“Our philosophy is different,” Kai Wawrzinek said. Along the way, Goodgame grew strong in Germany, central Europe, and the U.S. Now its rivals include the makers of mega-hits like Supercell, creator of Clash of Clans King, creator of Candy Crush Saga and Machine Zone, creator of Game of War: Fire Age. Last year, about 46 percent of revenue came from mobile games, and that is the major focus going forward. By 2012, they had €30 million in revenues and €100 million by 2013. In 2010, they bought a small company with eight employees to get access to more talent. “We took some risks, but not too many,” Kai Wawrzinek said. They assembled a team of 10 people, and they launched their first online poker game at the end of 2009. Kai did the programming on the first games, while Christian did the art. In starting the company, Kai and Christian met for beers once a week, usually to discuss crazy ideas. In 2003 he founded his first merger and acquisition enterprise for websites. Kai Wawrzinek and his brother have been developing and acquiring websites since 2002. The latter has 40 million registered users. “You have to move closer to them.”Īmong its hot games are Goodgame Empire and Empire: Four Kingdoms. “By nature, these markets are very different and it is hard to understand them,” Kai Wawrzinek said. Goodgame partnered in China with Qihoo 360. Goodgame tried to succeed in China with online games, but the market proved too difficult. This year, Goodgame Studios plans to further hire people to expand its presence in Asia. Goodgame has expanded into Asia with smaller game studios in Tokyo and Seoul. We believe that free-to-play games have by far the largest market potential in the rapidly changing gaming industry.” “At the same time, we’re going to remain true to our disruptive free-to-play principle and continue to perfect it. “As per our strategic and long term goals, we want to offer the most comprehensive product portfolio to our users which will cater to a wide variety of gamer preferences across the globe,” Christian Wawrzinek said. The in-house production will help the company develop new titles more quickly and efficiently, and it will also enable it to make more sophisticated core gaming projects for various platforms, Christian Wawrzinek said. The company has set up in-house production studios that focus on different genres. That’s a tougher application process than Harvard’s. Only about 2 percent of the people who apply for jobs get hired. In the development and marketing of our games, we pursue a data-based approach which allows for constant optimization and scalable operational processes,” said Kai WawrzinekĬhristian Wawrzinek, chief operating officer of Goodgame, said in an interview that the company’s emphasis on hiring the best talent is the key to its success. “The fact that our revenue and earnings are developing so positively demonstrate that our business model enables sustainable growth. During the past year, the number of registered players across Goodgame’s 11 games in the market rose from 170 million in 2013 to 245 million in 2014. But it has already some big successes like the mobile game Empire: Four Kingdoms, which is the world’s highest-grossing app by a German company. Goodgame is focused on launching new products and international expansion in 2015. About a third of the employees are women, a higher ratio for women than most other game companies. The growth is happening fast enough for Goodgame Studios, which operates under the legal name Altigi GmbH, to anticipate adding 400 new employees in 2015, said Kai Wawrzinek. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) were €34.8 million, or $37.9 million, in 2014, compared to €13.4 million, or $14.6 million, in 2013. The revenues from 2014 were up 97 percent from €102.6 million, or $116.51 million in 2013.
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