Top News

#1: Wildlife Studios Announces New Studio in Partnership with King Veterans

Wildlife, the Brazilian company behind Tennis Clash, Sniper 3D, and Zooba, recently reported a new partnership with industry experts to open a new studio, 8-bit-Bandits. The news comes less than a week after the announcement of another Wildlife-backed studio, Stellar Core, which now altogether marks the 7th of such new studio partnerships over the past two years (as seen in the image below). These partnerships give the studios full autonomy over game creation while Wildlife acts as the publisher. There’s limited information on what exact genres these studios are focused on, but the co-founders’ backgrounds might provide some hint.

There’s limited information on what exact genres each studio is focused on, but so far Wildlife appears to be exploring a variety of them. In addition, the current scope (covering sports arcade and shooters) is outside of the co-founders’ expertise, which may signal that they are looking to expand outward, such as into puzzle and RPG. Regardless, the studios have yet to publish any games, so we’ll have to wait and see.

These new additions come at a time when Wildlife Studios is attempting to reinvigorate its next stage of growth. From 2015 to 2018, the company saw steady download growth, resulting in revenue scaling. Given its founders' original lack of industry experience and the company’s location (Brazil wasn't known for hit games companies), what Wildlife Studios managed to pull off was remarkable.

Still, as the market matured, the situation changed, and Wildlife's growth stagnated. Becoming a publisher for different studios is its strategic solution for future growth, but can it work?

For the company, there are two benefits to becoming a publisher. First, it lets Wildlife dabble in various subgenres in a way that’s less capital intensive than conducting M&A. At Wildlife’s current scale it wouldn’t be able to acquire many studios, especially those with the expertise and proven success that Wildlife is looking for.

Second, it allows Wildlife to leave game creation decisions to the game experts while focusing on its strengths. Unlike many other successful companies, Wildlife Studios’ main office (Sao Paulo) is not located in a game industry hub, and most of the team likely has no experience in successful mobile game studios. On the other hand, the company is in a tech hub and probably has access to a top team of developers, data scientists, UA managers, and QAs in its region. New games would benefit from the expertise coming from the studios' co-founders, as well as lower operational costs and support from Wildlife.

There are also risks with this strategy. It is yet to be determined how much investment the company has at stake at each of these studios, but this could have its impact on how it decides to manage them. As Wildlife invested in opening new studios instead of acquiring other games/developers, it now has several different gambles on its hands — the biggest risk of all being whether these teams have the talent and ability to truly spin up hit games. Plus, is high autonomy the right decision, and how much should Wildlife as a centralized publisher contribute and support? And is any success repeatable across studios, or will many studios fail and have to shut down?

A successful result for Wildlife as a publisher would see the company:

• Making the right bets on the right studio leaders who have the talent and teams to create real hits
• Leveraging the knowledge of the studio founders by focusing on the genres where they have experience
• Using the current capacity of its offices to publish and support new games
• Publishing games with proven mechanics that follow market trends
• Publishing some games with more innovative mechanics in specific genres

This would ultimately create a situation where all ships rise together — the publisher and the studios. Of course, with a limited track record so far, it’s hard to know what exactly will happen. But given the speed of spinning up so many new affiliate studios, we’ll be paying close attention.

Game Launch Radar

#1: Angry Birds Racing

• Publisher: Rovio
• State: Soft Launch
• Territories: Canada, US
• Classification: Arcade Racing

• Quick thoughts:

  • This is not Rovio's first attempt at arcade racing. The company had already launched Angry Birds Go in 2013. Unfortunately, the Mario-Kart-inspired title was unsuccessful and has not been updated since 2018.

  • Angry Birds Racing is very different from Angry Birds Go, though. It is more similar to the original franchise games in that:

    • The game is in 2D, and the obstacles in the race are very similar to the ones seen in Angry Birds 2 or Angry Birds Journey.
    • Instead of upgrading and changing between cars, players upgrade and switch between birds.
    • One thing that it still shares with the original racing Angry Birds is the multiplayer aspect, but this is sort of expected in a racing game.
    • The art style is also very similar to the first games of the franchise and features less polish than newer 2D games like Angry Birds Journey.
    • You can watch the gameplay here.
  • Angry Birds Racing seems to be doubling down on its proven mechanic while trying to bring it to a different genre.
  • While it is understandable why Rovio would not follow Mario's Kart mobile success after Angry Birds Go, it is also important to note that the 2D racing market is considerably smaller (in IAP revenue) compared to 3D games.

