Lars Jörnow

Investors: Gaming opportunities are on the rise! The last three years were a Period of Complacency: ▪ Record revenues during the pandemic ▪ Led to over-hiring & less innovation in every way, ▪ With unfortunate layoffs across many AAA studios as a result. The next three years are a Period of Disruption: ▪ New development pipelines with Generative AI & other tech ▪ New distribution platforms with Roblox, Fortnite & more coming ▪ New marketing approaches via Influencers & Community ▪ And the gaming audience is still growing, and global. Layoffs from AAA game studios led to experienced talent on the street, leading to new and interesting Game Dev Startups forming. From this period, multiple new billion dollar game companies will emerge. Recognizing OPPORTUNITY, notable dedicated game investment funds are being announced. THIS MONTH: $1 Billion of new capital for games ◾️ A16Z GAMES announced a 2nd gaming fund of $600 million, beyond previous $75M for Speedrun III applications. ◾️ BITKRAFT Ventures announced a 3rd gaming fund of $275 million. ◾️India’s Centre Court Capital announced new $42MM ◾️As did Turkey’s Laton Ventures with a new $35MM fund AGAINST BACKDROP OF: ◾️Disney investing $1.5 BILLION into Epic Games - gaming ecosystems are the future for the most valuable IP. ◾️Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund earmarking $38 BILLION of investment for gaming and esports - to future proof their economy. LOCALLY: ◾️Closer to home, Georgia benefits from abundant tech & creative talent, low cost of living, biz friendly environment, PLUS specific tax incentives for game development projects.  ◾️Based on my experience, it is a uniquely great place to make uniquely great games. ➨I’m personally very invested in a new Georgia-based game development venture, that will launch under the Ghost Gaming entity. ➨If you are a Qualified Investor and want to learn more about this or other gaming investment opportunities please hit me up directly. * Credit to Joost van Dreunen newsletter & CB Insights for chart Nabil Ismail Asante Bradford Grant Wainscott Andrew Chen Andrew Greenberg Jens Hilgers David Schulman Andrew Steinberg Shachar Oren Brian Zwerner Sean O'Brien Michael Cohn Frank Patterson Joe Yuan Christopher Klaus Randy Davidson Brian Grayson Julian Caggiano Travis S. #gaming #esports #investing #vc #angelinvesting

93

10 kommentarer

Altura isn’t just a project. It’s a community, a network, a family of gamers and developers eager to make a difference in the gaming space. As an open platform, Altura lets you pick and choose the tools that best suit your needs. You’re not locked into a specific chain, wallet, marketplace, SDK, or any other component. Feel free to use the best tools in the industry, but be careful—you might still find yourself opting for our full suite. 🙃 With effortless integration, Altura is the ultimate infrastructure provider to help build and scale the next generation of games. 🎮

17

I feel training in VR has a good opportunity even in B2C. The VR training can be a monthly subscription model, where subscribers get high value; (and they are even ready to purchase a VR headset if they don’t have one.) Picking up a niche business can generate decent revenue for 5 people team to thrive. What do you think? #VR #VirtualReality 

7

More layoffs today, this time from Kwalee. The company told MobileGamer.biz it had been letting staff go over the last few months. Both GamesIndustry.biz and MobileGamer.biz have heard from sources that around 40 people were affected, accounting for up to 10% of the firm's workforce. To those affected, please find a comprehensive list of resources, below: 🥇First, Discipline Games Jobs Resources: Over the past weeks I have created 8 (at time of writing) Games Jobs Resources to find jobs in a wide range of disciplines: 🎨 Art, Animation, VFX and UI: This resource contains around 1,200 jobs worldwide across all links. Link: https://lnkd.in/eu2bjadW ⚙ Engineering and Programming This resource lists just over 1,800 jobs worldwide across all links. It also talks about interview tips and questions to practice. Link: https://lnkd.in/eYdxANFM 🕹 Quality Assurance: This resource lists over 450 QA jobs worldwide. This post also talks about the craft of QA and contains tips and interview practice. Link: https://lnkd.in/dwwVjZuc 📑 Game Production: This resource lists around 400 jobs worldwide. It also contains info about game production as a whole and GDC talks. Link: https://lnkd.in/gxDvFM-Z 📢 Marketing & Community: This resource lists around 400 jobs worldwide. It also gives an intro into game marketing and community management. Link: https://lnkd.in/e5MuViug 🎶 Audio and Sound Design: This resource lists around 190 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/eSkPSsWf 📠 Studio Support, HR, Recruitment and BizDev: This resource lists around 290 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/ePG57_7v ⚙ IT, Helpdesk and DevOps: This resource lists around 140 jobs worldwide. Link: https://lnkd.in/e8ZsuiZh 🥈 Second, the Ultimate list of Video Games Career Resources: This should be your one-stop shop for all information. My dear friend Amir Satvat maintains these documents, he is a legend for doing this - please check them out: https://amirsatvat.com/ 🥉 Third, If you have worked in publishing, please message me. I am looking for quite a few roles right now! ⬅ 🎖 Finally, do not give up. Ever. No matter how dark things may look right now, I KNOW you will get through this, you have got this! 👊 Remember you are not alone. If you need help, advice, or even an ear to listen, we're here for you. Always! ➡ A request to my community, please can I ask you to repost this post to your colleagues and friends, so that we can get as many into jobs as possible! And please comment if you or your studio are currently hiring - let's help each other! Much love ❤️ #layoffs #gamesindustry #jobsingames #kwalee

