Syfy Is Engaging Viewers With Immersive Experiences

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Syfy is mostly synonymous with one word: Sharknado – the glorious and ridiculous made-for-television movie series that first made waves in 2013. Three installments have aired since, each more absurd than the other.

The last one even featured Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as the trigger-happy president of the United States killing a slew of sharks. A fourth version of Sharknado is scheduled for later this year.

With a constant need to feed fans of the fantasy and sci-fi genres with immersive experiences, NBCUniversal’s cable and satellite TV outfit is producing a variety of multi-platform content to complement their imagination-based entertainment that includes shows like Face Off, The Magicians and 12 Monkeys.

Syfy Labs was unveiled in January to create innovative content for existing and emerging platforms by using technologies like virtual reality, 3D printing and second-screen Internet of Things integrations.

Matthew Chiavelli, senior vice president of Syfy Digital, told [a]listdaily that frankly, their audience desires – and expects – innovation. “We formalized our commitment to using the new types of emerging technologies applied to the storytelling experience,” he says.

It’s a far cry from Syfy’s focus 14 years ago when Chiavelli first started working for the company – a time when they were figuring out how to stream video online.

In 2016, they’re giving fans printable files from their favorite programs through MakerBot’s Thingiverse, introducing virtual reality via The Expanse VR app for Samsung Gear VR, and Halycon, a short-form scripted crime drama that will be offered on the Oculus Rift platform. Then there’s the Syfy Sync app working with Philips Hue that brings custom-built lighting tracks to showcase Syfy’s original programs – think about your entire room turning blood red as a shark’s devouring some helpless mass of flesh when Sharknado 4 premieres this July.

Chiavelli joined [a]listdaily to talk about how they’re feeding their audience’s insatiable appetite with the recently launched Syfy Labs.

What kind of an impact has Sharknado had on Syfy?

We’ve watched the fan base grow tremendously. It’s become sort of this global phenomenon. It’s great because it gives us room to experiment in ways we might not have. But we have a big umbrella. The great thing is that you can go anywhere from serious dramas like 12 Monkeys and The Expanse to the more light-hearted fun stuff.

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How do you keep viewers engaged after the weekly shows have aired?

One way is through MakerBot, which is one of the largest manufacturers of 3D printers. They have a site called Thingiverse, which is their marketplace for 3D models. We are the first media or entertainment company to have a section within Thingiverse with officially sanctioned 3D models. People can access printable files from their favorite Syfy programs. This is a very vibrant and growing community filled with enthusiastic people. It’s a way for us to get into that space, and also to experiment. What’s great about this is that it’s simplified versions of the actual 3D assets that are used by the visual effects department. We didn’t recreate them. We worked with our team.

People who are fans of cutting-edge tech typically are fans of the Syfy genre. When we’re looking at emerging technologies like 3D printing, it’s very important to us because it puts us on the radar again for people who may not know about all of our programming. It’s creating another use-case, and adding a new dimension.

What are some new strategies you’ve been implementing?

We’re based out of New York, so we previewed a CES demo of our technologies inside our offices a month before it premiered, and got write-ups from press like Bloomberg that would never talk about Sharknado, and wouldn’t think of Syfy as a tech brand, per se. From a trade marketing point of view, it was great for us. We got other sectors talking about our lighting integration. So from a promotional standpoint, it was great. We’re committed to the technologies. We want to be as nimble as possible, while surprising our viewers with things they weren’t expecting. For example, for The Expanse, we tried something unique where we had the first episode available online before it premiered on air. After the second episode aired, we made the third and fourth available for the holiday break for viewers to binge on.

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How does Syfy Labs plan on using virtual reality?

Virtual reality is one of the technologies we want to apply to our shows, but we really want to use it where it’s applicable. We’ve been looking at VR for quite a while, but really didn’t have a property that was suited for it. We had to be sensitive to the content. But once The Expanse went into production, and we saw how gorgeous the visual effects were, we ending up doing it. At CES, we had The Expanse VR app for Samsung Gear VR enabling attendees to explore spacecraft and settings from the heralded drama series in high-quality 3D VR. The television industry is in a really interesting place right now with the acceleration and growth of non-linear viewing. We have to make sure we’re consistently serving our audience.

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan.

App Annie Reveals Top Game Publishers

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While the United States mobile gaming market continues to be strong, there’s no question that a lot of talent comes from overseas. One look at App Annie’s list of the top 52 publishers of 2015 clearly proves the point.

The list, posted on the company’s official blog, indicates that 28 companies on the list come from the Asia-Pacific market, followed by the U.S. with 17 and Europe with seven. That confirms that more than half of the overall list consists of companies like mixi, GungHo Online and LINE.

