Phillip Black

Coincidence? I think not. Supercell is going to the movies, baby. Sonic, Mario, and now Minecraft will have every game business development exec busin’ around Los Angeles for months. World of Warcraft, Borderlands, and Monster Hunter "interpretations" will be swept under the rug. And we already know Arcane’s famed ability to blow NINE figures. While Hollywood experiences cyclical trends, this has earned the “transmedia” sub-brand, a sort of VC baptism of the strategy. Yet none of these franchises seem to use it. None of them were timed with content updates—releases across a franchise should be synchronized to amplify the transmedia effects. The same is true for breakout hit 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘵, which had no wide release. Ultimately, the Supercell platform is vast (360M MAU, or about the size of the United States), and they’ve experimented with short-form animation on YouTube. With all […]

𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗶-𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗗𝗲𝗯𝗮𝘁𝗲 Another wave of AI advances, another chorus of artists crying foul. Each wave has been unoccupied by serious argumentation; pro-Copyrightists need to advance something beyond an assumed conclusion if they want to win minds, not just hearts. Copyrightists routinely declare AI-generated art and "training" as copyright infringement and insist artists are owed royalties. This assumption is anything but obvious. If every artist owes royalties to those who came before, should every "pop" artist who creates in the style of Eduardo Paolozzi owe his estate royalties? Film director Tarantino routinely mirrors Spaghetti-western shots; his royalty bill must be absurd. Art and science have always evolved by imitation and influence; the very idea of copyright is a recent invention. No one knows this better than games!The universal outcry against WB Games' patenting […]

𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗳𝗹𝗶𝘅 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗸-𝗼𝗳-𝗔𝗹𝗹-𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀 Netflix Games finally has a coherent strategy—hallelujah! Yet, despite this clarity, it's missing the most obvious acquisition opportunity since Sony scooped up Insomniac Games: Jackbox Games. Netflix pushes games to subscribers via a row within its mobile app, directing users to separate App Store pages for download. The strategy was flawed from the start, as 70%+ of Netflix consumption happens on TVs. The Games group desperately sought awareness, resorting to 𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑏𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠 reading: "Wait, Netflix has Games?" A modest improvement, but still failing to meet subscribers where they are—TV.While Netflix had an AAA FPS studio, it was dubious that it could ever solve distribution or input challenges. Netflix's sprawling device ecosystem and lack of a dedicated controller raised doubts from day 1—unless another ill-fated game streaming service was planned (RIP OnLive, Stadia, GameFly, and xCloud).Enter […]

𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗚𝗗𝗖 𝟭. 𝗪𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚This revelation insight from former Machine Zone CEO Gabe Leydon spun my head throughout the conference. He's right: our passion isn't dead, but it's undoubtedly been crowded out. Mobile obsesses over acquisition, while HD fixates on fundraising. New platform dreams—web3, AR/VR, HTML5, UGC—have largely fizzled. Yet these platforms persist, surviving but not thriving. Mock AR/VR as the "Dippin' Dots of Games" if you like, but at least those developers burn with genuine passion.The rest of the industry must reignite the will to survive—the kind we see from firms like Supercell, Lessmore, and Hypehype.𝟮. 𝗔𝗜 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆-𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲; 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄Michail Katkoff made an excellent observation about the absence of the "world-changing" bravado heard from SF founders intoxicated by Paul Graham essays. Instead, the talks were pragmatic—topics like " 'Angry Birds' and AI […]