Presentation by wooga Founder & CEO Jens Begemann at Casual Connect conference, Seattle (July 21st 2011)
* Challenging Social Success Conventions:
Making Every Game a Success Story *
Conventional wisdom in the games industry says a game is either a hit or a flop. wooga's CEO Jens Begemann has a different philosophy: Every single game wooga creates is an enormously valuable asset.
Once a game service has run the gauntlet of production and you've brought it to life, commitment to honest evaluation, iteration, and evolution will ensure you recoup your investment and more. Of course, as with effective recruiting and evaluation processes for hiring employees - game ideas must also go through a thorough vetting process before they become live game services.
When the going gets tough, remember that there was a reason you committed to the idea in the first place, and abandoning a valuable IP a little too soon costs you much more than sticking with it a little too long.
In 2009 Jens founded wooga (world of gaming). With 30 million Monthly Active Users wooga is the 3rd largest social games company on Facebook and the leading developer from Europe. The 5 games wooga has lauched so far (Brain Buddies, Bubble Island, Monster World, Happy Hospital and Diamond Dash) are all hits on Facebook. wooga employs a team of 80 people from 20 nations in the heart of Berlin.
Before wooga Jens was Chief Product Officer at Jamba (Jamster, Fox Mobile Entertainment), helping the company to become the world‘s leading provider of mobile entertainment products.
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1. +
Making
Every
Game
a
Success
Story
Jens
Begemann
(Founder
&
CEO)
2. wooga
–
world
of
gaming
About
wooga
Founded
January
2009
Jens
Begemann
VC
funded
(total
of
$32m)
Founder
&
CEO
InternaFonal
team
of
100
from
over
20
countries
in
Berlin
Key
stats
5
games
on
Facebook;
35
million
acFve
users
=
2nd
largest
social
game
developer
Only
5%
of
users
from
adverFsing
70%
of
users
are
female
(age
20-‐60)
2
3. Typical
game
product
lifecyle:
Brain
Buddies
by
wooga
DAU
0,7
0,6
0,5
Millionen
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0
24.06.2009
Jun-‐09
22.09.2009
Dec-‐09
21.03.2010
Jun-‐10
17.09.2010
Dec-‐10
16.03.2011
Jun-‐10
21.12.2009
19.06.2010
16.12.2010
14.06.2011
3
4. Typical
game
product
lifecyle:
Social
City
by
Playdom
DAU
3,5
3
2,5
Millionen
2
1,5
1
0,5
0
Mar-‐10
Jun-‐10
Aug-‐10
Nov-‐10
Feb-‐11
May-‐11
02.03.2010
01.06.2010
30.08.2010
29.11.2010
27.02.2011
28.05.2011
4
5. Typical
game
product
lifecyle:
Millionaire
by
Digital
Chocolate
DAU
3,5
3
2,5
Millionen
2
1,5
1
0,5
0
May-‐10
19.05.2010
Aug-‐10
18.08.2010
Nov-‐10
16.11.2010
Feb-‐11
14.02.2011
May-‐11
15.05.2011
5
6. Typical
game
product
lifecyle:
Monopoly
Millionaires
by
EA
DAU
1
0,9
0,8
0,7
Millionen
0,6
0,5
0,4
0,3
0,2
0,1
0
Feb-‐11
01.02.2011
03.03.2011
02.04.2011
Apr-‐11
02.05.2011
01.06.2011
Jun-‐11
01.07.2011
6
7. Typical
game
product
lifecyle:
Poker
Blitz
by
Zynga
DAU
0,3
0,25
0,2
Millionen
0,15
0,1
0,05
0
15.03.2010
14.06.2010
12.09.2010
11.12.2010
11.03.2011
10.06.2011
Mar-‐10
Sep-‐10
Mar-‐11
7