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Keeping up with industry trends is key to staying ahead in the games industry and ensuring you don’t fall behind.
At Pocket Gamer Connects, we regularly run our ‘Global Trends’ track, providing an expansive view of the sector’s latest trends, facts, figures and insights from around the world.
In this new regular series, we’ve reached out to top industry leaders to share their insights and expectations on the state of play and how they see the next few years shaping up.
Among those leaders, we speak with Amy Huang, CEO at Mattel163 – a joint venture between toymaker Mattel and mobile games developer NetEase.
PocketGamer.biz: Could you tell us a bit about your company and what you’re currently working on?
Amy Huang: We are Mattel163, a global game studio creating highly engaging digital games for a diverse global audience. Our company is backed by Mattel, the iconic toy company, and NetEase, the Chinese internet giant. We have grown from a small development team of 13 people to over 200 talents in six years.
“Mattel163 has amassed over 350 million players and continues to attract hundreds of thousands of new players every day.”
Amy Huang
We have successfully launched and published three hit games based on Mattel’s classic card games, including UNO! Mobile, Phase 10: World Tour and Skip-Bo Mobile. Our global playerbase has reached 350 million and continues to grow every day.
Since day one, Mattel163’s mission and vision has been to “Connect the World Through Play”. We are dedicated to creating excellent digital games and fostering evergreen brands that people can enjoy for generations to come.
How have the last 12 months been for your company?
In the past 12 months, the gaming world has been filled with changes, and I believe many developers feel the same. I am proud that amidst rapid shifts in industry dynamics, our games have been able to maintain stable and healthy growth.
Mattel163 has amassed over 350 million players and continues to attract hundreds of thousands of new players every day. Phase 10: World Tour reigned supreme in the Best Seasonal Event Casual Category at the 2024 Mobile GameDev Awards, blending compelling gameplay with exceptional performance.
UNO! Mobile has dominated the free card game download charts on Google Play and Apple’s App Store in over 100 countries and regions. This recognition stems from our team’s increased focus on refined live ops design, operations and player feedback.
More meaningfully, Mattel163 has made strides in enhancing our game’s accessibility and inclusivity. Earlier this year, we created and launched our very first colourblind-friendly deck, Beyond Colors, across all our games.
We also introduced larger number displays on cards, allowing more people to enjoy our games without barriers. The UNO! Mobile Community Cup hosted tournaments across the US, Canada, Brazil and Mexico, with over 1.8 million players participating, demonstrating a 50/50 gender split.
Within Mattel163, half of our game producers and 40% of key roles, including game design and marketing positions, are held by women. Our continued commitment to DEI enhances our ability to serve an increasingly diverse global audience.
What do you think the biggest trends in the industry have been over the last 12 months?
There have been a lot of changes over the past 12 months and during that time, cross-platform has drawn a lot of attention. PC growth has outperformed both mobile and console, emerging as the primary driving force for 2024.
Mobile growth has slowed down, but it still makes up nearly half of the global market, experiencing a 3% year-on-year revenue increase according to Newzoo’s report.
“It is an undeniable fact that the competition in mobile gaming has intensified.”
Amy Huang
It is an undeniable fact that the competition in mobile gaming has intensified. The cost of user acquisition continues to rise with an enhanced focus on user privacy, while under macroeconomic pressure, players’ willingness and ability to purchase have started to decrease.
Many developers have adopted a diverse range of ad strategies while placing greater emphasis on hybrid monetisation to come up with effective combinations suitable for growth.
The application of AI is one of the most discussed topics where the challenge is how to effectively and compliantly leverage AI to enhance game development – while freeing up manpower to focus on more creative things.
What do you think are the key trends, challenges and opportunities for the next year, and how will you be taking them on?
Growing CPI, more demanding players and evolving monetisation – yet a reshaping ecosystem – will still be in the spotlight next year. We must embrace the truth: change is constant, thus working in gaming never gets dull.
Besides, we’ll see further expansion of cross-platform and cross-play capabilities, and more notably, heightened attention to authentically engaging with a more diverse global player base. On the business side, ROI will be of more importance where developers are required to be more agile in strategies to adapt to the market.
Moving ahead, we will pay more attention to engaging and talking with players, focusing on creating meaningful experiences through live ops and gaming mechanisms, and further exploring what kind of content within and outside of our games truly tickles them.
We will also further expand franchises’ fun by bringing new creations and working with more partners to increase our games’ accessibility and visibility.
What do you think is most important to a mobile game’s success in 2024?
Success in mobile gaming always hinges on a trinity: content, platform and experience. They remain essential, regardless of the market challenges. Developers who can delve deeper and be more creative and perseverant in these three domains will capture the hearts of more players in 2024.
“It’s also crucial to remember that at its core, mobile gaming thrives on people and creativity.”
Amy Huang
It’s also crucial to remember that at its core, mobile gaming thrives on people and creativity. Every developer’s success stems from the passion and innovation of our team and the meaningful connections we’ve fostered with our players.
As we move into our seventh year of game operations, we will invest more resources in getting to know our players on a region-by-region basis, deepening our understanding of player needs across different cultures. True globalisation depends on the details of localisation.
We will be investing a lot of our efforts in deepening our localisation capabilities around the world.
Have you moved onto platforms outside of mobile? And if so, why? If not, is it something you’re considering?
Mattel163’s games are available on mobile as well as on Facebook Instant Games, where players can also enjoy them on PC.
While consolidating the performance of existing channels, we are actively cooperating with leading partners to expand digital platforms. We will be adding additional mobile channel partners by the end of 2024 and in early 2025. Stay tuned for announcements soon!
The long-term goal for Mattel163 games is to cover all screens across all platforms. I hope more people across the world will love our games, stay connected through them and have memorable moments while playing them!
