Kliuless? Gaming Industry ICYMI #20
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
Netflix vs. Fortnite: Competitors in Content & Influence
- Context
- Netflix: "We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO"
- Director Steven Sonderbergh has made a film for Netflix shot entirely on iPhone
- Opinion: The Rise of The Influencer — And Why Epic's New Store Approach Is Huge
- Related: The Epic Games Store as described by Sergey Galyonkin, Director of Publishing Strategy
- Epic Games acquires digital character specialist 3Lateral
- Related: More investors are betting on virtual influencers like Lil Miquela
- Commentary
- The tools now readily available to everyone make it easier than ever before for individuals to create and broadcast personalized content. No longer does one need a fancy camera nor even an attractive appearance to be an overnight star
- From a reach perspective, Netflix of course eclipses Fortnite or any other entertainment service. However, its business model, predicated on persistent expenditures to continually create content, results in poor profitability
- With a close eye already on Fortnite's success, perhaps Netflix will choose to experiment with similar "Support-A-Creator" partnerships to evolve its content engine into a more financially sustainable form
- Further reading
- HBR: Why Some Platforms Thrive and Others Don’t
- Stratechery: Netflix Flexes
Design
- Richard Garfield interview on Keyforge
- Thoughts on Detroit: Become Human
- Mark Brown: Should Roguelikes Have Persistent Upgrades?
- Splash Damage has released the full game design document for Dirty Bomb
PC/Console
- After a long back and forth, Improbable confirms future Unity support for SpatialOS
- Microsoft CEO laid out company's vision for its 'Netflix for games'
- Opinion: Changing industry economics let Bungie forge a new destiny
- NPD 2018: The 20 best-selling games of the year
Mobile
- App Annie's State of Mobile 2019: TL;DR and full report
- Data is so cheap in India that smartphone users average over 8 GB/month, and binge on video
- Royole’s FlexPai could be the world’s first foldable phone you can buy
- Related: Xiaomi's foldable smartphone tease
- How Mediatonic is bringing Gears of War to mobile
China
- Tencent, NetEase miss out again as Chinese government approves third round of video game licences
- U.S. direct-to-consumer brands are eyeing China
Tech
- a16z's Benedict Evans on 5G, AR/VR, and other topics
- Related: NYMag opinion piece on AR/VR
- Google is buying Fossil’s smartwatch tech for $40mm
Overtime
- Games and Crowdfunding in 2018
- The Best New Music Festival Is in 'Minecraft'
- NASA Turns to Games For A New Generation of Space Art
- The Grand Tour Game is a bad game, but an interesting vision for interactive TV
- NYTimes: A Real-World Battle Over Dancing Avatars: Did Fortnite Steal the Floss?
See more or subscribe at: https://tinyletter.com/kliuless
Twitter: @kliuless
LinkedIn: @kliuless