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Kliuless #43: The Mirage of Cloud Gaming
Each week I compile a gaming industry insights newsletter that I publish broadly. Opinions are mine.
5 Min Read
Kliuless? Gaming Industry ICYMI #43
Hi, my name is Kenny Liu, and each week I compile a gaming industry insights newsletter that I publish broadly. Opinions are mine.
See more or subscribe at: https://tinyletter.com/kliuless
The Mirage of Cloud Gaming (and How to Reach the Oasis)
[KL: This essay was the most well-constructed think piece I have read to date on cloud gaming's future. I highly recommend reading its entirety]
"[W]e hear lots about 'the next two billion gamers' (Microsoft) or even the 'next five billion' (Ubisoft). [...] I’m not convinced that cloud gaming will deliver on this expectation – at least as traditionally defined and as applies to the gaming sector today. This doesn’t mean it won’t drive material incremental value – it will. It also offers a pathway to these customers, albeit not via traditional games"
"Cloud gaming will make it easier to start playing and in more places – all the while maximizing actual play time. [...] Subscription-based access, which makes incremental games free, and the ability to play a new game right away[,] will also drive gamers to sample and thus play more titles. [...] Each of these benefits is real and significant. But they’re not arguments for unlocking new groups of players; they’re arguments for better monetizing the existing audience of AAA-playing, hardware-based gamers"
"All of this returns to the thesis that mobile is already maximizing the gamer audience, and mobile products are largely the result of what the market has demanded rather than what processing capabilities and input capabilities are or aren’t available"
"The benefit of cloud gaming, at the end of the day, is going to be in the types of content that could only be created via the cloud – the same way there was value to the types of games that could only be created on console versus arcade, or touch screen versus console. And this has always the case in media. So, what is this content? The history of the last forty years only dwelled on markets for players. Going forward, non-players will drive much of future growth"
Esports
Ninja departs Twitch for Mixer exclusivity deal
Real estate investor agrees to buy Outlaws for $40 million
Opinion: The Fortnite World Cup is a glimpse of esports' future
"This isn't the esports that pioneers of the field envisioned, but it's the esports that we're getting; something that owes as much to wrestling TV shows, with their focus on personality, flair and entertainment value, as it does to the austere, skill-focused world of Olympic sports and their ilk. This emerging world revolves around individual players and their ability to relate to a fanbase; it's as much if not more so about the capacity to play to a crowd as it is about the capacity to actually win the game
The focus on the individual is not to say that there won't be plenty of room for sponsors and managers and teams of people in the background, but the task is going to be more like managing a high-profile celebrity than running a sports team"
Art / Design
Creating terrifying, memorable 2D monsters
Mark Brown: Why Does Celeste Feel So Good to Play?
PC / Console
Bungie delays free-to-play Destiny 2 to October
Rockstar Touts GTA Online Casino Update As Game's Biggest Launch
Apex Legends has 8-to-10 million players a week
EA: Our players often choose other platforms over Nintendo Switch
New Game Trials program will let Switch Online members try games for free
Mobile
Ustwo begins work on Monument Valley 3
Bandai Namco launches a new mobile division
Ubisoft acquires mobile publisher Green Panda Games
My.Games & iDreamSky partner for mutual international expansion
Qualcomm & Tencent team up for future mobile game devices and content
Google is testing $5/month Play Pass subscription for Android
Report: Loyalty Is Waning Among iPhone Users
WSJ: "The Hottest Phones for the Next Billion Users Aren’t Smartphones"
"First-time internet consumers are connecting to the web on a new breed of device costing about $25"
Asia
Report: Mobile Gamers in China
NetEase to publish Creative Assembly's Total War series in China
Sony essentially "founded an entire business" to bring PS4 to China
Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) on the rise of indie devs across Asia
"I think Singapore has an advantage over much of the rest of Asia when it comes to making games that people around the world will want to purchase. For example, English [language] is very good here, and that makes a difference in the way things are presented. If a Chinese game gets exported and translated into English, you can still feel that it's a foreign game, whereas a game from Singapore I don't feel like would have that friction attached. I think all these different regions in Asia have a great deal of potential
It feels like things are a little bit on a knife edge, where if it tips a little bit, people will start having success with independent games, see the success, and keep going. Just seeing something happen makes people believe that they can do it too. I think a lot of the time, that's all that has to happen. Now, Beijing has been like a weird special case, because there's been the weird government crackdown on games in the past year, so who knows what's going to happen there. But places like Taipei, it definitely feels like that"
Apple is pivoting to services, but will that work in China?
WhatsApp global head: "We view India as our future"
Netflix launches $3/month mobile-only subscriptions in India
Tech / Entertainment
Benedict Evans: Amazon as experiment
Inside Amazon’s Struggles to Make its Mark in Hollywood
Overtime
Universal Laws of the World
10 lessons from a serial entrepreneur – Justin Kan (Twitch, YC)
Team Fortress 2’s Steam Marketplace economy has tanked from a bug
Chrome continues to wind down Flash support with latest browser update
The Void plans 25 new VR entertainment centers in U.S. and Europe
Super Nintendo World will be the cornerstone of Universal’s third Orlando theme park
China’s social credit system may soon target online speech
See more or subscribe at: https://tinyletter.com/kliuless
LinkedIn: @kliuless
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