The three founders of Gaming Adult began their ecommerce journey in 2005, running a successful email business with CEO Porco Rosso as the driving force behind the team. However, pursuing their passion for manga, art and gaming led them to create a platform where artists could publish their comics, release games and even gather socially to play poker.
Then, in 2016, armed with a PowerPoint presentation, Rosso headed to an industry event. His evangelizing there paved the way for the company’s first game, Hentai Heroes, to become a success, followed by gay version Gay Harem.
Our motto is actually omnichannel marketing.
Comix Harem came out in 2021, and last year Gaming Adult launched Pornstar Harem. With an eye on continued growth, the company plans to release more arousing games to push its fan base over the 20-million-players threshold.
There is also the Gaming Adult affiliate program, launched in 2017 to support Hentai Heroes and the games released shortly after it. The company instituted the program to connect publishers with their games and make money together — which is when the founders realized they were creating a lucrative gaming ecosystem that went well beyond the bounds of a traditional platform.
As the company grew, so did the team, which added Onizuka as head of business development and chief deal maker, as well as Generalisimus, the chief product officer and game designer.
Now, as they take charge in a unique market that blends the popularity of gaming with the adult sphere, the folks behind Gaming Adult open up about their strategy and aspirations.
XBIZ: Which of your games are most popular and how do you keep fans engaged over time?
GA: We currently have four lucrative and flourishing games delivering quality entertainment to more than 18 million players with a wide range of interests, fantasies and preferences: Hentai Heroes, Gay Harem, Comix Harem and Pornstar Harem. Although they all have different audiences, all of our games share the same outstanding qualities: entertaining story, gorgeous art and engaging gameplay, all spiced up with a lot of humor with a side of kinky.
Our first game, Hentai Heroes, remains the most popular and has the most loyal community. We have players who started playing the game back in 2016 and are still with us, enjoying the evolution of the game and the development of the story. The game is such a success that we even made a special version of it exclusively for a big French telecom operator, and their members love it.
What keeps players coming back is our dedication to delivering satisfying quality. We improve existing features or add new ones every month, have a variety of in-game events and offer an engaging, never-ending story.
Additionally, we have a thriving community and an impressive social media presence. We have a whole team dedicated to taking care of the players and engaging them outside of the game. We’ve even recently created Spotify playlists for specific game characters. Entertaining people is our expertise.
XBIZ: How do you balance releasing games that have proven successful before with taking risks that may or may not succeed?
GA: We like experimenting, but we always do it in a safe environment. Our safety net comes in the form of a test server and an engaged community. The aforementioned team dedicated to players is always present on Discord, forums and social media, so they can talk to the players and get their feedback before the features go live. But it’s not only that: even the CEO and the CPO are in touch with the players, constantly getting relevant feedback. We combine that with the meticulous gathering of pertinent data from the game and our affiliate platform. We love playing with numbers.
XBIZ: Discuss your ambassadorship program for Porn Star Harem. How can talent get involved, and what are the benefits?
GA: We are easy to find at industry events and on Twitter. But we are selective in choosing which talent we want to work with.
The most profitable model for all our partners is our lifetime revshare, because our games are crafted to grow the longtime value of a paying player, which allows partners to generate more and more money over time. We are in for the long run!
We also take care of all the promo materials, customized for each brand ambassador according to their own personality and likeness.
The benefits? They get to be immortalized in a game where millions of players enjoy their unique avatar. It’s an additional way for them to generate a new stream of income with gaming, which is something brand new for performers. They have the opportunity to reach a new audience of hardcore art lovers. All of this while enjoying the affiliate payouts.
XBIZ: How has the adult gaming landscape evolved in recent years, and how have you seized on emerging trends?
GA: All of us in this industry have been very lucky for the past years. Gaming Adult in particular has enjoyed the continued growth of the market at its tremendous pace since 2015.
More and more companies are getting in the market, so the quality of what you offer is much more important than years ago. It’s very positive, since it confirms that the market is no longer driven by fads but is in fact a proper market within the industry that allows innovation and growth compared to other saturated verticals.
We are still very far from the metaverse and having sex with holograms, so the tech side has still a lot of potential for growing in the next decade. As for us, we will continue producing entertaining products by telling fun and sexy stories while keeping an eye on the new trends. And maybe soon, players will be able to enjoy our games in video format while using sex toys that are synchronized with the content. We’ll just have to wait and see.
