Biggest Gaming M&A Deals of 2024

2024 was a year of strategic acquisitions and divestitures, showcasing a variety of deal types:☑️ Keywords Studios was taken private in a $2.8B deal, marking the largest M&A transaction of the year.☑️ Easybrain divested to Miniclip for $1.2B, signaling a strategic shift in the casual gaming space.☑️ Jagex was acquired by private equity firms for ~$1.1B, highlighting the growing role of PE-backed investments in gaming.With a shift towards long-term value and strategic partnerships, M&A activity in gaming is shaping the industry's future. 📌 For the full breakdown, check out IG latest Gaming Deals Report.

Gamigion February 4

Highlights

Social games platform Little Umbrella secures $2 Million

It will use the funds to scale its live ops operations and fast-track the launch of new titles. AI-powered social games platform Little Umbrella has raised $2 million in a seed funding round. Little Umbrella said it will use the funds to scale its live ops operations and fast-track the launch of new titles powered by Playroom, its cross-platform social game kit. Investors who participated in the latest round include Virtual Reality Fund (VRF), a16z speedrun, Mark Pincus's Workplay Ventures, Ubiquoss Investment, Disrupt.com, Breakpoint Ventures, GFR Fund, and angel investors Matt Bilbey and Ryan Peterson all participated in the round. Little Umbrella is creating social games using AI with a focus on cross-platform gameplay and adaptive mechanics. Their game, Death by AI, launched last year and quickly gained over 20 million players in three months. It's available for free on Discord, web, […]

Gamigion February 3

Journal

How Top 100 Games implement Interstitial Ads and IAP

Fifteen years ago, in-app purchases were introduced to mobile games, and free-to-play mobile video games were born. This industry has come a long way, and it is estimated it will generate 49% of overall revenue in the games industry, with a total of almost 93B USD, according to NewZoo. Games have evolved tremendously during this time, and so have monetisation models. In this article, we are going to cover an important part of the monetisation of mobile games - ad monetisation with a particular focus on interstitial ads and any in-app purchases (IAPs) connected to them. Which games were analysed? We started off with a list of the top 100 downloaded games in September 2024, according to AppMagic . Among these 100 games: 81 of them had ads (we used the “contains ads” flag on the Google Play Store product page to […]

Božo Janković February 3

Journal

How to Balance Your Mobile Game

How to Balance Your Mobile Game 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴: 1. Identify core values to ensure fairness and long-term player trust.2. Separate critical and non-critical resources (progression vs. cosmetics). 3. Implement a difficulty curve that challenges without overwhelming. 4. Use analytics to spot and fix issues early. 5. Gather player feedback through surveys and community channels. 6. Adapt continuously: balance is an ongoing process. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿:• Symmetry vs. Asymmetry: Decide if players start equally (Chess) or with unique strengths (StarCraft).• Feedback Loops: Positive loops amplify success; negative loops maintain fairness.• Power Curve: Ensure power progression feels natural and rewarding.• Difficulty Curve: Gradually increase the challenge to match player skill.• Power Creep: Avoid making old content obsolete with new updates.𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝘆: • Stable currency: Prevent inflation to maintain trust. • Rational pricing: Reflect […]

Anton Slashcev February 3

Journal

AI in Gaming Has Flopped

𝗔𝗜 𝗜𝗡 𝗚𝗔𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗙𝗟𝗢𝗣𝗣𝗘𝗗. Humanity may be on a colossal technology frontier, but gaming is being dragged along with AI. Instead of surfing atop the wave, it's retreated to the wake. Gaming has historically been the first-best use case for new technology, so where did it all go so wrong? In the 26 months since ChatGPT launched, Web3 has made more tangible progress than AI gaming applications. Any technology outpaced by Web3's progress is in danger of irrelevance. And it's for good reason: so far, AI's visible footprint in games has been limited to a series of Cosmic Lounge press releases (I want my match-3 levels!) and a sixth finger in Call of Duty key art. Everything else appears to be cheap VC slideware or corporate investor day fantasies. It's true that gaming effectively subsidized the AI revolution by […]

Phillip Black February 3

Journal

Not just great gameplay, master Live Ops.

