Deconstructor of Fun

JULY 12, 2020

Supercell in Decline Earlier this month, Ilkka Paananen, Supercell’s CEO talked about key learnings from his company on their 10 year anniversary: 10 Learnings from 10 Years. Many games industry people’s response to Supercell’s approach and accompanying lessons is to consider Supercell as an anomaly.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JULY 2, 2020

in market capitalization, Amazon is the most valuable company in the world. Further, the company has arguably the highest defensive barriers to its business than any other company in the world. However, when we look at gaming companies, we don’t see the same level of defensibility that we see for companies in other industries.

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Deconstructor of Fun

AUGUST 29, 2021

Full disclosure: both of the authors are decade-long fans of Supercell and their games. While our analysis may to some seem harsh, we assure you that it’s only reflective of the expectation Supercell puts on their games. This week, Supercell soft-launched a new crafting tycoon game called Everdale.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JUNE 6, 2023

TWiG 234: 500m Gamers on Tik Tok Can't Be Wrong / Supercell Unleashes the Flood Over 500m Tik Tok users watch gaming content every month, according to Jen's recent trips on the conference circuit, and this audience is one that the crew things you should be building your game thesis around from day one! Deconstructor of Fun Podcast ?

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Deconstructor of Fun

OCTOBER 16, 2021

And that reason has to be, in my opinion, the mission of your studio or company. Zoom out of a specific genre or audience and focus on the type of experience your company is set to deliver to the players. You’re on your path of becoming the next Blizzard / King / Supercell one game at a time. . #1 Communicate a concrete mission.

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Deconstructor of Fun

AUGUST 2, 2021

Don't assume that harassment and problematic behavior won't happen in your company. As a CEO or leader in a company, even for smaller startups, you need to create a code of conduct and an anti-harassment policy. Don't blame not having these policies on being a small company or not having an HR department.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JUNE 29, 2020

Since Fortnite’s popularization of the battle pass system, almost every game company has considered incorporating a similar monetization feature into their games. Unfortunately, the copy+paste mentality of the games industry has failed to fully comprehend the situational context of how and when to implement battle pass successfully.

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Deconstructor of Fun

AUGUST 25, 2020

While the full implications are still unclear, and Apple may make adjustments before iOS 14 ships, it is safe to say that the changes will be monumental and that companies that fail to prepare for these changes will be at risk of being left behind. Yet according to ByteDance insiders the company spent a Billion dollars on advertising the app.

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AWS Games

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Learn how the company leveraged Timestream to build a scalable solution for monitoring and deriving insights from the play time of millions of gamers across its game catalog. Thursday, November 30 11:00 AM–12:00 PM: STG203: Breakout Session: What’s new with AWS Backup Join AWS and Supercell as we explore the new features of AWS Backup.

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Deconstructor of Fun

DECEMBER 19, 2022

INVESTING / M&A Metaverse company Infinite Reality will go public through $1.85B SPAC Keywords acquires PR firm LabCom Jagex acquires Gamepires, studio behind Scum Turkish studio Pink Games has $1.2 LOVE IT | MEH | HATE IT Deconstructor of Fun Oy, Jääskentie , Espoo, Finland Unsubscribe

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Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 2, 2023

Most importantly, this decision by a trendsetter company has implications that go beyond just Brawl Stars. Other Supercell games ( Clash of Clans , and especially Clash Royale ) also have progression models that generate huge spending depth by locking valuable content under long lists of required previous acquisitions.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JULY 24, 2023

You might know Playrix as the company that entered market segments dominated by King (Candy Sagas) and Supercell (Hay Day) only to beat both at what they are great at. The company was founded in the city of Vologda, Russia. Petersburg, the company was unable to attract key talent to relocate to Vologda. Source: Data.ai

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Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 4, 2020

Supercell is one of the rare companies that doesn’t try to beat the competition; rather, it tries to beat the high score set by its own prior games. To date, Supercell has created multiple genre-defining games and generated billions in revenues -- all with little more than 300 employees (!). Our short answer is no.

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Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

As of last week, only 13 months later, Judge Rogers issued a permanent injunction, resulting in two key takeaways for the tech giants: For Apple: The company must allow iOS apps to offer payment options besides the ones subject to Apple’s 30% fees within the next 90 days.

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Deconstructor of Fun

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

Apex was one of the largest games in the company’s steeply declining mobile portfolio. The franchises of both companies have had a steep fall along with the quick exodus of leaders. The company was in no position to cancel it based on this. read: EA’s acquisition of Glu does not seem to be going according to plan.

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Deconstructor of Fun

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Guest post by Kenneth Landen , Director of Product at Hit Factor Executive Summary In the ever-evolving landscape of mobile gaming, Supercell's Brawl Stars has undergone a remarkable resurgence, transforming challenges into triumphs. On February 14, 2023, Ilkka Paananen published a public letter “ The Next Chapter of Supercell ”.

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Deconstructor of Fun

DECEMBER 5, 2022

In this wide ranging interview, Ethan and Sarah go deep on Sarah's experience developing games, how you go about building team and company culture, the importance of building a people first game studio and how Muus Collective is going to bring Web3 gaming to fashion gamers. for hack’n’slash Web3 game Swords of Blood ?

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Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 10, 2021

This past year, some companies seem to understand this better than others. We decided it was unlikely that they would sell, but the rationale for the acquisition holds true: Tactile is the only top developer by revenue share without a parent company. To be clear, Playrix key titles have been on an absolute tear.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 21, 2021

The two graphs below show that competition for supremacy of Mid-Core in the Western audience is a tight race between Supercell and FunPlus. When excluding China, revenues for Supercell and Lilith look more stable while FunPlus’ shows the same impressive growth. This is exactly the game that (in our opinion) Supercell should have made.

