Over 2 days during the previous week experts from game business met at Gamesforum Seattle to discuss the current state of the market and future trends. The conference was full of insights from video and mobile game developers, publishers, analytics firms, marketing experts and all others.
Scalarr’s CEO Inna Ushakova was taking part as a speaker with the report that revealed some insights about the mobile app-install ad fraud during the “Ad Fraud in Gaming” panel discussions. In general, the fraud topic is one of the most discussed among the app industry experts, but when it comes to mobile games it becomes even more resonant since mobile games is the most popular app store category (about 25% of all available apps) with the biggest revenues across all app verticals ($26.6 billion across both stores, representing roughly 78% of the total spent). With the biggest marketing budgets among all app categories, the mobile games ecosystem also takes the hardest hit from fraudsters. The conversation on the panel was also coming over evolving types of mobile ad fraud, fraudulent patterns, their recognition and why machine learning is the key to effective protection.
The big part of the conference was dedicated to VR/AR and eSports topics. These areas of the video gaming industry are undergoing some significant changes and it was widely discussed as well. The concept of the possible shift to streaming games, which was discussed on Gamescom a few months ago, was also brought into discussion with a particular focus on streaming platforms. Such platforms along with the growth of the eSport market, which is going to reach $906 million in revenues and 380 million people in audience size this year, may soon lead us to a world where audiences vastly outnumber players, expanding the industry and opening up new business models for developers and publishers.
Another interesting case of working in the convergence of technologies was presented by Reality Clash’s CCO Tony Pearce, who talked about an ICO closure and launching the first AR combat game, which integrates blockchain technology with some AR immersive technologies. Such examples convince us even more than the video gaming industry is a rapidly changing area, where technologies can be sometimes used in the most unexpected way.
In general, we’ve got a great time at the conference. Both business part and networking events were at a high level. Stay tuned for upcoming news from App Growth Summit in San Francisco.