investment and this is from this is events um from from slash which is obviously an incredible uh event um I we actually were going to launch Pocket gaming connects as part of slush I met with a lovely chat called Mickey cusy whatever happened to him uh

billionaire Mickey cusi now we went on to launch Vault but we were going to we were going to work it we didn't quite make it but the next year we did come back with Pock gam connects Helsinki in 2014 which was here in these very Halls this was this is our first show and we're back to where we started over the years we've hosted some of the some of the biggest names here um from from very established kind of Studios now had a lot of fun and had some big nights as well um yeah so karaoke is a thing I love it that's great um um and then and we've been to different places well we as you may remember does who was here last who was in uh PGC last year hands up yeah so we were we were in the cable Factory the only well one of the reasons we not the cable Factory is not available this year but we we're still deciding for next year but we'll see how this goes we might stay here we might go there but but we obviously uh back to where we are now um so that's that's us in that time the Finnish games industry has has evolved pretty impressively too um and we know this but again because of

Neo games do some great data to collaborate uh to pull together all the different data sources and we can see that um the industry according to Neo games not not my estimate was worth $3.2 billion do uh this this last year and and and employed over 4,100 people of which 400 of those are outside Finland but but the majority of those are inside Finland this is incredible this is it's an incredible industry incredible industry growth and it's incredible to have generated so much money from such a comparably small um a small kind of Workforce I think actually at one point if there still aren't Finland was the highest the most efficient sort of game revenue for games per capita that in the world it might still be it was it was it was certainly up there um okay so that's that's Finland finland's brilliant you know you here you love it what about the rest of the the industry I'm going to have a quick look at some of the some of the uh the trends and the situations we we find ourselves in I'm again going to uh look to a movie for inspiration this is Back to the Future f 2 this is

terrible isn't it I'm sorry I didn't spend that long on it I know you can't tell but if you remember Back to Future 2 there was this kind of famous scene where uh the kind of holographic uh Jaws which looks a lot like a hungry shark or a hungry Shar is a Hungry Shark you know what's it called uh crazy shark no baby shark it looks lot baby shark doesn't it um I'm not going to play Baby Shark I did that at a recent event people complained I won't do that but but this um this kind of put me in mind of some of the dangers that that are facing our business at the moment the industry is having some struggles and we we I've taken the film filmic Motif and extended a little bit more so we have idfa we we we know mobile game developers will will be particularly uh aware that this the changes to the Privacy have caused uh privacy settings and the accessibility of data caused a lot of problem for marketing in the mobile game space I find it I'm still kind of struggle that that can't be overcome because we didn't have all this data when we started so there's got to be a way around that but

I don't do that um we do have we do know we have got of people who are experts in this space we're talking on our growth track I think that's later on today so we'll talk about ways of getting around that there is an even more Sinister Force apparently threatening us uh I don't know I don't know there's only web 3 people here well they're afraid to come out now I know I know that the attitude to web 3 is slightly more mixed here we're we're quite uh we're we're we're sitting on the fence so the crypto Bros are out there to get you apparently or are they is is this an opportunity or a threat I don't know we're still we're still waiting to see we've got a couple of tracks tomorrow if you are interested in how that space is getting on and whe where it's going or whether it's going um so but the the dangers aren't just idfa aren't just crypto I have a lot of people come up to me when I do my talks and go oh my God you always this upbeat it was um sort of being positive about the industry and it's really difficult we're facing some really big challenges um and so yes I I I agree there are there have been some kind of icebergs there have been some I there definitely struggles there I I I'm

I'm very cognizant that studios are having to lay people off I'm very cognizant that some people are struggling I'm not and I don't take that lightly um but in the bigger scheme of things this industry is is still in pretty good Nick and and I I think we will kind of overcome so I'm I'm more of a kind of a uh I prefer my ice I guess in in the glass half full so I'm more of a positive forward-looking type of fellow like like my hero heroin here Rose that's uh oh paint me like one of your French girls um moving on anyway um so and the reason I'm kind of upbeat is as I remember going back to history again I remember this this is where we started this is pocket gameer 1.0 and this is this is 2009 it was even later than we started that that's what that's the devices we had to work with like you know back then it was it was it was so hard to even get people to get mobile games again we made these magazines to try and explain to people how to get a game onto your phone that's how difficult it kind of was and even if you did get a game in the

