GDEV makes a big bet on Hero Wars Universe
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GDEV isn’t a common name in gaming but it has one of the industry’s most success mobile game franchises in Hero Wars.
The company’s Nexters subsidiary has seen Hero Wars generate more than 190 million total downloads and $2 billion in total bookings since it was released in 2016. That helped propel Nexters, which went public in 2021, to $480 million in revenues in 2022, up 11% from a year earlier. Revenue growth is slowing as mobile game companies deal with new dynamics and a mixed global economy.
I spoke with Anton Reinhold, the COO of international gaming holding company GDEV, on a recent trip to Lisbon, where the company announced its Hero Wars Universe expansion beyond gaming. It is launching an animated movie, comic book and more in the latest move to take advantage of transmedia.
The company is working on separate Hero Wars games for mobile and desktop, titled Hero Wars: Alliance and Hero Wars: Dominion Era, respectively. And it released a Google Play game, the action-RPG game Deploy Heroes in alpha form. And it’s working on hybrid casual games such as Hero Wars Survivor, Dungeon Escape, and Wendy’s Taverna, which delve into the Hero Wars characters’ stories through sequels, prequels and spin-offs.
It also released Raging Blades, a comic book available on Webtoon, the largest online comic book platform, and produced by Light Comic Studio. And its animated film is being produced by Primal Shape, a studio behind сinematic movies for Apex Legends and League of Legends. And it opened Wendy Shop, a web store of unique items, exclusive offers, and special promotions.
Reinhold said it was a natural
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