January 13, 2020

Sips Happen #5: Are you carbon-efficient?

Sips Happen #5: Are you carbon-efficient?

The University of Technology in Sydney is looking at the gaming industry’s carbon emissions, and what developers are doing about them. Answer this survey to help them understand your practices and measure the attitude of studios toward the environmental impacts of their work.

State of the Market

• Is Nintendo launching a new Switch this year?
• Twitter is a big gaming platform: more than 1 billion gaming tweets were shared last year.
• It’s the season for setting records: the App Store generated $386 millions on New Year’s Day
  • In contrast, the revenue that could be generated by a year of Apple Arcade seems meagre
• An AARP study decrypts the gaming habits of the 50+ demographic. A new eldorado?
  • 44% of them play at least once a month.
  • Mobile is their most favourite platform.
• 18 months after it tried foregoing the Google Play Store and self-distributing its Android build, how is Epic faring on that front? Not great.

China

• Steam’s most popular language is now Simplified Chinese.
• It’s getting harder and harder to publish games in China: A new policy aimed at improving children’s mental health lead to another crackdown on violence in game.
• Having a Chinese partner is then more important than ever to even consider entering the market. But do you know the subtleties and intricacies of working with a Chinese partner?
• Platinum Games, now acquired by Tencent, vows to keep its independence and to stay true to its name.
• In a weird bit of irony, Tencent, very much known for cloning video games, won a case against a clone of one of its own games. Is it a sign that China’s culture of cloning games is about to change?

User Acquisition

• Industry Leaders weigh in on what trends should you follow in 2020 to stay ahead of your game.
• Playable Ads in non-gaming apps and brands finally warming up to advertising in mobile games are two of the trends AdColony expects to see in Mobile Advertising 2020.
• Here’s a useful guide on Facebook’s Learning Phase, and how to keep optimising your campaigns even in that phase.
• Starting out with UA? Calculating your ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) is critical to evaluate performance and profitability of your campaigns.

Product Management

• Adjust joins the Unity Verified Solutions Partners Program, allowing mobile gamedevs to easily integrate its measurement solution. I fail to see the exact upside here, since Adjust. already had a Unity SDK.
• If you haven’s switched to header bidding for your in-app video monetisation yet, know that there’s no drawback to upgrading your mediation.
• Inside the world of mobile game writers. Notable quote about Episode monetisation scheme: « it’s FOMO in. a game ».
• When are auto-renewable subscriptions fair game? When they’re fair and transparent.

One Last Sip

• LONG READ OF THE WEEK: Voodoo has dominated the hypercasual space for a couple of years now. Here are some reasons why.
• I still remember fondly the first time I played Myst. What made it so remarkable?
• For its 10th anniversary, Terry Cavanagh made VVVVVV’s source code public. It’s a gold mine of teaching about what to do and not to do, and a breadth of information for any (aspiring) gamedev.
• Kotaku scrutinises how the credits in a game can be an open window into the politics or the HR policies of a studio.
• As much as there are strides made in accessibility (and approachability) in video games, the portrayal of disabilities in our favourite medium still has a long way to go. Have a look back at how the past decade fared.
• Tokimeki Memorial was foundational to the dating simulation genre. A trip down memory lane.