Scopely – A Fresh Approach To Mobile Game Business
While other mobile games giants like Zynga and King (bought by Activision Blizzard), might be going through a rough patch, Scopely, a virtual start-up is silently approaching the mobile game business through another door.
Phenomenal Growth
Scopely is gaining multi billion dollars on its business with the mobile game market ($25 billion, as we speak), using a different approach. Rather than making their own game brands in-house as King and Zynga are doing, Scopely becomes the game producer and distributor of free games.
As told to CNBC last Tuesday, Scopely has grown 600% in the last 10 months and currently has $200 million annual run rate. It has also recently formed a partnership with WWE to release a free mobile game called “WWE Champions.” This could very well be another best seller, following the footsteps of a hugely successful “Walking Dead” game, “Road to Survival” which garnered over 4 million downloads just in its initial week and a remarkable 10 million downloads within 90 days.
How does this work?
This Los Angeles-based startup emulates the Hollywood studios concept of forging partnerships, in this case with game developers who make their own games or it connects developers and huge media trademarks, modify the games to broaden market scope and expand revenues through digital supplements for better game marketing and distribution.
Its CEO, Walter Driver sees Scopely as a collaborative entertainment network that provides a central platform where interactive experiences are synergized to become bigger business, and where most loved brands are turned into IP many times over.
Scopely – A Fresh Approach To Mobile Game Business“Road to Survival” is Scopely’s sixth uninterrupted No.1 top-selling game. Last year, Scopely partnered with Hasbro when it launched “Yahtzee with Buddies,” which has remained to be within the top-40 games. The Scopely CEO forecasts not less than $650 million in revenue within five years just for this game alone. Just think how much the company’s bottom line will look like when they finally launch their eight games that are in the pipeline, four of which are slated to be released this year.
Scopely’s Secret
Driver says that their success in various genres lies in their way of partnering with game studios that already have the expertise in different genres and this creates for Scopely the benefit of having broader revenue streams. It should be noted that Scopely managed to gain top-grossing records for two games of different genre. Additionally, they make use of the data that is available to them and work out a system to better market products.
Scopely – A Fresh Approach To Mobile Game Business,