Interview: SPIL Games

CG: What’s the background behind SPIL?

Peter Driessen: SPIL Games was formed in 2001 by myself and Bennie Eeftink. Our mission was to deliver fun and accessible, high‐quality games for audiences worldwide. In 2004, we launched the first online game portal, www.spelletjes.nl, in the Netherlands and shortly after, realised that we had hit the nail on the head. One year later, we expanded the portal network by establishing game portals throughout Europe and then into the Americas and Asia in 2007. The company has expanded quickly and within a few years we have now grown to over 100 employees in three offices around the globe. We are incredibly proud of our success so far, but have very ambitious targets for the future which we expect to meet.

CG: You were known as SPILL Group until earlier this year. Why did you lose the extra ‘L’?

PD: SPILL Group had become known in the industry as a leader in game portals. Due to this evolution, it was evident that the current image of the brand under the name ‘SPILL Group’ did not reflect our focus, who we are, what we do, and what we stand for. As to the name change, we felt the need to change to one letter associated with our business. We took the ‘L’ out of SPILL because SPIL in Dutch has an important meaning to our business. In Dutch, ‘spil’ means axle or spindle. Metaphorically, it also translates to the core, center, or essence of something. Additionally, it is very similar to the Dutch word ‘spel’ which means game and in Denmark, the word SPIL directly translates to ‘game’.

CG: How important do you believe proper localisation and targeting is in the casual sector?

PD: Localisation of the website and its content is key to providing the users with a true destination online. We focus on this in order to meet the users’ desire to play games without distractions. By localising content they also feel that they are playing on a local site which provides a connection to familiarity and their own language. By localising domain names we provide an easy to remember destination as well.

CG: What do you think is SPIL’s key advantage over its competitors?

PD: SPIL Games advantage over our competitors is that by providing broad, deep and fun-to-play content, a localised approach in each country, we have a deep understanding about what casual players want. Instead of providing a single portal in multiple languages, we adapt and provide a single portal for each segment, demographic, and country. We listen to our players in order to provide a destination that they can call home and enjoy themselves. And because our portals are developed for specific segments and demographics, i.e. age, gender, and so forth, the content that we provide is customised to match their desires. This is why we are unique to our users and our network of portals is able to reach so many unique visitors every single month.

SPIL Games has great expertise in assessing and understanding its users, no matter which country they come from. This allows us to follow trends very quickly. We are content and user driven and the skill here lies in immediate implementation. Many companies wait to carry out their strategies, but one of SPIL Games’ strengths is the ability to implement strategies immediately. We set up an office in China within a short timeframe, which resulted in the number two position in the Chinese market via its local portals.

CG: Are you surprised by the speed at which the casual sector has taken off?

PD: Considering the fun, joy and relaxation people get from playing games, I am not really surprised. My feeling is that what we see now is really the starting point of the sector. The online casual games industry is going to be one of the biggest segments and maybe even the biggest segment in online entertainment in the near future.

CG: How much growth do you think is left in the casual sector?

PD: It is projected that 40 per cent of the people online will play online casual games. We have sites in the UK, USA, France, Germany and the Netherlands in addition to all important emerging countries like China, India, Indonesia, Russia, Poland, Brazil and Mexico. We also look at the number of people who still have yet to make their way online. There are also many sub-regions who do not have the architecture to provide internet or broadband yet. We think that the amount of online casual players is likely to double during the next three years as infrastructure and adoption increases in the global market.

CG: What impact do you think the iPhone has had on the casual games space?

PD: The iPhone is great because it opens the market for mobile gaming in a new way and as a new touchscreen gaming platform. With 6.9 million iPhones sold worldwide just in the fourth quarter alone, it presents a unique new platform that includes a 3G internet connection. The user experience is great compared with traditional mobile devices and gaming is proving to be the most popular service and app with the iPhone. However, it is difficult to monetize. The phone still does not have Flash or Flash Lite and the platform is completely closed making it complicated. Therefore, at this time we do not think that iPhone will be the device for the mass casual games market unless Flash is provided. This will be key since it would allow browser-based flash games to be played easily and really open up the market and allow free-to-play.

CG: You’ve said you believe SPIL can become the world’s number one casual games portal – how do you intend to achieve this and how long do you think it will take?

PD: We think it will be possible to reach the top position in 2009. Therefore, we plan to stick to our strategy of investing in great game portals. With a great team here at SPIL Games, we will continue our focus on providing the best game content and user experience to the casual game community worldwide.