Atlas
Company
Documents about Atlas
The Case for (and Against) Founding Solo
The essay argues that the long-standing startup norm of pairing founders with co-founders is shifting, driven largely by advances in AI that enable highly capable solo founders to build high-growth companies.
- Solo founders constituted 63% of C corps formed via Stripe Atlas in Q2 2026, an all-time high, indicating a growing trend towards solo entrepreneurship.
- Businesses founded in 2025 achieved $1 million in revenue within a year at a rate 30% higher than 2023 cohorts and three times higher than 2019 cohorts, suggesting increased efficiency and speed to market.
- AI-native companies demonstrate significantly improved performance, with a study showing they complete 12% more tasks, are 18% more likely to acquire paying customers, and generate 1.9x higher revenue while requiring 39.5% less external capital.
Fumito Ueda: An Interview on Design and Development
The interview reveals that Fumito Ueda, renowned for Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian, is promoting his latest title, Gen Atlas, at Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles.
- Fumito Ueda's new game, "Gen Atlas," published by Epic Games, features a giant robot head that can fly and connect to a larger robot body, and, for the first time in an Ueda-directed game, includes shooting mechanics, though it is not primarily a shooting game.
- Ueda designed the robot head for "Gen Atlas" early in the game's conception, aiming for a neutral aesthetic that is neither heroic nor dilapidated, with hidden "gimmicks" like ears that flip out for flight.
- Despite the inclusion of guns, Ueda emphasizes that "Gen Atlas" maintains his signature design philosophy of realistic movement and pacing, where characters and robots move with believable limitations rather than superhuman speed, to create an immersive experience.
Three Ways Founders Are Building in Public
The article examines contemporary strategies for founders to build in public beyond traditional hype tactics.
- Founders are shifting from generic 'grind-culture' content to building in public by turning core operational decisions into narrative-driven marketing.
- Pencil demonstrates technical leadership by utilizing 'swarm mode' to ship AI-driven features at the frontier of product development.
- Gainsight is generating market narrative tension by publicly pivoting to AI-native services and declaring the traditional SaaS business model obsolete.
The Leaderboard Insights Podcast: Roblox & Fortnite’s Award-Winning Brand Playbook
The Leaderboard Insights Podcast provides a strategic overview of effective brand integration within user-generated content (UGC) environments, specifically focusing on Roblox and Fortnite.
- Atlas Creative has successfully executed brand activations for major partners including Paramount, Puma, and MrBeast within the Roblox and Fortnite ecosystems.
- Recent viral Roblox experiences, specifically 'Steal a Brainrot' and 'Grow a Garden,' have achieved significant scale by reaching 20 million concurrent players.
- Successful in-game brand campaigns, such as the Bush’s Beans obstacle course, leverage familiar gameplay mechanics like those found in Fall Guys to drive engagement.
Our Industry News (17/07/23 - 23/07/23)
The publication serves as a weekly industry briefing, summarizing key developments in the gaming sector for the week of 17–23 July 2023.
- Microsoft has secured a 10-year agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
- The UK Competition and Markets Authority has initiated a six-week review of Microsoft’s revised cloud gaming proposal.
- Xbox Live Gold will be rebranded as Game Pass Core on 14 September, with pricing set at £10 monthly or £60 annually.
Miss, Miss, Hit: Why Three Steam Launches Had Different Trajectories
This analysis examines the launch trajectories of three Steam titles to identify why games with high wishlist counts often fail to convert into commercial successes.
- Total wishlist volume is a deceptive metric; recent wishlist velocity and demo engagement are significantly more accurate predictors of Day 1 success than cumulative totals.
- Protracted development cycles lead to 'stale' interest, as evidenced by Arcadian Atlas, which converted 90,000 wishlists into a peak of only 190 concurrent users due to over 50% of its followers being acquired years prior.
- Punch Club 2 outperformed industry benchmarks by achieving double the median conversion rate, driven by a multi-platform launch and a gameplay loop that extended average playtime to 10 hours.
