Siqi Chen

WBD has a$30.68b market cap. Studios & DTC revenue is 55% of total. That implies a ~$17b valuation for the Studios & DTC business. Comcast can buy that, but so can many others.

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Calling Investors: Invest in the original Xbox “Duke” controller… I am working with a new gaming peripherals company set to take the world by storm and they are looking for investors to join the team. Founded by Duke Schnepf, son of gaming visionary, and Xbox founder, Brett Schnepf, backed by multiple founding fathers of the Xbox, this company is pushing the boundaries of the gaming peripherals sector. Their journey began with Brett Schnepf, a luminary whose contributions to gaming history are etched in stone. As a founding member of the Xbox console team, Brett's design prowess shaped modern gaming, with iconic creations like the Sidewinder PC controller and the legendary Duke controller. Today, Duke Schnepf carries forth his father's legacy. Upside and a half! In late 2024, a major streaming platform will release a series chronicling the founding of a pioneering gaming console (can you guess which one) and the launch of Duke's ground-breaking products, offering an intimate look at the visionary minds behind this revolution. Looking for investments of $10K, $20K, $50K, $100K, $250, $500K, and $1M. Higher investments with equity shares are available for discussion. We foresee full returns and profits delivered within 1 year. If you're interested in being part of this exciting journey, please get in touch to set up a call ASAP. #Gaming #InvestmentOpportunity #Innovation #GamingPeripherals #TechInvestments #gamedev #investors #angelinvestors #gameinvestor #PEinvestment #AngelInvestment

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I'm a massive Fallout fan. Going back to Wasteland, then the original Interplay Fallouts (FO1, FO2, Tactics), and into FO3 (still the best in the series, IMO -- don't waste your time talking to me about NV), etc. I've talked a lot about how FO3 was a big inspiration for TLD. So know that I am as big a fan as probably can be. I was really interested to hear from both gamer and non-gamer folks in my social circle who really bounced off of the Amazon series, due to what they described as the "extreme violence". This includes people who are fans of the game, and people for whom the TV series is their first entry point into the IP. I've only seen the first episode so far, but I have to say...I agree with them? It's very clear that Nolan/Joy are huge fans of the IP, and I know the show was developed under the watchful eye of Bethesda, as it should be. But IMO, they really missed the mark on the depiction of violence. It's massively overdone and 100% unnecessary. And I think it speaks to the challenges of adaptation from interactive to non-interactive media. Over-the-top violence is a hallmark of the Fallout IP, no question. Actually, I think it's fair to say that "OTT" is really the core pillar of the Fallout IP in general. There's a huge wink behind everything in the game. And you accept it, because you're the one pulling the trigger. You're the one choosing the "Bloody Mess" perk so you can see enemies literally explode (which I have to assume is an homage to Wasteland, and the "___ exploded like a blood sausage..." combat description). But this stuff just does not translate well to linear media. When we are playing games, we are immersed in those worlds, and we don't stop to think of how brutally violent we are in them, how casually we dispatch hundreds or thousands of enemies during the course of completing a game. We are desensitized to it in the game. And it's ok, because we know it's not real. It's part of the magic, part of the covenant we have between ourselves and the game. TV isn't real either. But it's made of the "real world". Amazon's Fallout is not animated or 3D, it's live-action. It's made of pieces of the world we live in. We can see ourselves in this violence. As OTT as the IP is, and as successful as the show has been so far, I personally feel that they missed the mark with the depiction of violence. I think they have unnecessarily alienated folks who would have otherwise really enjoyed the show. (And yes, I know videogame violence doesn't translate to violence in the real world. I'm not talking about that.) I'll keep watching, but for me I wish Nolan/Joy and Bethesda had had the foresight to recognize that straight up adapting the level of violence in the game was not necessary for the adaptation to be successful. I don't think the game fans would have enjoyed it any less if the violence had been less graphic, and I think a lot of the folks who are newly discovering Fallout might have had a better experience with it.

