Among the highlights of the glamorous, inaugural Madeira Games Summit last month was a very unfiltered, off the record talk about the state of investing and the games market from industry giant Chris Petrovic.
The FunPlus exec talked through the reasons for the games market’s stalling growth, and what the future might hold as the walls between platforms crumble and AI tools begin to speed up game production.
Afterwards, we pressed him further on what it all means for mobile game-makers and FunPlus, too. Here are some edited highlights:
You noted a plateau in mobile’s growth in your talk – where do you see the next phase of growth coming from?
I think it was less about a plateau and more about a lower overall growth rate for mobile going forward compared to what we have seen in the past.
Future growth will be driven by fewer games than in the past as players stay longer with existing franchises. Having said that, there is always the very real potential for innovative new gameplay experiences and emerging markets to impact future growth rates.
Does FunPlus’ move cross-platform mean you’re seeing saturation in mobile?
Our investment in cross-platform, IP centric projects such as Aniimo and Nightholme represent a natural progression of our business towards our long term vision of being a leading interactive entertainment company, and also an acknowledgment that players increasingly expect to be able to access and play games anytime, anywhere and on any device.
We also remain committed to leaning into our long history of success in mobile 4x strategy games and evolving the genre with Foundation: Galactic Frontier, DC: Dark Legion and Tiles Survive.
You seem to have been soft launching a lot of games lately but not many have made it past beta…why?
The art and science of mobile soft launch strategies has definitely evolved over time, particularly post IDFA/ATT where the market signals are not as clear as they used to be.
For us that has meant testing gameplay experiences earlier on, in a wider variety of geos and potentially for a longer period of time in order to try and achieve that clarity as best we can.
Why launch new games at all in today’s climate? You have a huge existing business already, is launching new games worth the risk…?
As we are in a creative industry, by definition the long-term success and health of our business relies on investing in new creative endeavours.
While we are very proud of and continue to invest in maintaining our longstanding franchises, we know that those can only last so long and need to be replaced by the next generation of franchises that will hopefully endure as long, if not longer.
This business is all about risks and the pursuit of the reward that comes with facing and conquering those risks!
There’s a lot of talk about Chinese game development and productivity – besides work ethic, what do you think is the special sauce that’s making Chinese game development so successful in mobile?
We have had the good fortune of having a front row seat in watching the evolution of that talent base towards one that rivals other talent bases around the world.
The historical view of China as solely a market of fast followers has been replaced by the current reality of a talent base that has evolved as a creative powerhouse that is able to increasingly deliver hit games across a wider range of genres and platforms. It also doesn’t hurt that our employees are in the office full time and able to collaborate in person.
What can you tell us about how you incentivise your development teams with pay based on the revenue of the final product?
We are constantly evolving our approach to creating win/win environments for our company and our development teams, and one of our current areas of focus is how to create and maintain an entrepreneurial culture within a company that is 15 years old and has over 1,700 employees.
One of the ways we are trying to do this is by funding new projects and teams in many of the same ways as traditional early stage investors fund, with limited up front capital, access to future capital based on achieving mutually agreed-upon deliverables and the potential for outsized returns in success.