phone as a developer you were lucky if you got 30% back never mind a 70% Revenue share you probably get like 10% if went for an aggregator so that's kind of where we came from um but but now last year mobile games was 56 billion downloads of games in 2022 and that was in our slightly down year our first slightly down year in like 25 years of Bull Run the games industry had a bit of a blip admittedly but historically it's been it's been accelerating long and and now according to newu the purveyors of all things data this year we're expected to kind of return to Gentle growth and to kind of right the the wrong and and if you look at any forecaster uh and there are loads of them available and that's their business I get it everyone is very bullish about the industry going forward uh yeah there is turbulence but they're bullish about it going forward um the more interesting thing for me though is not just not just the big numbers it's it's this it's how our industry is evolved and and how we've gone from different uh platforms and

formats from the arcade the PC handheld games came in and out mobile took over consoles kind of grew steadily and and and this is obviously an ongoing chart we we we've got kind of VR and cloud in there web 3 isn't really in there yet and we haven't got things Technologies like kind of AI and over the next couple of days we're going to look at reasons to be cheerful as we go forward I think the games industry is incredibly good at embracing new technologies and um yeah and and I think couple of those I want to highlight now we we've got AI That's one of the key trends for me still everybody here how many people are working with AI hands up interactive come on most of that that's that's good most of the audience I know fins don't like putting their hands up but most of the audience is doing that AI is everywhere already it's not it's not a coming thing it's already being used graphic design in uh in in writing copy in sort of Designing levels even the VR space uh also still relatively small but interesting um we've had Apple kind of join join with their handly priced

$35,000 headset that's great but um but yeah that space is starting to make money we've got we got the VR virtual Visions uh track tomorrow which we'll talk a little bit about that and where there's opportunities there uh that visual Computing space is growing the investment market now this has been challenging as as anybody knows he's been trying to raise money recently the kind of TAPS which were flowing crazy for few years have kind of dried up but there are signs that these um the things are starting to the tid is starting to turn and it's kind of led by it's led by the kind of a lot not all a lot of the listed companies doing quite well which again gets people excited about m&a and investment in the space um and we've got we've got a talks about this tomorrow m&a was insane last few years m&a in investment levels went from about 32 billion in in 2020 up to 127 billion if you include the Activision um blizzard King deal in that which isn't yet done but but um that this is all

from Drake star capital I didn't make these numbers up so but you know and that went crazy over a few years this year is going to be lower obviously but we are starting to see some signs we saw Savvy by scopely obviously right here um roio is being was was acquired uh by Sega so that's that's kind of fascinating we're starting to see more more deals come through maybe even the Activision Blizzard deal might even get done very shortly um so we'll be covering that tomorrow we've got a show me the money track tomorrow afternoon I think uh and the monetizer comes in some of those elements but we also you can also keep track of all the latest comings and goings in this space on our website and um and we if you can get involved yourself to boost those numbers and our investor connect to which is kind of happening uh this morning couple more Trends newer markets emerging fast this has always been a global industry and more so than ever the the markets even though last year was a downturn for some parts of the market places like the middle East particularly Latin America

southeast Asia uh India all kind of growing um and yet again I think the Middle East in particular is is going like a train it's going to be the fastest growing this year as well as it was last year um up to 7.2 billion up to 574 million players we're going to have uh uh later this afternoon we've got a global Trends in East Meets West track talking about that there are big opportunities there in these Emerging Markets even when sort of Europe and and and the US may be a little bit flatter and kind of final key Trend I wanted to mention about before I go into is is is going for good we we as as game cements itself as the leading media format and the entertainment format we we that great power gives us great responsibility um we need to ensure that our industry gets headlines for doing great stuff for for helping people in the pandemic for helping you know regreen the the plant Forest we working with games Forest Club to do things like that and and and and not for loot boxes

or terrible working practices so and despite the the the current layoffs holding on to key staff is is is as important if not more than ever so we're going to be covering this in in our company culture industry visions and values and also in the incredible Indies who are still the lifeblood of the creative life PL of our industry uh we'll be covering how how indeed developers can still help us drive the industry forward so that's all happening tomorrow afternoon and that is because games is number one you guys are working the biggest media entertainment category in the world by some metrics we're bigger than we are bigger than TV film music but by some metrics we're bigger than all of them combined we've got some of the the coolest uh sort of TV kind of properties like left us was huge what was the biggest grossing film of the year until Barbie knocks it off the spot just I think last week um and then obviously you know this you still get these great concerts with with music artists and and and and streamers from other media like Netflix um getting involved obviously that's very a very interesting local story because they