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🌟 Exciting Partnership Opportunity for Roblox Developers! 🌟 At Senior Studios, we specialize in the integration of brands in gaming, and we're looking for Roblox games to partner with! If you're behind a Roblox game with an active player base, we want to integrate our client brands into your games for limited-time campaigns. We've had the privilege of working with iconic brands like Opera GX, creating memorable, engaging experiences that captivate audiences worldwide in #Minecraft. Now, we want to bring that expertise and excitement to the Roblox community. 🚀 What We Offer: 1. Monetization Opportunities: Open new revenue streams through limited-time brand campaigns in your game. 2. Collaborative Efforts: Our team ensures the integration respects your game's integrity and enhances the player experience, our approach is always community-first. We're excited about the potential of #Roblox to create engaging, branded content that players will love. If you're interested in exploring what a partnership could look like, let's connect! 🔗 Reach out directly or drop a comment below to start the conversation. Shares are much appreciated! #Roblox #RobloxDev #RobloxDeveloper #RobloxStudio #BrandPartnership #RobloxGame

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Mixed reality glasses are the future of computing. We're gonna have the PC at home, the phone in the pocket and the MR glasses on our nose. I mean, think about it, 60-70% of the things you do on your phone can be EASILY done on glasses (changing volume, checking notifications, messages, replying and so on). And this is, basically, the thesis that we had when we raised money for MixRift. The article linked below is the confirmation of the thesis by Meta. It might not work, I agree. But at this moment, I'm more bullish then ever on the future of Mixed Reality. #mixedreality #mr #metaorion #meta https://lnkd.in/dAtDA-qj

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Dear Stretch Network Partners, Please allow me to inform you about additional changes that will take place in the global network on July 8. 🍀 All Heads-up tables will be removed 🍀 Badugi cash tables will be removed 🍀 Sonic cash tables will become 6-max 🍀 The minimum buy-in for Sonic Omaha cash tables will be 20 BB 🍀 Sonic Omaha 7 card cash tables will be added These changes apply only to cash tables and only to our Global Network. In your local networks, you decide your product strategy, but we would be happy to assist you in managing your local networks as well. If you need our help, please contact us. The above-mentioned changes are part of the new strategy for the Stretch Network Global Network, which prioritizes the comfort of novice players and casual traffic to maintain the proper balance of our ecosystem between amateurs and professionals. Caring for the ecosystem of the Global Network is our priority. The changes we are implementing now and will continue to implement will significantly improve the user experience for your players, extend their LTV, ARPU, and, of course, Revenue.

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20 hours in and Hoyo's formidable craftsmanship is on full display with ZZZ. ⭐1.0 release pool of 16 characters. Hoyo games have always prioritized quality over quantity, leaning instead on deep systems to enable diverse team comps / fun theorycrafting. Interestingly, Wuthering Waves also launched with the same # of characters in its 1.0 pool. I'm personally a big fan of this approach, and hope to see more games adopt it going forward. ⭐Female to male character ratio of 3:1. HSR currently stands at ~2:1 and Genshin at ~1.7:1. Every faction shown so far has only 1 male char. Surprising given Hoyo's recent titles have focused more on the "mainstream anime" audience instead of catering only to the core otaku audience. Very happy to see Hoyo honoring its roots here. They cooked and core fans are going to be very pleased with all of the fanservice (e.g. cinema artwork, main menu char selection, etc.). ⭐C6 / Cinema artwork is... IYKYK. They clearly tested it with HSR and are fully leaning into it with ZZZ. Congrats to all you Grace C6 havers. They knew exactly what they were doing. ⭐First Hoyo game with dedicated furries / anthropomorphic races. Ellen, Ben, and Von Lycaon are all very compelling characters. Wakayama Shion does such a fantastic job as Ellen's VA. Hoyo absolutely nailed the launch banner here. ⭐Just like other Hoyo games, ZZZ is more "casual" than it is "core." It doesn't demand much of your time as a single player live service title. For me it's the perfect side game that I can see myself spending 1-2 hours per week on. I don't expect everyone to like it (might be too "easy" for core gamers), but it's a winning formula that Hoyo has perfected for its target audience. ⭐One of Hoyo's underrated special talents is making "core" genres widely accessible from a gameplay standpoint across all platforms. ZZZ plays flawlessly on mobile, PC, and console without diluting the experience at all. Everything from the simplified switching system to the flat level design was intentional to make it incredibly accessible even for someone who has never played action games before. This is something really only Hoyo is capable of pulling off with such finesse. ⭐Really digging the comic / manga style storytelling. Glad to see Hoyo continue to innovate on how it delivers its stories and really looking forward to seeing more of this. ⭐Hoyo's investments into its music / animation departments are really paying off. The release trailer for ZZZ is Hoyo's best yet and their character drip marketing is perfected to the point where I'm basically forced to pull on every banner. In many ways, Hoyo is slowly becoming the Apple of the gaming industry, and their IPs are rapidly expanding the audience for gacha and anime on a global scale. I'm honestly humbled. Shut up and take my money... #zenlesszonezero