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Based on revenue earned in both the iOS App Store and Google Play over the course of the year, Supercell earned the No. 1 one spot on the list with hit games like Boom Beach and Clash of Clans. Closely behind in second was King, riding the strength of its Candy Crush Saga games following the completion of its $5.9 billion acquisition by Activision earlier this year. Much of the top 10 consists of Asia-Pacific companies, like GunHo, Tencent and NetEase. Only two U.S. companies, Machine Zone and Electronic Arts, made the top 10.

Overall, the U.S. still has the most companies with 17, followed closely behind by Japan with 16; China has nine, and three are from South Korea.

There were plenty of surprises, like how the social network service (and creators of Monster Strike) mixi managed to overtake GungHo Online to take the third place spot. Other surprises include the South Korean Netmarble landing eighth place while China’s Netease comes in ninth. Both companies made big moves last year, with Netmarble investing $130 million in SGN and NetEase reporting $2.7 billion in annual games revenue.

The full rankings are as follows:

App Anniel

 

Evil Geniuses ‘Halo 5’ Coach Ryan Towey Talks X Games, ESports Growth

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Microsoft has been investing a lot of time and money into Halo 5 eSports. The publisher, along with developer 343 Industries, has structured the Halo World Championship to attract a global eSports fan base. Part of this competition included the Halo World Championship Tour stop at the 2016 X Games in Aspen, Colorado. It marked the first time Halo 5 pro gamers competed for real X Games medals. Halo 5 juggernaut Evil Geniuses emerged victorious at the event, which featured eight top teams competing for $30,000 and the coveted medals.

Ryan Towey, the coach of Evil Geniuses, now owns an X Games gold medal. He talked to [a]listdaily about the role ESPN and the X Games plays in growing Halo as an eSport and addresses the global competitive landscape for the Xbox One sci-fi shooter in this exclusive interview.

What role do you see X Games playing in further legitimizing eSports in the mainstream?

X Games has an incredibly significant role for the mainstream success of eSports in the future. The greatest example is to look back on some other extreme sports that were either not nationally recognized as such or possibly looked down upon near the beginning of the X Games competition, such as snowboarding and skiing and similarly skateboarding events at the summer X Games. Whether or not eSports can be considered an ‘extreme sport’ worthy of the ‘X Games title’ is a separate debate entirely, but pushing through the initial response and including eSports consistently in both the X Games competition and live broadcast for years to come will absolutely popularize the competition, the title being played and eSports as a whole among a national audience that most likely would otherwise have no exposure to it.

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How have you seen past X Games eSports coverage through MLG raise awareness of eSports?

Personally, after our X Games performance I can’t even properly illustrate for you how many notifications or messages I received across social media. People I never thought would be interested in eSports from my hometown and high school and college contacted me about how excited they were for our team and how exhilarating it was watching us compete. The viewership alone proves how significant the awareness for eSports was for our title and for past competitions such as Call of Duty and Counter-Strike, the same rings true as well.

Halo 5 X Games competition was aired on television. What role do you see TV playing for Halo and eSports gaining more attention?

Halo 5 appearing on national television is an incredible feat that we never thought even possible; it’s safe to say the gravity and significance of seeing our highlights alongside Stephen Curry and Dwight Howard has not quite registered with anyone in our community yet. The role of television is imperative to the long-term success and growth of not just Halo but eSports as a whole to increase exposure to an audience that may not otherwise be attracted to eSports and to educate that audience into becoming invested into teams and players within that eSports title. Creating that investment for fans is what all sports leagues strive towards and the type of recognition that television brings to both Halo and eSports as a whole in the mainstream is exactly what is needed to generate that type of investment in an entirely new audience for eSports.

What similarities do you see between these early days of eSports (from a mainstream acceptance standpoint) and the early days of extreme sports and X Games?

The similarities are pretty striking between early extreme sports at X Games and the current level of acceptance for eSports. Over time as those extreme sports were continually marketed, promoted and competed in at X Games competitions, they were accepted and praised by both mainstream media and the national audience that questioned them at first. In near identical fashion, eSports now sees a very similar story arc with the same reaction from a national audience in the early days of extreme sports and over time with consistent competition and national exposure the same evolution from confusion to understanding to invested viewer can occur.

What does it mean to be able to compete for gold medals at X Games? 

Competing for a gold medal at the X Games is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that none of us on our team took for granted. We know the path that Halo and eSports as a whole has had over the years and for us to be in a position to compete in a once in a lifetime tournament and environment with national exposure such as the X Games was a dream come true. Winning tournaments and prize earnings can fade over time, but the significance of becoming an X Games gold medalist stays for a lifetime.

