Five things on Friday #369
This week: some great new tech, some music for your ears, and of course my own personal take on THAT games marketing headline.
Things of note for the week ending Saturday April 27th, 2024.
INTRO
Good morning friends. As I write to you now it’s 09:57am on Saturday April 27th and I am snotty af. We all are. I think the youngest brought home a bug of some kind from their petri dish of bacteria school last week and we’ve all been struck down with whatever the hell it is (it’s not covid - we tested for that - but it’s still rough; blergh).
So yeah, the downside is: we’ve had to miss Saturday at WASD. The upside is, you might actually get a newsletter at some point today.
(although if the cold & flu doesn’t kick in soon, this might be a shorter-than-usual edition this week. Let’s see how we go)
How have you beeeeeeen?
Thank you to the handful of you that sent notes about the work news last week - LEGO! Video Games! Fortnite! Oh my! - I’m now two weeks in and probably for the first time in my life, considering some kind of PC-based laptop for the house so I can properly get my teeth into aka UEFN (Unreal Engine for Fortnite). What is the world coming to?
Do you use/play/experiment with UEFN at all? I’m currently in full discovery mode and interested in hearing feedback on people that use it. If you don’t use it or have no idea what it is, also let me know (I’ll gladly share some resources).
In the meantime, we should crack on with this thing shouldn’t we? This week we’ve got: a new look at some movies, some music, some EFFING COOL TECH and some stuff on games marketing which is.. well, you’ll see.
Shall we crack on?
LET’S.
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. MKBHD ON THE HOLOTILE (LITERALLY)
Back in January of this year, you may have seen a Disney announcement regarding an innovative new technology called ‘The Holotile’.
Well, if you didn’t, there are plenty of news articles floating around if you simply just search ‘Holotile’ but hey, before you run off, how about you don’t do that.
How about instead you watch this SUPERB video of Marques Brownlee going to test it out for himself (I think completely exclusively as well).
It’s such a great watch. The grin on his face when you see how much fun he’s having; it’s infectious.
Enjoy.
THING 2. A FULL DAY OF MUSIC, VOL. 9
Long time readers will know of an ongoing music project I run with a pal titled as above.
The brief is ‘The music you should probably be listening to right now’
Well, we just wrapped on Volume Nine and it’s available right not for your listening pleasure.
Each volume runs for eight hours, so if you’re in charge of your office radio or if you’re just going to work, head down, all day at home, then you can whack this on and not have to touch it all day. That’s the plan anyway.
Hope you like it.
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN... GAMES MARKETING
Maker of 2023’s game of the year, ‘Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian games, made headlines (and not an insignificant dent in games industry social media) this week when its Publishing Director, Michael Douse, demonstrated a rare but not entirely unheard of ability of declaring, with full confidence, that ‘marketing is dead’ (with full confidence because of course the statement is based on entirely his own experiences) while at the same going on to list off all the ways they 'do' marketing.
Genuinely amazing.
Here’s the article in question.Here’s the doubling down Twitter thread (sorry). And actually, here’s the original podcast interview thing.
It’s all of about 4mins of listening from 33:57 onwards - it’s worth a listen because they also go onto talk about their marketing department and how they handle asset creation for storefronts (obv nothing to do with marketing)).
Ell oh ell.
It’s funny, one thing I realised when I moved from adland into games you learn pretty quickly which people are marketers working in games and which people are gamers working in marketing roles.
The first batch are the ones with reams of research and data that underpin their marketing choices, the second batch are the ones arguing that they need 1500 followers on Instagram because that’s what a good game has.
64 years ago, Professor E. Jerome McCarthy committed to paper the founding stones of what marketing is today. The basics. The 4Ps.
Product, price, place, and promotion.
Whether you studied marketing at London School of Economics, whether you’re a grad of Mark Ritson's Mini MBA (recommended), or whether you simply have a passing interest in the trade - to know marketing is to understand the basic principles of diagnosis, guiding policy - aka strategy, and coherent action - aka tactics (Rumelt) and apply them to your 4Ps.
To say 'Marketing is dead' and then double down on why that's true while also a) explaining all the marketing you do (see Twitter thread above) and b) telling everyone who argues with you they're wrong (see replies to that thread) is demonstrative of not only a lack of knowledge of what marketing actually is but also a complete inability to grow.
Mad.
This is a pretty good LinkedIn post addressing most of the issues (with some additional points highlighting the IP halo effect on the title’s success) but as I said in the commentary there, I think the points Douse makes are good but they get lost in his own misunderstanding of (and lack of training in) marketing.
