CHANGES; 2 IN 1 DEAL

An in-depth look at Lightneer's future

It’s finally time to dig deeper and give an in-depth look at Lightneer’s future as a self-publisher in the mobile gaming world. Oh yes, we are focusing our energies over the next months on new challenges through a change in strategy. Years 2018 – 2019 were the golden age of hyper casual games, but now, in mid-2022, it’s time for a change that has been carefully planned for some time now within the company.

Lightneer’s change will be twofold

  1. Becoming one of the leading self publishing developers globally
  2. Change from hyper casual games to hybrid casual games

Growth is one of the most important strategic points for any business, and in the games industry one needs to be two steps ahead of the rest. In Lightneer’s case, growth equals a change in strategy and a move to self-publishing. So, in layman’s terms, there is a desire to be a game developer that publishes its own games.

Our CEO Henri summarizes that ”reasons behind the strategy changes are our desire to increase synergies between publishing and development. There’s also the mindset that at the heart of it all is fast learning, keeping up with the market and speeding up the learning cycle. And of course it’s also about straightforward business reasons.”

For example, when talking about LTV or Lifetime Value, a simple and fast hyper casual game has a short tail and monetization happens in just a few days, compared to hybrid casual, which aims to create longer engagement with players.

Pro’s and – are there even cons?

The shift from hyper to hybrid is by no means just our idea, the trend can be seen in the big players in the industry both domestically and globally. By moving from hyper casual games to hybrids, Lightneer wants to bring the players the best of both worlds. There is a desire to create games that are easy for the user to understand and still have a relatively large amount in terms of depth and meta game. Hyper casual games provide marketability optimization, i.e. low CPI, which results in easier scaling of games.

In casual games, it is generally the quality of the user that counts, resulting in more revenue per user. The hybrid side will balance this combo, with games being quick to develop. Hybrids also bring in the IAPs, while they are also mainly promotional games.

Rapid development is in our DNA, their strength is in combining this knowledge with the skill of how to develop games with low CPI. Because of the technical talent, we can also design and create hybrid casual games quickly.

In addition to technical talent, one of the reasons for pivoting from hyper casuals to hybrid casuals is to utilize our size and technical capabilities better, with a staff of around 20 people, and it is this size that needs to be leveraged right, we are big enough to develop technical capabilities and a proper framework for ourselves but small enough to be agile and keep our burn rate in control. We are currently in the league of small studios, but there is an opportunity to shine among medium-sized gaming companies in the future. “So, the entry angle is great,” Henri says, turning his focus back to the talented teams.

The core of the business

Teams have always been and will continue to be at the heart of our business, despite changes in strategy. Communication with employees has been open throughout, and the story tells that the receival of the game-changing strategy has been extremely positive among the teams.

Speaking of teams, by August at the latest, the first team will be harnessed to focus on developing self-published games. In this context, we are also currently recruiting for a Head Of Growth, the Marketing Lead and Performance marketing director wrapped in one. The role exists to build a marketing team from the ground up and facilitate Lightneer’s new growth path into a self-publishing game studio. Did we get your attention? If you want to work on the frontline of hybrid casual gaming, this is for you. Look here and read more about what the company can offer you.

Ode to our publishers

We’ve had a great couple of years with our publishers and our collaboration with them of course won’t stop in the future. All our partners have been a good sport with receiving the news of the strategy change, and that is right at the heart of the way the games industry works and treats others.

We want to connect with our followers, players and future team members. Follow us on our social media platforms for updates on our staff, office dogs, missions and new games.