Elena Grigorian just lately took over as CEO of My.Games, the previous Russian recreation firm that moved to Amsterdam after a buyout within the wake of the warfare in Ukraine.
Grigorian, beforehand chief technique officer, took over from Vladimir Nikolsky, has stepped down from his CEO function at My.Games in September. The corporate has been by way of a whole lot of change.
Earlier than the warfare in Ukraine began, My.Video games had lots of people working for it in Russia. In September 2022, Leta Capital managing director Alex Chachava acquired My.Video games from VK for $642 million and proceeded to maneuver it out of Russia. The remaining a part of the corporate that stayed in Russia, together with the Warface property, turned a separate firm dubbed Astrum Leisure.
The brand new My.Video games has a lot of the core of the previous firm, with greater than 1,500 staff. Nikolsky credited Grigorian with having distinctive administration expertise, deep expertise in worldwide enterprise, robust strategic imaginative and prescient, creativity, and inspirational management.
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Grigorian was a part of My.Video games since its exception, serving first as chief mraketing officer. She has over twenty years of expertise in gaming, together with eight years in a high video games place at Disney. She was a part of the crew that launched 70 video games and noticed a 14-fold enhance in efficient advertising investments and four-fold progress in general enterprise. The corporate has opened new places of work in UAE, Serbia, Georgia and Armenia, and it unveiled titles like Warfare Robots: Frontiers, Little Large Robots, and Hawked.
Key present video games embody Rush Royale, Warfare Robots, Hustle Citadel, Left to Survive, and Grand Resort Mania. Rush Royale achieved over 63 million installs and generated $230 million in income, whereas Warfare Robots boasts a exceptional milestone of over 250 million registered gamers and lifelong gross
income exceeding $750 million since its launch.
I spoke with Grigorian about her plans. Right here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
[GamesBeat: How is it going?]
Elena Grigorian: For the second my schedule is fairly hectic. I consider that in two or three months will probably be somewhat simpler for me. However proper now, I would like to speak with everyone, all the important thing members of my new crew, to align our methods collectively and so forth.
GamesBeat: What number of years have you ever been on the firm now?
Grigorian: It’s about 9 years, very near that.
GamesBeat: How do you see this chance so far as what My.Video games can do extra of?
Grigorian: Earlier than My.Video games, I used to be a part of the Disney Interactive household. After I had the chance to develop into the CMO of My.Video games, I used to be very shocked at that second. Advertising and marketing wasn’t my key competence on the time, my key experience. For all these years, although, I haven’t felt one second of remorse concerning the resolution that I made 9 years in the past. I take into consideration the primary explanation why. 9 years in the past I believed in My.Video games and determined to vary my path. It’s a really skilled crew. I needed to be part of it.
It was an enormous problem for me, as a result of this wasn’t my key competence, however on the identical time, for recreation corporations advertising is an important situation for the numerous progress of the sport enterprise itself. I feel you’ve heard the assertion that recreation operations are a direct by-product from productive advertising prices. The function of selling within the progress of a recreation firm is extremely excessive. That’s why I took the function. It wasn’t only a digital advertising function. It was a strategic function to develop our enterprise. That’s why, 9 years in the past, I believed in My.Video games, and that’s my perception nonetheless immediately. Our crew has performed a wonderful job for all these years. We’ve succeeded in rising our enterprise about 10 instances throughout the final six or seven years, from 2015 to 2022.
It’s not solely a advertising achievement, after all. It’s a mix of our product lineup, our growth of a profitable crew, and the advertising itself. We’ve been in a position to develop our enterprise internationally, getting into totally different areas and territories. That’s why I feel we did a wonderful job for all these years. 9 years in the past I wasn’t one hundred pc certain that I might achieve success on this function, however I believed within the firm and believed in my efforts.
GamesBeat: It looks like advertising has modified so much, particularly in cell video games over time. It’s gotten to be far more scientific, far more technological. It’s extra elevated in significance for recreation corporations now. It’s a key differentiator in case you do it proper.
Grigorian: You’re completely proper. That’s why that CMO function was so essential for the corporate. It was primarily a brand new place for the corporate on the time. We had solely a small crew for advertising with a centralized construction, centralized experience. The corporate determined to contain me and new professionals on this space to assist My.Video games to develop that construction and the whole enterprise of the corporate.
GamesBeat: How did you adapt to the troublesome transition concerned in pulling the corporate out of Russia? Leaving a lot behind. Individuals who couldn’t transfer, issues like that.
Grigorian: Throughout this 12 months, and thru all of the restructuring in 2022, My.Video games has ceased all operations in Russia. The corporate now has no authorized entity or any ties with Russia. But it surely’s not been a key problem for us. We had been already beginning to consider the “work from wherever” setup some years earlier than that, since 2020 and the pandemic time. For the time being greater than 90% of our firm’s staff have been working exterior of the workplace in nations around the globe.
