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September 30th, 2013 - 05:04pm

By Martine Paris

Following a full day of spirited discourse at theLOGIN conference in San Francisco last week,everyone headed back to the KIXEYE Death Star forthe Pocket Gamer Mobile Mixer.

The room quickly hit capacity as the panel -KIXEYE's GM Dan Fiden, Kongregate CEO JimGreer, Ubisoft's VP digital publishing Chris Early,Tango VP Renato Iwersen, and former EA Maxis PRErik Reynolds - discussed issues such as theplatform wars and whether marketing matters.

Moderated by Pocket Gamer's US events editorMartine Paris, and backed by an amazing spread ofsavories, beer and wine from KIXEYE - thanks to KIXEYE for sponsoring,our media partner LOGIN, and our on-the-spot photographers Phero PeterNguyen, Krista Hauser and Paul Philleo (and Martine Paris) who capturedall the action - check out our Facebook gallery here - a thrilling eveningwas had by all.

Developers start here

Martine Paris: Each month, we bring together the mobile game community atPocket Gamer Mobile Mixers to introduce publishing opportunities, investors,and tools that will help developers bring games to market. So, the _rst questionis - what are publishers looking for?

Chris Early: Ubisoft is a traditional publisher of premium games thatworks with third parties across a variety of platforms including mobile.We fund, we market, and we provide a producer. We work with about 10companies a year so it's not a lot. What does it take? It takes a goodgame.

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Credit: Phero Peter Nguyen

That's what we begin with because the reputation of Ubisoft is all aboutquality creative. It starts there and then we look at how we can help withmonetization and acquisition. The team is super important as wellbecause we're going to become partners to produce this game. I'd rathergo with someone who has tried self-publishing _rst because there'sknowledge that comes from that. A good example is Cloudberry Kingdom,a Kickstarter game that launched on PC that we recently picked up.They're getting more than our normal terms because our risk wasreduced as we've been able to leverage their success on the PC to otherplatforms.

We look at games all the time so feel free to email your concept withhand art or prototype to adam.hoffeld [at] ubisoft.com. Adam will reviewit and give critical feedback to the team to see where it _ts in ourportfolio. If it passes the _rst bar then it goes into a meeting every twoweeks where we look at a whole bunch of games and make a call. Itmight be hard to get through but it's not hard to get in.

Renato Iwersen: Tango is the #1 messaging app in the US with 150million registered users of which half are in the US. Currently we have theluxury of being the only game in town but we can never ignore the othermessaging apps like Facebook iOS. If the competition doesn't come fromthe US, it will from Asia. Kakao, WeChat and LINE have alreadyannounced their plans.

So we're growing rapidly. We have a dozen partners signed up, includingGameloft and Dragonplay, with 11 games live in the network today. Welaunched in August and expect to have 30 to 35 games by end of year. Webelieve we can help with discoverability for those small to midsize devsthat don't have the budget to spend millions of dollars on useracquisition. We're currently seeking casual and midcore games that arealready live, and offer a standard rev share deal with SDK integration.Devs interested should reach out to us at partners [at] tango.me andinclude number of downloads per day, updates planned, and details onsocial features.

Jim Greer: Kongregate is a free-to-play platform started 7 years ago, withover 75,000 games currently playable on the web. We're a social gamingsite geared toward the core gamer with 90 percent of our users beingmale console players. We were acquired by GameStop in 2010 andcurrently operate as an independent subsidiary in San Francisco.

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Credit: Krista Hauser

Six months ago we announced a $10 million publishing fund for mobile.Developers come to us with games that 50-70 percent complete withabout 4 months to completion, and we help them _nish the game. Weassign a producer and free-to-play experts. We provide completion fundsand marketing commitment.

The _rst two games are out and have done well; Apple even gave one ofthem a great feature. We're now rolling out 1-2 games each month. We'reseeking studios between 3-30 people with a playable prototype that's funfor the core gamer. That's pretty broad because core gamers play wordgames too, so we're looking for endless runners, card games, and powerdefense games.

The perfect team is very passionate and doesn't necessarily look toarbitrage users per click. The devs don't need a lot of free-to-play or useracquisition experience as we bring that expertise. We know what gamerslike, what they don't like and what makes them stick around. Kongregatehas 19 million MAUs and GameStop has 25 million gamers in their loyaltyprogram who spend $300 a year on console games, so when they _nd agame they like, their LTV is 10x what we see from the average user. We'relooking for fun games that deserve to be made and we're generous withterms. Interested devs can contact the team at//developers.kongregate.com.

