Week in Mobile Games E50 - AppLovin layoffs, celebrity marketing & Supercell's soft launch aversion

[Music] Hello and welcome to the Pocket Gamer.Biz podcast week in mobile games for a very special episode. It is our 50th episode. I'm very excited. My name is Craig Chapel, head of content at pocketgamer.biz. And with me today is the return of our deputy editor, Paige Cook. Great to have you on the show, Paige. It's good to be back. I've forgotten how to podcast. So, you'll all just have to bear with me. I've never known how to podcast. So, you're in good company. And of course, our news editor, Aaron Assel. Yes. Hello. Wearing a lovely shirt today. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. I thought I'd get a bit dressed up for the occasion. I even brushed brushed my hair. Yeah. Put a shirt on. It's um high effort from me. I uh I put on a jumper. I like the effort. I like the effort. Thank you. Yeah. Any excuse to wear something a bit colorful. So, one of the things I wanted to kind of talk

about was a little bit of the history of the podcast, how we got started. I mean, I guess it's not that exciting how we got started. We were like, we should do this. So, we did. But none of us knew how to uh one person I think the company name Skill and I know Dan Sullivan overpocket.com I think has some experience with podcasting. That's kind of I think kind of it unless we got unless our page you're a secret editor and I didn't realize this whole time. No, no, that's not a secret skill I have. So neither did I. So had to was just like well I guess we'll learn it and uh I was told to well in the first early days we called this the weekend views because we have a weekend views regular on the site. Later later, very British this uh podcast later I decided to call it the weekend mobile games because I was like why aren't we calling it the weekend mobile games? That makes more sense. Like anyone looking for it then I'm going to search for the weekend views. Um so we changed that after I don't know 10 episodes or so I think

maybe a bit more. And yeah, I didn't know how to we didn't podcast. So I used Audacity for the audio only version and I found Audacity, okay, but I' I've heard that it's terrible to use. So maybe I just learned like the worst one, but it was free. But later uh we started doing video and now we do it on Riverside, which is actually pretty easy to use. Someone will probably tell me that's that's the worst one as well and I should be using a different one. So yeah, we've been doing this for 50 episodes now and the couple I I guess we're going to go through some uh some funny if we can recall any funny or interesting moments or just weird things that happen. And I have a few weird like things that I do on the podcast, a real behind the scenes. Sometimes I forget the name of the podcast. So at the end of the show I'm like that's it for the week of mobile games and then I'm like but I can't actually name the show. I called it like the wicked views or the wicked something or or I'll just forget that the number of varants I've heard. I

remember the first time that I prop properly forgot it and I think I think you're both on the show and you you could I think you must have worried for my sanity. It's at least like two minutes of being like I don't know what it's called. You didn't help me by the way. I remember that very well. You suffer well he'll get there. Yeah. Yeah. Just just let him cook. He's old, you know, takes a bit longer to think. Um, so that's funny. And then one other weird thing I've learned that I do is I yawn literally before every episode of the podcast. So we start the five sec I have this thing where even just thinking about yawning, seeing someone yawn, I I'm desperate to yawn now. But yeah, for some reason it's like a proper Pavlovian reaction to the countdown starts 5, four, and then I yawn and then and then we can kick off. It's very You should have kept them all and we could have just done a compilation of 50 ys. I mean, they're still technically a lot of those are saved on Riverside. So, technically we could do the 50

compilations. Well, oh well, most of them. I guess we not the first ones. Can we like trigger a live one or is it kind of harder to do? I I am literally fighting off of your right now. It will happen in a minute. Yeah. And then I don't know if anyone ever notices. Sometimes I'm sure people are begging me to get a shelf. Sometimes I put a figure in the background. I don't know if anyone ever noticed. Little Easter egg. I don't know. Does that count? But yeah, it's been it's been a great 30 50 episodes. So I'm already forgetting. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. But uh Paige Aaron, like what have you any fun moments that you can recall? I think you already mentioned one of my highlights and it's just that ever not me. My background is pretty much always the same except for now it's a little bit different. But like especially with Aaron, I feel like every other podcast just whatever's behind you just changes. And then like you started adding more. So then Craig was like, "Right now I'm going to add something to mine." And then all of a sudden there was a Godzilla. And then I also I don't know why I remember this. I'm pretty sure on

one of our podcasts Aaron, you did a white chocolate digestive review. Like a little Yes. Yeah. It was so random, but we were just really intrigued. We were like, "So what's it like, Aaron?" And I don't know why that sticks in my head, but it just does. You won't believe it, but I just got another packet and it's um in the kitchen now. I'm half tempted to run and get it just just to prove it. Just to give us an updated review. Yeah. So, I haven't had them in a while. Yeah, they might have changed it. It was me me thinking about it's just summoned that pack of biscuits. What I uh uh what I like about uh your background page is it's Oh, wait. Is that your background now? Cuz cuz usually it's uh Oh, no. You've moved desk, haven't you? That was it. Now I remember. You move desks. So your computer's actually behind you, right? Yeah. Like that's where I actually work. Cuz my partner used to work from home but doesn't now. So if I actually sat where my seat is, the background would just be unicorns and

