Games are cool. Economics is cool. Game Economics is just beginning.

The Strange Game Agglomeration Effects

This (the games industry is deprofessionalizing”) is an interesting line of thought by Ryan K. Ringey, and Simon Carless, especially when you consider how Roblox studios form – very much “de‑professionalised,” virtual, and less “sticky.” Sometimes, these Roblox studios look more like a Discord server than a company. It echoes Coase’s famous argument in The…

Will Monetization Actually Trump Engagement?

Marvel Rivals numbers are in free-fall. The engagement bump from the latest season won’t reverse its decline toward equilibrium: potentially matching but not exceeding Overwatch’s audience size, which has since recovered from Rivals’ launch. Is that a “successful outcome”? It feels like a blow to the arms race hypothesis. Chinese developers are releasing AAA content…

Marathon, Extraction Shooters, & The Big Shooter Mistake

Extraction shooters were supposed to be the next big leap, and Escape from Tarkov was the movement’s exemplar. Titles like Jager’s The Cycle: Frontier and Call of Duty’s DMZ failed to generate meaningful traction. Many mistakes stem from a misunderstanding of Royale’s place in shooter evolution, creating an inability to conceptualize what’s next. Bungie’s Marathon…