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Roblox will give 𝟐𝟓% 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐮𝐱 for non-mobile purchases — that'll tip the scales from app store (Google, Apple) to retailer (Walmart, Target, Amazon), and put more money in the hands of players & creators: The 30% transaction fee on mobile platforms, often called the 'app store tax,' has long been protested by developers. At times, this can mean a legal fight, as with Epic Games v. Apple in 2020. But lawyers need not be involved. After all, the 'tax' only applies to purchases made through mobile systems — find ways for spend to come through other avenues, and you're golden. Hence why so many games with virtual currencies have been encouraging players to purchase gift cards online or at retail stores... a plan Roblox is now doubling down on. 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬: 1️⃣ A win for retailers... ...and, not just for extra purchases. Sure, they'll get some margin on gift card sales, but, more importantly, this will drive major foot traffic to their stores & websites, causing tons of extra purchases (who ever just buys 1 item?) It's for this reason that retailers are the more agreeable partner — the value they gain lies beyond the gift card's price. Where app stores must take from a set pie, retailers can grow it and take from the difference. That's a winning formula. 2️⃣ Most of Roblox Traffic is Mobile While this is a major change, do remember, it will largely apply to a minority. Last we heard, 78% of sessions occur on phones, meaning even with incentive to pay otherwise, many will still purchase through them. Will +25% affect some? Sure. But given so much spending is mid session, it's a habit that needs to be built — and that's why deals which give exclusive items with gift cards, like the recent Walmart x Paramount Spongebob one, will be huge in causing the shift. Because 'more' & 'better' can be trumped by convenience. Exclusivity can't. 3️⃣ The Roblox Tax Cuts If you think about it, that's what's happening: the government (platform) is leaving more disposable income for citizens (players), which they hope will be spent on small businesses (creators). I except to see the normal accelerated growth we do IRL, but am curious how far the resemblance could go — eg, do creators start raising prices? In either case, we've seen as developer pay-outs go up (now $800+ million the last 12 months) the quality of work rises with it... So if there's any incredible projects in the next few months: we'll know why.

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How do I hire the best C and VP level candidates in Games & Entertainment? How do I get positions that pay million dollar plus salaries? Find the answers on the latest Deconstructor of Fun podcast (link in comment below) where I share my experiences of having led on some of the top searches in the world of Technology, Entertainment and Games. Was delightful to speak with Michail Katkoff, thank you for having Mission One on the show. We love the entertainment sector and hope this contribution helps companies make better hiring decisions, and individuals get the jobs that they want. Would love to hear feedback (what you agreed with, disagreed with, would like to hear more on etc), feel free to comment or DM me. #games #executive #hiring #entertainment #growth #csuite #podcasts

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"As we grew the game industry a hundredfold, 75% of the time investors could prove the game biz would always fail." — Bing Gordon, xCEO of EA and Partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Mobile gaming has been declared dead more than once. Supposedly, it has matured again and it's time to move on to the next big thing. Yet Roblox revenue is up 31% year over year, and daily active users are up 27% (https://lnkd.in/gDvn5KeK). How can that be? Anyone with kids doesn’t need these Roblox numbers to see that the next generation consumes content differently. When they enter the workforce, they’ll spend on mobile games and apps, valuing this digital interaction more than previous generations and in ways we may not yet understand. I’m aware of today’s challenges—I feel them as a supplier to mobile gaming companies. But I’ve been in this industry long enough to know that real growth often comes from unexpected places. Analysts often do not include these unexpected forces in their predictions. https://lnkd.in/gp8vf9Dq

