Tag Archives: gaming

Gaming, News

Perforce Software Showcases New Digital Asset Management Solution at GDC 2022

At the 2022 Game Developers Conference, Perforce Software Debuts a Beta Version of Their New Digital Asset Management Tool, Helix DAM, to the Gaming Community.

MINNEAPOLIS, March 17, 2022 – Perforce Software, a provider of versioning and collaboration tools for software creators requiring productivity, visibility, and scale along the development lifecycle, reveals its new Helix Digital Asset Management (Helix DAM) solution. The newly released beta version will be demonstrated at the annual Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco, California.

As the game industry continues to shift, artists and designers are quickly outnumbering game developers, exposing a need for teams to better manage the numerous and large creative assets associated with game creation. Perforce Software — known as the game development standard for version control — designed Helix DAM to address the gaps in current processes to help maximize the use of artist and designer creations.

Perforce CTO, Brad Hart explains, “Our customers have clearly communicated to us that the key to releasing a great title is having the ability to iterate.” He continues, “A common problem described to us by game studios small and large is the amount of time that is wasted creating the asset again and again because it is ‘faster’ than locating and repurposing it. Helix DAM is built to help studios secure all their creative assets in a single location and make them easily findable and sharable via the same platform.”

Built as a new UI layer on top of Helix Core, Helix DAM helps studios centralize art assets their team has already created to streamline and simplify the management of 2D, 3D, and animation files and increase the velocity of the entire team.

Launching the beta at GDC allows indie and AAA studios to test out the new tool and deliver feedback. Creatives can experiment in a test environment and see how Helix DAM makes it easy to find, review, use, and share their work. Katie Cole, Gaming Evangelist and Director of Product Marketing at Perforce says, “We are excited to be back in person to demo Helix DAM! With features like automatic AI tagging and robust search, our universal repository will help teams reuse assets without the headache and keep everything secure.”

To learn more about Helix DAM, attend Gerhard Krüger (Product Manager at Perforce) and Katie Cole’s session “Stop Wasting Your Game Art!” on March 24, 2022, from 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. PT or stop by the Perforce booth #S569. Learn more about GDC events here: https://bit.ly/3JoUAcA.

New functionality will be added to Helix DAM throughout the beta process and studios are encouraged to try out the new tool and provide feedback.

News

Keywords Studios acquires Waste Creative

The international technical and creative services provider to the global video games industry, today announces that it has acquired independent creative agency Waste Creative.

 

Based in London and founded by Visar Statovci and Mike Petricevic in 2006, Waste Creative’s talented team of 70 people provides strategy and creative production services, including player community management, for mobile video game creators, including Supercell, Nintendo and Riot Games. In addition, the studio provides advice on the go-to-market strategy for new games and content as well as delivering high-speed, high-quality digital asset creation. Visar Statovci, Mike Petricevic and the entire team will remain with the business. 

 

The acquisition will help to address the increasing demand from the Group’s client base for games as a service support covering the full marketing lifespan of games, from pre-launch support to post launch ongoing support, with a focus on community engagement and retention.

 

Keywords Studios has also announced the acquisition of Wicked Witch Software, a 73-person video game development studio in Melbourne, Australia.

 

Bertrand Bodson, CEO of Keywords Studios, commented: “We are delighted to have further strengthened the Keywords group by adding such talented teams in London and Melbourne.

 

“I am delighted to welcome Visar, Mike and the talented Waste Creative team to Keywords. We are really looking forward to working with Waste Creative’s highly skilled and experienced team. Games as a service marketing support with a focus on community growth and fan retention are areas of increasing importance to our clients and Waste Creative will help us meet that growing demand and provide them with extensive and more integrated marketing solutions.”

 

Visar Statovci, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Waste Creative, commented: “We are thrilled to join Keywords and by the opportunities that being part of this industry leading global business will present for our clients and team. By working with Keywords, we will be able to expand our services to meet our clients’ full marketing needs from early access / beta launch stage to the ongoing growth, retention and management of their player and fan communities.”  

News

Admix Strengthens In-Play Leadership For The Americas

 Marty Berman joins Admix as VP Sales US and LATAM 

Admix, the pioneering In-Play advertising platform that bridges the gap between gaming and advertising, announces the appointment of senior advertising industry leader Marty Berman as VP of Sales for North America and LATAM.

Berman’s appointment signals the latest phase of Admix’s 2021 US growth strategy, which will see the experienced teambuilder spearhead a major talent acquisition drive across the US, with Q3 and Q4 hires planned for New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Chicago native will work closely with Michael Silberberg, Admix’s New York-based VP of Global Partnerships.

He joins Admix with over two decades of media and advertising industry experience, having held senior leadership roles at global organizations such as InMobi, Integrate Marketing, NBC Internet, Triad and Monster, with key accounts including American Family Insurance, United Airlines, GMC and Progressive Insurance.

The gaming industry is at a tipping point following the change in consumer habits accelerated by Covid-19, which accelerated gaming’s mainstream cultural awareness and hypergrowth. Consumers now spend more time gaming than they do on social media, creating both an opportunity and a challenge for brands to reach the three billion active gamers globally given the intrusiveness of many gaming advertising formats. Admix’s proprietary rendering technology has been engineered from the ground up, to insert demanding ad creatives into any 3D environment.

