Hello friends,
Welcome to issue No: 10! Hope everyone’s staying safe out there.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be in Turkey (Istanbul & Ankara), please reply to this email if you want to meet up in person (in distance😷).
📈 This Week in Numbers
$3B - PUBG Mobile has made over $3 billion in lifetime revenue
$100M - Discord raises $100 million to expand beyond games
$8M - Voicemod raises $8 million for silly or serious voice filters in games
Some streamers change their voices for gags. Some people can use the tech to disguise their voices. But sometimes that’s a good thing, as the gaming community can be toxic. If you have a child’s voice or a female voice, bullies may give you grief.
Interesting how this space is growing. Modulate is a similar company where players can customise their voices.
$6M - PlayBrain closes $6 million Series A funding round
PlayBrain is a full-service esports tournament and media company in Japan that helps brands and game publishers to reach gamers and fans through large-scale esports event production and marketing.
5B - Twitch breaks records again in Q2, topping 5B total hours watched
According to a new report from Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet, Twitch saw a massive 62.7% increase in hours watched from Q1 2020 to reach 5 billion hours watched in the second quarter.
🗞News
Apple freezes updates for thousands of mobile games on China App Store
Analysts and lawyers in Beijing suggested that the Chinese government had decided to step up enforcement on Apple, the largest US company operating in China, after broader tensions between Washington and Beijing. While officials have turned a blind eye to Apple’s App Store until now, domestic app stores such as those run by the mobile phone companies Huawei and Xiaomi have been more active in removing unlicensed games.
Amazon Pulls Crucible From Wide Release Weeks After Game Launch
During the closed beta, players can still stream their gameplay and otherwise share content. New players will be able to sign up “in the near future,” Johanson said, as the team works on changes. Earlier this month, he said the studio would eliminate two of Crucible’s three modes and laid out plans for tweaks in response to feedback from critics and players
Tencent starts US studio to make AAA games for next-gen consoles
Tencent also unveiled new games and partnerships at their annual conference. They also released a technical trailer for their new open world cyberpunk style FPS game SYN.
Apple reportedly cancels contracts with Arcade developers as it shakes up its strategy
Apple has been informing developers of certain in-production titles that their new titles lacked sufficient engagement, and is attempting to address the drop-off of users once their free trial period expires.
🔮Good Reads
Legends in lockdown: The pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-sports
Though South Korea remains a leader in e-sports, China is catching up. The island of Hainan, popular for its beach resorts, has set aside $141m to subsidise international e-sports. In Hangzhou government money has been used to build an “e-sports town”, featuring a 56,000-square-foot (5,200-square-metre) arena, which is home to the Chinese “League of Legends” games, sponsored by Tencent. There are also shops, a training academy and an e-sports-themed hotel.
Mixer co-founder on Microsoft pulling the plug, Twitch’s market power, and his startup journey
I think a lot of people understate how small Twitch is in comparison to YouTube Gaming, not in terms of live content, but if you look at total viewing hours across the platform, Twitch is actually quite small, relatively speaking, actually a pretty niche thing. But at the same time, in terms of live, Twitch is much larger in terms of the core community and audience. YouTube’s continuing to grow. And hopefully they’ll be able to leverage the VOD side of their community to grow the live side. We’re seeing that slowly today. But ultimately today that option is still Twitch. So to answer your question, yes. Twitch is, I don’t want to say the word monopoly, but it’s hard to imagine where else you go right now
Why Game Development could be Iceland’s next Breakout Industry
Very relevant read if you replace Iceland with any other country where there’s
This found > build > succeed/fail > found again cycle most definitely influences the access to capital, access to talented individuals and connections to the broader gaming infrastructure, and the possibility of Icelandic cultivating that further into an actual industry – with more players than only CCP Games – is, in my opinion, a real possibility.
COVID-19 Reduced Appeal of Challenge and Excitement in Gaming–But Only Marginally
The appeal of Challenge (high difficulty, challenging bosses/missions, practice & mastery) and Excitement (fast-paced action, thrilling, adrenaline rush) changed the most and both had downward trends. This suggests gamers as a whole are seeking out more relaxing, less challenging gaming experiences (even after age, gender, and casual/core/hardcore gamer types are controlled for).
Other good reads:
Gaming x Digital Entertainment: Investment Opportunities in the Proto-Metaverse
When SimCity got serious: the story of Maxis Business Simulations and SimRefinery
Roblox: How teens are using games to cope with the pandemic
Blake Robbins on Invest Like the Best
You can find the show notes here.
Here’s a video I enjoyed watching this week explaining(?) the mechanics of Roblox’s explosive growth.
I also learned that Cuphead is getting a Netflix show:
Have a nice weekend,
Emre
Curated by Emre Colakoglu, an experienced product manager and data scientist working in gaming. I’m based in London and working on something new. You can find me on Twitter, my website and LinkedIn.
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