‍Part 1 of 2-part series on growth through investment & M&A in the games space

By Christopher Bergstresser

Why Operational Excellence Determines Investment Success

The global games and interactive entertainment industry has entered a new era. Once considered a niche part of the entertainment industry and usually propelled by hit-driven revenue, the sector now sits at the intersection of mainstream entertainment, media, technology, and finance; a $188+ billion market (Newzoo) increasingly shaped by private capital, strategic acquisitions, and portfolio strategies.

Yet capital alone does not create value. Across dozens of transactions and more than 30 years of operational leadership, one lesson remains constant for me: post-acquisition execution to create operational synergies for better organic growth is the real driver of return on investment.

In this quick-guide playbook, I outline a practical, operator-driven framework for scaling game studios post acquisition - some ideas for investors, boards, and executives who want to turn potential into performance.

But also, I have written this to hopefully spawn discussion between my industry colleagues and my friends in the broader investment community.

A New Group Growth Equation

Through some successes and failures on my “buy-and-build” journey in the games business, I have come to learn some important components for successful growth that games companies with or building a group structure today may want to consider. These components can be defined by three interlocking priorities:

  1. Operational Integration – Building scalable systems, supportive leadership structures, knowledge/talent sharing, and core processes allowing creative studios to focus on making great games and maintain their core culture while the business scales around them.

  2. Commercial Acceleration – Expanding revenue through better go-to-market execution, shared resources & talent, knowledge sharing, shared services like live operations, intelligent user acquisition/marketing, and shared tools, data & insights.

  3. Strategic Expansion – Leveraging IP, data, and platform capabilities to grow beyond the original scope of the studio to capture new and diversify existing revenue streams.

Some of the most successful acquirers, from Keywords Studios and Stillfront to Tencent and MTG, all apply this “3-lever model” in different ways. However, the fundamentals remain universal: great teams, pragmatic leadership, strong operations, effective growth execution, and a strategic roadmap that compounds value over time.

Integration: The Foundation of Value Creation

The first 12 months post-acquisition are where value is won or lost. Too many deals fail because the acquiring company stops at the transaction - ad hoc post acquisition planning, no thought on operational strategies, ignoring talent & culture (i.e. “do it our way now”) . Operational synergy and integration planning is where that group foundation is created.

Key operator principles:

  • Leadership Alignment: Ensure clear roles definitions between group company and  group, accountability (both ways), and a unified decision-making structure. Early misalignment is a primary reason for underperformance.

  • Scalable Systems: Standardize finance, reporting, HR, analytics, and project management infrastructure. This frees creative teams to focus on innovation rather than admin, but  also allows teams to find effective ways to share and collaborate.

  • Cost Rationalization: Identify overlapping functions, vendor/license inefficiencies, and sub-scale operations. At OV Entertainment (Oceanview Group), we achieved >21% cost reduction while increasing profitability improvement by over 175% by executing a structured integration program and ensuring we eliminate ambiguous, wasteful overlap.

  • Cultural Continuity: Preserve what makes the acquired studio successful. Operational frameworks should enable creativity, not replace it. Moreover, there is a lot of learning and sharing that can help drive scalable innovation & efficiencies.

Aspects of EG7’s acquisition strategy demonstrated how rapid integration across multiple studios could deliver quick EBITDA improvements and portfolio synergies, setting the stage for scalable growth.  This included shared talent, knowledge sharing, and shared data & analytics across all group companies.

Commercial Acceleration: Turning Products Into Growth Engines

Once the foundation is in place, the next step is to accelerate commercial performance. Many studios underperform simply because they lack the tools, data, or expertise to scale beyond their original audience.

Operator priorities:

  • Execution in Go-to-Market Excellence: Align publishing, marketing, and monetization strategies from the start to find opportunity across  all group companies. Cross-functional/group company planning and data sharing increases product scalability and revenue per product & user.

  • Data-Driven UA & LiveOps (F2P): Build a unified (cross-company/function) analytics framework to optimize marketing campaigns, user acquisition, retention, and monetization. Even small gains in lifetime value (LTV) can compound dramatically at scale.

  • Portfolio Leverage: Share tech, talent, audience access, data, and analytics resources across the group. Centralizing some of these capabilities can significantly reduce cost per install (CPI) and improve margins. Additionally, the “culture of sharing” can also work for premium games and premium GaaS where audience reach becomes very scalable and cost effective.

  • Market Expansion: Explore ways to enter new geographies and platforms. For example, Miniclip’s expansion into Asia and Latin America opened up entirely new revenue horizons and user bases in the earlier days and helped us rapidly expand our consumer-base with new  revenue opportunities.

Quick Insight: For F2P games, a disciplined focus on user acquisition efficiency and data sharing can often produce faster revenue acceleration than new product launches - a truth many founders underestimate.

Strategic Expansion: Building Entertainment & Platforms, Not Products

The highest-performing portfolio strategies are those that think beyond individual titles. Long-term value comes from building scalable IP ecosystems, platform capabilities, and cross-media strategies that extend well beyond the original acquisition thesis.

Strategic levers:

  • Cross-IP Development: Turn successful game IP into franchises: sequels, spin-offs, mobile adaptations, or even film/TV extensions. Remember to leverage the internal  talent!

  • Platform Synergies: Consolidate technology stacks, tools, and backend systems to reduce cost and accelerate delivery.

  • New Revenue Streams: Explore licensing, publishing-as-a-service, and brand partnerships to diversify income.

  • Ecosystem Thinking: Build interconnected portfolios that share users, data, and monetization pathways: creating network effects that strengthen every part of the group.

Stillfront’s buy-and-build model initially demonstrated how scaling from standalone studios to a multi-IP ecosystem had significantly increased enterprise value multiples over time.  However, it eventually highlighted the need for an integration strategy to achieve better operational synergies and support infrastructure, enabling each group company to achieve better organic scalability.

The Operator’s Playbook: Principles for Sustainable Value Creation

From my perspective, across 50+ transactions and three decades of growth leadership, a consistent set of principles has emerged for me:

  1. Integrate Early and Decisively: The first 180 days define the long-term value trajectory.

  2. Centralize Where It Matters, Decentralize Where It Doesn’t: Keep creative DNA local, but make infrastructure global.

  3. Data Drives Everything: From UA & marketing decisions to LiveOps & DLC design, analytics must guide every commercial lever.

  4. Invest in Leadership & Talent Capacity: Post-acquisition growth often stalls not because of product issues, but because leadership and talent bandwidth runs out.

  5. Think Like a Platform, Not a Portfolio: Build scalable, synergistic ecosystems rather than a loose collection of studios.

Execution Is the Real Multiple Expander

Private capital and corporate buyers are increasingly active in the gaming industry, but the winners are not those who simply deploy capital; they are the ones who know how to operate effectively.

By approaching post-acquisition growth as a deliberate, team-driven, operator-led process, focused on integration, acceleration, and expansion, investors and boards can transform creative studios into scalable businesses with compounding enterprise value.

It’s in that execution gap, between acquisition and outcome, where the most significant alpha is created.

About the Author
Christopher Bergstresser is a veteran games industry executive with over 30 years of experience across PC, mobile, and console platforms. He has led over 50 M&A transactions and built & implemented operational strategies that have delivered measurable value creation for investors, founders, and public companies worldwide. He is currently Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer for OV Entertainment (Oceanview Group Ltd.).

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