rainbows and stars, which isn't exactly me. So I tend to like flip the other way when I do the podcast. But I'm moving, so this is all coming down. So, it's just day by day. This office is getting more and more boring. I need a better background other than like an errand cupboard, but it's a must. I thought about getting posters or something, but maybe that'll just be worse. Or just a green screen. Cover it all up. But Aaron, what about uh what about you? Yeah. Yeah. So, I was thinking I think mine in a way is more to do with kind of the history of the podcast and predates it just because I think part of what also spawned us doing this was PGC London 2024. Oh, yeah. When So, because we hadn't started the podcast yet, but obviously the idea had been floating around and then there was a room that had like a time slot needing filling. Yeah. Cuz the speaker cancelled, I think. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I was just remembering kind of just going about my

planned business for the afternoon, you know, going around writing stuff up and then suddenly I am kind of acquired and um told, "Yeah, you're you're going to be needed on on stage in like half an hour to talk about mobile games." It's like one of those bad dreams, isn't it? Yeah. Have you studied for that exam? And then so to me at least that kind of feels like that was I guess the springboard because that was kind of like a live actual inerson podcast in a way in terms of I guess just us talking about mobile game stuff. Um so yeah that's probably a highlight just for how out of the blue it was on the day. I forgot that that was the genesis of it and it was me, you, Chris and Peggy on the stage. I had tried to rope in a couple random attendees PGC London. One of them was Adam Smart from AFL. Hello if you're listening who's great and and does uh has done podcasting but I think even he was a bit alarmed of like me

very last minute asking would you like to do this sounding very desperate to uh fill this session slot in the schedule. I imagine the people in the audience are a bit like what is going on? But yeah that that was fun. Anything else? Yeah, other than that, I'm glad that Paige noted about my background because a lot of effort goes into choosing whatever's going in the bat each week. I don't think you can always see it because I'm usually kind of blocking it a little bit, but I've got plenty of like Pokémon figures and various things that I like to change around. So, for anyone who hasn't been keeping an eye out, I guess go back and watch every previous episode in full for the watch time and uh continue to keep an eye out on the help us with the algorithm. You know, we missed the most important thing, which is Aaron's clock. We just hear this random chime every so often. And I think like for so many episodes, we didn't actually know what it was. And like obviously you edit Craig, you'd be like, "What is that noise?" Knowing you asked, Darren was just like, "That's my clock." Yeah, maybe we should leave it in this

time. No, that's an Easter egg. If you've ever heard it, you're just one of the special few and it's just one of the times where Craig's missed editing it. We're usually pretty good now. Like if it gets to the hour mark, it's like Well, sorry, this clock is also activates early and apparently earlier and earlier as the years go on. Slowly gaining time. So, so the 5:00 pm alarm goes off at about 3 4 minutes too or whatever it is. Yeah, we usually manage to time it so I'm not the one speaking or Yeah, we all sit and wait for it to little song as well. A little tune then. But yeah, the earlier episodes I remember just Yeah, so didn't hear it at the time. Well, I don't even remember hearing it and then I remember editing and being like, what is this? I couldn't really get I tried my best to get rid of it but early days of editing and then I was just like that's slight impossible without like deleting might have been an hour and talking or whoever but uh but

yeah no it's been uh as I said been really thank you for everyone for listening we've really enjoyed doing the 50 episodes and here's to 50 more and beyond we can never leave by the way you have to we all have to get to hunting that's the check your contracts sorry about that but no yeah looking forward to doing as I say another 50 and hopefully you'll stick with us and hopefully we keep growing. We've been growing throughout the past year. And and also shout out to Peggy and Brian who do the interviews. They've done a great job and they've been doing that a lot longer than we've been doing the weekend mobile games. Big thank you to them. And uh hope everyone listens to those and enjoys those. And as always, any feedback that you've got the I don't know the episode's too long. You want us to talk about something different. We should be interviewing different people. I don't know. or we should be interviewing you. Just get get in touch and yeah, we're always welcome in feedback and we can make we we can make changes, right? So, I guess we'll actually go into the week in mobile games, what we usually do. So, yeah,

we're going to talk about the week's news and hopefully provide some insights. It's my usual intro. I didn't do it this week. Firstly, some shoutouts as always. So, Dubai Game Expo Summit is coming up quick. It's coming up fast. So that's going to take place on May 7th to 8th. And also just a reminder, I'm going to be at Gamescom Latam uh about the week before. So uh if anyone's in Brazil wants to to meet up, please uh get in touch, let me know. Um then we've uh and then back to our events. We've got the PGC Summit in Shanghai July 30th. We'll be doing the Mobile Games Awards again in August. We'll get uh date TBC, I think. PGC Helsinki October 7th to 8th. We've got PTC Jordan coming up later this year and we have I think at least one other one or two other events that we'll be announcing in due course. So busy year right into the news and after all that happiness there's some sad news. So machine zone so the headline up was machine zone CEO out as apploven

