PocketWhale's PR pivot, Clash Royale clones, and is Machine Zone really worth $9 billion?

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• 5 Demi Lovato, Mean Girls and moderation: The making of Episode

  

  If you're reading this, then you're probably not the target audience for Pocket Gem's interactive fiction game Episode.

  But after teaming up with big brands like Mean Girls and Demi Lovato, the game now has around 7 million active users, and is a top 40 grossing app in the US App Store.

  So we decided to ask Michael Dawson, Head of Studio at Episode, the studio spun-off specifically to deal with the game, all about the making of the game.

  Of particular interest is how the team deal with user-generated content that may violate their policies, in order to, according to Dawson, "ensure Episode stays a safe place for anyone old enough to have a Facebook or Instagram account.

  
  

• 4 Why paid UA startup PocketWhale pivoted to employ the power of the press

  

  According to our own Jon Jordan, "the mobile game user acquisition market is both maturing and failing to fundamentally reinvent itself."

  Or at least, that's the conclusion he's come to after next wave UA outfit PocketWhale decided to pivot into a consultancy that focuses less on the app stores and more on the press.

  It all sounds a bit exciting, so we asked the company's CEO, Jean-Philippe Decka, all about why the company has pivoted away from its initial plans.

  It's not a UA method that will work for every game, and while it worked in the favour of niche title Bleach: Brave Souls, Decka warns that "it would work poorly for copycats, and we discourage some developers from using PR."

  

• 3 The cost of bad UX: why Star Wars: Commander hasn't reached Supercell-level success

  

  If you've got a great game made by a talented team and leveraging a huge IP, you're bound to make a ton of money, right?

  Not so, according to Player Research's CEO Graham McAllister, who took to the stage at Reboot Develop 2016 to talk about why you need to make sure your user experience is as good as the game itself if you're going to make money.

  To make his point, he compared four base-building games: Clash of Clans, Game of War, Boom Beach, and Star Wars: Commander.

  The latter, despite the attached name, failed to make any kind of impact on the mobile market, and McAllister digs into why the UX is largely to blame for this.

  
  

• 2 Will Clash Royale's success herald a wave of synchronous PVP imitators?

  

  We love talking about Clash Royale. Everyone loves talking about Clash Royale. Even our Mobile Mavens love talking about Clash Royale.

  Now that the game has proven to be a huge success, we decided to ask them if they thought the game was going to spawn a bunch of clones, and if this would have any impact on the eSports scene.

  The overwhelming concensus? Yes there will be clones, but there's no way that any of them will be as good, or be able to capture the attention of the mobile gaming audience.

  As for eSports, Torulf Jernström points out that while Clash Royale has a chance at gaining an eSports following, "that does not make it any easier for other mobile games to follow suit; rather the opposite."

  
  

• 1 Is Machine Zone really worth $9 billion?

  

  While it's almost impossible to work out how much Machine Zone is worth, it doesn't stop the world at large having a punt.

  A recent estimation from Lawrence W. Abrams, writing for GloMo, puts the company behind megahits Game of War and Mobile Strike at a valuation of $9 billion, although Jon isn't too sure he's right.

  After all, King was recently acquired for $5.9 billion, which was something of a shock at the time, so $9 billion for an arguably more niche developer seems a little steep.

  But Abrams may have a point. He's putting a lot of stock into Machine Zone's new RTplatform, which could well see the company's value rocket.