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FEB 3 | EDITION #133
Hello family, grab your coffee right now... or your alcohol, I won't judge. I definitely got my beers to write this one up. It's February 3, edition 133, I should go to the casino a bet on number 3 right? Anyways, I think I'm drunk, let's just dive in.
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🍋 Gaming Lemonade
Alright alright, let’s talk about gaming acquisitions. I guess we didn't have this convo before because I’m more of a trends and culture type of person, not a business connoisseur. But shit is going wild lately, so let’s give it a go.
It feels like mother fuckers are walking around the neighborhood and throwing bags of cash to lemonade stands like “I’ll take that billion dollar company please”.
“You want it with sugar sir?”
- Take-Two acquired Zynga.
- Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard.
- Sony just acquired Bungie.
Like… goddamn.
Let’s imagine these are 3 new marriages.
Is this true love? Or are we signing prenups?
There’re not 2 without 3
Take-Two Interactive. It literally says in their name that it only takes two to be happy. They own two major publishing labels, 2K and Rockstar Games. Their main games GTA and NBA 2K have been a success… but a monotonous one.
We all know what happens when a relationship gets boring. They go for a kid.
Take-Two success is a PC and console experience. Their mobile presence is not really there. And when the majority of revenue in gaming comes from mobile, you best believe T-T executives will start to feel the lemonade thirst.
Enter Zynga, a company which in a few words, started as gold, turned into a fossil and revived as a diamond thanks to:
- Distributing the power to different gaming studios.
- Dominating mobile games.
- Adding gambling to their lineup. Ah, the good old ludopathy move. Nice.
Zynga has games like Farmville, Poker and shit like that. We ain’t talking about prime graphics, but there’s definitely a market for that. I'm sure there’s love in there, but I have a feeling that soon it will take four. Is low-fi VR next for them?
Daddy Microsoft
Honestly, I don’t have a clue when Microsoft started the conversation of acquiring Activision Blizzard. But one thing is for sure though: Activision Blizzard’s fucked up internal culture problems, and a very questionable leadership team, harmed their stock price around 14% down and Microsoft took advantage of that perfect moment to force marriage. Ok, maybe “force” is too much, it was love at second sight.
No but foreal though, this is great for Xbox:
- A platform buying a developer creating for the same platform and still not making titles exclusive is kinda of an alpha move not gonna lie.
- Xbox now owns games like Call of Duty, Candy Crash and Diablo. But Microsoft already announced that we’ll be able to play them on PlayStation as well. I mean, they send a sassy but genius message to the competitor by going “we ain’t bleeding for exclusives anymore, we got a new business model now”. Your move.
Their new model consists of consumers paying less than we would pay for Netflix and being able to play all Xbox games (which they also develop now by the way, so there’s extra support) on console, PC and mobile + games from other parties who want to be a part of it + a streaming service for smart TVs + everything they release in the future. Xbox Game Pass.
I don’t know about you, but sign me up for that experience. The clear example is Netflix and Disney+. I pay Netflix without a doubt in my mind, Disney releases Cruella or Luca as exclusives and I’m like emm... should I do this?
Collecting Holy Grails
However, what happens when Disney says “you will only watch Marvel on my streaming platform bitch!”... I definitely go “of course I will sensei, I’ll do that right now!”. What happens when the game is so good and culturally important for the industry that making it exclusive will decide the entire biz model?
Well, that’s where Sony it’s at.
Sony started with one exclusive title, then another one, and now it has a collection of incredible games. They go for quality and technology and making it exclusive gives a general image to the public that says “We are PlayStation, the aha moments comes from us”.
It’s giving me some Lord of the Rings vibes when they introduced the Gollum technology. People will remember that, but it comes from the amazing creators from other studios that they acquire. An open marriage.
The talented folk behind the creation of Halo, and now Destiny, the people in charge of putting respect on the word Bungie, are now part of the Sony family. Sony understands and gives importance to development excellence, so they bring them along to grow together.
Sony’s main purchases over the last 20 years:
- Naughty Dog: The Last of Us, Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted.
- Sucker Punch: Ghost of Tsushima.
- Incognito: Twisted Metal, Horizon.
- Insomniac: Spider-Man, Ratchet and Clank.
- Bluepoint Games: Demon’s Souls, Shadow of the Colossus.
- Bungie: Destiny.
Sony is focusing on IP, diving into technology and opening their mind towards free to play. Microsoft is building subscription loyalty and publisher control.
And us? Let’s be honest, we’ll happily pay for all of the above.
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💣 New Games & Trailers
YU-GI-OH! MASTER DUEL — Announcement Trailer
BLOODBORNE PSX — Spotlight
TRUE FEAR — Spotlight
📈 Stats of the Week
Most watched esports orgs in 2021. Team Liquid keeps the realm.
The ROI of Esports Report by FNATIC and Nielsen.
🎞️ Gaming x Film Hub
The latest news go around Epic Games joining Spire Animation’s $20M round for metaverse films, Netflix's live-action One Piece series starting production, and It Takes Two being adapted for film and television.
🏆 Esports Highlights
📹 Video of the Week
Breaking Down the Wall, by MLB The Show 22.
🪙 Crypto Marketing, well funded
Looks like gaming companies now want to taste that crypto cake.
- Complexity Gaming partners with ARterra.
- Bitget and Team Spirit are now a thing.
- Gen. G teams up with Bithumb.
- BLAST Premier renews partnership with Coinbase.
💎 Talking about crypto…
You know what’s better than a partnership? Actually releasing an NFT experience to your community created by you, that makes sense and adds innovative value to the brand. 100 Thieves did it again.
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- The Assassins’ Creed 3 hidden blade is an example of alpha game design.
- Kickstarter: Street Fighter meets Drag Race.
- This is the type of wall art I want in my office.
- Gaming companies and their subsidiaries.
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH IN GAMING
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Black History Month. Let’s just bring people together can we? Be a good person, understand where others are coming from. Empathize please, and you’ll really understand why this month is so important. There is a problem, but with time, we can fix it together.
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- Midnite raises $16M for esports betting apps.
- Valkyrae signs a new deal with Youtube.
- Azarus raises $4M for LoL trivia game overlay.
- Team Liquid and Wizards District Gaming will share a venue.
- KFC to take naming rights for Talon’s ROV team.
- Voldez raises $3M to continue expansion or Roblox games.
- Lost Lake Games raises $5M in seed funding round.
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Whoever came up with this… yes.
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👇 Reach out for feedback, questions or quick a intro!
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