In the Hot Seat: Mattel163 COO Devin Nambiar on Uno, the East-West divide and life after the NetEase deal

• East and West want different things and the data proves it, says Nambiar.
• Cross-border joint ventures run on trust, not control. Mattel and NetEase stayed hands-off.
• Reviving Uno was harder than it looks. The team kept the core rules and chased the "couch feeling" over slapping the IP on a match-three.

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In the Hot Seat is our new video series where Pocket Gamer Connects speakers get candid before they take the stage at our worldwide events.

First up is Devin Nambiar, chief operating officer at Mattel163.

Born as a joint venture between an iconic American toy giant and Chinese internet powerhouse NetEase, Mattel163 turned decades-old card games into a global business. In February of this year, Mattel moved to acquire NetEase's 50% stake outright, valuing the studio at $318 million and folding it in as its internal game development and publishing arm.

Nambiar himself mirrors that blend: a Californian who's spent more than a third of his life in Asia, now running R&D, publishing and portfolio strategy after nearly a decade at EA.

We sat down with him ahead of his 'Does the Best Game Win Anymore?' panel at PGC Summit Shanghai on July 29th.

Nambiar highlights:

• East and West want different things - and the data proves it. Home-market giants like Honor of Kings and Monster Strike "face-planted" abroad. Porting a hit unchanged? Chances are "pretty slim", he says.
• Cross-border joint ventures run on trust, not control. Both parents stayed hands-off, letting the team refuse to fail. The real killer of distributed teams is communication.
• Reviving Uno was harder than it looks. The team preserved the core rules and chased the "couch feeling", that real-time, social, slam-the-card energy, rather than slapping the IP on a match-three.
• What he's most looking forward to exploring during his panel in Shanghai.

Catch Devin Nambiar on the 'Does the Best Game Win Anymore?' panel at PGC Summit Shanghai on July 29th. Grab your tickets here.