XBIZ: Talk about your marketing philosophy and the ways in which you allocate resources via promotional channels.
GA: Our motto is actually omnichannel marketing. Which means that we want to promote our brand and our offers all around: via affiliation with our direct publishers, via media buying, via trade shows, via brand ambassadors and via media like XBIZ. The gaming market is still small within the adult industry so it’s important for us to be one of the driving actors and to do some sort of evangelization so more people can become aware that gaming is real and is here to stay. Combined, we have over 20 years of marketing experience and people with expertise in different areas of affiliation. We have learned that we cater to the desires of a niche market and our resources should be allocated accordingly, and we have found the right people to do it.
XBIZ: What’s the team behind Gaming Adult like and how do you promote a company culture of mission-based success?
GA: There is no other way to say it: we are a bunch of geeks and art lovers. We are a tribe of 70 people, all based in the same office. We do everything in-house: from sales and community management to art and game design. Being under one roof is very helpful for communication and being on the same page. It also makes it easier to celebrate our successes with parties and champagne. It’s also easier to get together and brainstorm for solutions when things are not going as planned. The whole team is reactive, proactive and involved. We are also very particular when it comes to adding people to the team. We are looking not only for professionals with expertise but like-minded people who have the same goal: bring sexy and positive entertainment to the world.
XBIZ: What has the success of Pornstar Harem meant for Gaming Adult?
GA: Last year was significant for us because we launched our first adult game using real content: Pornstar Harem. It’s a visual novel with an arousing plot that uses adult content and allows players to collect real-life adult performers. We used the winning concept behind Hentai Heroes and translated it into a language that everyone understands and enjoys: porn.
The success of Pornstar Harem had a lot of benefits for us as a gaming studio and our affiliate program. Not only did we create another hit adult game that attracted players instantly, but it took us out of the hentai/manga area of expertise and put us on the “mainstream adult content” part of the porn map. It opened a new market for us, which allowed us to promote and monetize “regular” adult traffic such as tubes, cams, dating sites, etc.
Gaming Adult doesn’t like limitations: we have always worked with all geo locations, all devices, all browsers and all types of affiliation. And with Pornstar Harem, we removed another limitation: the niche content status.
One of the benefits of working with real performers is that we got to partner with iconic stars like Sara Jay, Nikki Benz and Richelle Ryan, who joined our flagship game Hentai Heroes. They were also excited to be featured as winnable characters in Pornstar Harem. Furthermore, each of them got their own special affiliation link, and the players got to experience the game with them as their Angel — the first character that shows them the magical world of Pornstar Harem and the first girl in their harem.
The success of Pornstar Harem also attracted big names in the gaming community, like Amouranth and Sia Siberia, who were added with their hentai avatars and as themselves in both Pornstar Harem and Hentai Heroes. After launching Pornstar Harem, we are now focusing on another popular category within the industry: the trans audience. Same as for our previous title, Trans Pornstar Harem uses real uncensored content in an engaging story and addictive gameplay. We’ve partnered with one of the biggest studios to make sure we have the highest-quality content out there featuring the most popular and beautiful performers.
XBIZ: How do you foster a sense of community among performers and fans with the Gaming Adult brand?
GA: We are very picky when it comes to ambassadors. We are looking for like-minded people who share our values: bringing sexy and positive entertainment. If they are gamers, that makes it even easier. We have provided our players with plenty of platforms where they can engage with the Gaming Adult team, other players and even some of the stars. We hold regular Q&As and we even had the amazing Sabien DeMonia joining us and answering numerous questions from Pornstar Harem players.
XBIZ: Where do you foresee adult gaming going in the future, and what major goals do you have long-term?
GA: More games, of course! We have been catering to the desires and dreams of manga fans, hentai fans, comic book fans and adult movie aficionados. But we have ideas on how to bring sexy, positive entertainment to everyone outside of mainstream gaming.
We are rebels and pioneers, bringing the gaming and porn worlds together. We want to keep disrupting the industry and become the number one reference when it comes to producing and promoting adult games. We want to do for that sector what Apple did for the smartphone industry and Pornhub did for porn.
We are currently working with a lot of content producers and performers, adult platforms and freelance artists. So we plan to keep expanding our portfolio and network of partners and friends.
