Latest News

Bytro Labs

Archive Category: Blog

Call of War is now available in the Microsoft Store

We are proud to announce that we are expanding our product distribution by integrating Call of War in the Microsoft Store!

The platform will make Call of War accessible in more than 10 different languages in 240 countries. This partnership will bring the game to the billion monthly active devices within the global Microsoft community, and we hope they enjoy getting immersed in the long strategy world of our games.

As for our other products, we are currently working on adapting them to the platform and will be released in the following months.

Play Call of War in the Microsoft Store: ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9PMCB5L27KFF

 

 

 

 

This is who we are.

Get to know some of the faces behind the products we do, as well as our philosophy as a company. Take a sneak peek inside our office in vibrant St. Pauli located in Hamburg, and discover how we work constantly to challenge our players as much as we challenge ourselves.

This is who we are, this is Bytro.

 

Want to be on board?

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

Twitter

Instagram

Linkedin

Youtube

Facebook

Bytro Is Climate Neutral Certified!

Hamburg, Germany – 05 May 2021. Strategy gaming specialist Bytro is thrilled to announce it has partnered with Stillfront and South Pole to become Climate Neutral certified for both years 2019 and 2020.

As a thriving and growing company focused on connecting people through video games, Bytro has itself been committed to working on its own impacts for years. This has included ensuring renewable energy in nearly all its operations and offsetting its emissions related to business travel, paper, printing, games production, and operations. We are aware that our biggest footprint lies within our indirect emissions: the energy consumed by our players when playing their favorite games. That’s why we additionally compensated for every second of playtime to make our players climate-neutral as well, which ended up being by far the biggest share of our compensation.

After months of anticipation and work, today we are proud to say that Bytro, along with all the other companies that Stillfront represents, is not only a carbon-neutral company but it also offers carbon-neutral products. By supporting Bhadla Solar Power Project in India and the Isangi Forest Conservation Project in Congo, we have compensated for the carbon dioxide emissions made by the operation and the people using our products for the years 2019 and 2020.

“We are also excited to say that becoming a certified climate-neutral studio is only the beginning of our environmental strategy. As a company, we aim to be sustainable in all dimensions, and as individuals, we want to know that we are working towards a better future for our planet, and feel proud when we see companies commit to contributing the way we do. ”, Says Tobias Kringe, Managing Director & Founder.

This is an important step for us as all of our team members voted for “Sustainability” as one of our new company core values ​​in a workshop last year. Although being a business that is self-sufficient is part of it, it is important that we commit to this value in all its dimensions.

Sustainability is one of our six core values.

A better future for our planet does not stop with becoming environmentally friendly and climate-neutral, therefore we will continue to support different projects to drive a change in this world. In 2019 we teamed up with our friends at War Child to raise awareness and support children affected by conflict. We are committed to continue driving a change and promise to keep pushing ourselves and motivating our community to follow these steps.

 

If you want to know more about how Stillfront is reducing its carbon footprint, you can get more information here: https://www.stillfront.com/en/stillfront-publishes-annual-sustainability-report-for-2020/

Support the cause:

Press Contact press@bytro.com

About Bytro

Bytro Labs GmbH is an owner-managed company that 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), and Supremacy 1914. Bytro’s games have been played by over 15 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 and is based in Hamburg, Germany .

About Stillfront

Stillfront is a leading free-to-play powerhouse of gaming studios. Our diverse and exciting games portfolio has two common themes; loyal users and long lifecycle games. Organic growth and carefully selected and executed acquisitions embody our growth strategy and our 1,250+ co-workers thrive in an organization that engenders the spirit of entrepreneurship. Our main markets are the US, Germany, MENA, UK, and France. We are headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and the company is listed on Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market. 

About South Pole

South Pole, recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Social Enterprise, has been at the forefront of decarbonization since 2006. With its global Climate Solutions platform, South Pole develops and implements comprehensive strategies that turn climate action into long-term business opportunities for companies , governments, and organizations around the world. 

8 QUESTIONS FOR: Lizandro Rodríguez, Quality Assurance Specialist

Lizandro Rodriguez, 24, Quality Assurance Specialist

The time has come for the next short interview of the month! Featuring the February edition we have the one and only Lizandro Rodríguez, Quality Assurance Specialist, who joined Bytro last year.  All the way from Venezuela, Lizandro shares with us his day-to-day, work and outside-of-work passions, and some very important life and career advice.

Let’s go!

What do you do in your job as a Quality Assurance Specialist?

One of my main responsibilities is having a complete overview of any issues our games are experiencing before any releases and making sure these are fixed with the utmost priority. Besides supervising the status quo of our games (quality-wise) and improving internal processes, I also do manual tests of the new features before they are released to our players. This involves a very diverse cross-team communication between our QA department and developers, project managers, game designers, community moderators, players, and other departments on a daily basis.

