The Importance of Culture & Values When Building a Free-to-play Studio
summary
Stillfront runs a decentralized family of 19 studios with an inverted pyramid decision model that puts game teams in charge; studios keep autonomy but share UA, ad monetization and live-ops learnings. Storm8 brings scaled titles like Property Brothers Home Design and continues to operate largely unchanged after joining Stillfront Feb 2020, gaining cross-studio analytics and market deals. Culture-first M&A weeds out misfits more than P&L, culture cannot be imposed and lockdown makes fit harder to gauge.
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chapters (18)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:19Stillfront’s decentralized model
- 3:07Stillfront’s culture key attributes
- 5:53Nordic leadership transparency
- 7:38Storm8’s veteran culture
- 9:24Preserving studio culture
- 10:46Storm8 joins Stillfront
- 13:14Zynga’s culture lessons
- 15:20Entrepreneurship vs scale
- 17:02Cultural fit in acquisitions
- 18:26Leadership in due diligence
- 20:53Storm8’s culture update
- 21:55Stillfront’s corporate support
- 22:39M&A trends and strategy
- 24:25Lockdown’s culture impact
- 25:08Culture: natural vs planned
- 26:33Imposing vs growing culture
- 28:17Closing & Q&A
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