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…
Monopoly Go’s economy design makes social casino accessible. The roll-move-resolve loop is more approachable on a board than on a slots reel, so the game can create a real sense of tension (the board piece will sometimes enter bullet time before landing on a tile). Another achievement is the game’s events, which cut to the…
While game director and sim genre maniac Director Hyungjun “Kjun” Kim seems to have delivered on the game at this stage in development, Krafton needs to step up to deliver on the title’s business promise. Krafton needs to flex its newly formed publishing arm quickly, or a franchise could slip away.
Phillip & Eric navigate the strangely subdued landscape of GDC 2025, pondering if there really is such a thing as a free lunch. Christopher Kaczmarczyk-Smith dials in, wondering if his absence is secretly the key to Eric’s roundtable success. They dissect the talks, the conference economics, the rise of mobile’s respectability, and a guest in…
Another wave of AI advances, another chorus of artists crying foul. Each wave has been unoccupied by serious argumentation; pro-Copyrightists need to advance something beyond an assumed conclusion if they want to win minds, not just hearts. Copyrightists routinely declare AI-generated art and “training” as copyright infringement and insist artists are owed royalties. This presumption is…
Netflix Games finally has a coherent strategy—hallelujah! Yet, despite this newfound clarity, it’s missing perhaps the most obvious acquisition opportunity since Sony scooped up Insomniac Games: Jackbox Games.
This revelation insight from former Machine Zone CEO Gabe Leydon spun my head throughout the
If you’re European, you need the U.S. economy to grow. If you’re Canadian, you need the U.S. economy to grow. This sobering reality underscores nearly every Western mobile development hub today: for mobile gaming to grow, the U.S. needs to grow. Although optimistic narratives from developing markets like India and Brazil are abundant, their growth…
Tripledot’s nearly $1B acquisition of Applovin’s studio collection appears to be a massive and leveraged gamble but reflects the shrinking pool of the hyper-to-hybrid publisher game of musical chairs. With the stroke of a pen, Tripledot’s revenue portfolio radically shifts from 1% IAP to being a majority. Meanwhile, Voodoo, Homa, and others undergo painful and…
Nearly all economic activity in match-based or “saga”-based metas follows the fundamental relationship: where, Basic Match Model