Naavik

If you're looking for a quick primer (and recommendations) on how to identify blue oceans in the seemingly red ocean of mobile F2P, check out Jordan's slides below! 👇

Naavik is heading to Gamescom and we'd love to meet with you! Aaron, Jordan and I will be at the convention center on Wednesday, August 21st, and we're looking forward to chatting about: 1. Our latest Customized Research Reports service: https://lnkd.in/eW4SGsuW 2. Our broader consulting services: https://lnkd.in/edpAEmsh 3. Sponsorships / Open Gaming Research Initiative: Reach out for more details! 4. Broader partnerships: Reach out for more details! If you’d like to chat in person, please submit a meeting request here: https://lnkd.in/eqyBFu2z On submitting your meeting request, our team will reach out shortly to find a good time slot with you. Slots are limited, so please don’t delay and see you soon!

New pod! 🎙 Really enjoyed hosting this important conversation about kidtech, online safety in games, and entrepreneurship with these two legends: Dylan Collins is a serial entrepreneur whose most recent company, SuperAwesome, pioneered and made great strides in kidtech. And Kieran Donovan's new business, k-ID, is rapidly finding traction with publishers, hot off of a $45M Series A, and carrying the online safety torch forward. We discuss kidtech's progress over the past decade, emerging challenges for publishers, how k-ID's solutions make life easier, why k-ID is moving lightning fast, plus multiple lessons learned in company building. It's a fascinating discussion, but even if this isn't your day-to-day field, the entrepreneurial insights alone should make it worth your while. Links to this Naavik Gaming Podcast episode are in the comments! (And thanks to Moritz Baier-Lentz 🎮 of Lightspeed for connecting us to Kieran 💪 )

We just launched a new service, and would love to connect with you! Details below 🔥

My latest for Naavik: breaking down the IPO of SHIFTUP, an incredibly unique game studio with top hits on both mobile and console. Founded in 2013 by famed game artist Kim Hyung-tae, the studio quickly racked up investment and publishing partnerships with top Korean strategics like LINE, Kakao Corp, Smilegate, and WEMADE as it launched its first gacha title, Destiny Child. While this proved to be a commercial success, the studio really hit it big with Goddess of Victory: Nikke, published through investor Tencent. Nikke has remained one of the highest-grossing F2P mobile games since its launch. But even that was not enough for Shift Up, which had already begun developing Stellar Blade, a premium action RPG for consoles that would be released as a best-selling PlayStation 5 exclusive in partnership with Sony. Now the company is public - and despite its overreliance on Nikke as a source of revenue, controversial subject matter, and widely diverging business models, its ambitions have never been higher. Read more at the link. #gaming #gamedev #mobilegames #gacha #ipo

My latest for Naavik: breaking down the IPO of SHIFTUP, an incredibly unique game studio with top hits on both mobile and console. Founded in 2013 by famed game artist Kim Hyung-tae, the studio quickly racked up investment and publishing partnerships with top Korean strategics like LINE, Kakao Corp, Smilegate, and WEMADE as it launched its first gacha title, Destiny Child. While this proved to be a commercial success, the studio really hit it big with Goddess of Victory: Nikke, published through investor Tencent. Nikke has remained one of the highest-grossing F2P mobile games since its launch. But even that was not enough for Shift Up, which had already begun developing Stellar Blade, a premium action RPG for consoles that would be released as a best-selling PlayStation 5 exclusive in partnership with Sony. Now the company is public - and despite its overreliance on Nikke as a source of revenue, controversial subject matter, and widely diverging business models, its ambitions have never been higher. Read more at the link. #gaming #gamedev #mobilegames #gacha #ipo

