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And then COVID happened and we never get to meet anyone in real life for a couple years.
Now Playing:Sky: Children Of Light - iPhone X Gameplay
This is the first time we are doing an anniversary where we actually also have a physical gathering.
It’s kind of breaking the fourth wall.
We’re now having a more of an ongoing relationship with our player community.
Can you explain the birthday performance by the thatgamecompany band?
Music is a big part of the self-expression in Sky.
This is not like Guitar Hero, where you’re just trying to hit things on time.
You have a real instrument, so you’re free to perform in the virtual space.
We have about 10 different performances, each from one of our designers.
My performance is pretty simple.
We have some funny performances.
It’s very much like the variety show.
What does this anniversary event look like for a player like me?
What’s the big incentive to return?
It’s funny because we are all console players.
Every month, we have new events.
Every quarter, we have new story.
Sky is like a theme park–like Disneyland.
So when you first played back in 2019, we probably only had a third of the park.
When we launched the game, we had maybe 20 levels.
Now, we have 61 levels.
So every quarter, we tell a new story, we expand the game place.
Initially, you could only run and fly.
Now, you’ve got the option to dive into the deep ocean.
There was one season dedicated to swimming, and then we had one season dedicated to platforming challenges.
It was called the Season of Prophecy, where you played more traditional, very hardcore platforming games.
And then we had a season where we collaborated with the Little Prince IP.
There’s no point in playing."
Sky is more like a real park.
And it’s also year round.
In the spring, we have cherry blossoms.
And in the winter, our home space will become snow covered.
you’ve got the option to go there and fish and cook some marshmallows.
It’s really not designed to be narrative content consumption.
It’s more designed to be a space that is always changing.
Where are people are playing Sky?
And on what platform are they playing?
We have, right now… our daily active users is about eight million.
Most of them are on mobile, and a lot of them are from Asia.
China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and the US are the top four regions.
And we have Switch right now as the only console.
Switch is probably less than 10% because of the vast number of mobile players.
Do you see Sky coming to Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5?
We’re certainly interested in bringing it to every platform.
Because the game was really made on a console engine.
And it looks amazing in 4K at 60fps.
I personally wanted to play Sky on a console when it launched.
Do you ever wish it came out on a console at launch?
Was it the right call to make it a mobile exclusive at launch?
And so, it was really maximizing all the press releases at the same time.
When we tried to do mobile, we did things the wrong way.
We didn’t see major user growth until the Android version launched.
In Japan, I think over 86% of women use iOS devices.
So, they tell their friends and they all get the game.
It went viral very quickly.
In 2019, we had already identified Japan as our number one market.
It didn’t become viral until someone was playing on Twitch.
And so, we felt like Sky really went viral in Asia because of the accessibility.
The Switch version is probably the easiest way to stream it right now.
So there’s more platforms we need to work on.
Sky is really a social space.
I really see it as a park operation rather than just content telling a story.
You probably will hear about that later this year.
Can you share any examples of that?
I’m sure we will get back to you once we are ready to announce it.
We found our inspiration from Journey.
So a lot of people ask him about what he saw when he was dead.
And that’s just something I never would have expected.
It’s an amazing story.
We started to see all kinds of stories shared by the players.
And Sky, as the sister to Journey, had a similar healing effect.
So we see a lot of people sharing their stories about what happened in Sky.
The strange thing I find in most of the mobile games is people talking about predatory monetization.
And so, we spend a lot of time researching business models and trying different ways.
A lot of the spending is actually giving.
Half of the revenue goes for content, like the tickets.
Disneyland, for example–they are very specific about the values they believe in: courage and hope.
They would pick the IP that fits with the ethos of the park.
For us, Sky is a game about human connections.
The Little Prince, to me, is about human connection, as well.
And in the Sky universe, you connect with other players through the stars.
So that just felt like the perfect match of our ethos, so we brought The Little Prince in.
But we are trying to confirm it’s not becoming just a showcase of other IPs.
We are still developing the story of Sky, so we will choose our collaborations very carefully.
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