Tuesday - August 5, 2024
TODAY: ROG Ally X, Screw Xbox says FBZ dev, advertisers cautious of gaming, and more!
Daily Digest
- How Asus Leveled Up To Create The ROG Ally X (Forbes).
- JR's Thoughts: The Window's Steam Deck! I've heard a lot about this device in the past few weeks, and for the most part it has all blown me away. This looks like a very capable system - and I am particularly excited about how the mobile-PC-gaming space will evolve in the next iterations of both the ROG and the Deck. One thing is for sure: the Deck will need to continue to catch up in raw performance and game availability, while the ROG will have to keep it's cooling under control. Let's see who wins out.
- ‘Nobody Needs This Platform’ Xbox Quote Disavowed By ‘Phantom Blade Zero’ Developer (Forbes).
- JR's Thoughts: This is probably fake - as Tassi mentions it could very likely be the result of an AI farm churning out these sorts of inflammatory content. The developer has also disavowed the comments. If it is true, however, it is hilarious. It's no secret that Xbox has long been a very small market in the world of Chinese/Japanese/Korean games - but I had no idea that there was a particular dislike for the brand that would inspire these sorts of comments, fake or not.
- Global gaming market reaches nearly $200bn in annual revenue, but advertisers remain cautious (Campaign).
- JR's Thoughts: I can understand why. The gaming industry is obviously massive - but it remains extremely volatile. Just this past week, Bungie laid off a whole bunch of staff despite the undeniable and continued success of Destiny. It's expensive to make games, and it's expensive to operate the studios to make them. For advertisers, that volatility makes it difficult to commit to large-scale marketing campaigns, especially when tapping into these channels (like in-game advertisements) could very well turn the captive audience against them. I doubt this will change anytime soon - but that's partly me hoping that straight up in-game advertisement never becomes a widespread practice.
- Valve working on new project with a codename fans are linking to Half-Life (Eurogamer).
- JR's Thoughts: If there is one thing we should know by now not to trust, it's Valve working on Half Life 3. I guess it's fun to hope for.
That's all for today! If you have a topic or news item you want featured on the newsletter - hit me up at jeremy@gamesbeat.news.