lays off 97 staff. So there was a a warn filing. So that's like a notice of layoffs in California that you have to do for mass layoffs in March. So it was actually just under a month ago that said 97 layoffs. I asked I forgot what I I keep forgetting what they're called. You have to you have to ask like the EDDD I can't remember what it stands for if you want like specifics. So I asked them can you send me the filings of the past year cuz there's actually been quite a few. And actually in the filing it said they did weirdly it says 11 layoffs and then actually lists all 97. There was another filing from I believe it was January uh where they announced I can't remember how many now 8 89 or something like that uh layoffs 86 can't remember and anyway a lot of the job rolls were actually quite similar so I wonder if this was kind of an extension of that you're supposed to give 60 days notice but the effective date is always the same date as the of

the notice by law you have to give 60 days notice in California anyway that's getting were a lot of specifics, but the interesting thing to me is, yeah, the positions that it actually mentioned were the CEO of Machine Zone. So, usually it's not very descriptive. It's like game designer, programmer. Yeah. CEO out, design director out at Machine Zone and then I believe in it was either January or October, the CTO was listed as affected by job cuts and we we know that there were layoffs last year. There are a lot of posts from past employees this year saying now past employees saying that they've been laid off. One former staff member said that most machine zone was shut down. I've asked Apploving for comment on the layoffs. They declined to comment. I also followed up specifically about well has machine zone shut down. They didn't get back to me. I guess the main thing I well two things I wanted to say is it's

it's strange that Apploving does quite a lot of layoffs because there's they're really been in their headlines for a lot of reasons. Short sellers their stocks kind of tags they want to buy a Tik Tok. It's kind of a crazy time for them and but ultimately they're a very fast growing ad tech company and very successful but they constantly make layoffs. So there was at least six notices since August last year. Um, again, I don't know if they're all like specifically six separate kind of stints, I guess, of layoffs or or they kind of some of them follow on from each other, if that makes sense. Um, there was a quote from Adam Farugi in his uh, I think in the last earnings call and he was asked about streamlining as someone puts it and he said, "We're one of the most financially lucrative businesses to be constantly announcing layoffs." They said now we don't want to constantly be doing that but since I took over HR my job was to go where are the areas of the business that are not perfectly aligned with these organic opportunities and

let's start shedding those so that we can really narrow in and focus on what's in front of us and we know that they've been very focused also on revenue per employee that was a big thing that they've been mentioning kind of sucks right if you work there helping this company be super successful and then you're laid off I guess from a business sense like if you if you're going to focus on revenue per employee Maybe they're looking at going public at some point. That's part of that will be part of that story, I guess. So, they just decide to get rid of people and they can live without it. Maybe for them, like I don't know all the inside stories, but maybe ultimately at an executive level they see that as it works. It's really sad to see. The other thing is so machine zone so made you know classics like forex strategy classics like mobile strike game of war and then final fantasy uh 15 a new empire when I say they're classics is because these are kind of I think these are all billion dollar games

maybe some of multi-billion dollar really the early days at least thinking of the western market of super super successful freeto-play mobile games and we we'll go into to some celebrity ads soon but you know they had some of the classic uh celebrity marketing campaigns can't remember their names now but Arnold Schwarzenegger was in a mobile strike one and there was a couple very famous ones for game of war I can't people were so famous I can't remember their names but they were and so you know flash fast forward to now machine is just totally different company I even remember when they were acquired by loving and and that was going to be kind of big midcore focus and it felt like oh maybe machine own or kind of be more successful again. And that just never really happened. They had a cool game in soft launch. I think it was called I want to say it was called Rain of Vampires, but that was that was I believe the game that was cancelled last year. Maybe it's this year. I think it was last year. Might have been this year. Um so it look it looks to me like you know all their old games just not

they're not as successful as they used to be at all. And it looks like at least in games that are in if you think of games as soft launch or anything that's been publicly announced there's not there's nothing going on publicly and a lot of people have left. So uh obviously looking into it but I I kind of fear for the future of that studio anyway Paige Aaron any any thoughts on app loving or machine zone? Yeah like you said with the machine zone part of it I'm just curious what's kind of what's going to be left with that. Yeah, because it's like the senior people are out. We know that a lot of other people were affected. I I just I don't know how big the studio was and how many people could be left. Um I mean obviously you hope like oh maybe they're working on something cool now, but it it doesn't look like that. I can't get any comment out of that loving to ease those fears. I guess I think on the gays business side they I believe I was told they have been looking to cut that for years and now they're selling it. And if it is Triple Dot that buys them, unfortunately, I just if I just if I

