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Session: Re-imagining Gaming Using Voice AI, Riyadh Drebika, Volley
Voice AI gaming represents a specialized sector of the industry focused on creating interactive experiences that rely on vocal input as a primary control mechanism.
- Voice AI gaming shifts the primary control mechanism from traditional inputs to vocal interaction, requiring machine learning to interpret intent and facilitate hands-free, immersive experiences.
- The ecosystem has evolved from smart speakers to a device-agnostic landscape spanning mobile phones, televisions, and automotive interfaces.
- Advancements in generative AI and high-fidelity voice synthesis, such as those from 11Labs, have eliminated the robotic quality of synthetic speech to enable more realistic character interactions.
Session: From Handcrafted To AI Generated Mobile Games, Fabien Pier, Titan Generative AI
The mobile gaming industry is currently undergoing a significant transition from traditional, handcrafted development to a model increasingly augmented by generative artificial intelligence.
- Mobile gaming accounts for approximately 62% of global gaming revenue, yet the sector faces stagnation due to a reliance on low-risk licensed IP and repetitive mechanics.
- Generative AI can compress production cycles significantly, enabling smaller teams to develop functional game prototypes in as little as one to three days.
- Current AI capabilities are best suited for 2D assets, textures, basic client-side code, and core loops, limiting immediate adoption to the hyper-casual and puzzle segments which comprise 10% to 15% of the market.
Ride the "Hybrid-Casual" Wave to Enhance User Engagement & Monetization - Kazutomo Niwa & Don Mesa.
The hybrid-casual gaming genre has emerged as a critical evolution in the mobile market, addressing the limitations of hyper-casual titles that struggle with long-term retention and monetization.
- The hybrid-casual genre addresses hyper-casual retention issues by integrating deep progression systems, character customization, and sophisticated economy management.
- In 2022, the hybrid-casual market reached 5.1 billion downloads and generated $1.4 billion in revenue.
- Successful hybrid-casual titles like Archero, survivor.io, and Legend of Slime utilize long-term engagement mechanics such as login rewards and balanced resource economies to extend player lifetime value.
Keynote: Understanding SKAN 4 0 & Its Implications Mark Menery, Verve Group.
SKAN 4.0 represents a significant evolution in Apple’s privacy-centric attribution framework for mobile app install campaigns.
- SKAN 4.0 replaces rigid privacy thresholds with a tiered 'crowd anonymity' system, allowing advertisers to receive varying levels of data granularity based on install and conversion volume.
- The framework extends LTV tracking capabilities by introducing three distinct postback windows that capture user activity from day zero through day 35.
- Advertisers can now utilize 'lock windows' to trigger postbacks earlier, enabling faster data retrieval for campaign optimization.
Introduction to PG Connects Seattle 2023, Dave Bradley, Steel Media Ltd
Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle 2023 serves as a professional gathering for the global mobile and broader gaming industry, marking the event's third iteration in the city.
- The gaming industry is experiencing its first revenue decline in approximately 25 years, driven by global economic instability, inflation, and a contraction in investment.
- Despite current headwinds, the industry is projected to achieve 3.4 percent growth by 2025, maintaining its status as the world's largest entertainment sector.
- Market data shows a resilient performance among top-tier gaming companies, which saw a 12 percent share value increase in the first quarter of 2023.
Keynote: Mastering Revenue Growth Using LiveOps & Contextual Personalization, Sunil Thomas/Greg Lin
The gaming industry is currently navigating a challenging landscape defined by rising user acquisition costs and shifting privacy regulations, such as Apple’s App Tracking Transparency.
- Implementing comprehensive personalization strategies can increase player lifetime value (LTV) by approximately 35 percent.
- Rising user acquisition costs and privacy regulations like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency are forcing a strategic shift from new player acquisition toward maximizing the LTV of existing player bases.
- Studios are adopting a 'personalization ladder' that progresses from basic demographic segmentation to behavioral targeting and fully personalized content.
