I like the idea, I think the market is huge and very underestimated, but in terms of taking over as a source for mobile games I suspect platform/device holders would take swift action if this took a lot of their business like they have earlier.
In terms of new forms of distribution outside of Google and Apple's Stores, I think the rise of games platforms like Epic Games Store with quick installs is a better bet though. What Epic is doing with Fortnite UEFN is probably an indicator of where things are going imho. If they pivot Fortnite Creative's apps to be native to the Epic Store and drop its connection to Fortnite, then you suddenly have a wealth of games with low-install footprints available in a manner that's similar to the browser stores you mention.
Finally a VC who gets it and is able to articulate the specific opportunities and challenges within the BBG space. A few additional notes from me. #1 - browser game companies need to team up and lobby the browsers themselves to make it easier to get full page real estate without toolbars and other UI/UX elements that take away from the game play experience. This is technically possible now (on some browsers), but a hassle to keep up to date and maintain. BBGs need to become BETTER experiences than mobile apps so that means full screen mobile play. #2 - maybe the more important one is related to instant play and social sharing. The unique selling prop for mobile browser games is the ability to send a friend a link in WhatsApp or text, they click it, and are immediately brought into the game. No download, just play within seconds. This is the opportunity that BBGs as an industry need to capitalize on. No other platform can compete with that. Right now, I see BBG companies just trying to offer mobile app games on their sites, which is not a long term winning formula. The browser platform is different and the games need to reflect that. Lastly, I'll say your point about retention and the lack of a way to navigate back to the game on day 2 and beyond is a real challenge that no one has quite figured out yet. I'm confident that this breakthrough will occur in the next 12-18 months. Question back to you @Joakim, as an investor how would you go about sizing the BBG market for a TAM?
CrazyGames started as a portal, but is becoming more and more of a full-featured platform with accounts, social, in-game purchases, progress save, and many more features!
Mobile browser games got their fair share of hatred mostly because of intrusive ads.
This is eventually getting better, and they are getting close to native games.
In fact, last week I was looking forward to adding accelerometer control to one of our games. It was a sh*t show a few years back. I noticed that now the API is easily accessible, and it took me less than an hour to implement.
Personally, I believe more brands and the Gen Z audience will start exploring this space, which is one of the reasons why I am building a no-code game builder.
I like the idea, I think the market is huge and very underestimated, but in terms of taking over as a source for mobile games I suspect platform/device holders would take swift action if this took a lot of their business like they have earlier.
In terms of new forms of distribution outside of Google and Apple's Stores, I think the rise of games platforms like Epic Games Store with quick installs is a better bet though. What Epic is doing with Fortnite UEFN is probably an indicator of where things are going imho. If they pivot Fortnite Creative's apps to be native to the Epic Store and drop its connection to Fortnite, then you suddenly have a wealth of games with low-install footprints available in a manner that's similar to the browser stores you mention.
Finally a VC who gets it and is able to articulate the specific opportunities and challenges within the BBG space. A few additional notes from me. #1 - browser game companies need to team up and lobby the browsers themselves to make it easier to get full page real estate without toolbars and other UI/UX elements that take away from the game play experience. This is technically possible now (on some browsers), but a hassle to keep up to date and maintain. BBGs need to become BETTER experiences than mobile apps so that means full screen mobile play. #2 - maybe the more important one is related to instant play and social sharing. The unique selling prop for mobile browser games is the ability to send a friend a link in WhatsApp or text, they click it, and are immediately brought into the game. No download, just play within seconds. This is the opportunity that BBGs as an industry need to capitalize on. No other platform can compete with that. Right now, I see BBG companies just trying to offer mobile app games on their sites, which is not a long term winning formula. The browser platform is different and the games need to reflect that. Lastly, I'll say your point about retention and the lack of a way to navigate back to the game on day 2 and beyond is a real challenge that no one has quite figured out yet. I'm confident that this breakthrough will occur in the next 12-18 months. Question back to you @Joakim, as an investor how would you go about sizing the BBG market for a TAM?
I'm not Joakim, but IMHO, you can't seize BBG as TAM.
It's a marketing / delivery channel which increases somehow the addressable market of your PRODUCT.
CrazyGames started as a portal, but is becoming more and more of a full-featured platform with accounts, social, in-game purchases, progress save, and many more features!
Mobile browser games got their fair share of hatred mostly because of intrusive ads.
This is eventually getting better, and they are getting close to native games.
In fact, last week I was looking forward to adding accelerometer control to one of our games. It was a sh*t show a few years back. I noticed that now the API is easily accessible, and it took me less than an hour to implement.
Personally, I believe more brands and the Gen Z audience will start exploring this space, which is one of the reasons why I am building a no-code game builder.
Great write-up, thanks for sharing! 👏
You missed a point, the cost to transfer content from the CDN to the client.
Have a look at this talk(amazing talk) from 11 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voz0-5Ynpyo
Min. 25 is the one that talks about this point.
Let me add more.
What is coming is a super mobile app.
Examples:
- Offline Games (an app with multiple games)
- Poki has an app(an app with multiple games)
- newyork times game has an app(an app with multiple games)
So every company will have a super app.
This porting mobile games to web trend is soaring now. At playhop.com we see a huge growth of requests from developers.