Google’s Ingress And AXA Redefine Mobile Game Ads

Google’s in-house game studio Niantic Labs and AXA Insurance have revealed engagement statistics behind an innovative advertising and brand integration partnership. The two companies joined forces, designing and implementing a unique virtual to real-world brand engagement campaign within Niantic Labs’ augmented reality mobile adventure game, Ingress, ultimately connecting more than 4 million people with the AXA brand over 150 days.

In an effort to reach the digitally-connected generation, AXA partnered with Niantic Labs to turn AXA retail agencies in the real world into Ingress “Portals,” which are sites that players visit and battle to control for their in-game faction. In just five months, the success of the partnership saw over 600,000 Ingress players visit AXA Insurance locations to find, collect and deploy more than 5 million AXA Shields, unique and powerful branded virtual items. AXA agencies generated over 3 million in-game actions in Ingress and AXA representatives interacted with over 55,000 Ingress players during live player events called ‘Anomalies.’

Mike Quigley, global marketing director for Niantic Labs, spoke with [a]listdaily about this unique marketing effort and its implications for the future.

How did the partnership between Niantic Labs and AXA come about Which company initiated the idea?

Niantic Labs initiated the discussion with AXA, with the idea of creating a relationship that could help boost player awareness of the AXA brand as well as driver consumers to physical AXA office locations. Specifically, AXA’s premise of “Born to protect,” was a perfect fit into the storyline behind Ingress.

With the success of the AXA partnership, do you anticipate more such brand partnerships in the future for Ingress?

The short answer is yes. The more precise answer is that new brand partnerships are already in flight and have been signed since AXA launched in December 2014. Specifically, we recently announced deals with MUFG (Mitsubishi Bank) and Softbank in Japan and have several other upcoming new partners that we’ll be announcing soon.

 

Do you see this partnership as a template for other games that are location-based, and something that may become more widespread in the industry Or is this something that is so deeply tied to the nature of  Ingress that it would be hard to emulate?

We view this type of partnership as a template for other location-based, AR (augmented reality) games, or ‘Real World Games’ as we call them here at Niantic Labs. More and more, we see the opportunity for relevant and high quality partnerships that create value for both the user and the partner, and AXA is a perfect example of this. The 4 million Ingress player interactions we’ve driven for the AXA brand are a great example of this win-win proposition for the users and the brand. Given our long-term goal of releasing APIs to game developers so they can build their own ‘Real World Games’ experiences leveraging our technology platform, we view our ‘cost per visit’ model as a unique and innovative way for developers to earn incremental revenue above and beyond more traditional free to play mobile gaming revenue streams like IAP (in-app purchase).

Will Niantic Labs be looking for similar brand partnerships and integration for Endgame?

Yes, all future games developed on the Niantic Labs technology platform will have the option to leverage these brand partnerships.

Do you see potential for this sort of brand integration with AR and games What’s the potential for the future of advertising with these emerging technologies of augmented reality and Google Maps integration with gaming?

Augmented Reality and Real World Gaming like Ingress has the potential to create new value for users. Partnerships like the one we have with AXA allows the advertiser to speak to their target audience on a much more intimate level, reaching them at the right time and place. Additionally, because these brand integrations are tightly woven into the fabric of the game, they’re much more likely to have an impact on user awareness and engagement.

What’s been the reactions of players on social media to this brand integration with the game universe?

Player’s reactions to the AXA Shield game object and their overall brand integration has been extremely positive. Our users appreciate the power of the AXA Shield for gameplay and have embraced the integration in fun and interesting ways. We’ve seen players go on long farming runs to visit AXA locations, collect AXA Shields and use them to protect valuable locations (‘portals’) in the game and share these experiences on social media. We’ve also seen them create banners, posters and even in-game ‘field art’ using the AXA brand image. It’s exciting to see how players react to the in game branding in such a positive light.

Mobile Gaming ‘Hasn’t Even Come Close To Peak’

Mobile gaming generates billions in revenue each year, with big hits like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga bringing in millions of dollars daily from die-hard players. The mobile game business globally has already surpassed the revenues from console games. Even so, mobile games have yet to reach their peak, according to N3twork CEO Neil Young.

Pocket Gamer reports that Young, who recently spoke at Develop:Brighton 2015 event, explained that mobile has a big future ahead of it, especially with the usage of augmented reality and virtual reality. “I’m a big believer in that future,” he said. However, we’re not likely to see their potential for the next three years, where it could reach its “significant scale.”

