Building the Future of Voice Gaming — Why We’re Backing Volley
Voice is the most intuitive mode of human interaction. Long before joysticks, keypads, and headsets, we were playing games with our voices. From “Twenty Questions” on road trips, to “Never Have I Ever” or “Truth or Dare” at parties with friends, the appeal of voice games has always been that they can be played anywhere, by anyone. Up until recently, however, voice and technology did not mix.
But recent advances in voice recognition and natural language processing have made smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home possible. And now, thanks to the popularity of these devices, this technology is available in millions of households.
Last year, Amazon Echo sales crossed 20 million units, more than doubling 2016’s numbers. Google also launched its less-expensive Home Mini device, reporting sales of several units per second in its first few months. Today, consumers are using voice to control their smart homes, manage their calendars, shop for products, and discover new information. Most of all, however, they’re using voice for entertainment — for music, storytelling, and games.
Max and James, the founders of Volley, saw this wave coming. They identified a pattern: with every new consumer technology platform, massive new gaming and entertainment companies emerge. The rise of personal computing brought games from companies like Activision and Epic Games into every home. Mobile devices had games almost as soon as they had screens, with Supercell, Kabam, and others putting games into every pocket. Social platforms had hardly gained traction before games filled their feeds. As the voice ecosystem began to show early signs of life, Max and James decided to experiment with voice-controlled game ideas, leading them to create several of the most popular games on Alexa and Google Home.
Games are a perfect application for voice platforms. For one, their interfaces are typically structured and linear. Open-ended applications usually suffer with voice — users don’t know what they can and can’t ask, and apps struggle to deliver the best answers. In games, however, rules are known and users quickly adapt to the mechanics. Voice is also inherently social, with smart speakers often becoming fixtures of family rooms and kitchens. As Volley has learned, the voice interface is particularly well-suited to specific genres. Volley’s early hits include “Song Quiz”, a music trivia game (Alexa’s highest-rated game), and “Yes Sire”, a storytelling game with adaptive choose-your-own-adventure narratives.
Volley’s rise, since launching a little over a year ago, has been swift. They’ve created seven of the top twenty Alexa games of all-time and reached 900,000 monthly active players. They’re also at the forefront of the platform, pushing the Alexa skill ecosystem forward, and will be taking advantage of new opportunities for in-app monetization and subscriptions to in-game content. As voice technology continues to evolve, the possibilities for new and interesting games are endless. And, as we’ve supported Volley over the past year, it has become clear to us that they’re the right team to take voice gaming to the next level.
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