It’s not easy to identify a trend, is it? The mobile market is crowded, saturated with games and sometimes it seems like innovation is just a buzz word. But every once in a while, there comes a moment when technology meets market needs and creates a green field opportunity. Well, the moment is here and the name of the game is Real-Time Multiplayer.
18. REAL TIME MULTIPLAYER
MARKET OPPORTUNITY
Mobile Market Overview
• 100 multiplayer games in each eco system
• Created in the last 6 months
• Only a few successes
• Most of the leading publishers are not there yet
• Ecosystems are promoting real-time multiplayer games
19. REAL TIME MULTIPLAYER
MARKET OPPORTUNITY
Players Maturity
• Players accustomed to playing with friends
• Sophisticated players that are looking for customized & personal
experience
• Increasing demand for innovative games
20. REAL TIME MULTIPLAYER
MARKET OPPORTUNITY
Technological Barriers are lifted
• More powerful devices
• More reliable network communication
• Lower server-side costs (Google Play Game Services, Play)
• Advanced matching solutions available for developers (Google
Play Game Services and Apple’s Game Center and PlayScape)
23. PLAYSCAPE MULTIPLAYER
DEVELOPMENT
• Real time multiplayer
engine
• Taking care of network
latency & reliability
• Unique matching system
MARKETING
• Instant Access to
+50 million of
Concurrent players
• Creating a network
of players
MONETIZATION &
OPTIMIZATION
• Monetization
Mechanisms
• Real-time monitoring
• New Dashboards
I want to talk to you about MP games and how they’re going to take over the world. But before we do that I wanna talk to about a slice of bread and a guy name ottorohwedder. Slice bread innovation was eternalized in the phrase – the greatest thing since sliced bread. I wonder what they said before it was invented.Anyway this guy otto invented slice bread and he focused like most inventors did on the patent part and on the making part. And the thing with slice bread is that in the first 15 years of its existence it was a complete failure. No one bought it, no one knew about it.
And the reason is that until wonder came along and figure out how to spread the idea of white bread, no one wanted it. The success of slice bread, like everything else is not only about what the idea is like and the patent is like – it’s about how the get your idea spread. And it doesn’t matter what product your selling – the idea applies to everybody.We are living in an age where people who know how to spread ideas – win.At the heart of spreading ideas, is TV and stuff like TV.
TV and mass media made it really easy for us to spread out ideas.So the process goes usually as follows – you buy some ads, interrupt some people.Hopefully you’ll be able to convince some of the people you’ve interrupted to buy your stuff.Then you’ll take the money generated from these sales to buy more ads and this process goes on and on and one….Now that model and approach – and we’ve heard it so many time before:If I could only be on Google Home Page – if we could only figure out how to get there.If we could only figure out how to grab our consumers by the throat – they will pay attention and we will win.
Well this model shaped my childhood life and probably yours – Convincing us to buy stuff that are bad for us and that we probably do not really need.But what happened in the last couple of years is that this model stopped working.And whoever tried to market something in the last few years will tell you the same thing – that this approach does no longer work.
And the reason is that consumers don’t care about your product – at all. They just don’t care.Part of the reason is that they have way more many choices than they used to, and way less time.And in a world where we have way too many choices and too little time – the obvious thing to do is just to ignore stuff.
And here’s an example– you drive on the road and you see a cow. You ignore the cow and you keep driving – cause you’ve seen cows before. Cows are invisible. Cows are boringYou continue to drive and you see another cow. You ignore that too.Who is going to stop is car and say : Look! a cows? Nobody.But if the cow was purple – you’d notice it. It’s new, for a while. But then again, if all cows will go purple you would be bored with them too.The things that determines what gets talked about, what gets done, what gets changed what gets purchased, is - “is it remarkable”.And remarkable is a really cool word because we think it means neat. But it also means – worth making a remark about. And that’s in the essence of how to get our idea and our products discovered.
We’re now in the fashion business – now matter what we do for a living – we’re in the fashion business. And the thing is – people in the fashion business know how it is to work in the fashion business – they’re used to it. The rest of us have to figure out how to think that way. How to understand that it’s not about how to interrupt people with our big full-page ads or insisting on meeting with them – but it’s an entirely different process that gets our product discovered.
We have to start getting used to this idea. I’m starting to get used to this idea myself.When we started distributing games to consumers, we went on stages, just like this, to talk with developers the KISS principle – that stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. But now – now we don’t want to have game that are merely simple.Don’t get me wrong – simplicity is important. But it’s not enough today and it’s definitely not the most important thing. Our target audience has changed and is to today more sophisticated, tired of playing more-of-the-same games and is looking for new and innovative stuff. Remarkable stuff.We don’t want simple games. We need sexy games. Games that have that uniqueness – that wow effect we’re all looking for.And for the sake of consistency I’ve invented a meaning for the initials SEXY too
So in order to get your game discovered we are required to do 2 things:One is to find a remarkable idea that some people will want to talk about.The second thing we have to do is to find and target those people your idea will appeal to.
