Felix Braberg

Investment news: Keywords Studios is being acquired by Swedish investment firm @EQT in a deal valued at £2.2 billion The agreement, announced on the London Stock Exchange (below), sees EQT acquiring all of Keywords' issued and to be issued shares for £24.50 per share in cash. EQT, already a player in the gaming industry, strengthens its presence with this acquisition. Keywords Studios offers a comprehensive suite of services, from development and art production to quality assurance, localization, and marketing. This acquisition bolsters EQT's portfolio in the ever-growing gaming landscape. The deal, valued at roughly £2.1 billion on a fully diluted basis, will be financed through a combination of equity and debt by EQT. Finalization is expected in the fourth quarter of 2024. This acquisition signifies a major move in the game services industry. Stay tuned for further updates on how this deal will impact Keywords Studios and the wider gaming landscape. (source: https://lnkd.in/ecT8gwf9)

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All 3 of us in action at gamescom soon! Yesterday we discussed some quick tips on meeting times... Well today let's talk about slides! If you're attending gamescom and doing a live pitch, it's okay to have more visuals, and a slightly longer deck than normal (But remember, 10-15 minutes tops for a 30-minute meeting). As in an "oral pitch" compared to an "email pitch". But it's important that post-gamescom for your follow ups you keep your deck small and concise. Generally speaking 10 - 15 slides tops outlining the opportunity. I highly recommend my podcast/talk with Jay Powell & IndieGameBusiness®. I talk about gamescom around 21:00 time stamp. A lot of the times Developers forget about the "Ask" slide. This is one of the most important one there is. What are you actually looking for and what's the timeline? Be as upfront as possible about what you have and what's missing. * Budget * Porting cabilities (if you're doing multi-platform) and if you need help in getting dev kits. * Production timeline * Marketing, PR, Asset Creation * Community management.. etc. If you have a "Tier 1 List" or "Top Publishers" you want to work with, spend some extra time to prepare custom-slides for them. Show them why they are the right fit for your product. Why their previous launches/audience matches your game and so forth. It's really tough for investors and publishers to dig through 30+ slide decks just to evaluate whether or not they want to proceed further. The ask slide will instantly remove potential partners and avoid wasting both of your time. Agora Gaming Partners #bizdev #gamescom

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Dear Stretch Network Partners, Please allow me to inform you about additional changes that will take place in the global network on July 8. 🍀 All Heads-up tables will be removed 🍀 Badugi cash tables will be removed 🍀 Sonic cash tables will become 6-max 🍀 The minimum buy-in for Sonic Omaha cash tables will be 20 BB 🍀 Sonic Omaha 7 card cash tables will be added These changes apply only to cash tables and only to our Global Network. In your local networks, you decide your product strategy, but we would be happy to assist you in managing your local networks as well. If you need our help, please contact us. The above-mentioned changes are part of the new strategy for the Stretch Network Global Network, which prioritizes the comfort of novice players and casual traffic to maintain the proper balance of our ecosystem between amateurs and professionals. Caring for the ecosystem of the Global Network is our priority. The changes we are implementing now and will continue to implement will significantly improve the user experience for your players, extend their LTV, ARPU, and, of course, Revenue.

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50% towards giving myself a completely separate sales stack totally decoupled (yup not just for developers) from my CEO inbox, something I should have done years ago to aid with focus and getting away from the constant hamster wheel of ‘priorities.’ So far: * Google Chrome for its multi-profile browser functionality  * Google Workspace for email * Pipedrive for scheduling calendar, CRM, proposals and sales reporting * Google Meet integrated with Pipedrive for meeting scheduling  * Loom for video messaging, explainer videos  * Canva for proposal design (then using Pipedrive’s Google Drive integration for proposals) * Zapier for moving data around (would entertain alternatives that are easier to configure, their AI setups stuff is duff) * Drift for webchats Chuck your ideas or recommendations at me before I’m too deep in to get back out! What would you use in your sales stack if you could start again? Next week: automations…

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We had a 1 on 1 interview with Naoto Hiraoka from ATLUS. We talked about various topics such as ATLUS’s growth and strategy, the challenge of global release and of course their new game Metaphor: ReFantazio.

