“Gameloft is working towards offering spectacular gaming experience on STBs, Apple TV and Wearables”

Gameloft has established itself as one of the top innovators in its field since 2000. Gameloft is at the forefront of the innovation and currently working on offering spectacular gaming experience on Set top boxes, Apple TV and other wearables devices.

The company has recently announced the launch of four of its Successful Franchises for the New Apple TV (Dragon Mania Legends, Dungeon Hunter 5, Asphalt 8: Airborne and Despicable Me: Minion Rush) and gaming features to Interact with connected Watches offering never-before-seen features. The company holds unique capabilities and offers a disruptive gaming experience on television screens.

Florent Vallauri, Sales Director Indian Sub-continent and Thailand at Gameloft speaks with TelecomDrive.com about the company’s performance for year 2015 and its plans ahead for the year 2016.

How was your year 2015? What were some of the big achievements for year 2015?

Gameloft Asia Pacific revenues are increasing fast driven by growth in India & China. Asia Pacific should be Gameloft highest revenue generating region in 2016 driven by high double digit growth in India, surfing on the increasing number of smartphones sold in India and increasing demand for high quality games.

Considering the nascent stage of mobile Internet in India, there is still potential for a much larger mobile Gameloft gaming audience. The performances of a game like Asphalt 8 hitting the top spot of free game download on Google Play Store in India shows there is largedemand for high quality games.

Gameloft main lines of business evolve around - carrier distribution, handset manufacturers & mobile advertising sales.

Mobile Advertising business -

Gameloft was the #1 game publisher in the world on iOS and Google Play combined by downloads in the first nine months of 2015 according to App Annie. We are ramping up the monetization of this audience via advertising deals. 2016 will see full transition from its current pure free to play business model to a model combining free-to-play and advertising.

Gameloft has started to sell its Indian inventory through cash premium deals in Jan 2015and the results are really promising.

High click through rates for video and full-screen advertising campaign have been achieved in this territory. It shows that our Indian Gaming audience is fully receptive to ads that are targeted and aligned with their interests.The campaign creative and the adequate mobile advertising format also plays an important role to yield best results.

Gameloft Advertising Solutions offer advertisers an enriched and direct access to our users in a very targeted, flexible and secured way. We have just recently expanded our product line with the addition of three new advertising formats: VBAN, M-INT and The Buddy Pack.

Overall, the company offers 13 distinct advertising formats deployed over 40 games including, classic display (banners, medium rectangle, interstitials), rich media (mini game, form, sites, expandable video banners, motion interstitials) and Native gaming solution (buddy pack, native video and sponsored event) which are quite unique for advertisers.

From an Indian perspective, 2015 saw the released of a lineup of Games adapted for the local market lighter in size such as All Star Cricket and Asphalt Nitro. We are working on few other great titles for 2016.

Additionally, in terms of achievement we are proud to have Asphalt 8 hitting the #9 position in free game in India category on Google Play Store. This is a major achievement.

On the partnership side, Gameloft have extended its ties-up with all major Indian handset makers such as Lava, Karbonn, Xolo, Intex, iBall, Celkon etc.

On the mobile advertising side, major outlook for 2016 will be the programmatic buying and connection to the trading desks of major agencies in India. This will allow brands to access millions of loyal Gameloft players in India in an automated way. Looking forward, programmatic advertising will contribute significantly to the gaming experience in a very mutually beneficial way between players, publishers and advertisers.

How are you looking up to year 2016 now?

Talking about the Indian mobile gaming industry, it is expected to grow to USD 517.6 million by 2016 with a 134.5% YoY compounded growth.

There is high demand in India for Gameloft games from very low end mass market feature phones to top price tier Smartphone segments. Gameloft games will reach out to not only core gamers but also a highly casual audience in Tier 1,2,3 cities whatever the household income.

In 2016 adopting a “’Glocalstrategy”will be key as we intend to release a new gaming line up with some titles small in size with amazing graphics, adapted to Indian market taste, network infrastructure and optimized for every devices.

How will year 2016 be different from year 2015 for your organization?

From a market point of view we see a lot of very interesting opportunities locally. Global business models are now applied in India with a strong local flavor so “Glocal” is definitely the way forward.

In terms of business model, try & buy models will continue to play an important role in monetizing & increasing our revenue via in-game purchases.

We are adapting our global strategy locally as to better cater with the market, therefore this “Glocal” approach.

To sum up, great games combined with faster mobile internet and more powerful devices will ensure a very enjoyable mobile gaming experience to delight our Indian customers.

What could year 2016 bring for the technology sector?What are some of the big trends that you believe will rule the tech sector in 2016?

Gameloft is a pioneer of mobile gaming that successfully balances market and technological development while always pushing for innovation. We thrive to be the first to develop exciting games on tomorrow’s digital platforms.

AD funded freemium games and try& buy models are expected to drive revenues. 2016 could bring easier e-payment channels that would allow to increase the contribution of in-game revenue in the overall monetization ecosystem.

Digital Wallets and usage of local payment channels in addition to the usage of credit cards will probably be an interesting avenue to explore if they are made available for Games.

How are you as an organization gearing up to play an important role in these trends?

We localize our strategy to utilize our potential in the emerging markets. For example, Asphalt Nitro has been recently launched on Playstore in India.

This product “Made for India” was launched primarily to cater low bandwidth and low Android device memory available in the market. It’s an intense racing game with top notch quality, graphics & gaming experience in just 25 MB size.

This approach can help us in the long run to increase our market share & make our games easily available to the consumers living in emerging countries.

On the other hand, in association with leading app stores – Playstore, Apple Store& Windows store together we intend to leverage our core strengths & latest technologies in making the best games available to smartphone users.

What could be challenges that lie ahead to realize the full potential of these tech trends?

Here are main challenges in India that would need to be addressed in order to fully seize the potential of the market:

• Network developments – mobile internet connectivity and stability. Building awareness & scope of 4G expansion in India.
• Billing is still in the native stage in emerging markets & can be worked on to increase the monetization of the gaming industry.
• Customers education – Showcasing the availability of games (free & paid) and influencing customers so that buying in-game becomes a natural step within the overall gaming experience.

To overcome the above mentioned hindrances, we will adapt out strategies locally & make our way ahead.