PlayStation 5, Gametech Ecosystem, Amazon of Game Companies & more
Your weekly newsletter on gaming
Hello friends,
Welcome to issue No: 7! New readers, I’m so excited to have you onboard, hit reply if you have any questions, feedback or want to say hi!
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📈 This Week in Numbers
$2.15B - Chinese console market to grow to $2.15B by 2024
$1.4B - Xbox players have spent $1.4B on ID@Xbox games
$226M - PUBG Mobile made over $226M in May
$30M - Wave raises $30M for superstars to stage virtual concerts
👀 Here’s what the future of entertainment looks like. August last year, Lindsey Stirling played to 400,000 live attendees through Wave platform. Here’s a lengthy essay on this topic.
$10M - Boom.tv Secures $10M in Series A Funding led by BITKRAFT Esports Ventures
$10M - Riot Games will invest $10M to minority-owned studios
4.2M - Nintendo Sold 4.2M Switch Consoles In March Alone
72% - Adjust and Unity: Hypercasual mobile games grew 72% in March
That is just one of the ways that gaming has benefited from the shutdown of everything except online entertainment. People across the globe are spending more time than ever playing games while sheltering in place, with an estimated 2.7 billion users set to spend $77.2 billion on mobile games in 2020, the report said.
🗞News
🗾 Newzoo Published Gametech Ecosystem Map
👻 Snap lets you play as your Bitmoji in third-party games
📺 The Merger of Huya and Douyu, Two Live Streaming Platforms Backed by Tencent, Is Reportedly Underway
🖐🏻 Sony announced PS5, here’s a very cool announcement trailer:
🦾 DeepMind hopes to teach AI to cooperate by playing Diplomacy
🔎 Rovio released a new story-based match-3 puzzle Game
🔮 Good Reads
🪕Are video games the future of live music?
🧲 Retention Metrics in Free-To-Play
🇨🇳 The Ultimate Introduction to Social Media in China
This is not gaming related but it's for folks interested in the Chinese tech ecosystem.
🌴 How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies
Good read from Joseph Kim covering Applovin, Roblox, Epic’s current strategies using NFX’s frameworks on Network Effects and Defensibility.
🟣 Reverse Engineering Travis Scott’s Fortnite Concert
👻 Snap Partner Summit 2020: Recap and Reflections
Snap officially re-announced Bitmoji Games, a cross-platform SDK to bring users’ Bitmoji into other publishers games on nearly every platform: PC, Mac, Xbox, Playstation, Switch, iOS, Android, and others.
This allows for quick personalization, and continues laying the ground work for a back-end giving developers access to Snap’s friend graph, easy in-app purchases, and a distributed metaverse, social network, and digital economy that spans Snap’s developer ecosystem. Bitmoji is unique positioned to do this as its already used by practically all would-be early adopters and its IP is inherently cross-platform: 2D, AR, and soon VR.
🍎 9 Part Essay Series on Apple’s Success in China
For some nostalgia, I leave you with the original PlayStation advert directed by Chris Cunningham:
Have a great weekend!
Emre
Written 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 personal website and LinkedIn.
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