Amon Endt is Founder and CEO of GamePoint, a developer and publisher of synchronous multi-player social games. Endt describes himself as determined, someone who makes things happen. Since GamePoint, after starting out in the Netherlands, now has a strong presence not only in The Netherlands, but also in Germany, France, Spain, the UK, the US and Canada, he clearly is someone who makes things happen.
Endt now spends most of his working time on high-level matters such as strategy, finances, and planning. However, he admits he has a tendency to micromanage, and he also values interaction with the employees, so he can often be found on the floor working directly with his team.
The company also knows how to have fun. At Casual Connect Europe, GamePoint hosted the official Casual Connect party, Gold!
A Growing Company
The most exciting time in his career came in 2008, when GamePoint first started to generate revenue at a noticeable scale in a foreign country: Germany. It was a pivotal moment, marking the beginning of their international expansion.
The rise of Facebook as a games platform is a very significant development for the company, with a far reaching impact on GamePoint’s distribution and internationalization. In response, they have changed their internationalization strategy from partner- and joint venture-based expansion with local partners to international expansion through Facebook.
When Endt considers the future of the game industry in the next three to five years he says, “It will be either make or break for all the walled gardens. We either see the end of the ‘web’ as we know it, or the walls come crashing down and we all turn to HTML5. The one important thing to us as a company is to be ready when that happens.
Life Away From Work
Away from work, he has a variety of interests, including skiing, racing at the track, spending time with family, and, of course, playing games. His favorite platform for games is still the PC, but he is currently playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a turn-based strategy game on iPad. And a PS4 is on the way.
Endt loves free-to-play, saying it is wonderful because it is free and widely accessible. But he is much less enthusiastic when developers balance their games wrong and consumers feel pressured into paying.
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