A weekly newsletter of what I've seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting.
😳 Must reads of the week
â—¼ How does Zynga make the decision on whether to retire a live game, reinvest in it, or ramp up work on a sequel? Link
◼ Are game designers playing god? Richard Bartle, game designer lecturer at Uni Essex thinks we might. Completely irrelevant to your day-to-day work – but it's the kind of fun stuff Elon Musk discusses in the hot tub. Link
🗞 Tech News
â—¼ Disney+ has just launched. Add Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Peacock… and the streaming wars are on. Result? Production prices are skyrocketing. Link
â—¼ At the same time, all streaming giants set the same, one-sized-fits-and-gets-all subscription pricing model. Why? Link
â—¼ Apple may release a VR headset and AR glasses in 2022/2023. There's been so much smoke about Apple investing into this that there's likely going to be some fire in the future. Link
â—¼ Speaking of Apple: is Apple Card biased against women? The bigger picture: algorithm-fueled gender discrimination: interview with Cathy O’Neil, author of “Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy”. Link.
See also: “When Algorithms Decide Whose Voices Will Be Heard”. Link
â—¼ Deep Tech trends 2019. “Deep tech = software + science”. Overview of trends in this (very broad) field, particularly hardware and biotech. Link (Slides)
â—¼ HoloLens 2 now shipping. If you fork over $3500. Good luck with that. Link
â—¼ Whatsapp now offers “catalogs” – mobile storefronts for businesses to showcase and share their goods so people can easily browse and discover something they would like to buy. Can I still send GIFs? Link
â—¼ Important story from the NY Times on child abuse material online: every service that lets people share images or files has people using it to share this shit. Games are no exception. Link
â—¼ People spent $89 million dollars on Tinder in October. Also, do you know iQiyi? No? Well, it has 500 million active monthly users. Link
🕹 Games
◼ Players aren’t spending on Fortnite like they used to. Link
◼ Then again, Fortnite’s Chapter 2 boosted viewer hours by 31% on Twitch. Link
â—¼ Supercell is shutting down “Rush Wars”. Link (Beat them to it!)
â—¼ Top Mobile Games by Worldwide Revenue for October 2019. Link
â—¼ Apparently, Blizzard will merge Overwatch 1 and 2 clients later. Makes you wonder why they release a “sequel” in the first place, doesn't it? Is this “solving the sequel dilemma” or rather “we don't know how / want to do F2P”? Link
â—¼ Homescapes joins Gardenscapes as a $1b mobile game. Link
â—¼ Gamification of learning experiences appears to work: a study finds evidence for cognitive learning, although less consistently for motivational and behavioral learning. Variance is high, which shouldn't surprise us: we know how hard it is to make a great gaming experience. Link (PDF)
â—¼ 60% of teens rarely or never talk to their parents about appropriate online behavior. A Roblox Survey. Link
â—¼ Nearly all Counter-Strike microtransactions are being used for money laundering. Oopsie! Link
😋 Tasty Tidbits
â—¼ Berliners are trolling Trump. Zis German is fery broud! Link
â—¼ Want to sound like me? Use this. Link
â—¼ How to make music with an electric drill and and oven. Link
â—¼ How to buy drugs. Link
I work for King. All views in this newsletter are personal and my own. They do not represent the views of King or ActivisionBlizzard. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only and it's surely no investment advice. This newsletter links to other websites and information obtained from third-party sources and I cannot ensure nor verify accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.