Ep 146: The dos and don’ts of soft launching a mobile game

Matej Lančarič has been in the gaming industry for 10 years. He’s launched 32 mobile games in the last five years as a user acquisition and marketing consultant, and soft launching mobile games is one of his specialties. In this episode, Matej shares some of the biggest mistakes companies make when soft launching their mobile games.

Matej is also one of the hosts of the 2 & a Half Gamers podcast. He and Tommy talk about the show and other mobile marketing industry topics at the top of Matej’s mind.

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Google Podcasts

• What made you want to switch to working as a consultant as opposed to staying with a major publisher?
• Do you gravitate towards certain genres or verticals that you seem to have a better grasp of than others or that you enjoy working with more than others?
• What are some of the big mistakes companies make when strategizing a soft launch for a mobile game?
• What are fake ads?
• Why did you launch the 2 & a Half Gamers Podcast? What was the goal? What does it mean to be “no bullshit”?
• What’s been top of mind for you in the industry? Who is the “half-gamer”? Will you continue focusing on games in your show?

• 2:54 Matej’s background
• 4:21 Why Matej was drawn to consulting
• 6:06 Specializing in soft launch strategies
• 8:00 Mistakes companies make on soft launches
• 9:20 Misleading gameplay ads taint data
• 12:32 Countries where everyone tests tech phase
• 13:31 Building the predictions
• 16:33 About 2 & a Half Gamers Podcast

(8:01-8:24) “Companies sometimes think they can soft launch a game in one month, and then a global launch, then scale to millions. Well, it’s not how it works. Even if you are in the development of the game for one year, the first build you get out there can have very low numbers in retention, unfortunately, but it’s part of game development.”

(8:25-8:47) “Companies try to skip the technical phase and jump right into running a UA in Tier 1 countries where it’s really expensive. You need to be sure you have your tech stack – not 100% – but 200% correct; because there’s nothing worse than making decisions based on false data.”