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Mythical COO Arron Goolsbey brings passion in helping CEO John Linden execute his vision. Arron believes the hero use case for web3 is GAMING and he is already helping Dot Play, supported by the Polkadot community, in executing our vision to empower creators! 👨🏼‍🎤🧑🏼‍🎤👩🏾‍🎤 Arron spent 20 years at the world's very 1st trading card game, Wizards of the Coast, in the late 1990s. Then he landed his dream job at Activision Blizzard leading the Battle.net platform, supporting the biggest games in history 🎮 At Dot Play, we are having a lot of fun! Mythical Games's presence in the ecosystem can't be understated because new opportunities, especially with larger players, are coming to us because of Mythical 👾 Mythical has roughly 2x the transaction and sales volume compared to the #2 player in web3 gaming, as tracked by cryptoslam, with only one dominant game. 📈 That game is NFL Rivals - the official game of the Kansas City Chiefs (hometown of Angela Dalton 🎉) with three of the last five Super Bowl WINS. 2024 drew 123.7 million, the largest TV audience in history. Why did the NFL choose NFL Rivals? #1 factor - the game had to be fun 🏈 First Party games to demonstrate player-driven and creator-driven worlds. A moment of achievement unlock occurs and voila, a higher growth revenue model is born!  Third Party games to allow others to use the platform. Coming soon! Pudgy Penguins 🐧 and Nitro Nation World Tour by CM Games 🏎️ Why Polkadot? It is the entire package - industry leading tech, security, scalability, resilience and democracy - it is future-proofed and behind the scenes enough to allow the team to focus on executing, *not* crypto narratives 📈 Arron says let's be honest, blockchain is plumbing and you don't always want to know how it works. But if it exists, why not use the best plumbing that could potentially handle 100x what others offer? 💪 Players are competing for the coolest stuff to express their identity (yes normal gaming behavior) "Quick trades" allows them to find buyers of the items they don't want and sellers of the items they do want. Players swap (cashless) Tokens aren't used for speculation 🚫 NFL Rivals numbers (this NFL season vs last season): Net revenues +49%; in game sessions +52%; time spent +30% (note: mobile industry revs flat/down) More than 5m players; 800k wallets. PS Mythical owns "Rivals" so theoretically they could work with another game/league 🤯 Mythical's gift to the industry 🎁 Over a year ago, after a lot of work to reach an outcome, Apple and Google app stores allowed NFL Rivals. The next compute platform will tap into all ecosystems in a curated fashion. These are the building blocks of the metaverse. We will see gaming as the hero use case because winners will drop the user complexities. GAME ON! 💥  Nicholas Douzinas Keshav Holani Eliza Jappinen Karen Bader Vlad Rannik #future #innovation #videogames #entertainment #web3 #blockchain https://lnkd.in/dF_fjUmH

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My Apple Vision delay rumor take: After Meta's Orion revealed, there is a chance Apple recognized a longer term adjust was needed. It isn't just that there is a delay but I suspect leadership changed alongside AI incorporation alongside pointing toward a different product altogether. That M5 chip might have Apple Intelligence implications. We can see with Meta that there is a shift toward App Store models. If Android XR arrives in 2025 there will be two Android based storefronts fighting for the market. Meta and Google. Vision OS as a platform will remain but the M5 rumored model will possibly have local AI assistive capabilities. Meaning it works regardless of connectivity. In a world where Apple can know that two competitors will battle for market they might watch and build. This is very on brand. I hate that the cheaper model delay rumor has hit, but the overall business strategy unfortunately makes sense to me. Vision Pro is my favorite headset. I love it. But it had major issues... - Way too expensive - Comfort and weight - Interactive gaming oversight This put the Quest market at such a high value proposition in comparison. To Meta's huge credit! And fostering a gaming platform that works well for games has allowed for technological innovation and proven so many concepts. Meta did this very well. For Apple to catch up in gaming, it would take at least a year or two giving funds to devs to port because they would need to focus their IP for hand tracking use on a platform that is very small. This puts us in unrealistic territory. The push to 2027 makes sense if we see them going back toward a puck compute design. My suspicion is Orion hype's impact on financial industry was noted. We are seeing down wind shifts of these tactical adjustments. For developers, this means being realistic. Apple Vision Pro is amazing tech but look toward Meta XR and perhaps the incoming Android XR likely coming in 2025. Familiarity in all XR platforms is key. 🫡

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Mere days after I wrote about how "prediction and betting markets incentivize corruption, cheating and fraud. As such they are inherently parasitical" and how the industry fails to recognize the substantial, associated badwill risks, we get this:

