
Supercell is bigger than EA in terms of monthly iOS revenue - dsarle
http://www.arcticstartup.com/2012/12/21/supercell-is-bigger-than-electronic-arts-in-terms-of-monthly-ios-revenue
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Tichy
"efficiently monetizing their userbase."

Is this newspeech for ripping off their customers?

I don't know their games, but I wouldn't be surprised if their clients are
mostly teens maxing out their parents credit cards. Yeah sorry, I am a bit in
a cynical mood I suppose.

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emcl
Are candy/confectionery manufacturers supposed to feel guilty that they make
stuff kids like and nag their parents to spend money on their products?
Supercell has carefully designed the game to encourage impulsive purchases but
that doesn't mean that the players are not deriving any pleasure out of it.
And teens maxing out credit cards is something that can be easily stopped.

~~~
throwaway64
I belive there is a real moral hazard to selling addicting/impulsive products,
especially to children. After all this is part of the reason why zynga has
such a bad reputation.

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iuguy
I think this is an unfair comparison. I mean, I could claim that Mandalorian
is bigger than EA in terms of monthly penetration testing revenue and be
right, but it doesn't really mean much.

Having said that, Supercell have a good product and are shifting volume, so
more power to them.

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Gravityloss
EA is the second biggest in monthly iOS revenue, that's why he compared to
that. It's not unfair at all.

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madewulf
With all this talk about how the good days of the app store are over, it is
good to see a relatively unknown company making it. I also noticed that a big
part of the Apple selection for the end of the year is made by indie
developers, like Super Hexagon, Letterpress or the education stuff from
l'Escapadou, which means that they will probably make a lot of money.

With talent and flair, it is still possible to do it. Easy success for trivial
apps is over but what Apple did to remove the barriers to entry for indies
still makes the app store very interesting.

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dirtyaura
Now, I wouldn't say that Supercell is an indie developer. They have an
experienced team of game industry veterans and over $10M dollars of funding
from the beginning.

But that doesn't take away from the fact that CEO Ilkka Paananen and guys are
running a stellar company with interesting culture: small teams of 5 people
form "cells" that work independently on their own prototype game. Lots of
prototypes are killed and these "failures" are celebrated with bottles of
champaigne.

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pauljburke
Funnily enough I finally picked up clash of clans because a guy in the office
kept pestering me to give it a go. It's very nicely put together and I can't
remember the last time someone in the office harassed me into picking up a
game. Particularly someone I'd classify as a non gamer.

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kayoone
2 years ago they started with a high quality Browsergame in Flash called
Gunshine (a casual RPG) which didnt work and was closed down. They then seem
to have shifted focus to mobile and do amazing things there, which was only a
matter of time because of their top team.

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zurn
I wonder if Supercell's widely advetised cells structure explains their
success (and could be learned from?) or if it's just a "secret sauce" myth
they cultivate to add flair to a well-run and/or lucky company.

~~~
fulafel
[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/183064/supercells_secr...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/183064/supercells_secret_sauce.php?print=1)

> "Now it's a lot more about the product quality and the product itself,"
> Paananen notes. "If we want to create the best products, we need the best
> people. That was actually how the whole thing started, and where the name
> Supercell comes from. We're creating these small but ultra-dynamic teams of
> developers who work relatively independently. And despite the small size of
> the group, we have big dreams -- hence Supercell."

~~~
jmpeax
The CEO of Supercells says that the "secret sauce" of his company's success is
"product quality". Forgive me if I feel like I'm being sold to.

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JanneVee
There is an explanation for why also. I recently downloaded Simpsons: tapped
out. The "game" wouldn't start for two days because it couldn't connect to the
Orion servers. I'm not going to spend real money on in-game donuts if it
refuses to start. I found out on the forums that it was a common problem.
People aren't going to spend real money on something that isn't reliable.

(NOTE: actually I wasn't going to spend the money anyway. It isn't a game. It
is a Skinner Box).

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mpunaskar
I do think that clash of clan is much better than other games i have played so
far. I have played other games (dungeon hunter) which asks me to pay up for
virtual coins, gems if i have to progress in next set of levels, but with COC
i can do just fine without spending any money.

Love COC ;)

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kaonashi
The anthill at my feet is bigger than K2 in terms of letters.

