Interactive THE FUTURE CONSUMER
Adaptability and future trending
What are the key factors you’d isolate in the process of content development in the creation of games/content for the consumer of the future?
When designing and developing games it is essen- tial that they are built to work to best effect on the plethora of devices available to consumers now, and those that will be purchasable in the near future. This includes the multitude of smart- phones, tablets and phablets, and the impending wearable tech devices which are projected to grow in popularity over the coming years. With mobile gaming growing significantly, and the number of devices available in the market contin- uing to rise, this is becoming increasingly more important. And of course we mustn’t neglect the large percentage of players still using laptops and desktops.
Furthermore, we don’t only have to prepare for new devices, but also anticipate changes in oper- ating software, such as iOS8 and its recent release. We have to adapt our content to ensure every single one of our games is playable on this new software – it’s not an easy task, but it’s a necessary one.
Have you identified your ‘consumer of the future’? What do they look like and how different are they from the consumer of today?
The consumer of the future is the consumer of today! What’s changing is that players aren’t sticking to one form of technology or one way in which they consume our product. They are adapt- ing to ever more rapid advances in technology and changing how, when and where they interact with our product - players are becoming ‘multi-device’ and we expect this trend to continue for the fore- seeable future. With this it’s important to remem- ber that players will expect a high quality,
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Mike Hebden, Head of Casino Games, Microgaming
One of the topics at this month’s EiG show in Berlin is looking to understanding the key factors to adapting content and enhancing the user experience as well as thinking about the consumer of the future. G3 spoke to Mike Hebden, Head of Casino Games at Microgaming for his take on this beguiling issue
dependable experience on every device they use – players are definitely becoming more savvy. That’s why we’ve embarked on an omni-platform strategy – our goal is to offer the same experi- ence, through registration, banking, balances and play, no matter the device.
What are the attributes of ‘future’ players? Are they just the same profiles with small changes and tweaks, or will there be radical shifts in the players and their behaviours in the future?
The ‘in app purchase’ model of social gaming has- n’t really migrated into traditional gambling as much as expected. Social gaming players have become increasingly more expensive to acquire, are difficult to convert into paying customers and can switch allegiance to the latest thing en masse. But the younger demographic in particular are now familiar with the social mechanics around these games, and they have been an early barom- eter of how, when, where and on what devices players will move on to consume other experi- ences. And so I do expect we will see some of these social mechanics being incorporated within traditional gambling experiences going forward. I don’t expect radical shifts, but smaller changes, yes.
How useful is it to look at what might happen with player developments and how far into the future do you look, as opposed to planning ahead and actioning changes?
It’s not just useful, it is imperative! Adapt or die. We’ve always studied player developments and planned for the future of the industry. Mobile is probably the best example I could give. Microgaming anticipated the growth of mobile before anyone else and we actually launched our first mobile casino product 10 years ago! We
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