3047

FT reporting that Tencent has a “soft target” of selling RMB 100bn of its equity stakes this year.

To be upfront, none of the candidates named in the article are gaming companies.

3048

this question isn’t about -making- games, but it seems to fit here better than anywhere else: What is the business model of resellers like Green Man games? Why do game distributors give them a discount? To price discriminate between those who are willing to use reseller snd those who aren’t? Or do they serve some other purpose?

3049

Game distributors do NOT give them discount. GMG can offer discount by lessening their own cut (in exchange for attracting customers). And they can afford to lessen their own cut because they do not actually do any of the game distribution. Valve pays for all of that.

3050

Ah, thanks for explaining. Would it be illegal for Steam to insist on being the sole retail outlet?

3051

I don’t see why it would be illegal, but that’s never been their business model. They want Steam on as many computers as possible.

3052

As charmtrap says…Valve’s MO has been, for over a decade now, to let developers generate steam keys for free and sell them wherever as long as they don’t disadvantage steam store customers too much. They have no interest in being the only seller.

3053

Full headline gets cutoff:

Tencent’s latest deal will help Ubisoft fend off takeover bids from larger corporations—like Tencent

3054

Posted in the Beast Breaker and Job Hunting threads, but since the focus in this thread was on the unionization effort, I wanted to post this in the relevant thread.

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3055

Posted this in the Halo thread, but it also belongs here

3056
3057

That does seem like great advice.

3058

I mean, you could say the same for any artist

3059

Interesting how rarely the game devs who counsel against trying to make games for a living actually quit trying to make games for a living themselves… They’ll always say something like, “It’s too late for me!”

More people than ever are making a living building video games today. There are more sources of funding for games than ever before. And, yes, it also remains super challenging to succeed. Maybe it’s harder than it’s ever been, maybe it’s the same.

And, anyway, the question didn’t ask “What’s your top tip to folks for earning a living from making games?” That’s a different question. Making them as a hobby is obviously within the parameters of the question.

Given that, here’s better advice:

3060

People are always saying ‘don’t do this’ about the most interesting things in life one can do.

3061

I agree. There are other careers that are likely to pay more than gaming, but pay is not the end all of work. Liking your job is also important, loving it goes a long way towards personal happiness.

Regarding the “Spotification” of games, I’m not sure it’s going to be a terrible thing, at least mid-term. If instead of Spotification we get a Netflixication (Game Pass is going in this direction, so it’s at least possible, perhaps even likely, this is the short term future) you are going to trade possibility of economic success (that is really mostly limited to executives/leads at each studio at the very best, and perhaps only shareholders) for job stability, which I think is a huge issue in the industry (too much rotation, bad both for studios and developers -at least until remote 100% is super common-).

3062

EA getting into kernel-level anti-cheat. Oh, boy.

3063

I have absolute faith in EA to completely fuck it up.

3064

I am happy that I typically don’t play the types of games that they’d need an anti-cheat system to manage. This sort of thing can be a nightmare.

3065

YouTuber Jason Yevgeniy Gastrow, better known as Videogamedunkey or simply Dunkey, has announced the launch of his indie publishing company, Bigmode.

Gastrow has been a YouTuber for over a decade, with his channel currently garnering seven million subscribers and billions of views. In the video announcing Bigmode, he explained that his experience as a YouTuber is what gives him a good understanding of the type of games players want, with the publishing label aiming to be as developer-friendly as possible.

“I’ve been on YouTube for 11 years now and one of the core themes of my channel has always been to slam dunk soulless cash grabs into the garbage can and lift up and praise the truly inspired works of art in this medium,” Gastrow said. “For years and years, I have always sought out the very best indie games out there and have tried to do them justice, putting millions of eyes on the games that actually deserve attention.”

He added that Bigmode, which he is co-founding with his wife, YouTuber Leah ‘Leahbee’ Gastrow, will be a “harmonious continuation” of his own channel.

3066

Developers are understandably skeptical.