simply look at Triple Dot as a casual games publisher, I just don't see room for Machine Zone as a midcore developer. Applovin's got what it needed out of it, which is data. And they decided not to do their games business anymore. It's yeah, worrying for that studio and it'll be a real like landmark, I think, for the industry that machine goes under. Right. So, I spent 15 minutes talking. So, Paige, what have you got? Mine's a relatively quick one, just that Squadbusters is heading to China. So, it was spotted on um China's app store sort of ahead of the release. Um I still think Squadbusters is a really interesting one. I know it hasn't really hit the heights that a lot of people are anticipating that it might, you know, it's I guess it's kind of the curse of being Supercell. You have all of these massive hit titles. Everyone expects more hits out of you. But yeah, you know, Squad Poster's not not quite there yet. Still got some growing to do. I know, like we we've seen the studio even talk about it themselves and that there's things that are working and things that aren't working and, you

know, they're trying to get it in a in a place where, you know, it can keep growing. So, I suppose, you know, putting it somewhere where, you know, one of the world's biggest games audiences is, you know, seems like a a smart move. And obviously, Tensson have a stake in that. So, they'll be heading up like the the publishing duties for it. But yeah, I just think it'll be interesting to see how the market there reacts to the game and what that kind of does overall on its growth. You know, do I don't know. Do you guys think that it will have a significant impact? It's China like it's a huge market or do you think it's still not it's it's not going to be enough? I don't think it will be enough at all. So, what you might see, which we often see, it's like within the first month it might make quite a few million dollars. depends on the how big they push it I guess with UA you might even see it do like outsize even when it's made in the US so far and then my prediction after that is it it will fade away very quickly the reason I say that

is there's no I'm I'm just trying to look at the markets that it's in and there's no indication that like say some of the top countries and the performers in Asia and I know they're all the same China's different from Japan it's different from Korea etc but this game has it's made over 100 million which you know Most studios would be happy with that, but that's not that's not a supercell game. Need, you know, they want this game to make a billion. And then South Korea net revenue 4 million. Japan 3 million. Taiwan 2.1 million. That's lifetime. Is it really going to break that much in China? I I just I just don't think so. Not in Not in its current state. And I know that they they said previously they're working on it. And we've seen with Supercell, you know, Brawl Stars. Maybe that's a one-off, but they managed to kind of do kind of the unthinkable really, which was not just turn it around, but turn it around that it looked almost like a new release that kind of level of success. But I guess we'll see with Squad Busters if it could do that. And then their latest release, Moco, has also not done that great. So,

yeah. Yeah, I'm going to touch on that one later. I'm having a very supercell themed return to the podcast. But uh yeah, I I I I think Big Start it could even be like for most studios. Wow, that's that's that's ridiculous. Incredible. I think long term it won't be enough. Yeah, I I kind of think the same. At least I feel like it'll be good for a time because anytime when something is newly introduced somewhere, it tends to do okay and then yeah, it it fades. And I don't know if it just, you know, going to a new audience is going to be enough. But yeah, it will be interesting to see how it ends up. Well, I remember with Brawl Stars, the early days of that when it was in soft launch, there was an indication of that it could do well in Eastern Asian markets and it was quite very clear that that could be the case. That could be what drives Brawl Stars and you can see that from the early stage before release. Then it was kind of true post release. I just you just don't get that indication currently with Squad Busters. I think

there's just key things that they have to fix, right? Uh Aaron, what have you got? Yes. So, on the subject of AppMagic data, um they their data suggests that Minecraft mobile version has surged to a three-year high in revenue. So following kind of a lucrative start to this year, obviously the Minecraft movie came out on the 4th of April and that same day, mobile player spending in the Minecraft game increased by 32%. Um, so this was also off the back of it having had its most lucrative 3 months since the beginning of 2022. So between January and March 2025, the mobile version generated 42.3 million uh which was already up 19% quarter over quarter and 34% year-over-year and April is currently on track to do even better than that. It really seems like I guess

cuz you know there's been trailers and we've known about the Minecraft movie coming for for a little while. So it seems like perhaps that's helped it kind of have have a pretty good start to the year and then it's kind of taken off even more so since the the films come out on April 12th and that was its best day since Christmas Day 2021. So, and you know, this is a pretty noteworthy increase it's going through. And obviously, yeah, the timing is very coincidental if um if it isn't to do with the um Minecraft movie, which it's worth noting that they did there is a new update that's out, but that came out on March 25th, which didn't cause any big spike. The latest spike at least is pretty tied to the April 4th movie release, the update. So, it was version 1.21. 21.70. Um, which apparently introduced new new features

like bushes and wild flowers and a pause screen, which I didn't know that Minecraft doesn't have a pause screen, but I may be showing my my ignorance on it there. But, um, yeah, obviously, yeah, it's doing it's doing well at the moment. I say it's at like a threeyear high which is I guess it it goes to show that obviously the Minecraft movie has been making loads of money on its own anyway but it's also had this kind of knock on advertising effect I guess in a way for the the game. I'm sure they're not like quite shouting from the rooftops about the revenue that they've made because it is a notable spike but like sorry mo again most this is one of those situations where most studios would be very happy to make like a million in a day. Wow, amazing. And then that kind of continued for a bit, but it's not like it's it's an impact, but it's not so big that Microsoft is going to be like, "All right, we better get another one of these out so we can make more money from the game." Well, that's at least from the mobile.

