The old paradigm is dead. Meet the new one: Gamertainment. During an interview at Casual Connect USA, SGN Co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe’s explained how games are becoming films at a faster rate than ever before and at the same time, well-known film/TV brands and celebrities are becoming games. Now, watching others play games is seen as entertainment. During this talk, Chris explains why he believes the boundaries which once defined entertainment and gaming are becoming more and more irrelevant, and how the former MySpace co-founder and CEO is evolving according to this belief. During the interview, Chris shared many insights about the game industry. As far as one of the kieys to success as a mobile game developer, Chris stressed to “Always add new content. If you are in Asia, you are adding new content every day or two. In the US, at a minimum, you are adding like every week or two or at least every month so it is a sort of living breathing organism that gets more and more interesting. There is always something new which is why these games last so long but from the IP rights holder and creator’s perspective, if you are not right on brand with them, . . . they are not going to approve your next build. So there is massive collaboration from the very beginning. You have to be on the same page. If you are not, you are essentially not going to get the deal.” To hear more, tune in and learn from an expert.
Chris DeWolfe is co-founder and CEO of SGN, the fast-growing Los Angeles-based gaming company behind some of the most popular mobile games in the world. As co-founder and former CEO of MySpace, Chris pioneered and popularized social networking. Under his leadership, MySpace became the most visited website in the United States by 2006. By the time he left the company in 2009, it had more than 90 million monthly active users around the world.
DeWolfe’s latest venture-SGN-has seen explosive growth. Launched in 2010 with MySpace cofounder Aber Whitcomb and former Fox executive Josh Yguado, SGN’s diverse portfolio of casual mobile games have been downloaded more than 700 million times and are regularly played by nearly 50 million people worldwide. Between 2013 through last year, the company-maker of Facebook 2014 “Game of the Year” Cookie Jam, Panda Pop, and the Book of Life: Sugar Smash, among other titles-has seen revenues grow by more than 1,000 percent. SGN expects revenues of more than half a billion within the next year.
Speaking within weeks of SGN’s acquisition of Andreessen Horowitz-backed TinyCo-the startup behind successful Family Guy and Marvel Avengers mobile games-DeWolfe’s session at Casual Connect examined how gaming and entertainment are colliding and explained how this trend is guiding his strategic thinking.
“Games are increasingly providing Hollywood with valuable content,” said DeWolfe. “At the same time, the reverse is also true-that is, gaming companies are progressively seeing big opportunities in iconic Hollywood franchises.”
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