Playing like a girl
Let's have this conversation about how sports elevates gender, politics, and equality.
A game is never just a game.
There was a lot happening at once during last Sunday’s finale between the US and the Netherlands.
On the field we saw a pretty good game. The Dutch held out well against the overwhelming US forces until an unfortunate penalty call in the second half sullied them. It opened the door to their defense long enough for the Americans to score their second and seal the deal.
Remarkable about this women’s finale was the absence of theatrics. Here were athletes actually playing the game instead of taking dives and provoking fouls. Without the constant clamor for free kicks and yellow cards it’s an entirely different viewing experience.
More so, this may be a by-product of the unfortunate circumstance of a glaring pay-gap. Even with sponsors directly supplementing athletes’ wages and bonuses instead of their association, women’s soccer earns a lot less compared to the men’s team. Despite largely similar underlying economics, but the revenue difference lowers the stakes and reduces the upper limits of star power. It invariably makes for a more amicable atmosphere.
(Yes, this morning's ticker tape parade with the US team was just a block from my office. Swoon.)
We also saw the manifestation of one of the most important cultural moments of our time: gender equality. It started with the ongoing tweet storm about whether or not Rapinoe was going to the White House gave this tournament a welcome political dimension. And it ended with a convincing victory and global celebration of an all-female team. Yes, let's indeed have this conversation and see how sports can elevate an international discussion about gender, politics, and equality. Where we’ve long watched men’s soccer and its promotion of the virtues of sportsmanship and fair play (although I think that has a lot to do with the hooliganism of the late 90s and the anxiety about losing advertisers on account of soccer fans getting a bad reputation), the US women’s team represents a bigger, more audacious dream: equality. Imagine that.
Finally, it was an emotional rollercoaster for me personally. Watching the country where I’m from play against the country where I’m at had me conflicted in a bunch of ways. On Friday I will officially become a certified dual citizen. And as a soon-to-be newly-minted Dutch-American I will no longer have to choose.
I pick both.
On to this week’s update.
NEWS
Cuphead characters get a Netflix show
First Tesla acquired the rights to put Cuphead in its cars, and now Netflix is developing a show around the main characters. This indie hit is hot! What’s most interesting to me is the apparent leverage non-endemics like a car company and video streaming services expect to get out of this. That Angry Birds cartoon did pretty well on Netflix at my house. Despite requiring more attention than music and video, games are seemingly becoming a go-to content category to market consumers. I like it. Link
Trade tariffs force hardware firms out of China
Dubbed the ‘Electronics exodus’ the steady flow of announcements by firms like Apple, Microsoft, HP, and Dell open considering calling it quits on China indicates more is going on. Of course, the global grandstanding and pushing of economic buttons has repercussions. But then, it never made all that much sense for foreign hardware manufacturers to spend so much effort on penetrating a remorseless market. This started long before mobile was a thing (think: Xbox in China). Chances are that these rivaling tech builders realized they shared a common goal. And if China doesn’t make up the difference, they have little choice but to leave altogether, all together. Link
Tencent adopts games ratings system
It is simultaneously a sign of the Chinese games market maturing and the degree to which its government has a hold over major incumbents. Tencent and nine of its peers announced it is putting age ratings on its games (18+, 16+, 12+, and 6+) to provide better transparency in the cluttered digital market and save the children from poor eyesight. I’m not a skeptic, believe me. But I do have questions.
It’s easy to overlook that only recently, China was an emerging market for games. Several of its major domestic firms didn’t even exist a decade ago. So obviously there’ll be some growing pains at it carves out its own cultural sovereignty in the global games market. Part of that fresh legacy is a strong hold over its incumbents. What allowed Tencent to grow to its current size was the government’s protectionist policies. Now eager to please the hand that feeds it, I’m curious how that will go in the future, especially given that Tencent’s games revenue dropped y/y from $24 billion to $19 billion. Link
Auto battlers up high
If anyone had any doubt on the influence of live streaming as a tastemaker, then perhaps it’ll come as a surprise to see a new (sub-)category called auto battlers taking over. In their never-ending pursuit of novel content and getting an edge on rival streamers, a host of channels is now playing Teamfight Tactics (Riot Games/Tencent) and Dota Underlords (Valve).
Besides the obvious success of a new innovative take on existing game mechanics, several fin bro’s see this as a competitor to existing genres like MOBA and Battle Royale. Because games now have mainstream appeal, the economics have shifted. Or, as I previously proclaimed, Fortnite is the Cardi B of video games. That makes auto battlers this year’s Rosalía: a light-hearted crossover between different game tropes. Link
Nintendo on cloud gaming, Switch Lite
During a shareholder meeting, Nintendo’s management team was quizzed on cloud gaming. It is clear from the transcript that Miyamoto regards it more as a complementary distribution channel than a disruptive technology: “I have no doubt that there will continue to be games that are fun because they are running locally and not on the cloud.” That makes sense, of course, considering how firmly rooted Nintendo is in hardware, which it underlined further today by announced a portable-only Switch Lite for release in November this year. Rather than putting its head in the cloud (ba dum pum), the Japanese giant is keeping its experiences in consumers’ hands. The upcoming device looks promising and is likely to fill a market gap, especially among dads who’ve lost their Switch to their six-year old sons. Link
Google updates its Stadia FAQ
Following the various announcements, there are plenty of questions for Google on its upcoming cloud gaming service. It subsequently updated its FAQ.
The most important question that lingers is its proposed content strategy. Rumors have it that the Googs is writing substantially larger checks than people had expected. We’re talking closer to three-digit millions. Ok. That could be exciting. But what it truly needs is a big franchise.
If you’ll allow me the speculation: my vote goes to Roblox. What would really make Stadia exciting is a title that facilitates user-generated content, has an active user base, features tons of available videos on YouTube, and offers an obvious cross-platform experience. In a single pen stroke, the acquisition of Roblox would put Stadia on everyone’s map and drive home the point of its upcoming consumer technology.
To get sign-off, however, Google will likely expect some measurable success from its existing efforts first. Sure enough they’ve been writing checks to acquire content and, I expect, a few yet unannounced studios. But to push their spending to the next level, there will need to be some kind of evidence that consumers are ready to adopt cloud gaming in large numbers.
PLAY/PASS
Play. EA Access will be available on PS4 on July 24th. Link
Pass. In some areas Chinese customs is forcing tourists to install an application on their phones that allows monitoring their text messaging and other data. No. Thank you. Link
Play. Rockstar's Social Club site apparently contained references to Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC. Yee haw.