Exclusive interview with ProsiebenSat.1’s CEO

April 5, 2013 10:46 ( Interviews ) 0

We've got the chance to interview the CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Games, an online games leader publishing company that is becoming more and more important in Europe and offers important games like Planetside 2. Let's hear what he can say to us!

Thanks for giving us the possibility to interview you about ProsiebenSat.1 Games. First of all, can you introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Tung Nguyen-Khac and I am Chief Executive Officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Games since December 2012. As CEO I am responsible for strategy, M&A, and all online games publishing departments. Prior to my position as Chief Executive Officer, I was a management consultant. But I also worked as a business angel and investor for various start-up companies, and as an industry advisor for private equity, online gaming and eCommerce enterprises. In my earlier career, I held the positions of managing partner and CEO advisor for Bigpoint in Hamburg, Germany.

Imagine yourself speaking with someone who has never heard about your company. What is ProsiebenSat.1 Games?

ProSiebenSat.1 Games GmbH is the games company of ProSiebenSat.1 Group, one of the leading media groups in Europe. As a leading European games publisher, the company focuses on licensing and distribution of online and mobile games, and acts as a strong digital distribution partner for the gaming products of premium partners all over Europe.

The optimal interplay of wide-coverage TV stations of ProSiebenSat.1 Group (ProSieben, SAT.1, kabel eins and sixx) and gaming target groups is what makes up our USP. The ProSiebenSat.1 Group's games portals ProSiebenGames.de, Sat1Spiele.de and browsergames.de as well as the European distribution network with partners like Télévision Française 1 (TF1) and Dogan Media Group cover the highest turnover user groups within the online gaming segment: from female casual gamers to male core gamers.

With its manifold business models, mobile and online gaming represents an important strategic field for ProSiebenSat.1. The games business is one of the most significant growth factors for ProSiebenSat.1 to become a powerhouse of digital entertainment.

You reached a huge success and keep expanding your published games catalogue. How do you choose which game to publish next?

For us it is important to offer our players real blockbuster games. This is what they expect from one of the leading TV companies in Europe: premium TV content, premium online offering, and premium gaming entertainment. For us a great game should combine high quality, a huge entertainment value and gameplay depth – all combined in an attractive business model.

Here at ProSiebenSat.1 Games we are a great team of passionate gaming experts. We screen the international market and license the best online and mobile games. This industry know-how, long-time gaming experience and overall passion for gaming is a great foundation for our decisions about which new games will be published.

Can you tell us something about the birth of the company? How did it start and how did you get to this point?

The ProSiebenSat.1 Group has been an active player in the growing gaming industry for about seven years now. We started to build games on our well-known German TV brands, like Germany’s next Topmodel, Galileo or Popstars. But we learned very quickly that the future of gaming is about online games and – nowadays – about mobile gaming.

In June 2011 we further expanded our games business and bought burda:ic, one of the leading European publishers of free-to-play online games. We have also acquired the majority of Covus Games who operate browsergames.de, one of the leading European games portals. These acquisitions took us a significant step closer to our goal to become one of the leading online gaming publishers in Europe.

Last year, in January, you've become the exclusive partner of SOE in Europe for some of their best games. Would you define this as a turning point for your company? And what made something like this possible?

Yes, this was a huge mile stone for us. By combining the strength and full media power of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group with the expertise of Sony Online Entertainment in creating original, quality and AAA games like PlanetSide 2, DC Universe Online or EverQuest II, we are now able to offer fans across Europe fantastic gaming experiences.

Can you tell us something about the future plans of your company? What can we expect from ProSiebenSat.1 Games in the future?

We will continue to expand our games portfolio which combines high quality, huge entertainment value and thrilling gameplay depth. At the same time we set up new distribution partnerships in Europe as we have already started last year with TF1 in France and Dogan Media Group in Turkey.

A new focus for us for this year is to enter into the mobile gaming market. We just launched our ProSiebenGames App for iOS devices in Germany. Our experts from ProSiebenGames.de select the hottest games, rate them and provide them to users of our App on a daily basis.

Our latest cooperation regarding the mobile gaming business was the agreement with Kabam, the leader in free-to-play games on mobile devices for core players in the western world. Kabam’s successful and fun free-to-play games are a great and important addition to our growing mobile entertainment portfolio. We are excited about this collaboration with Kabam, which will allow us to offer players across Europe more premium and high quality games and to further strengthen our position in the European mobile games industry.

Which one of the games published by ProsiebenSat.1 Games is your favorite? And why?

As you can imagine, it is PlanetSide 2. In just eight weeks after launch, it became our most successful online game. The reasons are simple: PlanetSide 2 won already over 40 international awards and was elected to be the best game of E3 2012. It is a game with high quality, enormous production values and a thrilling gameplay. There is no other game like PlanetSide 2. You can play with thousands of other gamers on one map.

Can you give us some exclusive details on a possible ProSiebenSat.1 next big game?

We do have several new exciting games in our pipe line – but nothing we can talk about yet. One big thing will of course be the next installment of the EverQuest franchise. And there will be some bigger updates for PlanetSide 2 as well as for DC Universe Online. So, stay tuned for more information.

Send a message to all the fans of ProsiebenSat.1's Games!

I hope you all have lots of fun with our games. And if there is anything we can do for you, let us know. The feedback from the community is very important for us to make us and our games even better.

Thanks for all your answers. Would you like to add something?

Keep on playing!


By: David Puig Rojas
 

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