Session: LiveOps Today: When, Why & What’s Next? - Anastasiya Kara, Rovio.

My favorite subject live ops. We're going to have Anastasia from Rovio who's going to come and talk to us about that. Anastasia, over to you.
So, hi. Welcome. Let's talk about live ops. We can't talk about live ops. Give me a sec. Now, we should be able to do that.

Uh so, why and how? So, today, let's talk why in 2013 Candy Crush had nothing, but now it has at least 10 live ops going on. And first about me, so I'm Anastasia. Before moving to Barcelona, I was working as architect in Istanbul. Uh I joined the industry in Gameloft, then I moved to Product Madness, then I was part of Monopoly, Scopely, and now I'm with Rovio. Um so, yes, in Rovio we just launched Angry Birds Match. Please download it. It's in Spain, UK, US. Test it, and if you have feedback, come and find me. Um so, what is live ops? Well, this is me trying to be poetic. It's an orchestra of time-limited events, offers, content updates, retention mid strategies, which result in the symphony of enhanced player experience. Everyone has live ops. Let's just get it straight. Everybody. Even Roblox, which is a whole other beast. So, how it all started? Well, of course,

with Steve Jobs reinventing the phone. Uh in 2007, iPhone era begins, and we have App Store next year. Everything is premium. So, here Rovio, here we are. We came up with a free-to-play, and we were the first ones to introduce this add-on Mighty Eagle booster for 0.99 that gets you help with the with the event. So, after that, the social casino era begins. Now, Slotomania gets a lot of credit, and I will explain why. A lot of Slotomania, it's very successful slots game, but a very simple core. You spin, and you get coins. And this is a challenge, because what else can players do once they're bored of this core? That's where Slotomania gets a lot of credit for the innovation, like Facebook social features, time-limited events, tournaments, missions, progress bars, milestones that everybody who is not lazy have them, retention gifts. So, Slotomania was the first one to have the seasonal albums. It's copy-paste, everyone has it. Coin Master, Monopoly, Royal Match, even Saga has it today.

Well, they're still testing, but they kind of have it. Uh Plinko Plinko mechanic, everybody has it too today. Only not lazy doesn't work on that right now. Uh Royal Match liked it so much that they have it in two events right now. So, now Clash of Clans. Uh so, Clash of Clans, a lot can be said about this perfect, beautiful, 4X light mechanic game, but I want to focus on clan and attacks. Uh of course, clans and clan wars also inspired that. So, Slotomania was the first in casual genre to introduce it, and then again, everyone copy-pasted it. Even Candy Crush has it now. So, that social casino and Clash of Clans resulted in a Coin Master. Meaning that slots and attack. But, let's be let's be real, Coin Master not the first. The Pirate Kings by Jelly Button it hugely inspired the Coin Master to be. So, after that, let's pause and talk

about what are the live ops types. So, let's divide them into two, duration and motivation. So, there is session base, there is short-term, there is long-term, or core related, meta related, and social. Of course, this is a generalization, but if you dig deeper, we dig deeper. Uh these are some examples of those. Uh like session base is just 30 minutes, short-term couple of days, and long-term, you know, the albums, for example. So, let's continue. So, here we are, Coin Master. Like, I personally love Coin Master. Not as a gamer, but as a game developer, because they do a lot of very smart stuff. They're still doing that. It's great. So, 2018, you can see they didn't have much going on. In 2026, they don't have space on the screen. They have to put the small arrow there. Like, I don't know if you can see it. Here it is. It's just too much going on. So, what happens? Well, first of all, it's just 6 billion very successful, very good. Uh but, the way that their session design

is, it's all about energy. The Everything you do in the game will lead you to get more energy, because that's the wall in the game that will let you continue your session or stop your session. So, there are four main ways, all time limited, loss aversion, directly, indirectly designed. So, if we do it from the, you know, reverse uh triangle situation, albums, again, everything just leads to that. Uh and that resulted in the feature boom. And I think the color choice was awful, as you cannot see anything. But, uh just let me summarize is that 2016 they had the huge art style change. In 2017, 2018, they were bugs, bugs, bugs. But, 2019, this whole Kardashian UA company was done, and they had a boom. And after that, nobody can stop them. As you can see, I don't have space on the screen to all the features that they've been introducing. So, here, if you see the way that

