Level 56: The PS5 Looks Like An Internet Modem
The week we cover the news from the PS5 event and curate lots of Wired (<3) articles
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Growth vs. Grassroots: The Struggle for Expansion & Identity in the Super Smash Bros Community by Alexander Lee Link
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📜 This Week’s Notable News
Playstation 5: Sony held their marquee Playstation 5 reveal event, showing off a first look at the games, hardware design, and “future of console gaming”. If you didn’t get a chance to catch the announcement, here’s a quick round-up:
Console Design: Sony showed off a first look at the PS5 console design and it looks...ripe for the memeing It’s clear they’re moving away from the traditional “black box” model to something more sleek, but there is such a thing as too many rounded edges. But, yes, the memes. Link
Console Options: For the first time ever, Sony will release two editions of the PS5, one with a disk drive, and another designed for a fully digital library. It isn’t a surprising move given console gaming’s continued momentum towards digital sales and add-ons. That being said, for Sony to invest in a digital only console — that will undoubtedly be more attractively priced than the traditional offer —shows just how deep this digital trend goes. It may not be long before games on disc are nothing more than collectors’ items. Link
Game Library: In gaming, content is king. This rings more true than ever when going head to head with MSFT to win a new generation of consumers. Sony certainly didn’t pull punches, combining a mix of anticipated sequels, old IP, and new titles. Most exciting for us is a follow-up to 2018’s Spiderman. It’s worth digging into the full list to see what you missed. Link
What’s Missing: All the above aside, there are still a few key lingering questions about the PS5. Questions around some of the console’s more anticipated sequels (God of War, FF7: Remake II etc.), pricing, release dates, and availability are still on our minds. All that being said, it was about as good of a hype-up as you could ask for in a year without E3. #summergamesfestgalore
💡 Industry Content
Zynga vs. Supercell — A Comparison: A follow-up to last week’s deep dive on Zynga’s acquisition of Peak Games, this insightful analysis compares Zynga’s recent success with the apparent decline of its competitor, Supercell (creators of the Clash franchise).
Where the studios are similar is that they decentralize their decision-making, giving autonomy to their studios, and they focus on creating franchises that’ll last for many years; that is, ‘forever franchises’. Where they differ is that Supercell has been laser focused on product creation and new games whereas Zynga has approached their growth from a mergers & acquisitions and live operations (improvements made to a game post launch) optimization standpoint. Link
GTA V Is Here to Stay: With the recent news around GTA V’s launch alongside the PS5, we’ve been wondering why this game has had such staying power since it launched seven years ago. WE did some research and compiled a bunch of insightful quotes describing why GTA V is one of the most successful console game of all time.
“Games like GTA, Rainbow Six, Fortnite, Destiny, Apex Legends, The Division and Rocket League are almost like platforms in themselves, with dedicated audiences that will move to the console that best suits their game.” Link
“Today, GTA 5 is basically one giant online toybox fueled by mods, making it a perfect encapsulation of the modern gaming landscape.” Link
“Perhaps the defining aspect of GTA Online is that it took the foundation of GTA IV's online mode and turned it into a hang-out game, a way for adult gamers to connect with distant friends and strangers outside of social media chat groups and forum threads. The rise of social gaming is perhaps the most important development of the past 10 years and GTA: Online was at the forefront of it.” Link
Crucible Metrics: Consider this: Amazon shelled out money for a years-long development, bought their own game development engine called Lumberyard, hosted the game through their own proprietary launch, and used Twitch to promote the game. They had every advantage and they flubbed it — very little marketing, poor execution, and below average game with a 4.3 Metacritic rating. Crucible user metrics are abysmally low with only 289 players concurrently having played at its 24 hour peak yesterday. Indeed, “games are hard”. Link
🎮 Fun & Games
Playing a ‘Daughter’s Game’:
As many women will tell you, few people arguably understand women less than their fathers. The paternal gaze ... [sees] the daughter's actions not as a reflection of her own growth and legacy but of his.
Ultimately, the Last of Us II, is a game that might surprise players about the protagonist rather than shed clarity on her, a daughter named Ellie. In as much as Part II is a game that follows the daughter’s choices — giving her the visage of agency — this is a game that is inextricably linked to Part I, which was entirely about the father and his motivations. For that, Part II lives in the shadow of Part I, and the daughter intended as a sole, individual agent, is regrettably informed through her father. An excellent and unique critique of the hit franchise. Link
Racism in a Visual-Free Medium: Despite covering a diverse set of characters and stories, diversity in game voice acting is a problem. In theory, you’d assume a medium like games — centered on digitally designed characters — would ignore the implicit bias and systematic racism that plagues employment in the US and elsewhere, but the reality is that it often “others” non-white ethnicities. How can game developers mitigate this problem for their audiences and their hiring? Link
Fortnite Strikes Again: This week held yet another groundbreaking event for Epic Game’s Fortnite. While not on the same scale as the Travis Scott concert from earlier this year, these events are starting to become staples. Epic had to cap the event at 12M players due to technical limitations, but millions more were watching via live streaming services. What we love about these events is that they take the fun “passenger”-esque experience of single player games and combine them with the best parts of social multiplayer titles. The size of this event reiterates Fornite’s dominance in user MAUs, innovation, and revenue for Epic. Link
😎 Other Cool Reads
The Return of The King: This feature follows the recent rise of the ‘Chess’ category on Twitch. The story centers around grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, who brought an “elitist game to the masses”. In recent months, Chess has exploded in viewership, up 6x at 12.5M hours in the past 30 days, according to Twitch metrics. How did Nakamura do it? Through “memes galore” (the official Twitch language), engaging influencers, and lowering the barrier to entry to a complex game with his deep and welcoming knowledge. Link
Gaming Music > Movie Music: This is a great read on why some composers have turned to producing video game music over music for film. While not as lucrative, games seemingly present a more complex technical challenge, requiring nonlinear and diverse scores for a variety of player-driven situations. Given gaming’s immense growth in the recent months, it might not be long before we see the likes of John Williams composing our next console launch title. Link
😍 Our Current Favorites
Fawzi (@fawzitani)
This might be three months too late, but I just came across Nikhil Krishnan’s special edition WoW article. In it, he relates human response during COVID to the player response of a pandemic that swept across WoW’s servers at one point many, many years ago. Link
Max (@maxlowenthal)
I love video games, my family however, does not. There is a single game from my childhood that I somehow roped every single one of my family members into playing or helping me with: Pokemon Snap. The 1999 title has a simple premise which was to drive around and take cool photos of Pokemon to unlock more levels. When I was four years old it was the coolest thing I had ever played. I’ve been waiting for a sequel to this game for nearly 20 years, and this week Nintendo announced one. I can’t tell who’s more excited, me or my family. Link
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