China's gaming curfew is a dud

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— Jason Liu, Tim Rhyne, Derek Neville

HEADLINES

China’s gaming curfew isn’t working. New research suggests that China’s playtime restrictions have had no effect. In fact, individual likelihood for heavy gaming may have slightly increased since the introduction of new limits in November of 2019. Conclusions were derived from observing telemetry data from 7B hours of playtime across 2.4B gamer profiles from games that ran on the Unity engine.

No more links in YouTube Shorts. YouTube announced yesterday that links will no longer be functional in the description or comments of YouTube Shorts. The company states that this new policy is targeting spam and fraud. Disabling links in comments is a fairly common practice but also prohibiting links in descriptions may be a touch harsh — creators rely on this mechanic for monetization and sponsored content. This may be a new trend as social platforms look to create bespoke marketing tools while taking a cut. In a similar move, TikTok recently blocked all links referring users to mobile app stores.

Sony discloses secret sauce. Earlier this week we discussed Sony’s controlled release of their 4K streaming beta. They’ve now disclosed behind-the-scenes details on how they plan to support this feature globally over the next couple of months. Internally named ‘Project Cronus’, the new streaming architecture includes new 28 datacenters for PS5 cloud streaming. The resulting storage server is expected to have 5 GB/s read speeds with sub-millisecond latency. Your move, Microsoft.

Krafton announces $150M investment in India. The makers of PUBG announced yesterday that they plan to invest $150M into India’s gaming ecosystem over the next 2-3 years. This is on top of the $140M they have already invested in 11 Indian startups since 2020. It’s no secret that Krafton is extremely bullish on the Indian market — they went through the trouble of releasing Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), a localized version of PUBG when it was banned under national security concerns.

HUD

• 💹 Impact of localization: Starfield price swings -50% to +30% (vs. USD) depending on where you live. The chart provides interesting insight into cost of living, taxation, and other distribution nuances.

• 🎤 Can’t afford Broadway Tickets? No problem. Hamilton Simulator is coming to Roblox.

• ⚽ EA FC 24 closed beta codes are starting to roll out. In case the title is unfamiliar to you, this is the new name of the football/soccer franchise after parting ways with FIFA.

• 🤔 Should studios be held to a higher standard given Larian’s success with Baldur’s Gate 3 using traditional monetization?

THIS DAY IN GAMING HISTORY

• Chrono Trigger was released in North America (1995) —The game’s design team was led by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who also created the Final Fantasy series.

• Paper Mario was released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan (2000).

• The SUPER iam8bit art show started in Los Angeles, California (2011).

DEEP DIVE

Battle Pass: Origins

Yesterday, we highlighted a viral Reddit post bemoaning the use of Battle Passes in live-service games. At the same time, Newzoo’s latest gaming report suggested that live-service monetization is still all the rage. So, while gamers may not be happy about the grind, Battle Passes have become the financial lifeblood of many gaming business models and will be here to stay (for now).

Who can we attribute the very first Battle Pass to? Longtime MOBA players may remember that back in 2013, Valve offered exclusive content for Dota 2 players that purchased the “Compendium”, as part of their “The International” competition. What was unique was that the prize pool for this tournament was partly funded through 25% of all proceeds from sales of the Compendium. Since then, Valve introduced the recurring pass concept to both Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2. The modern Battle Pass that many gamers experience today was scaled and refined by Epic Games through the wild success of Fortnite.

Battle Pass content typically can only be unlocked during the season that the pass is associated with. Thus, a core concept of Battle Pass optimization is to wring out as much FOMO as possible. The ugliness of Battle Passes emerges when all the ‘best’ content is locked behind the pass. This is a particularly heated debate when it comes to premium titles with an expectation of feature completeness.

Among monetization methods, the Battle Pass is viewed as one of the most commonly accepted and stable methods as it encourages fresh content and provides transparency into its rewards — unlike Loot Boxes, which are often scrutinized for encouraging gambling behavior in youth.

PATCH NOTES

• 🏃‍♀️ The Escape from Tarkov “Streets of Tarkov” expansion includes a new boss — Kaban.

• 😿 Stray Patch 4 added an option to hide cat death because “It is too sad”.

• 🔥 Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix addresses large save file issue and enables cross-saves for PlayStation 5 launch preparation.

INDIE CORNER

‘Papers, Please’ turned 10 years old the other day — and has sold over 5 million copies.

HIVE MIND — Together with Z League

Relevant:

🏆 Brawl Stars tournaments are now available on Z League.

DEAL FINDER

• 🏈 Free $15 Best Buy gift card with Madden 24 pre-order.

• ⛱ Summer discounts for Escape from Tarkov have started — all pre-order packages are 15% off through August 13th.

• 🎮 Coinciding with discounts on the PS5, DualSense Controllers are now $20 off (Amazon, Best Buy).

MAJOR W

• 🎁 Quake II Remaster was announced and launched on same day at QuakeCon.

• 😈 Diablo 4 players are finally happy about something with mob density increase.

• 🚀 As promised, Overwatch 2 has launched on Steam.

F IN THE CHAT

• ⚖ Nintendo filed 31 patents following the success of Tears of the Kingdom, including one that seems like … basic physics?

• 👎 Following its pricing controversy, Red Dead Redemption port getting dislike bombed on YouTube.

• ❓ PlayStation App causes confusion on Baldur’s Gate 3 PS5 Release date — It is September 3rd with Digital Deluxe and 6th for everyone else.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Nintendo’s quarterly earnings reported star-powered numbers.

• $3.2 Billion USD in revenue (+50% YoY).

• $1.29 Billion USD (+82% YoY) in operating profit.

• Primary drivers were Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and The Super Mario Bros. Movie elevating Mario title sales.

CREATOR SPOTLIGHT

CapCorgi — 1302 Days of Going Live

CapCorgi’s name comes from his two favorite things, Captain America and Corgis. This variety streamer goes live for the pure love of fostering a positive community in gaming. You’ll be welcomed into a casual stream where just about any game could be played into the early morning hours.

If you find yourself with a case of late-night boredom, you may want to join the Corgi Crew on Twitch.

— Tim

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