revenue is going, 161% is when UA boom started, and then of course 2020, we have the whole COVID situation with a strong spike. And then Monopoly Go launched, and the and the decline started. Uh still not bad for Coin Master. They're still in top 15 top grossing, so should be all good. Uh so, that all lead to Royal Match. So, on Royal Match, uh please do remember everything I said about Coin Master, because I'm going to talk about it during Royal Match. Uh so, Royal Match, this is 2021 I played, and 2026 I played, and no, it didn't take me six five years to pass seven levels. They are different accounts. Uh but, when I was analyzing that, when I was working with Chris, actually, um I was like, "Royal Match is not like a Gardenscapes, because, you know, they uh don't have this whole customization meta. They're more like Coin Master, but without attacking." And little did I know how right I was, because it was not

only uh about the live ops, it's not only about the core meta, it's also about live ops. Because Royal Match, remember how spins is important for Coin Master, for Royal Match, it's coins. They also do the same stuff. Like, you need to have more events to keep people invested, play, and pay. So, they also have albums, side games, milestones, tasks, streak events, that all result in more coins. So, coins are king in in Royal Match, if anybody had any doubt about that. So, uh this is the average revenue per install graph. As you can see, whenever down some live op was introduced, there's a huge spike. Of course, it is supported by UA, but it's great. And even when Monopoly got launched, they got crazy at all. Like they just couldn't stop after that introducing live up after live up. But the special uh special mention I want to do is for the super live ball. That was a very good

innovation mechanic that Royal Match did and everybody who were not lazy also copied that. Even Candy Crush. Uh and they had different in in different interpretations of it. Right now it's only four levels. So, let's pick of Candy Crush. So, Candy Crush, here we are 2013, nothing. 2026, a lot. Why? Well, uh because there is a shift in focus. If in if in coin Candy Crush, levels is the king where, you know, you are stuck you're stuck, you can play for 50 times, you will be still stuck. In Royal Match, it's the events. Events is the driver of your progression. So, if you want to progress, you want to win that level. So, game will help you to pass that level. Meaning that uh like my own personal record being stuck on a level in Royal Match is 18. 18 times I tried to play and then I passed

finally. In coin in Candy Crush, it was days, maybe 100 times, I don't know. So, it is same but different. I know everybody knows that, but I just want to highlight it anyway, that it is match three 2.0, the focus from the core. Uh let's jump to Monopoly. My ex-team. So, well, Monopoly, huge is successful, everything is great, we love it. And it's of course it's very successful because of nostalgia, best-in-class live ups together, and very good social live ups features that everybody is inspired for. So, Monopoly is social. It is in the core of the IP. Like, you cannot play Monopoly by yourself. Well, technically you can, it's very sad, you can do it, but you should be able to play it with somebody. So, here Monopoly does a very smart emphasis on live ops starting in the first 10 minutes of your session by introducing the community chest. And then, of course, the baking partners, Tycoon Racer, Haunted Mansion, and

everything. Like, you are playing with two players, four players, five players team, and you have to communicate in order to win the event. And of course, there is an improved clan mechanic. You remember how all the people were copy-pasting clan mechanic all the games, but Monopoly doesn't do that. It's a smart, very, very uh choice that was made by the way as part of me. I was part of the core team when we made that choice. And it is uh so, make Logic behind is that clans have its problems. You will have like 30 people, 20 people, half of them are churning, not doing anything. Uh you cannot play, there are two people basically doing the whole team event. But here, for every event you choose who you play with. If you have a good partner who is, you know, good enough, you may make sure that they will come back to you. And that's the whole thing. So, and I also want to highlight this board game in the board game. Like, I think it's brilliant, I love it. It's also I don't think it's in its final shape form because it was eight players,

now it's five. Uh and I really am interested how uh Royal Match can uh copy-paste that, but we will see. Uh so, what's now? Well, the cross-genre innovation, let's just very do quick quick brief. So, yes, we have shift to free-to-play, then for social features, then lighter 4X that went to Coin Master, then of course, Royal Match very much inspired by Coin Master, then we have Monopoly, and this all all lead to Royal Kingdom, which is kind of okay. But and yeah, let's not forget about Empires and Puzzles for the royal kingdom. And now, what do we have? We have puzzle with puzzle with full live ops. What do I mean by that? For the first time in the history of the top grossing games, we have hyper-casual core with live ops. Like Color Block Jam, interesting only 61 here, is a great

example. 1 year ago, it was only the core. By the way, brilliant core, very hard. Uh absolutely one of the favorites and had zero live ops. 10 months later, they have albums, which is like amazing for the hyper-casual. So, hyper-casual core and leech live ops series here upon us. I I counted, I think it's like five or six games we have with that. Uh so, this is the next best big thing. Uh so, what's next? Of course, cross inspiration will continue. Everybody will copy-paste. Everybody will copy. It's It's just how it works. If it works, it works. Uh of course, with the three biggest players out there. Uh mini games boom to continue. Like this whole Uh digging event. Uh merge mini game had its moment, very interesting. Uh and pets are also on the rise. Please, let's not forget about the first pet, the bird from the Angry Birds 2, like Rovio.

