Jens Begemann: Offering the best conditions at Wooga

Interview with Jens Begemann, Founder and Managing Director of Wooga

The internationality of the city, its cultural offering, the beautiful surrounding, relatively cheap cost of living and the thriving IT scene makes Berlin, in my eyes, one of the most interesting locations on the planet to be living and working in. Berlin has come a long way over the last ten years in terms of developing into a hub for many IT startups as well as games companies, large and small. The scene is strong – yet could be stronger, of course. One of the main drivers for networking and mutual inspiration within the ecosystem has been games:net, who really helped making Berlin as a games hub more attractive.

We are interested in credible positioning vis-à-vis potential employees. Today’s employees place value on companies that offer good conditions but are also committed to society, for example by increasing the diversification of their workforce and promoting previously disadvantaged groups. At Wooga, we are involved at several levels – whether through the support of parents employed by us, a management-initiated diversity working group, or making our premises available for events such as the Girls’ Games Workshop – to name just a few examples. In general, every employer wants to hire the best talent, regardless of the industry in which they operate. And in view of the shortage of skilled workers in Germany, I can only advise every entrepreneur to think about how to recruit and retain the best employees.

We know the target groups well across our games. We come into contact with our players at various points – for example on Facebook and through direct contact with our customer service. Sometimes players even come to our office to get to know the people behind the games. And of course we do market research. So we know the preferences and interests of our target group, how they spend their time, which features they like and which less. Based on that, we then develop personas and accordingly develop our existing games further or conceptualize new ones.

Very little has changed in everyday working life. I am still completely responsible for Wooga. And while there used to be several investors to whom I was accountable, now it’s one owner – it’s not dramatically different. Wooga is also doing well, and the new owner has little interest in intervening in a healthy and growing company. With Playtika, we deliberately chose a partner that is very complementary to our product portfolio and our expertise in the industry. Playtika’s strengths include live ops, artificial intelligence and personalization – all fields in which we can learn a lot. And an experienced and trustworthy partner with whom we will be successful in the long term provides security.

The most important fact is that Wooga will continue to do what it is best at: Develop and market story-driven casual games and keep them alive by continuously adding new story elements and features. As I said, Playtika and Wooga form a great partnership in combining our strengths. So at the core of any plans stands the idea to continue what we both are good at by at the same time benefitting through learning from each other.

Right now we have a stable and healthy portfolio of products. We have, at the same time, a couple of new games currently in development. They are both based on a mixture of well-known, “Wooga-style” elements and very new approaches. I wish I could share more, but right now there is nothing to announce – please stay tuned!