Best mobile games don’t just have great gameplay, they master Live Ops. Here is how: They accomplish this over time.By connecting Retention, Playtime, and Conversion for long term success. Often times, secret lies in how you track, and optimize player conversion.Rest is just decision making.Then you get, results…

Gökhan Üzmez February 3

Journal

AI App Wars: Deep Dive in a Heated Race

31/01/2025 Update Only 15 days have passed since I released this article, and a lot has already changed. That’s how fast this industry moves. DeepSeek, a Chinese startup, recently launched its open-source AI model, R1, and it has made massive waves in the tech industry. Not only is it competing with models from OpenAI and Meta in benchmarks, but its efficiency in training, using way fewer resources than others, has even impacted NVIDIA and energy company stocks. But beyond the tech world, DeepSeek’s app has also been crushing it on the iOS & Google Play Store rankings, reaching top positions in key markets like the US, France, UK, Canada, Germany, Japan (#2), and Mexico. No crazy marketing budgets. No ASO magic. Just a disruptive product, launched at the perfect time. While big tech leaders were busy at the inauguration of […]

Julie Tonna February 3

Journal

4 major AI consumer opportunities for startups

We at F4 Fund believe there are four major AI consumer opportunities for startups: A. AI Agents- Personal assistants reaching new levels of capability- Personalized and customized consumer experiences- Enhanced decision-making support based on preference- Think OpenAIs Operator but more convenient, personalized and made for consumerB. Generative AI- AI video, audio, photos, posters, etc. reach mainstream- Creating new forms of content with AI- Opening new creative possibilitiesC. Entertainment & Gaming- AI-enhanced gaming experiences- More engaging than traditional human-created contentD. The Consumer Robotics Frontier (not today but soon)- A possible market structure: Tesla robots (comparable to iPhone), and Chinese manufacturers (comparable to Android)- Software Platform: An "App Store" for robot applications emerges

Joakim Achren February 3

Journal

Love this rolling offer design in Coin Master!

Love this rolling offer design in Coin Master! 🎰 What makes it even better is the custom reward option (the plus sign), letting players choose what suits them. A smart and engaging touch!What do you think?

Michael Kopelovich February 3

Journal

Takeaways for TikTok: Non-Target Audience Perspective

What I Learned From One Year on TikTok: A Non-Target Audience Perspective At the beginning of 2024, I made a decision: I was going to give TikTok a try. Not because I’m the typical target audience, and certainly not because anyone in my network was using it at the time (only 1 !). Instead, I wanted to understand this platform better—particularly how it can be leveraged for marketing.One year later, I’ve learned so much and have a few interesting things to share starting with my stats:Link to my channelVideos posted: ~80Total views: ~130kFollowers: ~1,300Likes: ~6000Top 3 video: 1. Tekken 8 cosplayer: 65k views, 5,5k likes2. Wifi rush Tango Gstar: 24k views, 200 likes3. Hyundae Avante N crash: 18k views, 73 likesHere are some key takeaways from this experiment:1. Content: I was expecting to see only teenage girls dancing, and there […]

Laurent Pawlowski February 3

Journal

Casual Casino: Behind the Locked Doors

Casual Casino: Behind the Locked Doors 🗝️ In 2024, the genre saw a 60% revenue surge and a 24% drop in downloads. While the revenue growth is impressive, its structure tells a more important story:🎲 Monopoly GO! dominates—Scopely’s hit alone generates over 50% of the genre’s revenue.💰 Playtika owns 4 out of the top 10 after spending $2.3B+ on two recent acquisitions.With 80% of revenue coming from just three games and only one new release hitting our $50k/month success benchmark, it’s clear—breaking into this genre is tough, even for the big guys 🤯Still, Casual Casino is buzzing with innovation in LiveOps, monetization, and event design—offering valuable lessons for the entire industry! ✍️

Andrei Zubov February 3

Journal

Match-3 with Complex Meta

Match-3 with Complex Meta: You Shall Not Pass? 🧙‍♂️ At first glance, the Match-3 market seems to be thriving, with revenue up 13% YoY in 2024! But here’s the catch: Royal Match alone accounts for 51% of Tier-1 West revenue! 👑Without Dream Games’ flagship, the genre’s revenue actually declined by 8% YoY—making Match-3 with Complex Meta one of the most monopolized and challenging markets to break into. Of the 60 new titles launched in 2024, 5 crossed our $50K/month success benchmark, including Truck Star and Hollywood Crush ⭐️An 8.3% success rate might seem high, but don’t let the numbers fool you. Many smaller developers are just avoiding the genre, leaving only the most prepared and resourceful teams to take on the challenge.

Andrei Zubov February 2

Journal

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