- Zimad’s Kirill Zhukovsky and Anastasia Shilo shared insights on the rapidly evolving industry
- Successful IP collaborations require careful consideration of common values
From live ops to AI advancements, trends in the mobile games industry are constantly changing, and developers must adapt quickly to keep up with player demands or risk losing their audience to the next big thing.
Zimad’s Chief Product Officer Kirill Zhukovsky and lead marketing manager Anastasia Shilo recently discussed the dynamic industry with GamesIndustry.biz. They shared the current trends in mobile game development and strategies to retain audiences amidst rapid industry shifts.
According to Zhukovsky and Shilo, casual and midcore game genres are gaining popularity, while hypercasual games are receiving less enthusiasm. With hybridcasual games generating significantly more revenue per user compared to hypercasual games, this shift in genre preference is not surprising.
Caution in Collaborations
While IP collaborations have proven to be effective for audience building in mobile gaming, Zhukovsky and Shilo emphasize the importance of careful planning and alignment of common values in such partnerships.
They anticipate that IP-based events integrated with live ops will be a growing trend, incorporating more social and narrative elements in the future.
However, a game based on a popular IP does not guarantee success if the gameplay is subpar, reminding developers that quality gameplay is key.
On the technological front, AI has emerged as a game-changer in game development, streamlining creation processes. This has led to a surge in the number of games on app stores and the rise of video game formats.
Apart from game development, AI also serves as a valuable tool in ad creation, empowering indie developers with limited resources to produce engaging video content.
Despite the potential cost-effectiveness of AI, many developers are opting for safe and predictable models over innovative approaches.
Navigating a Competitive Market
In a competitive market with rising costs and limited innovative ideas, Zhukovsky and Shilo observe a trend towards safe and dependable game development models. They note a scarcity of daring and innovative experiments in the current landscape.
However, Virtuos’ Matthieu Cheynut believes that prioritizing innovation and differentiation over a large budget is crucial in standing out in a saturated market.