How has Halo 5 improved the eSports product for pro gamers and teams?

Halo 5 is the first Halo game in the title’s lifespan to attempt to combine the casual and competitive community into one. When I say that, I mean in regard to competitive settings and including the same game that any player can pick up in stores and right out of the box be the same game they watch online and on TV being played at competitions around the world. This type of uniformity is critical to the success of Halo as we’ve seen other titles such as League of Legends use the same approach to cultivate a massive community that follows their game and all competitions worldwide. Strictly as a competitive title in comparison to former Halo titles, Halo 5 is incredibly well made. Aiming is difficult, the weapon system is incredibly balanced, the maps are efficiently and optimally designed, and as a competitive title, Halo has arguably never been more competitive.

How have you seen the global competition evolve with Halo competition?

Regrettably, I have not seen much evolution between teams globally. Halo was popularized by MLG through North American tournaments and as such the professional scene was cultivated in our country alone. That’s not to say that there aren’t successful and highly skilled teams from the United Kingdom and around the world but by and large they can’t stack up to the top teams from North America. With Halo 5 focusing extremely hard on a global landscape for all competition, it’s my hope that we see players and teams evolve in each country to rival the greatest teams in North America, having that worldwide competition increases the awareness and mainstream recognition for Halo 5 exponentially.  

What excites you about where Halo eSports is now heading?

What excites me most about where Halo eSports is heading now is the seemingly limitless potential we all feel it has. I’ve been around competitive Halo for over a decade and like I mentioned earlier, have watched it fall off the proverbial cliff as an eSports title into anonymity. With how much growth Halo has seen in the last 12-to-18 months alone it’s safe to say all of us competing never imagined how significantly things would change in this short of a time period and we’ve been blown away by 343’s success at pushing Halo eSports to the masses thus far. Only time will tell how far Halo can be taken as an eSport, but if the growth that 343 has already achieved is any indicator, there is ultimately no title that Halo eSports can’t rival in the future as the flagship competitive title on the Xbox platform.

 

How Consumers Connect With Stores Through Mobile Shopping

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Mobile shopping has come a long way over the past few years, with a reported 120 percent increase in shopping-related searches on smartphone and tablet devices, and many stores presenting a new kind of experience when it comes to finding and buying products online.

Google recently compiled a report that looks at five key factors that connect consumers with online stores and shops. Here’s how marketers can optimize the mobile shopping experience.

1. The “front door to the store” is vital
Target recently noted that three-quarters of its guests begin their shopping on mobile devices, while one-third of guests who engage in such a search eventually make a trip to the store to complete their purchase. Meanwhile, Sprint noted that one in four people who look up their mobile search ads also end up at a store. This could be key when it comes to introducing a new shopping experience, getting consumers comfortable with what’s offered before they make the journey.

2. Local information goes a long way
A lot of consumers prefer a local shopping experience compared to buying something from a national shop, as “near me” searches have increased nearly two and a half times year-over-year. A recent survey indicates that 50 percent of consumers who take part in a local search visit a nearby store within a day’s time, while 18 percent said searches eventually lead to a purchase. It’s another key factor in making a shopping experience more personal to a consumer.

3. If an item is in stock, consumers will go get it
Indicating the real-time stock of an item is a useful tool to a consumer. Usually, one in four people avoid stores merely because they’re unsure if an item is ready for pick-up. However, more companies have been taking advantage of Local Inventory Ads, which provides inventory across thousands of items. As a result, some retailers like Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores have seen a whopping 122 percent increase over store visits. Such ads have generated $8 in in-store sales for each dollar invested.

4. Smartphones do a lot of good with research
Eighty-two percent of shoppers indicated that they use their phones when it comes to purchases they’re making within a store, while only one in four shoppers stated that they’ve changed their minds while in a checkout line if they see additional details on their smartphone. Sephora, for example, has taken full advantage of in-store mobile behavior, offering consumers the option to scan products into its specialized mobile app to see product ratings, reviews and other details.

5. Omni-channel consumers tend to spend more
MasterCard recently reported that consumers who shop both offline and online with a particular retailer tend to buy 250 percent. Macy’s, for example, saw eight times more value from its omni-channel shoppers, rather than those that visit a single channel.

Mobile is changing shopper behavior in a big way, providing more information and emphasis when it comes to visiting a store and completing a purchase.

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A Deeper Look At Mobile Advertising

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AppsFlyer gets right to the point at the start of its new report about the effectiveness of mobile marketing: “Being a successful digital marketer in 2016 is hard. Being a successful mobile marketer is even harder.” The company then takes a close look at the best performing media sources to assist those in learning more when it comes to ad-spending.