🎙️ The Rise of Voice Games: A New Frontier in Gaming 🎤 Volley Games has secured a $55M Series C, co-led by Lightspeed and Microsoft's M12 Ventures, to accelerate the development of AI-powered voice games. In a fascinating podcast episode, Alexandra Takei (Director at Ruckus Games) speaks with Max Child (CEO and Co-Founder of Volley) about the evolving world of voice games. Here's what they covered: - Introduction to Voice Games - The History of Voice Games / Volley - Creating Voice-Based Games for Smart TVs and Smart Speakers - Volley's Portfolio and the Potential of Voice Games - Monetization Strategies: Subscription, In-App Purchases, and Ads - The Potential of the Growing Casual Gaming Market - Ensuring Consent and Ethical Use of AI Voices - The Future of Voice-Based Gaming: Personalized and Immersive Experiences Apple: https://lnkd.in/gAWi3gN8 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gHc8wFpz Youtube: https://lnkd.in/gMmnCgTV We’d also like to thank Overwolf for making this episode possible! Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at https://www.overwolf.com/.

💰 Daybreak is Quietly Becoming an MMO Powerhouse Last week, Swedish game roll-up Enad Global 7 (EG7) announced that its subsidiary Daybreak Game Company LLC is acquiring U.S.-based Singularity 6. Daybreak is recognized as a long-term operator of middle-market MMORPGs, while Singularity 6 is known for its cozy life simulation Palia, which was released into open beta last year. While EG7 has kept the deal's price confidential, it did say the transaction is funded through the group’s available cash balance. At the end of Q1, EG7 had SEK466.8M ($44M) in cash and cash equivalents, hinting at a price tag in the millions or tens of millions of dollars. What could this deal mean for Daybreak and for the M&A market? To find out, keep on reading here: https://lnkd.in/e5J9dA2A Thanks for writing, Miikka Ahonen! And a special thanks to Overwolf for making this digest issue possible! You can learn more about them here: https://lnkd.in/ep72e3SZ #gamesindustry #gamingnews

🗣 Do you play mouse & keyboard or controller? Are you into motion sensors or own hardware for Guitar Hero? Games have spanned a variety of input controls, but one of the oldest is our voice. Played Marco Polo in the pool? Sang Karaoke at your local bar? These are all examples of voice games and Max Child, CEO and Co-Founder at Volley who recently raised a $55M Series C co-led by Lightspeed and M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, joins me on air to talk about voice games in video games. 🏋♂️ Although there are few “breakout hits” in voice so far, here are some heavy hitters: Shout to Jump — a platformer, where you literally, shout into your phone, to jump Question of the Day — trivia game on Amazon Alexa Song Quiz — music trivia for Amazon Alexa (acquired by Volley) Voice has had technical hurdles in the past across speech recognition, speed of conversation, and fundamental linguistic issues in the ability to interpret intent. But just like Nvidia’s graphics cards supercharged 3D storytelling and better motion feedback and haptics turned novelties like the Sony Eye Toy into the Wii and VR, advancements in AI are allowing the merging of speech recognition and LLMs (having audio and text in one system) that are changing future outlook of the voice games landscape. 🔊 We discuss: The history of voice games Platforms for voice games Technology that makes voice games fly The Volley portfolio and Volley’s core user base and demo The business of voice (business models, retention, platform mix, and top-end monetization) Listen to the full episode on Naavik's channels on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube, linked in the comments. If you’re looking to learn more about why Lightspeed and Microsoft invested, give Lightspeed's blog post on the fundraise a read: https://lnkd.in/e2Ght8Es. Thanks to Gaby Caliendo for helping us put this together. #gaming #voice

How can you boost your season pass revenue by 50%? 📈 Over the past year, Playrix's Township has reduced the duration of its Season Pass from 30 days to 20 days, all while keeping its cost THE SAME ($4.99). That means players would purchase 18 instead of 12 season passes a year, a 50% increase. This change saw Township's Golden Ticket (the name of its pass) revenue increase by 43%. Want more insights like these? Naavik is launching our new Custom Reports service, where we can perform ongoing market research, competitor analysis, and more, all tailored to YOUR needs. ℹ Our Custom Reports Service Deck: https://lnkd.in/ggz_pv5x ✉ Get in touch: https://lnkd.in/gXZd2r7N Revenue data sourced from data.ai (by Sensor Tower). Thanks to Eva Grillova for her original investigation!