Intervju med Chillingo

15 april, 2009

Brittiska Chillingo är världens största distributör av iPhone-spel på App Store. Ja, om vi får tro dem själva i alla fall. De säger även att det var de som myntade begreppet ”app” innan alla andra när de 2002 gav sig in i mobilspelsbranschen. De ligger bakom hundratals releaser och däribland spel så som iDracula, Zen Bound och PingPong 3D. Vi fick oss en pratstund över mail med en av grundarna Joe Wee. Kolla även in deras kommande releaser på Chillingo.com.

Berätta mer om Chillingo.

Chillingo was founded in 2002 – as a direct to consumer end to end mobile content portal – we operate clickgamer.com, clickapps.com and offer fully managed content enablement services to brands and many other companies along the mobile value chain. The mobile content included Windows Mobile, Symbian, J2ME, RIM BB, and many other mobile platforms. So, when the iPhone came along, it was a very natural progression for our company.

På vilket sätt jobbar ni?

We are quickly establishing ourselves as the publisher of high quality iPhone apps with recent hits like iDracula and Zen Bound.  We have a flexible publishing model. Depending on many factors, we can opt for a full publishing only deal, a joint publishing/development deal, and sometimes a development only deal.  It all depends on the game idea, how far developed it is, and the existing skills involved in a particular project.

Ok, och varför är ni bäst på det ni gör?

Our experience in the mobile value chain since the first mobile game was sold on the first smartphone (  what seems many years ago ) gives us a lot of insight and useful relationships to allow us to market games well. Our business has always been direct to consumer. The iphone is direct to consumer. Many lessons learnt in our company history allows us to make a loud noise when games are launched. Our marketing relationships range from both traditional offline media to online media.

Vad kännetecknar ett Chillingo-spel?

A Chillingo game needs to be innovative and fun.

Vad är fördelen med att jobba just med AppStore och iPhone?

iPhone and the App Store has condensed the entire ‘direct to consumer’ content creation and commerce process into a nice tidy end to end box, that works. In the ‘old’ days, this process was very messy and had many parties involved ( like developers, publishers, brands, network operators, aggregators, independent content stores, manufacturers, payment service providers – each with their own agenda ), the end to end consumer experience was not a very good one at all. Ask anyone who has bought a mobile game the old way, and how it is done via the iPhone and the App Store today. It is like comparing a horse wagon to a high-speed bullet train! No competiton at all.

Vilka är er bestsellers?

iDracula, Zen Bound, iPingPong, Bike or Die! 2, The Quest, Dungeon and Hero, Sneezies, Omar Sharif Bridge, Vector Tanks

Det sägs att ni myntade begreppet ”app”. Kan det verkligen stämma?

We launched ClickApps.com in 2004 long before anyone in the mobile space has heard of the word App.

Vilka är de tre bästa spelen ni släppt respektive inte släppt?

Chillingo: iDracula, Zen Bound, Vector Tanks

Others: Space Ninja, Skybound, EDGE and Zombieville USA are all current favorites in the Chillingo office!

Känner ni till några svenska utvecklare och apps?

No at the moment, but we always hold an open door policy to cool and innovative ideas whoever or wherever they are based.

Om jag som svensk utvecklare vill få ut mitt spel på ett bra sätt, är det bara att kontakta er och vad får jag?

Definitely come speak to us. We will work on the marketing whilst allowing the developer to concentrate on what they do best. Revenue share again depends on many factors. For a game which becomes a hit, we will expect revenues up to 5 figures a day.