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The Weekly: Steve Jobs' mobile predictions, how to work with big IP, and Switch's mobile mode analysed

Rounding up the week's games industry analysis and news from around the internet

The Weekly: Steve Jobs' mobile predictions, how to work with big IP, and Switch's mobile mode analysed

Each week we'll be rounding up a selection of the most interesting articles related to mobile and the games industry at large.

This week, there's a newly published interview from the late former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who discusses the launch of the App Store and the future of mobile

Elsewhere Deconstructor of Fun's Michail Katkoff talks with Universal's Joseph Kim about working with big IPs on mobile, Digital Foundry looks at the Nintendo Switch's undocked performance, and Improbable CEO Herman Narula discusses NetEase's investment and its China ambitions.

See an article you think we should share? Email PocketGamer.biz Craig Chapple at craig.chapple@steelmedia.co.uk to add it to our weekly round-up.

You can find previous editions of The Weekly here.

Hear Steve Jobs, at the dawn of the App Store, predict the future of mobile

"27 free, 73 paid, and of the paid, over 90% under $10. What you really want to know is how many apps have been downloaded. I’m going to put everything in terms of next Monday because we can project very accurately, over 60 million apps. Users have downloaded over 60 million apps from the App Store in the first 30 days."

How to work with big IPs on mobile

Deconstructor of Fun’s Michail Katkoff and Universal SVP of games and digital platforms Joseph Kim discuss the challenges and opportunities that comes from utilising IP, whether they be “big bang” IP or long-lasting ones.

Switch's mobile mode analysed in unprecedented detail

"Overall, getting to grips with the new hardware-modded Switch has been highly educational. It's confirmed a lot of our initial thoughts about how the mobile modes in various titles work, while providing a lot of additional insights about the techniques used to get some high-end experiences working on a handheld."

$50m Netease investment will help Improbable realise dream of “trillion dollar games industry”

"The explosion of new gameplay that we think distributed computation and platforms like ours can bring is really hard to fathom. As a business, we're completely focused on this. We think this is a trillion dollar industry and we want to be the infrastructure for it. [Partnerships like this] continue to make other developers go 'hey, let's go do this thing', whether with us or even competing with us, we think it's for the best for everyone." 

Game studio with no bosses pays everyone the same

"We actually just use a super basic formula: if a project finds success, people are basically paid more in bonuses, and everyone is paid the absolute same way,” said longtime Motion Twin game designer Sébastien Bénard in an email. “The devs and the artists are paid the same amount of money, and people like me who have been here for 17 years are paid the same amount as people who were recruited last year."

Out of the Wild West: Inside the evolution of games writing

"When I started working in games almost fifteen years ago, story in a video game was basically just mimicking the linear narrative of movies. This is great when you wanted to make an immersive 12 to 18 hour game like God of War, which I worked on, but Riot’s approach was to make a bunch of interesting characters based on familiar archetypes to get as many people interested in playing as possible." 

Kixeye enlists players to provide customer support for Battle Pirates

"Kixeye’s customer support team in Portland, Oregon, came up with Peer2Peer, a customer support hotline that solves gamer problems through the gamers themselves."

Gaming’s toxic men, explained

"There’s an often promoted belief amongst certain people within the worlds of gaming and tech that technology is naturally, even biologically, the domain of men. This is usually based in the idea that men are naturally logical and women are naturally emotional. It completely negates the fact that computer programming was originally a feminised profession."

The 5 best apolitical video games

"Anyway, what’s political about a society closed off from the rest of the world? Nobody with a brain would think it was saying anything at all. So what if someone took their ideas too far? Are we not entitled to the sweat of our brow?"

Ex-Valve employee describes ruthless internal politics at 'self-organizing' companies

"All legit self-organising firms have to 'leak' an official unofficial Company Manual. It’s got to be slickly made and fun to read. Developer Marketing gurus create these productions to sway new recruits into the Hiring Funnel. Insiders laugh at these things."

Meet the real-life farmers who play Farming Simulator

“One of the main reasons I play Farming Simulator is, in real life, we don’t run a very large operation,” says Wade Kelley, who works on his family’s 500-acre corn farm in Tennessee. “But through Farming Simulator I can do that, with a lot of different equipment choices.”


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Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.