While speaking at Explore Beijing, a Casual Connect event, Yan Marchal had this to say about mobile publishers: “I can’t think of anyone who has told me ‘I got a publisher deal on mobile, and I am happy about it.'” He also moderated a panel on the publishing and distribution options for developers during Casual Connect Asia 2014.
Yan Marchal, founder and managing director of Sanuk Games, started his company out of frustration. He was just tired of feeling dissatisfied with his life, professionally and geographically. Although he considered himself fortunate to have been hired by Ubisoft right out of school and enjoyed working as a programmer, after a few years, he was becoming bored but saw no opportunity to move to a different position. So 10 years ago, he made the decision to leave both Ubisoft and Paris and moved to Bangkok.
The first few years were difficult, but Sanuk Games went on to become a self-sustaining studio. Marchal feels the technical skills he developed while working as a programmer were important in getting the studio started because they provided immediate know-how and credibility. But he says, “Business skills I had to learn on the fly.”
Hidden Talents
These days, he finds business development the most enjoyable part of his work and gives credit to his team who provides him with great games to showcase at trade shows. He says he has continued in the games industry simply because he likes it. And, of course, it isn’t particularly easy to change to a different industry if you don’t already have some connections in it. He considers himself fortunate to have found this industry. If not, he suspects he would have been developing software for some industrial application.
Marchal believes the game Sanuk Games is now developing will be the best one they have made, although he doesn’t yet know how it will be received. But he emphasizes, “I am proud enough when I show it to business partners!”
Gaming is something Marchal considers important to his work, essentially surveying the market. He usually plays on mobile and handheld console, and tries not to spend too much time on any one game. But for the last year, he has been most involved with Fieldrunners 2.
He uses both Android and an iOS tablet. Android has more hardware, so he could get the phone he wanted: a large screen, replaceable battery, extendable memory and a sensible price tag. But he feels iOS provides the better game experience with lower hardware fragmentation.
Goodbye Consoles
In the future of the games industry, he expects to see home game consoles gradually disappearing once the current generation becomes obsolete, as they are being attacked by more versatile devices. He points out, “PCs can easily be connected to TVs and set top boxes can play games. Handheld game consoles are already getting weaker as a result of competition from mobile.”
He feels the free-to-play business model will remain strong in some game genres, but he doesn’t see it becoming universal in the industry. “It frustrates players regardless of whether they pay, because then they pay too much for what they get, or not, because then they don’t get access to what makes the game fun,” he insists. “This traps uneducated players. There are high spenders who are willing to pay a lot and are happy with what they get, but they are not the majority.” He believes, “There should be a growing base of educated players willing to pay a reasonable premium to get a fully unlocked game geared toward satisfaction rather than frustration.”
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