Investing in Gaming - Blake Robbins

Blake’s Story

2:00 Gaming as a business

Game has become a platform instead of a one time purchase.
Example: LoL, Fortnite. The barrier to entry is low, you don’t need a high end device to play it. This leads to massive growth.
The real giant: Tencent. They are proactive in acquiring studios.
The other one EA, Activision Blizzard, Valve.

5:30 How Free to Play Games make money?

Major free to play games today are not pay to win. People used to think that when you play free to play games you need to spend money on extension pack and many more to win.
They make money from in game items and cosmetic items. These items don’t impact the game at all. These items can be shown to your friends as an indicator that you have spent money on a “rare” item.
CS has a more open economy around the game. People open loot boxes to get a random skin. Can be worth a penny to 5-10K. There is a finite amount for these rare items. There are third party website to sell the items, not just inside the Valve market.
Fortnite and LoL -> specific events, limited time offer.
- Fortnite rotate their in game items every day. Some of them are rare. People even sell their account with those rare items.
- There are infinite supplies for the items because they are free to reproduce.

9:50 How do gaming companies manage their economy?

Each of the game has an economy surrounding it.
Fortnite -> buying V-Bucks to buy items. No secondary market. Only selling account. People use skin for expression inside the game. It symbolises the type of player you are.