Look at Gaming #221 | Friday May 26th 2023

HAPPY FRIDAY! We got some new emojis 😎. Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Shoutout to Juan Perez (reNFT )for the daily gg in the comments. Come drop a gg in the comments fam.


⚡ Spotlight 🤩
Nike .SWOOSH OF1 NFT Sale Surpasses $1M


🌊 MARKET 📞
Microsoft files appeal against CMA block on Activision Blizzard merger

NetEase generated $3.6 billion in revenue in 2023’s first quarter | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz

Since its January launch Kick has hit a total of 114m viewership hours | GamesIndustry.biz


🌈 Platforms 🏠
BMW to launch in-car gaming in partnership with AirConsole | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz

Facebook Gaming survey finds that casual gamers are crucial to the evolution of the metaverse | VentureBeat

East meets west: How Level Infinite and TiMi Studio Group are taking Tencent global | VentureBeat

Unpacking the PlayStation Showcase | Microcast | GamesIndustry.biz


✨ Web 3⃣ + Meta 🌐
Ubisoft's Rabbids Invade Reddit as Free NFTs - Decrypt

Nike .SWOOSH OF1 NFT Sale Surpasses $1M

Npixel recruits testers for Web3 MMO Gran Saga: Unlimited | VentureBeat

Binance Introducing NFT Lending Capability


🧠 Knowledge Hub 📘
Replica unveils AI-powered smart NPCs for Unreal Engine | VentureBeat

Look at Gaming #223 | Tuesday May 30th 2023


⚡ Spotlight 🤩
Watch this Nvidia demo and imagine actually speaking to AI game characters - The Verge


🌊 MARKET 📞
CD Projekt sales drop 20% year-over-year | GamesIndustry.biz

Newzoo adjusted the Gaming market size in 2022 - it's dropped worse than expected


💎 Deep Dives 🔎
Have you 'lost track' of Steam key resellers?


🌈 Platforms 🏠
'Apple's app review favours big studios, stifles competition and wastes time and money' - Mobilegamer.biz

League of Legends esports players voted ‘overwhelmingly’ for a walkout - The Verge

Watch this Nvidia demo and imagine actually speaking to AI game characters - The Verge


✨ Web 3️⃣ + Meta 🌐
PancakeSwap Launches Tower Defense Game—With CAKE Token Rewards - Decrypt

From Square Enix to Ubisoft: The Biggest Publishers Building NFT Games - Decrypt


🧠 Knowledge Hub 📘
Flying Blind | Mobile Dev Memo by Eric Seufert

What Is a 3D Modeler: Kevuru Games Expertise - Kevuru Games

Advertising in Video Games - How to Use it Most Effectively - Kevuru Games


👾 Game & Stats Releases 📊
The Witcher is officially one of the most successful game series of all time - The Verge

AppMagic: Honkai: Star Rail earned $132.3M in the first month on Mobile


💲 Fundraising 🤑
DeGame raises $6.5M | Cointelegraph

Look at Gaming #224 | Wednesday May 31st 2023


⚡ Spotlight 🤩
TaeTaeHoHo's thread on his Autonomous Anonymous talk


🌊 MARKET 📞
South Korea gives full approval to Microsoft-Activision merger


💎 Deep Dives 🔎
Generative AI, advertising, and hidden personas | Mobile Dev Memo by Eric Seufert


🌈 Platforms 🏠
Overwatch 2 celebrates its first in-game Pride event - The Verge

Riot delays competitive League of Legends season after players voted to walk out - The Verge


✨ Web 3⃣ + Meta 🌐
Mercedes Benz and Fingerprints DAO to Release Car-Themed NFT Collection

The Wolves DAO Files #8: The Importance of Royalties in Web3 Gaming

TaeTaeHoHo's thread on his Autonomous Anonymous talk

Mani_NFTz Dives Into Square Enix and Web3 Gaming


💲 Fundraising 🤑
Proxima raises $1.6M and announces Lumari as 1st game | VentureBeat


👾 Game & Stats Releases 📊
Supercell launches new title Flood Rush into beta | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz

——————

Drop a gg into the comment! Would love to hear from you! ❤️

P.S.
Has everyone played the new Zelda yet?

