At Casual Connect USA, the Senior Vice President of Games at Defy Media answered tough questions like: What type of content is preferred by youth ages 13-24? On what platforms do they prefer to access it? How much do they consume and how much do they create? How do they respond to advertising and what motivates them to pay? These questions and more were answered in this session, based on detailed quantitative and qualitative studies of over 1,000 young people across the United States. Alexander advised, “Your content needs to be appealing but it also has to be on every platform.”

During his lecture at Casual Connect USA, Oliver Miao, CEO of Pixelberry Studios, gave a candid inside look at a developer who is deciding whether to put their studio up for sale. It was a rare opportunity to see how a studio with a Top 100 game thinks about M&A. Topics ranged from high level thoughts on the future of the industry to specific desires and needs of the team. He gave the attendees a glimpse into the tactical considerations in a decision like this, including deciding whether to work with an investment banker, how to find the right advisors and the timing of the deal. All of these and more were covered by Oliver who has gone through two past studio acquisitions and is considering if it’s time for a third. During his talk, he advised, “When you are going through an acquisition, it’s just the first step on basically a new journey. And we knew we had a lot of work ahead of us and a lot of growth a head of us with the new companies.”