Rovio Entertainment, a Finnish developer, publisher, distributor of video games, announced this week that it has hired Michail Katkoff as product management director. Rovio is best known for creating Angry Birds, the blockbuster game in which a bird is flung using a slingshot. The game has since been downloaded more than one billion times, making it one of the top-selling games ever.
Credit: rovio.com
Katkoff’s first game-related job was at Digital Chocolate’s Helsinki studio, where he worked as a product manager starting in 2010. Since then, he has worked with some of the biggest game franchises and mobile brands in the world, including Supercell and Zynga. From 2012 to 2013, Katkoff worked at Rovio, where he was responsible for game monetization and design. Newscenter.io recently interviewed Katkoff about his decision to rejoin the Rovio team and his predictions for the gaming industry in 2018.
Newscenter.io: Why did you decide go back to Rovio?
Katkoff: There are two main reasons. The first is that I was impressed with the turnaround, the games and the future pipeline of the company. Secondly, the company is filled with people whom I very much respect and whom I have previously worked with. And, as a bonus, I’d say the location. I understand that relocating from San Francisco to Helsinki might be somewhat off-putting for some people, but for me personally, it’s where home is.
Newscenter.io: What are three key trends you see for major game developers in 2018?
Katkoff: First is that we will see fewer and fewer new game launches as major developers increase the scope of their products and concentrate more on a few quality games. The market has matured, and just making a fun game is not enough to break through. The increase of scope occurs due to the fundamental need to increase players’ lifetime value above the very high player acquisition costs.
A second key trend is around live operations. Because it takes so much to build, launch and scale a new game, developers are incentivized to invest resources in existing live games. We haven’t seen that much change in the top grossing chart, and I believe we will see even less in the future.
Finally, I see the focus moving more and more toward more competitive and deeper gameplay. While the top charts have been populated by male-driven player-versus-player games for years, we can now see similar game mechanics being adopted by more casual players. Two great examples of this are our games: Angry Birds 2 and Angry Birds Evolution.