Deconstructor of Fun

By Deconstructor of FunLeisure Video Games

Deconstructor of Fun episodes

February 06, 2020 TWIG 68: Bytedance Takes on Tencent, Nintendo Mobile Hit $1B, EA $1B on MTX, Garena Acquires Dauntless, Ubi Acquires Kolibri
Welcome to TWIG 68!
We've got the full crew today coming at you with a bunch of exciting news. Specifically:
#1. ByteDance Takes Aim at Tencent's Core Gaming Business
#2. Sensor Tower: Nintendo mobile games have earned $1 billion
#3. Sea’s Garena acquires Dauntless game maker Phoenix Labs
#4. EA Made Almost $1 Billion From Microtransactions Last Quarter
#5. Ubisoft Acquires Mobile Game Studio Kolibri Games
Also, you should definitely check out the interview we did with Kolibri's CEO Daniel Stammler on GameMaker's Youtube as well as our Deconstructor of Fun podcast episode as well.
Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at:
@jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff
Please leave us a rating!
Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!
1 hr 5 min
January 29, 2020 State of Mobile 2020 with AppAnnie - Mobile Gaming Health, Trends, and Top Games from 2019
AppAnnie released their State of Mobile 2020 Report.
In this podcast, we speak to AppAnnie to go over key takeaways from the report especially for mobile game developers. In particular:
#1. High level overview of the main health of the mobile economy and or the mobile gaming sector
#2. Key trends related to usage and monetization of mobile games and geo/country
#3. A look at some of the top games from 2019
Host:
Joe Kim: @jokim1 Insta, Twitter
And we have special guests:
Amir Ghodrati, Director, Market Insights AppAnnie
Lexi Sydow, Data Analytics, Market Insights AppAnnie

54 min
January 27, 2020 TWIG 67: M&A Mania! FoxNext, Storm8, and Funcom Oh My!!!
Welcome to TWIG 67 everybody!
Well the FoxNext transaction finally completed. As we've speculated on quite a bit with lots of different names and scenarios well we found out what finally happened in the end. In addition, the very interesting Stillfront Group acquired Storm8. And of course Funcom.
Catch up on our thoughts and analysis on the latest M&A news from this past week now!
This week we cover:
#1. Scopely to Acquire FoxNext Games from The Walt Disney Company
#2. Stillfront Group acquires Dragon Story dev Storm8 for as much as $400 million
#3. Stillfront Press Conference
#4. Tencent to grow gaming empire with $148M acquisition of Conan publisher Funcom in Norway
Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at:
@jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff
Please leave us a rating!
Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!
34 min
January 23, 2020UA Coffee Talk: All About LTV
The focus of our conversation today is All About LTV.
Actually, when people talk about LTV they really mean pLTV (predictive Life Time Value). And increasingly pROAS (predictive Return on Ad Spend) especially for the self attributing networks like Facebook and Google.
Why is pLTV (and pROAS) so important to mobile marketers and product people?

How is it estimated?

How does this tie to optimizing advertising campaigns?
Find out in our conversations with our usual hosts:
Joe Kim: @jokim1 Insta, Twitter

Nebo Radovic: @eniac, Twitter

Jon Lau:
And we have special guest:
Paul Bowen, Chief Revenue Officer, Algolift
For the video version of this discussion pls check out the GameMakers YouTube channel, and you can find the video HERE.
34 min
January 20, 2020 TWIG 66: Game Over for GameStop, Might & Magic Chess Royale, Epic Games Store Disappointment and a Ton of Updates
Welcome to TWIG 66!
This week we cover:
#1. GameStop’s woes deepen as revenues crash
#2. Might & Magic: Chess Royale is an auto battle royale from Ubisoft
#3. Epic Games Store tops $680 million in player spending
Plus a lot of game updates including Team Fight Tactics, Escape from Tarkov Twitch Stats, and more!
Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at:
@jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff
34 min
January 13, 2020TWIG 65: The Steam Shit Sandwich, Miniclip Acquires Ilyon, XBOX Series X No Exclusives, and New Playstation Exec!
Welcome to TWIG 65!
This week we cov er:
#1. Tencent-owned Miniclip purchases Ilyon Games for $100 million
#2. Xbox won't kick off the Series X generation with next-gen exclusives
#3. A former Microsoft exec is PlayStation's new head of global business operations
All About Steam: “Steam’s Shit Sandwich”
#4A: Major slowdown of new releases on Steam last year

