gamescom 2024: Four things we learned from Opening Night Live, 22/08/2024
Big new games, Big Tech on the march and Big cross media projects to talk about
Opening Night Live delivers the goods for the games industry
Fortnite back on mobile devices as Epic Games Store launches
Monument Valley III was the pick of the indie games announced during ONL
Guten morgen. Wie geht’s?
I am in Cologne this week. It’s a city that’s home to the tallest twin spire cathedral in the world and a surprisingly large number of goats called Hennes, who’ve acted as mascots for the local football team.
It’s also the location of gamescom, Europe’s largest trade and consumer video games show. And as you’d expect from a newsletter firmly on the industry’s pulse, I’ve got a long read from the halls of the Koelnmesse coming up for you shortly.
But before we dive into that, I want to salute a group of young people in London who did something extraordinary earlier this week: they saved the world with the help of video games.
Well, ok. They didn’t actually save the world with video games. Sorry.
But 16 teens did come to my workshop at London Youth’s Tech Careers day, where they learned about games industry jobs by designing their very own ‘games for good’ campaigns from scratch.
And boy, did they deliver the goods. The four teams who took part suggested campaigns which included:
Creating a branching pathway narrative video game about battling addiction to fundraise for relevant charities and sign post players to sources of support.
Running a survey about people’s perceptions of online bullying in the most popular video games in the world to create a data set for academics to use to research online safety.
Supporting WaterAid’s mission to provide clean water to the world by running an in-game item fundraising sale in titles with watery themes like Abzu or Sea of Thieves.
Organising a ‘Soccer Aid’ style esports tournament for a local youth mentoring charity, teaming up celebrities with leading esports athletes and streamers to train them to compete in a fundraising live stream.
And as if that wasn’t impressive enough, they came up with all these great concepts in 20 minutes. The kids, it turns out, are alright.
Unfortunately, these talented youngsters are not available to hire for your video games industry campaign just yet.
But the good news is that Half-Space Consulting is available to use our strategic comms expertise to help you think up, plan and execute incredible campaigns that use the power of games to deliver amazing results.
If you want to tap into my expertise to get your business to make the most of the power of games first, email me via george@half-space.consulting right this second before someone else does.
Otherwise, let’s get on with a special Opening Night Live long read.
The big read - gamescom 2024: Four things we learned from Opening Night Live
Good old, gamescom. Arriving with all the predictability of a kick drum on the third beat of the bar, the latest version of Europe’s biggest games show has arrived to signal the beginning of the end of a grim year for the video games business.
Tens of thousands of industry professionals have once again descended upon Germany’s jewel on the Rhine to take dozens of meetings, attend networking events and ponder why the UK games industry has colonised an Irish bar in a manner that only Diarmuid Mac Murrough would approve of.
As per usual, gamescom kicked off with the consumer focused Opening Night Live showcase on Tuesday 20th August.
Curated by Geoff Keighley, creator of The Game Awards, the event usually provides millions of fans around the world the chance to find out about video games that weren’t quite exciting enough to feature in June’s Summer Game Fest showcase.
But in a turn up for the books, Opening Night Live turned out to be a big night for the industry.
And given that I had the fortune to attend (thanks Playing for the Planet for the VIP wristband that I can’t get off now), I thought it’d be churlish if I didn’t write about such a momentous occasion.
Here are four big things that I found out from the showcase.
1) Video games are BACK
First up, I’ve got some good news. Opening Night Live made it clear that video games are very much back and that we’re only a matter of months away from washing away the disappointment of 2024.
The bookending of the event with the announcements that a fourth game in the Borderland series and a new entry in the Mafia franchise would arrive in 2025 gave Opening Night Live something that Summer Game Fest lacked: actual new major video games to talk about.
But more than that, the lineup for Opening Night Live clearly outlined the pathway of major releases that will end the drought of 2024 and begin a feast of plenty next year.
On this side of the calendar year, Indiana Jones: The Great Circle’s launch on Xbox in December 2024 - before its arrival on PlayStation in Spring 2025 - puts a tent pole release slap bang in the middle of the festive season.
And rolling into next year, the announcement that Dune: Awakening and Civilisation VII will both land in early 2025 means that the industry is likely to build up a healthy head of steam nice and early - giving it real momentum before the new Nintendo console and Grand Theft Auto VI arrives. Wonderful stuff!
2) Big Tech is quietly expanding its games influence
Big Tech has obviously been a major part of the games industry for a while. Apple and Google have dominated the mobile games industry storefronts since they were first conceived. Companies like Amazon have provided infrastructure services such as cloud hosting to scale games. And Meta has proven integral to large parts of the game marketing landscape, especially when it comes to performance advertising.
