Developer
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Harvesting the Niche: Understanding Farming Simulator 19's Chart Success
Earlier this week, the latest EMEAA game sales charts were released. The relatively new (and long-awaited) GSD charts compile data from across an impressive spread of countries, from Australia and Great Britain, to India and South Africa, via Ukraine and the UAE. This time around, in the wake of Black Friday and as the traditional Christmas game buying spree intensifies, there were plenty of expected entries. In the combined chart, reflecting both physical and digital purchases across all formats, plenty of [...]
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Letting off Steam? Fortnite Dev Lifts Lid on Epic Games Store
Just days after Epic Games’ phenomenally successful Fortnite cleared 200 million registered users, the studio has announced that it is opening an online gaming store. When you you have already acquired an audience the size of Fortnite’s, that is a step with vast potential to disrupt the ecosystems of the global games industry. For over a decade, the Steam store has dominated PC gaming; and had an influence that has shaped the way games are designed, distributed, and marketed. Steam has arguably [...]
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Fortnite Hits 200 Million Players
Video game sensation and global cultural phenomenon Fortnite now courts the attention of 200 million players. That’s according to Bloomberg, which points out that the shooter’s user base is now approximately comparable to the populace of sizeable nations like Brazil. Put another way, it’s well over 3x the entire population of the UK. That’s impressive for a handful of reasons. Fortnite is an established success, of course. Even so, the new user numbers mark a 60% increase from the 125 million registered [...]
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Rebellion to Open Doors on £78.4m Film & TV Studio
Long-standing independent UK game developer and publisher Rebellion has purchased a facility to convert into a film studio, estimated to be worth USD$100m (£78.4m). That might not seem the most obvious purchase for a video game company, but Rebellion has always confidently expanded its remit beyond its core business. The move equally reflects an ongoing convergence of the industries of game development, film, and television. That convergence to date has been defined most apparently by crossover in technique, technologies, and creative [...]
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How Pokémon Won Over the United Nations
This week, developer Niantic revealed that it has partnered with the United Nations to create ‘tourism experiences’ delivered as ‘real-world games’. The AR specialist studio will build titles specifically with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), with a view to work enhancing global tourism. Niantic, of course, created the global phenomenon that is Pokémon GO. In May 2018 alone, almost two years after the AR title’s launch, 147 million people played the game, according to Superdata. The data outfit also reported [...]
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Q&A: Reality Clash & the Arrival of Blockchain-Powered AR
Reality Clash is an in-development mobile AR shooter that integrates blockchain, cryptocurrencies, dynamic in-game advertising, and geo-mapping technology into the gameplay experience it offers. Yes… there are a lot of tech buzzwords in that opening line. We’d only need to throw in AI and VR and it might seem like a parody of contemporary marketing parlance. But in truth, there’s often a meaningful reality hidden somewhere behind the hype of headline-grabbing tech trends. And it just so happens that Reality Clash [...]
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How Gaming Developers Can Tackle the Challenges of User Retention & Reactivation
In this piece, Elle Chen, head of strategic partnerships, Simplaex, tells TheGamingEconomy that for gaming app developers, the ultimate goal is not just to have high installs but to build a community of addicted gamers. Think about how expensive it is to invest marketing budgets in user acquisition and then just let users fade away without a sustainable follow-up strategy. App retargeting, the go-to marketing technology for mobile marketers, helps you reactivate existing users as well as keep active users [...]
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Rewarded Video Is the Best-Performing Format in Gaming: Q&A with Simon Spaull, AppLovin
TheGamingEconomy visited Casual Connect Europe this week, where we interviewed Simon Spaull, managing director, EMEA, AppLovin, about the challenges and opportunities of in-app monetisation for gaming developers both big and small. TheGamingEconomy: How do independent mobile gaming developers gain traction in such a competitive environment? Simon Spaull: Financially, it’s a challenge. If you want to get to the top of an app chart, the predominant way is to buy users; and when you’re competing against the larger companies, it’s difficult, as you [...]
