Each weekend we'll be rounding up a selection of the most interesting articles related to mobile and the games industry at large.
This week includes a look inside Disney's Star Wars hotel and how it will work, developers weigh in on app store revenue shares, an analysis of the cost of virtual reality headsets and the Nexon CEO preaches a focus on players rather than monetisation.
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.
Disney’s giant leap forward - How the Star Wars immersive hotel will work, and what it means
"Yes, the margins are better in videogames (and soon, VR), but Disney could soon have a very profitable business in ‘360 vacation experiences’, protected from competition by a classic Buffett-style economic moat in the form of their vast IP and theme park expertise."
Are app stores taking advantage of developers?
"We created this situation ourselves as game developers," [Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney] says. "100,000 developers each deciding to accept those terms, we've created this monster that we're now trapped with - and it's taking 30% of revenue. We always need to take the long-term view and decide where we want to be in the future."
"The cost in real terms of both Samsung Gear VR and Sony PlayStation VR have actually increased in the last 11 months. Notably, both players have established positions as sales leaders in their respective segments of mobile and tethered VR."
Interview: Andy Rubin on the future of smartphones
“If I can get to the point where your phone is a virtual version of you, you can be off enjoying your life, having that dinner, without touching your phone, and you can trust your phone to do things on your behalf,” [Andy Rubin] says. “I think I can solve part of the addictive behaviour.”
Game boss interview: Nexon CEO preaches focus on players, not monetisation
"My take is that we went through these five to seven very bad years in the games business. That was a function of people looking at surface stuff in games. When the topic of Moneyball came up, to use that analogy, it was really about saying, 'We’re going to use analytics to find out who the biggest moneymakers are and maximise those. We’re going to turn the crank on monetisation as hard as we can.'"
The Pocket Gamer Podcast: Episode 408
The Pocket Gamer team rounds up the week’s mobile news out of Gamescom and interviews Red Hook Studios and Darkest Dungeon Game Design Director Tyler Sigman about bringing the title to mobile.
Is the BGI Brexit's silver lining? Ukie and TIGA discuss the future of UK government funding
“I think there is an unprecedented opportunity to add new funding for our sector,” [Rick Gibson] says. “The industrial strategy is trying to trigger growth across the country in existing industries that are already world class. [Minister of State for Digital & Culture] Matt Hancock describes a nexus between creativity and technology and there’s no better poster child for that than our sector.”
“Designed into the city are systems and technology that perform pivotal roles. All the hundreds of shops, businesses and services in Rapture, for example, combine to create a tangible and believable sense of working commerce, interaction and economy, even in the most dilapidated areas.”
