Telecommunications, Media, and Technology
Development drivers: Third-party
engines and mobile gaming
By: Jayson Chi /// Terry Sun
February 2015
Copyright © McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Telecommunications, Media, and Technology
Development drivers: Third-party engines and mobile gaming
2
A tiny but key component in the massive mobile gaming industry,
game engines enable rapid innovation. Deciding on a third-party
engine entails a range of factors.
Worldwide, the total third-party game engine
market was worth about $130 million in 2013—an
amount dwarfed by the $13 billion collected by
the mobile gaming industry that same year. While
overshadowed by the more flashy and fun-filled
elements of the gaming ecosystem, game engine
companies nonetheless play an indispensable role.
A critical building block in creating new games,
game engine software enables developers to build
2-D and 3-D graphics, animation, sound, “collision
response,” and other elements into their games.
Compared with in-house solutions, third-party engines offer ready-built features and functions that
can greatly reduce development cost and time in a
market where speed is critical.
Third-party engines in the mobile
gaming landscape
Third-party game engines can deliver game developers graphics and other creation tools. Looking
at the top 1,000 free gaming apps, developers
turn to third-party engines for nearly 40 percent
of the mobile gaming apps they build (Exhibit 1).
Among the top 100 grossing game apps, two
types of third-party engines predominate.
Unity. For the top-grossing 3-D games, Unity is
clearly the dominant choice for third-party engines.
Of the big-four gaming markets—South Korea,
Japan, the US, and China—South Korea and Japan are home to a significant share of 3-D games.
In South Korea, more than one-third of the topgrossing games are 3-D, making Unity a dominant
force in that market. Unity is also preferred by
many who develop 2-D games.
Cocos variants. A preference for Cocos-based
engines is apparent in the 2-D space along with
its two variants Cocos2d (for iOS) and Cocos2d‑x
(supporting multiple platforms). Unlike in South
Korea and Japan, the Cocos variants lead the
market in China, since only six of the top-100
grossing apps are 3-D games. It will be interesting
to see how this trend unfolds as handsets become more powerful, enabling a greater number
of 3-D-based games.
Given its influence on the overall gaming scene,
a conservative projection puts the annual growth
of the third-party game engine industry at 21 percent through 2016. A scenario in which growth of
36 percent is also quite possible (Exhibit 2).
Choosing a third-party game engine
While two engines dominate the industry and their
deployment most starkly falls along the 3-D/2-D
divide, there are actually several engines to choose
from and a host of factors that should guide a developer’s decision. Specifically, developers should
consider seven main factors when choosing game
engines—both from the product fit/support angle
as well as from the capability angle.
Knowledge availability. Is the programming team
skilled in using the specific game engine? Are
there resources to train developers and troubleshoot? Familiarity can help a developer save time
and skip over the learning period that comes with
using a new engine.
Support and community. What kind of support
does the engine provide developers? How quickly
can they fix bugs when discovered? For independent developers, it is important to have self-support tools and a vibrant community surrounding
the engine.
3
About 40 percent of the top free games apps are created using third-party engines
Worldwide engine market share
Number of titles, as of Aug 2014
100%
Google
Play top
free games
11,151
1,013
Other
59.3%
Corona
Marmalade
Cocos2d (iOS)
Cocos2d-x
Unity3d
14.2% 2.6%
2%
15%
22.5%
23%
0.6%
1.3%
100% = 12,095
Other
iTunes top
free games
Marmalade
Corona
Cocos2d (iOS)
Cocos2d-x
Unity3d
1,101
N/A
981
1,003
1,034
1,006
984
1,020
3%
14%
3%
14%
3%
3%
3%
3%
2%
2%
19%
23%
22%
23%
26%
924
954
971
979
1,086
13%
15%
4%
12%
4%
16%
17%
3%
13%
975
1,023
1,045
994
984
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
26%
23%
24%
20%
19%
910
1,035
1,058
1,046
1,056
14%
15%
58.8%
13.5%
17%
0.8%
1.4%
15%
7.0%
5%
18.4%
Total
16%
22%
18%
Australia China Germany France
15%
11%
10%
14%
14%
11%
5%
22%
25%
4%
19%
12%
3%
17%
19%
21%
India
Italy
Japan
South
Korea
3%
Mexico Russia
5%
4%
16%
15%
UK
US
Source: McKinsey analysis based on data from SourceDNA
Exhibit 1
Genre and features required for the game. Do the
features of the engine meet game requirements—
graphics and technical requirements, for example?
Some engines are more well-known for supporting
the development of specific game genres. Unreal’s
engine, for instance, does very well in racing and
shooting games. As mentioned above, the 2-D
versus 3-D requirement is also a major differentiator when it comes to choosing an engine.
needs, but is it clear that there will be learning opportunities going forward? Some developers take
a game-by-game approach but neglect to take
the longer-term view of whether they buy into the
future road map of the game engine. Getting the
alignment question right early on in the process
is important, because once a team has become
familiar with an engine, the cost of switching to
another one can be significant.
Engine compatibility and source code availability.
What is the engine’s ability to adopt plug-in and
work with other in-house systems, such as sound
engines? What third-party add-in support and
customization is required? Does the engine support multiple platforms? If so, how easy is it to port
from platform to platform? More advanced developers will typically seek a full source code arrangement so that they can tweak and make changes to
the code as required.
Development team size. Another consideration
in selecting a third-party engine is development
team dynamics. How large is the team? How will
the work flow within the team for this particular
project? Unity, for example, is known for working
well in small-team, iteration-driven development
environments, whereas Unreal is known to be well
suited for very large development teams.
Company product vision. Is the engine’s development trajectory aligned with the direction the
developer wants to take the games in the future?
The engine may meet the developer’s current
Cost. What is the licensing fee for the engine given
the size of the development? For small developers, the cost has been reduced across the board
recently so the difference may be getting smaller.
For large studios, however, the cost of licensing
an engine—especially when source-code licensing
Telecommunications, Media, and Technology
Development drivers: Third-party engines and mobile gaming
4
The third-party game engine market is expected to grow between 21 and 36
­percent p.a. through 2014
Low case of third-party engine revenue growth
High case of third-party engine revenue growth
$ millions
$ millions
322
+36% p.a.
254
+21% p.a.
128
2
22
2013
Exhibit 2
194
13
56
128
2
57
59
147
120
95
14
74
15
2016
2013
79
Independent developers
Offline contracts
Large and medium-sized
developers
73
70
210
52
52
74
25
225
195
18
164
10
33
111
14
156
15
2016
SOURCE: McKinsey analysis
is a requirement—can be a major swing factor in
choosing the engine.



The industry is looking at strong growth as the
overall mobile game market continues to expand.
Third-party mobile game engines can give developers the benefits of speed and cost efficiency.
Considering a range of factors will help developers
in choosing the right third-party game engine.
Jayson Chi
is a principal in McKinsey’s
Hong Kong office.
[email protected]
Terry Sun
is a knowledge expert in McKinsey’s
Shanghai office.
[email protected]