Look at Gaming #225 | Thursday June 1st 2023

Games-as-a-Service is definitely going to be replaced by Games-as-a-Platform. Before the bUsiNeSs people came in and jargon-fy everything, Games-as-a-Platform is basically modding. We saw companies like Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite Creative Mode lead the charge but slowly and surely many games that achieve high-quality IP status turns their game into a platform for UGC. Read the Deconstructor of Fun piece in the Spotlight section for more info.


⚡ Spotlight 🤩
The Hunger Games for User Generated Content: Case Fall Guys — Deconstructor of Fun


🌊 MARKET 📞
Huuuge Games hit all-time high EBITDA for Q1 2023 | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz


💎 Deep Dives 🔎
Where's PlayStation - and Sony's games - headed in 2023?

Embracer’s Lost Partnership & Its Major Blow to Profitability — Naavik

The Hunger Games for User Generated Content: Case Fall Guys — Deconstructor of Fun


🌈 Platforms 🏠
Epic’s Alan Wake 2 heralds a new dawn of digital-only AAA games

Raf Grassetti, ex-God of War art director, joins Netflix Games


✨ Web 3⃣ + Meta 🌐
Grand Theft Auto 6 Crypto Rumors Are Swirling Again—Here’s What’s Going On - Decrypt

Reddit Co-Founder Still Believes Play-to-Earn Will Be the Standard for Gaming - Decrypt

Keep Web3 separated from the actual game | VentureBeat


🧠 Knowledge Hub 📘
Taking risks with Clash of Clans Builder Base revamp

3DFY lets devs create 3D models based on text prompts | VentureBeat


💲 Fundraising 🤑
M80 Raises $3 Million to Expand 'Web3-Enabled' Esports Organization - Decrypt

——————

Drop a gg into the comment! Would love to hear from you! ❤️

Don't let Juan (reNFT), Mike (PaladinsDAO), and Wassie (PlayVentures) have all the fun.


P.S.
If anyone's at ethSEOUL, drop a comment!

Look at Gaming #226 | Friday June 2nd 2023


Happy Friday frens! If you're out in ethSEOUL, drop me a note in the comments!

Today we got lots of web3 news. My top pick is EA Sports integrating Nike NFTs into their games.

Is this what composability looks like? I think at the very basic level, yeah. This will be table stakes moving forward.

I'm surprised though since EA license a lot of those titles to use the names, likeness, etc., so I wonder how much legal legwork must've gone down behind the scenes between Nike, the IP holders, and EA to make this work. Let's wait and see how the execution take shape.


⚡ Spotlight 🤩
FIFA, Madden Maker EA Sports to Add Nike NFTs to Games - Decrypt


💎 Deep Dives 🔎
Read the emails: Valve helped Nintendo kick the Dolphin Emulator off Steam - The Verge

Study examines when gamers are close to rage quitting | VentureBeat


🌈 Platforms 🏠
Meta Announced Quest 3

Epic now rewards Fortnite creators for how long people play their experiences - The Verge


✨ Web 3⃣ + Meta 🌐
FIFA, Madden Maker EA Sports to Add Nike NFTs to Games - Decrypt

Japanese Airline ANA Launches NFT Marketplace

Solana Shooter Ev.io Is Giving Out Billions of BONK Tokens In-Game - Decrypt

GameStop Partners With Telos To Expand Web3 Gaming

Fenix Games teams up with Immutable on Web3 games | VentureBeat


🧠 Knowledge Hub 📘
How Scopely made Monopoly a mobile success | VentureBeat

What’s the Best Time to Request Permission From Users for ATT? (iOS)


👾 Game & Stats Releases 📊
'Stranger Things' game developer BonusXP is shutting down | TechCrunch

No Man’s Sky launches on Mac starting today | TechCrunch

Rush Royale breaks $100m as it signs up influencer Jake Paul - Mobilegamer.biz

Sony: PlayStation VR 2 tapped 600k copies in the first 6 weeks

GTA V sales reached 180M copies - by Game Dev Report

——————

Drop a gg into the comment! Would love to hear from you! ❤️

Don't let Juan (reNFT), Mike (PaladinsDAO), and Wassie (PlayVentures), JACL (Delphi), and Raiden (Wolves) have all the fun.


