IN THE LOOP with kapital k // W43 of 2023
The only gaming newsletter you need. I curate and aggregate content from across web2 & web3 to deliver it straight to your inbox.
Week 43 of 2023. Here are the top five headlines and fundraising announcements + a collection of content from independent creators that you missed this week!
Nintendo // New community tournament guidelines — link
THOUGHTS: Today Nintendo announced guidelines for community-ran tournaments and competitions. There's a limit of ~$10k for tournament cash prizes in a 12-month period. The size of the participants must be les than 200 for in-person events and 300 for online. One thing that surprised me was the strict policy on hardware — unlicensed accessories/mods/etc. are NOT allowed.
The community criticized Nintendo for being too stringent on the hardware policy as some gamers had to use certain mods or a new controller for better accessibility.
I'm unsure how Nintendo plans to enforce then police these policies as most tournaments are "underground", except for a handful that broadcast/streams their events. Putting that aside, I think the maker of my favorite game have good intentions but these guidelines are too much.
The rising waves of UGCafication and platformization are here. Nintendo is pushing against this seismic force and I don't think its conducive for the future.
Tinuiti // Marketing to Gamers — link
THOUGHTS: There was a small-ish survey of 1000 gamers taken earlier this year. Though, the sample size is slightly smaller than I'd like to see, there was a few data points that caught my attention.
Half of these gamers behave DIFFERENTLY in game than they do IRL. "More competitive, confident, curious, and ambitious", the survey reported.
If players are different than who they are IRL, then how effective is segmentation and demographic targeting? Currently the tools aren't robust enough to segment gamers by their in-game behaviors and actions. And also game publishers/studios aren't openly sharing that data either.
We have websites like tracker.gg and etc. that records certain data points but even these are fairly surface level. So what, if Player One's KD is 2.6 on Valorant versus Player Two's KD of 0.6? But if I told you that the assist on Player One is 10% of Player Two's and that Player Two always purchases support equipments and plays support characters. Then if you're finding users for a game that involves less aggressive playstyle, perhaps Player Two is the user you'd want to target.
Netflix // CoCEO talks about its games strategy — link
THOUGHTS: Netflix plans to outcompete other mobile games by leveraging its IP and recommendation engine to convert existing subscribers into gamers. The issue is that Netflix's game portfolio and investments are a fraction of its core content-related efforts.
But I do want to comment on Netflix's approach to studio selection and title greenlighting. The streaming giant opted to acquire certain studios and partner with others. More interestingly, Netflix is open to receiving pitches from studios on how they would use Netflix's IP. We've seen numerous examples of this throughout this year alone. This is much more similar to the indie publishing model than a triple AAA one in which studios get to be creative on what they want to build and which IP to adopt.
Despite Netflix's ambitions, the results are mediocre — nearly 1% of users play games daily, that's 2.2M out of 247M subscribers. There are 77 titles offered. These are mobile titles so we haven't gotten into the cloud gaming metrics yet. That service just launched earlier this month so we shall have to wait to see.
Stream Hatchet // A Case Study on shroud — link
THOUGHTS: In September shroud streamed 283 hours. A standard work schedule is 160 hours per month. Just imagine that, 1.7x the time. Granted, September was a popular month with the launch of Starfield and CS2.
Shroud brought in 2.2M Unique Registered Viewers and 783k Returning Registered viewers. The Registered part is important as it represents high-quality viewers.
From these viewers, shroud was able to get 5.5% to engage actively in the chat. This is considered HIGH engagement.
Another metric to look at is shroud's Hours Streamed:Hours Watched ratio. For 283 hours streamed, shroud received 5.5M hours watched — Ratio of 1:19k. Content creators always talk about "evergreen content", the term means content that could be rewatched ad infinitum. But streamers earn that lifetime of views within one session. Though as a bonus, there will be epic gameplay clips that will be evergreen content.
FaZe Clan // Acquired for $17M from $725M SPAC — link
THOUGHTS: Let's throw some F in the chat for the folks over at FaZe. Being down 97% from its SPAC in July 2022 is max pain. The esports brand was acquired for $17M (worth of stock, not even cash), which is a massive drawdown from its $725M SPAC. At its peak, $FAZE traded at $1.2B market cap on the NASDAQ exchange.
The esports industry as a whole is going through an identity and sustainability crisis — not an existential crisis. Even large publishers like Riot Games and Blizzard are having issues with their respective esports organizations. The core issue with esports is that it can't convert those views into dollars, despite growing viewership numbers. The current structure doesn't work. It was subsidized by VC dollars when capital was free but that's no longer available.
