Once a Pirateš“āā ļø, Now The Navyš¢šļø
Some of my thoughts on the massive power of storefront ownersšŖ and a new indie gaming console appearsš¹ļø
Hi there! As the world āminus the USā starts opening back up tech announcements keeping going on, a feeling that the new normal is on its way more or less in time for summer..
If you follow any kind of tech news wether traditional websites, YouTube sources or just on social media, youād know about the fiasco that unfolded this past week between Apple and Basecamp. It all started when Apple turned away an update for Hey, an iOS email APP developed by Basecamp, when the developers decided to shift away from in-app purchases. By this point everyone and their grandmother knows that Apple gets a 30% cut from all in-app purchases, so Basecampās solution of circumventing this system means Apple is distributing Hey for free. No bueno for Apple, Google, or any other companies owning a storefront for that matter.
This, once again, brought up to light the monopolistic, market-controlling power wielded by storefronts and their owners over those who choose to publish their work in their shops. This business model worked just fine when the AppStore was launched in July of 2008 due to the status quo at the moment ābtw, there was no IAP functionality back thenā, but if we know what thing about 2020, itās that itās not like 2008. Technology companies and people writing about tech ālike Iām doing right now thinking of whether I should order pizza or notā like to belittle various state government structures being to slow in changing and adjusting legislation to account for a change in the times. Last week felt like the pot is calling the kettle blackā¦
Just to be clear, Iām not saying the likes of Apple, Google or Valve shouldnāt get a part of the profits, they provide both distribution service and, in Appleās and Googleās cases, the hardware on which this content published by third parties is consumed. Iām saying that everyone expects a monetization model fit for 2020, one that doesnāt make the richest company in the world look like its exploiting others just because thereās no other place for them to go.
Apple already knows that different models are needed for different products in their store, we see them bending the rules for big companies and that 30% cut gets halved for second-year subscriptions in all APPs. At this point, these special cases for the ārich and famousā are doing more bad than good in terms of optics from other developers āand EU commissionersā, but Apple can turn this into an advantage by further breaking the models into a lot more pricing options for more product categories. This way Apple will have no problem in offering developer-controlled signup/subscription systems alongside its own, as long as pricing for the two is similar, consumers will take the path of least resistance which is slowly but surely becoming Apple Pay anyway.
WWDC starts today, considering all the complexities of the system I describe above, Iād be surprised if anyone will touch the subject instead of, but not shocked; I predict skillful dodging will be the name of the game today for Apple execs while discussing the first step on the way to an Amazon-like subscription. A more realistic timeline would be the product release in September.
Evercade is the latest handheld video games console to play the nostalgia card with its hardware and, for the price, itās sure to be on many a gamerās Christmas list this year.
Whilst emulators and subscription services like Nintendoās make playing retro games easier than it was even five years ago, Evercadeās solution is to support proprietary cards with multiple games from the like of Atari, Namco or Mega Cat Studios at $20 per cartridge, while the console itself goes for $80.
The industrial design of the device looks pretty slick and a very good effort to merge the old and the new together and the cartridges almost look like collectorsā items both in terms of visual appearance and in regards to the carefully curated games on them. Obviously a device for people passionate about gaming but I donāt see a reason why the Evercade couldnāt become a cult classic in low volumes.
A predominantly black color scheme with the existing color features would probably get me over the fence Iām sitting on right now on purchasing one.
The virtual-to-IRL collab of the week comes by way of KFC and Animal Crossing. If players located in the Philipines happen to find the KFC mascot in their game, they can win a bucket of chicken in real life. Iāve explained many times before why advertising will move to videogames increasingly more in the future as ads follow consumers wherever they go and this activation is a good milestone for other potential takers in the future. The interactivity and repeated voluntary exposure we see in games makes these kinds of brand PR stunts a lot more memorable to the viewer, with the superior experience increasing the chance monetizing š+š¹ļø=š°
Weāve stopped counting how many times Fortnite beat the record for concurrent live streams this year. The most recent time happened last week with the launch of Season 3 when 12M players in-game when the switch happened and another 8.4M watched on various streaming services. Expect this record to be broken more often as the size of the player base is continually increasing and as Epic improves their infrastructure to support more and more players. Thereās no better time to raise money, and Epic isnāt wasting any time in doing so š°šāāļø
Spotify continuing their insurgency into the land of podcasts, with exclusive deals with DC comics and another with a reality TV star. The DC Comics product will be a narrative scripted podcast with original content made specifically for the platform while the other podcast will focus on criminal justice. With the stock going up 15% on the news, it remains to be seen how the company will deal combine creative freedom with opinion shows. Itās not looking great thus far and the young target audience of today is increasingly demanding more sensitivity in the media they consumeāā
Twitter went around the 280 character limit with audio and itās great. Once a text-only outlet Twitter has added photos, videos, GIFs, and even live videos via Periscope in past years. Letās see how content moderation works with such varied media options since the company vowed to apply the same strict rules it has with text Tweets over the new 140-second audio sharing optionšš
The Tesla Model S is the first EV to get an EPA range of over 400 miles, or almost 650km in old money. I wanted to follow up on this one by saying this was unfathomable a few years ago but quickly figured out that was the case even last year. The realistic, non-PR, scientific goalpost was 500 miles and has been for a while now, adding another hundred and making it a physical product is a fantastic technological achievement šš
EndeavorRX, developed bi Akili Interactive, is the first videogame product to be cleared by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment method for a recognized disease. The game was specifically designed to treat and monitor the progress of kids with ADHD, and itās based on licensed technology from UCSF. This is such a big step for this industry, thatās usually viewed as serving either as recreation for ill-socially-adapted kids or as an activity for overpaid streamers, that itās hard to find ways to describe this impact in words right now. Having āmedicineā that adapts to each patient dynamically based on their actions sounds like material for an entire article for the future. If youāve got parents who told you off of playing games when you were young and youāre very spiteful by nature, this is the link you want to send them š¹ļøš©āāļø
Youāre a technology enthusiast and have $75k burning a hole in your pocket? Well, itās your lucky day because I have the perfect toy for you from this little, boutique, little-known company called Boston Dynamics. Are you someone who has the financial fortitudes to say that seventy-five grand is not enough? Thatās not a problem because the customer support costs $15k per year and the color camera ads another $22kš¤š
In case you were wondering how Crucible, the first big game published by Amazon Studios, is doing, you can stop wondering. It looks like not even the depth of Amazonās pockets and its stranglehold on game streaming can make a bad game goodš¦š
Out on Dinsey+ come July 3rd:
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