65

6 kommentarer

Yes or no? Today during our team call, we discussed out our demo-build and brainstormed missions for our game. One teammate raised a valid concern: Would this idea be understood by future partners? Instead of seeing this as a roadblock, I view it as an opportunity. Successful partnerships thrive on understanding each other's perspectives. In essence, ensuring alignment between our creative vision and partners' expectations is key. By embracing this challenge, we're setting the stage for a strong and collaborative partnership. #GameDev #Partnerships

1

As 2024 completes the first half, we see that certain mobile games have hit right mark & continue to dominate the download chart. Roblox & Subway Surfers remain steadfast at the top, showcasing their enduring popularity.  Meanwhile; Hungry Studio's Block Blast and Supercent’s Pizza Ready are rising stars, making significant impact in the market. Interestingly, Free Fire Max has seen a resurgence in downloads, outpacing its sibling, Free Fire. Established titles like 8 Ball Pool and Brawl Stars are also witnessing notable download spikes, indicating a dynamic and ever-evolving mobile gaming landscape. #MobileGaming #GamingTrends #Roblox #SubwaySurfers #BlockBlast #PizzaReady #FreeFireMax #8BallPool #BrawlStars #GamingIndustry #Innovation

7

Is Supercell having the biggest comeback in mobile game history? Check this out: 💰 Revenues up 220% ✊ Brawl Stars revenues +785% ⚔ Clash Royale revenues +104% 👩‍🌾 Even Hay Day and Boom Beach revenues are up 20% Then there's marketing that seems to be tuned up to 11: ⚽ Haaland x Clash of Clans 🦎 Godzilla x Brawl Stars 🎉 Squad Busters is coming out with the biggest launch in company history A 'comeback' seems to be the wrong term here. Since even in its "dark moments" Supercell was wildly profitable delivering €1.7bn in revenue with a cushy €580m EBITDA. So what do we call this? Going from great to marvelous again? In either case, massive kudos to the whole organization! It's hard to get out and grind when you're at the top. But clearly, this crew stays hungry. Yours Squad Busters addict #gameindustry #mobilegames #gamedev

1 095

33 kommentarer

The FaZe Clan comeback story is underway and is truly 🍿 worthy. After a tumultuous 2023, the company has returned with a new owner in GameSquare and the original founders back in the business calling the shots around the brand vision. FaZe's position has always been about the crossover of gaming into mainstream internet culture and the social buzz of the relaunch generated over 350M+ views/impressions and over a million engagements over the last two weeks. I'm aware that certain people feel a certain way about the brand but you can't discount their ability to generate conversation on the internet. Esports and gaming is hungry for the next big moment around a breakthrough game (GTA6 next?) and that was previously generated with Fortnite in 2018-2020 that lead into PEAK gaming around the pandemic as everyone was locked at home. This period drove record revenues for the publishers and increased investor interest around the esports ecosystem. Gaming had become a bit stale in 2024. FaZe Clan is capitalizing on the trend towards IRL content with a revamped roster but not abandoning the core by leaning into buzz worth gaming events with: A COD tournament hosted by FaZe Kaysan this week (and sponsored by Xfinity) that delivered arguably the most high profile collection of streamers that I can recall including xQc, Bronny, Train, Sketch, Nadeshot, and most of the FaZe Clan creator roster. The event peaked at over 200K CCVs and was pure madness over a five hour period. Today is seeing a FaZe Friday event (also partnered with Xfinity) that is one of the largest weekly community events with FaZe Swagg playing with NBA star Devin Booker to promote his latest skin in Call of Duty. The internet community has been vocal about wanting the "old" FaZe but in all honesty they weren't watching montage videos and gaming clips in the same way that they were a decade ago. It is important to be innovating and going the direction of the modern trends found increasingly on TikTok & Twitch. Watch this space.

