Supercell Syndrome: The Trap of Copying Success

Let’s talk about different forms of Supercell-syndrome.

1. During its brightest moments, when Supercell was at the top, everyone went copying their small independent teams model in a syndrome-like manner believing it results in greatness – eventually failing on it. Even investors & VCs fell in love with it – but if you try to pitch same now, they won’t invest in you as they don’t buy it.🤑😬

2. Based on Ilkka Paananen‘s latest blog post, Supercell clearly did fall being a victim of their own Supercell-syndrome; which resulted after shipping Brawl Stars to not shipping a game and realizing the hard truth that even they need to adapt to where the market is, incl. publishers that topped them by taking engagement, monetization & distribution means to another level in unique ways. Now, as a result, Supercell is moving from small individual teams to teams based on projects’ needs, experimenting live ops throughout new principles, etc. – which is necessary for them, and which looks already paying out well in terms of Brawl Stars’ recent growth. 💊🚀💪

3. Given how Supercell is evolving, based on their CEO’s blog posts, there is a trap in a form of a new variant for the Supercell-syndrome forming that I can see – where many will try to copy and imitate what their e.g., ‘Startup / Founder model’ is now – and again, risk in eventually failing on it. ⚠

Regarding what’s right and wrong, specifically how Supercell is operating and refining its operations, it’s both right and wrong. For them, this is most probably the only right way – which looks to be the right bet for them in a short to mid-term; considering they won’t fall being a victim, again, of their own new variant of Supercell-syndrome that could also form throughout not evolving constantly. The moment you stop evolving, even Supercell, you will stop having progress – it’s a hard fact that even they have realized. ⚙👍

For others, no – this won’t probably be something that cracks things for you and your business. I believe that instead of imitating success, the real success is born throughout building own operational model that is true for your business, culture, people, customers, etc. Things won’t also happen in a day – even the ‘best model’ for you needs to be iterated, refined and perfected. 🤜🤛

In terms of iterating operational models – even Supercell is building structure and processes; even they try to avoid it at all costs. They, of course, minimize everything and give freedom for their teams – but on fundamental level they still have structure and processes in place. The reason why they are excellent on what they do is that they are really great in having a mindset and culture that walks over the structure and processes – resulting in voiding them. 💪🚀

Trust in what you build.👌