What did you do before working for Bytro?

I was living in the beautiful city of Aachen (westernmost city of Germany), working part-time as a freelancer in marketing/journalism projects while also attending German lessons in a ‘Sprachschule’ five times a week! Before coming to Germany, I lived in Dublin, Ireland for a few years, where I got my first experience in the software industry, working for companies such as HubSpot and Google.


Which project holds a special place in your heart?

At the moment I am really focused on getting our QA department to a state where we can have more coverage of our functional testing needs, and this involves a lot of strategic planning with my fellow colleagues in terms of internal processes, organizational flows, and expanding our team, so exciting times are ahead of us!

What do you do in your free time?

I guess this is because I lived in Ireland, but I’d say discovering cozy pubs with friends is a must – having a good ol ‘pint of Guinness or trying new beer types, reading, and occasionally going for a swim or a hike outside of the city. As a hobby, I used to act with the Gaiety School of Acting (Dublin) and this is something I’d like to take up once more here in Hamburg, whether it is creating short-film ideas, getting the chance to interpret different characters, or just participating in theater productions!

I also used to travel quite a bit in the pre-COVID times, so I plan to continue doing that as soon as it is safe to do so.

What is your favorite videogame? Why?

I’ve always been a passionate FIFA player, but recently I started playing Pro Evolution Soccer and it has me hooked. I was reluctant to play it in the beginning, but my fellow Bytronians from the Marketing department decided to play the latest edition, and oh man, what a good decision that was. Now I really appreciate the realism of the game mechanics and, even if I constantly lose against my colleagues (I am talking to you, Marvin, our head of BizDev) I always have fun!

How does a typical day at work look like for you?

Besides the usual morning standup meetings to discuss the current status of our projects and assignments with different teams, I’d say a typical day would involve the whole QA department testing different areas of the games, staying reactive to new arising issues reported internally by our colleagues or externally by our players, and afterward escalating them accordingly.

What is a valuable lesson you have learned in your career?

Be kind . This is a total cliché , but you never know what type of day your colleagues or other people, in general, might be having, so I always do my best to maintain a positive attitude and make sure this always translates to all the efforts and dedication I put to my work. 

What do you like about working at Bytro?

It is unbelievable how much I’ve learned since I started working at Bytro. Proactiveness and constant improvement is something that I see on a daily basis and this motivates me to keep pushing myself. I also value everybody’s receptiveness to new ideas and the passion for innovating our games. This is my first experience in the gaming industry and I can honestly say I admire the talent of the people I work with!

 

Thank you so much Lizandro!

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

 

9 QUESTIONS FOR: ANASTASIA, DATA SCIENTIST

Anastasia Nefed, 26, Data Scientist

For the first short interview of 2021, we are proud to introduce Anastasia, our beloved Data Scientist! She came all the way from Ukraine to support us in interpreting our games data to make better choices for the future, and was kind enough to share a bit of her daily life, thoughts, and advice with us.

What do you do in your job as a Data Scientist? 

Data Science is a varied field. You can ask 20 data scientists about their responsibilities, and the answers will be completely different! 

There is one thing that unites all data scientists: we help to transform data into meaningful information, that will help stakeholders to make decisions. Here, at Bytro, I support teams with AB tests, reporting, statistics, and research.

What did you do before working for Bytro?

Before Bytro I worked in the game industry also. I was an Analyst at Playrix (do you also like GardenScapes?) and Playgendary.

Which project holds a special place in your heart?

It is really hard to say. Perhaps, Call of War and Supremacy 1: The Great War. I played Call of War a long time before I started working at Bytro, and I couldn’t believe I would be a part of the Bytro team. Another part of my heart belongs to Supremacy 1: The Great War. I am supporting the game with the launch, and the game’s success always touches me emotionally. 

What do you do in your free time?

I like to travel and enjoy landscapes. I like the art of filming, and I go to the cinema or watch documentaries quite often. Science also plays an important role in my life. 

What is your favorite videogame? Why?

I would name some of them: Mass Effect, Anno 2070, Mortal Kombat. They all have very interesting stories behind them, they can engage you just professionally and were created with passion.

How does a typical day at work look like for you?

It is always fun and always busy. Mornings usually begin with a cup of coffee and KPIs check. I try to do the most difficult tasks during the first part of the day. The second part of the day is never the same. I like to spend it thinking of ideas or doing research, sharing some thoughts, or asking for colleagues’ opinions on those ideas. 

What is a valuable lesson you have learned in your career?

Check three times, twice is not enough, and good products are made by good teams, not by one good person. 

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

Be brave and strong! To be successful in the game industry you should be very flexible, hard-working, and always willing to learn. Choosing a profession you love can help you stay motivated and not stressed, you will love Mondays and will not feel exhausted. 

