Connect with us
European Gaming Congress 2024

Gaming

UGC games platform YAHAHA powers up with $40m investment offering a host of new experiences to players

Published

on

Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

YAHAHA, the community focussed user-generated content (UGC) games and entertainment platform, has announced it has secured a Series A+ investment of $40m to continue to grow its player experience. The funding will be used to improve the platform on every level, from content to events and competitions. With 100,000 users flocking to the platform since its Early Alpha launch in April, players can look forward to a host of new features, game modes, additional genres, and more, as the continuously evolving platform launches itself to new heights. Players can enjoy thousands of cross-platform high-definition games and social spaces that allow them to jump in anywhere and instantly interact in real-time for free, with no download required, seamlessly realizing their dreams in a digital reality.

A vocal champion of democratizing 3D game development, YAHAHA’s community of creators ranges from indie studios to students, to hobbyists and players. One of the core tenets of YAHAHA is that anyone can make 3D content, and its tools make it easy for anyone with a creative mindset to make quality cross-platform experiences for players to explore. YAHAHA makes creating a game or social space as easy as drag and drop, with extensive templates, toolkits and easy-to-use tutorials. This evolving stream of content gives players an array of unique and bespoke gaming experiences, created by a dedicated community of game lovers.

Dual-Headquartered in Finland and Shanghai, YAHAHA was founded in 2020 by an expert group of Unity veterans. YAHAHA’s thriving ecosystem invites players to take part in games and socialise with friends in real time, in worlds that have been crafted by its growing community of talented creators. There are infinite opportunities with YAHAHA – and with this new round of funding, players can expect more high-quality experiences in both the racing and shooting genres, which are being made possible for the very first time.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Chris Zhu, CEO at YAHAHA, said: “We’ve seen fantastic growth in YAHAHA throughout the Early Alpha stage, with over 100,000 people signing up. We are building on a strong foundation of talented creators, and bespoke, expertly crafted games, experiences and social worlds for players to enjoy.

“A litany of opportunities await us in the virtual world, and we want to be on the cutting edge of it with YAHAHA. To do this, it’s imperative we continue investing in our platform and in the community that got us to where we are right now. We are welcoming more players, and continuing to pioneer by investing in our platform and by building relationships with brands that share our values. Together, we will make YAHAHA the go-to platform for players to enjoy user-created multiplayer games and to socialize with friends in real time.”

Determined to fully support its community, YAHAHA hosts frequent in-platform events where creators can win real cash prizes. These events act as a way to mobilize the community to create experiences around specific criteria, which have seen great success in the platform’s Early Alpha stage. With this investment, YAHAHA hopes to take these events further, with game jams and Creator Houses to continue fostering a community of creators.

YAHAHA was founded by Chris Zhu (CEO), Pengfei Zhang (COO) and Hao Min (CTO) to give creators the tools to unleash their creative talents on a new digital frontier. This investment follows a previous Series A raise of $50 million, taking total funding secured by YAHAHA to almost $100 million in two years.

Powered by WPeMatico

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Gaming

Getting ready for Xmas: SplitMetrics partnership with Wargaming helps World of Warships app sail to new heights with 15% uplift in organic conversions

Published

on

getting-ready-for-xmas:-splitmetrics-partnership-with-wargaming-helps-world-of-warships-app-sail-to-new-heights-with-15%-uplift-in-organic-conversions
Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

