We discuss game industry news for the past week: Joseph Kim and Arthur Trusov.
0:00 Intro - New Years Eve
2:52 Top Steam charts - Baldur’s Gate 3, Lethal Company, Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 big jumps
6:27 Top mobile charts - Ice Scream 8, 8 Ball Pool, Royal Match vs. Monopoly GO
9:40 8 Ball Pool Keeps Trucking from Gamemakers Newsletter, innovations and early history, opportunity in runner games
14:52 Sony Activision Riposte will involve mobile gaming from Reuters
20:27 from Owen Mahoney interview: “Nobody in the industry is happy” from Game File newsletter - game projects getting too big
32:11 Top 5 FPS mobile games for 2024: Polygon Arena, Rainbow Six Mobile, Warzone Mobile, Valorant Mobile, and Arena Breakout Season 2
40:30 China’s NPPA walks back some Chinese gaming restrictions on WeChat, approves over 100 game licenses in response to backlash
44:45 Bethesda’s Starfield reviews tank to mostly negative
50:55 Valve’s bestselling games of 2023
54:00 Nintendo’s best downloaded games on Switch for 2023: Suika + new Dragon Quest game
59:30 Ghost Runner is free on Epic Games
1:00:00 Layoffs in 2023
1:03:30 Thoughts on 2024
1:07:55 Games we’re playing: Diablo 4, Block Jam 3D, Ghostrunner
