The best bet: cross-platform games

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How cross-platform games enable players to become more loyal and allow businesses to thrive.

The conversation around cross-platform gaming is loud, today more than ever. Some players prefer one console to another, some like PC s better, and others love their mobile devices. There has been this rivalry between platforms for years now.

This past year in particular we’ve been watching how, slowly but surely, things are starting to change and although there is still some resistance from some elements in the industry, the evidence is right there . We are watching every day how cross-platform games enable players to become more loyal to games and they are allowing businesses to grow in ways we’ve never seen before. 

From the player’s perspective, having the opportunity to play with friends no matter the device they own, just makes things easier and takes the experience of playing to a whole new level. This accessibility is key in allowing the gaming community to connect with one another and encourages players to become loyal to their favorite games.

So, why aren’t all games cross-platform if its advantages are so obvious? 

For starters, the gaming console market is still worth more than PC games by a few billion dollars. As a matter of fact, with PlayStation releasing PS5 and Nintendo, allegedly, working on an upgraded Switch to release next year, the PC game market is expected to drop (to see the stats click here ).

Not to mention the technical challenge that it represents to build one of these games: for it to run smoothly on different platforms, different technologies are needed. And when it comes to how the game runs, consoles deliver amazing game performance and visuals and are generally cheaper than gaming PCs . 

Creating a game with this flexibility does not guarantee success , it’s a lot of work, and naturally, very expensive. As a game creator, you really need to consider if it makes sense for your audience and your game’s business model. And if you do your research and it makes sense for your business goals, it is totally worth it.

Removing the restrictions so players can easily connect, allows a network effect  to happen. One person likes a game, he or she invites a friend, the friend invites more friends and so it goes. The kind of organic growth that cross-platform games allow is massive, and it doesn’t compare with platform exclusive games. 

When given the option, a player can switch freely between platforms according to his preference and resources, which leads to an increased time spent in-game and, naturally, an increase in the CLV (Customer Lifetime Value). According to an Epic games article, published by Gamesindustry.biz, users who cross-played Fortnite generated 365% higher revenue than non-cross-players ( See the full article here ). 

Fortnite, Minecraft, Rocket League, Call of Duty, are great examples of this. All these games are universally beloved because they allow people to connect with each other and to play no matter the device they have access to. Not to mention the economic success this represents! We have seen it all these years with our games Call of War and Supremacy 1914 . The level of success on these wouldn’t be possible without them being cross-platform. 

Cross-platform games are shaping the future of the gaming industry and to ignore it, as a business, would be like tying the rope around your neck. 

The best move to do right now, for a game, is to think about ways to be more approachable for the players and how to make it easier for them to connect with each other and to the game itself. Being cross-platform is one way to start.

If you are interested in continuing the conversation or in publishing our games, feel free to contact us at bizdev@bytro.com .

By Cecilia Luna

The best bet: cross-platform games

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How cross-platform games enable players to become more loyal and allow businesses to thrive.

The conversation around cross-platform gaming is loud, today more than ever. Some players prefer one console to another, some like PC s better, and others love their mobile devices. There has been this rivalry between platforms for years now.

This past year in particular we’ve been watching how, slowly but surely, things are starting to change and although there is still some resistance from some elements in the industry, the evidence is right there . We are watching every day how cross-platform games enable players to become more loyal to games and they are allowing businesses to grow in ways we’ve never seen before. 

From the player’s perspective, having the opportunity to play with friends no matter the device they own, just makes things easier and takes the experience of playing to a whole new level. This accessibility is key in allowing the gaming community to connect with one another and encourages players to become loyal to their favorite games.

So, why aren’t all games cross-platform if its advantages are so obvious? 

For starters, the gaming console market is still worth more than PC games by a few billion dollars. As a matter of fact, with PlayStation releasing PS5 and Nintendo, allegedly, working on an upgraded Switch to release next year, the PC game market is expected to drop (to see the stats click here ).

Not to mention the technical challenge that it represents to build one of these games: for it to run smoothly on different platforms, different technologies are needed. And when it comes to how the game runs, consoles deliver amazing game performance and visuals and are generally cheaper than gaming PCs . 

Creating a game with this flexibility does not guarantee success , it’s a lot of work, and naturally, very expensive. As a game creator, you really need to consider if it makes sense for your audience and your game’s business model. And if you do your research and it makes sense for your business goals, it is totally worth it.

