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So now that PUBG is banned in India, there is going to increased regulatory focus on games now. But there are a lot of lessons to learn from the Epic Games vs Apple saga. https://twitter.com/orfonline/status/1301121694245900288
A small thread. We need to understand the narratives that game publishers are pushing and the effect it has on development. There has been an increased push to see games-as-as-service rather than a product.
How do you monetise a service? With repeat multiple transactions. And Apple and Google paved the way with their in-app purchases with the freemium model.
The grift is this. You give your game away for free and hook the player with simple gameplay mechanic and reward the player in-game currency and a dopamine rush.
The player will hit a plateau and the difficulty of a game will increase dramatically. And then the game prompts the player to buy a pack to help them clear the level. The bait-and-switch is done. South Park explains this beautifully. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium_Isn%27t_Free
This isn't news and has been going on for well over a decade. Now the problem comes with loot boxes. Where a player is enticed to buy an in-app purchase which gives a chance to get an item in the game which helps them progress faster.
The key thing to understand is chance. You may get a good item or you may get a shitty item. But players are always encouraged to try their luck. This is leading to players showing a lot of problematic behaviour.
Now PUBG Mobile and Fortnite Battle Royale doesn't have loot boxes, but a whole lot of skins. Players are pressured by their peers to buy them. Fortnite and PUBG Mobile do have battle passes which allows players to get more rewards and experience for a limited time frame.
I don't want to comment on the morality of battle passes, but loot boxes is straight up gambling with no real world reward. And they're being sold to children. More on this with this report from the Children's Commissioner of England https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/report/gaming-the-system/
In hearings in the UK about loot boxes, EA argued that loot boxes are not gambling, since there is no actual pay out of real world money. Instead, they should think of it as surprise mechanics like the toys in a Kinder Joy egg.
Now the PM wants Indian developers to make more Indian games. But the sorry state of Indian gaming captured well with piece by @RishiAlwani https://themakoreactor.com/features/pm-modi-made-in-india-games-pubg-mobile-ban-jio-sony/16456/
At least big publishers like EA tried to make a defence that loot boxes aren't gambling, but Indian publishers seem to have embraced it with arms wide open and just call their shitty fantasy sports games "real world gaming"
I stand corrected. Real money gaming. 
Comes the China angle. Tencent is arguably the biggest video games company in the world. And have invested in almost every major AAA rated publisher. It owns 40% in Epic Games, a bet which is going to pay off handsomely. It controls Riot Games which has League of Legends
Tencent has invested in Bluehole which acts as a publisher in India and China. It has stakes in Ubisoft which makes the Assassin's Creed franchise. Has a 5% stake in Activision Blizzard, which makes Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft. And a small stake in Discord as well.
Tencent and Epic Games want to build a Metaverse, an always-connected collective of shared virtual spaces. Think of Ready Player One, Quest world in Johnny Quest, or the GRID in TRON to get an idea what it means.
They're not the only ones trying to build a version of this. Facebook is betting heavily on VR and AR with its Occulus platform. Microsoft is building its HoloLens platform. But by far, it seems that Epic Games' Fortnite is the first built the first minimum viable product
the first to build a minimum viable product.* Apologies for the typos
Fortnite's been killing it with their special events for movies like the Avengers and virtual concerts using avatars and dances with emotes.
(You have to buy emotes to dance, so I don't want to think of the implications for freedom of expression where you have to buy movements for your virtual avatar)
Then there is the Unreal Engine which Epic Games owns and is being used pretty much everywhere now. And Epic is being generous and giving away the software for free, till you earn 1 million when you commercialize the product. Thereafter 5% of the revenue.
So Epic Games is building a monopoly on the gaming market with the Unreal Engine and the freemium model. So does Epic Games get 5% of the revenue that the Mandalorian TV show makes? Because they used the Unreal Engine for the CGI. And will that be the norm for coming movies now?
The Metaverse needs interoperability of systems. While Epic's CEO Tim Sweeny might be justified in going to war against Apple and demand better revenue share with creators, the larger objective seems to be to pry open the closed ecosystem for the Metaverse.
To understand Tencent's grand plan, I suggest you check out @packyM two-part series. Really helped me understand what's going on. https://notboring.substack.com/p/tencent-the-ultimate-outsider
https://notboring.substack.com/p/tencents-dreams
https://notboring.substack.com/p/tencents-dreams
