How do you build a business in mobile games?
That was the underlying question in the GDC 2012 Smartphone & Tablet Gaming Summit from Jussi Laakkonen, CEO of cross promotion network Applifier.
Entitled Resistance is futile: Social will assimilate Mobile, he argued that the best way to build a business is to make the games you want to make, and focus on organic discoverability through community gameplay.
"We have infinite shelf space [on the App Store] but very limited retail presence [Featured slots]," Laakkonen said.
"But users of games don't have a discoverability problem. Developers have a discoverability problem."
Best platform
Solving is, he argued, means integrating heavily with Facebook.
While there are standalone mobile social networks such as Game Center (around 80 million registered users) and OpenFeint (around 160 million), these are not being extensively used by a wide community.
This means the number of friends on each is low, and hence the density of the social graph is very weak.
In contrast, Facebook on mobile has over 120 millon daily active users (obviously the number registered is much higher), most of whom have several hundred friends. The result is that Facebook can offer a massively more rich social graph.
"You need to be discovered and the best way of doing that is integrating natural discovery mechanics into your games," said Laakkonen.
News
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Related Articles
Top Stories
News
May 4th, 2024
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Views E10 - Brawl Stars smashes 2023 revenue, Square Enix’s extraordinary losses, and Haaland signs for Clash of Clans
News
May 3rd, 2024
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
News
May 3rd, 2024
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
News
May 3rd, 2024
Mobile Movers: All the latest appointments and job moves from around the industry
Events
LA Games Conference 2024 | North America | May 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Develop: Brighton 2024 | Europe | Jul 9th |