I worked on a game with Infinite in the title once. It was a forced inclusion by execs. The original name I had proposed even focus tested much better. Any creative thing or pursuit that includes words like "infinite" and "forever" or similar words isn't likely to be that. Change is human and inevitable.
Roblox is technically highly profitable. They just spread revenue from robux over 27 months. Also invests a lot back into business. They can limit reinvestment and be $1b up if they want to.
Their developer model payouts is not that great. Devs give up around 50-75% of profits to platform + are paid in virtual currency of which fx they don’t control.
I can see it being disrupted by Epic (or a big Chinese game).
It is difficult to assess as a private company, but Valve appears a notable outlier to your thesis… They are both a dominant platform owner and historic game developer. And their platform is built on an open ecosystem (PC), and they seem to be innovating further with distribution (portable, now new console & VR).
It seems Valve represents what Microsoft should have been in gaming
Good stuff, and it makes sense that pretty much all companies inevitably decline, even the biggest of companies. Just ask General Electric or (even further back) the Dutch East India Company.
One thing that caught my eye is that you note that Roblox is unprofitable. This is true at face value (operating income is negative), but because Roblox has very high R&D costs which are part of the operating expenses, I feel like this is not the full story. If you capitalize R&D (more or less this is to simply treat R&D as a capital expense) you will probably find that Roblox is profitable, which makes more sense to me because Roblox is such a runaway success.
I worked on a game with Infinite in the title once. It was a forced inclusion by execs. The original name I had proposed even focus tested much better. Any creative thing or pursuit that includes words like "infinite" and "forever" or similar words isn't likely to be that. Change is human and inevitable.
Infinite money machine goes brrrr
Exactly... obsession with a growth narrative is exhausting. And "brrrr" means frozen eventually.
I dunno. BioShock Infinite did it...
But I see the point (and you're likely right)
And where is the BioShock franchise after BioShock Infinite?
Development hell
Roblox is technically highly profitable. They just spread revenue from robux over 27 months. Also invests a lot back into business. They can limit reinvestment and be $1b up if they want to.
Their developer model payouts is not that great. Devs give up around 50-75% of profits to platform + are paid in virtual currency of which fx they don’t control.
I can see it being disrupted by Epic (or a big Chinese game).
“The [AI] backlash says less about the creatives and more about an industry culture that has decided purity matters more than pragmatism.”
💯👏🏼✔️
It is difficult to assess as a private company, but Valve appears a notable outlier to your thesis… They are both a dominant platform owner and historic game developer. And their platform is built on an open ecosystem (PC), and they seem to be innovating further with distribution (portable, now new console & VR).
It seems Valve represents what Microsoft should have been in gaming
I wonder if the layoffs are really part of a potential sale to Disney. It could make sense, from a corporate perspective
Good stuff, and it makes sense that pretty much all companies inevitably decline, even the biggest of companies. Just ask General Electric or (even further back) the Dutch East India Company.
One thing that caught my eye is that you note that Roblox is unprofitable. This is true at face value (operating income is negative), but because Roblox has very high R&D costs which are part of the operating expenses, I feel like this is not the full story. If you capitalize R&D (more or less this is to simply treat R&D as a capital expense) you will probably find that Roblox is profitable, which makes more sense to me because Roblox is such a runaway success.
Platform holder angle and the story of Epic as epitomizing broader American trends — very smart!