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  • WhatsApp with games and chat?
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    WhatsApp with games and chat?

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    Now that a week has passed since Facebook bought WhatsApp for $18 billion, it's time for our obligatory post about it.Just to get it out of the way, I have no clue why Facebook bought WhatsApp for this amount.  My guess is that Facebook's social network is dying (especially among teens) but its ad platform is revolutionary.  Buying WhatsApp and its 450 million global users enables Facebook to remain on top for mobile and ads, though given WhatsApp owns no real data on its users, that's in theory.  Mark Zuckerberg is far smarter and more successful than I, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.What does WhatsApp have to do with games?  Absolutely nothing.  But, messaging and chat could be the next big thing in games, Facebook and WhatsApp notwithstanding.WhatsApp really has nothing to do with games.  Just look at the famous handwritten note between WhatsApp founders. WhatsApp has no interest in games, and the founders believe that this is partly the secret to their success.  Given they just sold their company for $18 billion, they could be right.
  • The .15% of blue whales who support the entire mobile games industry
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    The .15% of blue whales who support the entire mobile games industry

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    Free-to-play is the greatest thing to happen to the games industry (and gamers) since Pong.  Here's the thing, though:  it's common knowledge that only 1-3% of all gamers of free-to-play games pay, the rest don't.  These gamers are commonly referred to as whales.According to a new survey by Swrve (pronounced, I have no clue), that 1 - 3% is a bit off, by a lot.  Only .15% of mobile gamers are responsible for 50% of total mobile game revenues.  In biological terms, these players are blue whales (the largest mammals on earth) of the mobile game world.As reported in VentureBeat, this is a classic good news/bad news story.  These blue whales pay the bills for the mobile games industry and are helping to grow the market to astronomical heights.  The bad news is that the vast majority (let's call them minnows) are becoming accustomed to playing games for free, and there is no clear path to turn a minnow into a blue whale.And what happens if these super whales get bored of playing and tired of paying?  .15% is such a small number, just one small drop in this bucket could have a huge impact on the future of the global gaming industry.In Vegas, whales are comp'd with free hotel suites.  How are these super blue whales rewarded in the games world?  
  • 5 Questions for HasOffers CEO Peter Hamilton
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    5 Questions for HasOffers CEO Peter Hamilton

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    As I've mentioned before, every game developer I know buys ads on Facebook to drive games installs and uses HasOffers to track them.  So it was a bit of a shock when Facebook dropped HasOffers as a mobile measurement partner a few weeks back.   We virtually sat down with HasOffers CEO Peter Hamilton to ask him:  What happened with the Facebook relationship?  Who else is out there to advertise with aside from Facebook? What gives HasOffers the edge over their competition? What to do if you have the aspirations of King.com but not $350 million to spend?  And what's going down at the Mobile World Conference that he's currently attending in Spain?  All in 5 questions and in a less than 5 minute read.  
  • The Best Flappy Bird Post-Mortem in the World
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    The Best Flappy Bird Post-Mortem in the World

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    Scouring Twitter activity through Topsy, download data from App Annie, and developer Dong Nguyen's own Twitter feed, Christina Warren from Mashable has written the best post-mortem yet on Flappy Bird.  Her conclusion:  no download bots were involved (sorry, haters!)In a story stranger than fiction, Flappy Bird languished in obscurity from the time it launch in April 2013 until November 2013 when the first "love/hate" tweet about the game appeared.  From then, reviews started to trickle into the App Store at a rate of 20 a day.  And then, boom!  The game first appeared in the Top 250 Free Games chart on Dec 13, hit the Top 10 on January 10 and hit the #1 Free Spot on January 17.  On January 24, the media took notice.  And that's when things really got crazy.For the full timeline, read the full story, 28 Days of Fame: The Strange, True Story of Flappy Bird. 
  • Facebook drops HasOffers and Kontagent as mobile marketing partners – Oh no, mobile marketing gurus!
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    Facebook drops HasOffers and Kontagent as mobile marketing partners – Oh no, mobile marketing gurus!

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    Facebook has dropped two partners, HasOffers and Kontagent, from its mobile ad measurement program for holding onto user data too long, according to AdExchanger's blog.   Yes, I know - it's not as sexy a news story as what's the latest happening with Flappy Bird.  But this is news that is actually far-reaching, and affects any game developer who pays for installs to drive traffic to their games in an attempt to reach (and stay in) the Top 10 game charts. (e.g., everyone aside from developer of Flappy Bird).It is widely acknowledged that the best ad partner to drive installs for apps is Facebook.  Only Facebook has the mobile reach through its news feed and targeting capability to really push the needle with game installs.  It's not cheap, but it works (hence why Facebook earns $1.3 billion - more than half its revenues - through mobile today).  When Facebook lifts a finger, the mobile game world shakes.
  • Red Bouncing Ball Spikes jumps to number two paid position in App Store. But, we’re suspicious.
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    Red Bouncing Ball Spikes jumps to number two paid position in App Store. But, we’re suspicious.

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    For the second time in less than a week, a game from an unknown game developer with sub-par graphics and simplistic gameplay has rocketed to the top of Apple's App Store charts.Red Bouncing Ball Spikes has arisen from nowhere to take the number paid app position in Apple's App Store, blowing our minds away and making us wonder what in the heck is happening.  Unlike Flappy Bird whose popularity can be explained partly by social media, the rise of Red Bouncing Ball Spikes is far curious and suspicious.
  • The lesson of Flappy Bird for games developers, and it’s not what you think
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    The lesson of Flappy Bird for games developers, and it’s not what you think

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    Ever since Flappy Bird became the #1 free game on the App Store and Google Play, developers have been wrestling with one question:  How in the world did this happen?The answer should be both encouraging and discouraging for the games industry.  The good news is that the dream is still alive for the indie developer. The bad news is that the entire foundation on which the multi-billion mobile games industry has been built on just maybe complete nonsense.I just got back from two mobile game conferences in the UK where experts from all over the world talked about the keys to success to creating a hit mobile game.  The experts and topics were the exact same that I have seen at the mobile game conferences that occur just about every other week here in San Francisco.
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    A natural move for Zynga

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    Zynga is spending $527 million, to purchase NaturalMotion, developers of the hit CSR Racing franchise and the critically acclaimed Clumsy Ninja (well, we liked it).NaturalMotion was founded by Torsten Reil, who utilized his PhD work at Oxford's zoology department to create incredibly realistic and highly well-animated and lifelike mobile games, whether it be for horses, cars, or ninjas.NaturalMotion brings pretty highly-coveted, high quality mobile franchises, filling a huge hole in Zynga's current mobile roster (which a cynic would criticize as being derivative). It's a good, but very expensive buy.