Not too long ago, Nintendo vowed to never make mobile free to play games. Their own hardware is too important, the “Nintendo-factor” incompatible with free to play games. First, they yielded on hardware, with the release of Mario and then on free to play through collaborating with Niantic, creating the superhit Pokemon Go. A patchy success history followed, with some projects like Fire Emblem Heroes becoming hits, and others, like Pokemon Quest and Animal Crossing, opportunities to learn. Is Dragalia Lost proof that Nintendo can achieve continuous success on mobile or another missed opportunity?

Imagine you’re in the middle of a long road trip with your family. The drive starts off at a fairly speedy pace of 75 mph. Everything is going great; you’re on time, you’re happy, and each member of your family is gripped to their respective phones.

Due to the Star Wars Battlefront II controversy, the industry is taking a far closer look at what monetization practices are ethical, and whether the industry can police itself or needs further regulation to avoid misuse.

How do you make a game that almost everyone will want to play?

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Eren Yanik, CRO of Gram Games. We discussed the Hyper Casual market and how things are going for them with recent games like Merge Town, Merge Dragons, Bounzy and 1010!.

I recently visited Pocket Gamer Connects in Helsinki and presented a talk on Gacha.

Rewarded Video Ads have been a constant, dominating trend in free to play over the last few years. Starting with companies like Ketchapp and Futureplay, it became abundantly clear that games can drive meaningful revenue from video advertisements, and advertisers can find a captive audience in mobile players.  In the last couple years, Video Ads have reached a tipping point. No longer seen as superficial revenue on top of IAP revenue, designing for video ad revenue has become the dominant revenue growth area for free to play companies. Designing for video ads has allowed for innovation in the maturing mobile space that is much needed.

When Supercell launches a new game, it sends shock waves around our industry and players alike. On June 14th, Supercell released Brawl Stars — and in typical fashion, we all jumped on to give it a try.

View-to-play is fast becoming the new dominant monetization model in the mobile marketplace. For the last few years, game companies like Futureplay, NEXT Games, Gram Games and Ketchapp have shown that you can create successful free-to-play games which drive sustainable revenue without focusing solely on In-App Purchases. Games like Crossy Road, Tap Titans, and Endless Runners like Despicable Me have reported that more than 50% of their revenue comes from video ads.