Point Me at the Sky (Credit: Pink Floyd), Epic Stores Within Stores, & NFT.NYC + the Mythical Marketplace
Bits of Signum | April 24, 2021
Bilibili - this is cool! Drones Light Up Shanghai’s Sky With a QR Code - Scanning the code will take you to a video game’s website, launched in China last year.
“How many game stores should the Epic Games Store store now that the Epic Games Store stores stores?” -Tim Sweeney
We learned this week that Epic Games Store plans to add Discord to its app store offering and has added four other non-game apps after adding Spotify to the Store in December. Additions - indie game store Itch.io, open-source browser Brave, streaming radio app iHeartRadio, 3D model tool KenShape, and open-source painting app Krita.
After the initial tweet above from Tim Sweeney that made me smile, his responses to the responses explained the entire raison d’etre of the Epic business model. He was asked when Steam (a competitor) would be available on the Epic Games Store, and Tim may have surprised a few in responding that he would welcome Steam, referencing the “free flywheel” impact we have discussed in the past. “Every time a user visits the Epic Games Store to get something free, we have a chance at selling them paid games and earning a profit.”
And then he tapped into the company ethos and vision which the world will hear more about on May 3rd when Tim attends the Epic’s antitrust with Apple, and we will be allowed to listen to the audio feed! “Hopefully we’ll eventually have industry-wide adoption of a principle similar to net neutrality but for platforms and distributors: that there isn’t mandatory gatekeeping or taxation, but rather competition on each individual component service. Right now we have the opposite: dominant platforms and distributors lock customers in, and use that to force developers to use their services and to pay exorbitant fees for them. Better if companies have to compete fairly in the market for each individual component and let the best win.” It does make one think when reading reports of Microsoft opening up their app store to be far more accessible to all forms of applications and games - are you feeling the heat Apple?
On the NFT front, there were several important tidbits this week, but first, I'm very excited to be speaking in-person at NFT.NYC on October 20-21, 2021! It is still the best NFT gathering that I have attended since the first event in 2019. Oh, how far we have come, and yet, it is still so early. That event has a lot of meaning for me because I got to hang out all day with Rudy Koch, the Head of Blockchain at Mythical Games. The Blankos Block Party game launch will bring NFTs to a mass market game and in the meantime, check out the Mythical Marketplace with over 60,000 NFTs already sold in the game. The Marketplace will unlock the true potential of NFT based game economies. Also, I remember being nervous to present after the one-and-only @coin_artist. Not surprising, her presentation, which was more like a laser light show, dazzled the crowd. Please check out her art supply work stand at the bottom of this page, complete with the Pac Man ghost lighting that I immediately shopped for on eBay.
The way I would visualize NFT companies currently is to segment them between Technology Arms Providers and Content Flywheels - both are necessary but neither acts independently. On the Technology front, there are still two big challenges that need to be solved - interoperability and rights management. On Content Flywheels, there are so many spinning and ready for take off! As soon as NBA Top Shot became a thing, anyone and everyone with any content of value had to ask themselves the question, “Are NFTs a new revenue stream for us?”
While content flywheels are incredibly important (e.g., Flow blockchain wouldn't likely have taken off without the NBA content), as investors, it's also important to remember, that, like in media investing, that content comes and goes. NBA Top Shot is like any other entertainment content - movies, TV, video games, music - and I think we can all agree that investing in movies is a tough business. I prefer to invest in the technology arms providers - see AsyncArt, and then buy the NFT art or moments for fun! The instructive NBA Top Shot purchases chart posted below by @jfresshhh_ was instructive. People’s tastes are fickle and content is fun, until it isn’t.
Finally, we are looking forward to new NFT markets beyond art and “moments” like a clip of Lebron James dunking a basketball. We hosted an excellent call this week with Hugo McDonaugh and Andrew Rosener, the world’s largest domain name broker. Another example is IBM who reported this week that they are turning patents into NFTs, to make them easier to buy, sell and trade. I’m wondering if that got the attention of the Big Tech IP Treasure Chest departments far and wide?
Thanks and have a great weekend!
Angie
Video Games
Microsoft reportedly working on new Windows store that is open to all apps and games – Microsoft is said to be working on a major redesign of the Windows app store. According to Windows Central, Microsoft intends to release an improved store later this year that will be far more accessible to all forms of applications and games. See Epic’s strategy above.
Pragma raises $12 million for backend-as-a-service for game studios – Pragma plans to build a backend service for the ever-evolving video games. The gaming industry has moved from boxed products to dynamic online services. Developers must constantly update their game’s features and run tournaments to keep fans coming back. It will handle things like logging in, password resets, a social graph, player data, e-commerce, and leaderboards. Those are things that game developers do not have to focus on but are crucial to making money.
