The European mobile games publication Pocket Gamer held their first U.S. event on Wednesday and Thursday this week in SF. The event brought together many European and Asian as well as U.S.-based mobile game developers and publishers to network, to do business and discuss hot topics in mobile gaming and beyond.
Here’s a recap of some of the highlights from yesterday’s “Superstar Sessions” that kicked off the event:
Samsungs’s VP of Emerging Platforms Mihai Pohontu Shows How Powerful Mobile Is
Pohontu has a very positive attitude towards the growth potential for wearables, Internet of Things and VR. For example, he showed research that predicted that connected mobile health apps and hardware that help you better control your own health have the potential to increase average life expectancy by 10 years.
DeNA Talks Nintendo Partnership
DeNA’s CEO Shintaro Asako spoke about the company’s partnership with Nintendo that had been long in the works and how the company is launching Nintendo IP’s on mobile that, according to him, has the potential to attract “100’s of millions of players.” He did not say more about which IP’s will be first out of the gate (Zelda, Mario Bros., etc.).
DeNA’s CEO Shintaro Asako: 100% convinced Nintendo IP will attract 100Ms of mobile players #PGCSanFran @alistdaily pic.twitter.com/jmK8FYDnWd
DeNA's CEO Shintaro Asako: 100% convinced Nintendo IP will attract 100Ms of mobile players #PGCSanFran @alistdaily pic.twitter.com/jmK8FYDnWd
— Joakim Båge (@joakimbaage) July 7, 2015
Disney Commits To Mobile
Disney Interactive’s Chris Heatherly talked about the company’s commitment to mobile and their slate of games based on Star Wars and Marvel IP’s. It seems as though Hollywood and the games industry have finally learned how to play well together and mobile games are now a big and important part of Disney’s future.
Disney Interactive: We want to do more and more to bring in social elements into our games #PGCSanFran @alistdaily pic.twitter.com/EmYa2QsF1U
— Joakim Båge (@joakimbaage) July 7, 2015
All The Buzz: “Rewarded Ads”
Finally, what is a games conference without buzzwords “Rewarded ads” are something that many startups have been talking about for a long time but hasn’t quite come to fruition yet. This fall, Google AdMob is finally launching it, making it a “mature” ad unit.
For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it means mobile ads that pop-up in a game which reward you with, for example, virtual currency for watching a video ad or completing a survey. The currency can then immediately be used in the game to level up or otherwise make your gameplay better.