We’re investing in a whole lot of efforts to assist our groups work collectively, making ready working areas within the groups’ key areas. 2022 and 2023 noticed a whole lot of work for us in that route. We opened a whole lot of hubs all around the globe to assist our individuals meet one another and work collectively in a single constructing. We’ve places of work in Amsterdam, in Cyprus. This 12 months we opened further hubs in Abu Dhabi, in Serbia, Georgia, and different nations. It’s been a tricky job for us, however it’s essential for us to supply our staff with high-quality help and high-quality working areas within the territories the place they reside. We consider we’ve succeeded.
GamesBeat: I talked to Victor Kislyi at Wargaming about doing the identical factor. I feel he famous that they left a couple of third of their revenues and a 3rd of their staff behind of their transition.
Grigorian: For the time being, our funding in Russia wasn’t so excessive. We’re at a special stage as an organization. For us it was a a lot smaller presence, and so it wasn’t so important when it got here to our monetary issues.
GamesBeat: How many individuals are on the firm now?
Grigorian: We’ve about 1,500 individuals full time.
GamesBeat: Talking of selling adjustments, how do you view cell advertising after Apple’s massive change, specializing in privateness over focused advertisements?
Grigorian: It’s a really difficult state of affairs for the business. We’re going through rising competitors for customers’ time spent from different leisure merchandise. The expansion price of time spent in video games is decrease than the expansion price of time spent in different leisure merchandise like video and music. However on the identical time, recreation corporations have to rebuild our advertising and manufacturing technique because of points round privateness. It’s time for all of us within the recreation business to discover ways to work with a mass, non-targeted viewers. We’d like to consider the best way to attain this viewers, the best way to construct our merchandise and the best way to monetize them. We’d like to consider the best way to combine our gaming expertise with different types of leisure merchandise.
My.Video games has some essential advertising situations on this case. We’ve greater than 20 merchandise in our portfolio in the intervening time. It’s an enormous portfolio. We’ve greater than 10 video games in growth at totally different phases. Additionally, we now have our personal funding arm. They work with dozens of studios the place we’re a advertising companion. It’s clear for us that the present difficulties usually are not situational in nature. They’re a part of the brand new tectonic shifts within the recreation business. Coping with these adjustments is taxing, little doubt, but additionally very inspiring for me. I consider that if the sport business has the ambition to return to its earlier progress price, we have to replace our approaches to growth and advertising.
We shouldn’t take into consideration competitors between totally different recreation corporations now. Our problem is now a lot wider. Solely by uniting our efforts will we be capable to affect the state of affairs. I’d attraction to different recreation corporations on the market to hitch forces and discover a option to overcome the present state of affairs. We should be able to share the outcomes of our experiments, each profitable and unsuccessful. I personally consider that it’s essential for us to unite our efforts on this second, not essentially to compete throughout the recreation business.
GamesBeat: Have you ever disclosed something currently about the place your present consumer base is at My.Video games, numbers like month-to-month lively customers?
Grigorian: For the time being I don’t have any figures at hand, however so far as I can keep in mind our present month-to-month lively customers are about 20 million. However nonetheless, the expansion price of this viewers isn’t so excessive in the intervening time. We’re ready for the launch of our new merchandise. We’ve a whole lot of launch plans for this 12 months and the start of subsequent 12 months as properly. We’re anticipating to launch our new PC and console merchandise. It’s an important launch for us, and we’re hoping for achievement from these video games.
GamesBeat: Does the PC market make extra sense now for explicit causes? Perhaps as a result of there’s a lot turmoil on the cell advertising facet?
Grigorian: Sure, you’re proper. However I feel the query is far wider. The diversification of our enterprise is without doubt one of the key explanation why we’re so profitable over the previous a number of years. It’s the rationale why we succeeded in rising our enterprise yearly, regardless of a hit-driven market and fewer predictable advertising. Diversification is essential for us. It’s a key a part of my work.
Diversification occurs in several areas. A type of is unquestionably platform diversification. We’ve cell, PC, and console. It’s essential for us to maintain the steadiness from totally different studios and platforms on the identical stage it’s at now. It’s essential for us to have all three platforms in our portfolio, as a result of as you say, generally will probably be troublesome within the cell enterprise, however on the identical time will probably be barely simpler in PC and console. On the identical time, console diversification, for instance, can be a territory diversification into key markets just like the U.S. and Europe. About 60% of our operations are concentrated there.
Now we’re trying into new markets in addition to progress factors for our enterprise, primarily the markets in China, South Korea, and Japan. We really feel that these markets have a whole lot of potential for us. For the time being these areas are solely 7% of our income. It’s fairly small. In China, for instance, there are a whole lot of situations we have to meet earlier than launching merchandise there when it comes to authorities regulation and so forth, however at the moment the best way is opened for considered one of our key merchandise, Warfare Robots. We obtained approval for Warfare Robots and now we’re preparing for a full-scale launch in China. I’m very enthusiastic about this chance. It’s an excellent match between the sport and the territory.
We’re making an attempt to suppose international, however act native. At My.Video games we wish to transcend a one measurement suits all method. We’ve to acknowledge the range of gaming communities and participant preferences around the globe. We wish to construct a powerful international presence, and we consider that by acknowledging and respecting the variations between territories, we are able to develop video games with nice experiences that really resonate with native audiences. That’s why it’s so essential for us to work with the Chinese language audiences and native communities to launch our merchandise there.
