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The gaming industry’s recent focus on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology reflects a broader trend of public companies prioritizing speculative revenue streams to satisfy shareholder expectations.
- Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick expressed skepticism toward the metaverse and warned that NFTs currently lack inherent value, emphasizing that they are speculative assets rather than guaranteed revenue streams.
- EA CEO Andrew Wilson identified NFTs as a future pillar of the company's growth strategy, specifically citing their potential to expand revenue within live services like FIFA Ultimate Team.
- Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot publicly committed to blockchain technology, characterizing it as a revolution that will enable play-to-earn models and long-term industry growth.
Plus: A Whole New World on Steam?
This analysis examines the competitive landscape of the PC and console gaming markets for late September 2021, focusing on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox platforms.
- Amazon Games’ New World entered its late September 2021 launch week with approximately 283,000 Steam followers and an estimated 2.5 to 3 million wishlists.
- Medieval Dynasty achieved a peak of 12,000 concurrent users (CCU) following its 1.0 transition, while Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator reached 7,000 CCU during its Early Access debut.
- The Xbox paid charts in late September 2021 remained dominated by annual sports franchises, specifically NBA 2K22 and Madden NFL 22.
Microsoft Paid $100 Million for Rise of the Tomb Raider Timed Exclusive
The financial terms of the 2015 timed exclusivity agreement for the video game Rise of the Tomb Raider have surfaced, revealing that Microsoft paid $100 million to secure the title for the Xbox platform.
- Microsoft reportedly paid $100 million to secure a one-year timed exclusivity deal for the 2015 release of Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox.
- The financial detail was revealed on the LinkedIn profile of Fabien Rossini, the former director of strategic planning at Square Enix, before being removed.
- Rise of the Tomb Raider sold over 1 million units within its first two months of release.
Plus: Analyzing a Hot Week for Steam Launches
Analysis of recent market performance on Steam reveals a significant surge in successful launches, validating the predictive utility of the Steam Hype scoring system.
- Steam launches in late July 2021 demonstrated strong commercial viability, led by Tribes of Midgard with 22,000 concurrent users, The Ascent with 10,000, and Starbase with 7,500.
- The Ascent achieved top-tier Steam best-seller status despite being simultaneously available on Xbox Game Pass, indicating that platform overlap does not necessarily cannibalize Steam revenue.
- GameDiscoverCo’s Hype scoring system, which benchmarks 2,000 points as noteworthy and 5,000 as a major contender, accurately forecasted the commercial performance of recent high-wishlist titles.
Hit Points #11: Knackered
The modern video game industry faces a significant challenge regarding the sustainability of long-term development cycles and the professional toll they exact on veteran creators.
- Modern game development cycles have extended to multi-year projects, increasing the professional stakes and personal toll on developers who have a finite number of major titles left in their careers.
- Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic, is considering retirement following the poor critical and commercial reception of Balan Wonderworld, which sold just over 2,000 copies at its Japanese launch.
- Square Enix provided Yuji Naka with less than three years to develop Balan Wonderworld and scheduled its release for March 26, 2021, just five days before the end of the company's fiscal year.
Square Enix Denies Bloomberg Report That It Considered Selling Company
This summary addresses two distinct reports regarding mergers and acquisitions within the Japanese gaming industry.
- Tencent is currently in talks to divest from several Japanese gaming studios to optimize its portfolio, with Marvelous identified as a primary target for potential sale.
- Tencent acquired a 20% stake in Marvelous in 2020 for $65 million and is reportedly willing to sell shares back to management even at a financial loss.
- While divesting from some assets, Tencent intends to retain its existing stakes in Japanese developers PlatinumGames and FromSoftware.
Top Mobile Games Worldwide for February 2021 by Downloads
This analysis identifies the leading mobile games by global download volume for February 2021.
- Join Clash 3D from Supersonic Studios was the most downloaded mobile game worldwide in February 2021 with approximately 27 million installs, marking a 170-fold increase compared to February 2020.
- Zynga achieved its best month ever for mobile game downloads with 80.5 million global installs, driven by the success of its hyper-casual titles High Heels (24.4 million downloads) and Blob Runner 3D (14.2 million downloads).
- High Heels was the second most installed game globally, with India and the United States accounting for 23.3 percent and 20.3 percent of its total downloads, respectively.
Mobile Games Market Spotlight: Japan
Japan remains a dominant force in the global mobile gaming industry, accounting for 22 percent of total worldwide player spending on the App Store and Google Play during the first nine months of 2020.
- Japan accounted for 22% of all global mobile game player spending on the App Store and Google Play during the first nine months of 2020.
- The Japanese mobile gaming market reached a record $14.5 billion in revenue in 2019, representing nearly 23% of the global market share.
- Japanese publishers maintain strong local dominance, with eight of the top 10 revenue-generating mobile games in Japan between 2016 and 2020 originating from domestic companies.
How to Launch a Top 100 Grossing App
The mobile app marketplace has evolved into a highly mature and competitive environment where achieving a Top 100 grossing position is increasingly difficult for new entrants.
- The mobile app market is dominated by incumbents, with the average age of apps in the Top 100 Grossing charts being 1,452 days on iOS and 1,648 days on Android.
- Capital alone is insufficient for success; despite $1.8 billion in funding, Quibi failed to achieve sustainable Top 100 Grossing status, while established publishers like Glu, Netmarble, and Square Enix consistently succeed.
- Successful new entries into the Top 100 Grossing charts are almost exclusively games published by large, public companies with existing mobile portfolios and deep domain expertise.
Zuck's Achilles Heel: Disney's Renewed Interest in Games and EA's Spending Spree
The gaming industry is currently defined by aggressive intellectual property (IP) licensing, rapid consolidation, and a contentious push for new monetization models.
- Electronic Arts spent $4.7 billion over a twelve-month period to acquire studios including Playdemic, Codemasters, and Glu Mobile to expand its mobile gaming footprint and gain leverage against platform holders like Apple.
- Disney has pivoted its interactive strategy to a licensing-heavy model, offloading the operational risks of game development by granting third-party developers like Ubisoft and Square Enix access to its franchise portfolio.
- Facebook’s attempt to integrate advertisements into its Oculus VR platform failed due to community backlash, forcing developers to withdraw from ad-testing programs and highlighting the incompatibility of current ad models with immersive environments.
ESL Brings 1,800 Square Meters of eSports to Wacken
The Wacken Open Air music festival, held in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, expanded its 2018 programming by integrating a dedicated eSports component.
- Wacken Open Air 2018 integrated a 1,800-square-meter eSports village into its festival grounds, marking a strategic collaboration between the heavy metal music scene and competitive gaming.
- The initiative, launched on August 1, 2018, served a festival audience of approximately 85,000 attendees to test the viability of hybrid music and digital entertainment platforms.
- The eSports village featured a mix of free-to-play zones and organized tournaments for titles including League of Legends and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Gamescom 2018: Square Enix Line-up
Square Enix utilized Gamescom 2018 to showcase a significant portfolio of upcoming titles, emphasizing its strong presence in the German market.
- Square Enix showcased a major 2018 release portfolio at Gamescom 2018, utilizing a 1,500-square-meter booth in Hall 9.1.
- The exhibition featured over 200 individual playstations to provide hands-on demonstrations for attendees.
- The primary lineup included high-profile titles such as Kingdom Hearts III, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Dragon Quest XI, Just Cause 4, Final Fantasy XIV, and the premiere of Life is Strange 2.