You've you've uh I think you've spoken about this before, with like Fallout and stuff. I guess these things I saw it with Fallout and I know The Last of Us when season one of that came out like the game sales went through the roof and even now obviously The Last of Us season 2 has come out and now they've done like a new bundle of all of the games which isn't like a new thing so I don't think it'll sell quite as well but yeah there there is definitely like you know a history of this kind of thing working. You release a film or a show alongside the game and yeah you know it it works. Like when Fallout came out, like I I played all the Fallout games again cuz you just get in that mood. It happens. And with Minecraft, like it's the kids. I'm telling you, it's all the kids. Like I think I put in my weekend views maybe last week or the week before about it. And I was talking with my niece and she's five and she's always loved Roblox, but now all of a sudden she's like, "No, I'm too big for Roblox." So now I like Minecraft. And then she was adamant that like her mom had to take her to see the film. So, it's all those kids doing this. Have you seen the

chicken? No. No, the me the meme is the chicken jockey. I saw like a video where I don't know if this was real, but it was like a screening of Minecraft and then a chicken shows up and everyone was like launching like popcorn everywhere and I was just like I'm so out of the loop cuz I don't understand. So apparently that has yeah that's been a very very big scene in a lot of cinemas but there was one that they they do that but people take it too far right when there's like a a like a meme and so they literally fried all the popcorn around everywhere and they had they brought a real live chicken into the screening and then obviously the lights go on and they get kicked out. That is a traumatized chicken crazy times. But the one thing with Minecraft that I think is interesting is it is such a generational game. Like at some point I did play Minecraft. I it was so long ago I don't really even remember but I remember like I dabbled with Minecraft a bit and then I've got a nephew who is now 15 and I remember he went for a phase where he was obsessed with it. He doesn't play it

any but then like I said now I've got like a 5-year-old niece and now she really loves it. So like all that's three generations that have all played Minecraft at some point trying to write about trans media for the newsletter and I'm very I've really struggled to find uh something interesting to say about it. I'll try and say this as quick as possible and sum up some of my thoughts. But like I remember over a decade ago I went to Canada on a a media tour where basically it was about games and trans media opportunities and it was a couple provincial governments or was a a national thing to invest in these projects. And at that time I hated the word trans media and I still do but particularly then because it was didn't really seem to make sense at the time and some of the the ways that companies went about it. I remember there was I think people did like this but Try Worlds had Defiance where the the game would affect the TV show. It kind of sounds cool but it's just so unnecessary. You just don't need that. And anyway, I was so that was a weird sort of example in the early days. And

then now I think the top IPs it makes sense to you can expand them out to film. So Pokémon has been about for decades. It's the biggest IP on earth. Doing a film is kind of a no-brainer really. I mean, they're already doing them, the animated ones anyway. And then Minecraft, I think, makes sense because it is still so successful. It's not old. Sonic again, you've just got that nostalgia and it's worked out for them. Angry Birds, I'm a bit more It's really cool to see it, right? But I'm thinking if you just think it from a business point of view, the second one which you would I guess you'd still class as success I think it made three times as budget production budget but that doesn't include marketing and I believe could be wrong but generally I thought I could be really wrong because I'm not I'm not a film reporter I guess but I thought the rule of thumb was production budget double it and that's the whole budget for marketing like it made it did okay didn't do that well I think it made like 150 mil gross

which it didn't seem to be that successful but now they're doing aggro movie free so I'm still a bit like and then if I quickly think of two other things so Last of Us Last of Us you mentioned brilliant show critically acclaimed costs like 10 million Canadian uh per episode I think this season's going to cost more but does that make it money back I don't know it's great I love it so I'm I'm all for it does it add much and then uh Arcane 250 million to make two seasons of By the way, I I played League of Legends once, didn't really get on with it. I loved the TV show. Brilliant. Like business point of view, surely what a total failure because 250 mil. I guess one of the benefits from these is not just making money, it's sort of giving you some cultural relevance. And so for the top IVs, I think it works. For everyone else, it's a little bit dicey. League of Legends obviously massive massive game but is it

culturally a massive game? I don't people dispute that but I don't think so. I know they can fill up crowds. They can fill up stadiums and that but in terms of getting bums on seats in like a theater or like loads of people watching and then playing the game spending it just didn't seem to be worth a worthwhile pursuit from that perspective. We'll get into some other stuff in a bit. Those are my random thoughts about trans media. I can't think of a conclusion. I I think my conclusion is it's awesome to see. I think a lot of the times it's actually pretty pointless and companies should probably focus on like making their games businesses successful. And then if there's if that is so super successful and there's an opportunity to do a film with a a well-loved IP over decades, then okay, it's my fault. It's my rambling thoughts. The arcane one's interesting though because I know quite a few people who like watched and loved the show but who've never played League of Legends and still haven't I don't think that's like right that's the thing right have they played have they

