A quick presentation I put together for "Invest in Games 2011" in Stockholm(Sep 6): 1) Intro to King.com 2) Accidental Gamers & Facebook 3) Mobile & Tablet Gaming 4) Investing in Accidental Gaming

1. Accidental Gamers: A Multibillion $ Industry
60 slides in 15 minutes. Let’s go.

2. There are 4 levels in today’s presentation
4
1
2
3

3. Level 1
This is

4. Founded in 2003 by a bunch of ex-Spray guys
Lars Markgren, Sebastian Knutsson, Riccardo Zacconi, Thomas Hartwig & Patrik Stymne

5. 8 years & 200+ high-quality flash games later
30+ million monthly active players
900+ million monthly game plays

6. These guys invested in 2005
….and we’ve been profitable every year since.

7. The games are made by ~100 superstars in Stockholm
+ fantastic offices in London, L.A., San Fran, Milan, Malta & Hamburg.

8. We create & publish casual games

9. We do casual skill gaming!
Collect as many points as possible
A game session is between 1-5 minutes long

10. Our cross-platform strategy
Since 2010
Since 2011 Since 2003

11. Homerun = play everywhere
Since 2010
Since 2011 Since 2003

12. We cracked the Facebook formula in April
3 000 000 DAILY FACEBOOK PLAYERS
2 500 000
2 000 000
1 500 000
1 000 000
500 000
@
0
januari februari mars april maj juni juli augusti
Monthly:
15 million

13. Women love casual games
81% female
25-55 years old
Spends 20-30+ minutes per visit
49% have children in household
92% shop online
A very common social gaming profile.
59% are primary household shopper.
Comscore

14. How we monetize our games
Tournament fees
(optional)
In-game purchase
Advertising
(freemium)
(Classic freemium)

16. Level 2
The Accidental Gamers
(A typical King.com-game Launch Party)

17. If there were a spectrum….
GAMER NOT A GAMER
Accidental Gamer sweetspot
Slide imagery courtesy of Chris Trottier, Zynga,

18. 10 years ago…
HARDCORE GAMERS CASUAL
GAMERS GAMERS
Opportunistic
play of
Passionate FIND games they
traditional
about games enjoy on the web
games,
consoles
…we all made games for people that are INTO games!

19. Facebook changed the rules of the game….
…people who would never walk into a GameStop store
got games right in their face:

20. “Lars Jörnow played Bubble Saga”

21. Allowing developers like us to find millions of new players…
HARDCORE CASUAL “ACCIDENTAL”
GAMERS
GAMERS GAMERS GAMERS
Don’t seek out
games (but will
play when
prompted)
…and these accidental gamers don’t consider themselves “gamers”

22. Bubble Saga
FarmVille Poke friend
Status update
Source: AllFacebook.com

23. Bubble Saga
FarmVille Poke friend
Status update
Source: AllFacebook.com

24. How are the Accidental Gamers different?
And how does it affect game design?

25. DOs and DONTs for Accidental Gamers
What to consider when designing games

26. Intuitive gameplay and controls
250+ million downloads
Everyone knows how a slingshot works

27. Difficult controls
Uhhh?
Errr?
What??
Jump, double-tap C while holding down X and L1…

28. Make it yummy on the eyes
Out of the top 20 games on Facebook, only Texas Hold’em
doesn’t fit into this profile

29. 3D navigation / FPS
Navigating real-life is not a …but navigating virtually without
problem… moving your own body is a big
challenge
Remember: Accidental Gamers didn’t grow up playing FPS, so
it’s completely foreign to them

30. NO #2: Slow-progress from ultra-easy to deeper mechanics
A very easy tutorial is a must!

31. NO #2: Slow-progress from ultra-easy to deeper mechanics
A very easy tutorial is a must!

32. NO #2: Slow-progress from ultra-easy to deeper mechanics
A very easy tutorial is a must!

33. NO #2: Slow-progress from ultra-easy to deeper mechanics
A very easy tutorial is a must!

34. NO #2: Slow-progress from ultra-easy to deeper mechanics
A very easy tutorial is a must!

35. Sticking points
Challenging sticking points in games for Accidental Gamers have
proven to be very detrimental to retention

36. In summary, the game should be like..
Yummy on the eyes, easy to understand with a touch of depth

37. …but not like:

39. Level 3
Mobile & Tablet
Looking into the future

40. 10 years ago…
…people actually read newspapers on the subway.

41. In 2011? Not so much….
(now it’s also completely normal to take pictures of random people in the subway)

42. The mobile revolution has just begun
iPhone
Relaxed parent
iPad
“Passback gaming”

43. Why mobile is so important
88 downloaded applications
iPhone usage: 84 minutes / day.
10 minutes every day on games…
Source: Appsfire

44. Mobile Apps passed the Web this summer

45. Is this only about this guy?
No, but with 61% he’s really important

46. Devices Shipped Q1-2011, Daily
Android is catching up quickly, but the iPad is unrivaled so far

47. May ‘11: 500k apps in the App Store!
500k apps, of which 150k are free = you
need to make something exceptional

48. Freemium is the new Black

49. The mobile & tablet market is like a…
(Young, immature, growing quickly, loved by everyone)

51. Level 4
Investing in Accidental Gaming
A $6 billion treasure hunt

52. Social gaming is HOT!
And it’s just getting started.

53. KPI crash course for social games
MAU
Monthly active users
DAU
Daily active users
Stickiness
DAU / MAU
DARPU
Daily av. revenue per user
These 4 basic metrics work for both Facebook and mobile

54. KPI crash course for social games
MAU
20% stickiness x $0.02 DARPU =
Monthly active users
DAU
Daily active users
Stickiness
DAU / MAU
= high-fiving investors!
DARPU
Daily av. revenue per user

55. Social Game Economics
1 Develop a game: 4 months, 7 people
(~$200-300k)
Currently only
20 games on FB
2 Get 1 million DAU *
(~$300-500k)
3 1M DAU x $0.02 DARPU
= $20k revenue per day -> $600k / month
Breakeven 30-60 days post launch
*Assumes that you have: (a) a fantastic game with 20%+ stickiness, (b) a fantastic
marketing guy, (c) a fantastic sys-ops AND (d) an amazing Business Intelligence team

56. Social Gaming on Facebook is Maturing
DAU*
1 $20 billion IPO
coming up 47.8 M
2 15.2 M
~$300M ~$750M
3 ($31M raised) 6.4 M
4 ( $761M) 5.5 M YE projection:
3.5 M
5 2.5 M
6 2.0 M
7 1.8 M
*DAU numbers from

57. Valuations can be high
(these are all from TechCrunch in the past 6 months)

58. Mobile: Go Big or Go Home
A lot of companies will have to go home…

59. Investing in Accidental Gaming Companies
Please note: this is just my personal advice, and may not reflect the views of King.com
Look for Superstars Hit-Driven Stickiness is
everything
(as always) (find pre-hit?!) (if a game isn’t sticky, kill it)
Don’t invest to much in pre-launch development: max 6 months!
There’s no better indicator of success than a live game.

60. What we have talked about today
King.com is awesome, and makes outstanding games
The typical Accidental Gamer is a 35-45 year-old woman
There are about 300 million players on Facebook every month
Think George Clooney when designing
games for the Accidental Gamers
Mobile & tablet is still just a happy baby
When investing, focus on Superstars & stickiness

61. Thank you for listening!
lars.jornow@king.com / +46 760 150 219