Which is not only a shame - because the points are worth taking onboard - but also sadly typical of many games marketers.
'Things are different in games' they say.
'Marketing isn't the same here' they say.
My argument is that they simply don’t know what marketing is and, in the misguided conflation with ‘crap TV ads*’ (one P: Promotion), dismiss an entire body of work that would help them achieve so much [more] in the future.
It is inarguable that promotional (read: advertising) channels have changed - and this is true for ALL brands across ALL categories.
To say ‘People don't want to be advertised to’ is as lazy as it is boring. As a marketer, it is your responsibility as a marketer to figure out how to reach these people, where, and with what message to ensure you build the mental availability at the point of purchase (Byron Sharp).
If you are working in marketing and you’ve had no formal marketing training that’s OK! I can recommend a couple of books as well as a few training courses.
What I wouldn’t recommend is going on a podcast and declaring marketing is dead because you don’t like Facebook ads.
*Great creative-led TV ads rarely appear for video games. I think I can count on one hand how many conceptual creative ads I've seen in the past.. what, five years? - and they're all bangers. Might do a list.
LITTLE NEWS BITES
Bootleg Steamer was one of my favourite games at EGX last year. It’s out now.
What is Cosy Gaming and why is it good for your mental heatlh?
Finally, someone used Pareto’s economic theories to find the best Mario Kart 8 racer
WHAT IS JAMES PLAYING
I’m still playing Helldivers 2 (although not as much as I did - back to working life for me)
I picked up the delightful Harold Halibut on Xbox Game Pass. It’s a gorgeous game if a little slow and meandering.
And yesterday I started the excellent Tales of Kenzera: Zau. It is a fairly standard 2.5D metroidvania game (a recent comparison might be Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown), it is however underpinned by an emotional story, with the setting’s respect and exploration of African's culture is its main attraction. The voice acting is also outstanding. It’s available on PlayStation Plus this weekend and worth a look. Related, this is a great interview with the game’s creator, Abubakar Salim.
THING 4. BILLIE EILISH WOULD LIKE TO REINTRODUCE HERSELF
Come for that quote (that you’ve almost certainly seen in your feeds). Stay for the fantastic interview.
Non-subscribers might be able to read the article here.
- - -
Fun fact - Billie Eilish is also in Fortnite this week.
THING 5. BLUE EYE SAMURAI
While everyone is rightfully going on about how on point X-Men ‘97 is (seriously, you should be watching this show), please make sure you don’t sleep on BLUE EYE SAMURAI.
I’ve been chipping away at it and just hit episode five which has NO RIGHT to be as good as it is. Inverse called episode five ‘a Masterclass in TV storytelling’ - and having watched it, it’s easy to understand why.
It is gruesome.
It doesn’t hold back.
It is honestly superb and I’m so pleased I’m watching it.
It’s on Netflix, now.
(we’ve also just started Baby Reindeer - but we’ll save that for another edition)
BONUS SECTION
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
ENJOY.
The Long Slow Death of Urban Nightlife (predictable, sad, rubbish)
Fighting for diversity is not enough (this is great)
‘X CEO Linda Yaccarino on mission to woo UK agencies in London’ - lol
‘Keeping new friends’ - this is lovely
After last week’s XR deep dive (which included a ‘jury is out on Vision Pro’ note), Apple has apparently cut shipments as demand falls ‘sharply beyond expectations’
Juliette Pavy is the Sony World Photographer of the Year 2024
OK so here’s another Conan O’Brien link but this time going into a fair amount of detail that hopefully explains why this house worships at the alter of Coco
Alex Ross’ latest for Fantastic Four is S-U-B-L-I-M-E
And finally, this week I was reminded of the awesome fan short BATMAN: DEAD END. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re in for a treat.
OUTRO: YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
A few things to leave you with.
The OREO x Xbox campaign (yes, this again) picked up a handful of Webbys last week meaning the total award haul for this piece of work has hit triple figures. An absolutely insane achievement. And I don’t really know what else to say about it.
Next week marks three months since the FToF move to Buttondown. So I’m going to pull some stats on readership, open rate etc - and look at whatever else is interesting about the journey so far. If you’ve got anything specific you want to know about Buttondown, please hit reply and let me know and I’ll add it to the section for next week.
As I sign off to you now, it’s 21:42 on Saturday night. I lost some links earlier and the youngest is sound asleep. The eldest has managed to wangle their way into staying up to watch The 1% Club.
We’re not as snotty as we were but we’ve had a super chill day - with Maccas for tea and Star Wars on the telly.
Things are alright here.
I hope they are there too.
Until next time,
Whatley out x
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