engaged any way with that IP that involved them spending money like well I don't know yeah it's just but it's interesting yeah they clearly made I haven't seen it but it must be a good show because like everyone I know that's seen it said it was great I think some of it is just I'm not thinking the cinematic releases, but some of it is streaming companies. I know Hollywood's kind of looking at games now as the next thing to some degree after superheroes and I think some streaming folks kind of look at it as like we need we need something for people to consume and so they sort of do these deals which then they make. Again, those are really good examples but just I'm not sure the value. Anyway, that's my TED talk on that. So, real real quick just because it's also about celebrities. So, the uh obviously we got the film, you know, all these major names and this past week it's been a bit insane. So, Dream Games, Royal Kingdom Celebrity Marketing Campaign has had Shakira, LeBron James, Jimmy Fallon,

it's had Courtney Cox from Friends. It's had the Big Bang Theory cast. There are others that I've I've just seen. I guess that game needed a big kick, right? a big big campaign to kind of get it going because Raw Match has been so successful and and Raw Kingdom looks like it's doing pretty well. It's hard to tell when they're spending so much money like this long term. I guess how it'll do, but it is doing pretty well. No idea if it's profitable. That old uh argument probably not at the moment, but it's just interesting that they're tapping these celebrities campaigns. Just last week we spoke about Supercell doing it with Gordon Ramsey, um Cody Rhodess, Rya Ripley, John Cena, and Chris Hemsworth for the Squad Busters launch, which you know, they had a big launch, but didn't really seem to do much after that. How worthwhile are, again, it's like how worthwhile are these campaigns? I think for Royal Kingdom, it's pretty exciting. Uh because it's like kicking things off and it's so broad. Maybe maybe it will hit. They're very expensive to do. So interesting what the returns are on that. like that kind of campaign versus

a user acquisition campaign that could be very focused and you can see precisely the returns. And then the last thing is I remember Peak Games doing this for I believe it was Tomb Blast said this last week with Ryan Reynolds and I think that was a total failure. Obviously those games ended up being super successful so it didn't matter but like these things don't always work but yeah they've gone really broad with this. It's a bit more unusual. Yeah, kind of cool to see. And Paige, what else have you got? Yeah, like I said, I'm keeping mine very supercell. You you kind of touched on it a tiny bit earlier. Their newest game, Moco, has surpassed 25 million, and that's in under a month since it released. It managed to generate its first million within 10 days of its global launch. Like, like we've said, it's one of those things where you hear those figures and you're like, "That's great." And for anyone else, you'd maybe be like, "That's that that's great." But since then, things have slowed down. 2.5 million.

Is it 2.5? Yeah, 2.5. Sorry. See, I can't podcast. Suddenly like, oh my god, this is actually this actually doing amazing. Yeah, I was just thinking like 10 million 2.5 million. I'm sure. It's fine. Like I said, I don't know how to podcast anymore, but yeah. So 2.5, which is why, as I'm saying, it's, you know, it's someone else. It's good numbers, but for Supercell, maybe not great numbers. And things have started to slow down as well. So yeah, it's not uh it's it's not great, but it's one of those things that like we've been talking about it as well because we're doing uh one of our mavens on launching new games and how difficult that is at the moment. And I just think that, you know, it kind of shows it doesn't really matter who you are because obviously Supercell have had Squad Busters, they've got Mo and both, you know, are kind of, you know, they're struggling to be, you know, at the heights of what we would kind of expect from one of their games. But yeah, like I don't know what you guys think. You know, we've gone from

not having a Supercell game in what was it, five years. Need to make sure I'm getting my numbers right now because obviously over five and a half years. Over five and a half years. And now we've had two in a very short span of time. But neither or I said I I I feel like I always feel bad saying I said I feel like the numbers still sound insane to other people but with it being Supercell I guess they are just held to this different standard because they do have some of those hit games that have been around for years and are still doing incredibly well. So it's obviously possible for them to do it and it's just you know are these games going to get there or you know like what is sort of the path forward for them? I feel like they should just it's hard to question Supercell when there's so many talented people there and you know a lot of lot of staff they have you know they could be CEOs of their own studios right but it feels like they should just sorry why aren't they soft launching these games properly anymore so they do close

testing but they're not doing a proper soft launch you know Brawl Stars is in soft launch what 18 months or so and and that whole time they weren't sure if they were even going to release that turned out it was a very wise decision to do. So they made some again they had the time to make some key changes and also see which markets it was going to do well in. We spoke earlier like oh it became evident it's going to do well in Asia. they changed it uh from portrait to to horiz landscape I think um dur during development and then they and when they rolled it out on Android cuz they were doing testing on iOS that was when they realized oh we might actually have something here cuz a lot more players jumped on board that's that's my recollection are they are they getting that are they getting enough of that feedback now with squad busters and Moco to make the changes that were required. So, you know, if they had Brawl Stars as was a new game now, would they would it