Young went on to explain how he “rebooted” N3twork, originally intent on aiming at social networks, to instead focus on mobile games. He believes there’s plenty of life left in the market yet, proclaiming, “we’re not even close to peak mobile gaming.”

While some companies are concerned about user size, Young instead focused on yield per user, with the typical consumer spending $3.50 for Candy Crush Saga, but then splurging on Puzzle & Dragons to the tune of $28. As a result, these top-grossing games can easily generate $10 billion a year.

Where this success lies, Young believes, is in finding the key free-to-play approach, as many games like Clash of Clans have already done. “I think you have to unlock the potential of a new business model,” he explained. “Fundamentally, we need to make games where people want to pay, not where they need to pay.”

He also believes that “console-quality” games isn’t quite the way to go, as technically innovative as it may be. Instead, he proposes games that can get started quickly (within a ten second time frame), and ones with repeat play value that consumers can come back to – like Candy Crush Saga after all lives are recharged. If games are run as a service – and one that’s convenient to customers – and introduce regular planned events with “managed moments of drama”, they have a better chance to succeed.

Google Brings The Buy Button To Search

Google has been struggling with its search ad business as of late, according to a recent report from Re/Code. The site indicates that growth has almost broken even, with marketers moving spending to mobile and other digital ad mediums, per numbers reported by the Adobe Digital Index.

So how to turn that around Through the launch of a special buy button. The company announced the debut of the Purchases On Google service, where marketers will be able to “make the world your storefront” with a simple “Buy Now” functionality on certain items looked up on Google’s page.

Per an article published by VentureBeat, more than a dozen merchants will introduce ads featuring this “buy” button, enabling consumers to perform purchases much easier than before, simply from looking up an item they’re seeking.

In addition, Google will also launch conversational search for Good shopping, along with a card that notifies shoppers of when a product’s price goes through a drop. This may be good news for those seeking bargains — like the ones scouring Amazon’s page today during Prime Day.

This, combined with the Android Pay feature, could help improve shopping numbers on mobile, making it easier with a direct system instead of having to browse through additional pages. Whether it will be an effective system in the long run has yet to be seen, but considering Google’s stagnant numbers as of late, it certainly couldn’t hurt.

Re/Code reported that, per numbers provided by Adobe Digital Index, Google’s search revenue has only seen a minor one to two percent increase in terms of revenue. The chart below shows this, and while it’s not a loss like in the first quarter of the year, it does show signs of concern.

Said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst for Adobe, “For a lot of marketers, the next best place to spend their dollars is to go outside of Google.”

Google is set to report its official second quarter earnings tomorrow, but, needless to say, the introduction of its Purchases On Google system probably couldn’t come at a better time.

Periscope Beats Meerkat In Live Social Streaming

In the war for social streaming services, it appears that Twitter’s Periscope has landed a knockout punch on its competition — and it may continue to stay that way.

Variety recently posted an article that talked about the ongoing battle between Twitter’s streaming service and its nearest competitor, Meerkat. At the beginning of the year, Meerkat had a healthy lead when it launched. However, according to findings from Adobe Digital Index, Twitter’s Periscope has become a bigger favorite with the community.

The deciding factor was the big Pacquiao/Mayweather fight that took place in Las Vegas earlier this year. As we noted in a previous story, the fight was a tremendous hit for live streamers, even though it wasn’t a legal method for watching it. That didn’t stop Periscope’s numbers from spiking, even over Meerkat’s — and it’s been on the rise ever since.

“I call it a knockout in the first round,” said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst for Adobe Digital Index.

As you can see from the chart above, the Periscope service has been on the up-and-up following its launch earlier this year, with slow increases over the month. It notes that there was a three times increase in usage with the big fight, and it continued to rise when Periscope became available for Android. Ever since, its viewership has maintained a steady lead over Meerkat, which has merely settled back down to the level it was initially on earlier in the year.

In addition, mentions of Periscope have picked up quite a bit as well on Twitter, reaching nearly double the amount.

While this may seem like a final blow to Meerkat, don’t count it out yet. With social live streaming still slowly getting picked up in the mainstream — without a business model to take advantage of — Gaffney believes that some caution should be used. “It will take a while to be worth anything to markets,” she explained.

Meerkat could easily find a way to do this. It recently announced the ability to add embedded streams to any website, as well as a recent promotion for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week event. It’s still got a ways to go, though.

We’ll see how this streaming war plays out over the next few months. For now, though, it appears to be smooth sailing for Periscope.

