Robin Lau

shawn layden spoke on the future of game development during Gamescom Asia. There's a lot here that I find interesting and insightful, but what really hit home for me was this quote about how video games were made back in the day: "We asked the simple question: is it fun? Are we having a good time? If you said yes to those questions, you'd usually get a green light. You didn't worry so much about the end piece, for better or for worse. Of course, back then you didn't make a game for millions [of] dollars. So your risk tolerance was fairly high." It resonates with me for multiple reasons: 1. It takes the easily dismissed naivety of happy-go-lucky idealists (that's me!) who just want to make "a fun game that people can have fun with because it's fun" and reframes it as basic business sense. It's not just about dreaming up games—it's about diversifying risk. By spreading budgets across smaller, creative projects, we hedge against failure rather than betting everything on a single massive hit. It’s a business approach that’s as viable today as it was back then. 2. It's sympathetic as hell. Layden’s point reminds us that, at its core, game development is still about joy. Sure, things are more complex now, but that core question—"Is it fun?"—is timeless. It feels like he’s advocating for a return to games as creative expressions, not just money-making machines. And as someone who’s always leaned toward that philosophy, it feels good to hear someone of his stature echo it. 3. It’s still really doable. Sure, I’m the first to admit it’s easy to romanticize the past, and things are more complex now. But just imagine: take one of the big-budget flops of recent years, the ones with hundreds of millions in budget, and ask what that same budget could achieve if spread across smaller, more creative projects. Even on the low end, one of those games could basically pay for every indie game project here in Gothenburg (may contain traces of hyperbole). But at the very least, it could pay 2,000 developers a really fair wage for one year, which should be enough to evaluate the feasibility of the game. Anyways, those are my stream-of-consciousness thoughts on it. Highly recommended read: https://lnkd.in/d3pVWBJV #GameDevelopment #IndieGames #ShawnLayden #GameIndustry #GamescomAsia #GamingInsights #CreativeRisk #IndieDev #GameDesign #VideoGames #GameEcosystem #DevelopmentPhilosophy #GameBudgets

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The Singapore Games Association (SGGA), led by chairperson Don Baey, aims to foster growth in Singapore’s gaming industry by supporting indie developers and attracting international companies. SGGA, initially the Singapore Games Guild, has grown from small meetups to a significant community resource, supporting local creators through networking events, collaborations with educational institutions, and industry showcases like Gamescom Asia. Despite high living costs and competition from major corporations, Singapore remains a strategic hub for tech, yet challenges remain for indie studios, particularly in funding and talent retention. Baey highlights SGGA’s role in advocating for industry-specific government support and guiding foreign companies interested in entering Singapore. By connecting with Southeast Asian trade groups, SGGA also seeks to strengthen regional ties, promoting Southeast Asia as a diverse, creative powerhouse in global gaming. #singapore #gamingassociation #gamingindustry #jobindustry #games #gaming #singaporegamesassociation #thesocialtalks #asia #corporation #gamescom

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🚨 SINGAPORE GAME DEVELOPERS LISTEN UP 🚨   IMDA has launched a Call for Proposal (CFP) for games that are designed to promote and engage audiences with Singaporean narratives and culture. No, they're not asking you to resurrect World of Temasek... Think about Ghostlore, or Chinatown Detective Agency! Games with good taste!   Selected proposals will receive S$50,000 to develop a prototype/vertical slice (ie. a playable with at least 10-minute gameplay) over four-months, to be showcased at a physical event. The selected teams will receive regular feedback from a curated panel comprising the leads of renowned publishers (somehow, I'm on this panel), which will help push the vertical slice towards globally competitive quality standards. If you're a Singapore game development team looking to make something that meaningfully pays homage to the Singaporean cultural identity - but is still a viable, fun game that's relatable for a global audience!! - then please apply! I'm hoping to see lots of local developers, including all those who've been daunted by the prospect of how to sustain themselves while developing their own prototype, push their creative proposals forward.   Check out the CFP guideline and further details at https://lnkd.in/gn46spr3.   Submit your proposal by 24 Jun 2024 here: https://lnkd.in/gQkFxE2w

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Tencent Games has acquired a 51.4% controlling stake in Kuro Games, the makers of Wuthering Waves. This move involved the purchase of a 37.07% stake from HK Hero Entertainment, making Tencent the sole external shareholder in Kuro Games. With this acquisition, Hero Entertainment has completely divested its stake in Kuro Games. An internal memo from Kuro Games highlights Tencent’s commitment to maintaining the company’s independent operations. The approach aims to follow successful models employed by Riot Games and Supercell, emphasizing strategic autonomy. Hero Entertainment has been a key supporter of Kuro Games since 2018, contributing to the development of titles like Punishing: Gray Raven and Wuthering Waves. Tencent began investing in Kuro Games more recently, holding a 14.33% stake in 2022. The remaining ownership structure prior to the acquisition included 48.59% held by Kuro’s founding team and 37.07% by HK Hero Entertainment. Kuro Games expressed optimism about the partnership, citing Tencent’s resources and expertise as key to ensuring stability and fostering long-term growth. With Tencent now holding a majority stake, the company anticipates further innovation and success, building on the momentum of Wuthering Waves’ acclaim.