P.S.
If anyone's at ethSEOUL, drop a comment!

Look at Gaming #227 | Monday June 5th 2023

SMH. This post didn't go out yesterday. Sorry that you missed your does of daily news.

It was a slow day anyways.

What caught my eyes was this statistic from MENA. A good behind the envelope number to hold is that gaming is a $200B industry so MENA is projected to be 3% of that.

We saw a lot of investment activities from MENA region so the government is highly active in this space.

Fun fact, the population of MENA is around 1% of the world's.


⚡ Spotlight 🤩
MENA gaming revenue projected to close in on $6 billion by 2027 | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz


🌊 MARKET 📞
It's still a good time for investments in games | VentureBeat

MENA gaming revenue projected to close in on $6 billion by 2027 | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz

Deals Digest: The Biggest Deals of 2023 | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz

StreamElements & Stream Charts: New streaming platform Kick Report


💎 Deep Dives 🔎
Sony’s Live Service Gamble — Naavik


🌈 Platforms 🏠
Apple does not collect commission on 90% of $1.1 trillion in app store sales | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz


✨ Web 3⃣ + Meta 🌐
Neal Stephenson's Lamina1 Is Fighting for an Open Metaverse - Decrypt


🧠 Knowledge Hub 📘
How Deep Silver won over thousands of influencers with Dead Island 2 | GamesIndustry.biz

How Tilting Point's web shop boosted mobile game revenue by 25% | VentureBeat

How We Were Here Forever implements cross-platform from the ground up


💲 Fundraising 🤑
Lumari is a new social sandbox game with cute creatures, building capabilities and more | TechCrunch

——————

Drop a gg into the comment! Would love to hear from you! ❤️

Don't let Juan (reNFT), Mike (PaladinsDAO), and Wassie (PlayVentures), JACL (Delphi), Raiden (Wolves), Bailey (Ronin), Kiefer (Economic Design), Sonny (NOR), Tiong and Ishan (Glip.gg) have all the fun.

Look at Gaming #228 | Tuesday June 6th 2023

Apple dropped some banger news at its annual WWDC, particularly their new "spatial computing" Apple Vision Pro. This is a $3.5k mixed-reality (XR) headset — odd price point as Apple usually won't release a product before its "accessible" not by all but by many.

The message they're sending is that this is the platform killer for all your consoles, TVs, gaming peripherals, desktops, basically anything you use at home. If you add up the cost of your home entertainment media hub and your home work station, then the Vision Pro is comparable to a high performant setup.



⚡ Spotlight 🤩
Introducing Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer - Apple


💎 Deep Dives 🔎
Did Apple extinguish device fingerprinting with privacy manifests? | Mobile Dev Memo by Eric Seufert


Can cloud gaming change the industry? | Podcast | GamesIndustry.biz

Can Esport Leagues Be Profitable? - Naavik


🌈 Platforms 🏠
Introducing Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer - Apple


🧠 Knowledge Hub 📘
The Music Of Final Fantasy 16: Part 4 – The Sound - Game Informer


💲 Fundraising 🤑
Spektra Games raises $1.25M for mobile racing and simulation games | VentureBeat


👾 Game & Stats Releases 📊
Apple Vision Pro vs. Meta Quest 3: What's the Difference? - Decrypt

Street Fighter 6 hits over 1 million players in its opening weekend

——————

Drop a gg into the comment! Would love to hear from you! ❤️

Look at Gaming #229 | Wednesday June 7th 2023

Good batch of news today! There's a good report on IP-based games with some key nuggets such as IP games have higher retention and mainly in Adventure, Fighting, RPG, and Shooters.