NFTs / Digital Assets / Crypto
Venmo is adding support for users to buy, store, and sell cryptocurrency – Venmo is releasing a feature that will allow users the option to store, buy, and sell popular cryptocurrencies, PayPal announced on Tuesday. Similar to PayPal, Venmo will support four different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
Gaming Giant Ubisoft Joins Tezos Ecosystem as Corporate Validator – As a corporate validator, the video game behemoth can assist the Tezos blockchain in “baking” new blocks. By becoming a validator—or “baker” in Tezos’s terminology—the company will help the ecosystem by validating transactions and producing new blocks. As part of the Tezos ecosystem, Ubisoft plans to continue its experiments with the liquid proof-of-stake technology and research how it could affect “the future of gaming.”
How Playable Worlds is building a cloud-native sandbox MMO – Playable Worlds, an online game company is making a “cloud-native” massively multiplayer online game. It will be a free-to-play sandbox MMO with a player-controlled economy. It will be a world in which players will be able to leave their mark on the world, with simulation driving the environment..
How Nike’s Likely NFT Move Could Shake Up the Sneaker Resale Market - There’s a lot of speculation about when Nike will enter the market — a development that could rock the resale market. “If they don’t already have something cooking, I would be surprised,” said James Platt, a.k.a. “The Sneaker Savant” a longtime collector and the creator of a line of sneaker-inspired trading cards.
Esports
InSTREAMLY Secures $1.32M Seed Round to Expand into New Markets – Warsaw-based live-streaming sponsorship platform start-up inSTREAMLY announced that it has secured a €1.1M EUR ($1.32M USD) seed financing round led by British early-stage venture capital firm Supernode Global to expand into new markets.
Nevada Gaming Bill Could Impact Esports Betting – “Betting operators should keep a close eye on Senator Kieckhefer’s proposals. A governing body is a huge step towards legitimizing esports events in the public eye, meaning general awareness for esports should increase as a result,” said Kenneth Williams. If passed, the state legislature would create a sanctioning body to regulate Esports games and teams that compete against each other for money and prizes.
Gaming Peripheral Market To Grow By $3.36B – According to reports, the gaming peripheral market will grow by $3.36 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 6.88%. a peripheral is a device used to enter information and instructions into a computer for storage or processing purposes. These kinds of devices can be gaming keyboards, a specialized gaming mouse, backlit LED lights, etc. E-sports' growing popularity would provide enormous growth opportunities.
New Research Shows Increase In Older Gamers– The Global Web Index (GWI) reported an increase of 32% in the number of older gamers across the globe. A study also showed the number of mobile gamers over the age of 45 increased by 17% year-over-year in 2020. “Gamers are often portrayed in the media in a certain way, but as with many stereotypes, they aren’t necessarily who you think they are,” David Melia, the Vice President of Sports and Gaming at GWI commented. The author of the article has an interesting take which states that the companies who tap this underserved and growing demographic (with considerable disposable income) will achieve good results!
Other Emerging Tech Disruption
Apple announces $29 AirTag, a new Tile-like item tracker – Apple is officially launching a Tile-like item tracker that will work with the company’s software and services. Dubbed AirTag, the small circular tag will allow you to track items within Apple’s “Find My” app on iOS. The AirTag itself is a small puck-like device that includes a built-in speaker, accelerometer, Bluetooth LE, and a user-replaceable battery. Apple says the tracker should last for a year of battery life, and you can use an NFC tap to activate a lost mode.
Radeon update adds AMD Link remote-gaming app to PC – “Providing powerful hardware is only half of the equation to deliver the extraordinary, world-class triple-A esports and multiplayer experiences gamers have come to expect,” AMD gaming solutions chief Frank Azor said. AMD is launching a big update for its Radeon Adrenaline software suite that improves remote gaming and some accessibility settings. This is the software that comes with Radeon video cards, and it enables gamers to get the most out of their hardware. This AMD Link 4.0 will enable you to stream games from one PC to another, whereas it previously only enabled streaming from PC games to mobile devices.
Other Emerging Tech Fund Raising & Acquisitions
Clubhouse closes new round of funding that would value app at $4 billion –Buzzy “social audio” app Clubhouse has raised a Series C funding round, reportedly valuing the company at $4 billion led by Andrew Chen of Andreessen Horowitz. This round means Clubhouse has tripled the valuation it attained in January when Andreessen Horowitz led its Series B funding round. The funding comes as Twitter, Spotify, Facebook, Telegram, Discord and LinkedIn are all prepping similar features to Clubhouse’s live audio streaming rooms.