I strongly believe that amazing people create amazing products. Values are the glue that sticks such people together. Different companies have different values, be ready to know more about them, and choose a team that shares the same spirit. 

Any tips on how to stay focused working from home?

Make sure your family members are also busy.  There is a trick that helps me stay focused at home. Once I finish my coffee, tea, or juice in the morning, I know that my day at work starts. Just try to create your own habit. 

Thank you, Anastasia! 

 

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!

CONFLICT OF NATIONS Brings Real-Time Strategic Modern Combat to iOS and Android Today

Take command of a World War III battlefield on PC or mobile in persistent multiplayer matches lasting for days and weeks of real-time

Hamburg, Germany – 15 September 2020. Strategy game development studio Dorado Games and their publisher Bytro Labs are proud to launch Conflict of Nations: WW3 for iOS and Android mobile devices.

Conflict of Nations: WW3 is a free-to-play Long Term Strategy (LTS) game where modern global warfare is waged in real-time between up to 100 players in campaigns spanning days and weeks. Already a hit game on the PC enjoyed by over 1.8 million players, Conflict of Nations can now be played natively on iOS and Android, allowing PC and mobile strategy fans to battle it out in massively-multiplayer warfare scenarios spanning the modern globe.

In Conflict of Nations, players take command of a real-world nation in a struggle for global domination. Units traverse the world map in real-time, often taking hours to fulfill their assigned missions and objectives, allowing players to frequently re-visit their running campaigns, taking daily tactical decisions while sending their troops into battle. Each nation must be carefully managed and developed: researching new units, building infrastructure, managing the economy, and engaging in diplomacy with other players are essential tools for winning World War III.

“We’re thrilled to welcome mobile players to Conflict of Nations,” says Simon Dotschuweit, Dorado Games Studio Head “Whether you’re a veteran of countless campaigns or this is your first day on the battlefield, Conflict of Nations is now more accessible than ever before. Use the same account across PC or mobile and you’ll never be far from the battlefield.”

Play Conflict of Nations: WW3 on iOS and Android, join the fight via HTML5 web browser at conflictnations.com, or download and play on Steam.

See the Conflict of Nations mobile launch trailer here, and follow Conflict of Nations on Twitter and Facebook.

Press Contact
bizdev@bytro.com

About Bytro
Bytro Labs GmbH is an owner-managed company that 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.
About Dorado
Dorado Games is a video game development studio dedicated to creating digital online games with a focus on deep strategy, appealing to players from all over the world. Founded in Malta in 2011 by a team of game industry veterans whose resumes include Battlestar Online, Eve Online, Codename Panzers, and Civilization, the studio is composed of 20+ developers from seven different nations. Released games include Gladiators Online and Conflict of Nations with nearly 2 million registered users. Like their sister company Bytro Labs with whom the latest game was closely developed, Dorado Games is a member of Swedish Stillfront Group AB. 

The best bet: cross-platform games

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

8 QUESTIONS FOR: Linus, Marketing Manager

Linus Otten, 28, Marketing Manager

We welcome you to the first piece of a series of short interviews with the people that bring our games to life. Here you’ll get a peek inside the minds of the creators, designers, developers, marketers, and every single element that is involved in delivering our products to your hands. In today’s interview we’ll introduce you to our beloved colleague Linus, Marketing Manager at Bytro, and responsible for making it easier for players to find our games.

What do you do in your job as Marketing Manager?

While I also work on presenting our games to the public in the best possible way, my main focus is scale. Understanding who likes our games and for what reasons is key. We leverage that information to find potential players for our games and make them love the flavor of grand strategy multiplayer that our titles represent.

What makes working at Bytro special?

A common goal. When looking for a job one of my major concerns was competition amongst the workforce. While I like being competitive, I don’t think a company benefits greatly in playing employees against one another. Whether it is comparing their results against each other, pointing at hours worked compared to colleagues – neither of these metrics strengthen motivation and are rather damaging.

Working at Bytro is great because we all share a goal that we have inherent reasons to work towards. Providing a game that is fun to play, a solid technical foundation to prevent interruptions in the experience, engage and acquire user to generate a healthy playerbase to ultimately support a workplace that we all like to go to (or think about from the safety of our homes) 5 days a week and make it better every day, month and year.

The team is growing in size and variety. Several professions are found in our teams ranging from developer work, data science, marketing, finance and a great HR department. We are also quite international with many unique people to meet and we fit it all into a tower that is shaped like a refreshing beer and gives the greatest view over Hamburg.

What did you do before working for Bytro?

Living in a small apartment located in the beautiful 3rd district of Vienna studying Communication-Sciences and preparing myself to influence the gaming marketing landscape.

Which project holds a special place in your heart?

