In September 2019, I was interviewed by TV station Channel News Asia as part of a documentary on the topic of esports in Japan. The (well-made) documentary was aired the same year but was just recently made available online in a format that allows me to embed it below. My part starts at the 17:55...
GLOBAL GAME BUSINESS TRENDS IN 2021 (PREDICTION)
Game industry news site GamesIndustry.biz asked analysts (including myself) for predictions how we think about the gaming business in 2021. Here is a repost from my contribution to their article: Switch Pro launches Yes, I know, I know. I predict a beefed-up 4K device is coming...
Price Breakdown Of A $70 Video Game: Digital Vs Physical
One of the three client groups I serve with my consultancy Kantan Games Inc. is financial institutions interested in the gaming industry. A common question over the last decade from investors has been: “What is the share for digital versus physical video game sales among publishers and retail...
Attach Rates VS Tie Ratios (And Why You Should Forget Tie Ratios Today)
Attach rate and tie ratio are terms that are often used interchangeably in the global gaming industry – even though they shouldn’t be. Generally speaking, games have attach rates – while consoles have tie ratios. Nothing in the following is rocket science, but I am trying to...
Podcast On Nintendo Switch, Playstation 5 and Tencent Games
I was recently interviewed by my friend Casey Lau for his new podcast series on digital entertainment and media technology, Sandwich Society. Not too surprisingly, the 30 minutes are on the game industry, i.e. the upcoming launch of the PlayStation 5, what will happen with Nintendo and the Switch...
Japan’s Top Selling Video Games And Consoles In 2019
Data provider KADOKAWA Game Linkage just published an overview on the Japanese market for video games and console for 2019. Overall, the entire industry (hardware and software including digital downloads) reached US$4.1 billion in CY 2019. That’s a 0.6% increase year-on-year. What I find...