Puzzle & Dragons' long decline, looking beyond LTV, and Merged! passes 1M downloads in a week

The hottest articles of last week

There's an interesting progression to last week's most read articles, with a disappointing sales report sitting around at the number 5 slot, and a wild success taking the top spot on the list.

First up, Turkish developer Gram Games has been enjoying the success of its latest game, Merged!, which has managed to surpass a million downloads in just one week.

Second, Miniclip hired two new people to their management team, with Sarah Rose joining as HR Director, and Nick Tsimpidaros taking the role of Chief Marketing Officer.

Next, Wooga's Sebastian Kriese talks us through why you need to look beyond your trackable LTV and start looking at the bigger picture of your game's downloads.

And finally, we find out how to get a job at CSR2 developer NaturalMotion, and GungHo reports a 23% decline in operating profits.

Have a click through and look back on the week that was.

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• 5 Blaming market saturation, GungHo sees 2015 profits down 23%

  

  Japanese publisher GungHo hasn't had the greatest 2015 it appears, as it has reported profits dropping 23% compared to 2014.

  Operating profits had dropped to $600 million, with sales down by 11% compared to 2014's $1.3 billion, and declines across all four quarters of 2015.

  89% of the sales generated in 2015 were thanks to Puzzle & Dragons, experiencing strong growth in North America, and its forthcoming release in China might well help boost the numbers over 2016.

  GungHo has blamed market saturation for its losses, saying that "domestic smartphone game market has moved out of the explosive growth phase."

  
  

• 4 How to get a job at UK super developer NaturalMotion

  

  Ever wanted to work at UK mobile developer NaturalMotion, the studio behind CSR2 and Dawn of Titans? It's your lucky day then, as we've had a chat with its General Manager, Julian Widdows, about how exactly to get a job there.

  "We look for people who are intelligent, adaptable, well-balanced, talented, hungry to excel and incredibly passionate about what they do," he said.

  And on the topic of how to get started in the games industry, Widdows said, "get a good first degree, and potentially a Masters, in a subject you're passionate about and that is widely recognised."

  
  

• 3 Video: Wooga on looking beyond your game's LTV

  

  Do you spend your days looking at LTVs and wondering if your CPI is maybe too high? You probably have, what with the rising cost of advertising.

  Well, Wooga's Head of Partnerships, Sebastian Kriese, is here to explain why you need to stop just looking at LTVs and start thinking about the overall picture of your downloads.

  While the direct install count may be low, as Wooga found after running a campaign for one of its games, it may still influence players to download it at a later date.

  And while this isn't trackable, it does still count towards your LTV, so it's worth considering before deciding to spend less on advertising.

  
  

• 2 Miniclip management team bolstered with HR and CMO hires

  

  The old master of Internet distractions, Miniclip, has taken on two new people to join its management team.

  Sarah Rose and Nick Tsimpidaros joined as HR Director and Chief Marketing Officer respectively.

  On her new role, Rose said "The opportunity to work with Rob and the Executive team to develop and grow Miniclip in pursuit of further success was too good to miss!"

  Tsimpidaros was similarly enthusiastic, saying "Their product excellence combined with their talented and highly regarded management team were key factors in my decision."

  "It is an exciting time to join Miniclip and be part of its future."

  
  

• 1 Merged! surpasses 1 million downloads in less than a week

  

  Turkey's Gram Games had a tremendous success with its last game, 1010!, a game which essentially saved the company from shutting down altogether.

  And now it's seeing a similar story with its other exclamation mark-appendaged game, Merged!, which has just passed the one million download mark after just a week.

  It's not yet the 50 million that 1010! achieved in 2015, but CEO Mehmet Ecevit is confident that Merged! will go on to be an even bigger game than the former game.

  He said, "The initial results since launch are amazing. The numbers during soft launch indicated great things and this has now been confirmed by the appreciation we are seeing from our player base."