#2: Goddess of Victory: Nikke

• Publisher: Tencent
• State: Hard Launch
• Territories: Worldwide
• Classification: Action RPG

• Quick thoughts:

  • Goddess of Victory is an action RPG game with a twist. Similar to Genshin Impact, the combat is in real time but also takes elements from turn-based RPGs like Raid.

    • The campaign mode is divided into multiple levels, and the game's main mechanic is shooting.
    • Instead of controlling only one character, players control a squad of five characters with synergy. This makes the gacha mechanic more appealing and valuable to players.
    • The theme is ecchi anime style, which is typically popular in East Asia, but games like Genshin Impact have shown that an anime art style can work in the west as well.
    • You can check the gameplay here.
  • The visual quality is great for mobile while its real-time combat is a rarity in RPG games. On top of this, the fact it's a real-time shooter makes it even more of a unique offering, giving it a competitive edge.

Other Game Announcements

• Diablo Immortal has now earned Blizzard and NetЕase $300M. Link
• Pokémon Go has passed 600М lifetime downloads and nears $4.7B in revenue. Link
• AutoChess MOBA is aiming to kick off the esports scene in 2023. Link
• The winners of the upcoming Pokémon Unite tournament will receive one of the biggest prize pools in the game’s history in India. Link
• Identity V's next crossover is with the Bungo Stray Dogs anime. Link
• Parsons School of Design and Roblox partner up for digital fashion. Link
• Sir Elton John opens a new world in Roblox. Link

Company Announcements

• Zynga Helsinki is closing, and the underperforming FarmVille 3 moves to Bengaluru. Link
• Embracer is to close Square Enix Montreal weeks after it rebranded to Onoma. Link
• New PlayStation Mobile studio Savage hires Sophie Vo as general manager. Link
• Netflix’s latest buy is Alphabear maker Spry Fox. Link
• Rovio has 10 new games in the pipeline, and a cross-platform Angry Birds is one of them. Link
• Zynga and CoolGames launch Farm Merge Valley on Facebook. Link
• Miniclip rebrands Netherlands-based Gamebasic as Miniclip Netherlands. Link
• Room 8 Group closes acquisition of Brazil-based creative studio PUGA Studios. Link

Ecosystem Announcements

• The Unity and IronSource merger is a done deal. Link
• Google Play for PC rolls out in seven new territories. Link
• Global Top Round launches M&A department. Link
• State of Stream: Mobile dominates stream charts in emerging markets. Link
• Hypercasual games dominate Japan’s charts by installs but struggle to engage players. Link
• Female gamers make up 35% of all players in Asia and prefer strategy, racing, and roleplaying games. Link
• Chinese mobile market revenue to decline for the first time in two decades. Link
• Twitter Gaming's social lead among site's companywide layoffs. Link

Content Worth Consuming

• How to Leverage Trends and Motivations to Build Better Casual and Hyper-Casual Games (Game Refinery): “So, what can mobile game developers do to increase the chances of their games performing well? Some developers of casual and hyper-casual games have been finding success by looking to wider social trends and creating gaming experiences that cater to the audiences of these trends. But what’s the easiest way to find such trends? And how do you know which trends will be a hit with a gaming audience?” Link
• The state of the Turkish Gaming Ecosystem (Startups Watch): “Over the last 4 years, former game startup developers moved on to establish their own startups and, banking on their know-how and prior experience, raked in investments quickly, exited quickly, and even evolved into unicorn quickly. As of mid-2022, the Turkish Gaming Ecosystem has already seen the birth of two unicorns. The first one received a $1B valuation on acquisition; the second earned its unicorn classification only 23 months after its establishment. These are clear indicators of the vibrancy and dynamism of the gaming ecosystem.” Link
• Ep. 103: Maintaining Your Game Economy (Mastering Retention): “In-app purchases are the main way most games make their money, so getting players to not only continue playing your game but continue purchasing items within your game is hugely important. This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with Haider CW (Director of Economy at Scopely) about how to fine-tune your game economy to fit your game and audience, the importance of proper economy maintenance, and so much more!” Link
• A short guide to publishing on Amazon Appstore (GamesIndustry.biz): “When speaking about the mobile game and app market, we immediately think of Google Play and Apple Store as its essential parts, but the market is much bigger than that. And when dealing with alternative app stores, some issues may arise because we don’t usually know how to work with them.” Link
• Episode 37: Evolution of Monetization: Discussing What’s Changed in How Games Make Money (Mobile GameDev Playbook): “In this episode of the Mobile GameDev Playbook, we look at how monetization features have evolved from 2020 till now. Joining us from GameRefinery, a Liftoff Company, are Chief Game Analysts Erno Kiiski and Wilhelm Voutilainen.” Link