The Smoke Test: Are These Game Economies Sustainable?
The sustainability of blockchain-based game economies hinges on their ability to function independently of continuous user growth.
- The sustainability of a game economy can be tested by assuming a constant player count; if the economy collapses without continuous growth, it functions as a Ponzi scheme rather than a sustainable model.
- Axie Infinity's collapse serves as a primary case study, where a steady user count failed to generate demand for new Axies, causing the value of the SLP token to plummet and triggering an exodus of play-to-earn participants.
- Splinterlands has maintained relative stability by shifting play-to-earn rewards from the DEC token to the governance-focused SPS token, helping to mitigate oversupply and support the value of its in-game currency.
Game Radar: Blocklords, Star Atlas, AI Arena
The current landscape of blockchain gaming is defined by a persistent tension between ambitious technical innovation and the practical realities of sustainable economic design.
- Star Atlas lost nearly half of its operational runway due to the FTX collapse, forcing the team to attempt to raise capital through multi-million dollar NFT ship sales in a bear market.
- AI Arena, developed by ArenaX Labs, raised a $5M seed round led by Paradigm to build a platform that combines AI training with web3 gaming mechanics.
- Blocklords utilizes a dynasty system where heroes have limited lifespans, requiring players to manage bloodlines and pass on unique attributes to descendants to ensure long-term progression.
Atlas of the Video Game Sector in Portugal 2020
The Atlas of the Video Game Sector in Portugal 2020 serves as a comprehensive diagnostic tool designed to map the landscape, economic health, and operational structure of the Portuguese game development industry.
- The 'Atlas do Setor dos Videojogos em Portugal 2020' provides a comprehensive data overview of the Portuguese game development industry, published by the European Games Developer Federation (EGDF).
- The report serves as a primary reference for national industry data, specifically curated by the Portuguese trade association APVP (Associação de Produtores de Videojogos de Portugal).
- The EGDF, which represents the Portuguese sector, acts as an umbrella organization for 24 national trade associations across 22 European countries.
Apple Announces Its Arcade: Can It Get Over Its Own Aesthetic?
The launch of Apple Arcade represents a strategic shift toward subscription-based service revenue, positioning the platform as a curated alternative to the traditional mobile gaming ecosystem.
- Apple Arcade aims to capture 50 million subscribers within its first 24 months through a $4.99 monthly subscription model.
- The service targets casual users and parents by eliminating the aggressive monetization and 'surprise mechanics' found in standard free-to-play mobile games.
- Major publishers like Capcom and Sega are using Apple Arcade primarily for brand building, as they currently derive less than 10% of their total revenue from mobile platforms.
Portside Game Assembly 2026: Success and Future Outlook
Portside Game Assembly 2026, held on June 25–26 in Hamburg, attracted approximately one hundred indie game professionals from thirteen countries.
- The Portside Game Assembly 2026, held on June 25-26, successfully gathered approximately 100 indie game professionals from 13 countries in Hamburg for international exchange, and it will return on June 24-25, 2027.
- The 2026 conference focused on fostering exchange among studio heads through curated participation, impulse talks, and discussions on game development, marketing, sustainable growth, and partnerships.
- Notable speakers at the 2026 event included Rebecca Lautner (Landfall), Tomas Sala, Adrienne Bazir (insertdisc5), Richard Atlas (Clever Endeavor Games), Mark Cooke (Shiny Shoe), and Albert Millán (Digital Sun).
Portside Game Assembly 2026: Program and Speakers
The announcement details the second edition of Portside Game Assembly, scheduled for June 25–26, 2026 aboard the MS Princess in Hamburg.
- Portside Game Assembly 2026 will take place June 25–26 in Hamburg, targeting established indie studio founders and CEOs for peer-to-peer knowledge exchange.
- The event has confirmed participation from over 60 studios across 13 countries, including notable developers such as Amanita Design, Shiny Shoe, Landfall, and Digital Sun.
- Core programming focuses on operational indie challenges, specifically balancing rapid development with long-term projects, community engagement, and sequel strategy.