🎮 - Apple's in the hot seat & E3's importance is questioned  August 1st 2020

Epic Games' Sweeney calls out Apple, Google for 'exploitative' platform fees

Buckle up, because this one's a doozy with a lot of interlinking articles in hopes to paint the bigger picture.

This week held a hearing between the United States Congress and some of tech's giants, including Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Normally, this wouldn't be news that I cover in this newsletter, but with these companies' dive into the gaming community, I think it's important to see how they're being interviewed by Congress.

The hearing focused on these tech giants testifying that their business practices aren't being carried out to create monopolies. If Congress finds these companies in the wrong, it could drastically change their business practices and the way they approach gaming.

If you want to read the highlights from the hearing itself, The Verge has a great roundup.

I thought this Gamasutra article was relevant as well. It looks like Apple is not the best platform for games, despite its decently successful foray into gaming with Apple Arcade. Additionally, Apple is under fire for saying that they "treat every developer the same," but gave Amazon a better developer deal, taking only 15% cut of revenue instead of the traditional 30%. Read more about that here.

I feel like a fire is being lit underneath Apple right now. A perfect storm is whipping up to make something happen to this huge company and I honestly don't know how to feel about it. I have multiple Apple products, but I want to see fair and equal treatment for developers, so I'm interested to see how this will all play out.

Image credit: Apple

gamasutra.com  

Game development in a time of upheaval

We've talked a lot about the role of video games during this pandemic. We know how they've helped pass the time that we might normally spend out and about, hanging out with friends or relaxing in public places. But Michael Chu, writer of this article, realizes the ever-growing importance of diversity in games during this time.

The increase in gamers this year is astonishing. With it, there's a large increase in the demographic of those who play. Because of this, the industry needs to do everything it can to make this growing audience feel represented as much as possible in the games they're playing. That means creating more stories around characters that aren't straight white males.

I've heard a lot of people say this, but I'm glad Chu included it in his article: "Diversity is not a checklist." During this time, a lot of companies are trying to put diversity first, but they're treating it as a checklist to lead to better public appeal. Approaching it that way gets us nowhere.

Image credit: Youcef Chenguitti

gamasutra.com  

We don't need E3 anymore

I love opinion articles about the gaming industry, but sometimes it's nice to get a refreshing take that's supported by data. This is one of those refreshing takes that backs up what it's saying through graphs and charts (although you have to click through to another tab to fully read them).

I do agree mostly with what's said here. This summer has shown that the E3 we know and (sometimes) love will probably never be the same as it has in years past. This summer's proliferation of at-home stream announcements has shown the power of this medium and how it even outranks events like E3. However, I do think there's a large factor missing from this argument.

Because a large majority of the world is on lockdown or sheltering at home, their is more time to dedicated towards surprise streams and announcements strung out over a month or two. I don't think this approach would have been nearly as successful if people were still living their normal lives, going out with friends, taking vacations, and things that require planning out in advance. People wouldn't be as interested in a "Summer Game Fest" that streams every other week or so with game announcements because they wouldn't want to take the time out of their schedule to do so.

While this article does touch on the benefit of a concentrated week-long event that people know where to watch, like E3, it overlooks the changed and abnormal behavior much of the world is forced to follow right now.

On the other side of the stage, Christopher Dring (Head of Games B2B), argues that he really wants E3 back. He brings up the points I made above which I appreciate, but I also feel like his desire for E3 is heavily driven by someone who misses physically being at E3. While that's not bad, per se, it misses the point that E3 is for everyone. So many people can't make afford to go to E3, so why not replace it with a digital event that everyone can enjoy? I would love to hear your take on this as well.

Once life begins to return to "normal," it will be interesting to see how game announcements will be handled. Will developers push for an in-person event or will they continue with streams? Maybe a mix of both?

Image credit: ESA

gamesindustry.biz