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Alex Arias is the CEO and co-founder of Treasure Play (formerly Trailblazer Games), the next-generation UA and monetisation platform powered by AI.
Originally from Chile, Arias is a serial entrepreneur in the mobile games industry. Trailblazer Games announced its $8.2 million seed stage funding in March 2022. Omniata, his previous VC-backed gaming data platform startup, was acquired by King in 2017.
Originally from Chile, Arias has worked in leadership roles at King, EA, Microsoft and Digital Chocolate, during a 15+ year journey, based in Helsinki, Barcelona, San Francisco, Seattle and Stockholm, driving innovation in gaming, growth, live ops, data and AI.
Arias is one of more than 180 expert speakers set to to appear at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on October 1st and 2nd.
He’ll be hosting the session ‘The Rise of Player-Powered UA: How Incentives Will Shape the Future of Mobile Growth’.
In this talk, Arias will explore how AI-driven incentives can revolutionise user acquisition by introducing innovative and effective ways for players to discover games while getting rewarded for it.
Ahead of the session, we gave Arias a quickfire Q&A to offer advice for others in the industry and give his opinions on the latest industry trends.
PocketGamer.biz: What’s the most common mistake you see being made in the games sector?
Alex Arias: Build the games you want to build versus what the market wants.
If you could give other mobile games companies one piece of advice, what would it be?
Think about distribution by design, don’t expect growth “because it’s a good game”.
What’s the most important key performance indicator (KPI) for you – and why?
ROAS. Because nothing else matters.
What is your biggest aspiration/goal in mobile gaming?
Build a brand recognisable by every player on earth.
What do you think the next big disruptor in mobile games will be?
AI.
What is the single biggest challenge facing the mobile games industry today?
Saturated platform. Challenging discovery. Consolidation.
What developments do you think have been undervalued by the mobile games industry?
AI. Too much reliance on “I know better” or “I’m more creative”. This is early days. It’s like dismissing the first mobile phones for being less powerful than a console.