Titled The AppsFlyer Performance Index MWC Special Edition, the report looks at over 2.5 billion installs, and the top sources of mobile advertising. Several takeaways from the report are:

Facebook Is Number One

The social media giant has managed to place consistently in the global top 5 media sources when it comes to retention, and also holds the number one spot when it comes to power rankings across every single category and region. Other companies like Twitter, AppLovin and Chartboost have found proper placing, but nothing seems to come close to Facebook.

Screen Shot 2016-02-19 at 11.55.32 AMVideo advertising is key for retention

Ad networks show a roughly 30 to 90 percent higher retention rate than other networks in the overall index. The iOS format seems to get a good amount of these as well. The video ads for app installs seem to be more effective than non-video based ones, too, providing users a better idea of the experience included with certain games and other programs.

Social networks have great retention

On the Android platform, social networks rule, taking the top three spots in both gaming and non-gaming categories, including travel, eCommerce, utilities and lifestyle. On a side note, Google’s format has also managed to deliver when it comes to power of intent.

Twitter has an up-and-down performance

While Facebook’s dominance can’t be beat, Twitter has its own level of retention on the Android platform, with top two placings in gaming and non-gaming. That said, its scale could be better, as it’s currently placed at #18 and #10 in gaming and non-gaming. However, its ongoing integration with MoPub could change this in the future, enabling it to expand its reach.

There are many differences between iOS and Android

The top 30 media sources for iOS and Android showed many differences, with a lot of them being higher than the ones on Android. The gaps between the two are much smaller, though, showing around four to ten percent, based on AppsFlyer’s standard deviation calculation.

Android rules overseas

The Asian market is a big one, and it’s there that Android has a huge grip, mainly due to the diversity of phones available on the market – something for every budget. As a result, Asian networks have seen a boost, with about a third overall ending up in the power rankings, both in gaming and non-gaming.

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WEBINAR: Learn the Earned Media Values for Social and Digital Endorsements

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(Note: This article appears as a part of a partnership with our parent company Ayzenberg Group.)

Progressive marketers know influencer and social marketing works, but understanding the value gained from these programs compared to paid media can be difficult. A new webinar and index from Ayzenberg Group will help marketers that struggle to quantify the success of their campaigns.

In their March 2 webinar, “Earned Media Value: Intel for a Smarter Marketing Mix,” Ayzenberg is introducing an index of industry values for social and influencer activations, providing a way to judge these gains against other marketing options. The Earned Media Value Index will be available immediately following the webinar and the values will be updated regularly on the alistdaily and ION websites as they change over time.

During the session, Ayzenberg experts will share the methodology for creating the EMV Index, which is backed by more than a decade of media, social and influencer experience. They will also outline how to use the index to make smarter decisions when planning a campaign or content strategy. With actual values for key platforms and the actions that are generated by activations, marketers can better quantify efforts on platforms like YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

“Earned media has evolved in the social-mobile age but it is still immensely valuable,” said Vincent Juarez, Principal at Ayzenberg. “Nielsen tells us 92 percent of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations versus only 24 percent for online ads. Yet we found no accepted standards to really provide the value of individual, platform-specific social actions.”

“We’ve had an internal EMVI for years to report on the success of client campaigns,” said Juarez. “We’ve refined the numbers as we gained more knowledge, folded in third-party research and updated values against paid costs by platform. We are making this Index public so there are real baselines available to the industry that are updated regularly.”

Juarez will be joined on the webinar by Robin Barnett, Ayzenberg’s director of analytics and Francesca Forgach, the director of group accounts for ION, the Influencer Orchestration Network.

The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, March 2 at 11 a.m. PT and registration is now open for all attendees. To join this session and be among the first to learn about this essential new tool to accurately report on marketing success, sign up here.

Unity Technologies Is Enabling Virtual Reality Content Creators

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Clive Downie and I are sitting in a hotel suite at the Loews Hollywood conducting a video interview about virtual reality as the inaugural Vision Summit unfolds on the hotel grounds below. Midway through our dialogue, the chief marketing officer for Unity Technologies suggests that we don’t even have to be sitting across from each other to necessarily have our discussion.

With VR, Downie says the room and its space can be rendered, just as each person can, and we can be speaking to each other remotely as our avatars interact, and a camera takes it all in. Good bye phones, Skype and cross-country flights for a monotonous meeting – there’s a new way to conduct business and deliver content.

“Just imagine what that unlocks, and how virtual reality extends to other examples,” Downie says. “It’s going to create more opportunities for reality to be mirrored.”

