Session: 2025 & Beyond: How Web Will Redefine Gaming - Rabia Dincer & Rafael Morgan from Crazy Games

Heat. Heat. Please welcome to the stage our first guests. Amazing that they are Rabia and Raphael from Crazy Games. They're talking about 2025 and beyond. How web will redefine gaming. Give them a round of applause.
Let's start with the introduction. So, my name is Rafael Morgan. Uh I I'm the VP of partnership at Crazy Games. I've been working in the gaming industry for 15 plus years, most of them in web games. Um, I've seen the good times, the dark times, and now the the real good times that are about to start in the

game industry. There's some really cool things that are happening uh that we're going to share. So, we want to be to make this the today the format a little bit different that's more conversational um and we share some of the perspectives that we see on the web gaming the web gaming industry. We have a lot of partners here and but also across all continents. Um and we're seeing like really like a transformational point um in terms of like technology and and also sort of content and users and then I just want to share some of the stuff that we're seeing right
Hab and my name is Rabia. I have been working as a publishing manager on mobile on the web and I really love the data size side of the gaming of be every all the data behind the fun and I know that uh most of you have been hearing about AI this year and the second buzzword has been the browser gaming and as one of the biggest web gaming platform we wanted to share some insights with you guys. Yeah. And there

is something about AI here coming too. So um so just to talk a little bit about crazy games, right? Um we are I would say um yeah a global platform. Most of our audience is actually based in US uh and other countries. We are about 45 million monthly active users. Um this week
breaking the records [snorts] again, right? like we've been growing um really really really very nicely in the past two three years. Um a lot has to do with like the the content that we adding but also with the changes that we are developing together with partners um and that being even like game engines um or even providing feedback to browsers. We we have a community that I'm very proud to say of over 3,000 developers. And from here here ranging, you know, from indie hobbyists, um, somebody that's making their first projects and actually are able to find an audience of people,

tens of thousands of people who wants to play their game without spending a single scent in us acquisition through developers that based here in Finland with with established company um, multiple people working um, on this on the project. I think the one point that I why I'm so fascinated about the web is that if we think about it everything that in terms of technology has been moving to the web right like we I do my my video calls I used to have Skype I mean before we had phones even without screen now we had Skype showing your age
and now and now we're doing calls on the browser
same same happens to your it's like your communications right you don't need to applications you can use I use the web version of of WhatsApp as well. Um, Photoshop is moving to the web like more and more and the AI

happens on the web, right? This is what we're seeing this and I think this is fascinating. I think we're very um I mean it makes sense that mobile is so big, right? There's so much money in that. But if you think about what really technology is beautiful is actually on the web, right? And the reason why is not because I'm here a nice guy just, you know, talking this stuff. It's simply because it just makes sense. It's easier to for you to access because you just click a link and it open. You don't have any installation. It works in every single device. If I'm actually creating something and I will send it to you, I I clicking on the link and I send it to you and then you boom, you're actually seeing it without having to do any installation, without having to go any wallet gardens, without having to share any revenue, right? And I think that's actually the beauty about the web that and that's of course where we're so excited about talking about this and for games, right? There's technical challenges for it. There has been a lot

of technos challenges. I mean, I think we all remember the golden time when Steve Jobs actually killed flesh, right? I love it was very dear to me, you know, it just kill flashes. So, and that's why a lot of this stuff has been kind of put it on hold. But I think now we're about to change, right? A lot a lot of the movements are are going towards um towards the web. And I think that's the power of the web. That's and that's that's why I think more people should be looking at that. Yeah, I mean as a user uh what I really like is like I can share any game I'm playing, invite my friends in seconds and play with my friends. But in on the developer side as well, if you are looking for uh doing your game pitches or looking for investors, etc. Instead of describing what are what are the characters, what is happening in the game, you can just share the link in of your game, which is way more impressive. Plus, uh, if you're an indie developer, you don't need any UA budget. The game

is already reaching to millions of players. You can share data with the investors, which is obviously a huge plus when you're pitching the game.
And I think that's also something that Crazy Games now we're forking up. I I didn't bring this on the presentation, but I can mention this a bit. So, we just released the Crazy Games app because obviously there's an audience there. There's there's a lot of pros about being native and being there. So we released that like so but it's going to be this mega app with 3,000 games right al fingerprint it's approved it's live and and we actually um and we also work with like you know we publish some of our games in other platforms as well and everything is just simply one build one build one SDK you're done you don't need to build for different um oss and and these things so I think some of other stuff that important to highlight here is like you know there's a studies um I brought there is something that was called think with Google a while back where they talk about the the market size and it is growing. We see this crazy games is going like crazy but it's