Wargaming, a leading game developer, teamed up with SplitMetrics, an app growth solutions company, to boost conversion rates with seasonal Christmas-themed screenshots for the launch of its game World of Warships: Legends.
Coinciding with the game’s soft launch in Brazil, the Philippines, Canada, and France ahead of the Christmas holidays, Wargaming wanted to capitalise on the seasonality effect to influence its app engagement without advertising.
By working with SplitMetrics Agency, a leading mobile growth agency, Wargaming increased conversions by an average of 15% on iOS across App Store storefronts in Canada, the Philippines and France. Canada experienced the highest conversion rate increase with 31.45%, followed by the Philippines (9.61%) and France (3.44%). On Android, the Brazilian Google Play storefront experienced the highest conversion rate increase with 6.68%.
SplitMetrics Agency focused on A/B testing as its core strategy. The agency optimised visual assets, analysed performance and tested various creative hypotheses. Using SplitMetrics Optimize, the agency’s experts ran experiments to identify the best-performing illustrations for both the App Store and Google Play product pages.
A key hypothesis tested during this project was whether tailoring visuals to each region during Christmas would have an impact. For France and Canada, the images were adjusted to include a winter theme featuring snow, fireworks and a Christmas tree. For the Philippines, the agency used white ribbons, a local Christmas tradition, along with fireworks and ornaments displaying the country’s flag. And for Brazil, fireworks and ornaments decorated with the Brazilian flag.
During this testing period, there were no in-app events or paid user acquisition campaigns, allowing the performance changes to be directly attributed to the updated screenshots.
Thomas Kriebernegg, General Manager, SplitMetrics Agency, said: “Christmas is one of the main calendar events that app marketers need to prepare for, especially in the gaming category.
“The World of Warships: Legends case study is a great example of how seasonality can significantly impact your app’s performance and give you a boost in users. And this can be achieved without an advertising budget. It can all be done organically when you have the right calendar event, great graphics and A/B testing.
“As in the case of the Wargaming game, a comprehensive analysis and testing strategy increased its conversion rate by an average 15% across three markets.
“It is essential that app marketers forward-plan for any relevant calendar events. It’s also important to note that Christmas may not be relevant for every app but if you’re unsure you can always try A/B testing to see what works. And keep optimising.”

The post Getting ready for Xmas: SplitMetrics partnership with Wargaming helps World of Warships app sail to new heights with 15% uplift in organic conversions appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Continue Reading

Gaming

Nolimit City revisits the brutal factory life in Outsourced: Slash Game

Published

on

nolimit-city-revisits-the-brutal-factory-life-in-outsourced:-slash-game
Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

Nolimit City takes you back to the grind with its latest release, Outsourced: Slash Game. For those who thought their consumerist cravings were a safe indulgence, think again. Following in the footsteps of Outsourced, this new addition pulls back the curtain on the sweat and sacrifice lurking behind those everyday luxuries—this time with a dash of danger. Outsourced: Slash Game is the studio’s second venture into crash-style gameplay, the first being xCrash™ in Skate or Die – but this time it’s a standalone crash game!

In Slash Game, players have to make some cutthroat decisions as a laser traces the outline of their hand, increasing the multiplier with every pass. Players hit “stop” to cash out, locking in the multiplier when they feel the timing is right. After which, they will be shown the potential winnings if they wouldn’t have stopped. But here’s the catch: if players hesitate a second too long and the laser slips, all the winnings are lost. A live scoreboard displays the Top Win, Top Miss and Last Round, so that players can keep track of their previous rounds.

Outsourced: Slash Game is not a familiar Nolimit City slot to some players but could cause some excitement with an increasing multiplier and a maximum payout of 1,500x the base bet. Outsourced: Slash Game, unlike Nolimit City’s high-volatility slots, is rated as ‘Medium Volatility’ but don’t let that fool you as it still includes the risk of losing your hand.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Per Lindheimer, Head of Product at Nolimit City, said: “Get back to work, will you? We’re bringing players back to the unrelenting factory floor of Outsourced with an all-new twist. Slash Game is a standalone take on our crash-style games, and it’s packed with plenty of heart-stopping moments (and maybe a few hand-stopping ones, too). We’re thrilled with how it turned out and we hope that our fans will be too!“

‘Outsourced: Slash Game’ will be available to all Nolimit City partners on November 5th, 2024.

The post Nolimit City revisits the brutal factory life in Outsourced: Slash Game appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Continue Reading

Gaming

The mobile gaming market is growing and attracting new companies. GAMIVO is the latest example

Published

on

the-mobile-gaming-market-is-growing-and-attracting-new-companies.-gamivo-is-the-latest-example
Reading Time: 3 minutes

 

Usually, consoles and PCs come to mind when discussing the gaming industry. The mobile sector is often treated as a child of a lesser god, even though it generates almost as much revenue as console and PC combined. Some companies can see this potential. For instance, the e-commerce platform GAMIVO has recently entered the mobile market, allowing players to buy in-game items cheaper.

Back on course

The entire video game industry has evolved incredibly, but the most spectacular has been the growth of the mobile sector. It expanded from 36.9 million dollars in 2016 to 93.2 billion in 2021. Unfortunately, the gaming market suffered from a decline that stemmed from the overoptimism of the pandemic era. As a result, the mobile gaming industry revenues dropped to 92.2 billion in 2022 and to 90.5 billion in 2023. Recent information has indicated this was a necessary correction rather than a long-term trend.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

The latest Newzoo report, issued in August 2024, shows that the industry is on the right track again. According to analysts, the mobile sector will generate revenues of $92.6 billion, representing +3.0% growth year-on-year. It’s nearly half of the entire gaming industry.

