Kliuless? Gaming Industry Insights #52
Hi, my name is Kenny Liu, and each week I compile a gaming industry insights newsletter that I publish broadly. Opinions are mine.
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Beachheads and Obstacles
Stratechery: Beachheads and Obstacles
"What Amazon and Facebook do have in common — and perhaps this is why both seem to look back at their very successful smartphone eras with regret — is that Apple and Google are their biggest obstacles to success, and it’s because of their smartphone platforms
Amazon to its great credit — and perhaps because the company did not have a smartphone to rely on — found a beachhead in the home, the one place where your phone may not be with you. Now it is trying to not only saturate the home but also extend beyond it, both through on-body accessories and also an expanding number of deals with automakers
Facebook, meanwhile, is searching for a beachhead of its own in virtual reality. That, the company believes, will give it the track to augmented reality, and by extension, usefulness in the real world
Amazon’s challenge is Google: Android phones are already everywhere, and Google is catching up in the home more quickly and more effectively than Amazon is pushing outside of it. Google also has a much stronger position when it comes to the sort of Internet services that provide the rough grist of intelligence of virtual assistants: emails, calendars, and maps
Facebook, meanwhile, is ultimately challenging Apple: augmented reality is going to start at the high end with an integrated solution, and Apple has considerably more experience building physical products for the real world, and a major lead in chip design and miniaturization, not to mention consumer trust. Moreover, while there is obviously technical overlap when it comes to creating virtual reality and augmented reality headsets, the product experience is fundamentally distinct"
Revenue Strategy
Free-to-play PUBG arrives in Europe next week
Rocket League is binning loot boxes in exchange for 'blueprints'
PlayStation Now cuts price in half, adds time limited "marquee games"
Counter-Strike: GO lets players in France reveal loot box contents ahead of purchase
Fortnite U.S. July revenues down 52% year-over-year
Design
Quantic Foundry: What motivates gamers?
Riot launches free game design curriculum called URF Academy Online
How Untitled Goose Game adapted Debussy for its dynamic soundtrack
Opinion: Difficulty is about trust and communication, not ‘hard’ vs. ‘easy’
Cross-Platform / Multi-Platform
Mobile
Call of Duty: Mobile debuts as free-to-play game on Android and iOS
Snapchat’s latest mobile game is Subway Surfers Airtime from Sybo Games
How PUBG MOBILE’s Lower Specs Make for a Titanic Total Addressable Market
On average, it costs $35.42 to get a mobile gamer to make first in-app purchase
AppsFlyer Performance Index: report card on performance of mobile media sources
XR: AR / MR / VR
Verizon acquires Jaunt XR’s software and technology
Minecraft Earth "couldn't have been made two years ago"
Tech / Entertainment
