Web3 gaming is a fast-moving space. Immense growth potential on a multi-year time frame, but much changing week to week.
We believe the companies that win here are those that ship fast, and learn fast. Our tactical approach of accelerated learning is combined with systematically building towards a platform.
In parallel with our first game, we have been developing our core feature, growth and web3 stacks.
As the portfolio grows, we want the games to support the other in substantial ways.
We are building a modern game development pipeline that leverages AI and new growth channels.
The Pipeline
- A large cost center in the traditional publishing model
- AI tooling will cut time and costs by >80%
- Our goal is to greenlight only games with clear $100m/5y potential
- A critical new bottleneck, unless the GTM playbook is revisited
- Our approach is to deploy and iterate faster via browser
- A tight feedback loop with the early community is key
- Progressive Web Apps enable an app-like experience and representative data
- New games hook into the shared web3 stack and Live Ops Modules
- The Go-To-Market Playbook leans on cross-platform and web3
- Social tactics are used not just for early attention, but also ongoing scaling
- Lean Development Teams → Lean Live Ops Teams
Building for the future
AI advancement has already sped up prototyping and early production. We are certain that the future belongs to small and agile game teams. New game concepts can be deployed and tested at accelerating rates.
Human skill and teamwork will remain critical to building hit games, but the focus of the work will shift. We are building up both our tech and our expertise to leverage the rapidly developed content for impact. The most promising game concepts will plug into a shared economic and metagame layer. Liveops and growth teams need world class tooling to be able to handle a faster cadence.
“Build a fun game” has never been a sufficient product strategy. Highly engaging evergreen gameplay is a must-have component for our games, but we appreciate that it is just one of many. Commercial success requires marketability and effective monetization.
Our design pillars make sure that we are developing games with the right shared DNA. Product overlap has always been key to building strong mobile portfolios and economies of scale. We believe this is increasingly more important. This is why we invest so much on elements that cut across the games.
Multi-platform growth
A critical benefit of a browser-first approach is to speed up new game validation and early iteration.
The mobile-web tech has reached new tipping points. Despite the rapid change and new opportunities, a browser-first release strategy is not an entirely new concept. Mobile publishers have a long history of quickly testing new ideas on browser, and cashing in on the learnings on the app stores. Even Candy Crush Saga originated as a browser game.
The second strategic reason for cross-play is to create a distribution advantage.
Scaling up beyond the easiest to reach audiences requires advertisement across different channels. Presence on multiple platforms lets us do this better and with growth tactics not available to traditional mobile games.
You can see the first building blocks of this vision in action today. We are testing different cross-play enabled methods to reach and re-engage players in cost-effective ways.
Rumble Arcade players and partners can use hyperlinks to direct to Replays, Events and other specific content inside the game.
These tactics can be used for creating more engaging live ops with an ongoing social footprint.