Now Hiring This Week: July 15th

[a]listdaily is your source for the hottest job openings for senior management and marketing in games, entertainment and social media. Check here every Wednesday for the latest openings.

Read a case for and against job hopping before you find your next position.

  • Riot Games – Brand Manager (Los Angeles, Calif.)
  • Ubisoft – Senior Digital Marketing Manager (San Francisco, Calif.)
  • 2K Games – Director of Digital Marketing (Novato, Calif.)
  • Hulu – Social Media Manager (Santa Monica, Calif.)
  • Ayzenberg – Account Director (Seattle, Wash.)
  • Ayzenberg – Senior Tech Developer (Pasadena, Calif.)
  • Ayzenberg – Social Media Intern (Pasadena, Calif.)

For last week’s [a]list jobs postings, click here. Have a position you’d like to place with us Email us at pr@ayzenberg.com.

Jim Norton On The Future of Digital Ads

by Evan DeSimone

With over 20 years of experience in the ad industry, Jim Norton has had a front row seat to the rise of digital advertising. As head of advertising sales for AOL’s entire brand portfolio, he has steered the monetization of web media staples like The Huffington Post, Engadget, StyleList, AOL On and MapQuest. Norton also chairs the American Ad Federation, a position from which he has championed innovative partnerships as a means to keep the digital ad space vibrant and thriving.

We sat down with Jim to discuss his goals for the chairmanship, his insights into the digital advertising space, and how he sees the roll of video evolving both at AOL and as the future of the industry itself.

As chairman of the American Ad Federation, what do you hope to accomplish?

I’m a big proponent of partnerships. The truth is no one can win this industry alone. I think a big part of my role is helping big brands–and ad guys, and content creators, everyone–helping them see the huge benefits that are possible with successful partnerships. It’s more than just receiving ad money and spitting out ads. I don’t just mean superficial business deals–I mean really integrated partnerships. Successfully elevating a brand is elevating your own brand.

Keep reading…

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

EA And Xfinity Team Up For Cloud Gaming

Although not every venture into the medium has been a success (looking at you, Onlive), cloud gaming has come a long way – particularly with Sony, which has taken its PlayStation Now service to new heights over the last year. Now, Electronic Arts wants a piece of that pie.

VentureBeat has reported that Electronic Arts, the publisher behind hit games like the Mass Effect series and the forthcoming Star Wars: Battlefront, has teamed up with cable giant Comcast to create a new cloud gaming service. Called Xfinity Games, the service will enable customers to play EA games free of charge using either a smartphone or tablet that will work in conjunction with an X1 cable box.

The trial service, which will kick off with a beta today, will enable game images to appear on a television, and users can select which games they want to play right on their device. An X1-enabled box will be required, as the cable connection is needed to get the utmost quality out of the games.

“We’ve been looking at the game market for many years, looking for the right opportunity to create a great experience for our customers,” said Bryan Witkowski, senior director of strategic development at Comcast, speaking with GamesBeat.

Don’t expect to be playing Mass Effect 3 or Battlefront right away, though. The service will start small with more casual games, including Real Racing 2, Monopoly, NBA Jam On Fire Edition, Plants vs. Zombies and World of Goo, among others.

“We are launching our beta (today),” said EA vice president of marketing Katrina Strafford, speaking with Polygon. “It will include 20 games, most which, but not all, are from EA. We have relationships with publishers across the industry and it’s absolutely something we’ll explore more as we get feedback from players about what they’re liking, what games are really making sense for them in this medium and we’ll learn and go from there.”

As for future titles, Strafford stated, “We’re taking EA’s brands and making games and experiences specifically for this new audience that we think we can reach in partnership with Comcast on the X1.

“These games are made specifically for this platform and for this service. So whereas some of the games we may bring to EA Access are console games that maybe were in development for a year or two, these are games that are made specifically for this platform and not on that kind of cycle. So I think that gives us some of that nimbleness to react to what this new audience is finding most interesting.”

Those interested in hopping in the beta for Xfinity Games can do so at this page. While it may not make the company a competitive service right away (PlayStation Now has 125 games and counting in its subscription service), it’s a vital first step in what could be a big journey. The demo video for the service is below.

Apple Rules the World’s Most Powerful Brands

It’s amazing to see what some companies are worth these days, but also no surprise considering the contributions they make to the market. Their value is more than just what they have in the bank and their assets; the world-class brands top companies possess have considerable weight as well. When it comes to brands, Apple is leading the pack these days.

