Mobile Mavens’ New Year’s resolutions for 2025 part two: Healthy lifestyles, greater accountability, and long-term thinking

Once again it’s that time of year where we all start feeling reflective and look back on the year just gone.

So to that end, we thought we’d ask our Mobile Mavens – a collection of games industry experts – a few questions about the year gone by, and what lies ahead in 2025. Here we asked:

What’s your New Year’s resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?

You can read part one of this article here.

ZBD has some very big ambitions for 2025, including launching in Europe starting with the Netherlands in early Q1, and continuing to responsibly scale growth in developers, users, revenue and payment volume. We’re also launching with some exciting new partners in 2025. There is so much to look forward to. 

This year, I qualified for and competed in the HYROX World Championship. Honestly, I didn’t expect to qualify when I took part in a regional competition. But the fact that I did is just so motivating!

So my resolution is to finally break 1:13 in a competition and make it back to the world championships in Chicago in 2025. I’d also like to spend more time outdoors — running and cycling and finally do a headstand in yoga.

Similarly, if I had to enforce a resolution on the industry, I’d get everyone to take up a sport, practice a few times every week and prioritise their health and fitness.

Vladimir Markov

CEO

at Top App Games

This might sound cliché, but I’d like to focus on a healthy lifestyle. For the industry, I wish for more games with positive storytelling and meditative mechanics in the coming year.

My iron-fisted decree is “Let’s work together to make the world kinder” — this feels especially important right now.

Teemu Haila

Co-founder and CPO

at Metaplay

I personally keep thinking a lot about focus and how to shape our working culture to always look for things with the most impact, while minimising the negative externalities.

For example, games projects always struggle to succeed if they need more iteration on the systems design, the balance of already implemented systems or the content of the project.

Depending on the hypothesis, you will end up focusing on very different things and choosing the wrong one too many times, which means running out of money before the game is shipped.

We see this as a very, very wide range of potential Metaplay feature requests to help with… everything everywhere all at once. Because it’s all difficult. But what is actually essential?

At Metaplay, we have worked a great deal to become good at reaching for tools like OKRs and developing our own business KPIs to both communicate clearly and actively fact-check our own assumptions.

I would urge everyone in the industry to allocate 5% more time on long-term thinking to make sure the direction you are rushing to is in fact worth rushing to and still feasible as a business plan.

Katerina Dudinskaya

Chief Marketing Officer

at GoodVille

For Goodville, we will continue exploring ways to effectively promote mental health awareness while thriving as a successful and growing business.

On a more personal note, I aim to advocate for sustainability and diversity, not merely as fleeting trends but as fundamental principles.

Additionally, I want to embrace a more open and friendly approach to game communities. Together, we have the potential to achieve remarkable things and transform the mobile gaming niche for the better.

As we move into 2025, my New Year’s resolution for Clear Angle Studios will be to grow new partnerships and cultivate existing ones to their full potential.

With the growth of new technologies, the industry as a whole will benefit from a similar approach, working collaboratively to achieve newer greater heights for visual and immersive experiences.

Kian Hozouri

COO & Co-founder

at ByteBrew

At ByteBrew our resolution is consistent — to continue expanding ByteBrew’s capabilities by launching new products that empower game developers and drive measurable growth.

As an industry, I’d call for greater accountability from service providers and platforms, ensuring price increases are justified with clear value additions rather than arbitrary hikes.

Each year, developers face a wave of unwarranted price increases that rarely offer added value to the team. This growing trend only compounds the existing challenging market conditions; raising the barriers for independent studios to break through and thrive.