Investors aren't interested unless you generate $1M a day, says Fishlabs

- Fishlabs CEO Michael Schade discusses why his studio has fallen on hard times. The Hamburg-based studio, best known for the Galaxy on Fire series, was forced to lay off 25 staff last week, as it undergoes creditors' protection proceedings under self-administration. Talking to PocketGamer.biz, Schade explained that the transition from premium to free-to-play caught his company offguard, as the mobile market continues to evolve rapidly. "Ultimately, we were no longer able to deal with these challenges without the aid of a significant investment," he noted -- but garnering enough interest to get investors onboard has been easier said than done. "Raising money is always a challenge, especially when you don't yet have a live game that shows great metrics - at least in a handful of countries," he added. "You might think success stories like Supercell have made it easier to raise money, but for some investors and even strategic partners the opposite is true." If your game isn't generating at least $1 million in revenue every day, then it's very difficult to get investors interested at all, Schade claims. In the meantime, the Fishlabs CEO is planning for his company's future post-money problems. "Before we hire new talent again, we first have to prove that we can be successful within the free-to-play environment," he said. "It is much more difficult to be commercially successful with a free-to-play title than it is with a paid game, because you need a much bigger team working on the game design, backend, tracking and performance marketing." "You also need to have enough cash up your sleeve to go through several iterations because you have to optimize the game permanently after its initial launch, " Schade mused. "And last but not least, you also have to spend quite a few marketing dollars to make sure that more and more players find out about your game and sign up to your servers."