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Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 13, 2021

For nearly five years Space Ape has been a proud member of the Supercell investment portfolio. If Beatstar becomes a major hit, it will not only be great for Space Ape, but it will prove that Supercell can rub its magic to its portfolio companies as well. Space Ape has been working with Supercell since 2017.

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Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 20, 2020

On March 16th, in the midst of a global pandemic, Supercell dropped a new game: Hay Day Pop (HDP). Every Supercell launch continues to shake the industry. The minute a supercell game is released, a thousand slack notifications go off. A bold move for Supercell, going against giants that continue to rule the casual puzzle space.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 24, 2022

There was debate about how much it would affect specific publishers or genres, as to how companies did their targeting was obfuscated. What all this indicates is that Hypercasual publishers no longer want to serve only as mediators who are responsible for publishing, but as parent companies who own every part of the games they publish.

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Deconstructor of Fun

OCTOBER 23, 2023

It's worth mentioning that Merge Mansion faced a similar issue a couple of years ago, so the developers at Supercell portfolio company Metacore, just a stone's throw away, decided to use existing characters to thicken the plot, while also adding some new ones.

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Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 9, 2023

What these companies have in common is that they’ve carved out an area of expertise and are attempting to find a new angle to dominate and expand, usually with an audience that has some affinity for their existing portfolio. When you’ve reached the top echelons of success, where is there to go next?

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Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

After 16 months in soft launch, Supercell’s Clash Quest has reached the end of its run. The game has not achieved the business objectives set by Supercell and the game will shut down. And when the lesson comes from a company known for its superb quality like Supercell, there’s even more to think about.

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Deconstructor of Fun

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

Looking closely at the most successful companies in the industry (i.e. Supercell, Voodoo, King, Small Giant), they all had one thing in common. It is essential that your team mission supports the company or founder’s mission. Beyond the team values, it is important that the person also fits the company culture and values.

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Deconstructor of Fun

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

How Spyke Games (and other Turkish companies) shine in competitive markets The rise of Turkish companies in saturated market niches is a captivating phenomenon. While I won't dig into the details of what pushed Peak Games to greatness, it is safe to say that many companies inspired by Peak share a commitment to meticulous optimisation.

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Deconstructor of Fun

NOVEMBER 10, 2020

What are the biggest challenges and mistakes made by early stage companies when first attempting to scale? How does Supercell become Supercell, Playtika become Playtika, or EA become EA? Why not ask some of the people who were there as founders, investors, and key executives at those very companies?

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Deconstructor of Fun

MARCH 14, 2023

Katz went on to talk about the state of M&A and noted that where in previous years 80-85% of acquirers were publicly listed companies, in the last year that figure was around 20%, with many private buyers coming into play. He also urged founders to acknowledge that as their company scales, teams must change the way they work.

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Deconstructor of Fun

DECEMBER 27, 2022

We followed the Microsoft-Activision saga, watched Apple’s privacy changes rollout and read about blockchain gaming madness that saw self-proclaimed Web 3 companies pick up massive investments at nosebleed valuations. FTX on the other hand was lavishly funding blockchain gaming while holding assets for some of the companies.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 8, 2024

Well, Supercell hasn't launched a new game since Brawl Stars in 2018, so Mini becoming a hit would have an impact on the trend of the whole company. And it’s the only game soft-launched to date from Supercell’s Shanghai Studio, which was opened 5 years ago. Which is too small for Supercell. Why does this game matter?

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Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 17, 2022

Clash Mini is one of the three Clash games Supercell announced in April of 2021. As expected from Supercell, Clash Quest is a polished game. A key reason is that Clash Mini seems in a much earlier and rough state than other Supercell soft launches : Less playable content, less spending depth, and several unfinished systems (i.e.

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Deconstructor of Fun

MAY 2, 2023

If Clash Mini achieves a hit status comparable to every other Supercell global launch before, the relevance for the company would be hard to overstate: First, it would mean the validation of their ‘new studios’ strategy (let’s remember that Clash Mini would be the first game ever released by the Supercell Shanghai studio).

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Deconstructor of Fun

APRIL 2, 2022

Google and DoF brought together the most influential gaming investors, companies, and talents in Istanbul! Understanding players and marketability have also become more important, leading to larger companies increasingly building content fortresses – in which they acquire a user and move them between games in their portfolio.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JULY 23, 2020

The valuations of these companies will drop rapidly. These market evolution catalyze large waves of investment into mobile gaming from sources of capital that don’t typically make equity investments into gaming companies. Smaller, single-game mobile gaming studios will see their growth trajectory obstructed completely and suddenly.

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Deconstructor of Fun

OCTOBER 27, 2020

In many ways, Township has been the cornerstone for Playrix’s success as a title that allowed the company to build experience in live ops, analytics, and user acquisition. The company has also one of the largest audiences with over 40 millions daily active players (DAU). Yet one could argue that Supercell got complacent.

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Deconstructor of Fun

JANUARY 14, 2020

Close to the top there are companies, such as Jam City (Cookie Jam, Panda Pop) , Rovio (Angry Birds Dream Blast) , Tactile (Lily’s Garden) , AppLovin (Matchington Mansion, Clockmaker) and Storm8 (Home Design Makeover, Property Brothers ) making strides with a hit or two, yet remaining miles away from the top three.

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