Game Growth Advisor / Blog
Operator notes on product, growth, publishing, partnerships, and the economics behind durable gaming businesses.
Latest insight / Partnerships & BD
Publisher vs self-publishing for indie games: a scored decision framework on cash, marketing reach, porting and ops, with 2026 deal data and middle options.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
Soft launch kill criteria only work if they are written before the data: who decides, how a go/no-go memo works, and when extending a mobile game is legitimate.
Partnerships & BD
Brand gaming sponsorship strategy for 2026: how non-endemic brands move from one-off logo deals to multi-year partnerships with real activation and KPIs.
UA & Go-To-Market
A game localization strategy built for revenue: how to prioritize languages, size ROI, mix AI and human translation, and culturalize mobile games in 2026.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
How to sunset a mobile game without losing player trust: notice timeline, refunds, virtual currency, player data and reputation steps for studio leads in 2026.
Partnerships & BD
Gamification for apps in 2026: where non-gaming brands should add streaks, progress and reward loops to lift retention, and where game mechanics backfire.
Partnerships & BD
How to structure a gaming subscription publisher deal with Game Pass, Apple Arcade, Netflix or a telco: guarantees, usage pools, windows, IAP and exits.
Partnerships & BD
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.
Fractional Leadership
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.
Industry Trends
Can you copyright AI-generated game art, code or music, and what must you disclose on Steam? An operator's guide to AI game assets legal risk in 2026.
Industry Trends
Should your game studio build in-house AI tooling or buy a platform? A capital-allocation framework, the Krafton and EA cases, and the costs to model first.
UA & Go-To-Market
Validate a mobile game concept with paid tests before you commit engineering budget. What to test, what it costs, and the read that actually decides.
UA & Go-To-Market
Paid UA no longer clears the bar for most small studios. Five alternative mobile game growth models, and the test that tells you when to switch.
UA & Go-To-Market
Answer engine optimization for mobile game studios: what AI engines actually cite for game recommendations, and the AEO playbook that earns those citations.
UA & Go-To-Market
How cross-game collaborations drive organic user acquisition in 2026: partner selection, deal structure, integration depth, and how to measure installs.
Partnerships & BD
How to find a game publisher that fits your indie game: funding tiers, shortlist criteria, what publishers screen for, and the red flags to walk away from.
UA & Go-To-Market
How to enter the Southeast Asia gaming market in 2026: verified Niko Partners data, country-by-country priorities for Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
Strategy and 4X is the only mobile genre gaining revenue, downloads and time spent. The verified numbers, the unit economics, and the entry decision.
Industry Trends
Mobile game installs fell 7% in 2025 while short-drama and AI apps surged. The data behind the 2026 strategy reset and what studios should change now.
Partnerships & BD
How a game publisher recoup clause really works: the recoup pool, stepped splits, cross-collateralization, a worked deal example, and the terms to counter.
Partnerships & BD
How to structure a sports IP licensing deal for a mobile game in 2026: royalty bands, minimum guarantees, approval rights, and the ROI model to run first.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
Mobile game monetization mistakes that kill revenue in 2026: the 10 errors I see most in F2P studios, why each costs money, and the order to fix them.
Partnerships & BD
Roblox pays 70% of Robux sold (10,000 Robux = $38); Fortnite splits a 40% engagement pool. Creator payouts compared, and when a UGC build beats your app.
UA & Go-To-Market
When a UA agency beats an in-house team for mobile games, and when it stops. The 2026 thresholds in monthly media spend, the fee arithmetic that decides them, and why the crossover is a band rather than a line.
Fractional Leadership
How the lean game studio model 2026 turns 20-person teams into billion-dollar exits. Team-size strategy, org design, and M&A readiness benchmarks.
Fractional Leadership
What gaming consulting costs in 2026, in euros, with the day count attached to every price. Why published day-rate tables put a senior specialist at four to nine times the French market, and what I quote instead.
Industry Trends
Google Play rate cuts, Apple's DMA changes, and new rating rules reshaped app store economics in 2026. Here's what mobile game studios must do now.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
A practical guide to game economy design: balance virtual currencies, sources, sinks, and progression pacing to control inflation and protect long-term revenue.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
How a hyper-casual studio migrates to hybrid casual in 2026: product decisions, monetization sequencing, team restructuring, real cost and timeline.
UA & Go-To-Market
Studios ship 2,400+ AI ad variations a quarter, yet CPIs keep climbing. Here is why more AI mobile game ad creative in 2026 costs more, and how to fix it.
Fractional Leadership
A game studio survival strategy for 2026: how founders funded in 2020-2021 decide whether to raise, sell, pivot, or restructure at the proving point.
Fractional Leadership
How a mobile game P&L is structured: revenue lines, cost stack, contribution margin by genre, and the LTV:CAC math you need before spending on UA.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
Soft launch market selection 2026: which geographies to pick, CPI and budget per market, and a decision framework that protects your global launch data.
Industry Trends
An operator's decision framework for AI agents and AI in game development in 2026: what is production-ready, what to AI-augment first, and how to manage risk.
Fractional Leadership
A senior operator's framework for how to choose a gaming consultant: 15 vetting questions on P&L scale, scope, conflicts, and handover before you sign.
Fractional Leadership
A practical framework to measure gaming consultant ROI: financial KPIs (LTV:CAC, ARPDAU, CPI) plus operational gains. Justify and evaluate consulting spend.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
A conversion playbook for mobile game paywall optimization and IAP pricing: timing, value triggers, bundles, and locale tests that lift revenue per install.