But aside from Tencent, whose global significance is a result of it growing an enormous games business, and Microsoft, who’ve expanded games into the third biggest pillar of the company’s revenue, Big Tech’s influence in the content space has been comparatively limited: making them more of a partner, than the dominant player, in games.
Opening Night Live showed a shift in dynamic. Over the course of two hours, there were a remarkably large number of games or content announcements that had a Big Tech backer in the background.
We saw the latest trailer for Batman Arkham Shadow - the new VR entry in the Arkham series developed by Camouflaj - with its notable backing from Meta. We saw the emergence of King of Meat, a four player co-op battling game published by Amazon Games. We also saw further announcements from the major Big Tech players invested in games, including a slew of titles popping up on Microsoft’s Game Pass and Tencent running a final trailer for Black Myth Wukong (more on that in the news section).
This isn’t to say that Big Tech is suddenly poised to take the industry over wholesale. There is enough breadth, depth and variety in the global games industry to prevent a handful of entities completely sweeping up the market in the manner of, say, the mobile advertising industry.
But the quiet proliferation of Big Tech labels on game announcements suggests an increasing appetite from the global leviathans to shape games more directly than through infrastructure alone. Something to watch closely in the years to come.
3) Cross media plays are here to stay
Big Tech isn’t the only market sector to see the value of games. The wider entertainment industry is also hammering at the sector’s door, as evidenced by the announcement of a number of intriguing cross media projects announced across the show.
The highlight of this was the announcement of the Amazon backed (SEE!) Secret Level.
The anthology series, which is directed by Tim Miller of Deadpool and Love, Death and Robots fame, is set to deliver more than a dozen one off episodes based on games such as God of War, Mega Man and The Outer Worlds. This could make it the first cross media show to demonstrate in one fell swoop the true breadth of games - providing immense cultural cut-through for the sector in the process.
But the cross media interest didn’t end there. Netflix’s announcement that it has secured exclusivity for the third entry in the Monument Valley series shows it is understanding the value of prestige content for its platform.
And its decision to release a multiplayer Squid Game title on mobile suggests it understands the appeal of knockout multiplayer games to a wide audience (if not the satirical message at the heart of this particular programme).
While the recent Borderlands movie reminded us that it is possible to stuff up cross media plays, Opening Night Live shows that the barriers between games and other creative mediums are dissolving.
And if your business can work with a company to make the most of those opportunities at the intersection of games and wider society, then I’m sure it’ll be very well placed to succeed. *coughs*
4) Bye bye, December lull
Finally, I have some sad news. The December video games industry lull, which allowed much of the sector to surreptitiously start putting its brains into out of office mode after opening the first door on an Advent calendar, can officially be considered dead.
It had been on life support for a little while. Last year, I heard from contacts across the industry that the much-loved downtime - caused long ago by the literal challenges of shipping big games early enough in time to arrive on shelves for buyers to grab before Christmas - was being eroded by the relentless drive of digital content.
But the rise of The Game Awards, which takes place on 12th December this year, as a major tent pole in the industry calendar has turned it into a rallying point for releases looking to make one last push to consumers before Christmas.
And we saw this at Opening Night Live, with multiplayer title Marvel Rivals arriving on 6th December, Indiana Jones whipping his way onto Xbox on 9th December and the Secret Level TV series releasing on Amazon Prime on 10th December - aligning them all very conveniently to land one last ad slot at The Game Awards just a few days later.
That might be great news for exciting execs. But it suggests that for the rest of us, we’re probably best pushing our Christmas parties to the week commencing 16th December…
gamescom 2024: assorted highlights
I did a Highly Scientific vibe check with a range of business leaders at gamescom by, erm, talking to them. And the good news is that the mood was, thankfully, pretty optimistic. Some of that optimism came from companies who were simply fed up with all the ‘survive to 2025’ chat, which is wearing a touch thin given that next year is only a handful of months away. But a fair few also spoke of an effect that one person described as a ‘dripping tap’, whereby they could feel that business was turning back on again. Let’s hope the busy Opening Night Live showcase turns those drips into a flood eh?
One part of the industry that is struggling still are its not-for-profits, training providers and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Industry cuts have hit them hard, with development, HR and marketing budget cutbacks eating into their main sources of revenue. And while it may seem understandable to trim those costs when faced with a downturn, I’d urge businesses to think about whether small cuts to CSR spending - the kind of thing that’s useful for both staff retention and the industry’s reputation - may be a touch misguided and short-termist.
I hosted Newzoo’s Global Games Market Briefing to media on Wednesday morning, discussing the rise of cross platform play and the importance of getting the size of your single player game development project just right with Devan Brennan of Newzoo, Gilles Langourieux of Virtuous and Rav Tharanee of Third Kind Games. Highlights included discussing why PC games are benefitting particularly from the need for console games to find wider markets, hammering home the point that successful game development is as much about managing resources as it is being creative and walking away from the event with a big bag of Dutch sweet treats (note: not a euphemism).
