Embrace CEO Eric Futoran asserts that the hypercasual gaming market is not dead, despite some claims to the contrary. He made this statement during a panel discussion at the Gamemasters Summit. Futoran highlighted that leading companies in the space, such as Kwalee, Homa Games, and Zynga-owned Rollic, are undergoing an evolution, with some expanding into hybridcasual. He emphasized the need for growth-oriented founders and companies to evolve beyond hypercasual, acknowledging that the genre has its limits.
Futoran acknowledged the impact of privacy changes by Google and Apple on the monetization of hypercasual games through ads. He stressed the importance of developers finding ways to effectively monetize games within the limited retention period.
Game economist Phillip Black, on the other hand, provided a more pessimistic view, likening the hypercasual market to a “wounded animal.” Despite this, he noted that hypercasual games still dominate monthly download charts and called the genre a breeding ground for discovering new core mechanics.
