As part of Devcom 2017, Christopher Kassulke, CEO of HandyGames, gave a talk on chasing "the new hotness" in mobile games.
He started by noting that HandyGames, due to being made up of small production teams, is able to jump quickly into new markets and try new approaches whenever they like.
This is important, because "every 180 days we see a new disruption" in mobile games, according to Kassulke. This has been happening for years, from the early mobile phones, to the N-Gage, and into the modern day.
Gone but not forgtten
For example, he pointed out that Nokia had a huge presence around ten years ago, but in the space of just a few years Android became the top mobile platform worldwide.
To that end, Kassulke suggested that developers should be developing for the earliest adopters of new platforms, not only to be ahead of the curve before it takes off, but also because it's easier to get coverage from the press in the early days.
"If you're trying to get press for VR, forget about it – try and get press for AR," he said, along with suggesting Facebook Instant Games and the Nintendo Switch as emerging platforms worth investing in.
