No More AAA Ports on Apple Presentation: Here’s Why

Remember the 2023 Apple Event? Resident Evil, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and big talk about AAA games coming to mobile. Fast forward to 2024: the headliner is Honor of Kings: World, an MMORPG by Tencent’s mobile hit maker, TiMi Studio.Why the shift from AAA ports to mobile-focused titles? 🤔The reason is simple: AAA console ports aren’t working, and the numbers by AppMagic back it up.— Too high one-time spend for mobile users 💸— Gameplay unsuited for mobile short-session scenarios⏳— Inferior graphics and controls at the same price 🎮These are some of the reasons why those games fail while performing greatly on their primary platforms.While iPhone 16’s basic model will now support these games, unlike last year’s Pro-only availability, I doubt it’ll help.The fundamental issues remain, and a broader user base won’t solve them.And what is your take? Share in the comments! […]

Andrei Zubov September 10

Journal

Gaming Industry Research Tips #1

1. You Target Audience Is Not Always Visible While studying reviews is a basic step, it’s crucial to consider the majority of players who don’t express their opinions online. To learn about their preferences, tastes, and habits, delve into reports from public companies. You might be surprised to discover that a game, seemingly a failure, can actually be a successful project in terms of copies sold. For mobile games, gather as many metrics as possible from the targeted market, such as gender split, playtime, and spending habits. These metrics can reveal more about your players than reviews ever could. The minorities are loud, but the majority often speak through their actions. 2. Actually Play Games Play. Play a lot. This hands-on experience will not only give you valuable insights into the genre you’re targeting but also speed up all your […]

Andrei Zubov July 26

Journal

The Second Quarter of 2024 Was Full of Amazing Deals

Excited to share a sneak peek into our upcoming Global Gaming Deals Report for Q2’24 by InvestGame. All these deals were covered in our weekly news digest, and I even wrote detailed analyses for some of them! To celebrate the end of the quarter, I’d also like to share some of my favorite texts about the most significant transactions of the quarter, which were particularly fun to write🏰 Nintendo Acquired Shiver 🏰The acquisition of the studio behind the Hogwarts Legacy port for Nintendo Switch was an amazing opportunity to delve into Nintendo’s unique strategy.📱 Voodoo Acquired BeReal 📱This unexpected deal took everyone by surprise and remains intriguing post-closure, especially with BeReal already introducing ads!💼 Embracer Splitting into Three Companies 💼I’ve been covering Embracer’s deals since 2020, and writing about this split felt like watching the final episodes of a beloved […]

Andrei Zubov July 19

Journal

Squad Busters: Why 50% Daily Revenue Drop Doesn’t Bust New Formula

What do we have a month after the release of Squad Busters? Well, the numbers are down, public sentiment isn’t in favor of the game and I play the game less than I thought I would.But why am I still optimistic about it?To answer this, we teamed up with brilliant game analyst Alexandra Dedyukhina and conducted a thorough deconstruction of the game and its performance over the first month. In short, our optimism comes from 2 key points: 1. The game stands unique in Supercell’s portfolio. Despite potential audience cannibalization due to the cross-IP setting, Squad Busters does stand out.2. Most of the issues causing player drop-off are fixable. With time, research, and consistent updates, the overall experience can be significantly improved.3. We saw the masters of LiveOps at work. Remember how Supercell turned Brawl Stars from an all-time low […]

Andrei Zubov July 8

Andrei Zubov