Also recall that yesterday that we mentioned MENA region projecting to be $6B, the South East Asia region is hitting $5B now with Vietnam being the hub.

News around Netflix shipping new games based on banger IP like Lego as well as their own IP like Queen's Gambit. For those interested in Netflix's content-focused strategy should study Disney and how the empire is built around content.


⚡ Spotlight 🤩
Newzoo: Transmedia in games: trends, success factors, market insights | Newzoo


🌊 MARKET 📞
Is Vietnam the up and coming hub of new game development talent? | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz

Newzoo: Transmedia in games: trends, success factors, market insights | Newzoo


🌈 Platforms 🏠
Riot and Coke think they figured out what leveling up tastes like - The Verge

Netflix announces LEGO mobile game and a daily version of Cut the Rope | TechCrunch

Netflix is launching its Queen’s Gambit chess game in July - The Verge

Kabam on crossing over to PCs | GamesIndustry.biz


✨ Web 3⃣ + Meta 🌐
Twitch Co-Founder's Fractal Launches Tools to Help Devs Build NFT Games - Decrypt

Crypto Unicorns unveils Unicorn Party Web3 casual mobile games | VentureBeat

Building an RPG for Web3 With Azra Games - Naavik


🧠 Knowledge Hub 📘
How To Build A New Final Fantasy: An Interview With Creative Business Unit III - Game Informer

The Difference Between Unreal Engine 4 & 5: Sneak Peek | Kevuru Games


💲 Fundraising 🤑
Web3 Gaming Studio Argus Raises $10M Lead By Haun Ventures | Coindesk


👾 Game & Stats Releases 📊
Diablo 4 is now Blizzard's fastest-selling game of all time | GamesIndustry.biz

Look at Gaming #230 | Thursday June 8th 2023

Obvs, y'all can see that I'm currently on a MENA tip. So when this article dissecting Savvy Games Group, I had to dive in. In recent years the Public Investment Fund bought stakes in Capcom, Nexon, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two, and EA. Not to mention its outright purchase of Scopely and its acquisition of a large stake in Embracer Group.

They're not done. There's still nearly $40B of capital allocated to build Saudi Arabia's pressence in the global games industry.

There's also an article about China's market being $45B in 2022. This week we saw $6B for SEA region and $6B (by 2026) for MENA. All these eastern regions sapping market share away from the west is a very clear indication of the shifting landscape.


⚡ Spotlight 🤩
What is Savvy Games Group and how is it trying to change Saudi Arabia's image? | GamesIndustry.biz


🌊 MARKET 📞
Data drop: vital Sensor Tower stats, ATT tips, UA survey, App Store numbers and more | Mobilegamer.biz

China's games market reached $45.5bn in 2022 | GamesIndustry.biz


💎 Deep Dives 🔎
Roblox Brings Scarcity To UGC | Naavik

What is Savvy Games Group and how is it trying to change Saudi Arabia's image? | GamesIndustry.biz

Why video game film adaptations used to suck and don't anymore | Uwe Boll interview | VentureBeat


🌈 Platforms 🏠
Twitch’s new ad rules will hurt streamers, charities, and brands | The Verge

PortalOne's release of Atari's Breakout pits players against Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell | VentureBeat

Apple's new toolkit makes it easier for developers to bring Windows games to Mac | TechCrunch


✨ Web 3⃣ + Meta 🌐
NFT Lending Platforms on the Rise, Though Risks Remain | Coindesk

GameStop Fires CEO Who Oversaw Retailer's NFT Push | Decrypt


👾 Game & Stats Releases 📊
PUBG Mobile tops $10 billion in revenue | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz


——————


Drop a gg into the comment! Would love to hear from you! ❤️