A Knock to Music Mobile Gaming…

Every so often, a game emerges that doesn’t just entertain - it elevates. Beatstar and its sister title Country Star were exactly that for mobile music games. They didn’t feel like disposable rhythm apps with knock-off tracks and clunky interfaces. They felt premium. With sleek UI/UX, real licensed music from major artists, and exclusive song drops, these games sat at the intersection of streaming and gaming - polished, relevant, and culturally connected. That’s why their closure on October 31, 2025 stings. Losing them isn’t just about two games going offline. It’s a setback for the entire rhythm gaming genre, which had finally been pushed forward in a meaningful way. Why They’re Shutting Down The reason traces back to the acquisition of NextBeat - the studio behind the games - by Duolingo. Duolingo hired much of the NextBeat team to focus on music education within its learning platform, but […]

Bryan Cindell September 13

Journal

Thoughts and predictions on Destiny: Rising

Destiny: Rising by NetEase Games is set to globally launch on mobile on August 28th, giving Bungie a fresh opportunity to reignite interest in the franchise. While Destiny and Destiny 2 have been hugely popular, daily active users have started to decline. Bungie’s live service model - constantly rolling out new seasons and content - has kept players engaged, but since Season 25, activity has cooled, making a mobile launch perfectly timed. Looking at the Steam charts, Bungie’s live service model has kept players engaged with regular content updates, generating noticeable peaks in activity. However, baseline concurrent players have gradually declined, and engagement appears to be cooling off since Season 25, making the timing for a mobile launch well-suited to reinvigorate the franchise. Why NetEase? Partnering with NetEase makes strategic sense. In 2018, NetEase invested over $100 million in Bungie, securing a minority stake and a […]

Bryan Cindell August 27

Journal

Old School RuneScape Still Grows After 12 Years of Relaunch

I’m going to love writing this one. I’ve been playing RuneScape since I was 11 years old. I remember being on our family computer downstairs back in 2004 at 2 a.m. when I was supposed to be asleep way before that. I would hear my dad wake up upstairs and walk to the bathroom. That was my cue to haul ass back upstairs, slip into my room, and pretend to be asleep as he inevitably came to check on me. Most of the time I got away with it and could go back to fishing lobsters or chopping a few more trees for a Woodcutting level. Fast forward to today and the game is still not only alive, but continually smashing player records with the most recent run up being extra wild with ~250,000 concurrent players being recorded. Not bad for […]

Bryan Cindell August 24

Bryan Cindell