Let’s start with a throwback to the 90’s. Nokia’s Snake was truly the first mobile game (outside of Japan) to make it biiiiig. Everyone played it. And not long after it was launched, I (at my old company Massive), was asked by Ericsson to make a pre-study of what games could fit their upcoming T28 phone. We actually ended up developing Eritris/Tetris (yes, Ericsson did run in to some copyright issues); perhaps the most “best-selling” game I’ve ever had the chance to contribute to. 😃

And now a quick jump into the future. Check out the video in this link. VR is (once again) becoming all the rage in the games industry, but I think AR/VR will be much bigger outside of games. True augmented reality will be a no-brainer a few decades from now. Seeing the world “blank” (with no enhancements) will be considered sooo retro. 📟

I’m a big fan of PlayStation, and I’ve had the PS5 since launch (yaay!); great console, the (lack of) load times is just amazing. But I have to say that it sounds like Xbox has made some great decisions this generation (not least with GamePass). Although Sony is clearly in the lead now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft ends up the end-game winner in this generation.

If Microsoft and Sony (and Nintendo) compete for being the winner this generation, it’s already clear that Google is the loser. I was always sceptical to Google’s approach to their streaming games offering. They were focusing, imho, too much on hardcore gamers and not really providing any clear upside compared to regular PC and console play. Had they invested into exclusive games (for a much broader audience) and just offered one subscription price for everything, they would have eventually won. It could likely have required an investment of USD 10-20 billion (!) and Google was apparently not ready to put that in, even though they easily could. In any case, I think Google just didn’t have the stamina required to make it in the games industry. In my experience, setting up a new studio to produce top-quality games easily takes five years, if not ten. Or, as Guardian put it:

I think this is a great move by EA. Although, I can’t help but wonder what “Total Freedom” and “creative autonomy” really means. It is certainly a good thing to aspire to, but not so easy for a big corporate to actually deliver on.

Ending this issue not with games, but with leadership. Anyone in an executive leadership position should take a moment to read this, and reflect. This final quote relates well to the challenges of running a games studios:

Part two of the article is available here.