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"Kenn's the guy you bring in to un#%$& the craziest $%#&." This was the referral message that got me my interview at Crunchyroll back in 2015. It wasn't just a referral - it was a championing of me that I'll never forget (thanks, Jeff Pineda - I still owe you for that). We spent a lot of time today in the Game Industry Coffee Chat discussing the value of referrals. It's a common subject as we push the idea that it's by far the most effective way to get into the game industry, with vets sharing story after story of how we got in based on who we knew (and who they knew). Whenever I see stories of folks who sent out some X-hundred resumes over the course of a few months without any response, I find myself wondering what else they're doing besides just clicking on application-after-application, uploading the same generic resume. I think of my own job hunt in 2023 and look at the spreadsheet I used to track those applications and realize that my experience was seeing more than 30% callback rates. The difference of course isn't that I have a super amazing resume format or that I just have experience that's THAT much better - some of the folks having the most trouble are in many ways even more experienced than I am, having worked on bigger games or more titles. No, the difference to me looking through this spreadsheet from back then is obvious to me - I had internal direct referrals for me on more than 80% of the jobs I applied to back then. In fact, the actual role I ended up landing here at Daybreak wasn't even one I applied for - it was a direct ask to the recruiter from the EP on the team at the time (hi James!). Years earlier, James and I had spoken about potentially having me come to work with him at Microsoft and while that didn't end up materializing, we'd maintained our connection since. In fact, even while the market was melting down and I was dealing with personal tragedies in my life at that time, once you accounted for the time I took out due to those issues, I realized that my experience in the job hunt wasn't actually all THAT different from other years. More competitive, slightly longer search - but that could have just as easily been accounted for due to the level of position I was looking for compared against earlier years. It's referrals that made the difference for me. But not all referrals are the same. Knowing someone who is willing to go above for you is FAR better than just someone willing to pass your name along or give you a referring link. Find your champions. Be a champion for others. #GameIndustry #Referrals #WorkSmarterNotHarder #TodayYouTomorrowMe

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If you’re a founder building at the intersection of Games & AI, or just interested in what’s happening at the bleeding edge of the future in Silicon Valley, the new episode of /all chat is worth a listen.👇 Link in comments below. Hot takes from Patron portfolio founders Rick Ling of Rascal Games and Nico Christie of Altera with my partners Brian Cho and Jason Yeh! #games #ai #founders #seedfunding #startups

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Live service games and solo experiences are not mutually exclusive (see, Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero, Honkai: Star Rail). MIDiA Research shows 53% of gamers prefer single-player games, and argues despite live-service games' dominance, single-player titles remain popular and provide a safer, more sustainable option for developers in the crowded market. They cite that 74% of gamers aged over 55 choosing to play games solo with players aged between 20 and 24 preferred to play PVP games at 43%. It is true that many studios chasing live-service trends have experienced costly failures, however, studios such as MiHoYo have 3 live-service games running at the time of this writing, and all three support solo play and are doing very well. Anecdotally speaking, many people who love single-player games still have one live-service game they regularly play between other titles. Metrics for time played show live-service games dominate, making up the majority of playtime. For example, platforms like Steam often don't even track huge titles like Genshin Impact, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, or Fortnite, yet live-service games often occupy 8 of the top 10 spots in terms of playtime. Ironically, many players who criticize live-service games end up spending hours on them, like playing Genshin for 18 hours straight. Speaking from a pessimistic/realist point of view: That 47% brings in substantially more revenue than the 53%. If a live-service game hits critical mass, it can earn far more than a single-player retail game. However, the fact that the preference split is nearly 50/50 is surprising and suggests there’s still hope for publishers to create a successful live-service game. Unfortunately, many studios may shut down in pursuit of that one hit. Speaking for myself: I play games solo, mostly due to my preference of playing at my own pace. Being able to drop out of a game at a moment's notice is important, as I have obligations that require my full attention that I may have no control or say over when they occur. Example: ➤ Single player game Kids start screaming, pause game, drop the control, triage scraped knee. Pick up controller, un-pause game. ➤ Multiplayer game: Kids start screaming, drop the control, triage scrapped knee. Get back to game, kicked from match, banned for a week for un-sportsman like conduct because I left the game and the team lost the match. Now the dozen people I had been trying to play have blocked me. Grown-up version of "mom I can't pause an online game!"

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