Over 1,400 attendees from all walks of VR and AR life made their way to Los Angeles last week to take in the Vision Summit – a conference where the the likes of Google, Sony and Oculus forecasted the inevitable VR storm that is coming. _DSF5006

With over 5.5 million registered users and a 30 percent share of the top-1,000 grossing games in the world, Unity Technologies has cemented its seat in the gaming space as the developer of Unity, one of the most-popular licensed 3D and 2D engines. They’re now continuing to add VR as a vital focus to the gaming ecosystem.

They recently announced a collaboration with Valve to offer native support for SteamVR in the Unity Platform. The partnership gives VR developers a rendering plugin to further enhance functionality. A scene editor allows developers to create 3D games while moving around inside the 3D environments.

“What’s going on today is nothing short of a revolution. The time for for VR and AR has come. The promise of decades is here … There has never been a better time,” says John Riccitiello, CEO of Unity Technologies. He then immediately warns: “The near term challenges are costs. It’s going to be expensive to get everything you want. 2016 is not the year for mass affordable VR.”

Downie, a former chief operating officer for the social gaming company Zynga, joined [a]listdaily to discuss Unity’s core principles, as well as marketing the mushrooming space that is virtual reality.

What are Unity’s principles designed to accomplish? How are you marketing and positioning the company?

The foundation of the company is to democratize development, and that’s something we live and breathe everyday. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the games business for over 25 years – making games is hard. We started out to make that easier for people by bringing people together, by ensuring that we have a community of developers who are unified around a central tool – the Unity Engine. We want to allow developers to talk to each other, share best practices with each other and make it as easy as possible to learn from the mistakes of others just so that there’s focus in creativity. Democratizing development is still an integral part of our business. If you earn less than $100,000, the Unity Engine is free because we want as many people as possible to use it. We don’t want creators to be impeded.

The second is solving hard problems. It’s subjective, so you have to narrow that down a bit. So, it’s hard problems we can predict over the horizon. We solve hard problems everyday within our Unity Engine tool. We release quarterly updates of the Unity editor to continue solving problems in graphical fidelity, scripting and 2D editing. Then there are problems in AR and VR, which is why we introduced an editor at the Vision Summit to optimize the VR space for maximum presence to the customer.

The third principle is enabling success. We realize that there is a life cycle around the creation, maintenance, and running of the game. It’s not just about the production. That’s the first part. People make games, but after they’ve launched it, it’s about making sure that’s as good as it can be for the customer. Games are services, and you need to continue updating your service to make it relevant and credible and delightful, which is why we have such tools like Unity Ads and Unity Cloud. Our analytics tool, for example, provides that kind of value. Unity has a 30 percent share of the top-1,000 grossing games in the world. That equates to 1.5 billion downloads of Unity games per month. Imagine the data that comes back from that network size – insights like devices they should be developing for, and chip sets they should be focusing on. Ultimately, we exist at the center of the creative and game developer universe. clive-downie-zynga-coo

How will Unity empower developers and content creators in the VR space?

We feel encumbered to reduce the noise at this moment in time to understand the opportunity, and what they need to be thinking about. VR and AR is going to be a spectacular moment for how hundreds and hundreds and billions and billions of consumers globally consume content. It will happen. We are very sure of that. It’s going to happen on a slower trajectory than many are predicting. Being at the center, we see so much. We see what developers need. We see what hardware, software and other tech companies are doing.

What is the common thread of feedback in terms of optimism and pain-points developers are sharing?

The common theme is people are excited, as we all are. People understand there is a major opportunity that’s about to happen. People are in exploration mode, and they need to know that’s OK. There’s a risk, and a gamble. They want to know if this is going to pay off. Being in the fortunate position in which we are, we see so much potential. Some of the great century companies of tomorrow were sitting in the room at the Vision Summit.

There’s been plenty of highs and false starts throughout the history of VR. What’s it going to take for VR to be adopted by a mass audience?

All great inventions over the course of history have done this: they make people’s lives better. It’s that simple. … I think VR and AR will do that over the course of the next five years. When it does, you’ll see a planet-wide adoption like you’ve seen with smart phones, for example.

You’re a father and a family man. Are you ready for family nights of isolated experiences? Is it dangerous to disconnect with each other?

I don’t think that’s going to be the case. VR and AR are going to be the exact opposite. It’s going to allow you to go to places, environments and moments and share them with other human beings in ways you haven’t been able to share them before. That’s going to be the mark of making a difference. … That’s the power of VR and AR. It’s actually going to allow to bind people together in ways they haven’t before.

What kind of content is it going to take for that to happen?

It needs to be content that could bring people together in a social manner. Educational content, like learning a language, is another. You don’t have to be limited to a physical space anymore. The applications are limitless. We’re just scratching the surface.

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan.

