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Jam City President Josh Yguado believes that games have become the center of the entertainment universe. His Los Angeles company would know that, since it is at the intersection of mobile gaming and Hollywood.
Mobile gaming is expected to generate $ 100 billion in revenue in 2020, according to mobile data and analytics firm App Annie. But Hollywood movie, music and other entertainment production has stalled in the pandemic. However, games can still be made and played more than ever.
Yguado spoke about the business at our GamesBeat Summit 2020 event in a conversation with Amy Allison, Skydance Interactive Community Manager and Program Manager at Women in Games International.
Jam City recently said that Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery mobile game players have accumulated more than 35 billion game minutes since its release in April 2018. They have cast 2 billion spells and played 50 million games of Quidditch. That’s just one of the company’s successes, which also includes Disney: Frozen Adventures, Cookie Jam, and Panda Pop.
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He noted that gaming was still a much smaller industry a decade ago when he and Chris DeWolfe started Jam City.
“Games used to be inconvenient, and there weren’t enough people playing,” Yguado said. “The mobile changed everything. It was for accessibility. They all had a console in their pocket. The duration of the sessions was excellent, designed for 5 minute sessions. And there was an incredible competition, with thousands launched every day. We wanted to be at the forefront of where the media was going, and we felt that mobile games were coming very quickly. ”
Above: Amy Allison of Skydance Interactive and Josh Yguado of Jam City.
Image credit: GamesBeat
Jam City games have a lot of variety. Allison said that you don’t need a single type of game and reskin for multiple genres. In the early days of mobile devices, Hollywood companies seemed to think of mobile games as a marketing channel, rather than a key source of revenue.
Yguado said that many people who play mobile games do not consider themselves players.
“The idea of what a player is is definitely evolving,” he said. “In the past, they used to be aimed at young men. At Jam City, we have more players. That is rare. This democratization of gaming has really changed the space for the better. It is not taking the place of console games. But when it comes to Hollywood, everyone plays games now, and games are one of the best channels for fans to interact with their favorite characters and worlds. “
Above: Harry Potter: The Hogwarts Mystery has reached some huge numbers.
Image credit: Jam City
He said that the minutes of people’s times are the currency, and games are consuming more than ever. That is especially true during the pandemic.
“If you have a great [intellectual property] IP, like Harry Potter, players spend months with each character, rather than just hours with a book or movie, “Yguado said. “It would be a great missed opportunity if you didn’t consider mobile gaming as one of the best ways to interact with your top fans.”
Angry Birds, Pokémon, and other game brands have made their way to overcome franchises that are much older, and have migrated to other types of media. Over time, Yguado expects that to happen more as the IPs introduced in games intersect with other forms of entertainment. It makes sense for Jam City to partner with Disney in games like Disney Frozen Adventures or Warner Bros. in Harry Potter.
The key, he said, is for entertainment companies to remember treating games as an equal or even the largest platform, in terms of the ability to engage the audience and generate the most money. If you think of games as an afterthought or subordinate to movies, then it will limit what game companies can do.
He said Jam City’s strategy is to be the key partner that will work in a mobile game for years to make it fair and position the IP to grow much more in mobile games, Yguado said.
