Organized by the Casual Games Association, the 2009 Casual Connect Kyiv international conference took place October 21 through 23. At the conference, participants discussed problems facing the development of the casual games industry worldwide as well as questions about development and distribution. Representatives of Alawar Entertainment gave presentations and took part in roundtable discussions.
Alexander Lyskovsky, general director of Alawar, opened the conference with his keynote speech. During his presentation, titled "The Casual Games Industry in 2009: Development, Trends, Forecasts" (PPT format; 1.5MB), he encapsulated the main events and phenomena that had impacted the casual games industry in the past year.
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One of the main themes of Lyskovsky's presentation was the way in which the global casual games industry is continuing to grow -- despite tough economic conditions in many countries: sales are increasing, investors are putting money into the industry and new opportunities for growth are appearing. In addition, casual games are becoming more captivating, more people are playing them and they're appearing on new platforms, including the iPhone, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, PSP and others. Practically all major games publishers are experimenting in these areas and many are turning their attention to games on social networking sites, which are experiencing rapid growth.
Nevertheless, the economic crisis has created difficult conditions for industry players. In the consumer war, many casual game vendors have temporarily lowered their prices from $19.95 to $6.99 and lower; as a result, the profit earned from each copy sold has fallen significantly. In Russia, the cost per game didn't change (the price point in the country is one of the lowest in the world), but fluctuations in the exchange rate led to the market losing around $8 million. At the same time, the number of casual games sold on Runet grew more than 40 percent.
Lyskovsky said the economic crisis has pointed out weak areas the casual games industry needs to overcome. By decreasing the dominance of the North American market, increasing the number of distribution channels, exploiting new game platforms and developing new national markets (as Alawar did in 2009 by launching sales in Poland, Finland and Ukraine), the industry should continue to experience dynamic growth.
On the same day as Lyskovsky's presentation, Tatiana Chernova, director of marketing communications and PR at Alawar, and Alexander Dubrovin, director of marketing at Alawar, led a session titled "Reverse Thrust: Discover Your Consumer". During this session, casual game developers and publishers met everyday players face-to-face and talked with them about how to improve the quality of casual games. After a lively discussion, representatives of Alawar gave a presentation titled "Characteristics of the Target Audience of Casual Games", which quoted research data obtained by TOY-Opinion in the spring of 2009.
The conference concluded with a presentation by Kirill Plotnikov, vice president of publishing at Alawar, titled "Simple Rules of the Publishing Business". In ten years, Alawar has grown from a small development studio to one of the biggest casual games publishers in the world. During this time, the company has published numerous projects and acquired a wealth of experience in the different methods game publishers employ, giving stability to the company. A large number of facts and examples acquired through the work of the publishing subdivision of Alawar demonstrated that a game's success depends on the proper execution of a lot of small details.
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Lyskovsky said the conference was one of the most useful in the history of Casual Connect Kyiv, providing numerous areas for reflection and allowing industry colleagues to exchange ideas. Each year, the conference attracts more participants and offering new opportunities for discussion. For that reason, we hope to see you in Kyiv in 2010!
Photos from the conference are coming soon to the "Photo album" section.
