Launched as Bytemark Games releasing titles such as Jaws and Dawn of the Dead, the Toronto-based studio has since rebranded as Fuse; its future now mapped out as a publisher, thanks in part to its suite of real-time analytic tools.

We caught up with CEO Jon Walsh to find out why he thought publishers still mattered on the App Store, and just why data was so important for success.

PocketGamer: How much did your experiences as Bytemark Games inspire you to come up with Fuse?

Jon Walsh: Our experiences with Bytemark were very important and served as both inspiration and foundation for the company's evolution to Fuse.

Releasing iOS games as a developer gave us firsthand insight into the unique challenges this new market presents. We were able to build the tools and processes required to meet these challenges, and as publisher, we can now share them with our developer partners.

We also learned the benefits of building and maintaining a large base of happy gamers, and knew this was something we could do better as a collective, which is why we're now reaching out to other developers to publish their games.

Why are analytics so important for iOS games?

The digital content marketplace is a data driven business. Seeing what's happening with your game, in real-time, is critical to making a game successful over the short and long term.

I think a big misconception around the iOS game market is that a game typically only has a few weeks to shine and then disappears in the App Store forever. This isn't true if you have a good game and if you continue to work on cost-effectively creating exposure for it.

Our analytics tools allows us to determine whether we have a good game in the first place, how cost effectively we're marketing it and ultimately can give us a good sense of the overall revenue potential for a game over its lifetime. All of this information informs critical decisions like when and how to promote a game, whether to do an update, add more content or adjust the business model from paid to freemium, etc, instead of guessing.

There are lots of other companies offering analytics, so why are Fuse's so good?

The primary differences between our tools and thirdparty offerings are the kinds of things our tech allows us to do and how quickly we can do them.

Our system performs analytics hourly, and also allows us to take actions such as changing in-game advertisements, incentive offers, etc, in real-time to better control a game's exposure and performance. The Fuse system provides data and lets our team do something with it in a timely fashion.

Essentially our system is like combining Flurry, Appfigures, AdMob, Mobclix and Tapjoy into one cohesive tool so that everything is working together, hourly, just as the App Store works. Our developer partners get to focus on building quality games, while our team of industry professionals focus on the business of managing and selling them. That's added value traditional analytics companies can't provide, and we feel it's a requirement for success in the highly competitive mobile games market.

As a publisher, what sort of deals would you be offering - part funding, minimum guarantee or straight rev share?

All of the above. Deal terms will be determined on a per-game basis. Fuse is looking for a limited number of quality developer partners that will form long-term relationships beyond a single game.

The deal will depend on what stage the game is at - conceptual, in development or already released in the App Store. There are solutions for every situation, but as a general principal Fuse will follow a rev share model that ensures everyone has a stake in a game's success.

Do you have a target for the number of releases, or type of releases (paid, freemium etc) you'd like to release in 2011?

Fuse is looking to publish or re-publish at least 15 titles in 2011, both paid and freemium. The types of releases sought out will be engaging, highly polished titles well-suited to micro-transactions.

Do you have plans to expand to other mobile platforms?

Fuse is monitoring all major mobile platforms and will venture into them when we think it makes good business sense to do so.

Thanks to Jon for his time.

You can find out more about Fuse and its plans via its website.