On this week's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Phil Black, one of the co-hosts of the Game Economist Cast, a podcast dedicated to game economy design, and a consultant with Game Economist Consulting. Previously, Phil held game economist and analytics roles at Amazon Games, DICE, and Scopely. Phil is also a panelist on the This Week in Games (TWIG) podcast.

Phil joins me on this episode to examine the shifting dynamics of the mobile gaming economy, from the consolidation of high-revenue genres to the strategic adoption of AI and direct-to-consumer models. Among other things, we discuss:

How the concentration of mobile gaming revenue into puzzle and 4X genres reshapes the competitive landscape for independent developers
Whether the integration of hyper-casual mechanics into core loops represents a fundamental evolution of the modern mobile gaming economy
Why the transition from visual AI outputs to deep personalization remains the primary value proposition for future game monetization
What the divergence between Android and iOS installation gates reveals about the health of the global mobile marketing ecosystem
If the rise of third-party web shops and direct-to-consumer models can effectively counteract the platform fees of major stores
How the emergence of warbonds and sampling-based monetization strategies signals a shift away from traditional battle pass reward structures
When the mobile gaming industry will move beyond post-ATT recovery strategies

Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast:

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Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact Mobile Dev Memo advertising.

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