"It's near impossible for a small team to launch a game following the traditional UA model"

• Industry experts share their insights prior to Pocket Gamer Connects Summit San Francisco on March 9th.
• “I’d like to see more hype-building and community building for mobile games”, says Martine Spaans.
• “Smart developers who use AI tools intelligently are able to reduce their live ops costs and do more at a higher level of stability, with fewer hours worked, at a lower overall cost," says Levy.

Mobile games is an increasingly crowded and expensive business. Depending on which role or sector you currently work in, your recipe for change will differ.

Is the solution to be found in day-to-day operations, how well you adapt your marketing approach in an oversaturated market, or in a combination of both?

On March 9th, Pocket Gamer Connects Summit San Francisco, a mobile-centric B2B games event lands at the heart of GDC week - gathering developers, publishers, active investors and platform and service providers for conversations and collaborations shaping the future of the industry. 

Ahead of the event, we spoke with the general manager of the Dutch Games Association and co-founder of indie studio builder Fourth Moon, Martine Spaans, and chief product officer at AI-native game and platform developer Moon Dust Media, Ethan Levy.

Both are among the speakers sharing their insights at PG Connects Summit San Francisco on March 9th, so we took the chance to discuss industry trends in UA, AI and other areas.

The rising challenge for small teams

They agree that mobile is a high-barrier market increasingly difficult to master, especially for new and smaller teams. 

“The rise of marketing costs has come to a point where it’s near impossible for a small team to launch a game following the traditional UA model”, says Spaans.  

She believes mobile developers can learn from the way premium PC games are marketed. 

“I’d like to see more hype-building and community building for mobile games,” she says, adding that “it’s easier said than done for casual games, but for midcore I do think there are unexplored options”.

Levy argues that while a large budget is necessary, it accounts for only one element of a successful UA strategy.

“In order to make a dent in the top downloads and grossing chart, a developer needs a great game with great metrics and a massive bank account balance to fund their studio and UA efforts while waiting for cohorts to pay back," he explains.

“Even with great per-user metrics, it's massively expensive and challenging to break through as a new game in the current environment.”

Looking beyond mobile 

In terms of casual games, the biggest genre in mobile games, Spaans pinpoints UA as the biggest existing challenge for growth.

“Without an existing IP or a sizeable UA budget - it’s incredibly difficult to stand out in the stores or in UA”, she says, adding that the opportunity might lie in looking beyond mobile.

“For these developers, it could be interesting to look at web. There is a huge audience on web portals like CrazyGames and Poki and a mature audience on portals like MSN.com.”

One message she would like to drive home to the audience at PG Connects Summit San Francisco is the need to remain agile and open to new platforms. 

“If you develop for mobile, it doesn’t mean your game might not be suitable for other platforms like web or Steam.”

Continuing on the platform discussion, Levy says: “I personally wish the platform holders did more to promote premium game developers. 

“I have loved playing some of my favourite PC games - including Halls of Torment, Gunfire Reborn, Vampire Survivors and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors - on my phone.

“As a dedicated gamer, I love premium games and wish that the platforms did more to help make premium game development a more attractive path for developers.”

What can AI do?

The biggest opportunity, however, lies elsewhere, according to Levy.

Where Spaans is more cautious around AI - arguing that it does make sense but risks resulting in “everything starting to look alike”, Levy is optimistic that the power of rapidly improving AI tools will unlock the “ability for talented and experienced developers to do more, at higher quality, with less time and resources".

Seeing how it can improve both marketing and live operations, he adds:

“Smart developers who use the tools intelligently are able to reduce their live ops costs, and do more at a higher level of stability, with fewer hours worked, at a lower overall cost, when it comes to deploying new live ops creative, content and game features.”

You can meet Spaans, Levy and hundreds more industry experts at PG Connects Summit San Francisco on March 9th.

Tickets are available from the official website.