King is heavily promoting the fourth Candy Crush All Stars tournament right now, describing it as the “biggest casual mobile gaming tournament in history”. Its prize pool totals $1m.
As part of that PR push, it also offered us the chance to ask Luken Aragon, King’s VP of marketing for Candy Crush Saga, a few quick questions over email.
On the multiple Candy Crush games in soft launch, including Candy Crush 3D, Candy Crush Blast and Candy Crush Solitaire, Aragon says that the Candy team wants to continue to give players “new, exciting and varied experiences” – but there’s no word on what might happen next to those titles.
“When it comes to crafting new games, we take a test and iterate approach to ensure we invest only in games our players and the industry will love – we set ourselves a high bar for excellence,” he tells us. “Some of these ideas will grow and go on to further development, and others, we’ll take the learnings from to create the best experiences for our players elsewhere.”
We also asked about other media. Game IP like Angry Birds, Mario and Sonic have all been turned into films, not to mention TV shows like The Last of Us and Fallout. So why not Candy Crush?
“We’re always looking for new ways to grow the franchise and a big element of this is delivering additional player touch points and experiences that go beyond the core gameplay,” says Aragon, who cites a recent Mattel partnership around Barbie as an example of this.
“Clearly these entertainment-focused partnerships are resonating and at King we listen to what our players want more of – so watch this space,” he adds.
Back to that All Stars event, then. Aragon says it attracted 18m players last year, and King continues to build on “the learnings from previous tournaments” and has “worked to improve the mechanics”.
Aragon says the event is designed to attract new players and is also built for existing players with a “desire for more competition”. It’s “a perfect opportunity to re-engage those who may not have played in a while and show how the game is constantly evolving” as well, he says.
In terms of its marketing goals, retention is of “equal importance” as attracting new audiences, he says. King is working with wrestler and movie star John Cena to add some star power to the marketing, and has built a custom AR branded effect that ‘Candifies’ creator content on TikTok. It is also buying up digital billboards in locations like New York’s Times Square, Warner Bros. Discovery will be broadcasting a highlights show.
“All Stars is really important in maintaining Candy Crush Saga’s success and relevance,” he adds. “I think it’s a big part of the reason why, almost 12 years on from its launch, Candy Crush Saga is still one of the most popular and recognised games in the world.”