Launching on mobile was a transitional moment for our team and myself. Seeing our game grow across hundreds of thousands of new devices, having to rethink my work quickly and reaching an audience that was waiting for a game like ours, but lacking a viable alternative before, was amazing.

Over the following months and years it proved to be a highly important step to stay relevant and keep growing, although our heart and core business still is anchored on Desktop PCs.

What do you do in your free time?

Either grab my running shoes, sit down and enjoy competitive matches in Counter-Strike or lie on the balcony and read a good biography of someone that I believe I could learn from. Sometimes, if I can’t sleep, I get up in the middle of a night, put a good 80s action movie on and mumble the quotes alongside it – which I used to do almost every night when I was a student.

What is your favorite videogame?

It is tough to nail it down, but the one game I always come back to is Counter-Strike. I do play a lot, but when it comes to Single Player I am always excited for a new game from From Software – hopefully we’ll see Elden Ring soon!

How do you keep motivated and productive during quarantine?

Don’t forget to go outside (as much as you are allowed to!). When the time came and we started working from home I had a very rough transition. Usually I wake up at 5:30am, drink a coffee and go for a run, the gym or play some video games in the morning – sometimes I repeat this in the evening as well. In the first few weeks of home-office it was very difficult for me to stick to my rituals and ultimately I felt very tired and overworked for most of the days. Where I always thought that home-office something to work towards, I realized that over longer periods of time it drags me down.

So I fought hard, getting up early again, trying to separate work from free-time harder and got back to my original self – motivated and productive.

So, don’t treat your day differently just because you work from home and pay even more attention to keep your rituals intact!

What advice would you give to the people trying to keep their work teams united and motivated while working remotely?

Communicate with video and audio! I am very much a digital person and don’t put too much effort in meeting someone face to face. So one would think that not going to work and the overall quarantine changes little for my life. And that is true, but still the distance in communicating with others shows harsh effects. Just reading what colleagues and friends write without the context of their “person” created distance, misunderstandings and sometimes conflict.

Try to bring as much of the “person” back into the conversations. It will help keep the teams united.

Thank you so much, Linus!

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!

Why integrating games into your site is the best business move to do right now.

Big or small site, learn how to integrate this new content successfully.

You are a website owner. You provide valuable content for your visitors, and no matter what type of site you manage, you work hard to deliver pictures, videos and even blog posts to entertain your audience. So why don’t add games into the basket? 

Gaming is the fastest-growing segment of the media and entertainment industry. And it looks like it will make another huge step this year due to many people being in quarantine and starting discovering games or picking up another round of their favorite title. Here you’ll learn why adding games into your site is the best business move to do right now and how to do it successfully.

Maybe you already tried integrating games on your site and it didn’t work as you expected, maybe you think your audience is not interested in gaming, maybe it never crossed your mind before because you think you don’t have enough traffic for it to work. Whatever the reasons are, this experiment can bring you wonderful results no matter the interests and size of your audience, and thanks to iFrames and affiliate links adding something like embedded games as part of your content it’s super easy to do. But before calling your IT team to start working on technicalities, first you’ll need some games to integrate. 

There are so many great developers out there like Goodgame Studios, Dorado Games, Imperia Online, Kixeye, and Bytro; they can provide you with their free-to-play games so you can embed them into your site and offer top-notch entertainment content to your visitors. 

Your goal should be to establish a sustainable revenue stream and the way to accomplish that is by having a diverse game content portfolio, meaning at least 4 different games. This allows players to find their favorite type of game and they will be more likely to start spending money. 

Speaking about money, you might be wondering by now: How am I supposed to make a business out of embedding games?

There are a few ways to monetize this and you’ll probably find a model that best suits you with time, but the way to build a strong long-lasting and mutually profitable relationship with a game developer is through revenue share. Working with this model means that the money that your users spend inside the game is shared between the two parties. Game developers can even provide exclusive promotions inside the game for users coming from your site so you can kick start this successfully. 

Once you choose the first games (or several if you want to), you contact the developer/publisher so you get access to your own tracking links and a promotional image of the game. Secondly, you integrate the tracking link on your site, publish it with the image, and that’s literally it. Now your audience can access games via your page and you have created a profitable and sustainable new business line that took a one-time effort and without spending a dime. 

If you think this is too good to be true check out this business case. Here you’ll see three different scenarios with real companies where you can compare your site and have an idea of how games could behave on your page too. If you wanna be bold and make this move and need some guidance through the whole process, feel free to get in touch with us at bizdev@bytro.com.

Although there is no 100% accurate way of predicting how these games will be received by your users, if integrating them on your site means there’s a way to improve the user experience, lengthen their session time, the overall customer lifetime value, AND increase your revenues along the way, it’s surely worth the try.

Click here to read the business cases

 by Cecilia Luna