87

9 kommentarer

gamescom latam was a blast. However, one week of discussions with game developers from Latin America and around the globe spotlighted the weaknesses of the European digital trade promotion policy. First of all, the Chinese and Indians were visible at the event, but the EU was missing. The trade consulates of EU countries still see each other as their main competitors, but our main competitors are non-EU giants like the USA, China, and India. Only by collaborating, finding synergies, and pooling resources will the EU member states be able to challenge the global visibility of American, Chinese, and Indian trade promotion activities. Secondly, we might be too focused on talent attraction and outsourcing opportunities. Do not get me wrong; both are critical topics for the growth of the European game industry, and we must continue working with them. However, we should not be blinded by those goals. Brazilian game dev studios are rapidly expanding, and the largest of them are already starting to open their local studios in the EU. It is time to broaden our focus and begin promoting the EU more as an investment location and an ideal sport for co-productions. Thirdly, the EU parades itself as the forerunner and trendsetter of digital regulation. As Brazilian efforts to build a GDPR-adequate privacy policy framework and their plans to regulate gatekeeper platforms demonstrate, Brussels's effect is true. However, if the EU does not take a more active role in aligning digital policies inspired by it, we will face a significant risk of deepening global regulatory market fragmentation. It is clear that trade agreements are not an instrument that is agile enough to address this challenge. Instead, the EU should focus on building joint guidelines with third countries on how to align regulatory requirements. In practice, we need joint guidelines between, for example, European and Brazilian data protection authorities addressing the potential conflicts between the EU and Brazilian data protection frameworks. Thank you so much for the invite, great hospitality and enabling the trip Eliana Russi 🔜 gamescom latam , congrants for successful event Stefan Heikhaus 🔜 gamescom latam and thank you for all the help Alessandra Leone.

94

4 kommentarer

In the latest Elite Game Developers newsletter Edvard Groundstroem, co-founder of Flowstate Games, which shut down recently, shares his learnings. In a typical 🇫🇮 Finnish way, there's zero sugar coating. I recommend everyone to read it. Here are my three key takeaways from the interview: 1️⃣ Have a compelling strategy and adjust your work inside of it rather than pivoting to the new and shiny thing when the going gets rough. Without a strategy, you're making MVPs that lead to failing fast and pivoting too soon into the unknown. While we hear stories of pivots leading to ultimate success, the vast majority of startups (and not only startups...) pivoted themselves to death without ever building any expertise in anything. I've made this mistake multiple times before and only in my startup was I adamant never to switch genres. 2️⃣ Listen to VCs but don't take orders from them. Chasing "product-VC" fit and trying to hit their "flavor of the week KPIs" means that you've handed control of the direction of your company to an external party. I was there too thinking that VCs know it all. It wasn't until I understood that VCs give a perspective not a direction that our execution improved. Listen to VCs but remember that the ultimate decision is on you. 3️⃣ Complacency is the death of execution. Startups should be in code red until they start generating sufficient revenue. Getting funded doesn't mean you're good. It means that you have limited runway to prove you can execute. Edvard Groundstroem put it better than I ever could "Making great commercial products that can scale as a business is hard. Understanding how a game goes from good to great is instrumental, and the only way to gain insight into that is to study games that made it, as well as the ones that seemed liked they would but didn’t." This is painful to read. I've failed at instilling product expertise within everyone in the studio multiple times before thinking that if just a few key people have it, it's enough. I highly recommend Joakim Achren's Elite Game Developers newsletter to everyone working in games. 🙏 thank you Eddie for the public post-mortem! #gameindustry #gamedevelopment

90

13 kommentarer

Our latest blog is up!

