Why Nintendo's DeNA alliance will fail, a GM RPG and jobs in Finland

A glance at last week's top stories

• 5 How ZeptoLab uses randomness to monetise King of Thieves

  

  The IAP Inspector is a regular series looking at F2P games from a consumer perspective to work out whether the overall experience makes it worth parting with our cash.

  Last week we looked at ZeptoLab's vibrant online robbery game King of Thieves, a break from the studio's widely popular Cut the Rope series.

  There's a fairly contentious energy system, alongside reasonably priced hard currency that can be used for all the things you'd expect - skipping wait timers to minimise the chance of theft, upgrading dungeon defences, and buying additional gem slots.

  The main issue is the gameplay revolves around luck that - despite a compelling premise that keeps you playing - may make you regret some of your purchases.

  
  

• 4 How the Finnish games industry is becoming bigger and less fragile

  

  Jari-Pekka Kaleva is the COO of European Games Developer Federation (EGDF) and the Senior Policy Analyst in Neogames, the hub of the Finnish game industry.

  He put finger to keyboard for our latest guest post delving deeper into Finland's game development studios.

  Off the back of recent research from Neogames, he argues that "there is less and less correlation between the turnover of the industry and the number of people employed."

  He pointed to a booming trend in Finland for second round start-ups, which have a much higher chance of succeeding compared to fresh ventures.

  "On one hand, the start-up boom underlines the dynamic nature of the industry. On the other hand, the relatively large number of second rounders indicates that the Finnish industry has reached a certain level of maturity."

  Finland's success, he argues, is that the ecosystem supports key players through the difficult times from their first company to their second.

  
  

• 3 Want a job at the world's first wearable games studio?

  

  A new Helsinki games studio has opened, and it’s claiming the title of “world’s first wearable games studio.”

  It's a bit of a snatch, considering that studios like HandyGames also make games based around devices like smartwatches.

  Still, EveryWear Games is made up of founders with some impressive pedigrees - namely Rovio, Digital Chocolate and Remedy.

  It's also received undisclosed investment from Lifeline Ventures and Sunstone Capital, drumming up considerable interest off the back of the Apple Watch announcement.

  EveryWear Games is currently hiring, having put out a call on its site for a game artist, programmer, and designer.

  
  

• 2 GREE hires Kabam's one-time VP of Revenue as its new VP GM RPGs

  

  Former Kabam exec Andrew Sheppard is now COO of GREE, and last week saw him snaffle fellow Kabam alumni Keith Kawahata for the Tokyo-based company.

  Kawahata's new title boasts all the acronyms, since he's now VP GM RPG. To the rest of us, that translates to Vice President and General Manager of Role-Playing Games.

  Kawahata will now take ownership of the on-going development of GREE's firstparty games such as Modern War and Crime City out of its San Francisco studio, as well as Knights & Dragons and any future RPGs.

   

  
  

• 1 Why Nintendo's DeNA alliance is a match made in weakness and doomed to failure

  

  Last week saw Nintendo and DeNA agree a strategic alliance, which came as quite a surprise considering Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata had made no secret of his reluctance to take the company mobile.

  The move, which will see DeNA taking a 1 percent stake in Nintendo and Nintendo taking a 10 percent stake in DeNA, will finally bring Nintendo game characters to mobile devices.

  However, .Biz editor-at-large Jon Jordan pointed out that the sudden U-turn (and avoidance of calling it such) is born from weakness.

  Iwata has been trying to focus energies into Nintendo's failing hardware business, and this sudden focus on mobile games appears like a crutch to bolt-on the side of the company's strategy. 

  DeNA, meanwhile, has been struggling with competition from Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike - unable to launch a hit game even in its native Japan.

  The two companies are both starting from positions of weakness, and only time will tell if they can turn that into a strength.