Antubel Moreda is Head of Product at Flaregames. At Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on September 11th to 12th he'll be part of a panel discussing Social Gaming Trends - From Casino to Casual.
Click here to get more info on the show and to buy your tickets.
Formerly of Vivendi and PopCap, Antubel is an experienced game designer who’s worked on the likes of Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled.
He’s now Head of Product at Flaregames, helping to give its development partners the best chance of success.
PocketGamer.biz: What does your role at the company entail?
Antubel Moreda: I’m currently working with Developer Relations, Production and Marketing in evaluating game opportunities at the early stages of our publishing process.
What do you think have been the most exciting developments in gaming since the last Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki?
Probably not a huge surprise, but I’ve been the most excited about Fortnite.
It’s shattered long-held beliefs such as what games work on mobile, how long an action phase should be or what content should be monetised and how.
All of it while raising the bar for games-as-a-service, both in terms of evolution and live operations.
Elsewhere, I’ve personally been quite excited about blockchain gaming, even though it’s still early days.
The tech seems to be acting as a catalyst for design innovation in areas such as scarcity and ownership of digital assets – some of which apply beyond blockchain.
For instance, the granularity in CryptoKitties’ breeding system.
What are your thoughts on the way the industry has grown in the last 12 months?
I believe we’ve seen mostly continuing trends.
Possibly worth mentioning is how the extremes, hypercasual and hardcore, seem to have experienced the most growth.
It will be interesting to see how this trend develops in the next 12 months and what it means for midcore games.
What do you think the next 12 months in mobile gaming are going to look like?
We’ll continue to see growth at the extremes, especially in the hardcore space; growing complexity across the spectrum, relative to the status quo and increasing sophistication in live operations.
More location-based games also feel like a safe bet, following the recent successes of Jurassic World: Alive and The Walking Dead: Our World.
Monetisation-wise, the biggest trend will probably be subscriptions or subscription-like, monetisation plus retention, methods.
Whether an actual subscription or an IAP; wrapped in a VIP system, a season pass or a monthly card; I expect these to become a lot more common going forward.
Which part of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki are you most looking forward to and why?
All of it! But especially some of the talks in the Live Ops Landscape track, meeting old and new friends at the event, and a chance to spend some time in lovely Helsinki!
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 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.