Marty Berman, VP Sales for North America and LATAM, commented:

“I’m excited to join Admix at a time where mobile games compete with social media as a pastime. Major brands have not yet been able to leverage this tremendous scale in a meaningful way, with gaming audiences historically only available for advertisers to reach via manual activations. As demand increases exponentially to buy gaming inventory programmatically, Admix is in the lead position to deliver a solution to the Northern America and LATAM markets that solve the major barriers of scale to reach this elusive audience. Reaching the gaming audience via In-Play media will continue to grow rapidly given its non-intrusive nature and the ability to automate the process programmatically, properly target, measure and prove ROI.”

Announcing the hire, Samuel Huber, CEO at Admix, commented:

“Admix aims to provide the education and infrastructure to monetize gaming content non-intrusively via In-Play. As consumers increasingly socialize, play and shop in virtual worlds, there are unlimited opportunities for brands and publishers in this fast-growing metaverse. With an incredible depth and variety of innovative, world-class brands, agencies and games publishers, North America and LATAM are at the forefront of the gaming media channel. Marty is a critical hire who will help Admix communicate the significant benefits of In-Play advertising, and he will also be instrumental in building our boots on-the-ground team across the East Coast, West Coast and Midwest.”

Over the last year, Admix has experienced hypergrowth with an 800% revenue increase driven by unprecedented inbound and direct sales, and expects to double in size from 40 to 100 staff this year.

News

Waste supports indie gaming clients with innovative new revenue share initiative, called Upstart

Independent creative agency Waste has launched an innovative new revenue-share initiative called Upstart, as it seeks to diversify its revenue streams and support up-and-coming independent gaming clients.

The agency, which also works with many of the world’s biggest AAA games brands including Supercell, Riot, and Nintendo, developed the new model in the face of continued commodification in the ad industry and a need to develop new value-based revenue streams, but also in recognition of the fact that many smaller studios lack the advertising budgets or expertise required to market their games.

Upstart aims to help expand the potential of gaming and entertainment companies by engaging with them through a “freemium” model, where its marketing services are provided completely free-of-charge and in return, Waste receives a percentage of net revenue generated.

Upstart clients can tap into Waste’s 15 years of games marketing experience, accessing expertise across strategy, creative ideation, content production, social media and community management, along with advice on brand positioning and pricing, with no risk involved.

The first client to benefit from the Upstart model is French independent gaming studio RyseUp, which has partnered with Waste to launch the game Roboquest. The game has already had a significant number of “overwhelmingly positive” reviews on Steam (out of just under 2000) and is coming soon as a console exclusive via the Xbox Game Preview program later this year.

Waste is now looking for more high-potential gaming and entertainment clients to partner with as part of the Upstart model.

The initiative is led by Visar Statovci, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Waste.

 

Visar Statovci, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Waste, said: “With commoditisation an ever-present reality in our industry, and the price-per-hour model coming under increased scrutiny from clients, it’s important that creative agencies like us employ their creativity in revenue generation and new ways of working.

“Upstart offers up-and-coming gaming and entertainment brands access to our expertise and industry contacts enables them to maximise their opportunities. The model represents greater value for them as clients as well as helping us to make the shift from “service providers” to true partners.

“It’s fantastic to be able to support passionate indie studios like RyseUp and give them the benefit of our 15 years’ experience, but it’s also hugely energising for our team, who get to play a significant role in the success and journey of new and exciting games.”

 

Milen Ivanov, CEO, RyseUp Studios, said: “The best thing about our partnership with Waste is having the freedom to fully focus on doing what we do best: developing our game. Waste have unlocked opportunities, opened doors and given us access to resources that have allowed us to supercharge the marketing of our game.

“Beyond the hard business benefits, we feel like we’ve built a real partnership with a group of people who are as passionate about what we do as we are. It’s been amazing to get that support, and we’re looking forward to a bright future.”

News, Tech

Keysource delivers critical project for Sega Europe

Keysource, the global datacentre and critical environment specialist, has undertaken a consultancy and professional services project for a communications room for Two Point Studios, newly acquired by Sega Europe, the producer of multi-million-selling game franchises including Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, and Yakuza. This latest project builds on a 10-year relationship between Sega and Keysource.

The communications room is to support the general compute for the office of around 50 people. Keysource did an initial assessment which reviewed the current specification provided by the main building contractor. This then enabled a gap analysis to be undertaken against Best Practice guidelines and Sega’s requirements. This focused on the provisions that needed to be taken to deploy a suitable solution in line with the IT requirements and included exercises to establish a clear client brief.

The finalised report provided Sega Europe with a detailed summary of suggested alterations to the current scheme, additional considerations and next steps. In addition, there was a detailed analysis of the required current and future IT capacity, cooling and power resilience, maintainability and security, fire and environmental protection requirements.

Luke Brimelow, Keysource Key Account Manager, said: “As Sega Europe continues to grow and add amazingly talented studios like Two Point to its family, it important that the correct IT infrastructure is in place. We were able to respond quickly and provide independent consultancy to support this within a tight timeframe, demonstrating our understanding and expertise.”