Forbes recently posted a list of the top 100 Most Valuable Brands in the world, and Apple easily conquered this list, with a brand value of $145.3 billion (an increase of 17 percent over last year) and a brand revenue of $182.3 billion. In addition, the company also spends a whopping $1.2 billion in advertising, making it the clear leader in the Technology department.

The rest of the top ten are easily recognizable names, but the distance between first and second place are staggering. Taking the second place spot is Microsoft, whose brand value is nearly half that of Apple’s at $69.3 billion. However, it has $93.3 billion in brand revenue, and spends $2.3 billion in advertising – nearly twice what Apple spends. Nevertheless, second place isn’t a bad place to be, as Microsoft shows a ten percent increase in value change over last year.

Rounding out the top ten in brand value are Google ($65.6 billion), Coca-Cola ($56 billion), IBM ($49.8 billion), McDonald’s ($39.5 billion), Samsung ($37.9 billion), Toyota ($37.8 billion), General Electric ($37.5 billion) and Facebook ($36.5 billion). Each of these companies show a positive increase in brand value over the previous year, save for McDonald’s, which decreased by a paltry one percent.

Other noteworthy names on the list include Disney (at #11, with $34.6 billion), Amazon (at number #13 with $28.1 billion), and Pepsi, way down at #29 with $19 billion – a distant second from its rivals at Coca-Cola.

This list has a lot in common with Brandz’ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list, which we reported on earlier in the year. Apple was number one on that list as well, but Google was a close second on that particular list, followed by Microsoft, IBM and Visa. Obviously, some changes are notable here, especially when it comes to the technological side of things. Still, for comparison’s sake, there are some interesting statistics here.

The entire list can be found here, and features a variety of companies in various areas, including Alcohol, Consumer Packaged Goods, Financial Services and even Tobacco. However, Technology seems to be the stronger category, as six of the top ten companies specialize in this field. And with Apple and Microsoft ruling the roost with a big lead, that’s not likely to go away anytime soon.

EA’s Careful Approach To Marketing

YouTube. Facebook. Snapchat. Vine. Meerkat. Periscope. Twitch. Has your brand mastered them all Get the insights and knowledge you need to succeed at [a]list Video Summit Aug. 19. Get tix: http://alist.ly/1EVLyyz

Marketing for a video game can be a tricky business, especially if there’s something happening with the world that companies have to tiptoe around so that it has no correlation with its product. Chris Bruzzo, the chief marketing officer who hopped on board Electronic Arts last year from Starbucks, knows this well, and explained in an interview with GamesIndustry International how, in a way, traditional marketing has “come apart.”

One example of this was the marketing with this year’s earlier release Battlefield: Hardline, which was coming out on the heels of the Ferguson incident, where a white police officer shot an unarmed black 18-year old. “We were very sensitive to that,” Bruzzo said. “We spent time to make sure we understood what was happening in the environment. But while being sensitive to not wanting to draw on that or capitalize on it in any way, we also really came to the conclusion that most entertainment companies have to come to, which is that entertainment is a different part of the human experience. And while it might instruct us on things that are happening in other parts of our lives, it exists to entertain. Just like TV shows or movies that are a long time in production, those stories about crime, or difficult experiences in the world, those are going to continue to be important stories that people love to engage in. We don’t actually suggest there’s much about Battlefield: Hardline that has a lot of relevancy to things that are happening in Ferguson or places like that.”

There are situations where cultural relevancy can be used with advertising games, such as with the recently announced Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, which will debut next year. While the game didn’t exactly make big bucks for EA, it has been fondly appreciated by fans. “When I think about how to invite people into the story, I really encourage our teams to start in a really positive place,” Bruzzo said. “That means asking, ‘What’s great about Mirror’s Edge What made it great the first time What are we carrying through, and how is it contemporary now ‘ Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst has its own story to tell, and it’s updated. It’s touching on themes that are pretty relevant today. That opening line in the trailer — ‘What does it mean to freely give away your privacy ‘ — couldn’t be more at the center of our digitally engaged everywhere experience that we’re having today.”

EA has also been careful with the advertising of the forthcoming sports game FIFA 16, concentrating more on the sports action and less on the recent scandals surrounding the league. “For us, we’re very focused on the game, and on the experience we’re creating for players in the game,” Bruzzo said. “That’s true in the case of Battlefield Hardline, and absolutely true in the case of FIFA. How do we bring the actual sport the athletes play to life in a way that connects with people ” (Side note: EA took a similar stance alongside its then golfing partner Tiger Woods, amidst certain controversies surround him. The two have since broken apart, and Rory McIlroy has been signed as the cover star of the new golf game, Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, which hits store shelves today.)