be as successful if they just launched it straight away? Like, I don't Yeah, that's the thing I always think about with Supercell like they they do have these hit games, but they've been around for a long time and they're names that are known and even though they're Supercell, some people that are playing games, they're not thinking like, "Oh, Supercell made this." It's just a game to some people and they either like it or they don't and they don't really care about the name behind it. So, I just think yeah, it is very different to launch something new and it's kind of like everybody else. You got to hope it's a hit. I know obviously they have a lot of more resources than other studios do, but yeah, I do think finding that winning formula is really hard at the moment. It is, but I think like again, if you launch B, sorry, if if Supercell was developing Brawl Stars now for the first time, would they just release it before they made the key changes that actually made it successful? You know, they need that time. So would would Squadbusters had it been given a year of like a soft launch might might it have been successful? It is absolutely possible that it would not have been

right at which point they could cancel it rather than release it or they just launch it and try like they kind of done there. But I it feels to me like now that we've seen two examples of games that have at least at launch not done well to a supercell level again 100 mil squad blasters. Everyone would love that. But you know, again, there also celebrity marketing campaigns aren't cheap. Neither are Supercell teams, I'm sure. So yeah, I I'm just basically all for Supercell 3 soft launches. It's what it seems to be is what's needed. But they're doing a board game now as well, aren't they? Wasn't that something we had news on today? Lots of Supercell stuff at the moment. Um, yeah, the Elite Raid or something, I think it was called. Yeah, Clash of Clans. like the Clash of Clans. Yeah, they uh uh the interesting thing about that is it's going to Kickstarter, which I know I know uh it's basically I can't remember the name of the the board game company, the tabletop

company, but they basically they've got the license to do it right and the approval. So presumably it's not then Supercell funded, but it just feels a bit weird that Supercell, this multi-billion dollar company, made three billion euros in revenue last year. one of its IPs is getting a kick crowdfunding kickstart campaign. It's like, can you do investments spare a few million for this project, but maybe they're actually seeing if they maybe they're doing the right thing and seeing if there's actually an audience for it. But I I I you could have just you could have just done this yourselves rather than putting the risk on the consumers. So, I spoke a lot there. Um uh Aaron, what have you got? Yeah, so the Switch 2 is one of my subjects yet again. Can't get enough of it. Um, and the so the full reveal a couple of weeks ago now it seems to have had quite an immediate impact on certain Nintendo apps on mobile. Unsurprisingly, the biggest impact was on the Nintendo Switch online app, which according to Sensor Tower

data saw a 109% daily download surge on the 2nd of April, which was the day of the Switch to Direct, where we got all the details on it. Um, so yeah, the app was downloaded nearly 23,000 times that day and even more than that on the 3rd. So the next day over the kind of 10day period as of the direct, it was installed 172,000 times compared to fewer than 114,000 in the 10 days prior to the direct. So yeah, quite clearly seems that people um went and were downloading the the app after seeing about the Switch 2, which kind of makes sense because Nintendo confirmed and talked about the app during the Switch 2 presentation and said that uh basically online memberships for the Switch One will kind of be crossgen and still apply on the Switch 2. So you don't have to get a new online subscription, which is

good. But yeah, so this has potentially encouraged more like original Switch owners to subscribe now to the online and then download the app and then they're kind of ready to go for when the Switch 2 comes out in a couple of months. The app can also it has kind of limited uses without a membership. So that's not to say that Nintendo's necessarily had a huge spike in online subscriptions, but they've certainly had an increase in downloads for the app. Um, but yeah, the the direct also showed various updates coming to the app like next month. It's changing for some reason. So, it's currently the Nintendo Switch online app and as of next month, it's going to be the Nintendo Switch app. So, just um just for interest. It's a very Nintendo way of doing things, by the way. Yeah, it's like they make these amazing innovations, but they also don't quite have the understanding of other technical innovations that have happened like a decade ago. Um, but yes, so it

wasn't just that that increased. So Nintendo Music, its daily install spike on the 2nd of April, so the day of the uh presentation, they were up 28% day over day and then peaked on the 3rd of April. The Nintendo Today app did not really get any boost from the Switch 2 Direct. Um, so that that released on the 27th of March this year, so it's quite a recent app. which just has like kind of bite-sized news pieces each day. Why isn't that just the Nintendo part of the Nintendo app? There's a lot of apps. They have Xbox has like one app. PlayStation has one app. Nintendo's like, "We have three." Exactly. What? So, you'd want an app that has music and news in the same place? Yeah. Just Just click on a different tab. Just different tabs. That's fine. within one app. I don't