That approach is very different from the mass marketing.What marketers used to do is to create average products for average people. That’s what mass marketing is. Smooth out the edges.Go for the center – that’s the big market.They would ignore the geeks and god forbids the laggards.It was all about going for the center. But in a world where the old methods do not work anymore I don’t think that’s the strategy we want to use. I don’t think you want to market to those people – because those people are really good at ignoring you.Market to THESE people instead – cause THEY CARE. The innovators and the early adapters are those people who stand in line for hours whenever apple launches one of it new products in to the market. This are the people who are obsessed with some things.And when you talk to them they’ll listen because they like listening. It’s not about you – it’s about them. We’re living in a me meme world. Remember that.And if you’re lucky – they’ll talk to their friends about it and you’re idea will spread. It will spread to the entire curve – It will spread because you got to the right people and because your idea is remarkable.that’s what the law of diffusion of innovation is all about
To make an idea, to market a product that is not unique, that does not invoke interest, that people do not want to talk about and without finding the right people that would - is almost impossible.And the big question I have for you as developers… Are there any developers in the audience? I’m sure there are. The big question I have for you is whether you have a product that is worth talking about? Do you honestly believe that? You don’t really have to answer me right now. Just think about it.Let’s talk about the market and how to do it. How to stand out.
I’m gonna start with the problem.Google Play has just hit 1 million apps. 1 million apps! Isn’t that incredible. If you and I dedicate our entire life to downloading apps from Google Play we will not be able to skim through half of them.So naturally, 99% percent of them simply disappear. A very small fragment of the games actually get discovered, and even a smaller fraction generates revenues.We’ve being using this slide a lot in different conferences and it always gets better and better. It always gets better because the numbers look worse and worse.So how do you stand out in the crowed?
Well, in order to do that we have to study the market: which games became successful, which failed and what made the successful games a success. And if we’ll do that, than maybe, we can find a common denominator between them and manage to learn just a bit more about the secret. Of. success.And most of the time – if you follow this process you do find an idea for a game…. Maybe two.But the reason we are standing here today is because we didn’t just find a couple of ideas but an entire genre. A entire category that immerges now and the only thing we need to do – is to capture it on time.It doesn’t happen a lot. You really have to have all the stars aligned – but like the description of the session says – “every once in a while, there comes a moment”
Looking at the mobile market in 2013 we see that the success was driven by 3 accumulative attributes.The first is that players are not playing alone anymore and stand alone games are becoming less relevant. But its not only that. Players want to play with their friends to create PERSONAL experiences. They are using the games as a new platform for communication and interaction. And successful games were games that created a new kind of communication and tapped into what players are looking for. Look at Draw Something. Draw something, although it was under the games category is much more than just a game. It’s a new communication medium. The only thing in common between DrawSomthing and games is that they are both gamified - and their extremely short life span.Candy crush did the same. Although it is not in the core game-play itself – the entire exterior of Candy Crush Saga is a communication tool. I go to the social map to see where my friends are today. I want to send them a positive message? I give them a life. There’s no need to call and say hi no after I’ve sent them a life. This limited, but extremely interesting communication medium – is some times all we need,
And the reason why we believe that “Real-Time Multiplayer Games” is going to be the next thing on mobile since slice bread as the title of this session suggests - is because it enhances every one of these attributes.Real-Time multiplayer games are more social, more personal and if created smart – could easily provide a new type of communication.It’s different from the games we currently know on mobile the same way a text message is different from a phone call.Think about how many text messages you’d have to send in order to communicate the information of a 20 second phone call, a one minute phone call – a FIVE minutes phone call.And for the same reason exactly, real time multiplayer games have been so successful on PCs and Consoles. The transition to mobile is inevitable. It is all about the timing. The timing has to be right.We estimate that this opportunity is now and I’m going to share with you why.
Currently there are 3 things that make it the perfect time for real-time multiplayer games to break into the market:The landscape of the market is one with Just the right level of competition and potential partnershipsThe consumer maturity is right where we want itAnd we have all the technological infrastructures already in place
There are only 100 multiplayer games in each eco system, all developed recently – most in the last few month.Only a few of them were very successful The big players are still not there The eco systems themselves are also promoting realtime multiplayer gamesSo there is a huge opportunity to an untapped market
This is also aligned with what players are looking for. They are already accustomed to playing with friends and are social players They are becoming more sophisticated and looking for a personal and customize experience. In a high paced world players are looking for innovation in games as well
This is also because many of past technological barriers have been lifted.
Looking deeper we can see how this segment of games is really only now starting to take its first steps. First off all – most of the successful (about 72%) are hardcore games. In fact only 14% of the successful real-time multiplayer games that exist today are casual games.And that means that no one has engaged the casual audience – yet.In addition there’s a complete lack of standardization - most of those games do not even provide a social experience and if they do it’s very limited. Having a mobile multiplayer game that doesn’t provide a social experience is completely missing the point. And last, but definitely not least – those game are not cross platform. And not being cross platform when you market a RT MP game where you expect people to play with their friends is somewhat of a problem.
So the technology is there, the consumers are there and the market conditions are perfect – for now.But more than all it will help your game standout. It will make your game worthy to be talked about, to be discussed.And that’s exactly where you want to be.
And we believe in this new segment of games so much that we’ve completely integrated it to every aspect of our end-to-end solution.We’ve added a rt engine to our development platform the solves (the complicated issues that arise from rt networking such as) issues such as latency and reliability.We also added a unique matching system on top of our social layer. On the marketing side, in addition to offering access to our 50M player we are in the process of creating a network of players by launching real time multiplayer games every month starting Jan 2014. On top of the optimization that we provide, we also offer:Mutliplayer Monetization mechanismsReal time monitoringUnique dashboards that are specific for real time multiplayer
But we can’t do it by ourselves. We need talented developers to create the right games that we can help get discovered.We need those games that will make use of this opportunity we have today. And most important, we need developers that believe in what we believe:That being very good today is very bad. That you need to be exceptional. That we need to be unique. That you need to stop doing what everybody else is doing, even if we can do what they do… really reallywell.And if YOU believe in what WE believe – let’s talk.
Thank you all for listening. If you want to you can come talk to me know or just come by later by PlayScape’s booth.Have a great conference and good luck.