How to avoid the doppelganger trap

Is your games company concept actually that novel?

Over the many years we’ve been helping games companies prepare to raise investment, we have seen literally thousands of games business plans. Some fall into a very avoidable trap which can make raising money and achieving success much harder.

Games business concepts tend to fall into three broad categories:

1.       A variation on a proven model: Most games business plans are ‘inspired’ by other businesses, often by games in similar genres, sometimes in other parts of the world or other corners of the games market. Their founders might have spotted ways to refine an existing genre, create games tech that outperforms competitors or simply produce a more profitable game or games business concept. For these companies, management team calibre and track record, good financials and sensible valuations are the main components of successful pitches to investors.

2.       Genuinely innovative and fresh: Every now and then we’re asked to review an investment deck that is totally original, addressing a market need or business opportunity that others have not spotted. These are pretty rare in such an innovative, rapidly changing market. These can be extremely fundable if the management team is strong, the market gap is clear and the commercial model makes sense.

3.       Oblivious doppelgangers: These are concepts that are usually pitched as “ground-breaking” or “disruptive” and always as “innovative” by founders but are anything but having been attempted by numerous prior businesses, sometimes over decades. The most dangerous forms of oblivious doppelganger games business concepts are those that have never worked well but keep being resurrected by founders because they cannot find successful precedents so assume they are being genuinely innovative and fresh. Funding for such ventures is not impossible but relies to an extent on finding investors that are similarly unaware of the concept’s history.

Doppelganger déjà vu
A few examples of these include:

1)      Rewarded gaming – earning real world rewards and prizes for playing games

2)      So called “skill gaming” – wagering on your ability to play a game vs others

3)      Live host quiz games – “join us at 7pm every Saturday to play our mobile/web game!”

4)      All-you-can-eat games subscriptions – accessing back catalogue games for a low monthly price

5)      Games streaming services – “access a games library from any device and anywhere!”

We are not saying that these models are guaranteed to fail for a new start-up – far from it. What we are saying is there are countless failed precedents for each one of these, some going back decades. Ignoring the past is a very easy but incredibly dangerous trap to fall into.

Avoiding the trap

So how do you avoid this doppelganger trap?

The simple answer is do your research and do it thoroughly.

The last 20+ years of tech start-ups is a period that’s incredibly well documented. Founders and senior managers have never been better connected and more accessible via social media and LinkedIn. There is no excuse for not thoroughly investigating whether your game model or concept has been tried before. If it has, investigate as deeply as possible. Try reaching out to those that have tried these models. Find out:

·         What worked and what didn’t work?

·         What funding did they have and how was it spent?

·         What was their commercial model and go-to-market strategy?    

·         Ultimately, why did it fail and what might change to enable you to succeed where these others failed?

If you can’t reach those with direct experience, talk through your concept with mentors or industry advisers before you approach investors. Experienced games investors will ask you difficult questions about why you might succeed where others have failed and expect you to provide convincing answers. Whatever your business concept, investors will be impressed if you can demonstrate a thorough understanding of your market opportunity, competitors and predecessors.

Anecdotally it is often newcomers to the games industry that start such oblivious doppelganger businesses and either fail to do the research or, worse, do the research and ignore the lessons trusting more in their own self-belief to overcome the hurdles that hampered their predecessors.

Building a successful business is as much about avoiding mistakes as making successful decisions. Learning from others’ past failures is as important as learning from successful precedents and is far less expensive.

Finally, be prepared to pivot the business or simply let the concept go. Some founders (and even some funders) are constitutionally unable to do this. Their self-belief won’t let them admit it’s the wrong proposition. It’s too cherished to drop or worse, after the similarities with a predecessor are pointed out, they simply respond that they won’t make the same errors.  

If you need help with your model or strategy and want to learn more about how to avoid any of the above pitfalls, please do get in touch.