Mobile reports and market data
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FTUE: Sniper X with Jason Statham
Sniper X with Jason Statham, a free-to-play mobile title developed by Glu Mobile, utilizes a celebrity-driven strategy to engage players within the static shooter genre.
- Glu Mobile utilizes a celebrity-driven strategy in 'Sniper X with Jason Statham' to differentiate its static shooter from previous celebrity-focused titles.
- The onboarding process prioritizes immediate core gameplay, delaying intrusive requests like push notifications until players establish baseline engagement.
- The first ten minutes focus exclusively on core mechanics, such as target acquisition and environmental interaction, before introducing complex metagame systems.
FTUE: Minions Paradise
Minions Paradise, a mobile resource-management game developed by EA, utilizes a highly guided onboarding process designed to immerse players in its narrative and mechanics within the first ten minutes of gameplay.
- Minions Paradise utilizes a highly guided, restrictive onboarding process that prioritizes narrative immersion over player agency during the first ten minutes of gameplay.
- The game employs an unskippable cinematic trailer to establish the premise before transitioning into a structured tutorial that spoon-feeds core mechanics like building placement and resource collection.
- The economy is built on three distinct resources: party points, sand dollars, and a premium hard currency designed to bypass time-based progression gates.
Monetizer: The Walking Dead: No Man's Land
The Walking Dead: No Man's Land, developed by Next Games, utilizes a hybrid monetization model common in mobile strategy and RPG titles.
- The Walking Dead: No Man's Land, developed by Next Games, maintains a consistent position within the top 50 grossing mobile charts in major markets like the United States.
- The game utilizes a hybrid monetization model that pairs traditional time-gating for base-building and survivor training with hard currency (gold) bypass options.
- Revenue is driven by a tiered currency purchasing structure and starter bundles that provide immediate utility, such as legendary equipment and additional squad slots.
Biz Daily: Vivendi's move on Gameloft and Ubisoft
Vivendi, a prominent French media conglomerate, has initiated a significant strategic investment by acquiring approximately 6.6 percent stakes in both Ubisoft and Gameloft for a combined total of 160 million euros.
- Vivendi has acquired approximately 6.6 percent stakes in both Ubisoft and Gameloft for a combined investment of 160 million euros.
- The Guillemot family, founders of both companies, holds 15 to 20 percent of the shares, creating a significant barrier to any potential hostile takeover.
- The industrial logic for a merger centers on combining Ubisoft’s dominant PC and console intellectual property with Gameloft’s mobile gaming expertise.
FTUE: The Walking Dead: No Man's Land
The First Time User Experience (FTUE) for the mobile strategy game The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land demonstrates a structured, multi-layered onboarding process designed to acclimate players to both turn-based combat and base-management mechanics.
- The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land utilizes a multi-layered FTUE to bridge the gap between turn-based combat and base-management mechanics, specifically targeting a mass-market audience drawn by the intellectual property.
- The combat tutorial emphasizes mission objectives over direct engagement, teaching players to manage action points and evaluate the risk-reward ratio of fighting versus reaching exit points.
- The game incorporates a base-building meta-layer inspired by Clash of Clans, introducing resource management, time-gating, and character progression to establish a long-term core loop.
Monetizer: Star Wars: Uprising
Star Wars: Uprising, a mobile RPG developed by Kabam, utilizes a complex monetization strategy centered on character progression and gear acquisition.
- Star Wars: Uprising utilizes a dual-currency model featuring soft currency earned through gameplay and hard currency, known as chromium, available for purchase.
- The game employs a tiered in-app purchase structure that restricts access to higher-value spending options until after initial transactions are completed to prioritize player retention.
- The primary monetization driver is the Premium Crane, a gacha-style mechanic where players spend hard currency to acquire high-rarity gear and crafting materials.
Monetizer: Dawn of Steel
Dawn of Steel, a mobile real-time strategy (RTS) game developed by Superweapon and published by Flaregames, represents a refined entry into the competitive mobile strategy genre.
- Dawn of Steel is a mobile real-time strategy game developed by Superweapon and published by Flaregames that differentiates itself from mass-rush competitors through granular, tactical unit control.
- The game utilizes a standard monetization model centered on 'influence,' a hard currency used to bypass time-based gating for building upgrades, unit repairs, and research tasks.
- To drive higher spending, the developers implemented a tiered pricing structure for hard currency that offers increased value for larger real-money purchases.
Digital Spelförsäljning i Sverige: 2013-2015
The Swedish digital gaming market experienced significant expansion between 2013 and 2015, characterized by a rapid shift toward digital distribution and increased monetization of the active player base.
- The Swedish digital gaming market reached a total value of 3.3 billion SEK in 2015, marking a 34 percent year-over-year growth.
- Revenue growth is driven primarily by a 26 to 35 percent increase in average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) rather than an increase in the conversion rate of active players.
- PC gaming remains the largest market segment, accounting for over 50 percent of total revenue, followed by mobile games at one-third of the market.
Monetizer: James Bond: World of Espionage
James Bond: World of Espionage, developed by Glu Mobile, functions as a free-to-play mobile title that blends strategy, role-playing, and card-battling mechanics.
- Glu Mobile's James Bond: World of Espionage utilizes a menu-driven, resource-management structure rather than traditional action-shooter mechanics to target strategy-focused mobile players.
- The core gameplay loop is strictly gated by energy and stamina systems, limiting individual sessions to approximately two minutes before requiring resource recharge or hard currency expenditure.
- The game employs a dual-currency economy using soft currency (pounds) for standard upgrades and hard currency (gold) to bypass wait times for research, gear, and energy refills.
Concept Art House CEO James Zhang on helping Supercell make its Super Bowl advert
Concept Art House provides high-end art, 3D animation, and pre-production services to the global gaming industry, contributing to approximately 500 games annually.
- Concept Art House supports approximately 500 games annually, providing high-end art and 3D animation services for major developers including Riot Games, Blizzard, and Hasbro.
- Mobile gaming is shifting toward console-quality graphics as developers utilize high-fidelity assets to differentiate products in a saturated market and justify rising production costs.
- The integration of established entertainment intellectual properties, such as Jurassic Park and The Hobbit, has become a primary strategy for securing top-grossing positions in mobile app stores.
Her Story dev Sam Barlow on how the innovative detective game found an audience
The detective game Her Story represents an experimental approach to non-linear narrative design, utilizing a police procedural framework to engage players through a database of real-life video footage.
- Her Story achieved a balanced revenue split of 60 percent from desktop and 40 percent from mobile by launching simultaneously on Steam and mobile platforms.
- The game’s search-based mechanic, which mirrors intuitive web browsing, made its unconventional non-linear narrative accessible to a broad audience beyond the traditional 13-to-17-year-old male demographic.
- Releasing the title shortly after E3 2015 allowed the game to capitalize on a media vacuum, driving organic discovery and social media engagement.
Why a Donald Duck CCG might be a big hit in Scandinavia
The Duckforce Rises represents a strategic expansion of the long-standing partnership between Sanoma Media Finland and Disney, transitioning a legacy print franchise into the mobile gaming sector.
- Sanoma Media Finland and Disney are leveraging a print franchise history dating back to 1952 to launch 'The Duckforce Rises,' a mobile card-battling game.
- The project targets a specific regional market where Donald Duck holds deep cultural significance, particularly in Scandinavia, Germany, and Italy, with a Finnish print readership reaching one million people.
- The game is positioned as a mid-core free-to-play title with RPG elements, intentionally moving away from the casual puzzle genre typically associated with Disney mobile games.