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Do you know what is Fair play in games? Fair play is a way to be competitive in a game without spoiling it for others When I ranted about founders and sales professionals in LinkedIn in my last post, It got me thinking about how online channels maintain the integrity with millions of users Online multiplayer games have a fairplay score. If a player quits in middle of a game or goes away from keyboard, they reduce the score. Lower the score, harder to find matching with good players. When humans and AI are working together, to retain the fun in the workplace, it might be important to create a fair play score dashboard between humans and AI so that AI doesn’t do all the work! 😂 #GenAI #FairPlay #Games

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Want to become a YouTuber? A story about how much influencers actually earn on YouTube. Imagine 10 million people watched your video. How much do you think you'd earn? A million? A hundred thousand? Borge, a Norwegian blogger living in London, showed the reality of earnings on YouTube. Her video about living in a tiny 365 square foot apartment got 10 million views. The result? Borge reveals 3 main sources of income for short video creators: 1. Sponsorship: In Borge's case — $0. The video wasn't sponsored. 2. YouTube AdSense: A measly $10.56. 3. YouTube Shorts Fund: The main source of income — $373. These figures shocked not only Borge but also her subscribers. "383 dollars for 10,000,000 views? I thought it would be much more!" — the most popular comment. This story destroys the myth of fabulous YouTuber earnings: millions of views don't guarantee millions of dollars. So next time you see a blogger boasting millions of views, remember: behind each "viral" video might be a very modest check. And one more point. Often, people become YouTubers because they don't want to interact with others. They want to calmly make videos at home and earn money. Without a boss or client, with calm nerves. But it turns out that to earn well, you need to find advertisers, coordinate ads, shoot them, approve them, deal with tax and payment issues. And now you're filming for an hour a day, and spending the rest of the time solving all these issues.

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It's time, had a bit of a summer gap! Drama summary for esports and gaming coming right up for you! We all heard the news about Guild Gaming and it'll go in history as once more an IPO that underperformed, lots of quickly withdrawn cash and value, into a shaky operations where soon the impression arose that this was never about building a team, but more about playing the financial markets Twitch makes 2 headlines. One being still unprofitable, which is a recurrent topic and unclear if Amazon is fine with the strategy, given the secondary revenue they create. Second headline is a public apology after Twitch turned on the camera of people that don't want to be seen, e.g. in the Vtuber scene. Epulze which over the years worked hard to become a second destination next to Faceit e.g. for Dota 2 now struggles with payment delays from the DPC season. Some of those issues are now dating back over a year with contractors and staff still waiting. #Turkey went on a banning spree and deemed various ventures a "threat". In gaming, platforms such a Roblox and Discord are not reachable anymore for Turkish players. Given various of such bans, the question remains is the ministry truly about child protection or is it more of a political move. The VPN companies will be happy! At the same time as Microsoft keeps laying off people, they're also under scrutiny by the #FTC for the price adjustment on game passes Lots more things happened, have a look and enjoy! #esports #gaming #drama #news #lawsuit #IP #copyright #layoffs #IPO #investment #streaming #cheaters #ban

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How I find the most relevant candidate for a role (100% of our customers work with us because of the quality of our profiles) Do your research: don't let fancy titles trick you. 1. Gather as many possible candidates you can (we have 1000+ in our DB) 2. Pass all through a predefined, custom-specific filter 3. Call with the most relevant candidates 4. Reference calls (optional) 5. Never take short-cuts Stop settling for good-enough, start going for perfect-fit. Because no one cares about your challenges, they care about winning. Earn your respect, deliver first.

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Status check of the Swedish games industry Do we still need people? Look, it’s me! I had the honor of giving my view on the current staffing landscape in Swedish Games Industry 2024: Game Developer Index So, even after a few tough years, do we still need people? Short answer: yes, we do! As I shared in a previous post, the Swedish games industry is still growing And studios will always need seniors and specialists. In fact, the demand has increased significantly after the summer this year If you are looking for your next gig in games, you should definitely consider Sweden! Here’s what I’ve seen since starting Game Boost: 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 2021: There has been a significant shift in mindset around contractors → Initially, consultants were rare and mainly used during time-pressured periods. → Now, studios incorporate more consultants into their general staffing strategy. → New studios keep their core team small and back up with external help. My observation is that things are finally starting to happen in the staffing area After 10 years of “this is how it’s always been done” New ways to staff for efficient productions are emerging. Exciting times! 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: We are seeing a split in how studios handle contractors → Some studios cut back on consultants to reduce direct costs. → Others bring in consultants to minimize long-term risks and costs. My observation is that contractors are crucial in unstable times. They provide access to specialists you need for shorter periods You get a game that can compete in the market out without a massive long-term cost. 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: Specialities vary, Unreal stays a must have → Previously people mostly requested Unreal programmers (they are still in demand) → Now they also look for animators, producers, and UI/UX designers. → You need field experience to hit the ground running. → Important traits: self-motivation, good team player, not afraid to ask questions, proficiency in English. My observation is that to be successful in contracting you need to bring more to the table than your hard skills. A good consultant is both productive and shares their knowledge to strengthen the team. To sum it up: The Swedish games industry is thriving and modernizing staffing - it’s a great market for developers with professional experience and unreal competence. PS Swedish Games Industry 2024: Game Developer Index is a yearly report produced by the Dataspelsbranschen / Swedish Games Industry. (Link to English and Swedish versions of the full report in the comments) As a loyal reader and someone who looks forward to the report every year, I was excited to be part of it. Thank you Johanna Nylander and Elin Carlsson for letting me share my perspectives ❤️

