Level 47: TSM goes IRL
A quick look into TSM's new $50M facility, some updates in the world of Fortnite, and how we're (still) keeping busy in this strange times
š This Weekās Most Important News
TSMās New Facility: Taking a page from the 100 Thievesā reveal video, TSM released a show and tell of the newest addition to their family: a $50 million esports center. TSM Myth and TSM Leena walk us through the facility while telling us about the organizationās vision, hard work and influence in the esports industry. Link
To the standard consumer,Ā $50M is quite the price tag for a building. But there a couple important points to consider:
Itās all about fostering community and brand awareness. The ROI of having a fan (or rando) come in to play games with pros, stumble into community event, posting more about TSM on Twitter, or buying a t-shirt IRL is invaluable.
Esports teams are consolidating and becoming more āprofessionalā. Training facilities, film rooms, state-of-the-art equipment are all necessary parts to success. This is attractive to prospective signees of TSM. Itās just as much a team as it is a brand.
TSM has its historical roots in esports. Unlike brands such as 100T, which double as lifestyle companies, TSM bleeds esports. They need a big space to house all their players and train. Content is secondary.
š” Industry Content
FaZe Up: FaZe Clan raised a new round of funding recently. Their stats are staggering. Itās just another data point in the world of gaming organizations - sometimes you can focus on content (FaZe), sometimes you can focus on esports (TSM), and sometimes you can do both (100 Thieves). There isnāt one solution. Link
The Current State of Fortnite: There has been a lot of recent chatter about Forniteās ādeclineā. Perhaps itās due to the build battles that just drag on, or the gameās skill based matchmaking. Itās not fun to play (or watch) a 2-3 minute build battle that just ends up in someone falling to their death. Competitions and tournaments are on the decline too: Epic hasnāt put the same investment into the gameās esports scene since the world championship last year. Itās leaving people wondering - whatās left to do?
Theyāve literally pushed digital boundaries to their limits: signing massive partnerships, creating a sudo-social network akin to the metaverse theory of games, and churning out updates to entertain players. People return to the game for bigger in-game events, but with the changing landscape & competition (see CoD Warzone, FF7 Remake, Animal Crossing, Doom Eternal, Valorant), Fortnite is getting some deserved competition.Ā
Ultimately, itās a complex balance - how can Fortnite distance itself away from the battle royale genre to become an integrated social platform, while still catering to its core audience? Consistent viewership and playership is on the decline, but theyāre still powering their way forward. Here are just a few of the recent innovations:
The newly launched Quibi had a viewing party at Risky Reels, a drive-in theater in Fortnite. LinkĀ
A Deadpool and Fortnite collaboration is happening right now. Link
A community trivia challenge about Fortnite is being hosted by (Epic Games owned) Houseparty. Link
Nintendo Ad Spend: Nintendo always has notorious amounts of TV ad spend relative to the larger gaming industry. True to their word, they spent over $14 million in March, which is $3 million more than February (all in the US alone). Staying at home is affecting the industry from all angles. By comparison, no other company spent over $1 million, in part due to 2020 being a transition period of Xbox and Playstation. Link
Amazon + Gaming: An interesting Op-Ed on Amazonās strategy to enter games. It posits that theyāll follow Epic Games into a storefront/stream approach rather than Stadiaās Stream/Cloud experiment. Link
š® Fun & Games
Calm in a Storm: In a time of great chaos, people are turning to games to find peace, take their minds off of the news, and de-stress; believe it or not, Animal Crossing: New Horizons isnāt the only game that accomplishes this for people! What games are your meditation? Link
Ray-tracing in Minecraft: Minecraft plans to release a beta with ray tracing enabled maps. Essentially ray tracing is the computer graphics way of showing how light interacts with virtual objects. It makes the whole game feel more real. YouTube and Reddit posts of Minecraft will be breathtaking. Link
Environmentalism in Final Fantasy: Super Jump Magazine published a piece on a playerās analysis of certain tropes, themes and scenes having to do with environmentalism in the new Final Fantasy Remake. When the big bad guy is literally a monopolistic power company, the parallels are apparent. The author paints an interesting web - connecting energy, capitalism, and suffering into one historic JRPG title.Ā Link
AoVās potential in the West: Arena of Valor (shameless plug, weāre playing a lot of this game right now) is the most popular esport title in the world, and itās particularly well-adopted in South-East Asiaās Thailand and Vietnam. Itās accessible, simple, has a robust on-boarding process, and surprisingly, boasts a large female player base. Weāll see more movement to acquire users in other areas of the world. Link
š Other Cool Stuff
Pokemon in Animal Crossing?: The play/create/share flywheel has its latest entrant in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Aside from in-game Tinder dates, our favorite has been that a player created parts of the Johto region and explores it wearing a Cyndaquil outfit. We love this kind of fanaticism. Link
A Profound Waste of Time Issue II: If you like gaming journalism as much as we do, A Profound Waste of Time just opened up pre-orders for their second edition. We canāt wait to dive into their new age journalism and interviews with industry leaders. Link
Give Yourself Some Credit: With the launch of Final Fantasy 7: Remake last week, tons of streamers have been making content around the long awaited JPRG. One streamer is actually a voice actor for one of the protagonists, Aerith. Check out the moment she first heard her voice in the game, it was super touching. Link
š Our Current Favorites
LowCo: I love this channel for āJust Chattingā and watching Platformer games
Swimstrim: I have this channel open all day in the background to fuel my recent obsession with Legends of Runeterra. I like this stream because of how Swim takes the time to converse with his audience, explaining his thoughts and tactic
FF7 Remake: This game came out on Friday and Iāve put almost 30 hours in. Itās like a playable movie
Valorant: Iāve been watching as much Valorant as possible. Every aspect - the launch, the gameplay, the mechanics - seems interesting and unique
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