But according to Bruzzo, the whole “it’s in the game” mantra of sports titles is something that customers have been connecting to more, focusing more on the sports action than what happens off the field. “If you ask young people who play Madden NFL today, a lot of them don’t know who John Madden is,” Bruzzo said. “That’s a crystal clear example where the game has completely transcended where it started and the personality of Madden. The same is true for FIFA. If you ask people who play FIFA 15 this year, when you say FIFA to them, they’re as likely to be talking about the [video] game. So I do think consumers understand the fiction here. And it’s part of the authenticity of the entertainment. We’re going to create this fictionalized environment and you’re going to get to pay. And that’s pretty fundamentally different. It is challenging though when you pick a single endorser. That does make things a little more challenging. And yet, at times it’s totally the right thing to do because it helps to bring authenticity to the game.”

Tying back in to marketing, Bruzzo explains that he’s seen a lot of changes, mainly with the time he was vice president of marketing and public relations for Amazon, as well as serving as Starbucks’ digital strategy expert. “It’s amazing,” Bruzzo said. “‘What is marketing ‘ is really an open question today. I kind of feel that marketing has come apart. It is no longer a brand with some propaganda pushing a message one way to a target audience. In many ways, it really has been coming apart for a while. It includes direct engagement with players and customers through social channels. It includes analytics. It continues to include creative. But today, the nature of marketing has come apart so it can get closer to the end recipient, the player and the product. And as a result, we can have a much more iterative relationship, a dialogue, even as games are being made.”

However, strides are being made with certain campaigns for games, like the more personable approach taken with last year’s Madden NFL 15, featuring a viral campaign with stars Kevin Hart and Dave Franco. “There are things about how you market that game that are fundamentally different than how you’d market a Battlefield or a Battlefront,” Bruzzo said. “In this industry, we have these long lead times, and for a lot of good reasons, players want to deconstruct what the game’s going to be and do a lot of comparisons. How many maps How many modes How many hours of play I think it’s fascinating that in the discussion about and reaction to Unravel, nobody’s asking any of those questions. It’s fundamentally a different construct. It’s another kind of story that doesn’t fall into the same [category].”

You can read the full interview here.

Winning Numbers for Social Casino Games

The social casino segment of the game market has proven to be broadly popular over the last few years, being one of the most successful categories on Facebook and becoming one of the top categories among mobile games as well. It’s easy to see why, with the familiar game play of slots and other popular casino games married to attractive graphics and sounds.

“Plumbee is an ambitious social casino gaming startup based in Shoreditch, London that is changing the way technology fuels entertainment,” notes the company’s web site. “We’re disrupting a $400 billion industry. The online casino market is experiencing a deep shift and we want to be at the forefront of that change,” said Raf Keustermans, co-founder and CEO of Plumbee. The company’s Mirrorball Slots game can be found on Facebook, iOS, and Android.

Keustermans spoke with [a]listdaily about the social casino market and how it’s changing.

Raf Keustermans

How do you see the social casino market evolving over the past few years, and where is it heading over the next few years?

Overall, social casino is still a very lucrative and fast-growing sub-set of the wider free-to-play gaming market, with an estimated $3 billion revenue in 2014 growing to $5 billion in the coming years according to many analysts. But what is becoming very clear, especially in the last six to twelve months, is that the the majority of the growth goes to the top grossing companies. About a year ago, the top five companies in social casino controlled around 55 percent of total market share, audience and revenues, today they control over 60 percent and I see that trend accelerating. It will quickly become a category where 10-15 companies control 95 percent of the market, with the five largest owning 65-70 percent. If you’re not one of those top companies, it will become very, very tough to grow, or even survive.

Consolidation is very much alive and kicking, I believe in the last four years social casino M&A deals were done for a grand total of $4 billion, with the biggest ones of course DoubleDown to IGT and recently Big Fish to Churchill Downs. It’s interesting that most of the deals were done by what were perceived to be ‘old school’ land-based casino companies like IGT, Caesars, Churchill Downs, Bally, Aristocrat, etc., rather than by their digital gambling counterparts. My personal theory on that is that land-based casino is much more about player experience and general entertainment, while online gambling is a bit more ‘hardcore’, more about winning or losing cash — so perhaps the land-based companies are mentally closer to game studios than the online gambling guys.