One other instance of the native method for us is Rush Royale. Rush Royale is a reasonably profitable recreation for us when it comes to income and progress price. It’s our newest hit in the intervening time. South Korea is now a key territory for us when it comes to the income or Rush Royale. The expansion potential there’s good, and we’re working laborious to adapt our advertising technique to South Korea specifically. We’ve a whole lot of native corporations there which are planning to take part in a big advertising marketing campaign in February, a whole lot of native celebrities and so forth. We’ll see the outcomes. But it surely’s yet one more instance of how we’re making an attempt to suppose international, however do native issues, work with native communities and native companions in a neighborhood method.
GamesBeat: The present setting appears a bit laborious to determine on a big scale. We’ve had a whole lot of layoffs within the recreation business, however there are a whole lot of fascinating alternatives round issues like AI. What’s your view of the business in gentle of these traits?
Grigorian: At My.Video games we’re not planning any layoffs in the intervening time. We’ve efficiently gone by way of this 12 months and the earlier 12 months with none adjustments on this space. We positively have some merchandise which have been extra profitable for us and a few which have flattened out, however we’re making an attempt to maneuver our individuals and our groups from one product to a different. For the time being we now have people who find themselves very gifted and really skilled. We wish to make one of the best use of them by shifting them to different merchandise. That’s why we don’t plan to have any layoffs. We’re making an attempt to maneuver our groups inside the corporate, to work along with our groups and construct an setting the place everybody has the chance to do what they like to do, creating nice video games and shifting My.Video games ahead. It’s essential that we create that form of setting for the entire crew.
Speaking about AI, we’ve positively performed experiments on this space in several divisions like artistic manufacturing and advertising campaigns. However in the intervening time I don’t really feel that for us, will probably be an important facet for rising the corporate considerably or shifting it additional. For us, it’s only a small share of effectivity in our P&L in the intervening time. That’s why we’re doing these experiments, however we don’t deal with them as a key level of progress for us.
GamesBeat: How do you see the subsequent couple of years within the recreation business? Do you might have any additional observations concerning the future?
Grigorian: I hope that we’ll reach altering the development round dropping time spent. That’s essential for all of us. We’ve numerous experiments occurring in various kinds of advertising, for instance branded advertising. It’s a special method in comparison with the efficiency advertising campaigns that we used to make use of. I do know that each one recreation corporations are doing the identical. We’re looking for alternatives to extend our enterprise utilizing totally different advertising codecs. We’ve a whole lot of possibilities to return to regular charges of progress, and we’re hoping for that. I’m doing all the things in my energy to guide My.Video games to this success. We’ll see what occurs. Some approaches will probably be extra profitable and a few approaches perhaps not, however nonetheless, we’ll hold going.
GamesBeat: I do know you used to have a whole lot of company investments. Are you continue to doing that? What are the priorities like?
Grigorian: Some years in the past I used to be accountable for the funding arm in addition to advertising. We’ve made some steps again, positively. Within the final couple of years the funding market has modified. We launched our funding half about 5 years in the past, at a time when VCs and personal fairness thought-about the sport business too dangerous. There wasn’t a whole lot of important funding in video games. Our expertise helped us to counsel one of the best choices available in the market, not just for investing our cash, but additionally our specialist experience, our analytics, so we might assist our companions develop and discover progress factors of their merchandise.
In the course of the pandemic, although, we noticed many VC funds investing in recreation corporations. The market turned oversaturated. We noticed a whole lot of video games launch, however the high quality of these video games wasn’t so excessive. It wasn’t very good cash. These sorts of traders couldn’t assist studios perceive the best way to type a crew, the best way to develop one of the best methods, and so forth. In the previous couple of years, with the potential for recession, adjustments within the IDFA coverage, and different components in launching video games, it has made investing much more troublesome.
There are a whole lot of unfinished video games available in the market that VCs had began to spend money on. For the time being, there’s much less funding cash to develop video games all the best way to launch and publishing. There’s a whole lot of product that’s not completed but, not adequate. It’s very troublesome to seek out good video games to spend money on. It’s troublesome to launch new merchandise. The expectations when it comes to high quality are very excessive. Traders are choosing merchandise very rigorously in an oversaturated market.
For My.Video games Enterprise Capital, our final funding was a studio known as Convey It On, a fast-growing skill-based recreation developer. It’s a comparatively new area of interest for us, an fascinating space for us to keep watch over, as a result of it’s rising quicker than conventional video games. It affords new aggressive recreation experiences throughout totally different recreation genres. There are some very profitable corporations on this area of interest, however it’s nonetheless not as crowded as conventional gaming. On the identical time, builders want to consider the best fee strategies for deposits and withdrawals, points which are generally new to them. It’s not a typical problem for cell recreation builders. That’s why this market is fascinating to us, so we’re making an attempt to spend money on most of these studios, simply to keep watch over this space of the enterprise. It’s not a typical funding for us, however it’s very fascinating.
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