In today’s business climate, reaching a target audience often happens with a much-needed push. Making the kind of push that the industry requires is what award-winning and free-to-play game publisher Tilting Point does best.

Created by Dan Sherman and Kevin Segalla, Tilting Point lends a helping hand to independent game developers in expanding and thriving on the market. Tilting Point makes a partner-first company that uses cutting-edge technology, a war chest for user acquisition, and extensive marketing and product knowledge in order to power up existing live games.

In addition to managing live free-to-play games, the company also publishes and operates live services for owned games - either through internal studios or partner studios that offer co-developed games. Becoming an industry leader was not all rainbows and butterflies for Tilting Point, but the end result was worth the journey. Here is how Dan and Kevin set their mind to creating a global brand that puts countless games in their deserving spotlight.

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The History Behind Tilting Point

Dan Sherman and Kevin Segalla first established Tilting Point as Tilting Point Media in 2012.From its inception in 2021 until 2015l, Tilting Point concentrated on pay-to-play games. Aside from their cofounders, Samir Agili and Jean-Sebastien Laverge were also employed in 2015 to help make the switch from publishing pay-to-play games to publishing free-to-play games.

Tilting Point is led by Kevin Segalla as CEO, and is one of the two founders, with offices in Miami, NYC, Boston, Barcelona, Montreal, Kyiv, and Seoul. The World's Top Mobile Game Makers list, published by PocketGamer in 2022, placed Tilting Point at number ten of their all-time leaders.

Kevin has a Bachelor of Science degree and has finished his studies at Syracuse University. Before founding Tilting Point, Kevin founded a number of companies in the entertainment and digital media sectors, including Platonic Films, CFC Real Estate, Connecticut Film Center, and CFC Specialty Finance.

After hiring Samir Agili, the company expanded its knowledge of user acquisition and introduced its first-ever user acquisition fund in November 2016. The $12 million Game Alliance fund was thereafter created with the intention of helping independent game creators scale their user acquisition efforts. This marked the beginning of the company's ongoing initiative to help developers with user acquisition expenditures. Tilting Point increased the size of its user acquisition budget to $132 million in 2018. In January 2018, Dan Sherman, one of the two original founders, left the business, and Samir Agili took his position as president, COO, and board member.

Tilting Point’s Way of Operation

"Progressive Publishing," a brand-new publishing format invented by Tilting Point, consists of two primary components.

The first is live publishing, or "Power Up," which focuses on publishing already-running games. These services comprise user acquisition funding/management and other publishing aspects. Such include asset creation, ASO (App Store Optimization), ad monetization, production management, and live operations.

The second component is “Team Up.” It includes Tilting Point’s financial support for game creation as well as other support functions like community management, marketing, and public relations. Additionally, Tilting Point has been known to acquire carious independent game producers and games.

Technologies and Acquisitions

"D.O.R.A." or "Dynamically Optimized Revenue Optimization" was first introduced in 2016. The system serves as a forecast customer lifetime value (LTV) and recommends user acquisition campaign expenditure amounts, based on key performance indicators (KPIs) data.

In 2018, Tilting Point also entirely internalized the development of "C.A.T." (Creative Automation Technology). Using provided content, the technology automatically creates static and video adverts, allowing managers in charge of user acquisition and marketing to utilize more platforms for their initiatives.

A business called Gondola, which uses machine learning to help mobile game developers optimize in-game economics and rewarded video commercials, was also acquired by Tilting Point in September 2019. Among other names, Tilting Point also purchased Star Trek Timelines from Disruptor Beam in March 2020.

In the same period, the company also established Wicked Realm Games and hired 19 former Disruptor Beam employees, including former CTO David Cham as the new studio leader. In July 2020, FTX Games and Plamee were acquired, too, alongside three of their key games: Criminal Minds: The Mobile Game, The Walking Dead: Casino Slots, and Narcos: Cartel Wars. In February 2022, Tilting Point announced the purchase of Korean game developer, AN Games.

Core Company Values

Tilting Point has over 400 employees with offices in Seoul, Barcelona, New York, Montreal, Saint Petersburg, Boston, and San Diego. The company takes pride in the way it values and rewards its employees. The Tilting Point office culture is dynamic and employee-friendly, with maximum understanding from management and the main focus on employee relations.

With an emphasis on individual computer programming knowledge, extensive marketing skills, and computer and operating systems expertise, Tilting Point is building a team of ambitious and caring employees from all walks of life. Tilting Point also has a strong stand on employee wishes, with every complaint and idea being noted and worked upon. The end goal? To build the best team and company workplace possible.

Funding Success and Awards

Tilting Point has won multiple awards for its modus operandi and overall industry efforts. The most notable of their accomplishments is their commitment to spend $132 million on developers who need the extra professional push. At the end of 2016, the company unveiled a $12 million fund that, according to their announcement, would support independent game developers as they expand their studios.

The same year, it publicly disclosed its $132 million yearly expenditure commitment to the fund. According to CEO Kevin Segalla, most independent developers "don't have the tools and the expertise to do it" as mobile app stores become more and more competitive and "user acquisition has gotten tremendously hard."

Tilting Point has also won numerous awards and earned nominations from multiple game fronts, award shows, and gaming organizations. In 2014, it won Apple’s Best Design Award for Leo’s Fortune, a game published by Tilting Point. And, in the span of a few years, it was also nominated for Leo’s Fortune’s Award-winning side-scrolling platform available on all mobile devices, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In 2020, Tilting Point won two awards from Google Play - The Best Pick Up and Play Game, and the User’s Choice Game Award for Spongebob: Krusty Cook-Off.

Tilting Points Bright Future and Conclusion

Since Tilting Point was established in 2012, the gaming sector has seen a remarkable revamp, especially in the department of mobile and free-to-play games. The company has continuously kept ahead of the curve. And, instead of following the industry trends - they opted to set them.

As part of its future plans, Tilting Point announced a joint partnership and support from Polygon Games, with an end goal to create and release 10 games in the next two years. Stardust, a blockchain-independent platform that enables game makers to include NFTs, also played a key role in facilitating the collaboration between Tilting Point and Polygon Studios.

With their newest titles, Operation New Earth, Spacero, MMA Manager 2021, and Astrokings, Tilting Point is paving the path for competitors. With further finances being added to their funding mechanism, the company proves it is here to stay and help new, upcoming developers to find their spot in the already saturated mobile gaming market.

The video game industry develops quite quickly. But, no matter what the future holds, Tilting Point promises to stand the test of time and give maximum support to promising game developers.

Though the past few years have been revolutionary for the brand, truth is - Tilting Point is only getting started, firmly pressing its foot on the industry throttle and promising a valuable ride ahead.