Keynote: Scale Your IAPs With Purchase Behavior Targeting Data Insights, Dale Lawrence, of Bango.
The mobile gaming industry faces a significant challenge in user acquisition due to the deprecation of identifiers like IDFA and third-party cookies.
- In the mobile gaming industry, 95% of users do not make in-app purchases, while the remaining 5% of payers generate over 80% of total revenue.
- The deprecation of IDFA and third-party cookies has forced developers to move away from traditional tracking toward purchase behavior targeting, which utilizes first-party payment data to remain privacy-compliant.
- Purchase behavior targeting allows developers to segment audiences based on actual transaction history, such as payment frequency and volume, rather than relying on demographic assumptions.
Monthly Games Industry Report: May 2023
The document is the May 2023 edition of a monthly games industry report, a compilation of news items spanning games and apps, investments, market research and financials across the mobile, PC, console and blockchain segments.
- Capcom reported record-high net sales for its fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, reaching $906 million.
- Take-Two Interactive reported net revenue of $5.35 billion for fiscal year 2023, an increase of 52.6%.
- Nordcurrent reported a 42% revenue increase in 2022, reaching €89 million.
Insights into Marketing Trends of Global Mobile Games
This SocialPeta report, titled Insights into Marketing Trends of Global Mobile Games and covering Q2 2023, uses advertising data from SocialPeta, which covers nearly 70 countries and regions and over 70 ad channels, with nearly 1.3 billion ad creatives.
- Advertisers with new creatives reached 51.9K in Q2 2023, accounting for 90.26% of advertisers.
- New creatives in Q2 2023 surpassed 9.3 million, and their share of creatives hit a record high of 74.27%.
- Video creatives accounted for 79.58% of game ad creatives in Q2 2023, while image creatives made up 18.35%.
Embracer’s Deal Collapse / Take-Two & Ubisoft Earnings / Mortal Kombat 1
The global gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural realignment, characterized by the failure of aggressive acquisition-led growth strategies and a pivot toward rigorous capital discipline.
- Embracer Group’s failed $2 billion partnership deal and debt-fueled strategy have triggered a 45% decline in its stock price and a 30% reduction in earnings guidance.
- Major publishers are pivoting from aggressive acquisition-led growth to capital discipline, with Take-Two Interactive pruning its development pipeline to prioritize high-impact releases like the next Grand Theft Auto title in fiscal 2025.
- The fighting game genre, led by Mortal Kombat 1, Street Fighter 6, and Tekken 8, is shifting toward live-service monetization models that utilize $70 price points, recurring DLC, and cross-IP collaborations.
Mobile Growth: IDFA Deprecation Scapegoat or Reality?
The mobile gaming industry has frequently cited the deprecation of the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) as a primary cause for declining marketing performance and the perceived impossibility of successful new game launches.
- The deprecation of IDFA is often used as a scapegoat for internal operational failures, such as poor financial modeling and an inability to adapt to market shifts, rather than being the sole cause of declining performance.
- iOS remains a viable platform for user acquisition, with sophisticated advertisers continuing to achieve scale and profitability despite privacy-related technical constraints.
- The withdrawal of competitors from the iOS ecosystem has created a favorable market environment characterized by lower cost-per-mille (CPM) rates and reduced advertising competition.
MAU live 2023 - Growths Gems, Creative testing processes, UA for apps vs games!
The digital landscape for user acquisition and monetization is defined by a convergence of strategies between gaming and subscription-based applications.
- Creative strategy is the primary driver of sustainable user acquisition, with visual elements consistently outperforming text-based copy in engagement.
- Subscription-based apps should integrate ad revenue only after reaching a daily active user base of 30,000 to 50,000 and ensuring core subscription funnels are fully optimized.
- To mitigate creative fatigue, teams should monitor performance over 14-day cycles and introduce new assets once a frequency threshold of five is reached.
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