Bright Future Is Ahead for Mobile Apps

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Mobile analytics firm App Annie has released new research – the App Annie Mobile App Forecast – and it makes for some fascinating reading. While we may be seeing slower growth in smartphone sales in mature markets, the global picture still shows tremendous growth left for both app downloads and revenue from smartphone apps. Games will still be responsible for the vast majority of revenue production for mobile apps, but the overall share will shrink in the future as other categories of apps grow even faster than games. These projections have immense implications for all marketers, showing how the mobile market will unfold in the future and where marketers need to be present.

Let’s take a look at the specifics in the App Annie report. Globally, App Annie predicts that mobile app store revenue will grow to $51 billion in 2016, and top $101 billion in 2020. This will be driven by the continued adoption of mobile apps in developing economies around the world, and by the increasing ability of mobile apps to grab greater “wallet share” in mature economies. Games made up 85 percent of mobile revenues in 2015, which represented about $34.8 billion globally according to App Annie. The firm projects that total games revenue will hit $41.5 billion in 2016, and an astounding $74.6 billion in 2020. (That’s roughly equal to the total revenue of the global games market in 2012.)

While the growth projected for games is impressive, other mobile apps will be growing even faster. Games by 2020 will be 75 percent of mobile app revenues. App Annie expects 100 billion game downloads annually by 2020, and non-game apps will be at 182 billion annually in 2020.

Notably, App Annie also projects that apps will be growing substantially in other realms, as the same model looks likely to be applied to VR/AR, wearables, TVs, smart home devices and cars. Not all app types or revenue models apply well to all form factors, of course, but as these new areas grow apps (and revenues) will grow with them. We’ve already seen App Annie begin to track Apple TV app revenue, and it’s not unreasonable to expect a substantial amount of games revenue in the future for VR/AR, smart TVs and microconsoles. Games are already a substantial category for the Apple Watch, at least in terms of downloads. As wearables gain in power and popularity, gaming will certainly have a place in that market.

The rapid growth of smartphones in markets like India, and in developing nations in Africa, represents enormous new market opportunities. While it’s hard to make games that easily cross cultural and language barriers, the global success of games like Candy Crush Saga and Minecraft show that it’s quite possible to create games with world-wide appeal, however hard it might be. Marketers that can find ways to surf this wave of mobile growth will find success in the bright app future ahead.

The [a]listdaily caught up with one of the authors of the study, Sameer Singh, Senior Industry Analysis Manager at App Annie, to find out more about the future of mobile apps.

Sameer Singh Headshot

Mobile users don’t seem to download new apps very often, something of great concern to game publishers. Will this change in the coming years?

Actually, our forecast figures show that 111.2 billion new apps were downloaded by users in 2015. Across a base of 2.6 billion devices, that’s an average of 42.8 new app downloads per device over the course of the year. Even if we zoom in on games, our numbers show 45.4 billion downloads in 2015. So clearly, the perception that users no longer download apps is inaccurate. In addition, we expect the number of new app downloads per device to grow over the forecast period. Of course, the level of growth varies by region. As we’ve shown in our “App Market Maturity Model,” download growth may be slower in mature markets like the United States because the number of new smartphone owners is lower. However, this coincides with increased app usage and accelerating revenue growth as users settle on their go-to apps.

Time spent on apps in Android phones grew, according to your report. How much has time spent on games grown?

According to our Usage Intelligence data, time spent in the Games category on Android smartphones grew 36 percent worldwide (excluding China) from 2014 to 2015. This shows that net new smartphone users are still contributing to usage growth in a relatively mature category like Games. Meanwhile, overall growth is being driven by categories like media and video, shopping and transportation.

You project much of the growth in game monetization to come from greater monetization in mature markets. Do you think that mobile game monetization in the US and Europe could begin to resemble the much higher monetization we currently see in Japan and Korea?

Games are deeply rooted in Japanese and South Korean culture, so game monetization levels are significantly higher than in Western markets. We do expect to see monetization accelerate meaningfully in the West from an already impressive base. However, the watermark set by Japan and South Korea will remain out of reach at least in the near future.

How do you see mobile advertising growing over the next few years? Will this become a more important source of revenue for games?

Our revenue forecast is restricted to app store revenue and does not take into account revenue from advertising. That said, we expect advertising revenue to experience strong growth in concert with the number of net new smartphone users and app usage.

Are mobile game revenues going to become more or less concentrated in the top-10 grossing games over the next few years? Why?