Jide Agbalaya , Sega Systems Infrastructure Manager, said: “For over 10 Years Keysource has been our trusted advisor and so when changes to our IT estate are required, they are our partner of choice. This particular piece of consultancy provided us with the means to make informed decisions and deploy a suitably resilient IT solution specific to our needs as a business.”

News, Tech

Vungle acquires GameRefinery, a leading SaaS mobile gaming analytics company

Acquisition brings further innovation to Vungle’s mobile performance advertising platform by offering contextual targeting and creative intelligence features

Vungle, a leading mobile performance advertising platform, announced today the acquisition of GameRefinery, an industry-leading SaaS mobile gaming analytics company headquartered in Finland. GameRefinery’s Game Intelligence platform provides developers with retention and monetisation insights through its cloud-based developer tools for world-class studios such as Zynga, King, Rovio, Ubisoft, and more. The company’s deep contextual data sets across 160,000+ gaming apps bring unique and innovative targeting capabilities to Vungle’s platform, helping advertisers deliver contextually relevant campaigns and increase user acquisition performance in today’s privacy-focused, post-IDFA landscape.

GameRefinery also brings image recognition and creative tagging capabilities that will be leveraged by Vungle Creative Labs (VCL). Combining VCL’s extensive experience in cutting-edge creative and UA, with granular reporting on visual elements including styles and genre fit, provide industry-leading performance recommendations for its biggest customers.

“Together, Vungle, GameRefinery, and Algolift offer the only platform that speaks to game and product teams in the development process, marketing, UA, and growth teams in the scaling stage, and data teams when measuring and refining outcomes,” said Jeremy Bondy, CEO of Vungle. “We are excited to welcome a remarkable GameRefinery team to the Vungle family and have never been stronger in our position as the trusted guide for developers.”

“At GameRefinery, we are very proud to have built a differentiated mobile game analytics platform to help our clients excel at game development, creative performance, and targeting,” said Markus Råmark, Co-founder and CEO of GameRefinery. “We couldn’t be more excited to join Vungle’s team with our shared vision of building leading-edge game analytics and proprietary creative intelligence to help game developers design, advertise, and monetise their mobile games.”

“The combined offering will enable Vungle to touch our advertisers across multiple areas of our platform with deeper creative analysis and insights, contextual targeting recommendations, and reporting,” said Martin Price, Vice President of Product at Vungle.

“Given the privacy-related changes to iOS 14 and the industry at large, it is more important now than ever to find inventive ways of understanding the context of an ad placement and driving better creative targeting. The GameRefinery acquisition gives us a richer suite of data to let us do exactly that.”

“GameRefinery and Vungle are both integral partners for Huuuge Games and have also helped grow our loyal user base over the past few years,” said Anton Gauffin, CEO of Huuuge Games. “Both companies are very aligned with what mobile game developers are looking for; the fact that they have now joined forces now means that we will have access to a fantastic arsenal of tools that will help us grow even further in a post-IDFA, contextual world.”

GameRefinery’s co-founders Markus Råmark, Veli-Pekka Julkunen, and Joel Julkunen, as well as the entire GameRefinery team, will join the Vungle organisation. The team will continue to operate out of the company’s offices in Helsinki.

Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Waste appoints We Are Social’s Brett Phipps to build newsroom function

Independent creative agency Waste has announced the appointment of Brett Phipps to the newly created role of Senior Editor, as it seeks to build a newsroom function for entertainment clients as part of its fan-first offering.

Phipps joins from We Are Social, where he spent nearly three years as Senior Editor, leading the social media editorial vision for two of Activision’s biggest gaming franchises, Call of Duty and Destiny, across 12 international markets.

In his new role at Waste, Phipps will build a newsroom function in order to help clients better understand and react to conversations about their brands online, with an initial focus on the Supercell account. The new function will enable brands to spot and act on real-time opportunities to join the conversations that matter to their target audiences.

Phipps will report to Alistair Campbell, who joined Waste as Executive Creative Director in May 2020.

With in-depth expertise of the gaming sector and experience across content and community management, social media and SEO, Phipps was previously the Games and SEO Editor at the Time Inc-owned Trusted Reviews. He has also held positions at The Independent and Pro-G Media.

Brett Phipps, new Senior Editor, Waste, said: “I’m incredibly excited to be joining Waste, a company with a fantastic client list with a huge passion for gaming. The work the team has delivered over the past year has been nothing short of inspiring, and something I knew I had to be involved with.
“I hope that my experience within the games industry, coupled with my passion for community building and social listening, will be an asset to the team. I cannot wait to get started!”

Alistair Campbell, Executive Creative Director, Waste, added: “We’re always looking to introduce new skillsets in order to expand and supercharge our offering for clients. Our newsroom function will enable us to help brands tap into relevant conversations online, creating high quality content at breakneck speed.

“Brett not only brings incredible knowledge of gaming, but also invaluable experience and a proven track record in leading social media and community management for major brands. We’re really excited to see the results he can drive for our clients.”