Great checklist for soft launching. These are prompts derived from real world experiences launching mobile hits at Zynga and others. Games/mobile products of all shapes and sizes can benefit from this for GTM.
Investing in the games industry @ a16z Games, Program Lead @ SPEEDRUN
As the resident a16z Games mobile devs, my partner Doug and I wrote a blog post summarizing some high level learnings from soft launching mobile games. Soft launching is an important tactic for mobile developers but the core concepts can be helpful for all devs. Shipping a game is expensive and the market is unforgiving - getting any clarity on things like: * Is the build performant? Bugs get in the way of fun and churned players are way more expensive to reacquire than new players * Is the game fun and does that fun translate to retention? * Will the game make money and does it have a path to growth? Being able to get feedback from players early is a privilege and a great soft launch is one that maximizes the quality of this feedback. A little thought to start can pay massive dividends down the line. The link to the blog post is in the comments!