also we we see other partners also having success. Um and uh and and I think that's uh that's that's something that we want to see uh more. At the same time, it's all known in crazy games, right? Like I mean it would be easy to say like come and work. Okay. Can I go back to that one? If I if I go back and talk just about crazy games, but right now like in top of my mind here, there's crazy games, there YouTube playables, there reets, there's Telegram, there's MSN, there's Reddit, there Facebook games, there's Yunda games, there's how many other options you have versus having two guys working, you know? So, I think that's that's kind of like where the beauty about the web. Maybe your game works for crazy games, maybe it doesn't, but I'm sure you'll find your plat your audience. If you're more mature, you might like go go go more to Facebook games. But, you know, and I think that's that's sort of like the thing that we see um in web games. Our mission is actually to create a place where all sort of content is actually available. So, everything every person will find something that they like and that's what we're striving for.
All right. So just to talk a little bit

about it again this is it's not our our data this comes from from this study made by Google
is that like you know there's people there the typical casual game the typical H45 gamers there's like people that are like more the match three type of game um we have a lot of MMO players these days I mean the German German always had this history about this big old MMO players right that that happens on the web um and then there's a lot of other stuff like that you know we're seeing like this beautiful more midcore games are coming and they are also changing the audience and I think that's that's something that um we would like to talk a second about
which is like sharing some of our observations and stuff that we you know that we're seeing right um is that the one thing is that it's always the chicken and the egg once you're building a platform you're always trying to um you want to have more users so the more users you can have the the more games you were managed to manage to bring because there be more people playing it,

right? So size matters a lot for the platform. But the one thing that we've been doing a lot recently is bringing more games that are like focused on inapp purchase and we're partners with Exola here and we're seeing a rise of inapp purchase, right? It's not just us. There's other platforms that also doing this web web gaming platforms and everybody's looking at this inapp purchase and this is it makes so much sense, right? The revenue is much higher. Um and by but by being able to to provide this sort of revenue what what happens is wonderful because that now we're being able to bring different type of experiences like bigger more I would say more in depth sort of games that historically were not available on the web right and by doing this we actually bring a different type of audience so and that that's what we see on crazy games we see like the fastest growing I mean you know web games has he restored could been something that's popular among like young ch children, people that play on school. This is how I used to play, right? But by now by adding this different type of content, we start seeing other different

audiences growing on the web and being like, you know, the 34 plus male like myself, right? It's actually, you know, the fastest growing segment on crazy games at the at the same time. We also see the same for female players as well, right? And and I think that again goes again to is more than just casual game these days. I think there is opportunity for nearly all type of content and I think we're also going to break some some other some other barriers right by going forward um with this sort of strategy.
Yeah. And this also leads to lots of studios creating a web gaming uh department as well because as users are spending more money on a platform where it has to it has been uh freeto play before they expect more content more things to do inside the game. So the studios as a result since they are earning from this they keep investing more to the game play to richer experiences. So this is how the whole industry is actually growing on the web.

Yeah. And and I think a lot has to do as well with like technology right um and how much this has been um impactful. Um, you know, we there always been uh there has always been game engines that are focused on the web, right? They have like construct, we have play canvas, which used to be owned by the guys from Snapchat here. Um, Coco, but now we started working together like or you know with developers that work with Unity. I mean, we had a big game gen together with Unity last year. Um and then you know there's they've been developing um a lot of new things that that make web games more functional that that actually uh make them to be smaller which is a huge part of about being successful on the web right but we and we also having conversations with the guys from Godo for instance they are pushing like you know an update for next year that would also focus on on the web game maker. So all those game game

engines they are talking to us right they want to know about the players they want to know what's happening and they are building features because all of them support web right and I think this conversation is not just around crazy games it's about it's around like you know other platforms and it's also about developers trying to build their own like authority their own community and talk directly to those users right and this is the beauty and why the web is it's so so nice um the other part which I think it's really exciting Right. It's about WebGPU. So, Crazy Games was the first platform um at least that I know to to make a to release a game commercially uh with with based on WebGPU. And WebGPU is um I'm not a technical person. So, yeah, my knowledge goes so far, but from what I know understood working together with many engineers is that, you know, it actually enabled a different type of experience on the browser. And here we're looking like something more consolelike visually

experiences, right? Um and again it's it's a one movement that really that push another thing that pushes another thing, right? So the the game engines like Unity, they start, you know, um bringing this uh and still they still developing this stuff, but other game engines are now supporting these things, right? And this has been uh has also been driving the different type of content. So now you have more visual vis visually appealing games that actually um are happening on the web, right? And another big change that happens is like with the the release of the the new iOS 26, right? Now Safari even on mobile supports web GPU by default, something that was not the case. So we have nearly I would say universal support for web GPU, right? So the technology is evolving. There is there is a clear movement towards you know better games made for the web and with this what will happen I'm pretty sure is a different

