Michael Acton Smith: Games can beat Harry Potter

Michael Acton Smith, CEO of Mind Candy, maker of web-based kids game Moshi Monsters, told the audience at Develop that games have an unexploited ability to produce the world’s leading entertainment brands.

“As game desginers, we are brilliant at creating emotionally resonant experiences, but not very good at translating into other media,” he said, singling out Tomb Raider and Angry Birds as rare examples of brands that have made the jump. “To be successful, we need to think beyond the game. Brands that work everywhere. New digital generation want to interact with brands everywhere they go.”

“Good games will make millions,” he continued. “Good entertainment brands are where the billions are.” Games have the potential, he said, to make brands that will beat the leaders of today. “Games are better than books like Harry Potter.”

Acton Smith’s session told the remarkable story of the rise of Moshi Monsters, which came out of the critically esteemed but commercial flop that was the inter-media game Perplex City, working its way through near bankruptcy but has now grown into a player base of 50 million users, the number one selling kids magazine in the UK, toy ranges, eight books with Penguin and, now, a DS game called Moshling Zoo to be released in November by Activision.

The journey, he said, had taught him many valuable lessons, including the need for the game to be social and the immortal, “Don’t raise venture capital during a global financial meltdown.” It was during late 2008 that Mind Candy began to need cash to feed its push into being subscription-funded, just when the crash started. Only luckily did Acton Smith find an investor, just after a month in which the company couldn’t meet its payroll. The company was profitable just a few months later.