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A conversation point in Germany is the desire to be more competitive within the gaming industry. With opportunities like cash prizes with Der Deutsche Computerspielpreis | Der DCP and game - German Games Industry Association there are active efforts to provide funding to studios and make Germany more attractive for game development. It's an interesting contrast against the layoffs across gaming that perhaps with these kind of initiatives and so much talent in the industry looking for their next opportunity - could be a launch pad for some fantastic new studios developing in Germany. https://lnkd.in/dc8srPY5

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In the latest Elite Game Developers newsletter Edvard Groundstroem, co-founder of Flowstate Games, which shut down recently, shares his learnings. In a typical 🇫🇮 Finnish way, there's zero sugar coating. I recommend everyone to read it. Here are my three key takeaways from the interview: 1️⃣ Have a compelling strategy and adjust your work inside of it rather than pivoting to the new and shiny thing when the going gets rough. Without a strategy, you're making MVPs that lead to failing fast and pivoting too soon into the unknown. While we hear stories of pivots leading to ultimate success, the vast majority of startups (and not only startups...) pivoted themselves to death without ever building any expertise in anything. I've made this mistake multiple times before and only in my startup was I adamant never to switch genres. 2️⃣ Listen to VCs but don't take orders from them. Chasing "product-VC" fit and trying to hit their "flavor of the week KPIs" means that you've handed control of the direction of your company to an external party. I was there too thinking that VCs know it all. It wasn't until I understood that VCs give a perspective not a direction that our execution improved. Listen to VCs but remember that the ultimate decision is on you. 3️⃣ Complacency is the death of execution. Startups should be in code red until they start generating sufficient revenue. Getting funded doesn't mean you're good. It means that you have limited runway to prove you can execute. Edvard Groundstroem put it better than I ever could "Making great commercial products that can scale as a business is hard. Understanding how a game goes from good to great is instrumental, and the only way to gain insight into that is to study games that made it, as well as the ones that seemed liked they would but didn’t." This is painful to read. I've failed at instilling product expertise within everyone in the studio multiple times before thinking that if just a few key people have it, it's enough. I highly recommend Joakim Achren's Elite Game Developers newsletter to everyone working in games. 🙏 thank you Eddie for the public post-mortem! #gameindustry #gamedevelopment

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Epulze (esports), as per CSO and Co-Founder Markus Lövgren, said today, "Due to some organizational restructuring, we unfortunately have to let some of our valued team members go." If your role was affected by this action, our community is here to offer support through our three homes: Home 1 - 🔗 AMIRSATVAT.COM: Our main hub provides 15 resources to assist you in finding work, featuring a fully updated design. - 🔗 Games Org Support Posts: Find a template at AMIRSATVAT.COM (Category 4, Resource 10). If you can provide information from your team (with their consent), I’ll help edit and disseminate the final product, reaching 100,000+ people. These posts are highly effective in increasing visibility, and we've done 98 of them. Home 2 - 🔗 Discord: Join us at discord.gg/amirsatvat, our live extension of community resources. With nearly 3,600 members, we are currently in an open-join phase. Home 3 - 🔗 LinkedIn: Our community here includes nearly 89,000 members, with 1-3 daily posts offering support and career assistance in the games industry. How the Broader Community Can Help: - Spread the Word: Reshares and comments on this post amplify the visibility of these resources. - Offer Support: Utilize the 13 ways listed on AMIRSATVAT.COM under "How You Can Help" to assist, or simply lend an ear or advice on our Discord server. - Join Our Movement: Volunteer with us at AMIRSATVAT.COM to support our colleagues in the games industry. Our network has facilitated over 2,000 jobs and 35,000 coaching conversations to date, the largest impact of any games organization on earth, and has been visited by millions of gamers lifetime.