necessarily everything in one place, but it's Why do you need Why do I need my news outside of the general switch? Yeah, it's so I've just had this icon on my on my phone specifically. Sorry. Very Nintendo. Yeah. But um so that that's kind of it for their apps, their mobile games though. So it doesn't really seem like they got much of a kind of impact from Switch 2 Direct. Super Mario Run, Animal Crossing, Pocket Camp Complete, like those kind of games. There wasn't really any observable change to downloads or revenue since the Switch 2 Direct. Mario Kart Tour did see um an increase in spending on 2nd of April. So again, that's the day the Direct was. So the um daily spending went up by almost 18%. Which like maybe Mario Kart World was prevalent in the Direct. So that potentially helped a little bit. At the same time though, the date coincided

with a rerun of an in-game event from 2023. So I guess how big an impact that would have on the other hand is debatable. But overall, the results kind of seem contrary to what Nintendo said before when they commented about using their mobile games as more of a marketing tool to bring their IPs to more people rather than just relying on them to make revenue from. So, I did find it interesting and a little bit weird in the the rep that was like an hour long and they spent, you know, fair bit of it talking about Mario Kart World. They didn't even say just a little throwaway line of while you wait for Mario Kart World, you can play Mario Kart Tour. Um, you know, given that mentioning the Nintendo online app seems to have given that a, you know, pretty noteworthy boost, like that seems such an easy thing they could have done that would have been in line with, I say, what they've claimed the whole point of their mobile endeavor is. So, that

seemed like a little bit of an oversight to me. Fire Emblem Heroes also got a spending surge over the 10 days following the direct. So, it was up 21%. But um again like Mario Kart Tour, I don't really know if that's from the Direct, particularly because there was no Fire Emblem news during the Direct. So it would be weird if that was the game that benefited from it. But um on the subject of Fire Emblem, it is um it's its 35th anniversary on April 20th, which it's 50th though, is it? No, no, they got a little ways to go. Oh, wait years. We've got a while to go for our 35th year. That's not in our contractors. Well, have you looked? You don't uh you don't don't know that. Imagine you just locked in. I don't want to think about me being nearly 70 sat here talking about this. Like, I can't podcast now. Never mind when I'm going to be 70. I won't be able to remember a thing. It will just be streamed from your brain by

then. You won't need to say anything. That's true. The Nintendo stuff. I'll just like switch to really cool, really interested. We spoke about well the impacts of tariffs etc and any other geopolitical things that happen over the next months years that could impact that success. But in terms of his mobile games, just they just don't care about it, right? Like Fire Emblem Heroes did really well because that was the one where they actually did a proper mobile game and then the rest of what just been I mean I don't really like the other games either to be honest. Like I think Super Mario Run on a play it's just wasn't it's just not Mario to me and and again Mario Kart they at all you know it's just not it's not the same and felt like they didn't really try to make it the same either. I don't know. I I I so I'd be shocked if they did another mobile game even though they said I think that they were working on it, right? I'd be surprised because they don't need to anymore. They've got this portable console. I know it's not the same user base to kind of get those IPs

in front of many hundreds of millions more people. But yeah, I just don't think they'll bother anymore. And now they've got the film like films, right? So they got Mario film, Mario 2's coming out, Pokemon films. I think there's another Zelda's in the Is that Was that confirmed or was that one of Shigu Mimoto's? Yeah, his mysterious tweet. His early morning or late night tweets. Not sure which one yet. Just out of the blue. But yeah, I think we've discussed before that like basically all of Nintendo's mobile games came out while or at least were in development while the Wii U was Yeah. Guess their their current thing. And then yeah, since the Switch has come out and been a hit, they haven't really bothered with making new stuff for mobile, which makes sense for them. I just don't think they were ever fully in anyway in terms of what a mobile game needs, which I guess if we're blunt, it's like certain types of monetization and certain types of gameplay, which you can still make really fun, but it is just not what Nintendo is used to. And other than Fire Emblem Heroes, it just didn't really do

that. Maybe we'll get Fire Emblem Heroes 2. That's what they're working on, which would be pointless, but yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't complain. It'd be more as long as they didn't shut down this one. Right. So, I think that's everything. So, that brings us to the end of the weekend mobile games. Remembered I remembered what this show was called. Our special was first try. The first try as well. I'll mess it up in a minute. Our special 50th episode. Thanks so much, Paige and Eric, for going along with this for 50 episodes and 50 episodes more as per your contracts. Yeah, it's been great to have you on and great to have you back, Paige. Yeah, it's been nice to be back. And thank you very much everyone for listening to this episode and the 49 previous episodes. If you stuck with them all, please do email us, let us know. Uh that'll give us a nice bo going into the weekends. And we're about to head off for an extended Easter holiday weekend. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and

Monday off. Sometimes we get we all forgot about that. We all forgot about. I'm pretty Yeah, we're pretty convinced I'm still going to turn up tomorrow. Wonder where everyone is. I've forgotten it every single day of the week. Yeah, that'll be an interesting call tomorrow. Right. Uh let's end this show. So, thank you for tuning in. We'll be back again next week. Have a good weekend. See you soon. Bye.