Don't believe everything you see online
But one shitty jacket from China is not enough evidence.
One of my running theories has been that as life increasingly becomes digital, a growing number of people will start to rebel against and reject it. Not in a luddite-type way, of course. But in the same way that people appreciate food over eating a menu.
Personally I’ve been a loyal offline reader. I subscribe to two newspapers and a weekly magazine for two reasons: first, despite the speed and abundance of ‘newsy’ information on the web, there really is no substitute for the work that actual career journalists put in. I say this not to kiss ass but because over the last decade I’ve been working with a string of writers, editors, reviewers, freelancers, and other media people.
Given how precariously expensive it is to run a print publication, the level of quality in writing is leagues above the average online publication. Most of the sites out there are either desperate for content and, often, unprofitable. (To offload the work they hire a lot of freelancers, who, not surprisingly, regularly hit me up for a job as well.) Traditional news organizations have suffered a great deal which has, for better or worse, allowed them to rethink their business models and clear their throats. And it’s working.
Second, offline news media offers a ritual that centers on a pause in the frantic hurry-up-and-go pace of the everyday. I realize how old I sound. But putting the phone away for 20 minutes and going through my reading routine is meditative. Much like micro-brewing and artisanal coffee, I expect technology at large to undergo a much-needed transformation and stop occupying the center of our daily lives.
On a more abstract level there is a palpable and growing anger against Big Tech. Just weeks after Amazon’s HQ2 idea was booted by New York, it was open season on Facebook at this year’s SxSW.
I believe this to be part of a growing technological disillusionment. In addition to the broader data issues, the general experience has fallen. Against better judgement, I ordered a $100 jacket recently, which took more than a month to arrive and when it did it was not at all what I expected. It was the wrong size, looked different in daylight than it had under meticulous photoshop on Instagram, and clearly only cost about $0.50 to produce.
Certainly, one shitty jacket from China is not enough evidence. But there clearly is a widening gap between the promise of the internet and online technologies, and what they actually deliver. Other examples include:
Verizon’s Unlimited data plans.
Facebook privacy rules.
Fyre Festival.
Uber’s semantics.
Food delivery apps.
Whatever HBO will look like after AT&T’s bean counters are done with it.
Like they have with big tobacco, people will eventually wake up and encourage each other to quit. Or better, never start.
On to this week’s update.
NEWS
Nvidia acquires Mellanox to bolster cloud computing
Modern problems require modern solutions. After taking a massive hit on the whole bitcoin thing, the chipmaker agreed to pay $6.9bn ($125 a share) for Mellanox Technologies, a US/Israel-based networking firm. It marks a deviation from Nvidia’s existing strategy which has centered on inserting its chips into processing-heavy computing.
No doubt, Nvidia has its eye on the horizon as a bunch of big firms are making a play around cloud gaming, both as a way to keep up with the investments that Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are making, and to stay ahead of smaller startups that are gaining ground. From the looks of it, the acquisition is a step toward vertical integration that will bolster its GeForce Now cloud gaming service. Link
Nintendo urges its mobile partners to ease on monetization
Its focus on quality is how we’ve come to know and love the Japanese giant. And despite a bunch of protest following Nintendo’s painfully slow entry into mobile gaming, it has remained true to the same values it held back in 1984 when it single-handedly revived the collapsed games industry: quality and properly managing consumer expectations. Current partners like CyberAgent (Dragalia) and DeNA (Super Mario Run, Animal Crossing) admit that if it weren’t for Nintendo asking, they’d extract more money from players.
More broadly, it seems that Nintendo is taking the Disney approach, at least for mobile, and instead of developing mobile games itself imposes strict rules on its licensees. Obviously mobile gaming development is not in Nintendo’s wheelhouse. So let others do it makes more sense. But those firms, like Line Corp. which is working on a Mario-based puzzle game for its messenger app, are forced to stick to Nintendo’s rules. Link
Google's new joystick looks edgy, ugly
It is easily among the least appealing controllers and, unfavorably, resembles the Ouya controller. But it also brings promise of cloud gaming coming to us mortals soon. Google has been spending a lot of money on getting publishers on board with its upcoming service. I'm guessing that time-to-market is more important than sleek design considering the patent the great Googs has opted to use.
Facebook pivots to “privacy-focused messaging”; wins no one’s trust
Following the period that started with the news that Cambridge Analytica was having a jolly time scraping everyone’s data, it has been open season on Facebook. And for good measure. Despite a string of feinted attempts, Facebook’s PR situation has only gotten worse and it is now official open season on Big Tech with a growing number of people asking for regulation. Link
Springtime at Valve means layoffs
In the past week two separate notifications came down the pipe from almighty Valve. First it laid off 13 people that had been working on its VR offering. According to a company statement the layoffs don’t mean that Valve is ditching virtual reality. Second, the layoffs involved several folks that had been working on its card game Artifact. I’ve written previously about why that game wasn’t doing so hot, and now we’re seeing the inevitable correction. Notable mention is the contract termination of Richard Garfield, you know, the guy who created Magic: the Gathering.
You can’t help but wonder what it means when one of the most innovative and avant-grade game companies out there starts to make changes to its development teams, especially around something like VR. The segment is doing fine overall, clocking $3.6bn in revenue last year, but is also moving towards enterprise applications. In the absence of any immediate opportunity to build consumer-facing VR games, Valve may have scaled down its efforts accordingly, or at the very least refocused it since it still has a job opening available. In the same breath it has also rid itself of what I can only imagine to be expensive contractors, and did Spring cleaning all in one swoop.
RIGHT QUICK TIDBITS
Vivendi has sold its remaining shares (5.9%) in video games company Ubisoft for €429MM.
Here’s a worthwhile interview with ATVI’s CEO Bobby Kotick.