Overview of Mobile Sports & Racing Games Market
Gamerefinery brings an overview of sports and racing games market.
Apple investing more than $500M in Apple Arcade launch
Financial Times reports that Apple is spending or has spent several million dollars to secure and develop each launch title likely bringing the total outlay for Arcade to well over half a billion dollars (read AppleInsider). Apple is offering publishers extra incentives if they agree to exclusivity windows, the report said, restricting new releases to Arcade for a few months before wide distribution on rival platforms. The strategy should continue once Arcade launches, as Apple promised the platform will net new and exclusive games on a regular basis. Analysts at HSBC predict Apple to reap $370 million in Arcade revenue by 2020, a figure expected to grow to $2.7 billion by 2022 and $4.5 billion by 2024, the report said. Mobiledevdemo brings an article about the investment as well as wider gaming context.
How Playrix came to be – the story from the founders
Bloomberg brings the story from brothers Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, founders of Playrix. They started the company alone, out of remote Russian city, almost two decades ago. Now, they have a company of 1,100 employees in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Ireland. The company has released hugely successful titles Homescapes, Gardenscapes, Township and Fishdom which all together saw more than half of billion of downloads and more than $2B in revenue. The brothers reveal how they started and say jokingly that they won’t see for $3B saying that the money is secondary to doing what they love. Their goal, for now, is to become a “top-tier gaming company,” that rivals Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts in the West, and NetEase Inc. and Tencent in China, Igor said.
Before and After In-App Purchases: Identifying Gameplay Patterns and Improving Monetization
This article emphasizes identifying user behavior prior and post purchase, so that the gameplay can be designed in a way that boosts spending.
News around the globe
- One of the latest industry moves – Nordeus moves to a great new building, more info here (pun intended)
- Niantic soft launches Harry Potter: Wizards United in New Zealand on both App Store and Play Store! Unfortunately, there is no data about performance available yet. The game’s global launch has a good chance to become the biggest launch in 2019, with Niantic’s history with PokemonGo, wildly popular Harry Potter IP, usage of AR technology and combination of all of this which is going to almost certainly lead to a huge support from Apple and Google. The game (given its nature) will most probably be launched just in time for the summer. Niantic recently released another teaser which you can check out here.
- Bad news for battle royale games this week. First, the news came that Iraqi lawmakers are considering ban on violent games because they “threaten the social and moral peace”. This consideration was bought by The Committee on Culture, Information, Tourism and Archaeology. After that, it has been reported that both Fortnite and PUBG have been banned by Iraqi government because of their detrimental influence on the population. Also, PUBG has been banned in Nepal over concerns of its addictive nature with children and teenagers. More info here.
- More games face availability issues this week. Weedcraft Inc., the game about growing and selling marijuana, is meeting resistance from Facebook and YouTube two days after its launch – YouTube videos posted by content creators playing Weedcraft Inc were being flagged for “inappropriate content,” and that the game’s Facebook page had been restricted, meaning it cannot be promoted outside of those who have already “liked” the page. It’s interesting to note that there is already a game with the same theme – Hempire – Weed Growing Game by LBC Studios. (8.5M downloads and $15.4M in revenue, lifetime).
- Rocket League removes loot boxes in Belgium and the Netherlands. This is just one more development in many that were already reported in the last months in an effort to comply with local authorities. You can read about all the happenings regarding loot boxes here.
- Animoca Brands acquires 75% stake in Skytree developer for $600K. Animoca Brands said the deal would support its recent licensing arrangements that include major IP such as F1, Major League Baseball, Bundesliga and the Bayern Munich football team. More.
Notable new releases
- PGA TOUR Golf Shootout by Concrete Software on AppStore and PlayStore
- Pocket Cowboys by Foxglove Studios on AppStore and PlayStore
- The VideoKid by FGL Indie Showcase on AppStore and PlayStore
- DISTRAINT 2 by Winterveil Studios on AppStore and PlayStore
- Foxyland 2 by Crescent Moon Games on AppStore and PlayStore
- Ninja Dude vs Zombies 2 by AdoreStudio on AppStore and PlayStore
- OCO by SPECTRUM48 LIMITED on AppStore and PlayStore
- STONE by Convict Games on AppStore
- Rusty Pup by Gory Detail Limited on AppStore
Mobile Industry News 