#4B: Simplified Chinese is now the dominant language among Steam users

#4C: Netease takes aim at Tencent with Fever Game store launch
Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at:
@jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff
47 min
January 08, 2020 TWIG 64: New Switch, Vince Zampella Leads EA DICE LA, Google Buys Typhoon Studio for Stadia, and Top Soft Launch Games!
Happy New Year and Welcome to TWIG 64!
This week we cover:
#1. Report: New Switch model launching in 2020
#2. Respawn's Vince Zampella to lead EA DICE's LA studio
#3. Google buys triple-A game dev Typhoon Studio to beef up Stadia
#4. 49 top games in soft launch: From Marvel Super War and Disney Sorcerer’s Arena to Minecraft Earth and Tetris Royale
Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at:
@jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff
Farmville 3 Soft Launch Analysis on GameMakers YouTube Channel
Disney Sorcerers Arena Soft Launch Analysis on GameMakers YouTube Channel
Please leave us a review!

51 min
December 31, 2019 TWIG #63: 2019 Year in Review - The Biggest Games, Winners, Losers, and Trends!

Welcome to TWIG #63 everybody.
This episode wraps Season 4 and is the last podcast episode for us for the year. Happy New Years and looking forward to 2020!
This week we cover:
#1. What was the biggest game of the year? By revenue? By downloads?
#2. What was the best game of 2019 (your personal preference)?
#3. Who was the biggest winner/gained the most in 2019?
#4. Who lost the most 2019 (Studio or Publisher)?
#5. Most Impactful News/Trend of 2019
Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at:
@jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff
Please leave us a rating!
Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!
1 hr 4 min
December 23, 2019 TWIG #62: Kongregate's Acquisition Strategy, Roblox's Biggest Games of All Time, and Riot's New Publishing Label
Welcome to TWIG #62 everybody.
This week we get a bit of a battle between Eric and Miska over Zynga growth prospects so stay tuned for that!
This week we cover:
#1. Kongregate acquires browser and mobile 2D battle royale Surviv.io
#2. Roblox’s 10 biggest games of all time — each with more than a billion plays
#3. Riot Games Creates New Publishing Label
#4. N3twork Acquires “Funko Pop Blitz” from NBCU’s ashes
Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at:
@jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff
Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!
49 min
December 19, 2019UAC #1: Ad Creatives Optimization | User Acquisition Coffee Talk
Welcome to the first episode of UA (user acquisition) coffee talk. This is a new series, recorded initially for the GameMakers YouTube channel where I (Joe Kim) sit down with a couple of industry experts from UA and talk about specific UA topics and issues.
In this podcast, I'm joined by two of the mobile industry's most well known experts in mobile growth: Nebo Radovic from N3twork and Jon Lau from Draft Kings. Both of these guys have been doing UA and mobile marketing in leadership roles for years now and have deep expertise in this area.
Why have creatives become the #1 source of competitive advantage in UA? What does the process to come up with creatives look like? How do you measure creative performance? What tools should you use to optimize and manage creatives? Find out about all of this and more in our discussion with Nebo and Jon.
You can also view the original YouTube video: HERE
Content Overview:
0:10 Intros to Nebo and Jon

1:20 Why are Creatives the #1 UA priority? What happened?

7:30 How to come up with creatives? What’s the process?

14:50 How to measure creatives performance? Specific front end vs. back-end metrics

27:05 What tools to use to manage and optimize creatives?
Btw, let us know if this type of content is what you want to continue to listen to on this podcast.
If you do enjoy this content, pls leave a review as well. Thanks!
Twitter links:
Joe Kim: @jokim1

Nebo Radovic: @eniac
36 min

About Deconstructor of Fun

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Deconstructor of Fun podcast is created by games professionals for games professionals. We explore the business side of the games industry with the goal of bringing listeners content that is relevant, insightful, and entertaining on a weekly basis.