The Soft-Launch Limbo
“Our KPIs are borderline. Scale, iterate or kill?”
D1 looks fine, D30 is fragile and the test budget is running out. You need a readout the team and your publisher will accept.
Mobile game consultant Level up your game's growth.
Ex-Gameloft and SFR. I help mobile studios, publishers and IP owners read their KPIs, fix monetization and retention, and land the UA, publishing and distribution deals that make growth pay back.
- Years in games
- 20+
- Years at Gameloft
- 17
- P&L managed
- €12M+
D7 retention15%
ARPDAU$0.11 ▼
LiveOps event3 days left
CPI$2.40 ▲
0/7
Achievement unlocked
Coin collector: 7/7
You clearly care about monetization. Let's talk about yours.
Book a 30-min growth call- Gameloft · 2007–2024
- Global Director Cloud Gaming
- BU Director France & Benelux · €12M+ P&L
- SFR · Head of Mobile Games
- +50% sales in 6 months
- Blacknut cloud gaming
- Impulse Media Hub
- Bouygues Telecom
Stage 01 · Boss fights
The boss fights I get called in for.
Mobile games rarely fail on one metric. They fail when a team scales, pivots or signs a deal on a misread of several. These are the fights where a senior second opinion pays for itself.
The Monetization Plateau
“Revenue is flat and every new offer eats the last one.”
ARPDAU has stalled, a few whales carry the P&L and the economy has drifted since launch. The fix is structural, not another bundle.
The CPI Spiral
“CPIs keep rising and ROAS never hits the payback we modelled.”
Meta and Google are saturated, SKAN hides half the signal and creatives fatigue weekly. The channel mix and the targets both need a reset.
The Term Sheet Trap
“We have a publisher offer. Is it a good deal?”
Recoup clauses, revenue share, marketing commitments and IP rights decide what the studio keeps for years. They deserve a second read.
The Distribution Maze
“Web shop, alternative stores, new markets?”
DMA, D2C payments, telco and OEM channels, LATAM, MENA or SEA. Each can grow margin, or distract a small team.
The IP Dilemma
“We own a strong IP. What game should it become?”
Format, genre, studio, licensing or co-development: the first decision sets the budget, the partner and the odds of a return.
Stage 02 · Mission select
Choose your mission.
Six fixed-scope mobile game consulting engagements. Each starts from a decision you need to make and ends with a written recommendation, the numbers behind it and a plan your team can run.
Growth & KPI Diagnostic
A soft-launch or live-game readout of retention, monetization and UA economics against genre benchmarks and your break-even model.
Objectives
- Cohort retention, LTV and payback analysis
- Benchmarks by genre, platform and geo
- Scale, fix or stop recommendation
Loot Decision memo · KPI scorecard · 90-day plan
Field guide: KPI benchmarksF2P Monetization Audit
Your economy, IAP pricing, offers, ads and LiveOps calendar, turned into a ranked backlog of tests.
Objectives
- Economy sources, sinks and inflation
- Store, price ladder and first-purchase offers
- Hybrid IAP + ads balance
Loot Audit report · Test backlog · Revenue model
Free F2P audit checklistUA & Go-to-Market Strategy
Channel mix, payback targets and launch sequencing for a game that has to grow without burning its runway.
Objectives
- Channel diversification beyond Meta and Google
- Creative testing cadence and SKAN read
- Market selection and D2C web shop plan
Loot GTM plan · Channel targets · Agency brief
Field guide: UA diversificationPublishing & Deal Structuring
Find the right publisher or partner, then negotiate terms the studio can live with: recoup, revenue share, marketing commitments and rights.
Objectives
- Publisher and partner shortlist
- Term sheet review and counter-proposal
- Licensing, telco, OEM and cloud distribution
Loot Partner map · Deal options · Negotiation notes
Field guide: recoup clausesBranded & IP Mobile Games
For brands, media groups and IP owners: the right format, genre and partner model before you brief a studio.
Objectives
- Format and genre options for the IP
- Studio profile and deal model
- Budget logic and first milestone
Loot Format memo · Partner brief · Budget frame
Field guide: branded gamingFractional Growth Advisor
Senior judgment on call for founders and executive teams while growth, partnership and funding decisions evolve.
Objectives
- Weekly or bi-weekly working sessions
- KPI, pipeline and deal reviews
- Board and investor preparation
Loot Working sessions · Decision support · Reviews
Field guide: fractional leadershipStage 03 · Level map
From first call to a decision in weeks, not quarters.
A short, fixed path built around your data. You know the scope, the price and the deliverable before any work starts.
-
1
Day 0
Discovery call
30 minutes, free. We define the decision, what's at stake and whether I'm the right person to help.
-
2
Week 1
Data & context review
Analytics or KPI exports, UA and revenue data, the build, decks and any term sheet. Interviews with key people.
-
3
Weeks 2–3
Diagnosis & recommendation
A written decision memo: what to scale, fix, test or stop, the evidence behind it and the targets that will prove it.
-
4
Ongoing
Execution support
Optional: test reviews, partner and publisher calls, negotiation, or a monthly advisory seat.
Stage 04 · Choose your class
Built for teams that ship mobile games.
Studios
Independent and mid-size teams: soft launch, monetization, UA economics and publisher deals, without hiring a full growth team.
Publishers & investors
Portfolio reviews, KPI due diligence and a second opinion before greenlighting scale.
Brands & IP owners
Turning an audience or an IP into a mobile game with the right format, studio and deal model.
Platforms, telcos & OEMs
Game catalogues, cloud gaming and B2B2C offers that studios want to join and players pay for.
World map
- Europe & Tier-1
- LATAM
- MENA
- Southeast Asia
- Soft-launch markets
Stage 05 · Replays
What a mission looks like in practice.