Removing the restrictions so players can easily connect, allows a network effect  to happen. One person likes a game, he or she invites a friend, the friend invites more friends and so it goes. The kind of organic growth that cross-platform games allow is massive, and it doesn’t compare with platform exclusive games. 

When given the option, a player can switch freely between platforms according to his preference and resources, which leads to an increased time spent in-game and, naturally, an increase in the CLV (Customer Lifetime Value). According to an Epic games article, published by Gamesindustry.biz, users who cross-played Fortnite generated 365% higher revenue than non-cross-players ( See the full article here ). 

Fortnite, Minecraft, Rocket League, Call of Duty, are great examples of this. All these games are universally beloved because they allow people to connect with each other and to play no matter the device they have access to. Not to mention the economic success this represents! We have seen it all these years with our games Call of War and Supremacy 1914 . The level of success on these wouldn’t be possible without them being cross-platform. 

Cross-platform games are shaping the future of the gaming industry and to ignore it, as a business, would be like tying the rope around your neck. 

The best move to do right now, for a game, is to think about ways to be more approachable for the players and how to make it easier for them to connect with each other and to the game itself. Being cross-platform is one way to start.

If you are interested in continuing the conversation or in publishing our games, feel free to contact us at bizdev@bytro.com .

By Cecilia Luna

SUPREMACY 1 brings The Great War to PC and Mobile in truly real-time massively multiplayer strategic warfare

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Experience Long Term Strategy in massive-scale historic campaigns where in-game action happens over days and weeks of real time

Hamburg, Germany – 19 August 2020. Strategy gaming specialist Bytro is proud to announce its new grand strategy title Supremacy 1: The Great War is available now, free to play for browser and mobile platforms.

Supremacy 1 puts players in command of a nation during the dark days of World War I, in grand Long Term Strategy (LTS) warfare. Players’ actions happen in real time over days and weeks in epic massively multiplayer campaigns.

In Supremacy 1, your choices matter and long-term strategy counts. Manage your nation and control your troops. Betray your allies and keep your enemies close. Establish your armies and align your economy to support the war effort. Research and develop new technologies like gas, U-boats and dreadnoughts. Engage in subterfuge and deploy spies. Leverage your diplomatic skills and build alliances with other players to dominate Europe and the world.

Supremacy 1 is a deep strategy title but is designed to be welcoming for new players. The same campaign can be played across multiple devices – desktop, tablet or mobile – and new players always begin Supremacy 1 in a tutorial campaign against fellow newcomers. Actions like building factories or moving troops can be performed in moments, allowing players to drop in and out of the game each day to monitor enemy movements, ally with neighboring nations and launch surprise attacks on unsuspecting rivals.

“Supremacy 1914 is the brand Bytro was built upon back in 2009, and today we’re thrilled to launch a new generation of Supremacy for players around the world,” said Tobias Kringe, Managing Director of Bytro. “We hope long-time Supremacy 1914 players will be excited to try the new units, innovations and features, and we’re excited to welcome a world of new players to the Supremacy community.”

Play Supremacy 1 for free in any HTML5 web browser at Supremacy1.com, and on iOS and Android. A PC desktop client will launch later on Steam. 

Watch the Supremacy 1 launch trailer, and follow Supremacy 1 on Twitter and Facebook: 

Press Contact
press@bytro.com

About Bytro
Bytro Labs GmbH is an owner-managed company which develops and publishes technically sophisticated, browser-based and mobile online games including Call of War 1942, Conflict of Nations: World War III (jointly developed with sister company, Dorado Games), Supremacy 1914 and Supremacy 1. Bytro’s games have been played by over 10 million registered users and are available in 15 different languages. Bytro, part of the Sweden-based global group of gaming studios, Stillfront since 2013, was founded in 2009 by Felix Faber, Tobias Kringe and Christopher Lörken and is based in Hamburg, Germany.

8 QUESTIONS FOR: Niklas, Senior Developer

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Niklas Grebe, 29, Senior Developer

The time has come for another sneak peek into the creative minds of the people that make playing our games possible. Today we get to talk to Niklas, Senior Developer at Bytro whose mission is to give all our players the best experience possible. In this piece you’ll get to know about the challenges he and his team face, the fun parts of the job and of course, some very wise words of advice for everyone who wants to get into the industry and for life in general. 

Niklas, What do you do in your job as Senior Developer Java Backend?

