It’s just HBO. Calm down.

Set design differs a lot from world building.

We’re getting an adaptation of The Last of Us for TV. That is very exciting, of course, because that game is a work of art and its sequel also looks very promising.

What’s less exciting is the persistent and awkward swooning that follows whenever a film or TV show runner calls a game company. The reasoning is as follows: Hollywood wants to connect with young audiences and seeks gaming IP to do so. The games business is looking to expand its cultural relevance by seeing its characters and stories adapted across TV and movie screens.

There’s a long-standing misconception that product-based blockbuster titles and movies are one and the same. They are not. Games are software, for one. Successful franchises like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty offer unique experiences because the teams that work on those titles also develop the underlying programs and code that make them sing. It’s akin to saying filmmakers build their own cameras, which they don’t.

Next, despite the large amounts of capital spent on development and marketing, movies are creatively arguably easier because we don’t have to account for an active, decision-taking consumer human. Set design differs a lot from world building.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the movie business is a celebrity-based industry. The various award shows we find in Hollywood serve to promote its own cultural relevance and to increase what individual creators and talent can charge for a project. Mr DiCaprio is a gifted, hard-working actor, certainly. His name also mitigates capital risk on a movie project. This dynamic is entirely absent from the games industry. Did you really download all 100 gigabytes of Call of Duty: Warzone because you love the work by whoever oversees the game’s soft-body dynamics? Probably not. But that person is arguably just as gifted and hard-working as Leo.

Sure, Kojima is sort of famous, I suppose. But even Kojima clearly populated Death Stranding with folks like Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen to build hype. An important part of the game’s visibility, really, was Kojima’s promise to a string of celebs to give them a role in his wonky epic to expand their portfolio (looking at you, Geoff). But I digress. There’s no celebrity equivalence in gaming, and therefore the economics and underlying risk profile in both industries differ.

For a while now we've agreed that games are bigger than box office sales. Yet whenever Hollywood seeks to borrow IP, the games industry squeals in excitement and gratitude. In fact, the academic study of this relationship has largely ignored games made into movies, and almost exclusively analyses movies made into games. No wonder game makers end up acting so thirsty. But from where I sit, it is quite possibly precisely because the games industry lacks an equally pronounced celebrity culture that it outperforms adjacent industries.

FWIW, I liked the Netflix series of the Witcher. It was definitely several tiers above Xena: Warrior Princess. But let’s be more confident about the absolute brilliance that comes from gaming and try to be less starstruck every time a TV producer calls. Games should emulate Hollywood less and be itself more.

On to this week’s update.

NEWS

Comscore and Twitch partner up on esports, live streaming measurement

Measurement is hard (trust me), and in the current research-mageddon that’s pushed all of the major firms on the backfoot, everyone is keen to establish themselves as a credible leader in digital media and entertainment. Platforms like Twitch need third-party validation to enable advertisers to commit dollars. Despite the general willingness of brands desperate to reach young, impressionable consumers to spend bigly, obtaining internal sign-off still requires partnering with someone that can help fine-tune targeting and establish ROI. I suppose Twitch is playing the field to try and ameliorate last year’s revenue disappointment and stem the talent exodus. My take: viewership data for Twitch and others will have to become public and freely accessible to be believable. Link

Epic and Unity embraced in acquisition arms race

This week Team Sweeney announced they acquired a facial animation tech firm, Cubic Motion. That makes it the seventh acquisition since the start of last year (3Lateral, Agog Labs, Houseparty, Psyonix, Quixel, and Twinmotion) and puts it on par with Unity’s spending spree, which most recently centered on the purchase of Artomatix. Both are stockpiling an arsenal of capabilities to lock each other out and distinguish themselves for different customer verticals. Unity continues to pursue its IPO, and Epic is currently raising another round of financing: unlike the $1.2bn it raised at the height of the Fortnite craze, which was largely a liquidity event, the current round is seemingly intended to build its warchest. Link

Take-Two signs multi-title deal with NFL

With the expiration date of the deal between the NFL and Electronic Arts now within reach (2022), the 2004 “Sports Video Game Wars” (thanks Dave!) are about to resurface. Back then EA basically boxed everyone out by dropping a stack and buying the exclusive rights to NFL football. That forced other contenders to work on other, perhaps less valuable sports franchises.

The new TTWO/NFL deal is not meant to compete directly with the NFL Madden franchise but rather to take football game play mechanics and cast them in novel environments (e.g., a 3v3 school yard matchup).

It’s good news all around. For one, Big Sports is perhaps finally starting to see the value of the gamer audience and is allowing creative firms to come up with some fresh ideas. You have to wonder, for example why traditional sports like American football and baseball reach similarly sized audiences, but Major League Baseball makes three times more money from video games? By my calculations, the NFL is leaving $1.4 billion on the table.

For Take-Two the deal comes at an opportune moment now that the NBA has suspended its season. Historically, the cancellation of real-life sports seasons has had a negative impact on the performance of boxed video game sales. In 2011, for instance, Take-Two acknowledged that the five-month NBA lockout had a negative impact on NBA 2K12 sales. Its success with service-based revenue and the steady growth in value of the NBA 2K franchise should offset the current postponement and encourage both organizations to look for creative ways to offset traditional risk factors. Imagine that, sports imitating games.

Playrix acquires Plexonic

The European landscape is consolidating steadily. With the success of HomeScapes, Dublin-based Playrix continues to expand. Often outside of the regular purview when discussing the games business, Playrix is one of those juggernauts that sneaks up on you. I recall them from the days when they were still just publishing their titles on BigFish. Look at them now. Link

Former Nintendo president joins GameStop board

Given how reliant GameStop has been on Nintendo, first for its success and currently for its survival, the relationship with its former COO of North America is undoubtedly strong. Reggie Fils-Aimé is one of three veteran execs to join the board of the specialty retailer that has been stuck in struggle city. My take: this is not a regular assembly of board members. GameStop is calling in favors to help figure out what parts of the empire it can sell as it continues to sink. Nintendo retail anyone? Link

PLAY/PASS

Pass. The German Olympic Sports committee (DOSB) throwing shade at video games by having Donald Duck trash talk his nephews. Not very Olympian.

Play Good guy Discord doing its part in helping the world cope with COVID-19.