Dan Fiden: KIXEYE has seen a lot of success on Facebook anddestination websites with MMORTS games like Battle Pirates, WarCommander and Backyard Monsters. Backyard Monsters is the _rst ofour MMORTS games coming out on mobile, with additional games overthe next six months including War Commander.

We don't strive to be _rst to market but want to deliver the best hardcoreexperiences and de_nitely think about the games in a platform agnosticway delivering experiences that are unique wherever you play them. Ourplayers play for 120-130 minutes a day over the course of 2 sessions. Wewant to make tablet games that people can sit down and play for a halfhour at a time that are cross platform and offer synchronous PVP.

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Credit: Krista Hauser

I think a third party publisher is right for some [developers] but shouldn'tbe automatic. You no longer have to put your games on trucks to getthem to Walmart so it's worth considering not going with a publisher.Many devs go to publishers for validation as publishers provide threethings: development funds; a producer to help _nish the game; anddistribution, marketing and getting the game in front of people. Howeverif they can't point to a third party game they put on the top grossingcharts, you need to be wary of them as a publisher. Remember, many oftoday's publishers are bankrupt, THQ ahem.

Erik Reynolds: So I've worked for THQ and agree, hold the publishers' feetto the _re and demand value, from their marketing and PR departments totheir relationships with platform holders like Apple. That's what you'repaying for. I'm a huge fan of self publishing and there are a lot ofplatforms that can extend distribution where you don't pay anything.

It's ok if you don't know marketing and PR. It's simple, you can write apress release, just go online and download someone else's, look at thetemplate. Press releases are old technology, everyone posts their twitterhandle and email address. Know where you want your preview and reviewto exist and just reach out to these great folks in the media who want tosee your game with a passionate email about why your game is amazing.You can do it yourself and be successful.

In defense of PR and marketing

Paris: However, unfortunately many devs try to do their own PR andmarketing, and never get coverage. Discoverability is as much as an issuewith the press as it is with the App Store. The press are inundated withpitches and simply unable to see every email. Additionally devs are notalways best suited to promote their own games. If you're a dev focusedon making the best game possible, why divert time and effort to selfpublish? Not all devs know how to write polished copy with hooks, orproduce compelling screens or riveting trailers. Few of them even knowwho to contact, let alone have the media relationships to pitchsuccessfully or even a press list (btw, you can contact Pocket Gamer atnews [at] pocketgamer.co.uk and reviews [at] pocketgamer.co.uk.)

A developer might bring passion but if they have no idea how tostrategically compose the story or craft the stunt in a way that resonateswith readers, they're unlikely to get coverage.

Fiden: They're are probably devs out there that don't know how to do PRand marketing in mobile. I think you need to honestly ask whether yourpublisher does. So unless they can demonstrate to you in a believableway that they know how to get you to chart, why give up the upside? Ifyou're going to sign up and give a piece of your business and enter into along term partnership with someone, then you need to trust that they'rebringing something to the table that you don't have.

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Credit: Paul Philleo

Greer: Brand marketing is simple, you can't measure it anyway, but directmarketing for user acquisition is a very different talent. A user is worth$3.50 and we need to _nd the right channels to acquire them for thatmoney, knowing what it's going to take to make our money back on thatuser in three months. That's not easy and for a free-to-play game with a10 person studio and $500,000 in the bank, and not something they canafford to get wrong.

Building an audience

Audience question: There are a lot of great tools that make it easier tobuild products but we're seeing thousands of great games that never _ndan audience. Building an audience over time seems key. Do you agreethat audience is primary?

Paris: Yes, there are huge rewards to building community includingbecoming more visible to the press and attracting key partners. Onemillion fans seem to be the magic number, but 100,000 is a great start.You can embrace fans with engaging programming on Facebook andTwitter which should be used as viral entertainment platforms. Showcasefan art, brag shots and gameplay, challenge fans to events, provide Q&Awith the team, and respond positively to feedback, even when there areirate rants over bugs or server issues. By warmly addressing concernsand redirecting complaints to CS, you can turn detractors into promoterswho will evangelize the brand, come back for more and bring theirfriends.

Greer: No question, you have to have a great audience or your game willgo away quickly. The number of really good mobile games that never getabove 10,000 installs is sad. I you're doing it yourself you need to askhow you will get to that _rst 100,000 that get you somewhere. For theright game Kongregate can help, Kickstarter too.

