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No one thought that “Candy Crush” would become a long-lived cash cow. Nowadays, the mobile giant King focuses on continuing to develop its long-runners, instead of making new games.
– Our priority should not be to release new titles, says King boss Tjodolf Sommestad.
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Just over half a year has passed since King became part of the American tech giant Microsoft, through the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which in turn owns King. Most of the advance talk was about big franchises like “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft,” but Xbox boss Phil Spencer said it was the mobile market they wanted. And there the Swedish King reigns. Every month, 200 million people open one of the company's games, above all the long-running “Candy Crush”.
– I think they like that they have bought King, says Tjodolf Sommestad, responsible for daily operations, and continues:
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– We reach an audience that they did not have access to before. On the other hand, it's not like they're rushing to start working more closely with us than with anyone else, he says.
No Xbox bet
The signals from Microsoft are to continue on the same track. For example, Sommestad does not see any direct collaboration opportunities regarding Microsoft's subscription service Game Pass, which is available for PC and Xbox.
– I don't think our games fit very well on those platforms, especially game consoles. If they had done that, we would have gone there earlier, he says.
Carrying on as usual does not necessarily mean chasing the next game achievement. When “Candy crush soda saga” was released in 2014, it was supposed to replace succeń “Candy crush saga”. But the players did not want to let go of the faithful servant, but rather switched between the games.
The mission: Improve
Nowadays, the insight is to continue developing the existing games, with new courses, events and innovations.
– Improving the gaming experience for the hundreds of millions of players we have today is our first mission, says Sommestad.
At the same time, he hopes to be able to achieve new successes. But for it to be worthwhile for King to bet on, a new title needs to climb the charts and reach a large audience. “Crash Bandicoot: On the Run!”, was shut down last year, three years after its release, while the action game “Rebel riders” has ended up in the freezer.
– For it to be really worth it for us to spend time and energy on making a new game better for many, many years, then we want it to be a real hit game, he says.