tim-merel
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Report: Games industry saw $12.5 billion in acquisitions last year
Over $12.5 billion in game company acquisitions were announced in the last year, London-based game advisory firm Digi-Capital reports. The firm's second quarter review, as highlighted by GamesBeat, showed $4.6 billion of the deals involved mobile gaming companies. That was followed by $4 billion for MMOs, $2.5 billion in game technology and $1 billion for console deals. Digi-Capital managing director Tim Merel pointed to five reasons for the "consolidation crush" that occurred in the past year. For starters, Merel said that companies acquiring mobile developers are "buying into a large, high-growth market," as the firm forecasted that mobile games will generate $33 billion in revenue by 2017, growing from $4 billion in 2011 and $16 billion in 2013. Merel pointed to Zynga's purchase of Backbreaker developer NaturalMotion in January to the tune of $527 million as an example of its second reason for the industry's consolidation, mobile's cannibalization of other media and platforms.
GDC 2012: Publishing heavies weigh in on F2P conversions
Like it or not, free-to-play is rapidly coming to dominate every corner of the gaming industry. While that's good on the surface, it also blurs the line between business and design, and it creates a lot of tension for both consumers and developers who are increasingly faced with the challenges inherent in separating monetary decisions from gameplay decisions. One of the more interesting GDC 2012 round-tables featured Sony Online Entertainment executive producer Dave Georgeson, NCSoft publishing director Steve Levy, Perfect World VP John Young, GamersFirst monetization director Joe Willmon, and Digi-Capital Limited managing director Tim Merel, all of whom convened for a mind-meld on successfully migrating subscription games to F2P. As you would expect, the panel was heavy on business-speak, but it also featured plenty of insight into the pricing phenomenon that has become the rule rather than the exception.
Regular franchise updates still risky, says investment firm [update]
There's nothing quite like an investment firm's corporate finance director to ruin your company's carefully orchestrated release strategy. Speaking to GI.biz (account required) IBIS Capital's Tim Merel cast some aspersions on the common industry strategy of frequently iterating on major franchises. He noted that major franchises are receiving increasing investments and producing increasing returns, but added that there is a significant risk involved. "The gaming equivalent of Eddie Murphy's Pluto Nash ($100m cost, $4.4m revenue) is what scares the money men," said Merel, "so the risks of launching new franchises or making a mess of existing franchises becomes enormous." Merel elaborated that the major fear is that the games industry will follow the Hollywood path, "with accountants and lawyers running the show" while developers are relegated to the role of "execution monkeys" -- sounds like someone's been reading Bobby Kotick's diary. According to Merel, it makes sense to invest in major properties in the "short-to-medium term, but overdoing it could become very "risky." Of course, all this comes on the heels of Ubisoft announcing its plans to "come out more often" with new titles. The company even went so far as to aim for 12-18 month release schedules for its major franchise titles. Meanwhile, Activision makes no secret of its own strategy, iterating its franchises every single year (though it's hard to argue with its success so far). Update: Tim Merel is the corporate finance director for IBIS Capital, not an analyst as we previously wrote.
