Mobile game publisher Homa is set to form a strategic partnership with hybridcasual mobile gaming studio 8sec.
The two companies will work together to publish 8sec’s new hybridcasual title Merge Army in September 2023. The partnership also marks Homa’s increased investment and focus on the hybridcasual genre. They previously worked with analytics firm SensorTower for The Hybridcasual Games Playbook back in 2022, from which they note that hybridcasual had garnered more than five-billion downloads with revenue almost doubling.
Co-founder and CRO of Homa, Olivier Le Bas noted, "We're super thrilled to be joining forces with an experienced hybridcasual studio such as 8SEC to launch yet another game with the built-in potential to become a hit. At Homa, we're strengthening our hybridcasual division, and we will continue our efforts to provide the best expertise and tools inside Homa Lab to help studios build the strongest hybridcasual games on the market"
Co-founder and CEO of 8sec, Louis Giraud added, "We're confident that bringing together 8SEC's expertise in game development and Homa's knowledge in hybridcasual and publishing capabilities, the results will be amazing.”
Hybridcasual hyperfocusing
The death of hypercasual and the rise of hybridcasual has been a widely debated topic in the mobile games industry for nearly the entire year. With KPI’s for hypercasual slowly dropping the potential to marry casual gameplay with a retention-heavy, slightly more hardcore loop is very attractive to a number of publishers and developers.
It seems that Homa, who have never been shy about pursuing new trends or trying new things - as their new free magazine can attest - is set to cement this reputation further with their partnering with 8sec. Homa will doubtless be adding a layer of meta-progression and improving the game’s core loop, hopefully raising the level of retention while 8sec manages the core development process.
