INTERVIEW: Gameforge’s future

Gameforge CEO Carsten van Husen tells MCV about the publisher’s new mobile titles and why browser gaming is far from over.

Analysts say browser games are in decline. Why continue to support them?

The mobile revolution obviously changed entertainment behavior in the sense of partially substituting the PC with mobile devices.

In actuality, pure-play PC browser gaming went down, but browser games remain continuously strong.

Interestingly enough, we see that session lengths on tablets are longer than on the PC for the same game, probably due to second-screen usage behaviors.

We will continue to develop browser games, but always with a cross-platform approach.

Your rivals are producing fewer mobile games, but investing more in them. Have you also done this?

Absolutely. One part of our strategy is that we invest in core and mid-core games, which entails higher quality, bigger budgets, teams and investments. Our upcoming mobile games Matchday and Sigils are prime examples for this strategy.

You’re working on a Kickstarter project (HEX: Shards of Fate). Is crowdfunding a threat to traditional publishers?

Definitely not. Through platforms like Kickstarter a lot of innovative games are supported, which otherwise may not have seen the light of day. However, most Kickstarter projects will still profit from professional support when it comes to marketing, distributing and operating games profitably as a service.

What’s next for Gameforge?

Our turf is online, multiplayer, hardcore, free-to-play and cross-platform. We are going to execute a triple-A strategy in this great corridor and are proud to showcase Sigils, HEX, Orcs Must Die and Matchday as prime examples at Gamescom.

Having amassed 450m players over the years, we are strategically strengthening Gameforge.com as we speak, which has skyrocketed over the last year into being a top 200 destination site worldwide, according to Google Alexa rankings.