Pivotal Times

MARCH 17

Hi gang, this week we talk shit on the industry, healthy shit though;Stadia trying to bounce back, Nintendo IP still growing, and more. Let’s get it.

Made by Franco

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🕳️ Rise and Fall?

‍I have a couple of drinks on me right now, imma be a bit naughty today.

In the last 4-5 years we have seen a lot of gaming companies rise like if they were the promised land and quickly fall to the damn floor, full speed.

Esports is flashy, fun, interesting and definitely has a long term audience, however, I feel that time goes by, and we still don’t understand where the industry is headed.

A clear example is VENN: “we’ll be the MTV of gaming”. MTV died because of being MTV, what are you talking about? They pivoted towards original content, high quality production, new games, old games… still nothing. They spent $43M for people to not know what VENN means.

There are hundreds of examples like that. It hurts both future ideas and current gaming companies which are doing things right.

There’s nothing wrong with not knowing what you’re doing though, none of us do. But the purpose of why you’re doing it’s important. Each failed attempt damages the industry, each failed attempt is another reason for somebody to say “don’t invest in gaming, it's volatile af”.

But what was the idea, why didn't it work? “We hired every single known writer in esports to build a news outlet and then in a few months we fired all of them to focus on video”. But…Upcomer, why didn’t you start with a couple writers and test it out first? Why are you now doing videos like if it’s salvation, the entire industry already hates you, what’s the strategy lol?

No purpose. It’s the classic “We fucked up, and we need to recover what we can”.

Is not just about investments, collabs are hurting too. Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft are carrying the gaming x culture collabs big time, but you can’t see it because all your attention goes to deals like FTX and TSM. Don’t get me started on that deal.

Esports ain't holding the spotlight torch anymore and we know it. We do have a solid audience that is tired of failed attempts.

If we are thinking that the pandemic was 100% the problem, we have a problem. If we understand that the pandemic is a shit situation but the real problem is beneath that, there's hope.

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‍💣 Games’ Hub

‍‍RETURNAL: ASCENSION — Trailer

‍HOGWARTS LEGACY — State of Play Event

‍DEAD SPACE — Live StreamGUNDAM EVOLUTION — Trailer

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‍📼 Video of the Week‍

‍How graphics worked on the Super NES, by Modern Vintage Gamer.

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‍🎞️ Film x Gaming

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 final trailer.
The animation studio that brought Arcane to life is called Fortiche Production. We talked about these insanely talented group of artists before, but now they are in the spotlight again since Riot Games just invested in them. Amazing move.

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‍🎮 Google Stadia Updates: Explained

‍There’s no white controller emoji, that should be Stadia’s first marketing move. Anyways:

Google Stadia had a fucked up path so far. A lot of friction, competition was hard, dev team changed a couple times, COVID, etc.
Now, there’s a pivot towards the only thing that will always make people be at least interested: free. People do love free stuff and Stadia is starving for attention, a good match.
Stadia is letting game developers offer free trials + no longer needed to log in with a Stadia account to play + people will be able to search for free games.

So, Stadia is not offering developers to create free games and gamers to test them before purchase. ‍

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📖 Read of the Week

‍Real Politics and Political Theory in Role-Playing Games, by Victor M. Costa.By the way, the SUPERJUMP Magazine, which is the place that I get most of the reads of this week from, has been hosted on Medium for the last 6 years. They just announced that they are moving away from Medium to Ghost because they are outgrowing Medium. Another indicative that the internet is changing, big fucking time.

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‍📈 Stats of the Week

‍Elder Ring. What this game is achieving, absolutely crazy at this point. Huge congrats to every person involved in the making.

12M copies sold so far.
Elder Ring is the biggest new IP in EU since The Division in 2016.

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‍🫂 Help

‍Guys, Alex is one of the main reasons why esports in Ukraine and Eastern Europe is a thing. The founder of NAVI, and a great person. He has been a loyal reader of Weekly since the beginning, he is one of us. I would love for you to take a couple minutes to read his recent post about the current situation in Ukraine. Appreciate you!

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‍🏆 Esports Highlights

Sparg0, 16 y/o prodigy, wins back-to-back Smash Ultimate Majors.
CDL 2022 Power Rankings.
Call of Duty: Mobile will host a World Championship w/ $2M in prize.
All about Apex Legends Pro League Split 2.
All about Valorant Stage 1 Challengers.

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‍🔴 Nintendo Franchises

‍Universal Studios Hollywood fomo for Nintendo got real when they announced the opening of Super Nintendo World in 2023. The first one was opened last year in Japan, and it’s dope. Third location?

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