type of audience will be will be on the web as well you know the the players who like to have to have more this more visual appealing this more developed type of games um and those this is a movement that you know it's it's it's taking place at the moment as well on the web
that's the beauty of it like right after this talk you can just go to crazygames.com and test these games. And and I think the last point that I want to talk about and here it's a little a bit of um you know also a bit of opinion but it's also a bit of an announcement as well right um again AI like the way we use it it's all web based right like it's it's all um it it runs on your browser and I think that's what's happening right now um we we will be seeing new browsers that have AI by default being part of it. Like um from there you can only imagine you know

that if your browser can see if the AI can see what your browser is doing it will be able to provide feedback on what you're actually making it right and from there at some point will be able to play with you. Why not right? if he actually can act on on this and with all that right and here is a lot of I would say personal opinions on that but Crazy Games is about to announce a big partnership with a AI company next week um so yeah please I cannot talk the name yet but uh but it's something that I I I think will will change a lot of things for web games and games gaming as a whole.
Yeah. So in any um let's say AI platforms if you want to see your games crazy games might be the easiest access to these platforms because we'll be working with them directly. So any of your games that you want to distribute it's going to be available on those

platforms.
Yeah. And I just want to kind of like put it if you think about starting on web games I think there are some of the the five points that are considered to be the most important ones, right? Um, it's really check the game engine that you want to work. There are different options for different um, sort of like type of content you want to bring. Um, I think you one thing that you should not [snorts] underconider is optimization. Game size matters because like obviously you have those readiness of the user to play. You don't want to have a 250 megabytes game that takes one two minutes to load. You want to be to make it really fast. um understand what web players uh what what do they expect, right? It goes again like if you have a lengthy tutorial, if it takes very long to for them to play a game, to get started, you know, they might just leave. So, we really try to make it, you know, as easy as possible for them to get into action immediately. There's again going to multiple

platforms and um and really trying to um to capture like the right audience for you and then actually looking at different monetization options that are available. Historically the web has been part of u has been mostly driven by um browser for by by ads and now we're looking at inner purchase um and so on and other other stuff that will follow like subscription and I think this is the I would like to just before I open for QA it it's actually just read the sentence because that's how I I I really feel strongly about it that the web is the last one of the last open space for developer where every game has a chance to succeed from the small guys to the bigger ones. not only the big back budgets that actually can spend money with UA. So check it out.
And one last thing uh every most of the developers they ask us what is trending, what type of game we should bring to crazy games, what can I develop from scratch etc. The good thing is the

answer is not a secret. If you just go to crazy games uh the top games there it is all totally based on the user uh reaction. So the top games that are always changing every day is changing. It is based on what users are looking for, what they are searching for, what they are playing in rating positively. So you can always check what is trending especially in the US just by checking the platform.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Give a round of applause please. Now do we have any questions for these wonderins in the realms of web 3 uh sorry web uh game making? Yes, we've got a question at the back. Can we pass it? A microphone is coming. A microphone is coming to you. Tutter sweet.
Thank you. Yeah. Do you see me? Hello. I just wanted to ask uh how to compete how crazy games could compete with those websites which now provide you know these marketplaces with cloud storage

with a AAA games where you just pay like 5,10 per month. they could play, I don't know, Cyberpunk or whatever. And why they should go to crazy games instead of this? Why especially the uh the CA should choose?
I mean, more like cloud gaming like where they actually or what what do you mean? Which what type of websites you mean?
The websites, the cloud marketplaces where you could go just pay
and play any game without downloading, without waiting, without anything. Why they should choose you, not them? Um I I mean it's always good that you have options, right? What I think our players actually really like on crazy games is how neat the experience is. Um how how much new content we bring on like there as well where they can find communities as well, right? Um and I think that's that's one of the really strong strongest things on on crazy games is like the curation that we put on the platform and that the experience is good and simply works. Um I I think

you know so if you want different type of content I mean sure but what what we see is our community actually is growing and and they like what we're doing so I don't really feel that we really competes too much to be honest
I mean you don't need to choose as a user for me I don't want to go to one platform and play one type of game obviously if there's a community if I'm playing with my friends then that might be one thing but on crazy games you have multiple games and multiple multip to player games as well. So we have our own community and the good thing it's like okay now I want to play a game a new game I like it I want to invite a friend so I can just invite my friends as a developer I think you don't need to choose you can choose crazy games you can choose this platforms or other platforms the goal I think in today's world for a studio is to be sustainable and to survive so I think the answer is just you need to put your eggs in lots of baskets so crazy games is one them.

For me, it is one of the best. So, but I might be biased.
Thank you very much indeed for the question. That was amazing. Thank you everybody. Thank you Rabbi and Raphael.
And if you have more questions, we are in B1 and in our booth. So,
and thank you for sponsoring the track today. Thank you. I really appreciate. Thank you. [music] Heat. Hey, Heat.