Hot for the Holidays

Paris: There's been a lot of mobile news in the past weeks. Theintroduction of iOS 7, iPhone5S/C, Surface 2 tablet (audience laughs)How many are excited about SteamOS and the Steam Machine? (bigcheers) More than any holiday season, this one will feature a amazingarray of devices which devs will be able to get their games on, from thenew consoles, tablets and phones to the debut of glasses, watches, and ahost of other wearables. Where should devs be placing their bets?

Reynolds: I'm not sold on wearables for the simple reason that wearablesare being looked at from a technology perspective and I want somethingthat looks cool, something that is actually fashionable, so that when I goout in public, friends say 'Those are great glasses' or 'That's a greatwatch'. I haven't seen that yet personally. Until they bring in designerswith a fashionable eye, I don't really care for them. I'm most excited aboutthe consoles as they will be able to touch so many more devices thanever before.

Fiden: I don't think as a business, consoles are a great place to be. It's aninteresting place if you're making $5-10 million free-to-play games. I'mexcited to play console games but I just don't see it as a viable business.

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Paris: GTA V made a billion dollars in the _rst three days.

Fiden: There are certainly outliers, I'm going to buy it as well, but it'stough to plan a business around. It's still very much an iOS tabletopportunity for developers. That's where KIXEYE is very focused as it's alogical place for the hard core gamer to play long sessions.

Greer: As a business I do think the consoles will do well for about 10publishers but it's not something I'd be excited about as an indiedeveloper although some will do really well like large free-to-play scalablegames, e.g. Wargaming. At E3, I thought the emphasis on free-to-play wasthe most interesting transition but there will be fewer and fewer winnersand I just don't see that getting easier over time. For wearables, I'm farmore excited about Oculus Rift than Google Glass. If you're going to put acomputer on your face you might as well make it VR.

Credit: Krista Hauser

Early: Ubisoft happens to be one of those 10 publishers. If there isn't anew console at your house this holiday, I'd be willing to bet there will be anew tablet. Between the two, there's a lot of goodness for game devsbecause the tablet is a great handheld platform for game developmentand the new consoles are going to be disruptive. Both consoles will sellout and there will be faster adoption this time than any previous iteration.I think we're going to see in the tens of millions within a year which took along time for the previous generation to get there. So it's a much biggermarket this time.

Also, there's a lot of uncertainty in the console development market rightnow regarding discoverability and monetization, and that presents somegreat opportunities for indies. There are questions as to whether the nextset of games will be $30, $60 or $80. We just saw this week that GTA Vwill have after-the-fact monetization and I think we'll see more of that inevery game. Also, the consoles wouldn't have _gured out how to highlightthe best and worst games at the outset, other than alphabetically or a topten list. If indies can get in, they might be able sweep up with word ofmouth.

Paris: Will we see another billion dollar launch this holiday or is GTA V thestory of the year?

Early: GTA V might be the fastest to a billion this year, but there a few thatwill make a billion this holiday season as well including Call of Duty[Ghosts] and Assassins [Creed 4: Black Flag], and possibly Titanfall too.

Iwersen: I'm buying a PlayStation 4 but most excited about theemergence of messaging as a gaming platform.

Coming next

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Pocket Gamer's US events editor Martine Paris will be moderating theWinning the Wearable Gamer panel with Nabeel Hyatt of Spark Capital,Charles Hudson of SoftTech VC, and Shawn Hardin of Mind Pirate at theGLAZED conference in San Francisco on Monday 30 September.

Then on Tuesday 22 October, Pocket Gamer kicks off the GMICconference in San Francisco with the Pocket Gamer Global Game Starstrack and a stellar lineup of speakers including Chris DeWolfe, KristianSegerstrale, Ed Fries, and the CEOs and top executives of Unity, PlayFirst,Storm8, Glu Mobile, SEGA, Perfect World, Distimo, CocoaChina,iDreamSky, Gamevil, NativeX and others.

Sponsored by SGN and Distimo, the day provides a rare opportunity tomix with the leading voices in mobile gaming and a chance to participatein a pitch session to a panel of VCs and the press.

Discounted tickets are available here: //gmic-sv.eventbrite.com/?access=PocketGamer25.

The program schedule and details here: //sv.thegmic.com/global-game-stars-track.

Martine ParisTech reporter Martine Paris covers trends across mobile, games, AR VR,

Get the latest mobile games news, interviews and in-depth analysis onTwitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and our daily newsletter.

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Tech reporter Martine Paris covers trends across mobile, games, AR VR,wearables and IoT, the intersection of emerging tech, music, video and culture, andhow to get featured, funded and monetized. You can typically _nd her at showswith a mic in her hand interviewing industry's leading voices. Follow her@contentnow.

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