Reinout te Brake is Founder and Chairman of iQU, a company recognized as a top intelligence and performance marketing specialist in the game industry. At Casual Connect Europe, he announced GameOn!, a new program aimed at attracting the best worldwide talent to Holland and supporting local Dutch game developers. With this combined effort, GameOn! hopes to accelerate growth in the Dutch game industry. Te Brake describes GameOn! as “a unique program investing money and resources from both the public and private sector. We will be there to support exciting new game companies from concept to exit.”
More Efficient Spending Through Better Targeting
He tells us GameOn! makes today the most gratifying time of his career. The team that agreed with the concept consists of people he has known for many years: Erik Seeboldt, Simon Usiskin, Oliver Kern, and Anant Bakre. Their aim is to make sure young people get the right education, internships, and opportunities to work within the game industry, as well as great mentors and seed funding. Te Brake started iQU to make sure developers spend their marketing budget optimally through using the data of gamer behavior to better target. As Chairman of the company, he feels this is the perfect time, with the assistance of the Dutch government, to push the Dutch game industry to a much higher level, and put them on the international map.
Never a Dull Moment
What te Brake finds most enjoyable about the game industry is that there is never a dull moment. Everyone is focused on making that great game that gets people to play and, of course, to pay. When te Brake is playing himself he is playing to test and to understand the monetization within the game. Usually he is playing on his iPad or iPhone, and currently he is spending a lot of time in Ruzzle and TankNation, admitting, “I suck at both!” He doesn’t own either PS4 or Xbox One because “I want to play when I feel like it, at any given time and wherever I am.”
Te Brake claims free time is an interesting concept, no doubt because he has so little. But when he does, he loves playing with his son, Sebastian and going to the movies with his wife, Susanne.
Finding the Right Players is the Challenge
Te Brake believes there are two major challenges facing the game industry today. These are targeting the users and monetization. He emphasizes, “It is crucial to have this right, otherwise your games will fail, but in order to do so, you need a push in your back from your mentors, as well as a network of professionals alongside you and a runway to learn from your mistakes, so first funding is crucial, hence GameOn!”
The next big trends he sees in the industry are cross-platform and 3D virtual reality. iQU is already planning for these trends; they are now talking to some very interesting companies. He tells us they are always scouting with the team.
Comments
