What do you do if you’re such an incredibly famous developer for a particular game and want to release something completely different? If you are Supercell, the creators of the mobile phenomenon Clash of clans, create a completely fake developer and launch your new product with a fake name.
Everdale, officially announced yesterday as the new Supercell game, in fact, has existed since the fall of last year, with the generously innocuous name Valls i Pobles. The free download building game focuses on peaceful cooperation, bringing together ten players to build their own villages within a larger valley, then changing resources, doing adventures, and forming a “Valley Guild.” The great emphasis for Everdale it is based on benevolence, teamwork, and the complete absence of conflict. Which, it is worth mentioning, distinguishes him rather Clash of clans.
Of course, it’s not the studio’s first peaceful game. Same summer as CoCreleased in 2012, they also released a game inspired by Farmville he called Hay day, which amassed millions of dollars for Finnish developers. However, for almost a decade since then, his games have been very focused on combat Boom Beach, Clash Royale, Brawl Stars i Clash Quest. It is worth mentioning that for each of them and, in fact, for many abandoned projects, each of them was launched first by means of a “soft launch” in order to get feedback from the players before posting them properly, which is quite common in mobile space.
Apparently, when it came to posting something so different, Supercell worried that this would be more complicated with its cultivated player base. (We have contacted Supercell to ask about their motivations and experience and we will update if they respond).
Under the name Osmium Interactive, Valls i Pobles it was selectively released worldwide on mobile devices, so that developers could do all this player information, checking how the game was played or not be played, and could make all the changes and changes needed to get the game on as sticky and catchy as possible. Oh, and supposedly listening to reviews posted in stores.
G / O Media may receive a commission
Games released with their real names often end up being quite a hangover when it comes to the final release, stores suffocated in potentially negative reviews of an unfinished version of the game. Launching with a new title on a new page will definitely clear the board once the first issues and problems are resolved. While not a common tactic, this type of soft throw occurs occasionally in the development of mobile games. Supercell is just one of the largest companies to do so recently.
Of course, all of this also carries some risks. Not having his mark on the back will surely have made things nervous when it comes to making sure there are enough players noticing his game. However, it had more than 50,000 installations and 900 reviews Android only, so clearly managed well. These reviews had a very positive trend and received an even warmer reception through its official launch.
It is certainly an interesting approach to launching something new, avoiding reputational issues, albeit mostly positive ones.