Founded in 2020, Sandsoft is a fast-growth global mobile-first games developer, publisher and investor, powered by a diverse team of highly experienced games makers. The company is composed of passionate game creators who have worked on some of the most successful game franchises ever released, including FIFA, Candy Crush, Need for Speed, Angry Birds and World of Tanks.
Miikka Lindgren heads up Sandsoft’s business development to identify high-quality, mobile-first games to release in the MENA region and worldwide, as well as sourcing co-development partners for Sandsoft Games’ internal titles. He’s previously held senior roles at Rovio for almost a decade following a similarly successful stint at Nokia.
Do you have any advice for studios considering whether to self-publish or work with a publisher?
The short answer is that if you want to focus on game development and forget about dealing with everything else, then working with a publisher is probably the option for you.
The long answer is that, when making this decision, it’s important to consider your available resources and expertise. Small studios may have limited UA expertise and funds available to grow your game or lack a large marketing function, which can limit the development of creatives and playables. Analytics is another area that smaller teams may have limited experience in; a solid analytics backend and data team is key to a successful UA strategy and LiveOps. Building teams in these areas can be costly, which is why a publisher is often chosen to support these functions while the in-house team focuses on game development.
What should studios which do want publishing support look for in potential partners?
Studios should look for a publishing partner with a similar culture and work approach – chemistry matters! Working with a publisher can be a lengthy commitment so it’s important to choose a publisher which prioritizes long-term relationships over immediate returns.
Another key factor to consider is the experience of your publishing partner’s team, especially in the genre of your game. At Sandsoft, our publishing team is powered by experienced individuals from the likes of Rovio, King and Applovin. Good UA goes hand in hand with deep product knowledge which is best gained first-hand. Choosing an experienced publisher can effectively guide your roadmap planning, product design, and LiveOps strategy.
What are the metrics or indicators that you look for in a game that show it has a good chance of success?
For us, everything starts with good retention. If retention is good, then it’s easier to fix monetization. Even with decent monetization, poor retention can cause problems as CPIs tend to rise as you scale. Ultimately, this business is simple: your player LTV needs to be higher than CPI, even when facing competition or a rising CPI figure.
What genres or monetization models of games do you see being most successful in the current market?
In the current market, launching new games is more challenging as UA costs have increased and targeting has become more difficult. For smaller developers, it’s worth focusing on game genres with wide audience appeal that can be monetized with both IAPs and Ads. This helps keep the CPI lower, better monetize your audience, and provide faster payback time for the UA investment.
How much marketing budget does a game need in the current market to figure out whether it can scale?
This is subject to genre as in some genres CPIs are super high and in others they can be closer to $1. You should run a market test for your game and do UA on 2-3 different channels with different campaign types (subject to your game genre and monetization design) to see what level of CPI, retention and ROAS you see in these. In order to have a statistically significant sample size, the game’s scale should be in the thousands of users. A publishing partner with the resources to help you invest significantly in UA when the data supports this decision can be critical in helping games scale.
What role does a publisher like Sandsoft play in games’ marketing campaigns?
Sandsoft, as a publisher, provides a comprehensive 360-degree service to help developers reach the right users at the right price. Our unique advantage lies in our “boutique-style” marketing approach, where we customize the marketing strategy for each game and developer. We firmly believe that partnering with the development team is crucial to maximizing the game’s success in today’s highly competitive market. Marketing is a key component of our publishing services, and our suite includes access to advanced marketing tools, tailored marketing strategies, creative development for various campaign types, UA funds deployment, and measurement services.
Miikka Lindgren, VP of Publishing at Sandsoft