What was the best secret “on-the-side” conference activity that I heard about at gamescom? Amidst a wide range of dinners, parties and mixers, the winner - undoubtedly - was the alleged boat tour that one major video games company organised for its globally distributed executive team. One person described it to me as “mafia-esque”, with another calling it “the weirdest family cruise ever.” Perfection.
A quick shout out to Louisa Keight, manager of the Green Game Jam and top class bully, for their outstanding games criticism during Opening Night Live. I hadn’t thought that Dune: Awakening’s premise put the entire player base “on the side of the colonisers destroying the planet” but now I can’t get it out of my head.
Finally, I was delighted to see that the new Call of Duty added the video game feature that we’ve all been crying out for: Bill Clinton.
Opening Night Live: a bluffer’s guide
Do say: Opening Night Live feels like the moment that the industry’s dam has burst, paving the way for the sector to exit a grim 2024 and arrive in a brighter 2025.
Don’t say: …hang on, did I just spend two hours watching marketing videos?
News in brief
Epic Games (In) Store: The Epic Games Store has launched on iOS in the EU and on Android across the world, finally bringing games like Fortnite back into the hands of mobile players after years of legal and regulatory battles. However, UK players with iOS devices are locked out of playing Fortnite for now because of our decision to Brexit ourselves out of the EU a full year before the game even existed. Nice.
Performer’s rights: Equity, the performing arts union, has issued guidance to video games companies after it raised concerns over requests for performers to support the creation of sexually explicit content with little or no warning. The BBC News report linked here contains both some notable horror stories and plenty of simple, practical suggestions on how to avoid such issues in the future. The industry should follow them as a matter of urgency.
Self-censorship?: Influencers invited to play Black Myth: Wukong, an action role-playing game inspired by the Chinese novel Journey to the West, have been instructed to avoid discussing politics, Covid-19 and ‘feminist propaganda’ on their live streams. The document, circulated by Hero Games on behalf of Game Science, encouraged influencers to avoid using ‘trigger words’ that seem designed to both i) stop influencers from getting hit by China’s strict online censorship rules and ii) avoid drawing attention to the developer’s patchy track record on sexism within its own studio. Hmm.
You shall not (Game) pass: Xbox has confirmed that subscribers to the Core and Standard versions of its Game Pass subscription service will not receive access to its biggest new releases for up to 12 months after their initial launch. Subscription games fans who do want to get Day 1 access to the company’s biggest games will either have to wait to get the games or fork out extra cash to dive into the company’s Ultimate tier, which now costs £15 per month.
Money, Money, Money: The Sunday Times has compiled its first ever UK video games rich list, popping Playrix’s co-founders Igor and Dmitry Bukhman at the top for generating an estimated £12.54bn since they first set up shop. The 30 strong list includes game developers, publishers, influencers and, more importantly, a handful of people I know personally who haven’t donated to my year long half marathon running challenge for GamesAid yet. *cracks knuckles*
Moving on
Michael Modon has left TikTok to join Epic Games in its Growth Partnerships team…Jas Purewal has stepped down as Chairman of Facepunch Studios…Luke Brocklehurst recently became Senior Brand Partnership Manager at Electronic Arts…And Hal Sparke has been promoted, becoming the Communications Manager for the eFootball series at Konami…
Jobs ahoy
King has a role going for an Associate Creative Director - Catalog Games…Kwalee is hunting for a Senior Game Designer (Mobile Games) in Leamington Spa…There’s a bilingual job as a Licensing Manager for The Pokemon Company if your French is up to snuff…Meta is hiring a Producer - Second Party Games in LA…And given that I’m in Germany, why not promote the Studio Manager role going at Lion Studios in Berlin…
Events and conferences
PAX West, Seattle - 30th August-2nd September
Nexus, Dublin - 25th-26th September
Tokyo Game Show, Tokyo - 26th-29th September
Games Connect Asia Pacific, Melbourne -7th-9th October
AI and Games Conference, London - 8th November
Games of the week - Opening Night Live indie picks
Monument Valley III - Third entry in the multi-award winning mobile game series maintains its remarkable mix of aesthetics, artistry and vibes.
Lost Records: Bloom and Rage - Slice of life story from the makers of Life is Strange catches the eye with its indie girl band premise.
Herdling - Intriguing animal herding interactive fiction title from Okomotive, with publishing backing from the team responsible for making Firewatch a hit, sleds towards release.
Before you go…
Hello,
It's me,
I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet.
These are the opening lyrics to Adele’s hit song Hello.
Hello from the other side indeed…