"In 2014, app publishers should not miss out on the new market of monetizable mommies.
"They're the ones making the purchase decisions. It's an iPad holiday season because of them," said Trip Hawkins, videogame industry pioneer at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Mixer in San Francisco this week.
"Forget IAP for games targeting children. Every 8-year old knows their parents' password. Subscription is the only way to go."
Hawkins, now CEO of If You Can, a London-based mobile game developer with its first iOS game launching January 2014, went on to credit Minecraft as being Best of 2013 for innovation in education with Minecraft.edu.
Be revolutionary
The legendary founder of EA then encouraged developers to be trailblazers.
"EA didn't invent football, but there was an audience for it, and no one had yet created an authentic game because it was difficult to do," Hawkins argued.
"It required knitting together technology, platforms, tools and user experiences with subject matter expertise, big data, and rule books, like the Oakland Raiders playbook that John Madden gave to me.
"The EA Sports model can be applied anywhere. If you're doing something there is demand for, and you get the authenticity right, you can reduce the risk of trying something revolutionary, and win the market."
A special night indeed
Hawkins headlined an all-star panel featuring Facebook's Dan Morris, EA's Jason Harris, Capcom's Deepika Bajaj, Disney's Brian Canary, Vungle's Ben Bear, and Pocket Gamer's Martine Paris.
Following which there was a celebration of Pocket Gamer's outstanding 2013 San Francisco programming with drinks, bites, beats by PlayStation's DJ R3Y, and a thrilling Ouya giveaway by Vungle, won by Perfect World's Fabien Pierre-Nicolas.
Perfect World - a winner
Pocket Gamer's SF mobile game community has grown so close this year that the party continued on into the wee hours of the night as the crowd departed together for Videogame Karaoke.
Check out the photo gallery for all the action.
Next up!
Join us in San Francisco on Thursday 6 February 2014 at Apps World for the Big Indie Pitch, with programming on the Gaming World stage chaired by Pocket Gamer's Martine Paris.
RSVP at http://bigindiepitchappsworldsf.eventbrite.com for a free conference badge and to register to pitch your game to the world's leading mobile game journalists.
Spectators welcome too!
Then stay tuned for announcements for our action-packed GDC, including our epic Pocket Gamer Party with FunPlus & Chukong, the Very Big Indie Pitch @ GDC, and more. Details posting soon. Happy Holidays!
Many thanks to lead sponsor Vungle, drinks sponsor WildTangent, Pocket Gamer's Martine Paris for producing the event, and her amazing photo squad Jon Malloy, Phero Peter Nguyen, and Sebastian Valle.
If you're interested in speaking at, or sponsoring, Pocket Gamer events, email martine.paris[at]pocketgamer.co.uk
