Much like the Nigerian proverb “It takes a whole village to raise a child,” it takes a thriving community for a game to reach its full sales potential. Join VB’s own Dean Takahashi along with experts from FreshPlanet, OutPost Games, and Google to learn what it takes to have a community rallying for more.
If you have a community of gamers excited by the mere thought of your product, then the work of winning them over is halfway done. Just take a look at the worldwide phenomenon of Pokémon Go, the augmented reality game currently making $10 million every day, according to intelligence firm App Annie. 90s kids everywhere are living out their fantasies of capturing pocket monsters found in their very own backyards. We’re seeing regional-based communities for Pokémon Go gain thousands of Facebook members, and local business taking advantage of the crowds of gamers. It’s a win-win for consumers as well as businesses who have jumped on the bandwagon.
The success of Pokémon Go, however, isn’t dependent entirely on thePokémon brand– the “Japanese collectible card game that debuted in the US in the 90’s. If that were the case, we wouldn’t see major game publishers struggling to adapt their major IPs to mobile, such as the case with Sega and the recently shut-down Sonic Runners. No, Pokémon Go’s success is supported by giving players what they’ve always wanted out of a Pokémon game, with an experience tailored exclusively to mobile.
Pokémon Go is hardly the only community success story. Blizzard’s digital collectible card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, carved its own niche and became its $1.2 billion market leader. Blizzard was able to accomplish this by tapping into the love of traditional card games like Magic: The Gathering, respecting the community and core gameplay loop by having gameplay uninterrupted by monetization roadblocks, and having in-app purchases that players actually want to buy.
Building and maintaining a community of gamers is what led to Pokémon Go and Hearthstone achieving record-breaking profits. In this VB Live event, we’ll be covering how you can do the same for your game. Not only will you learn about the tactics for fostering a relationship with your players, but how to utilize Google for gathering essential insights that enable game developers and publishers to connect meaningfully and boost their community’s performance.
Don’t miss out!
Join VentureBeat and gaming experts as they deconstruct what it means to build and maintain a thriving games community.
You’ll learn how to:
- Understand the aspects of gaming platforms that can help a community succeed
- Define and refine the elements of community success
- Turn opportunities into actionable insights
- Utilize Google to harness unique insights and tools to maximize community performance
Speakers:
- Mathieu Nouzareth, CEO of FreshPlanet
- Wright Bagwell, CEO of OutPost Games
- Alexis Fritzsche, Developer Partner Manager, Mobile Apps, Google
- Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer, GamesBeat
Moderator:
Wendy Schuchart, Analyst, VentureBeat
This VB Live event is sponsored by Google.