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Kliuless #16: 2018 Year in Review
Each week I compile a gaming industry insights newsletter that I share with other Rioters, including Riot’s senior leadership. This edition is the public version that I publish broadly every week as well. Opinions are mine.
5 Min Read
Kliuless? Gaming Industry ICYMI #16
Hi, my name is Kenny Liu, and I work in Revenue Strategy at Riot Games. Each week I compile a gaming industry insights newsletter that I share with other Rioters, including Riot’s senior leadership. This edition is the public version that I publish broadly every week as well. Opinions are mine.
See more or subscribe at: https://tinyletter.com/kliuless
2018 Year in Review
Annual tech/marketing trends by Fjord, Accenture Interactive's design and innovation consultancy
"Every year in Trends we look for a meta-theme that spans all of them[.] There is a really clear one this year, and it has two angles to it. I would say that the big thing we're seeing is people searching for value
And we're seeing this with organizations who are looking at the innovation they've been doing over the last 2-5 years in response to the digitization of the world, and they're saying: 'What are things which are providing us with value and what aren't?' 'Where exactly is the value in what we're doing?' And 'how can we zone in on the value?' by, for example, combining strategic thinking with human insights
And then on the other side we're seeing customers, citizens, users looking for [...] 'Where is the value for the environment and the products and services that I'm using?' People, globally, are trying to understand why they are relevant, and to find those anchors which make them feel relevant in the world. And the winners, from the organizational point of view, are going to be those that provide to their customers, their citizens, a sense of relevance. And if we can tie those together that's where I think value can be created over the next 1-5 years
What I find really exciting is when you put together a lot of the Trends and look at them in overview this year, the opportunities for design to really revolutionize a number of areas are probably greater now than I think I've seen them for many years. And I think we're on the cusp of almost a creativity revolution, and I think we're going to see that play out over the next 2-3 years. And that's super exciting"
GamesIndustry.biz: The Year In Numbers 2018
Related: Industry movers and shakers share 2018 highlights
Stratechery: 2018 Year in Review
Revenue Strategy, Publishing & Esports
a16z: Outgrowing Advertising: Multimodal Business Models as a Product Strategy
"Product success is not just about having a good product, but also having the right business model(s). Expanding sources of revenue pushes us to think beyond what we know, and creates the infrastructure that opens up new opportunities. In this post, I will use consumer entertainment apps (books, podcasts, videos, and music) as a lens into the different business models and product strategies of Chinese companies. Thinking about content consumption in a mobile-first way in China has enabled these new business models, which not only provide diversified revenue streams for businesses, but also allow users to make better, more flexible purchasing decisions"
Related: HBR: Digital Growth Depends More on Business Models than Technology
a16z: 16 Ways to Measure Network Effects
Inside the Pricey War to Influence Your Instagram Feed
Reactance: Why controlling peoples' sense of freedom can trigger an angry motivation to regain it
Why go for a surprise launch?
Market correction in esports? Enthusiasm for gaming grows, but experts worry that the dollars aren’t keeping up with the hype
Related: Intel and ESL announce $100m esports investment
PC/Console
Sony accidentally disclosed player counts for nearly every PS4 game
First-party Switch games are setting new attach rate records for Nintendo
Discord aims to disrupt by opening storefront to devs, offering 90% revenue share
RobotCache signs 22 publishers with 700 games for blockchain app store
Minecraft modders form Hypixel Studios, with Riot Games and Bonfire co-founders among initial investors
Star Citizen creator Cloud Imperium Games raised $46 million to launch big game in 2020
Mobile
App Annie: Game and app downloads grow 10% in 2018 to 113 billion
Apple changes App Store rules to allow users to gift IAP to friends & family
PUBG mobile has as many players as Fortnite
Zynga buys Empires & Puzzles dev Small Giant in deal worth >$700mm
New ‘Call of Duty: Legends of War’ Mobile Game launches on Android in select regions
XR: AR/MR/VR
Free Capture app turns some iPhones and iPads into 3D scanners for AR
Zspace unveils laptop that enables easy AR/VR interaction
Asia
Niko Partners: Chinese regulators have restarted game licensing
China court grants Qualcomm injunction against Apple, banning sale of some iPhones
Chinese tech start-ups are tapping into Southeast Asia amid tough relations with US in trade war
Overtime
UK video games workers unionize over ‘wide-scale exploitation’ and diversity issues
Will Wright brings his game design expertise to MasterClass
Riot's 'So You Wanna Make Games??' video series attempts to demystify the art pipeline for game development
The Guardian: The 20 best video games of 2018
Blog: 'Fortnite Is So Much More Than a Game'
How Doom changed PC gaming forever
KeyForge: The red-hot card game where every deck is unique—and unchangeable
The Board Game of the Alpha Nerds: Before Risk, before Dungeons & Dragons, before Magic: The Gathering, there was Diplomacy
HTC thinks Christians are VR's next big audience
343 Industries is teaming up with Limbitless to provide Halo-themed prosthetics
Dune's rise and fall from the best-selling science-fiction novel in history to epic failure on the screen
Blog: '52 things I learned in 2018' [KL: Found particularly interesting #2, #5, #17, #21, #31-33, #39]
VICE News visits one of the first pilot cities to adopt China's 'social credit system'
Toilets across China are now requiring face scans or WeChat to dispense toilet paper
China knocks off Iron Man with its own superhero version 'Armored Monkey King'
See more or subscribe at: https://tinyletter.com/kliuless
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