UA & Go-To-Market
How to build a resilient mobile game UA channel mix in 2026: core platforms for stability plus segmented channels for incremental growth beyond Meta and Google.
Fractional Leadership
Write a gaming consultant brief with clear scope, deliverables, and budget limits. Compare project and retainer quotes and define how to assess the work.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
Hybrid monetization for mobile games explained: how to balance IAP and ads, set revenue splits by genre, and build a tri-model system that works in 2026.
UA & Go-To-Market
Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt: $2.31B in 2026, ARPU from $3.39 to $84.60, UAE CPI up 54%. Where to launch first, plus payments, Arabic RTL and age ratings.
UA & Go-To-Market
How to enter the LATAM mobile game market in 2026: CPI benchmarks, monetization, payments (PIX, OXXO), localization, and a country-by-country playbook.
Partnerships & BD
A brand gaming consultant's guide to entering games the right way: model selection, partner vetting, MVP framing, and deal structures for IP owners.
Fractional Leadership
Quand une marque ou un studio doit-il faire appel à un consultant jeu vidéo ? Signaux, périmètre, critères de choix et alternatives — guide de décision.
Fractional Leadership
Hire a gaming consultant the right way: scoping, quote comparison, red flags, and a brief template that gets you to value in 30 days.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
When to bring senior help into a mobile studio: how to locate your soft launch data in the measured market distribution, and which failure point it points at.
Fractional Leadership
What video game consulting services cover in 2026: strategy, growth, publishing support, partnerships, and how a consultant differs from an agency.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
The 2026 mobile game growth playbook: North Star metric, soft launch sizing, UA allocation, sourced retention benchmarks, LiveOps and hybrid monetization.
UA & Go-To-Market
How rewarded user acquisition actually works for mobile games in 2026: what the platforms publish, what no source publishes, and how to price a rewarded install.
UA & Go-To-Market
Strategy was the only genre growing downloads across Asia, North America and Europe in 2025, and added $1.38B of IAP revenue in Asia alone. What midcore UA, monetization and soft launch actually require.
Partnerships & BD
How game studios can unlock in-game advertising and brand partnerships in 2026: formats, deal structures, eCPM benchmarks, and a practical playbook.
UA & Go-To-Market
Only 5% of mobile game ad creatives become winners (Motion, 578K+ creatives analyzed). The volume math: how many you need monthly, what it costs, what wins.
UA & Go-To-Market
What TikTok ads for mobile games cost in 2026, what budget the optimiser needs before it stabilises, and which widely repeated TikTok UA figures have no source.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
App Store takes 30%. Your web shop takes 7%. The D2C mobile game monetization playbook: fee math, regulatory map, conversion benchmarks, and launch sequence.
Industry Trends
Brazil banned loot boxes. EU Digital Fairness Act incoming. What mobile studios must do in 2026: COPPA-K compliance, age verification, monetization redesign. Complete compliance checklist.
UA & Go-To-Market
Master ASO for mobile games with proven keyword, visual, and conversion strategies. Practical guide from 50+ game launches covering App Store and Google Play.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
Master A/B testing for mobile games with proven frameworks for IAP pricing, ad placement, and ARPDAU optimization. Practical playbook from 50+ game launches.
UA & Go-To-Market
SKAN 5.0 killed 65% of iOS signals. Predictive LTV modeling, SKAdNetwork schema design, and how to beat competitors still running legacy UA in 2026.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
Sensor Tower measures hybridcasual at 59% IAP for lifestyle and puzzle and 82% for action and strategy. The design, retention and UA numbers that survive checking in 2026.
Fractional Leadership
Compare the cost, speed, and strategic impact of hiring a gaming consultant versus building in-house leadership. Decision guide for studio founders.
UA & Go-To-Market
After soft launch: global launch readiness, market sequencing, UA budget ramps, creative volume, payback guardrails and LiveOps for mobile games.
Cloud Gaming
Proven cloud gaming B2B2C business models for telcos and platforms. Revenue strategies, white-label options, and deal structures from 20+ years in gaming.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
IAP drives 90% of midcore revenue, 83% of casino; hypercasual runs on $0.03-$0.08 ARPDAU ads-only. F2P monetization data and decision matrix by genre for 2026.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
LiveOps games took 84% of mobile IAP revenue in 2024, yet 78% of the top 1,000 lost revenue in H1 2025. Event calendar, battle pass, KPIs and what to fix.
Cloud Gaming
Cloud gaming x telco partnerships in 2026: 5 deal models (rev-share, bundle, white-label), how to structure terms, the pitfalls that kill 80% of pitches. From SFR + Blacknut.
Fractional Leadership
Fractional CMO for gaming: $5K-$15K/month vs $350K+ full-time. Five hiring signals, cost breakdown, and how a gaming-specific fractional differs from generic SaaS hires.
Industry Trends
Median D1 is 22%, median D7 is 3.4-3.9%, median D30 below 1%. The 20 mobile game KPIs that decide whether a title scales, each with the population behind it.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
Improve mobile game retention with ten practical strategies for D1, D7 and D30. Compare benchmark sources, diagnose drop-offs and plan cohort tests.
UA & Go-To-Market
Casual Android CPI 2026: $1.50-$3.50 US, $0.60-$1.50 Europe, $0.08-$0.30 India. iOS runs 3-4x Android. Why benchmarks disagree by 14x, and how to find yours.
Mobile Gaming Strategy
How to size a soft launch from cohort readability, pick test markets on CPI bands you can source, and set go / extend / kill thresholds before the first dollar of UA.
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