Kliuless? Gaming Industry ICYMI #34
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 broadly within Riot. 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
Revenue Strategy
- Proposed legislation aims to ban loot boxes in the United States
- Germany considers new youth protection guidelines for mobile monetization
- Dota 2 reveals its battle pass for The International 2019
- Fortnite season 9 battle pass introduces collectible computer chips called “fortbytes”
Cross-Platform / Multi-Platform
- Porting Dead Cells to mobile: An in-depth breakdown
- EA confirmed plans to bring Apex Legends to China and to mobile
- EA Access arrives on PS4 in July, but is incompatible with existing Xbox and PC subscriptions
PC / Console
- Starbreeze seeks funding to avoid imminent "liquidity shortfall"
- IHS: Worldwide spend on content and services for games consoles hits record high in 2018
Mobile
- DeNA to release mobile Pokemon game by March next year
- Nubia stuck a cooling fan in its latest gaming smartphone
- IDC: Smartphone Shipments Experience Deeper Decline in Q1 2019 with a Clear Shakeup Among Market Leaders
China
- Niko Partners: 2019 China PC Online Games Market Report
- Niko Partners: Chinese mobile gaming revenue up 29% last year despite license freeze
- Bloomberg: Tencent Swaps Out PUBG for Chinese Game That Can Generate Profit
Tech / Entertainment
- Stratechery: Google Fights Back
- "Google spends billions of dollars on research and development and global-scaling infrastructure in order to deliver superior products to, first and foremost, users on premium phones (who have a huge amount of overlap with the set of customers most attractive to advertisers). That expenditure, though, is a fixed cost, while serving a marginal user is effectively free; it follows, then, that the best way to leverage those costs is to serve as many people as possible, even if the revenue from doing so is quite meager, at least for now"
- Google pivots away from VR hardware to focus on software
- With new raise, Unity could nearly double valuation to $6 billion
- Twitter Expands Live-Streaming Video Lineup, Sets Content Deals With Viacom, ESPN, Live Nation, Univision, and More
- Bloomberg: Apple to Reveal New Home-Grown Apps, Software Features at WWDC
- WSJ: Facebook Building Cryptocurrency-Based Payments System
Overtime
- Building visionary triple-A game studios that last
- ESA: 65% of American adults play video games
- Newzoo: 46% of all video game enthusiasts are female
- Minecraft Marketplace March 2019’s top 10 downloads
- Creating Cuphead's Most Ambitious Boss Fight
- How Slay the Spire’s Original Interface Almost Killed the Game
- 'Dreams' Is a Powerful Tool to Create Anything and Own Nothing
- How George Fan created the wacky Plants vs. Zombies a decade ago
- Fortnite is throwing an E3 after-party: Summer Block Party June 15-June 16 in L.A.
- Mass Effect-inspired porn game is now one of the biggest gaming Kickstarters of all time
- New Yorker: The Terrifying Potential of the 5G Network
- NYT: The Chinese Surveillance State, Part I
- Jumia’s rise exposes challenges of online shopping in Africa
See more or subscribe at: https://tinyletter.com/kliuless
Twitter: @kliuless
LinkedIn: @kliuless