Why did we Invest in Spybird?
Spybird is building a world-class studio based out of India focussed on creating card-battling games based on Indian themes. Their first game, ‘Moksha’, will be focussed on Mahabharata as their theme. Spybird raised a pre-seed round this year on convertible notes featuring Eximius Ventures, Visceral Capital, and DeVC participation.
We interacted with the team for a month and analysed their vision through internal studies and interviews with some of the most renowned operators in the space. As a result of our assessment, the below-mentioned factors formed our thesis for investing in Spybird.
A Large and Growing Strategy Market
To understand gaming in the 21st century, one must understand strategy games. Having been around for over 5 decades, strategy games are not just a notable standalone genre in themselves but have seen key mechanics like resource management, turn-based combat, etc. percolated to other genres. Aside from the innovative mechanics it has propagated across the industry, strategy is also among the highest-grossing genres. Between 2022 and 2023, the genre generated a customer spend of over $20 billion in just mobile. In the latter year, the strategy was also the 2nd highest revenue generator, only behind RPG.
Unlike other popular genres, strategy as a genre invites a more unique user persona. Its position as the 2nd highest revenue generator in 2023 was contrasted by strategy being only the 14th most downloaded genre in the same year. The genre’s success is powered by a loyal audience base that promises not only high engagement but high monetization as well. For example, ARPPU benchmarks for top quartile games in 2022 reached $17.07 for strategy games, compared to $14.15 for RPGs.
A key factor for the genre’s popularity is how varied it can be. From real-time games like Starcraft, turn-based games like Warhammer 40,000, and expansive 4X games like Civilisation, the genre features spectacular experiences across all its subgenres. Over the past few years, we have seen another genre rise in prominence specifically over mobile—collectible card games (CCGs).
This is a specific form of strategy game where the player is asked to build a deck out of a multitude of diverse card types and ‘duel’ against another player in specific conditions. While this genre is built on the back of physical counterparts like Magic: The Gathering, new releases like Hearthstone (over $600 million in revenue) over the past decade have rejuvenated the space and added new players to the genre. Amidst this, Marvel Snap in particular has been noteworthy generating over $100 million in revenue.
Lack of Indian Content in the Space
While the subgenre has exploded considerably over the past few years, localisation, especially for East Asian countries like China and Japan has also expedited. 3 of the 10 highest revenue-generating mobile experiences among CCGs in 2023 were dedicated to this market. The most successful of these, 三国杀 (Three Kingdoms Kill), generated over $20 million in revenue in 2023.
With localised experiences yielding success, other global developers are using the help of popular IPs to launch successful CCGs. WWE Supercard and Harry Potter: Magic Awakened in particular are noted examples. While the former generated over $20 million in 2023, the latter did over $10 million.
This, however, leaves a massive whitespace for India. For a genre that is taking off massively globally and in Asia, localisation for India, one of the biggest gaming markets in the world, hasn’t happened. Strategy is the 2nd highest revenue-generating genre in India as well with $34 million in IAP spent in 2023. Therefore, for a growing market that has shown an acceptance of strategy games, there is a huge opportunity to offer localised content.
Further, the past few years have seen India successfully export its mythology and culture globally through projects like Baahubali, RRR, etc. The top 5 Indian releases in the overseas markets have generated nearly $600 million. This has brought us to a unique position where Indian founders can leverage our mythology, IP, and culture to bridge the gap between Indian gamers and the rest of the world to produce captivating content.
Global Founding Team
Spybird, as a team, understands this problem statement and the massive opportunity at hand with the utmost precision. Aside from being industry veterans, both of them are not only ardent CCG players but also understand how lucrative the export of Indian content to the rest of the world can be.
Neale Hemrajani is one of the most venerated figures in the global gaming ecosystem and brings considerable experience from his stint as a producer at Annapurna Interactive, one of the most successful publishers globally. Neale’s background includes overseeing high-profile games such as “Stray” and “Outer Wilds,” which have garnered critical acclaim for their unique gameplay approach. His expertise in overseeing projects end-to-end will be particularly useful for the team as they build out their game — ‘Moksha’.
Abhishek Kamdar complements Neale’s creative vision with his prowess in overseeing the production process. Through his stints at JetSynthesys and Reliance Games, Abhishek is well-versed in the production intricacies necessary to develop a high-quality gaming experience which would be key for ‘Moksha’.
Alongside their exceptional pedigrees, both Neale and Abhishek understand the Indian consumer and what it takes to build for them. Both are also connected to the Indian culture which helps them emerge as great ambassadors for the same. Therefore, the team is well-equipped to deliver a stellar experience that exemplifies the best in the CCG space all while giving it a distinctly Indian flavour.
Early Product Quality
As stated above, the objective behind ‘Moksha’ is to take the best of the CCG market and give it an Indian spin to finally deliver an experience catered to the local audience. Taking inspiration from the timeless tale of Mahabharata not only gives them a globally recognisable group of vivid characters but also expands their audience considerably. The gameplay is designed to feel more war-like which fits the theme perfectly.
The core objective of the game is to indulge in battles where they must deploy their deck so that their points (calculated based on the territory captured by the deployed cards) exceed their opponent’s by the end of the 6th turn. Each card has a specific capture pattern and specific lanes where they can be placed/deployed. In every turn, the player has an energy level (which increases at each turn) using which they can summon specific cards.
The meta is centred on upgrading cards, collecting different variants for a visual change, and unlocking new ones to build the most powerful deck.
Therefore, Moksha not only brings the familiarity of Mahabharata to the gamer but also introduces them to innovative gameplay mechanics that breathe new life into these characters and motivate players to keep playing along with solid live operations mechanics.
Conclusion
Strategy is one of the most lucrative frontiers across gaming. Aside from influencing every other genre, strategy in itself possesses unparalleled diversity in game types each of which features distinct gameplay mechanics. Over the past decade, collectable card games (CCGs) have emerged as a key market on the back of releases like Hearthstone, WWE Supercard, and Marvel Snap. These games have engendered a global expansion for the subgenre.
However, while CCGs already have a global appeal, developers are also offering localised experiences, particularly in East Asian countries like China and Japan. Given India’s growing strategy market, the dearth of localised CCGs for India has led to a massive whitespace.
Neale and Abhishek are the perfect team to build for this whitespace not only due to their eminent pedigrees but also because of how well they understand the Indian sentiment. Through their experience building games for the world, they have developed an insight into what global gamers want and how to build efficient organisations.
Their insight is reflected in the game — ‘Moksha’. The game is based on the Indian epic Mahabharata and uses both the characters and theme in a very stellar way to captivate players. ‘Moksha’ and its reward mechanisms is built to encourage user engagement and retention. Therefore, the game not only imbibes the theme of Mahabharata to specifically attract Indian and Asian gamers but packages it in a way that represents the best of CCGs.
