Launch Date: August 4th, 2020Developer: MediatonicFormats: PC, PS4Status: Public launchGenre: Battle royale/platformerSimilar to: Fortnite, Tetris 99 In the midst of a year consumed by the COVID-19 pandemic, an atypical battle royale game emerged as something of a star of 2020. That game was Fall Guys, and for a few weeks after its launch on PC…
Beyond game design itself, there is perhaps no more vital effort in making a game successful than that of user acquisition. After all, retaining and engaging players only begins when you have people downloading and playing your game. The notion of acquiring users in reality includes any way players find your game, including organic and…
Joost Rietveld, Assistant Professor in Strategic Management at UCL School of Management returns to Department of Play with the second and final part of his look at the evolution of platforms – from digital game stores to the coming consoles. Part 1 can be found here. The insights presented in this series of articles are…
In this specially contributed piece, Joost Rietveld, Assistant Professor in Strategic Management at UCL School of Management considers the evolution of platforms – from digital game stores to the coming consoles – and the developer strategies and revenue generation options that have emerged in tandem. The insights presented in this series of articles are based…
What Is It? Launch Date: 4 February 2019Developer: Respawn EntertainmentPublisher: Electronic ArtsStatus: WorldwidePlatforms: PS4, Xbox One and Windows.Plus Switch (confirmed) and mobile (rumoured).Genre: FPS.Similar to: PUBG, Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone. Most significantly, Apex Legends marks Electronic Arts’ move on the battle royale space dominated and defined by Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (commonly, ‘PUBG’).…
In this specially contributed piece, AppMagic CEO and Founder Max Samorukov shares the results of a statistical deconstruction of the relationship between game setting, genre, and how that relates to success. When looking to understand a game’s success or potential, many of us choose to focus on monetisation models, retention frameworks, and other such factors.…
Here at Department of Play our clients often ask us about the sheer breadth of tools available to those that make and publish mobile games. From ad-tech offerings to data platforms, there are a somewhat bewildering array of options, and it’s not always immediately clear what differentiates even the most popular tools.With that in mind,…
For the past handful of years, the rise of hypercasual has become something of an obsession for developers, publishers and investors alike. Truly cementing its presence in the F2P mobile game market through 2018, the hypercasual form arrived with dazzlingly low CPIs and the promise of beguiling even larger audiences than casual and midcore. Here…
In this specially contributed piece Matt Frenchman, co-founder and CEO of game and app studio financing platform Sugar, takes a look at the sometimes misunderstood art of modelling and calculating LTV, and why it matters to the success of your next mobile game. If you are working on building a successful free-to-play game studio or…
Here at Department of Play, many of our clients are deeply interested in improving player retention in their free-to-play and paid games. The reasoning behind that fascination is fundamentally straightforward. The longer a player is retained the more time they spend engaged with a game, broadening their opportunity to spend. So far, so simple. But…