Interview

2013 In Review: Pocket Gamer's Jon Jordan

2014 will be the year of 'less is more' publishers

2013 In Review: Pocket Gamer's Jon Jordan

As we come to the end of 2013, it's time to look back at the events that dominated the last 12 months in mobile gaming.

As such, we've asked the industry's great and good to give their take on the last year, as well as predicting the trends that will come to pass in 2014.

Jon Jordan is a co-founder of Steel Media, and currently rejoices under the official title of being PocketGamer.biz's editor-at-large.

Pocket Gamer: What do you think was the most significant event for the mobile games industry in 2013?

Jon Jordan: A lot of things happened which might appear to be significant. But I think we need to be careful to distinguish between things that were surprising for their detail and/or timing (such as the $1.5 billion Supercell deal or even Apple's joypad SDK), and things that actually changed how mobile game companies operate.

On that basis, the most significant event was the rise of social app distribution channels such as Facebook (US, western Europe), and slightly differently Kakao (Korea), LINE (Japan), and WeChat (China).

Not only did these strongly impact 2012's off-app store distribution channels such as Tapjoy, FreeAppADay and AppGratis (obviously a company directly destroyed by Apple in 2013), but in the cases of Korea and Japan, these new channels were the catalyst for wider change.

The value of the Korea app market - which is majority Google Play - grew by over 750 percent, while in Japan, the power of DeNA's Mobage and GREE's social gaming platform was broken by the rise of LINE and native smartphone gaming. Something similar is now happening in China with Tencent's WeChat.

What was the most significant event for Pocket Gamer?

For PocketGamer.biz, the launching of our Asia-focused coverage has been an important move to demonstrate our support for the global nature of the mobile games business.

It's something we'll be looking to build upon in 2014, notably with our first Pocket Gamer Connects conference in London in January, but more generally, with more interaction with Asian companies, and in other key regions too.

What was your favourite mobile game of the year?

A dangerous question and one that I will refactor.

Certainly, despite my attempts to let go, Supercell's Clash of Clans was my most played game, closely followed by Kabam's Fast & Furious 6: The Game. I've been playing both of them daily since they were released.

The game I enjoyed the most - and was best ranked at globally - was DeNA West's The Drowning (below), although I'm still totally confused about its lack of commercial success.

In terms of what I'm playing right now, I think Kabam's Dark District and Wormhole's Tank Nation will be consuming my time (and possibly cash) in early 2014, although as readers of my Promiscuous Gamer diary will know, I am now playing over 20 titles on a regularly basis so my gaming time is in short supply.

What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2014?

In terms of general trends, I think 2014 will be the year of the publisher.

We're already seeing this with companies such as Kabam, Rovio, Storm8, Pocket Gems, Halfbrick etc tweaking their business model to make the most of their audience reach and operational expertise and publish thirdparty-developed content.

However, I'll be looking to see the impact of new companies such as Tilting Point and Scopely, who don't have any internal development resource but perform the role of a publisher while being keen not to be defined under that title.

More generally, in terms of companies to watch, I'll be looking out to see whether Zynga can turn things around, if Glu Mobile can finally hit profitability, while predicting Amazon will remain the dark horse/800lb gorilla (mix that metaphor as you wish) in terms of its potential to shake up mobile gaming across hardware, software, services and retailing.

I also think we'll see more intervention from governments when it comes to the legislation of virtual economies, including in-app purchases.

What's your New Year's resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?

It's going to be a very busy year, so I'm keen to ensure I'm measuring my performance.

For Pocket Gamer, I'll definitely hit the lifetime total of 9,000 articles during 2013, but I think the goal of breaking the 10,000 barrier is going to have to wait until 2015.

In terms of fitness, I started using a Nike TomTom GPS running watch in February 2012 and I think I can hit the 1,000km cumulative total by the end of 2014 (see above). I'll also be tracking my sleep patterns with various devices (currently a Fitbit Flex) and reporting my findings on my wearable computing blog.

This will be particularly interesting given the imminent arrival of my firstborn - scheduled for mid-January.

For the industry, that's simple. There are just too many games being released. Developers - and especially publishers - need to adopt a 'less is more' approach.

As Supercell has demonstrated, individual hit games can generate vast global success so there is no point having a portfolio of games. That's only demonstrates a company lacks internal rigor.

Of course, I expect to be completely ignored.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.