Cell Experts at the greatest video games business developments of 2024 section two: Rewarded UA in trend, generative AI, and hybridcasual luck

As soon as once more it is that point of yr the place all of us get started feeling reflective and glance again at the yr simply long gone.

As a way to that finish, we concept we would ask our Cell Experts – a choice of video games business professionals – a couple of questions in regards to the yr long gone by means of. Right here we ask:

What had been the largest video games business developments of 2023?

You’ll learn section one proper right here.

Uncover extra about the newest video games business developments at Pocket Gamer Connects London on January twentieth to twenty first, 2025.

There is not any doubt that there have been portions of the business that struggled – and but, there have been additionally brilliant spots for recreation builders that embraced digitally-native, real-money rewards to pressure engagement and retention. This can be a development I be expecting to proceed.

Rewarded UA has evidently been a large development in 2024 and equipped a brilliant spot in an another way bleak yr for cell gaming UA.

I’m no longer simply announcing that as a result of we’re part of that area and had a really perfect yr, different corporations providing rewarded visitors additionally appear to be doing nice, which I like to look, as we’re nonetheless within the giant blue ocean section of this marketplace.

There’s such a lot doable for bettering consumer engagement with rewards and I’m certain subsequent yr might be even higher.

Vladimir Markov

CEO

at Best App Video games

This yr’s key development has been a decline in recreation retention charges coupled with emerging visitors prices. On this context, Ludus has emerged as a real phenomenon. The truth that our product demonstrates enlargement even in as of late’s difficult marketplace prerequisites is little short of miraculous.

At the building facet, AI and generative applied sciences has been a dominant theme. Everybody has been on the lookout for tactics to combine it into manufacturing and content material advent.

Then again, it is truthful to mention that no person has totally cracked the code but. We have now additionally been experimenting with those applied sciences and plan to include them into our long run video games.

Kian Hozouri

COO & Co-founder

at ByteBrew

This yr we witnessed a defining shift from hypercasual to hybridcasual video games, revolutionising in-game monetization methods. Studios moved clear of a purely ad-based earnings type towards a balanced mixture of in-app purchases and in-game commercials.

This design transition introduced new demanding situations, in particular round growing content material and mechanics to make stronger this hybrid way successfully.

Shmuel Ben-Meleh

SVP, International Knowledge & Analytics

at SciPlay

AI has been an impressive and fast-growing wave, with new, groundbreaking fashions and applied sciences making headlines virtually each and every week.

The hype surrounding AI is immense, fueled by means of jaw-dropping advances in what AI fashions can reach, from producing realistic pictures to automating advanced duties. But, there’s a noticeable dissonance between this hype and the way AI is in fact used within the video games business.

Whilst corporations are desperate to undertake AI, they ceaselessly fight to combine and monetise those refined applied sciences into day-to-day operations in a significant manner. Sensible, daily packages of AI stay restricted, with just a handful of use instances proving viable for instant have an effect on.

In fact, the primary utilization of AI in trade is coming from the ground up — from workers who leverage AI to streamline duties and paintings extra successfully — somewhat than as top-down tasks from corporations directing workers on find out how to use AI.

Bridging this hole between AI’s doable and real-world implementation has turn out to be a key problem for companies aiming to harness the real energy of AI.

Joanne Lacey

COO

at AdInMo

As predicted, there’s surely 2024 has been a difficult yr for the video games business at huge.

Then again, there’s additionally been a number of sure adjustments inside the free-to-play ecosystem: hybridcasual video games are actually firmly established and there’s been a visual mindset shift in opposition to monitoring lifetime worth of avid gamers and long-term enlargement.

Álvaro Pinto

COO and Co-Founder

at Aptoide

In our trade – video games distribution and monetisation – we see a transparent development of recreation builders and publishers making an investment in choice distribution and monetisation. Choice shops distribution, internet payshops, and so forth. are simply examples of a development that we consider will develop in 2025.

Dominic Ridley

Founder and Director

at Transparent Perspective Studios

2024 has been an excellent yr for bringing unique virtual likenesses to video games.

Titles like Justice League: Kill the Suicide Squad delivered exceptional facial animation, and I look ahead to seeing equivalent high-fidelity facial performances in subsequent yr’s releases, comparable to Demise Stranding 2 and GTA VI.