To kick off the Indie Appocalypse track at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2016, Nick Parker, a consultant in the games industry, gave a talk on what exactly the Indie Apocalypse is and what to expect from it.

He started with the good news, showing that while boxed games are declining in sales, the mobile market is increasing sales and driving the most growth in the industry.

However, Parker said "it's got carried away with itself", with almost 400,000 game apps making up 22% of all apps, making it hard to get noticed, and the same 6 games have topped the grossing ranks for the past 3 years.

"You never hear about most of the games", said Parker, due to shoestring budgets that don't allow for marketing, as well as a general lack of business knowledge from new indies who don't have a business background.

And new gamers don't want to play new games, or as Parker said, "you can double the install base, but the top ten never changes."

One problem is the rising cost of advertising, which has increased dramatically over the past few years as the industry matures and more ad networks get interested in the space.

The cost per install is on the rise too, with a CPI of around $2 depending on which region is being launched in, and what platform the game is launched on.

To conclude, Parker said "you're more likely to fail than succeed," unless you can take the business aspect of the company seriously and market properly.

"If you don't take this seriously, you're the walking dead."