Competition in the mobile gaming space has intensified in recent years. We’ve actually explored this topic in-depth in previous reports – 2015 Retrospective and Rise of the Indies. Our analysis shows that revenue concentration in mobile gaming has declined precipitously over the past few years, even as industry revenues grew. We don’t expect to see any change in this trend in the near future. Part of this is because, smartphone growth has attracted multiple players and investors. Even companies that previously focused exclusively on platforms like consoles and PCs have been making the jump to mobile. This has led to a notable increase in the number of high quality games available. Even Indie publishers have stepped up their efforts to grab a piece of the pie.

 

Mobile Could Drive Digital Sales By 2017

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The impact of eCommerce is already evident, but mCommerce (mobile commerce) is a category that’s set to see its own level of growth over the year, according to eMarketer.

Up to 95.1 million Americans, aged 14 and up, will make some form of purchase via a smartphone, which is just over 51 percent of digital buyers.

“Most shoppers regularly browse and research on their smartphones, but they’re now also making purchases with them,” said Yory Wurmser, retail analyst for eMarketer. “As mobile sites become better optimized and screen sizes grow, it’s becoming easier for shoppers to complete the purchase on the smartphone, which will drive mCommerce numbers up for the next several years.”

That number will continue to rise over the next few years, and is expected to grow up to 55.1 percent of all digital buyers and reaching nearly 110 million Americans by 2020.

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Sales will reach a peak next year, getting to $75.51 billion in mCommerce sales via smartphone, which comes out to about half of all mCommerce sales,. That’s a 48 percent increase from what’s estimated for this year, and is expected to rise up to $129.44 billion by 2020.

 

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That’s not to say it’ll be easygoing. Most consumers start shopping sessions on smartphones without finishing them. 165.8 million Americans 14 and up (78.5 percent of all digital shoppers in the US) will look around for bargains on their devices, but won’t complete the sale using the device.

“In order to get people to make purchases on their phones, retailers need to make it as easy as possible for consumers,” noted Wurmser. “That means fully optimized mobile websites, a checkout process with few steps, and fully personalized merchandising.”

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Razer Puts Gamers First With ESports, Virtual Reality and Hardware

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Top-notch video game weaponry is as fundamental of a desire as a battle-ending kill. For over 10 years, blood-thirsty gamers and the like have learned to love the arsenal of artillery, technology and gadgets Razer has introduced to the market. One constant has remained since Day 1: putting the best interests of gamers first.

Razer CEO and co-founder Min-Liang Tan joined [a]listdaily for a wide-ranging interview to discuss the company’s latest products, and ventures into eSports, virtual reality, and more.

What has the response and reception been like to the products unveiled at CES this year?

The responses have been incredible. We went into the show as the only company in the nearly 50-year history of CES to win five straight official ‘best of’ awards. We made it a six-year streak this year with the Razer Blade Stealth. We designed this system as an Ultrabook for gamers, but it went on to hit a chord with editors who hailed it as the ultimate laptop in its class and an industry game-changer. The Blade Stealth’s innovative design, screen resolution, chip set and portable form factor make it a beast of a machine on the go. Its price (starting at $999) left people speechless. We’re talking about a state-of-the-art computer that is hundreds of dollars cheaper than lesser models, even the big PC makers and Apple. What’s more, users get desktop-gaming performance with their Blade Stealth when it is connected to the Razer Core. A single Nvidia Thunderbolt 3 connection is all that’s needed to connect the system to our groundbreaking graphics booster. We also unveiled the Razer Stargazer at the show, the world’s most advanced webcam. Streamers and content producers alike were clamoring over that. Also popular was our Nabu Watch, which places the sensor and communications functions of the Nabu smartband into a great-looking, affordable watch.

How is Razer differentiating itself from the other high-performance gaming hardware, software and systems currently on the market?

We make products for gamers – that’s our unique differentiator. Whereas other manufacturers produce items based on price or to exploit one or another technological advent, we focus our attention 100 percent on making things that will work perfectly for gaming and support the gaming lifestyle. We put buttons on mice where MMO players would want them, or levers and buttons on console controllers where they make sense for FPS games. We use sensors that are so accurate that they exceed editors’ abilities to test them, but which work great on 4K gaming arrays. We create laptops that are impossibly portable and powerful, because gamers on the go need it. Most oftentimes, we make something because nobody else will. We stand out from competitors by putting gamers first and profitability and market demand second. Razer is the only brand that makes high-end hardware for every type of gamer out there: PC, console or mobile, professional, serious or casual. We make sure that our products connect to each other, that they work together, and don’t obsolesce. All our hardware connects back to the cloud, so settings are always accessible to users and firmware ensures peoples’ favorite devices work with the latest generation of games. One of that team’s biggest initiatives for 2016 will be game integration for our Nabu wearable platform and our Razer Chroma lighting. Nobody else spends time and resources on things like that, but they add so much to the gaming experience. We already have huge games like Call of Duty, Overwatch and Blade and Soul on board and in ongoing development. Our investment in virtual reality is another exciting project for us with great potential. The Razer OSVR development kit and software platform will see many improvements this year, which will help every technologist and game publisher edge closer to consumer-ready products soon.

