Humanity may be on a colossal technology frontier, but gaming is being dragged along with AI. Instead of surfing atop the wave, it’s retreated to the wake. Gaming has historically been the first-best use case for new technology, so where did it all go so wrong? In the 26 months since ChatGPT launched, Web3 has…
Matthew Ball’s 2024 gaming review paints an industry that had a good ride but is settling into stagflation. The Metaverse is nowhere to be found; instead, growth drivers like cloud streaming and GTA pricing replace it. If Stadia is the best we can do, we’re truly fucked. I wrote in agreement earlier this year with…
The fate of PC & Console’s (HD) live-service model hangs on Q5’s ambitious lineup: Strinova, Infinity Nikki, Path of Exile 2, Supervive, Marvel Rivals, and Delta Force. Should these titles fail to gain traction, the industry faces a cascade of down rounds, studio closures, and layoffs—not to mention a wholesale reassessment of the HD live-service…
Arguments justifying Arcane on the grounds that “Riot can afford it” are already lost. This framing positions Arcane as a cost center. Marketing heads are commonly called “Heads of Growth” because marketing isn’t supposed to be a cost center; instead, it ought to be a profit center. It’s a beautiful show (I loved it! Thank…
Famed Music Producer Rick Rubin said, “The audience comes last [in the creative process].” Game developers should heed this advice and avoid a “player-first” mentality. Creators must act in the best long-term interest of the game.
When I wrote, Economics of Battle Pass Are Broken. Let’s Fix It in 2021; I argued that designers needed to play with ADMC (average daily monetization cap) to transform the pass from an engagement to a monetization vertical. Since then, every subsequent “innovation” has been a creative exercise in price increases. Fortnite realized this long…
Does a new Call of Duty map generate superior engagement compared to a new weapon? Which drives higher retentive effects: a new Magic The Gathering or Marvel Snap card?
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 achieved the strongest paid Steam launch in franchise history. The franchise’s metamorphosis—from a modest war game that moved 5M units in 2003 to a cultural juggernaut shipping 20-30M copies yearly—is far more fascinating than marketing prowess—it’s a masterclass in industrial execution. Like a Robber Baron Industrialist who strikes oil,…
1. Distribution The mobile “meta” is getting games in players’ hands post-ATT. The unintended consequences of Apple’s destruction of mobile acquisitions haven’t been to regain distribution control but for firms to find alternatives. “Content Fortress” ad networks, messenger apps, fake ads becoming white-lie ads, web stores, a return to brand marketing angles, and yes, web3,…
In tech writer Ben Thompson’s infamous aggregation theory, economic power derives from supply ownership—train barons owned the track and leveraged that power up and down the supply chain. The internet flipped the relationship: with near zero switching and distribution costs, suppliers instead aggregated user demand to leverage suppliers. Consider Amazon: aggregating millions of customers gained…