acquired next games amongst their Studios and and the story is only going to get better right now we're already the biggest but for the future Generations games is just bigger and bigger we have for for geni and Millennials gaming is more attractive form of men anything else for the next range is called the Gen Alpha I don't know how old that is but that he looks he could be anything he could be 27 I don't know but but these people are are raised with Gaming controllers in their hands so the future is bright this is is the best time to be in the games industry so I want to before I give a very quick overview of what's happening through last few days I want to kind of just leave you one more film reference and say remember who you are you are the guys that have created this industry you are the guys that have been kind of the The Overlook the redheaded stepchild of entertainment the music industry looked down US Film indust L down on us even for mobile even the games industry L down on mobile but we have built this industry together and you guys have done amazing things and remember that remember who you are small point of reference I thought this quote came from

the Matrix um at the end where he stopping the bullets actually the quote comes from The Lion King but I do think it still stands remember who you are that was to Simba right I'm be very now picture inter I'm going to very quickly rip through some of the things that happening uh the next uh two days we've got 20 tracks of content you you know all about that already um if you miss you can it's great to see stuff live obviously but if you miss anything or you want to catch up we've got this video vault which com live about a month after the show and you can catch up on everything um all the all the schedule is available here and it's also listed within meet to match you can plan your meetings and your talks together and if you haven't been to meet to match please do even if you're just going to go in and say I'm not really interested in meeting it just helps us clear the backlog and it's good it's good manners that's the main meeting system for for the whole uh business uh the whole event uh there's the Expo floor there's plans for elsewhere you can see outside um we've got three tracks we've got a a Career Zone we've got the meeting tables

Expo in the middle and the big Indie Zone and do pop into the big Indie Zone at some point and vote for the best game and using with ination bite brew and they'll get an award at the end of the the show um so go and play some games there we've got Fringe events going on um invest connect is happening now is Indie pitch this afternoon for for mobile Indie pitch actually be PC console not mobile again that's happening tomorrow uh and the publish developer speed match is tomorrow afternoon uh sorry I've copied and paste wrong thing there oops if you need help we've got help desk don't go to them until about 11: ideally but we've also got online resources and an email where can help you and if you like not tweeting if you like Xing you can X yourself to death you can X everywhere is it what do we say now is it just post do what do people anybody say x I don't know but you can you can tweet come on uh hash PG connect um Wi-Fi is on the badge you don't really need that but it's there in case you need it um obviously this event doesn't come together without help so I need to say a

huge thank you to our gold sponsors uh to smartex to 966 to ago tooo to digital turbine clever tap gaming exola and data I have a round of applause please for them they've made supported us thank you also to guard Square play zebede Photon uh keyword Studios help shift user Centrics and future play thank you again for your sports F sponsors we have bronze sponsors and we have track sponsors we have associate sponsors thank you to all you guys uh we have the global game Jam brilliant guys as our official Indie partner and we have loads of Media Partners have helped us and and uh finally oh two final things we have thank you to our incredible speakers 160 speakers given their time please be gracious to them we love you guys thank you so much for contributing to this um we can give the still media team it's really me that does most of it but if you want to give them some credit they're they're outside no there's there's a there's a whole group of people that do all the real work I just stand up here occasionally um and a

final final nearly final thing uh we are now steel media is now part of a bigger group we're part of the Enthusiast gaming Universe which is this big uh Media Group uh based in Canada and the US it's a NASDAQ listed it owns a load of properties it does cool things with the NFL uh it's was number one com score gaming property in May Tik Tok channels Esports all sorts of stuff and obviously thank you so thank you so much for coming without you just me me standing on the stage I can do that I do at home but it is nice that you're here I get a little bit of feedback so it's good uh if you like this um we've got plenty more obviously um we are in the Middle East uh for PGC Jordan in November the 4th and the 5th uh and then we're going again to the Middle East to Neon the as yet not quite built the I don't know how it's going to work uh for our CEO Summit in Saudi Arabia in December which should be interesting and it's definitely worth as I said before the Mina Market is growing rapidly there's lots of interesting companies out there it's definitely worth a visit and then we will be back for the grand SMY London in January 22nd

and 23rd next year and before all that having a party this evening harah yay I knew you got that um so I think that's that's it I've headlessly gone over time but I always do that so a