It is time for another post from my “6 predictions for 2016“. This time it’s all about the mobile gaming space:
Last year saw a few higher and lower profile deals that are heralding a larger wave of consolidation in the industry. Just last week App Annie revealed data showing that the average ‘time to maturity’ for mobile games has dropped to a mere 17 weeks, which by itself would be reason enough for many companies to seek economies of scale. But there are several more factors driving the wave, and even big players like Activision have to consider lots of variables when choosing their acquisition targets.
The issues most relevant to animation producers are the rising user acquisition costs, and the underlying challenge of getting discovered in one of the app stores. When you’re competing for attention with Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga as an indie producer, you’re hopelessly outgunned. In my presentation at Cartoon Digital last month, I went into more detail about how tough the market has become for kids IP based mobile games.
One way companies are tackling the issue is by licensing strong existing brands or trying to build their own character based IP that extends beyond games. Rovio has been the poster child for taking a game and diversifying it into every conceivable medium – and not surprisingly they had their board chairman and main shareholder publicly express their interest in participating in the upcoming consolidation of the sector.