At the moment I’m working more on the infrastructure side of things. The buzzword is called “DevOps” in the industry. Being a developer is not only about programming apps in a certain language. For example, I am coming from Java but I’ve always been open minded for other languages and been curious about everything else related to running applications at scale as well as the workflows and processes we, as an agile team, follow. Some concrete examples:

The build and deployment process (Continuous Integration & Continuous Deployment) is a super critical part of modern software development which I focused on the last couple of months here at Bytro.

What did you do before working at Bytro?

On paper the same job (Senior Developer Java Backend) at InnoGames. There I was a bit more focused on the programming part and worked on an (internally) shared library code base for game backends & centralized systems. But of course the structures, processes etc. are very much different compared to a 400+ people company from where I was coming from to Bytro which has around 45 people.

What does a typical work day look like?

I know you probably heard this answer before but there is no typical day which makes my work at Bytro even more enjoyable. It for sure also means a bit of (positive) craziness since it’s hard to plan for anything at least on a day to day basis. There is only one constant in my day: the stand up. Every day at 10:00 am we will come together as a team and discuss what we did yesterday, what we plan to do today, and raise problems where we might be blocked by something. I wear many hats during the day, e.g. in code reviews I do some sort of QA of the code my colleagues wrote, and I give suggestions on how to improve it which also includes mentoring my fellow devs and sharing knowledge on a very technical level. Another hat would be to investigate why a system is unreliable or slow, which we find out with our monitoring tools which proactively ping us. On a regular basis we also kick off new projects and do some planning, breaking down high level requirements/tasks into chunks of work which we can tackle. Another thing I do is “Translating” business requirements into technical requirements. And okay, I lied earlier…. there is one more constant in a typical working day despite the stand up: I log into one of my active game rounds and play 😉

Which has been your favorite project so far?

Definitely migrating our dev workflow to Github and integrating static code analysis like SonarQube to it. This gives us such a better dev experience and helps us to detect code defects early on. It kinda automated parts of our code review process which gives us time to concentrate on more important things rather than on typos.

What is the biggest challenge you are facing at the moment?

We have such a diverse landscape of systems and services that we need to keep them manageable with a rather small team of developers. In the last couple of months we had to scale our infrastructure quite a bit to cope with increasing numbers of players in our games. Which is super positive but was also quite a challenge for us. We want to give all our players the best experience possible, that’s what we strive for.

What is your favorite videogame? 

I love the Counter-Strike series. The competitive aspect and that after over 17 years I still play and love the game. Hitting insane shots or fully focused in a clutch situation gives the extra kick for me in this game.

What advice would you give to a developer that is trying to get into the gaming industry?

Follow your heart and passion. I for example really enjoy participating in game jams. A game jam is a time boxed event (usually ~48hrs during a weekend) in which you create a game prototype. The creative energy is amazing at game jams and since it is recommended to group up with other people which you don’t know it’s also a great event to get into contact with other people who are as passionate about game development as I am.

Give us 3 tips for developer teams trying to improve their workflow/productivity/creativity.

  1. Never stop learning! In our industry the environment changes quickly. Find time to educate yourself and share knowledge within your team/company. This can be going to conferences, books or even recorded talks on a video platform. In our team we organize regularly a so called “video lunch” where we pick an interesting talk and eat lunch together while watching the video.
  2. Be humble & listen to every voice. (Game) development is a team effort. The best teams are the ones that listen to each other and have a shared & aligned vision of what they want to achieve, and at least roughly know how to get there. What I mean is that it doesn’t matter who gives feedback, e.g. a senior dev should never neglect feedback because it was voiced by a junior. The same is true for cross department feedback, because maybe a super passionate developer has valuable ideas for game design.
  3. Keep feedback cycles as short as possible. Iterating over and over to steadily get progress. This means it should be as easy as possible to release a new prototype/version of your game, regularly playtest new features – if you work on a live game do a/b tests and receive player feedback early on. Time is valuable and one of the worst things that could happen is that you work weeks/months or even years on a feature which doesn’t make fun in the end.
  4. And an extra one, because this is important: Think outside of the box & don’t limit yourself by constructively challenging the status quo.

Thank you so much, Niklas!

Want to be on board?

You can find further information about our job openings at bytro.com/career. Your contact person is Susanne Zander. If you are currently not looking for a new challenge, we are happy to invite you to follow us on Social Media!