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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Analysis and Opinion   >   Opinion   >   Playfish’s Kristian Segerstrale changes his tune about brands

Playfish’s Kristian Segerstrale changes his tune about brands

By on August 17, 2010

At GDC 2009, Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Playfish, had this to say about brands in social games:

The era of big franchises is over: it’s about what your friends like and are playing, not the brands that you recognise

At GDC 2010, Kristian Segerstrale had this to say about brands in social games:

All other things equal, franchises matter. Platform expertise is important, but as a platform ages and the knowledge of developing for that platform spreads out, franchise awareness becomes increasingly important.

What changed in the interim? Oh, just the $300m+ purchase of Playfish by the owner of the world’s largest gaming brands. (That’s Electronic Arts, in case you haven’t been paying attention for the past year)

It’s perfectly fair to change your tune when your circumstances change.

But it’s also fair to call you on it, I think.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com