Mobile game publisher GREE International Entertainment (GIE) has added a new game to its portfolio, acquiring developer PerBlu’s DragonSoul mobile franchise. The humorous role-playing game has over nine million players and has been a critical hit with over 50,000 five-star reviews on iOS and Android. The game joins existing GIE franchises like Knights & Dragons and Modern War.
Andrew Sheppard, CEO of GIE, told [a]listdaily the company’s product and marketing strategy is focused on differentiated itself in the market space.
“A lot of folks are leaning into existing franchises or licensed IP,” Sheppard said. “Having previously built licensed IP when I was at Kabam, it wasn’t right for where the market is today. Our approach is to focus on producing original IP. It’s the most difficult challenge, but it’s an approach that’s important for us to pursue.”
Shawn Conly, vice president of marketing at GIE, saidDragonSoul has a strong brand center because it’s a very tongue-in-cheek game with playful humor and memorable characters.
“Those are great marketing points in broadcast and other media,” Conly said. “There’s a huge opportunity in the video space for us to further leverage the work the developer has done, especially in Europe and other markets across the globe.”
The biggest market today for DragonSoul is the US, but Conly said the game has a lot of room to grow. He said GIE is taking great care of current customers, while enhancing the live operations of the game to provide more entertainment experiences.
Conly said television commercials are a big focus for GIE today, since the market for user acquisition (UA) ads has increased by two-to-four times depending on which network a company uses.
“It’s challenging to get cost-effective installs through UA ads alone,” Conly said. “TV allows us to reach people who aren’t responsive to mobile ads, but they also help lift the brand and make those UA ads more effective when the two are running in conjunction. Television is also a great reminder medium, which can connect with players who may have left and get them back in the game.”
Conly said GIE tested this coupled approach with Knights and Dragons, a three-year-old game, in Europe and saw positive effects.
“We’re expecting with a current game like DragonSoul for it to be more effective,” Conly said.
GIE is also expanding its reach with YouTube and Twitch influencers. The company recently worked with Clash Royale YouTuber Chief Pat, Gaming with Molt and Godson to promote its game, League of War. They brought these influencers in and gave them a tour of the studio and previewed the game so they could get excited about it.
“We’ve also worked with agents, since a lot of YouTubers are aggregated with agents and you can put together a network of people that way,” Conly said.
Conly sees a huge growth potential for Twitch, which traditionally hasn’t been focused on the mobile space but has been changing rapidly.
“We like to be early to the curb with these types of things,” Conly said. “We’re thinking about how to approach the Twitch influencer market.”
Conly, who previously served as vice president of global advertising and branding at Electronic Arts, said EA was an early adopter of community marketing. They’d find the biggest players of a game and give them the VIP treatment.
“We’re taking a page out of that book,” Conly said. “It’s fairly new for the mobile gaming space.”
DragonSoul also opened up the ability to play on the game’s humor.
“In the mobile space, gameplay on a Youtube video can look similar from one game to another, so this brand’s tone and humor can differentiate the product,” Conly said. “Humor is hard to do well, but DragonSoul does that wonderfully. If you can latch onto that and get people to smile while they’re seeing great gameplay content, that’s a win-win.”