GameMakers

Brawlstars experiences a massive spike in revenue from Dec 5, '23 to Jan 6, '24, after years of doing well. The podcast discusses the reasons behind this unexpected surge.

Discussion about recent layoffs in the gaming industry including Pixelberry and Google, concerns about work-life balance and competitiveness at Behavior Interactive, and the uncertain future of Google's YouTube gaming division after the departure of senior employees.

Arthur Trusov and Joseph Kim discuss recent gaming industry layoffs, the overcrowded gaming market, controversy surrounding AI voice technology, Game Shark's return with AI, new console rumors, and the potential impact of China's video game industry guidelines.

Joseph Kim, Matej Lancaric, and Summer Liu explore the profitability of Monopoly Go and the lack of a widely accepted definition in the industry. They discuss data analysis, marketing strategies, and the impact of scaling up advertising spend. The conversation highlights the challenges of defining and achieving profitability in the mobile games business. They also touch on LTV curves, payback periods, and the need for a clear definition of profitability.

Recorded mid December 2023. We discuss the current and future outlook of Roblox with a focus on financials. OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 1:11 Overview of the business 5:00 Being a social network vs. gaming platform 5:43 Financial overview 7:06 How does Roblox turn around their profitability? Biggest expense buckets 11:51 Structure and components of Roblox business, 3 primary parts: client, studio, and cloud and 8 groups 14:30 Roblox creator economics and definition of a creator 17:45 Growth opportunities: where will Roblox find user or revenue growth? 37:12 AI applications and opportunities for Roblox 43:35 Regulation risk 44:19 Biggest challenges = social competition 46:55 Roblox’s stock based compensation problem 51:17 Future outlook SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ 😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! — • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1 • TWITTER → @jokim1 • LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ — POPULAR CONTENT — 🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney https://youtu.be/h6ClJxjuRvw ℹ️ How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies https://youtu.be/bkd2TOpKt4I 🔮 Gaming Trends | A Look Ahead at 2021 https://youtu.be/NejFzHtpiZI 🖥️ The Future of PC Gaming https://youtu.be/_QT7O3Wxi2s 🔴 Games Industry M&A https://youtu.be/65nyPk6WNrs 🔴 Netcode for Multiplayer Games https://youtu.be/tHq3PzmjhLw 🔴 IDFA Deprecation Product Impact https://youtu.be/Ojec4wGKpso 🔴 Trip Hawkins on the New High Score https://youtu.be/5egTSQ6AiRA 🔴 LiveOps F2P Best Practices https://youtu.be/tmzqqnYbjNY

Discussion with Kylan Gibbs, Chief Product Officer at Inworld AI and Travis Boatman, CEO at Carbonated. We discuss Inworld's AI services around AI NPCs / conversational AI for games. OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 2:00 Inworld AI origin story and application areas of relationships and progression 9:27 Roleplaying is biggest application area for social simulation and emergent storytelling 13:47 How Travis thinks about AI for his games at Carbonated 17:50 Personalizing content for players 20:09 JK’s nice to have (tips/guide, loneliness, strange attractor) vs. fundamental integration of AI perspective 22:24 Kylan on building a personal relationship with characters and game world 25:14 Unexpected application: companion characters for FPS or MMO 26: 05 New game designs: social simulators 27:00 Interaction-focused role-playing games 27:55 Biggest area is detective-style games 28:40 Emerging application: show/game hybrid 29:32 Characterization of the market opportunity for conversational AI - gaming is core focus 31:47 Can you use AI to be a DM in a D&D campaign? 36:01 AI enables creatives to focus on story and core game 38:45 Economics of conversational AI - How much? Who pays? Cloud vs. on-device 45:06 JK and Travis on mitigating and justifying costs using AI as a dev 50:13 AI NPCs competitive landscape and how to differentiate between vendors 56:46 Addressing AI risks concerning IP ownership and data provenance 1:02:39 What other AI applications will have biggest impact to gaming? Which companies? 👇 EPISODE LINKS: - Inworld AI: https://inworld.ai/ - Carbonated Games: https://www.carbonated.com/ - Kylan Gibbs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylangibbs/ - Travis Boatman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-boatman-3bb593/ SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Spotify Podcast: https://spoti.fi/3Cpyq7i - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ 😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! — • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1 • TWITTER → @jokim1 • LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ — POPULAR CONTENT — 🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney https://youtu.be/h6ClJxjuRvw ℹ️ How to Build the Amazon of Game Companies https://youtu.be/bkd2TOpKt4I 🔮 Gaming Trends | A Look Ahead at 2021 https://youtu.be/NejFzHtpiZI 🖥️ The Future of PC Gaming https://youtu.be/_QT7O3Wxi2s 🔴 Games Industry M&A https://youtu.be/65nyPk6WNrs 🔴 Netcode for Multiplayer Games https://youtu.be/tHq3PzmjhLw 🔴 IDFA Deprecation Product Impact https://youtu.be/Ojec4wGKpso 🔴 Trip Hawkins on the New High Score https://youtu.be/5egTSQ6AiRA 🔴 LiveOps F2P Best Practices https://youtu.be/tmzqqnYbjNY

Joseph Kim and Arthur Trusov discuss topics such as the future of iPhone gaming, job hunting in the game industry, Netflix's potential pivot into video games, predictions for gaming in 2024, Star Citizen's $48,000 DLC, and the shutdown of a game studio due to cyberattacks.

Joseph Kim and Arthur Trusov discuss top games on Steam and mobile charts, Sony and Microsoft's potential entry into mobile gaming, the best FPS mobile games for 2024, China's response to gaming restrictions on WeChat, Starfield's negative reviews, Valve and Nintendo's bestselling games in 2023, layoffs in the game industry, and their thoughts on 2024. They also mention playing Diablo 4, Block Jam 3D, and Ghostrunner.

Joseph Kim and Arthur Trusov discuss top charts and gaming news, including China's impact on Tencent and NetEase, Take-Two's $12B Zynga bet, Valorant Mobile, Insomniac Games leak, steam winter sale, and more layoffs at Sony.

Joseph Kim and Arthur Trusov discuss the future of gaming with topics ranging from Netflix's game strategy to Epic Games breaking records and TikTok's revenue. They also cover the recent legal victory of Epic Games against Google, the passing of Max Payne voice actor, and Sony's patent on dynamically adjusting game difficulty. Additionally, they touch on Tencent shutting down a game studio, the shutdown of E3, and the controversy over Twitch's decision on nudity in streams.