6

Its less than two weeks since launching the playtest of three of our Alpha games on PlayGround, the premier publisher for web3 games. In that short time we have achieved some remarkable milestones and are honored for all 3 of them to be ranked in the Top 10 on DappRadar - 550,000+ players - 33 Million On-Chain Transactions - 91% Day 1 retention - 59% Day 7 retention - 73% of players from Tier 1 Countries (US, CA, EU etc) Panic! - Inspired by Roblox's Evade (1.2M DAU) Parkour Battle - Combining elements of Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia Copycat Killer! - Inspired by Roblox's Murder Mystery 2 (3.5M DAU) #PlayGround #Web3Gaming #Web3

23

4 kommentarer

Governments Target Gaming Addiction with Time Limits & Spend Curbs Is gaming getting out of hand? Governments are exploring: * Time caps to limit gaming sessions (like China's 1 hour rule for minors) * Spend restrictions to curb in-game purchases Read here: https://lnkd.in/dPeGfejh #GamingAddiction #DigitalWellness #GameCloud #LolzSoft

2

The games industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation today. With news of layoffs and team restructuring dominating our channels almost every other day, the question I often get - 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠? The normalization of unprecedented gains during COVID, overestimated future demand, inflation, challenges in user acquisition post-IDFA/privacy changes, an overcrowded market, rising costs, and the complexity of game production and live services are all contributing factors. Additionally, Gen AI forces everyone to rethink production to stay competitive. 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 Over the years, the risk-to-reward ratio for new game launches has been shifting unfavorably. Increasing costs, red ocean markets, and the complexity of live services make capturing, engaging, and retaining players to achieve profitable outcomes incredibly challenging. Efficiently translating game ideas/IPs into successful games is tough. Highly experienced teams equipped with cutting edge technology and tools are more likely to create great games. In contrast, inexperienced teams often end up over-iterating, learning on the go, stretching timelines, and/or diluting quality. Great talent is essential today and in the future to build great games. Period. 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 & 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐀𝐌  This is a safer, more predictable, and an incremental risk path for companies with successful games. Doubling down on existing games is a no-brainer part of every company's strategy. However, due to talent bandwidth constraints, companies often focus on their top games while many high-potential games in their portfolio are deprioritized and forced to die a slow death. In my years of experience in the industry, this is a massive untapped opportunity highly worth leveraging! Expanding TAM (Total Addressable Market) can provide significant gains for successful games. This complex task depends on a deep understanding of market differences and motivations that drive engagement and monetization behaviors, applying these insights to game and live services operations to unlock growth. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 This is undoubtedly a massive event on the games industry timeline. But time will reshape how games are designed, produced, and shipped to global audiences in meaningful ways. Gen AI and other technologies will make game production more efficient, high-quality, and predictable. 𝑃𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔, 𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑖𝑛 𝑛𝑒𝑤, 𝑢𝑝𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠, 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒!

124

4 kommentarer

2018: I got married and started Games Factory Talents. 2 Life changing moments and my 3 lessons: 1. Overcoming obstacles together The strength of the relationship is defined by the ability to navigate problems together. Every partnership will face obstacles. Working through them together builds trust. 2. Vision and Commitment. Business needs a long-term vision and marriage needs lifelong commitment. Without it you cannot survive the tough times. Dedication leads to thriving relationships. 3. Passion fuels a company and love fuels a marriage Love provides a vision. Love gives passion for the mission. The driving force for both partnerships. Success for me in 2024? Resilience, dedication and love. P.S. What is success to you this year?