Billions of players

Revenues are crucial, but they only show part of the story. To fully understand the size and potential of mobile gaming, it’s necessary to consider the number of players, which constantly grew even when revenues dropped. Newzoo estimates that it will reach 2.8 billion in 2024. It means that almost twice as many people play on mobile devices than on PCs and consoles combined. Currently, every third person on Earth plays on mobile devices, and there’s still space for further growth.

“There are emerging markets where smartphones and mobile networks can expand, providing new potential players. Furthermore, this type of entertainment has a low entry barrier because most popular games are free and don’t require high-end devices,” explains Mateusz Śmieżewski, the CEO at GAMIVO.

One hobby, different habits

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

GAMIVO is an example of a company that has recently joined the party to get a piece of the mobile pie. “We examined the mobile market for a very long time, trying to find a suitable place for us. It’s essential to understand that mobile gaming and mobile gamers differ from their PC or console counterparts. You can’t do the same things you do with PC and consoles and hope to replicate your success,” said Mateusz Śmieżewski.

Studies confirm this observation. Average PC and console players spend about 2.1 hours a day in virtual worlds. It’s half an hour more than mobile gamers. However, things get interesting when we take a look at playtime per week, which is the same for mobile and console (5.4 hours) and slightly longer for PC (5.7 hours). Moreover, typical PC and console owners play 2.6 and 2.7 days a week, respectively, while mobile players play 3.4 days per week.

Those statistics prove that PC and console players are more dedicated, spending more time in games’ worlds once they enter them. However, mobile gamers prefer shorter but more frequent sessions. They play while commuting or have a short amount of free time.

“Mobile players are more willing to uninstall games and give another title a chance. Hence, the gameplay has to be captivating and designed to provide quick but intense sessions.

Furthermore, even though the average weekly playtime is identical to PC players, many mobile players don’t think of themselves as gamers,” clarifies Mateusz Śmieżewski.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

Another major difference regards the way in which revenue is generated. PC and console games traditionally represent the premium model, where players buy the game. Most popular mobile releases are free and generate revenue with microtransactions. Almost all titles allow players to spend their real money on virtual coins, crystals, and other items that can be used to unlock additional content or reduce cooldowns.

Entering the mobile market

Those contrasts and nuances scare most companies from the mobile market. Let’s see how GAMIVO has coped with this.

“We decided to launch a new product category dedicated to mobile gamers. Our model allows them to top up in-game accounts cheaply. As a result, they can save up to 30% on buying virtual items, upgrades, and other content. The GAMIVO offer includes the most popular mobile titles, such as Genshin Impact and PUBG Mobile, and still extends,” describes Mateusz Śmieżewski.

“We dedicated a lot of time to research and analyses. Also, the development process required a lot of work to provide GAMIVO customers with safe transactions and a user-friendly environment. The first reactions are very positive, confirming our belief that our decision was right and there is still more space in the mobile game market,” concludes the GAMIVO CEO.

Advertisement
European Gaming Congress 2024 (Warsaw, Poland)

The post The mobile gaming market is growing and attracting new companies. GAMIVO is the latest example appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

Continue Reading

Trending

Get it on Google Play

Fresh slot games releases by the top brands of the industry. We provide you with the latest news straight from the entertainment industries.

The platform also hosts industry-relevant webinars, and provides detailed reports, making it a one-stop resource for anyone seeking information about operators, suppliers, regulators, and professional services in the European gaming market. The portal's primary goal is to keep its extensive reader base updated on the latest happenings, trends, and developments within the gaming and gambling sector, with an emphasis on the European market while also covering pertinent global news. It's an indispensable resource for gaming professionals, operators, and enthusiasts alike.

Contact us: [email protected]

Editorial / PR Submissions: [email protected]

Copyright © 2015 - 2024 - Recent Slot Releases is part of HIPTHER Agency. Registered in Romania under Proshirt SRL, Company number: 2134306, EU VAT ID: RO21343605. Office address: Blvd. 1 Decembrie 1918 nr.5, Targu Mures, Romania