Our recent quarterly report is featured in the esteemed GamesIndustry.biz today.

I spend a lot of time talking about virtual worlds through the lens of growth, but this rapidly expanding ecosystem is vulnerable to decay as shifting operational priorities and models deprioritize legacy content. More details here: lnkd.in/ezsq692J

While most of the industry's growth is still centered around live services, Capcom and Pearl Abyss posted record quarters on traditional stand-alone games. That's good news for publishers rounding out their release schedules this week.

@gibiz.bsky.social covered our latest report on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's platform transition. Our view is that adding Switch 2 does not fully offset the loss of active PS4 and Xbox One users, leaving the title to launch into a smaller console install base than last year.

Really great breakdown by Jason here, but I think this is maybe also a good opp to look at the broader cost structure in gaming. e.g. Take-Two pays more on marketing a game than it does making it. And they're paying nearly as much on management, legal, support staff. (Receipt in the replies)

A visual summary of the podcast I did with incoming Xbox CSO Matthew Ball from March. Like and subscribe. Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5GpO... Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

I don't really understand people who balk at the amount of text in Disco Elysium/Zero Parades for Dead Spies. First off, they read it to you!

Nikkei has a piece on Tencent investing in Deep Seek as a runback for their success in gaming. The one issue I see with that analogy is that Tencent's big breakthrough successes were built on US companies.

Supply chain expert Chris Rogers suggests that console makers might not want to bulk up their stock ahead of GTA VI.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie does not have the momentum to catch its predecessor in terms of box office and will perhaps be hundreds of millions of dollars short. I think that's a signal of something.

Excited to participate in iicon later this month by moderating a panel on investment, IP acquisition and the new economics of interactive entertainment with Wade Rosen, chairman and CEO of @atari.com, and Mark Nash, COO and co-founder of @balorgames.bsky.social.

Sidecar here: Arc Games, which is financing the last year of development for Blow's game, sold off Torchlight late last year to pay down an outstanding loan.

I'm not a huge Pokemon guy, but I believe this is a first principal that has served Game Freak well.

Tough month for VR. Listen to me and @slhamlet.bsky.social talk through what Meta may have done to avoid this moment, what other builders are getting right, the risks of AI in virtual worlds and more. Like and subscribe. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d... open.spotify.com/show/2DYEqB5...

Exit question on CES. Will robots be doing our chores anytime soon?

Jonathan Blow is an interesting creative force in gaming worth paying attention to, even if he talks a bunch of shit and blows up everyone's spot.

Just checked in with the team. 630k lifetime; 300K from 11/16 to 11/30 alone

Barron's really letting Roblox off the hook here. All game companies operate with a deferred revenue schedule and most of them have found a way to be profitable.

Apple's AI service implementations may lag some of its peers, but that does not appear to be hurting unit sales. Shipments of Apple devices tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan grew an estimated 5% year over year in the third quarter.

Check out my colleague Stefan Modrich's excellent reporting on the role of AI in game development. www.spglobal.com/market-intel...

Why are gamers excited for the Steam Machine? It's about bringing a vast PC gaming library into the living room. Steam has more than 100,000 games published or with scheduled release dates before the end of 2025, according to an analysis by S&P Global, 10x the count on PS Store.

I don't mean to call out anyone specifically, but the public has gotten into a strange habit of thinking this way. Private companies care about margins! Where do you think Gabe gets his yacht money?

Valve is more deeply entrenched in gaming culture and vernacular than it was 10-15 years ago. Does that mean Valve can sell expensive hardware at Sony- or Nintendo-level volumes? So far it hasn't.

If developers are using Gen AI to ideate or refine code, I don't necessarily see that as deleterious to the creative process. When you start to move into asset generation, it would be easier to lose sight of the inherent benefits of human creativity.

The moment when the great @jeffgerstmann.com almost said my name on his podcast! (I was quoted in the Bloomberg report. So, maybe I wasn't very close to being mentioned at all.) youtu.be/8IpuaE6fhLg?...

Huh... I missed the era of Steam where you could buy Mike Epps: Under Rated.

EA's new owners will want to keep costs in check, but current licensing agreements cost $500 million a year and are likely to grow with renewals before the end of the decade.

I'm here for @jamesaltonsanders.com music posts.