Product-wise we’ve seen a couple of interesting trends lately, especially the success ‘out of the blue’ from a game like Old Vegas Slots, with simple 3-reel machines and almost no meta-features, was a surprise to many, as it almost feels like ‘anti-innovation’ in a category where production costs were going up because of the ongoing battle for more ambitious, more graphically interesting experiences, very animation-rich, etc. So there will definitely be some companies trying to replicate that success.

Another big trend from the last 12-18 months is the growing presence of licensed IP in the category, with many companies chasing the top brands and licensing costs going up. It’s obviously not just happening in social casino, it’s pretty much across the board in mobile and social gaming, but it’s definitely and interesting trend that might shake up the industry quite a bit.

A couple of months ago you launched Mirrorball Slots on Android. What’s the response been?

It’s been very good, better than we expected actually. We had expected Android to be 30-40 percent softer on all metrics, from retention over monetization, engagement… based on conversations we had prior to our launch with other companies with Android experience. But so far Android is pretty much on par with iOS, on some days we even see Android metrics trumping iOS.

We are one of the highest rated casino games in the Google Play Store, so not only the metrics but also the user feedback has been very positive for us. Of course Android still has its challenges, device fragmentation is still a bit of a nightmare, but overall we are really happy with the platform so far.

How important do you feel Facebook has been to Plumbee, and how has that changed as mobile becomes increasingly important as a platform?

It’s been extremely important, and still is today. At all levels. We obviously started our business on canvas, the platform we knew best coming from EA Playfish, and we always got great support from the platform and partnership teams at Facebook. Especially for a small startup it was absolutely critical to get support from the platform.

Today canvas is still a very meaningful part of our business, so Facebook remains a major partner in that sense, but also for mobile we see Facebook as a key driver for success and growth. While we also spend a significant chunk of our ad dollars outside Facebook, we do see Facebook as a major partner in marketing and user acquisition for both iOS and Android. We really get a lot of support from Facebook, while Apple and Google don’t seem to care that much about the social casino genre at all.

What are the most effective marketing tactics you use for your games, and how do you see that changing in the next year?

In terms of ‘external’ marketing there isn’t really any secret sauce: Having a strong, data-driven marketing team that understands the market and the audience, so we can target the right players across all the available channels; from Facebook over video ad networks, testing new suppliers, doing direct deals with other game studios . . .

Offering regular themed promotions is another obvious one, the key to make these work is to really make them relevant for the player: I believe our segmentation model is very strong today, so that really makes a big difference.

Our most successful ‘marketing tactic’ is probably more a product feature: our themed challenges — where players collect symbols from non-winning spins, in different games within a certain time period — are a major driver for retention and engagement. We spend a lot of time to get these right, find the right theme, make the art very cool and communicate across all channels to both existing and new players to get them involved in chasing the symbols. It really adds an extra layer to the game, it adds a sense of purpose as well.

What does the future hold for Plumbee Are you looking to add new types of games to your social casino offerings?

Right now the market is rather tough and competitive, so for the foreseeable future we will laser-focus on Mirrorball Slots and on trying to grow our market share in the category. We made the very difficult decision to sunset our Bingo game earlier this year (Mirrorball Bingo), and with the benefit of hindsight I wish we hadn’t spend so much time, energy and money on developing and launching it — it was a great game, very fun and it looked amazing, but it meant we spread our resources too thin across the different products, and we spent a fair bit of money trying to gain market share in different categories instead of making a much bigger, bolder bet on a product that already had significant traction in the market. So for now we won’t venture into any new directions, but do whatever we can to make Mirrrorball Slots bigger, better and stronger across all platforms.

We will of course keep adding new slot games to the app, we aim for a new game every 4 weeks, and we’re always trying to come up with new, fun meta-features to keep players engaged and happy.

Social casino games are regularly among the top 25 grossing games on mobile. Do you see this continuing as the mobile market expands in new regions, and new games continue to pour into the market?

It’s hard to say I think. It’s clear that ‘western-style slots and bingo games’ don’t really work in countries like Japan or China, for cultural and regulatory reasons. So it’s not a given that the same companies or the same brands will succeed in those new markets. But the core concept of having fun, well-made free-to-play games based on casino mechanics will probably work across the globe, as long as the game mechanics are well known, fun and easy to translate in a 5-10 minute mobile experience.

In most countries there will be an audience that likes these experiences, that has an appetite for casino-style games, just like you will probably in most countries find an audience for locally relevant puzzle game, strategy games etc.