96

20 kommentarer

Supercell's Squad Busters is going into 🎉 Global launch release 🎉 (May 29th 😁). Brawl Stars was Global launched 6 years ago as the last game in the portfolio. We couldn't wait, so we did a deep dive into the latest changes from the previous Beta builds we already covered, you can read the latest here 😎. Character progression was radically changed. Currently you merge these 4 stages of shards starting from Baby form 👶, going all the way to Ultra with a 10 to 1 merge conversion ratio (bottom image). They are upgraded through just shards and give you portal energy to Squad journey. You can also buy a lot of shards in the shop, even unlock completely new characters. Btw, there is no Hard currency 💎 in the game. The gating mechanic on progression are chest tickets, which you need to use in order to open a chest, otherwise you can play just without getting rewards. Best currency sink in the game currently. The Star Drop ⭐ system from Brawl Stars was also added into the game, proving that Gacha mechanics reins supreme 🤩. This is powering the chest opening now, where each click has a chance on upgrade of the chest rarity. This also nicely connects to the streak mechanic, where by being in top5 you get a direct bonus in form of better chances of chest rarity upgrade and more shards. This essentially make the streak saver 2nd best gold sink in the game 💰. Battle Bag 🎒 was also added, which adds consumables into the game, where players can now not only reroll the initial characters they get from chests during gameplay, but they can also open these chests without even having gold to begin with. With a rarity boost on top of it 😱. Mega units were also added as "consumable" characters, which can appear in the chest, if the player have them in their inventory. The spend depth of the game is outstanding 🤑. PvP ⚔ incentive is still a challenge. It feels very chaotic, especially towards the end of the game where there are big squads of characters against each other and visually you can't easily evaluate each other's strength 🤔. The rewards for PvP are not that impactful and best case is that you avoid PvP as much as possible,. You want to farm up your squad towards the end, where you just want to end in top5, to not loose your streak bonus. I am curious, how the design team will tackle this issue, but I am sure they will ace it 🤞. Join us as we talk about all of this with 🦩 Matej talking about the leaked UA strategy 😵 and Felix adding some ad placements 😅 📺 Watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/d72MJ3c6 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dCShZDP7 🗣 Join the discussion on our slack channel: https://lnkd.in/eCfTUdu9 #gamedev #gameindustry #mobilegames #gamedesign #midcore #moba #multiplayer #mobilegaming #mobilegamedevelopment #useracquisition #gameproduction #games #gamedevelopment #mobiledeveloper #userexperience

143

9 kommentarer

It's hard to find good KOLs these days. The ones that are good are also expensive. How can you use the help from KOLs and build a long term relationship? this is the secret source in web3. The so called "KOL rounds" that everyone is talking about, is about to vanish. Why? Well why should a #KOL / #influencer invest his own money, then market the project for free ? while he / she can get 4-5 more money from promoting the project We need a #new #marketing #approach

1

Twitch's “Elusive Profitability”: Analyzing 10 Years Post-Amazon Acquisition Despite being acquired by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million, Twitch continues to navigate challenges on its path to profitability. This analysis highlights the platform's financial details, operational costs, and strategic initiatives within Amazon's broader ecosystem. 1. User Engagement and Content Volume     Active Users and Streamers: Twitch has grown to over 140 million monthly active users and 9 million broadcasters by 2023, emphasizing its dominance in the live streaming sector.     Streaming Hours: With an average of 2.1 million concurrent viewers and 3 billion watched hours per quarter, Twitch's scale is impressive but also costly in terms of bandwidth and moderation. 2. Revenue and Operational Costs     Revenue Streams: Twitch's primary revenues come from advertising, subscriptions, and virtual goods, totaling around $2.3 billion in 2020.     Infrastructure Costs: The platform spends approximately $1 per 1,000 viewer hours on bandwidth alone, leading to substantial annual expenses.     Content Moderation Costs: Investments in AIdriven tools and human moderators add millions to Twitch's operational costs annually. 3. Competitive Pressures     Rival Platforms: Twitch faces competition from YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming, which offer better terms to attract top streaming talent.     Acquisition Costs: Retaining and attracting top streamers involves costly contracts and partnership deals, often running into millions annually. 4. Amazon’s Strategic Integration     Twitch Prime: While Twitch benefits from integration with Amazon Prime, the direct profitability impact is unclear.     Advertising and AWS: Opportunities for synergy with Amazon's advertising network and AWS services are promising but underutilized. 5. Future Monetization Strategies     Innovative Advertising: There's potential for Twitch to improve its advertising model by leveraging Amazon's technology for more targeted, interactive ads.     Content and Geographic Expansion: Broadening content to include nongaming categories and expanding into untapped markets like Southeast Asia ($2.5 billion TAM), Latin America ($1.8 billion), the Middle East ($1.2 billion), India ($2.0 billion), and Africa ($0.8 billion) could significantly increase its user base and revenues.  Twitch's journey under Amazon highlights the complexities of scaling a livestreaming platform profitably. While it benefits from Amazon's resources, Twitch must innovate and expand strategically to turn its impressive engagement into sustainable profits.

4