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Here's why YouTube might still be a sleeping giant: This thread might feel scattered - it covers general best practices I see people missing as well as features I’d love to see. YouTube is arguably the biggest streaming platform in the world (depending on how you look at it) but in many respects, some of its utility is still in the early stages. Best practices One general best practice I see artists missing all the time is not uploading audio videos or visualizers to their channel in the absence of official music videos. Many artists don’t upload the song to their YouTube channel (even if it’s just audio) and as a result, miss out on opportunity for a few reasons: 1) It’s a more enjoyable user experience for your fans to listen to your new music directly on your channel 2) Uploading all of your new music can help capitalize on any SEO around that new song and increase your channel growth 3) When audio (as well as music videos) uploaded to your channel are claimed by YouTube’s Content ID, it can help increase the overall consumption of the song with those views being reported to Music Connect / Luminate. Features I’d love to see 1) YouTube’s version of Instagram collab posts - so that when publishing a video, you can directly hit the subscribers of another channel 2) Sharing directly to IG stories - the ability to share videos from YouTube natively to Instagram stories and having those IG story views count toward the YouTube video 3) Cleaner merch integration - instead of a merch “shelf” underneath the video, having a cleaner and more visible way of displaying products 4) Embedded player in text messages - when texting a YouTube link to a friend using an iPhone or Android, having a snippet of the video embed in the text message and play 5) Publish directly from YouTube (long form) to social - the ability to select time stamps and video formatting (wide or vertical), cut snippets, and publish directly to social 6) YouTube as a workspace While YouTube is about publishing videos and sort of the “end result” in the content distribution pipeline (since it’s being uploaded), what happens to all of the work beforehand? I could see YouTube integrating a video editing workspace into its platform - what if you could edit, share feedback, finalize, and publish a video all in one place? Here's a free guide on how to view your YouTube analytics and understand your channel audience https://lnkd.in/ectKdmsc

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💭 Reports of the last week (16.09.24 - 20.09.24) A report about the casual market in H1'24 from AppMagic is curious for the reason that Match-3 is showing the highest success rate among reviewed subgenres. Yes, the "success" was measured as $50k/month, which is far from being a sustainable revenue in the bloody ocean of match-3 titles. Still, the data shows that there is room for new titles. For example, those pursuing the male audience - Chrome Valley Customs & Truck Star. CVC is lacking in terms of growth, true, but there are underserved audiences in what many thought was an already populated market. We also have a rapidly growing sub-genre - a sort puzzle, which grew 12-fold in revenue since H1'23. It's already a very competitive genre (160 games have been released in the first half of 2024, and only 3 of them have been able to grow to $50k/month revenue). A great example of hybridization of hypercasual genre, and great implementation of IAP that helped to boost the LTV of users. What I find great is that there is a motion. After quite stagnant recent years with only a couple of breakthroughs, it seems that more titles popping up here and there. For reports of the week, please, follow the link: https://lnkd.in/d3qXDFkz

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With our $61.500 USD (430.000 DKK) investment We will not hire anyone. Here is how we will use it: Monthly costs Salaries Marius - 2200 USD (15.000 DKK) Villads - 2200 USD (15.000 DKK) Software licenses Total - 1100 USD (7.500 DKK) Food (dinner for the long evenings) Total - 1000 USD (7.500 DKK) Office 2 desks - 600 USD (4.000 DKK) Other - 1000 USD (7.000 DKK) Monthly income: Recurring revenue - 3250 USD (23.000 DKK) In short, we’ve been able to build a product from 0 to 1 and get to 3250 MRR without funding I think every founder would agree that it was way harder to get from 0 to 3250 MRR than to go from 3250 MRR to 10.000 MRR When we hit that we will be profitable Which means that we can grow faster The key insight that Sebastian Seilund and Esben Friis-Jensen taught us In our situation, money does not guarantee that we grow faster, it can easily be a distraction So we will continue to do everything ourselves Keep executing 🦄 #investment #unicorn #StartUp #founder 

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“How do I get noticed by an executive headhunter and land a C-suite or a board level position?” In the latest Deconstructor of Fun podcast Gerard Miles from Mission One delves into complexities of executive headhunting in the games industry. With a background of 15 years as a headhunters, Gerard sheds light on the multifaceted nature of executive positions and debunking common misconceptions about the executive sphere. Some of the topics we discuss: 🕵️‍♂️How do you identify potential executive candidates? 💎 What qualities differentiate exceptional executives from the rest? 👌🏼How do you assess (cultural) fit during the hiring process? 🤕common mistakes executives make during hiring process? 👫 role of diversity in executive searches Gerard also shares advice for aspiring executives seeking career growth and answers community questions. Kudos to Katerina H. for the write up! (Link in the comments) #headhunting #gameindustry

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Interesting report from VG Insights giving some hard numbers on the extra opportunity for building and growing game IPs through other types of media, be they TV, movies, books and more. Too often, game companies are only looking at the direct business opportunities of transmedia projects to determine whether they want to engage into it or not, but the real opportunity is indirect, it is through the engagement of new and existing players, and extra sales of existing games, even with very little is done on older titles. We've seen this on The Witcher, on The Last of Us, now on Fallout, and many more.

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FYP! Here’s your insights to the early days of the Necesse franchise and Fair Games by Founder and CEO Mads Skovgaard 🙏

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