Um social continues to flourish, of course. We want people to play together. And a special shout out to Royal Match for the sub social PvP, the Champions Clash. It's very hardcore. It's real money maker. Like really great work for Royal Match folk. Uh so, to wrap up, to stay competitive, we in the gaming market, we need to have the shift from core first to event first experience. The barrel matched it. While experimentation with the core will continue as we see in hyper casual, well-designed live ops will remain essential to the game's success. And yes, live ops has become the primary driver of engagement monetization with offers, seasonality, and everything. That's it.
Thank you very much.
[applause]
Does anyone have any questions? Well, I'm going to I'm going to chuck in some things. Um so, in my head, um all

of the stuff that you're talking about, the the fact is that live game services have been an integral part of mobile. I think absolutely essential part. I don't think that we we've I'm trying to work out, why do we get a community in a game like Monopoly Go, which is a relatively light experience, you could argue, and yet people are passionate about it. What do you think is triggering, cuz I I've My belief is that live ops working essentially comes down to there being a community. When I look at a game like Monopoly Go, my instinct is, why is that there? But it clearly is. Do you have any thoughts on why people get so emotionally connected to games like that?
Monopoly and community?
Well, Monopoly Go itself, but also, you know, you you showed off some examples of how they're using social as Monopoly Go. But they're very relatively light touch, and yet the community themselves are very passionate. Do you have any thoughts on why those relatively light moments are having such a big impact?
Um yes, I think I I heard your question

correctly, but let me let me give examples of feature of albums. So, if you are in very invested in the albums in the game, you know, you're asking your friends to send it back to you. Even when you're churn, you want to churn, you want to, you know, don't play the game anymore, your friends will come and ping you from the WhatsApp or Insta or something like, do you have the the card I'm looking for? So, this this feeling of yeah, I need to help out my friend will come will make you come back to the game.
And that's been a trend in in a whole bunch of games. And I think what's interesting is how much it relates regardless of platform. Because if we look at PC games, what was the main driver of a PC game? Well, I don't want to let my mates down on I say let's say a raid on a World of Warcraft or I don't want to let my mates down if I'm playing Call of Duty. I think it's fascinating how even with a light touch social community games, we still get that same emotional feeling.
Yes, exactly. Like but they were pioneered by the whole 4X and you know all the clan wars and everything.

See I'm old. I I I helped launch the first Rovio game, but it wasn't Angry Birds. It was a game called Darkest Fear on a Java app. So, I I've I've seen all the MMO I was I was interviewing Rich Vogel who was one of the people behind Meridian 59 and Ultima Online. So, if you're as old as me, you'll know a lot of these techniques actually predate mobile by about two decades. But, you're absolutely right in mobile. The fact that they went straight in
Yep.
to those experiences and when Peter bit of a side bracket basically referred to himself as the mighty eagle off the back of that first IAP, amazing stuff.
Thank you.
Cool. Oh, thank you very much. Oh, do we have one question? Go for it.
Okay. Thanks a lot for your talk. It was a pleasure. Um I had one question related to what you were saying about, you know, the mixing of all these types of live ops on top of the core, right? But we're also seeing games like Township who are now

mixing cores together in order to do even more live ops on top of that. So, I just wanted to ask what you think of this kind of trend, right? Cuz
I have the insight to that.
Uh-huh. Okay.
[laughter]
All right.
they're not happy. They're going to change that. It's just too much Uh artwork even the whole AI. They're going to They are moving more to live ops right now and they were just They just got too invested in this whole second, you know, expedition situation, but it's going to change very soon.
Fascinating to know that. Uh, well, I mean, the the Well, we got to
We have 2 minutes.
Uh, we we had them on there, but we started late. So, I'm trying to catch some time back up. Um, but on that note, um, I mean, thank you very much for that. I think it's fantastic and I think your point about that when it's too much, again, one of the biggest challenge I think with any game trying to do live ops is keeping it manageable.
True.
Yeah, even if it's your scale, focusing

on the data at value as much as the actual art asset creation value matters so hugely. And as I say, thank you so much.
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