Deconstructor of Fun

Riot Games got hit with a tsunami in the form of the infamous Kotaku article Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games. The article was followed by several people writing publicly about their own experience with the company that underlined the same story and signalled a clear message - Riot’s culture needed healing. The person who took the ownership for leading the healing process was Angela Roseboro who joined the company as a Chief Diversity Officer & Talent Acquisition Lead little less than a year ago. And in such a relatively short time Angela and her team have had a massive impact showing not only the work they put in but also Riot’s willingness to accept and transform. You can (and should) read about all the initiatives and actions Angela has put into motion in this incredibly insightful blog post she wrote Riot Games One Year Later: My Reflections. In this interview with Angela we talk about a sensitive but critical topics, which include Company Culture & Diversity in gaming companies today. And just to be clear we want to not just focus on the Diversity & Inclusion topic, which many folks in the media tend to focus on. Thus during this interview we will also talk about Culture more generally and the profound impact of culture on an organisation.

Welcome to TWIG 52. 1 Year of TWIGS! This week we cover: #1. Fortnite US July revenues down 52% year-over-year #2. App revenue climbs 23% year-over-year to $21.9B in Q3 #3. Blizzard's President On Making Sure Nothing Changes #4. Playable Worlds has a different mindset on engagement Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1, @ekress, @adamwtelfer, @m_katkoff Let us know which news topics you want us to talk about next or more in-depth. Or to let us know how we can improve. Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Today we are joined by guest host Eric Seufert who writes the really great marketing & UA focused blog: https://mobiledevmemo.com/ Also check out Eric's F2P Marketing/UA site: https://quantmar.com/ This week we cover: #1. The future of mobile growth teams #2, Acquisition and conversion costs threaten a mobile bust | Opinion #3. Call of Duty: Mobile is live after a troubled launch #4. Transparent Loot Boxes: CSGO in France + Rocket League Blueprints #5. Facebook announces Horizon, a VR massive-multiplayer world Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1, @ekress, @adamwtelfer, @m_katkoff, and @eric_seufert Let us know which news topics you want us to talk about next or more in-depth. Or to let us know how we can improve. Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

In this week's TWIG we are joined by Damian Kim who is Director, Head of Gaming China for Facebook. The topics we cover today include: #1. PUBG becomes first mobile battle royale to surpass $1bn revenue #2. Expectations are ‘sky high’ for Nintendo’s latest Mario mobile game, analyst says #3. Mario Kart Tour’s $4.99 monthly subscription fee is out of touch with reality #4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare expected to be US best-selling title of 2019 #5. How Garena’s Free Fire competes with Fortnite and PUBG Mobile #6. Tencent will become Funcom’s largest shareholder Hit us up on Twitter (@m_katkoff, @jokim1, @adamwtelfer, & @ekress) to let us know, which news topics you want us to talk about next or more in-depth. Or to just let us know how we can improve. Also, hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games.

Today we are joined by guest host Lloyd Melnick who is EVP Casino at VGW and writes the fantastic blog The Business of Social Games and Casino. This week we cover: Subscriptions: The new weapon in the game monetization arsenal Rockstar Games Is The Latest Company To Put Out Its Own PC Game Launcher Zynga Climbs on 'Best Idea in Video Games' Nod from Stephens Google says 'Play Pass' subscription service is coming soon NBCUniversal will shut down its game publishing business Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @LloydMelnick @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Today we’re going to be talking about a little bit of a sensitive topic which is what you as an employee can and should do to protect yourself against companies that are facing layoffs or some form of restructuring. Also, how should you deal with work situations that you may not be happy with and how and when should you best optimize leaving your company if you are unhappy. We all know the video games industry can be tough and one that lacks transparency which can put employees in a tough spot. Over the past 6 months or so, I’ve been hearing a lot of unfortunate rumors and news coming out about a number of game companies who seem to be running into trouble. I can foresee a lot of folks in our industry that will need to figure out what their next opportunities are. Given that, we’ve got 2 pros in the executive search space: first Sam Wallace from Carmichael Fisher Search and Jeffrey Lujan from The Game Group to talk about these very important topics.

In this latest TWIG episode we discuss: #1. THINKING ABOUT DAILY ACTIVE USERS (AND THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS METRIC), from AlexandreMacmillan.com #2. A Learning Journey: Announcing EA’s Cloud Gaming Technical Trial, from Medium #3. How Zynga looks for the right game companies to acquire, from VentureBeat #4. Disney reportedly planning sale of gaming division FoxNext, from Gamesindustry.biz #5. Are the glory days of social casino over? Probably!, from The Business of Social Games and Casino Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1, @ekress, @adamwtelfer, @m_katkoff Let us know which news topics you want us to talk about next or more in-depth. Or to let us know how we can improve. Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

In this week's TWIG we discuss: The RetroBeat: World of Warcraft: Classic shows what MMOs have lost New Leaked Screenshots And Videos For League Of Legends Mobile Game Telltale Games employees speak out about the studio’s controversial revival AppLovin Announces Strategic Investment in Belka Games, Creator of Clockmaker and Funky Bay Sensor Tower: Pokémon Masters makes $26 million in first week Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff

In this week's TWIG we discuss: How Archero Shot to the Top, and How You Can Do Better (Deconstructor of Fun) Supercell’s new mobile strategy game Rush Wars soft-launches in Canada, New Zealand and Australia (PocketGamer.biz) Pokemon Masters launches globally on iOS and Android (PocketGamer.biz) Playtika acquires Best Fiends mobile game publisher Seriously (VentureBeat) Welcome to guest host Kenny Liu from Riot Games and author of the really great industry newsletter Kliuless: https://tinyletter.com/kliuless Hosts Today (Twitter): Adam Telfer (@adamwtelfer) Eric Kress (@ekress) Kenny Liu (@kliuless)

Newcomer Habby shot up out of nowhere with Archero which made over $35M in net IAP revenue over its first 3 months.  Find out how Archero was able to achieve big success and how it could have been designed even stronger in this episode's podcast. Also, check out the original Deconstructor of Fun blog post covering the game by Manyu and Eva. Many thanks to the co-hosts on this podcast. Ping us on Twitter: Joe Kim = @jokim1; Abhimanyu Kumar = @k_abhimanyu11; Eva Grillova = @evei Listen now!