As 2021 begins to fade into memory, we're taking a look back at the events that have defined the last 12 months in mobile gaming.
We've asked the industry's great and good to give us their take on the year, as well as predicting the trends that will dominate in 2022.
Thomas Bidaux is CEO of ICO Partners, a UK-based games marketing and communications agency.
PocketGamer.biz: What was the biggest news for the mobile games industry in 2021?
Thomas Bidaux: I think the change of Apple's ad tracking to opt-in is likely what has had the biggest impact on the mobile game landscape this year. While it is mostly invisible to the users, it created a lot of work across the sector to adapt to this paradigm change. Although I am not necessarily flagging this as a negative change.
Which mobile game do you think had the biggest impact on the industry this year?
I am going to show my bias for big screen games - but I feel Genshin Impact and Wild Rift, while released late 2020, were the biggest impact for the year. The production value and getting to gameplay parity with PC and consoles have been impactful on the sector, and with deeper changes to come in the next couple of years.
What is your favourite mobile game of 2021?
Love and Pie has been my go to game this year. I find it very relaxing and the pace of the story quite refreshing - it is a well executed game I have enjoyed playing outside of the games I 'need' to play.
What accomplishments are you most proud of during 2021?
ICO won a best place to work award. It was unexpected – we went through the process of these awards to understand better how we were performing and how the team felt about the direction we gave the company. It was the best feedback we could get on how we managed the challenges of the past two years.
What are you most looking forward to in 2022?
Lots of interesting projects in the making, more exciting games coming? I would also say, I got a taste of in-person meetings at a couple of recent events, so hopefully, we will have more of these in 2022 too!
You can check out all of our 2021 in Review interviews here.
