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
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
