Hey Folks,
I’m now publishing a podcast that covers news and data, and I’ll share some insights and learnings from the on-the-ground development challenges we are facing. This pod provides a more in-depth look at the contents of this post.
Insights, meaning the weekly podcast with guests, I’ll shift back to Thursdays, but I may not do these every week anymore.
Anyway, let’s see how things go. This inaugural episode was admittedly cringe AF. But it is what it is… lol. Practice makes perfect. My main goal is to produce something that is, hopefully, both valuable and interesting for all of you and enjoyable for me to create.
Top 5 Gaming News
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Officially Revealed (GameSpot): Activision has unveiled the next entry in its massive first-person shooter franchise, "Call of Duty: Black Ops 7." The reveal trailer, showcased at Gamescom, provided a first look at the game's near-future setting and hinted at a narrative connected to previous "Black Ops" titles, with a release slated for late 2025.
Battlefield 6 Beta Receives Positive Reception (Kotaku): The open beta for EA and DICE's "Battlefield 6" has concluded, with players and critics praising its return to a modern setting, large-scale maps, and destructible environments. The positive buzz is seen as a crucial step for the franchise to regain momentum after the mixed reception of its predecessor.
Black Myth: Zhong Kui Announced by Game Science (Video Games Chronicle): The developers of the highly anticipated "Black Myth: Wukong" surprised audiences at Gamescom with the announcement of a new title, "Black Myth: Zhong Kui." This new game appears to be set in the same mythological universe, further expanding the rich world-building that has captivated a global audience.
India Passes Bill to Regulate Online Gaming (Reuters): The Indian parliament has passed a new bill that will regulate the country's online gaming industry, including a ban on games that involve real-money wagering. This legislation is expected to have a significant impact on the rapidly growing Indian gaming market and the companies operating within it.
Blizzard Co-Founder's Dreamhaven Struggles with Sales (Bloomberg): Mike Morhaime's Dreamhaven sold only 130,000 units of Wildgate one month after launch and 62,000 copies of Sunderfolk since April. Demonstrates the challenges new studios face in an oversaturated market, despite their pedigree.
Top 3 AI x Gaming News
Square Enix Tech Demo Shows AI-Generated Detective Game (Square Enix): Square Enix presented a tech demo for a detective game where an AI generates case files, clues, and character motivations. This procedural narrative system ensures that no two playthroughs are the same, showcasing how AI can be used to create systemic and emergent gameplay loops.
Unity 6.2 Launches All-In Generative AI Suite (CG Channel): Unity released Unity 6.2 on August 19 with comprehensive AI tools, including Generators for creating sprites, textures, and animations, plus an AI Assistant powered by GPT and Llama models. The update replaces Unity Muse with more flexible third-party AI model integration and expanded coding assistance capabilities.
Tencent's AI Tool Slashes Art Production Time (Game Developer): Tencent unveiled an AI tool at Gamescom on August 22, 2025, that reduces art production time from days to minutes, streamlining asset creation for developers. The tool's efficiency could lower costs and accelerate game development cycles, sparking debates on artist job security.
On August 9, League of Legends: Wild Rift had its biggest spike in daily IAP revenue on mobile… EVER!
How?
The revenue spike is from the Crystal Rose Gala event. While there’s a lot of talk about organic downloads from transmedia, like from the animated TV show Arcane, the most significant spikes for Wild Rift are actually just from great in-game events rather than media activities.
Game Dev Lessons - Weekly Retro
1. Playing to Win
In an increasingly difficult and competitive environment, it's crucial for a game development team to understand its unique strategy for winning, or "finding Alpha".
"Playing to win" means teams must actively address their biggest problems, which often go unaddressed for political reasons or due to a culture of blame.
Teams should focus on tasks that provide the highest operational leverage and will have the biggest impact, a concept the speaker calls the "Biggest Fire".
Many leaders get caught in a cycle of meetings and managing tickets, appearing busy without "moving the needle" on what's truly important for the game's success.
From Ben Carcich:
2. Standard of Performance and Feedback
I view a company through the lens of its "people and the product," noting that many companies focus heavily on the product but neglect the people.
It is the people who make the product, so a culture that allows for direct, respectful, and constructive feedback is essential for improvement.
Leaders have a responsibility to establish a standard of performance and give feedback, even if they have a psychological block or fear of being disliked by their team.
A failure to deliver feedback directly to team members prevents them from improving. Last week at our studio, a lead provided months of written feedback to HR, but not to the employees themselves. This will not help the people improve.
3. Initial Soft Launch Focus
For an initial soft launch, we’re taking an approach of extreme focus on early retention, specifically D1-D3, and then up to D7.
A key strategy in the current “attention economy” is to create a unique and distinct "feeling" for players from their very first interaction—from the app icon to the loading screen—to make them feel something different and give the game a chance.
We have broken down the First-Time User Experience (FTUE) and the core loop step-by-step to create a detailed funnel, allowing us to track where problems and drop-offs occur carefully.
We will also manually observe the user journey by reviewing player logs to identify patterns in behavior and pinpoint where players drop off, thereby helping them to pinpoint potential issues.
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