Interview

Speaker Spotlight: GameAnalytics CEO Ioana Hreninciuc on global mobile games industry trends

Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 will take place on January 21st to 22nd

Speaker Spotlight: GameAnalytics CEO Ioana Hreninciuc on global mobile games industry trends

Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 will take place on January 21st to 22nd. To give you a taste of what to expect, we'll regularly be publishing interviews with the speakers at the show.

For more details on PGC London and to book a ticket, head to the website here.

In today's Speaker Spotlight we're talking to GameAnalytics CEO Ioana Hreninciuc, who is hosting a session called 'Global Trends - Insights From Three Billion Mobile Gamers'.

Hreninciuc is the CEO of GameAnalytics. Previously, Hreninciuc headed up product and commercial development for big data projects in Bigstep and Hostway, working with customers like Booking.com, TfL and Rightmove.

PocketGamer.biz: Could you tell us a bit about the company?

Ioana Hreninciuc: GameAnalytics is one of the world's most popular player analysis tools, designed to help games developers and publishers drive conversions, refine critical flows, and boost retention for their titles by making the right decisions based on data. Currently the platform is used by more than 60,000 developers.

What does your role entail?

Overall operational management of the company.

Why did you want to work in the games industry?

I've always been an avid gamer, so when the opportunity to apply my commercial background into gaming became available I jumped at the opportunity.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to get into it?

You don't have to be a developer to break into the industry - as the industry grows a much wider range of skillsets is required for most studios.

For me, the most important thing is to get across your passion for gaming; it's something that will really resonate with your potential next employer.

What are your thoughts on the industry in the last 12 months?

Over the past 12 months we've really seen a refinement of the casual genre, and expect that over the next 12 months we'll see the standard ad models for these types of games evolve in ever more creative ways.

What major trends do you predict in the next 12 months?

I find the acquisition of successful mobile games studios with larger triple-A's very interesting and think we'll see much more of this over the coming year as the big players all try and get a foot in the extremely lucrative mobile market.

How has the games industry changed since you first started?

I think the industry is, more than ever, leaning toward a pure F2P, hyper-casual model - not just for mobile, but now even console. The most notable change for me is that mobile is beginning to set the tone for the whole industry.

Which part of the Connects event are you most looking forward to and why?

I am really looking forward to Jeppe Bisbjerg’s talk, The Year of Hyper-casual in APAC. It’ll be interesting to learn more about how Western trends are affecting the mobile games landscape in Asia, and I think JoyPac will bring a lot of valuable insight to this session.

Find out more about Pocket Gamer Connects London 2019 on the website.