Thus, we see an emerging model of creators building their own games and experiences. Empowered by the trend of UGC-afication and platformatization of everything, we may have a recipe to save esports. A few prime examples are Dr. Disrespect's Midnight Society, Ninja's Project VFN, and 100 Theives' Project X.
We've seen the power of this potent combination: creators' fan base (distribution) plus robust UGC tools (experiences).
This is classic vertical integration (per Investopedia: Vertical integration is a strategy that allows a company to streamline its operations [distribution via fan base] by taking direct ownership of various [game experiences] rather than relying on external [game publishers and studios].
The leverage point is that most of these creators built their fan base through playing on the games that turned into a platform! So the fan base is already embedded into the ecosystem, resulting in frictionless consumption.
Don’t miss out on next week’s IN THE LOOP w/ kapital k.
@Skilllevel7 (Mighty Bear Games) // Meta Game Is A Must For Your Mobile MVP — link
@Apixtwts // Why people are building fully onchain games? — link
@HelikaAnalytics // What’s next for Ronin? — link
@gamefi_cc // Gaming Airdrop 2.0 — link
@RealJonahBlake // What’s happening in web3 gaming — link
@WolvesDAO // 5 ways to protect your web3 creator career — link
@JACL_e9 (Delphi Digital) // Q3 Web3 Game Funding — link
@Tocelot (a16z Games) // Microsoft’s Gaming Portfolio — link
@Ulrik K. Lykke // 4 Biggest Gaming Takeaways — link
@ProofofDork // Product Strategy for web3 games — link
@Chris Heintz // Battlebit Remastered was not an overnight success — link
thecoreloop // Weekly Alpha Gaming Metaverse Expedition (WAGME) #24 — link
Kevuru Games // How to create an isometric game step-by-step — link
Brutally Honest // Ready, Set, Rumble: Blizzard's Soft Launch Playbook for Warcraft Rumble unveiled! — link
Brutally Honest // How Could Top Troops decrease their high CPIs? — link
GameDiscoverCo // How are new F2P games doing on Steam in 2023? — link
Konvoy Ventures // Gaming Industry Report (Q3 2023) — link
Circana // The US gaming market grew by 10% in September — link
SuperJoost Playlist // FaZed and confused — link
Deconstructor of Fun // How To Overcome Post-Launch Slump - The Case of Merge Garden — link
Matthew Ball // Parallel Bets, Microsoft, and AI Strategies — link
Newzoo // Top 10 Games by MAU on PC and Consoles in September 2023 — link
Deconstructor of Fun // TWIG 255 “F You Unity, We’re not Paying!”
Deconstructor of Fun // How to Deal With Negative Feedback
Deconstructor of Fun // How to Get Press, Tips from Mobilegamer.biz
The AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook // Creative Director of Alan Wake II
The AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook // Naughty Dog’s Head of Culture & Communication
2 & a half gamers // Top Troops Global launch case study
Game Changers // Holly Liu (Cofounder of Kabam)
Naavik // The Future of Hybridcasual
Naavik // Transmedia IP, Gaming, and the Metaverse
Noodle Cat Games // $12.0M // Web2 // Unknown —
Investors: Hiro Capital, Sony Innovation Fund, Krafton, Makers Fund
Brilliant Labs // $3.0M // Web2 // AR — AI-powered augmented reality glasses.
Investors: Wayfarer Foundation, Steve Sorowitz, Coho VC
Harmony Games // $3.0M // Web2 // Puzzle — Tiles Delight, a novel puzzle game. It also plans to expand its game offerings via a World of Tiles universe.
Investors: Griffin Gaming Partners, Kristian Segerstrale, Akin Babayigit
Shrapnel // $20.0M // Web3 // Shooter — Neon Machine has completed its Series A funding round to polish the upcoming shooter Shrapnel, which is built around NFTs on Avalanche.
Investors: Polychain Capital, Griffin Gaming Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, IOSG Ventures, Tess Ventures
Copresence // $6.0M // Web2 // Avatar — Development of its tech for the creation of photorealistic 3D avatars using just a smartphone.
Investors: Unknown
Upland // $7.0M // Web3 // Card — A blockchain real estate collecting and trading game.
Investors: EOS Network Ventures
For daily news subscribe to our Telegram Channel
h/t to thecoreloop contributors: @0xkapital_k @chng_raymond @cloudxgmf @wassiecapital @iandaog @playtern @friandoteth @0xconglomerate @itsbambam