What can consumers expect from Razer’s camera powered by Intel?

The needs for webcams have grown tremendously in the past few years with the advent of game streaming. According to a study released last fall, more than 7.5 million minutes have been livestreamed on Twitch alone. Many of these streams superimpose players into the games themselves, and that’s where old webcams struggle. The Razer Stargazer bucks that trend and is the most powerful webcam ever created. Traditional webcams were needed for video conferencing with frame rate capture of only 30 frames-per-second, but the Razer Stargazer is capable of matching high-quality game streams with 60 frames-per-second. Intel RealSense technology makes this more than just a high-powered webcam. One of the most exciting advents there is Dynamic Background Removal, which gives gamers a true ‘green screen effect’ without the need for a studio, lights, or the actual green screen. This allows gamers to superimpose themselves in their game streams without showing their background. The Razer Stargazer also supports facial and gesture recognition, 3D scanning and more. In short, a professional streaming setup is more attainable than ever to amateur streamers out there. According to that same study I referenced earlier, there are almost 2 million broadcasters on Twitch, so the market for such a powerful and smart webcam is huge. min-liang-tan-razer2

How is Razer marketing “Open Source Virtual Reality”? How will VR be a driver of new PC sales?

VR is creating a new way for people to experience games. It’s hard to say how big that market is or will become, but the technology is incredible, and companies like Oculus are bundling high-end PCs to power the hardware and software required with the headsets coming to market this year. We see this as a great thing for PC gamers, and the PC in general, as powerful machines will be in the hands of more people than ever before. However, we’re still in the very early stages of VR becoming truly accessible. Open Source Virtual Reality, or OSVR, is designed to support the growth of virtual reality headsets and other hardware, software and content to a more polished state that can be available to everyone, from the hackers to the general consumer. It’s not a competitor to what Oculus, HTC, Sony and others are doing. Instead, OSVR provides a single software plugin that makes every virtual reality device compatible with another within the OSVR ecosystem. Companies as big as Intel and Ubisoft are involved. All told, since OSVR’s was introduced at CES 2015, we have more than 300 partners in just over a year.

Lenovo and Razer recently teamed up to co-brand and co-market the Razer Edition gaming systems based on the Lenovo Y series. What are some other ways the company is repositioning to remain nimble in the future?

Our mission statement at Razer – For Gamers, By Gamers – presupposes an ultimately open platform from which we develop products and services for gamers. How our specific offerings manifest is solely in response to meeting the needs of the gaming community, whose needs are constantly evolving from within gaming and also from without it in terms of their lifestyle. Insofar as proactivity is concerned, we maintain key relationships and stay up to speed with respective development in areas of interest to gamers – ourselves included. Specifically, the partnership with Lenovo is focused on creating Razer Editions of some of the Lenovo Y Series products, two of which were announced at CES. Both brands will continue to create and market products under their respective brands outside of the scope of the partnership.

ESports is an arena that Razer is currently playing a big role in. How does the company plan on developing the engagement and experience for that platform in 2016?

One of the things we’re most excited about in terms of eSports engagement is Razer Arena. We see Razer Arena as a solution to open-up the full potential of tournament gaming for players, organizers and fans alike, which could lead to more players, more engagement, and ultimately more interest in eSports. The utility of our program applies to the most popular competitive titles today, including League of Legends, Call of Duty, CSGO, Dota2, World of Warcraft and others. What we’ve provided is a fully automated online tournament platform that covers a tournament lifecycle from start to finish, making it simple for organizers to create professional-grade tournaments and for players to participate. While there is more interest in eSports now than ever before, Razer has been involved in competitive gaming since the beginning. Before Arena, the vast majority of gamers didn’t have tools to really support tournaments, which are so critical for the growth of new talent. Being an online platform means that we’re not limited by physical boundaries, so the promise of Razer Arena is greater reach and more opportunities for aspiring players to shine.

How do you market to millennials as opposed to Generation X? Which markets would you consider experimenting more with?

We create and market all of our products for the benefit of gamers everywhere. Whether they’re Generation X, Millennial, Generation Z, or otherwise, Razer is committed to making great products that have profound effects on how people experience their favorite games. In terms of other markets we’re exploring more, Razer will always be focused on the gamer, but the technology we’re creating can benefit really anyone.

Follow Manouk Akopyan on Twitter @Manouk_Akopyan.