📡 1. Uma Musume > $400M in 5 Months, 2. Activision Harassment Lawsuit, 3. What's the Hype?

July 22, 2021

Happy Games Radar Thursday,

Here is an I. game alert, II. word on the street, and III. question to consider this week…

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I. Game Alert

Game pitch:

  • “OK, so we’re gonna get a bunch of young pretty girls and physically combine them with horses and then race them. It’ll be like a girl/horse character gacha RPG focused on horse derby race gameplay.”

How many of you out there would have green-lit this pitch?

Sounds crazy right? Well, not only was the game made but it’s been a surprise commercial success since its launch in February earlier this year. According to Sensor Tower, the game has generated over $400M in net revenue all from Japan.

Check out the gameplay below:

Interview with Junde Yu, VP of Sales & GM Games at App Annie

To be honest, I have no idea what is going on in this game or what it’s about.

To find out more, I spoke to Junde Yu from App Annie to get his insights on the game: What is it? Why is it so successful? What is its potential for Western markets? And, what can Western developers learn from this game?

II. Word on the Street

WTF!!! Can this even be real?

*If it is*, we definitely need more self-examination of what is going on in the games industry especially if this can happen at a major public company like Activision Blizzard.

Bloomberg reported some really unbelievable behavior at the company including a lawsuit filed by the State of California here:

A couple of widely shared Twitter threads:

How to Transform Company Culture

The more optimistic view is that change can happen. Take for example the case of Riot Games after hiring Angela Roseboro as Chief Diversity Officer.

It’s worth reading through her post Riot Games One Year Later which speaks to the specific initiatives undertaken to effect change at the company.

My old Deconstructor of Fun podcast host Miska Katkoff and I had the great privilege of interviewing her back in October of 2019 on How to Transform Company Culture:

Check it out as Angela is amazing and has really great, practical advice. Even further, multiple “word on the street” feedback seems to clearly indicate that real change has happened at Riot… so let’s hope for a similar change (if true) at Activision Blizzard.

III. Question For You

What’s the greatest hype in gaming today?

Speaking to other folks in the gaming industry, there seem to be 3 topics people have very divergent points of view on:

  1. Crypto Games: Long-term Sustainability of NFTs and EarnToPlay in Games

  2. IP Licensing: The mad rush to IP licensing for games especially post-IDFA deprecation

  3. X-Platform: Big trend to cross-platform game development since Genshin Impact.

What do you think? Let me know below!

Is it the “Real Deal” or “Hype City”?

#1. Crypto Games

  • Will NFTs and EarnToPlay Become Major Economic Models for Games In The Future?

1. Real Deal vote

2. Hype City vote

See results

#2. IP Licensing

  • Will we see a significant and sustained increase in IP licensing for games?

1. Real Deal vote

2. Hype City vote

See results

#3. X-Platform

  • Will the huge wave towards cross-platform game development be sustained or will it be more one-off cases like Fortnite and Genshin Impact?

1. Real Deal vote

2. Hype City vote

See results

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