Representative, anonymized mission types. Client names and data are never published.
Studio · Soft launch
A midcore studio six weeks into soft launch
- Question
- Retention was on target but revenue per user was not. Scale UA now, or iterate first?
- Play
- Cohort and funnel read, economy review, payback model by geo and channel.
- Outcome
- A “fix, then scale” memo with three monetization tests and the KPI gates to unlock UA budget.
Studio · Publishing
An indie team choosing between two publishers
- Question
- Two offers with different advances, recoup terms and marketing commitments. Which one, and on what terms?
- Play
- Side-by-side deal model, scenario analysis on revenue, rights and exit clauses.
- Outcome
- A recommendation, a counter-proposal and negotiation notes for the call.
Media group · IP
A media brand turning its audience into a mobile game
- Question
- Branded game, licensing deal or co-development? And what would the first version need to prove?
- Play
- Format and genre options, audience fit, studio profile and budget logic.
- Outcome
- A board-ready decision memo and a partner brief for studio outreach.
Stage 06 · Player profile
Cyril Guilleminot. In mobile games since the first Java download stores.
I started on the operator side, launching SFR's first mobile game download services and growing the unit's sales by 50% in six months. I then spent 17 years at Gameloft: building distribution with operators and OEMs across France and Benelux, running the France & Benelux business unit with a €12M+ P&L, and leading Gameloft's cloud gaming business worldwide.
Since 2024 I advise studios, publishers, platforms and IP owners independently. I've sat on both sides of the table, as the distributor and as the publisher, and I know which numbers each side reads first.
Achievements unlocked6 / 6
-
First mobile game store
Launched SFR's first mobile game download services · 2002
-
+50% in six months
Sales growth as Head of Mobile Games at SFR · 2005–2007
-
17 years at Gameloft
Country Manager, then BU Director France & Benelux · 2007–2024
-
€12M+ P&L
Distribution, partnerships and advertising, 8-person team
-
Global cloud gaming
Global Director Cloud Gaming, launches with telcos, OEMs and platforms · 2020–2024
-
Award-winning operations
Gold Trophy “Honor France”, Bronze Trophy “Paris 2024”
Stage 07 · Intel
Patch notes from the mobile game business.
Quarterly report
Mobile Games Strategy Pulse
Source-backed market signals, platform shifts and what they mean for studios, publishers and investors.
Read the latest edition
Gaming Subscription Publisher Deals: How to Structure Them
How to structure a gaming subscription publisher deal with Game Pass, Apple Arcade, Netflix or a telco: guarantees, usage pools, windows, IAP and exits.
Game Publisher Deal Red Flags: 12 Clauses That Kill Value
Game publisher deal red flags: 12 contract clauses that quietly destroy studio value, what each looks like, why it hurts, and what to ask for instead.
Gaming M&A Wave 2026: Strategy If Your Studio Wasn't Acquired
Gaming M&A hit $7.7bn in Q1 2026. A decision framework for independent studios that were not acquired: partners, talent, pricing power and distribution.
Free loot · PDF
The F2P Monetization Audit
20 questions to diagnose your mobile game's revenue health across economy, retention, ads and analytics, with a scoring guide.
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Tutorial · FAQ
Mobile game consulting, answered.
Still unsure whether you need outside help? Consultant vs in-house and how to brief a consultant go deeper.
What does a mobile game consultant do?
A mobile game consultant reviews the evidence behind a game's growth decisions: retention curves, monetization data, UA costs and payback, and the commercial terms of publishing or distribution deals. The output is a clear recommendation on what to scale, fix, test or stop, with the reasoning a team can defend to its board, publisher or investors.
When should a studio hire a mobile game consultant?
The most useful moments are before money is committed: when soft-launch KPIs are ambiguous, before scaling user acquisition, when monetization has plateaued, when a publisher term sheet is on the table, or when entering a new market. An outside view is cheapest before the budget is spent, not after.
Which KPIs do you review in a mobile game growth diagnostic?
Retention (D1, D7, D30), session depth, conversion to payer, ARPDAU and ARPPU, LTV curves by cohort, CPI and ROAS by channel and geo, and payback period. Each metric is read against genre benchmarks and against the economics the game needs to break even at scale. See the 2026 mobile game KPI benchmarks.
Do you run user acquisition campaigns or build games?
No. The work is advisory: diagnostics, strategy, and deal support. When execution is needed, I help you brief, select and challenge the right UA agency, publisher, studio or distribution partner, and review their results against the targets we set.
How much does mobile game consulting cost?
Most engagements are fixed-scope sprints of one to six weeks, quoted after a free 30-minute call so you know the full cost before work starts. Ongoing support is a monthly retainer. For market reference points, see the guide to consulting day rates, retainers and ROI.
Do you work with studios outside France?
Yes. Most clients are international. I work in English and French from Paris and Madrid, and have built partnerships with studios, publishers, platforms, telcos and OEMs across Europe, North America, Asia and LATAM. French-speaking teams can also read the consultant jeu vidéo page.
What do you need from us to start?
A 30-minute call to understand the decision you face. For a diagnostic, read access to your analytics or an export of cohort KPIs, your current UA and monetization data, and any deck or term sheet under discussion. Confidential data stays confidential and client names are never published.
What decision is your game facing?
Bring your KPIs, your deck or your term sheet. In 30 minutes you'll know whether outside help is worth it, and what it would cost.
Book a 30-min growth call- Emailcontact@gamegrowthadvisor.com
- WhatsAppChat on WhatsApp
- Phone+33 6 26 86 54 22
- LinkedInCyril Guilleminot
- Based in
Paris, France · Madrid, Spain