1. Keys to the European Market
Thomas BIDAUX
CEO, ICO Partners

2. Introduction
● Speaker
● Europe

3. Quick market overview
● Disclaimer
● All numbers are estimates
● Estimates are from November 2011 (source
ICO Partners)

4. Germany
Title Publisher Est MAU
Population - 82M 1 League of Riot Games 500k
Legends
Home PC equipment 2 WoW Blizzard 400k
3 Runes of Magic Frogster 130k
84% of the households
Broadband
Title Publisher Est MAU
Connections 1 Farmerama Bigpoint 1.2M
65% of the households 2 Comunio Comunio 450k
3 Habbo Sulake 400k

5. France
Title Publisher Est MAU
Population - 63M 1 Dofus Ankama 1.8 M
2 World of Warcraft Blizzard 180k
Home PC equipment
3 League of Legends Riot Games 160k
69% of the households
Broadband connections
Title Publisher Est MAU
58% of the households 1 Habbo Sulake 900k
2 Equideow Owlient/Ubisoft 350k
3 Travian Traviangames 340k

6. United Kingdom
Title Publisher Est MAU
Population - 62M 1 World of Blizzard 170k
Warcraft
Home PC equipment 2 League of
Legends
Riot Games 120k
81% of the households 3 World of tanks Wargaming 90k
Broadband connections
Title Publisher Est MAU
70% of the households 1 Moshi Mind Candy 1.5 M
Monsters
2 Club Penguin Disney 900k
3 Bin Weevils Bin Weevils 800k

7. Italy
Title Publisher Est MAU
Population - 60M 1 League of Legends Riot Games 40k
2 World of Warcraft Blizzard 30k
Home PC equipment
61% of the households 3 Combat Arms Nexon 20k
Broadband connections
Title Publisher Est MAU
39% of the households 1 Travian Traviangames 250k
2 Farmerama Bigpoint 170k
3 Hattrick Hattrick 150k

8. Spain
Title Publisher Est MAU
Population - 46M 1 Dofus Ankama 600k
2 League of Legends Riot Games 150k
Home PC equipment
3 World of Warcraft Blizzard 70k
66% of the households
Broadband connections
Title Publisher Est MAU
51% of the households 1 Comunio Comunio 600k
2 Habbo Sulake 400k
3 Club Penguin Disney 300k

9. Poland
Title Publisher Est MAU
Population - 38M 1 League of Legends Riot Games 270k
2 Metin2 Gameforge 100k
Home PC equipment
66% of the households 3 World of Tanks Wargaming 70k
Broadband connections
51% of the households Title Publisher Est MAU
1 Farmerama Bigpoint 750k
2 Stardoll Stardoll 400k
3 Moviestar Planet 350k

10. Online game companies Europe revenues - million €
200
140
110
57 56 52
40
22 22 20 18 17 15 13
7
source : ICO Partners

11. Market trends
● Free to Play
● New genres
● Social games beyond Facebook
● New growing markets

12. Market potential
● Actors concentrating
● Critical mass harder to achieve due to
fragmentation
● Critical mass easier to maintain
● Average service quality

13. Market challenges
● Languages
● Marketing channels
● Monetisation
● Cultural differences
● Critical mass
● Competition

14. Ways to approach the market
● Self-publishing – global service
● Self-publishing – local service
● Channelling partner
● Third party publishing – licensing

15. Self-Publishing
Customer
Marketing Community Localisation
Support
Public Payment Account
Moderation
Relations Solutions Management
Customer
Distribution QA Back-end
Ownership

16. Channelling partner - A
Customer
Marketing Community Localisation
Support
Public Payment Account
Moderation
Relations Solutions Management
Customer
Distribution QA Back-end
Ownership

17. Channelling partner – B
Customer
Marketing Community Localisation
Support
Public Payment Account
Moderation
Relations Solutions Management
Customer
Distribution QA Back-end
Ownership

18. Licensing partner
Customer
Marketing Community Localisation
Support
Public Payment Account
Moderation
Relations Solutions Management
Customer
Distribution QA Back-end
Ownership

19. Define a strategy
● Why do you want to go there?
● Expansion
● Landgrab
● Revenues
● What are your means?
● Connections
● Existing user base
● Budget
● Resources

20. Define a strategy
● What are you weak points?
● Specific discipline
● Reach in the market
● Product profile
 Drive different discussion

21. Choosing a partner
● Affinity
● Current port-folio
● Long term strategy
● Business terms
 Align long term interest
 You will need to care

22. Case studies
● Runewakers
● Taiwanese studio – couldn’t find publishers for their
title
● Signed with Frogster and entered extensive
collaboration for a successful release in Europe
 Success with a local actor through close partnership

23. Case studies
● Riot Games
● Initially licensed to a local operator (GOA.com)
● Took back game and opened local office
 Success through self-publishing and local operations

24. Case studies
● Perfect World
● First licensed to a newly established local publisher
● Created brand confusion
● Opened local office
 Re-established brand after hurdles. Significantly more
successful

25. Case studies
● SOE
● Mostly self-published from the US
● New port-folio wide agreement with ProSieben (very
unpopular with the community)
 Jury is still out. Seem to still struggle to find its path
to entry to the market.

26. Conclusion
● Many opportunities
● Many ways to take advantage of them
● You always need to care!

27. Contacting the speaker
thomas@icopartners.com
www.slideshare.net/ICOPartners
www.icopartners.com/blog
@icotom