February 8th, 2008 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Events & Conferences | No Comments »
After a lot of delays on my flight from Suriname to The Netherlands, we went to Casual Connect’s second day where we spoke and listened to Don Ryan (I-Play), Patrick Mork (Glu), Ilkaa Paananen (Digital Chocolate), Sami Lahtinen (Mr. Goodliving) and Matt Spal (Morpheme).
As I’m still fully into my jetlag and preparing to leave to Amsterdam for day 3 of Casual Connect, I will keep this editorial very short as extended stories will be written over the weekend.
Eidos New Media / Morpheme
We spoke with Matt Spall about the Eidos acquisition of Morpheme and what happened to this initial developer of mobile games. Also, Matt discussed with us about the problems in Eidos SCI and the benefits and losses of the change of management.
Oberon Media / I-Play
I-Play’s new CEO Don Ryan did his keynote speech about cross platform convergence. He explains how the casual games industry can benefit from cross platform convergence in order to build up direct relationships with consumers, as well as increasing the revenues by skipping the operator deck.
Also, we had an exclusive interview with the new I-Play boss about the past, present and future of I-Play within Oberon Media. Stay tuned as Don’s interview will be published late next week or early in the week after (due to 3GSM in Barcelona)
Digital Chocolate
Ilkaa Paananen talked about developments at Digital Chocolate. He shows how the company uses Facebook and other web channels to cross-sell their Tower Bloxx Deluxe mobile game. Also, he telks about the top performing mobile games of Digital Chocolate.
Real Networks / Mr. Goodliving
Also at Casual Connect, was Sami Lahtinen from Real Networks’ Mr. Goodliving. Just like Ilkaa, he admitted that he wishes that his company developed and published Sola Rola (Eidos). Also on his wish-list where Tower Bloxx and Deal or no Deal. He explains that TV IP works pretty well in the industry, but that innovation is key.
Glu
Patrick Mork was also present. He looked back at Glu’s 2007 and forward to 2008 for the mobile games industry. He explains about trends followed by Glu as well as lessons learned. Also, Patrick looks at the advertgaming industry. He sees the success of platforms like Greystripe, but wonders where the advertisers are that pay.
So, it was a very exciting day, and today is filled with appointments as well, so prepare for a whole lot of reading when you return to the office on monday!
