Inflation, ads, and webstores reverse nearly every trend in gaming—and then reverse it again. These aren’t rounding errors either—they’re GDP-level phenomena (literally), and the inability to account for them is warping our perception of reality in the gaming industry.
Call of Duty Mobile (CODM) provided a watershed moment for mobile, proving Western gamers are ready for virtual dual analog stick controls and heralding a wave of Eastern titles to the West. Or did it?
1. It’s Distribution or Bust, and No One Cares IDFA is gone; how is your game designed to maximize distribution? Game designers, not marketing managers, need to start building for *sustained* user acquisition. Adding an influencer as a cosmetic is a nice stunt, but it’s not fundamental to the game loop. I was surprised at…
Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO, named Johanna Faries the new president of Blizzard, closing a pivotal moment in the ATVI-Microsoft merger. Faries faces the challenge of revitalizing Blizzard amidst declining revenue and engagement across its franchises. The situation is dire enough that Faries inherits a needed rebirth of Blizzard. The Blizzard of old is dead, and several…
Ah, web3: a past marked by rug pulls, North Korean heists, and prices more volatile than Gamestop shares. However, for all its misgivings, audiences still capitalize web3, with prices far from zero. Parallel, a new web3 CCG hit a half-billion market cap considering token and NFT prices, and yes, it’s pre-launch. Despite flaws, Parallel looks…
After four days, Palworld, an early-access survivor game described as “Pokemon with guns,” grossed ~$108M over three days en route to the 2nd highest concurrent player count for a paid title on Steam. It’s an outstanding success for Pocket Pair, a 50-person Japanese team with $7m raised. But like early access hits Valhiem, Battlebit, and…
Imsominaic leaks reveal Playstation lost 3M MAU over the last three years. At a time when gaming is at its grandest heights, consoles have failed to seize the moment. Sony and Microsoft have forgotten their role as platforms, purchasing dead-end franchises instead of fostering third-party innovation. Meanwhile, Steam gained over 90M users, a ~35% increase…
The free-to-play (F2P) revolution will not be televised, but it will be downloaded. Naraka: Bladepoint, a consistent top-10 Steam performer, transitions free-to-play this week. The new tally counts seven of the top ten Steam games as F2P, with four starting life as a premium before switching to F2P. Major Western publishers composed free-to-play holdouts, but…
Apple’s VisionPro rejects gaming, but gaming doesn’t have to care. The game’s industry position has grown so extensive and favorable that it can survive and thrive on any platform, even when initially overlooked. As web3 VCs are jolly to remind everyone, gaming typically serves as the initial use-case for novel technologies. This was undoubtedly Meta’s…
Hypercasual solved a novel problem for *all* mobile titles: marketing. Like web3, hypercasual always seems to be caught in its drama with recurring reports of death or life on top of wash trading driving genre GDP. But beneath all the bullshit, hypercasual discovered something profound: how to get BILLIONS of players to download games at…