Ed Perkins is Head of Production at Square Enix. At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11th to 12th he'll be talking about his strategy for building a successful mobile publishing team to take triple-A IPs to mobile in the West.
Click here to get more info on the show and to buy your tickets.
Perkins has worked across web, mobile and console and been lucky enough to work with ambitious teams and inspiring leaders at Codemasters, Mind Candy, NaturalMotion and Splash Damage.
This experience has helped him formulate his plan to build a successful publishing team in London to do justice to the characters, worlds and stories Square Enix has lovingly created.
As a lifelong gamer and Square Enix fan, he's thrilled that he has the job of taking hugely successful console IPs and translating them into new experiences on mobile by partnering up with some of the best developers in the world.
PocketGamer.biz: What does your role at the company entail?
Ed Perkins: I head up the mobile publishing team for the West. The team is responsible for collaborating with top development studios to create exciting new titles for our mobile portfolio that will captivate and entertain our amazing players.
What do you think have been the most exciting developments in gaming since the last Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki?
Seeing the success of games such as Fortnite on mobile, interestingly bypassing the Google Store, and proving that mobile games don’t have to be based on taps and swipes if they have the right audience.
What are your thoughts on the way the industry has grown in the last 12 months?
A: Mobile is a proven key pillar of the games industry now. It offers lower-risk opportunities to smaller developers to gain success, and I believe the challenge lies with publishers like us to ethically support and help grow market access for smaller studios. As the industry becomes increasingly more agile, large publishers have to shift their internal organisations to be able to meet this challenge to focus on people over process.
What do you think the next 12 months in mobile gaming are going to look like?
A: I hope we’ll continue to see the development of hyper-casual into a more mature genre, and see it influence the accessibility of more hardcore titles. Overall this will mean more people coming to mobile to play and stay engaged longterm.
Which part of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki are you most looking forward to and why?
A: Getting to meet a wealth of new people, be it potential partners or industry experts who I’ve admired from afar!
About Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki
In a few short weeks the whole mobile gaming industry is set to descend on Helsinki for Pocket Gamer Connects. The event, which runs from September 11th to September 12th, is packed full of talks, tracks, networking opportunities, and more. You can read about the full conference schedule here.
There are still tickets available for the show, and if you click this link right here you'll get all the information you need on how to buy them, and what's going to be happening in Helsinki over the two days.
