mobile game asia 2015 ho chi minh city: building a sustainable esports ecosystem on touch devices
TRANSCRIPT
BACKGROUND
DEPUTY GM, EA.COM ASIA
ULTIMA ONLINE
MANAGING DIRECTOR,
APAC
WORLD OF TANKS
WOT BLITZ
ONLINE DIRECTOR/
REGIONAL TECH DIRECTOR
WORLD OF WARCRAFT
STARCRAFT 1, 2
1999-2002 1997-2012 2012-2015
GENERAL MANAGER, APAC
VAINGLORY
2015 -
CORE AND MOBILE
37 FULL TIME
EMPLOYEES
GLOBAL TALENT
Stephan / CCO
Riot Games
Q / CPO
Playfish
Kristian / COO & ED
Playfish / EA
Supercell, Glu
Jason/ Tech Art
Lucasarts
Dreamworks
Carlo/ Art dir
Blizzard
Insomniac
Bo / CEO
Rockstar Games
Gazillion
Tommy / CTO
Riot Games
Guerilla Games
+++
Taewon / GM APAC
Blizzard/Wargaming
EA US, EU and ASIA
VAINGLORY LAUNCHED JULY 2
Jan 2005 E.V.I.L. console grade game engine dev startsJun 2012 Vainglory Development startsJan 2014 South East Asia Beta starts
Nov 9 2014 NA / EU / South America iOS ReleaseMar 2015 Korea iOS releaseApr 2015 Japan iOS releaseMay 2015 Taiwan iOS release, EU E-sports with ESL
Jul 2 2015 Global Marketing Launch – Regional Events
Jul 2015 First Global eSports Event in Seoul (VWI)Sep 2015 EU and North American E-Sports leagues start
TODAY
FOOTBALL AS AN EXAMPLE
PLAY WITH FRIENDS AT
BACKYARD
SCHOOL/COMMUNITY
TEAMSPRO/NATIONAL TEAMS
FIFA WORLDCUP
SUSTAINABLE ESPORTS NEED TO
MIMIC TRADITIONAL SPORTS
GUILD
TOURNAMENTS/STREAMINGREGIONAL PRO LEAGUES
GLOBAL
CHANMPIONSHIP
PLAY WITH FRIENDS, CASUAL
STREAMING
COMMUNITY BEFORE MARKETING
• No UA
• From 1:1 relationships to scale
• Key channels: YouTube, Twitch, Forums & more
• Dedicated talent vs variety talent
• All Devs are Community Managers
DESIGN FOR GAMERS – NOT MOBILE
• No gimmicks in controls– Gestures and accelerometer?
• Long sessions– 20min sessions vs 3 minute sessions
• Unapologetically core experience– D1 retention tough for any core game
– Day 30+ is what matters
SOCIAL MARKETING PLAN
OBJECTIVE : Activate Existing Community to drive awareness of Vainglory
• Reward players for tweeting “This is How I #Vainglory”
• At 10k tweets community gets a double glory weekend
• At 30k tweets community gets 2 double glory weekends
• At 100k tweets community gets 2 double glory weekendsand a TRIPLE glory weekend
RUN LOCALLY IN 10 COUNTRIES BY LOCAL
COMMUNITY MANAGERS (EFIGSP, RJKC)
ENGINE MATTERS
• Proprietary console grade E.V.I.L Engine
• Performance and precision
– 60 fps, <30ms controls, 1.3M polygons
• Speed of new hardware adaptation
– Fastest time to new API:s and chipsets
• Magnet for talent– Artistic freedom, technology culture
BROADCASTING MODE
• CO-DEVELOP WITH ONGAMENET
• MAC BASED CLIENT
• SCALABLE TO 4K UHD RESOLUTION
• 8 SPECTATORS UP TO 8 CAMERAS
• FREE CAMERA
• PRE-DEFINED FLY-THROUGH
• UNLIMITED FUTURE POSSIBILITY!
LEAD INTO CLUB ESPORTS
First European
Vainglory league started
13 May
First Vainglory e-sports
Talent being signed up
Deal with OGN guaranteeing
prime time TV broadcast + $14M
in mkting
VAINGLORY WORLD INVITATIONAL
• FIRST GLOBAL PRO ESPORTS TOURNAMENT
• HOSTED BY ONGAMENET IN SEOUL
• 8 INTERNATIONAL TEAMS
• USD 30K PRIZE POOL
• DEBUT OF SPECTATOR MODE
POTENTIAL OF ESPORTS ON TOUCH?
Source: Ben Evans – A16Z
• Mobile devices are portable and
personal, facilitating play together
anywhere driving stickiness
• Mobile devices are inherently
social and always connected to
data, driving distribution
• Discoverability and installation
easier through app stores
• Touch is more intuitive to learn
than mouse + keys
• Opportunity to learn from all
previous mistakes in monetization,
community and distribution
Touch screen core addressable
PC core addressable