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Dodreams invests $1.4 million to merge games with online videos

Aiming to create grassroots marketers from its playerbase

Date Type Companies involved Size
December 21st, 2021 investment Business Finland
Dodreams
$1.4m
Dodreams invests $1.4 million to merge games with online videos

Finnish developer Dodreams has revealed that it has made a €1.2 million ($1.36 million) self-investment towards merging gaming together with online videos.

The company’s flagship title Drive Ahead! has been downloaded more than 160 million times and it attributes this in part to its streaming community of 1.5 million people across Facebook, YouTube and Discord. Consumers sharing video content gets more eyes on the game, and those who haven’t played it might find entertainment in said videos.

Drive Ahead! initially generated 90 per cent of its revenue from ads, with €10 million ($11.3 million) in lifetime earnings. However, last year the game's monetisation flipped and now over half of its revenue comes from IAPs.

The $1.36 million self-funded investment aims to develop technology that will create a unified entertainment experience, combining games and online videos, during the next year. The company is calling this "Watch Ahead!".

Additionally, it is receiving cash flow with support from the government organisation Business Finland, which funds tech and innovation investments.

Self-funded initiative

"Our mission is to craft shared moments of thrill," commented Dodreams CEO Erik Pöntiskoski.

"Every day we have 55,000 players who have been with us for over three months. There are 15,000 daily players who have enjoyed our game for over a year. Together with the massive flow of daily new users, there is much room to grow in monetisation.

"The next leap in performance will be achieved by enabling battling against friends or a common adversary, as well as spectating and sharing gameplay clips."

"Real-time PvP and Co-Op is the top request by our fans," said Dodreams head of studio Sami Lahtinen.

"We’re excited to bring these social experiences of self-expression to fast-paced physics games through playing and watching videos together. What could create memorable shared moments of thrill better than spectating mastery, achieving things together, and having a good laugh."

Whilst it has become more challenging to operate under traditional paid user acquisition business models, the rising popularity of streaming is changing the consumption of media, so Dodreams is aiming to turn its players into grassroots marketers.

Last month, India-based Zupee revealed a partnership with Jio Platforms to release more games in more languages across the world.


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