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☀ Summer Game Fest is almost here! We'll soon be quizzing our consumer panel of gamers to find out their thoughts on SGF, the games featured, other industry livestream events, the Switch 2 and more. 📣 Order a copy of our Consumer Sentiment Report to find out what they say. It'll be packed full of invaluable gamer insights to help you make data-driven, educated decisions. More details: 👉 https://lnkd.in/etj2w8uA #VideoGames #MarketResearch #VideoGameIndustry

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Stepping back into the world of "The Story of Kamona" with MAMA and Tencent Games! As the journey unfolds, expect more captivating storytelling that will leave you wanting more! 🎮 Check out episode 5 “THE RAT” below! 👇🏻 #MamaProduction #StoryOfKamona #TencentGames #Gamescom2024 #MoreFunStudios

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Next week is special: it's time to see the GamesBeat (GB) family again. Alongside my Tencent Games home team, it's hard to think of another organization that has meant more to me. Everyone knows my love for games. Inches away is my love of reading and journalism. As a young adult, I went to the library to read columnists in the Boston Globe and Washington Post. A number of family members are in journalism. What to do when making a business in journalism is so tough? GB's answer: everything, smartly, starting with community. Last October was the biggest intimate event I've attended. Next week's attendance was over 800 last I checked, yet it feels like a gathering at a friend's house. At a GB event, all my worlds come together. Social media friends are welcomed and get their own events. This year my Tencent family is coming. Others I care about in games are there too. The GB team gives everybody chances. After last year, I wanted to get more amazing people on the boat. THE INVINCIBLE Gina Joseph and THE GREAT Dean Takahashi (both always in caps) are so trusting and encouraging. Everybody I've suggested, because they know I vet carefully, is going to be on a panel. Many bigger events don't give our community anything. When I mentioned things to Gina, she gave 2x the tickets I hoped for. Dean is right there with the most down-to-earth superstars. Everybody knows and likes him. Between social media and the GB site, he can post dozens of stories in a day. But I love most Dean's vulnerability. In the stories he shared about his mom or his opening words last October, my breath was taken away. This is the heart more games leaders could show. Everybody else on staff is exceptional. With Jordan Fragen and Rachel Kasar, everybody is unleashed to have their own style. I love seeing picks and recommendations for games alongside serious reporting, where in other settings they wouldn't mix. Catherine Simpson keeps everything as smooth and calm as the Spirit Tracks. Gina seems to receive an honor every time I blink because she champions change and inclusion and knows how to mix that with traditional business engagement. Every time I've asked Gina or Dean to talk to someone, they gave time. Every time I recommended someone to Dean for a story, he gave it serious consideration. There's also a lot that happens behind the scenes with GB. They want to know more about analyses. They ask me interesting questions and follow up. You have to attend these. At what other event do we have discussions of layoffs alongside inclusion breakfasts and chats for diverse groups, alongside cutting-edge industry talk, and luminaries to boot? I'm proud Tencent stepped up as a platinum sponsor for OUR INDUSTRY'S TREASURE. GB, you bend the curve by having real engagement, pulling everybody in, and winning them over one at a time. I'm so excited for Monday and to see all my friends again. I'm bringing my GB foam finger this time. Show some GB love, will you?

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Bucket list check : Executive producer🪣 ✅ In Q4 2024 Gold Standard Gaming got to execute our first high budget ad. I shot my first ad back in 2020 with about a $300 budget. 💯 By now-we've shot and delivered over $400,000 in ads ✅ But this one was special because GSG creative.. Created 🧠 Wrote ✍🏾 Storyboarded/Scripted 📑 This project. What an incredible experience AND case study this was! 🔥 The message behind the ad was about showcasing the behavior that people of ALL backgrounds deal with while playing games in online multiplayer. As someone who's been in the competitive scene since 15 yrs old. It was amazing meeting different people from all walks of life talking about their experiences and how we can continue to make gaming a safe, inclusive space for everyone. 🎮🌊 While we were addressing a serious topic that will take ALL of us to make change, being on set and learning more about both production AND different perspectives was an incredible experience. As we continue to grow as professionals, it's important to make sure we share our experiences and key learnings. 🔑 We've re-signed this client and we're going EVEN bigger this year. Calling all industry talent 📢📢 If you want to change the gaming culture and leave the industry better than how you found it. Hit my DM! 📩 We start next month. Don't wait. We can all Shine our light in our own ways😎🎮 P.S. shoutout to Adam S. Hacker and the Havelyn House team for making the experience smooth and professional. 🎥 #Esports #Entrepreneurship #Gaming #Marketing #Production

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Synced, free-to-play shooter, by Tencent Games is being shut down. The servers will be shut down exactly one year after the game's launch, though Tencent did not provide a reason for the closure. Players can continue to enjoy the game and use their existing in-game items until Synced is fully retired at 7pm on September 8 (GMT -8). As a result, new registrations and the in-app store have been disabled. https://lnkd.in/ekc8vyzt #gaming #gamingnews #useracquisition #mediabuyingagency #followus #digitalmarketing #digitalmarketingagency

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🎮 Meet the gamers of Southeast Asia - they’re independent, crave action, and are big on dedication, with 6 in 10 hooked on to gaming livestreams on Twitch, and an equal number indulging in reruns. Their top picks? League of Legends, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, and FIFA. Want insider intel on gamer lifestyles in Southeast Asia? 🕵️‍♂️ Get in touch for the full scoop! 📩  https://lnkd.in/gbNu5XYb  #SoutheastAsia #Data #Research #Analytics #DataAnalytics #MarketResearch #Survey #SurveySoftware #Gaming #Gamers #Gamer #Twitch

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🚀 Revolutionizing Esports with Hopae's Next-Gen Identity Verification Solution   🌐 The $2 billion esports industry faces significant challenges with identity verification - and Hopae is here to fix it! We're thrilled to announce our partnership with the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency (BIPA) to implement an esports participant authentication system at the Busan Esports Stadium.   🔗 This marks the first global application of blockchain-based decentralized technology in the esports sector. Our aim? To streamline player registration and authentication processes, drastically reduce administrative burdens, and enhance the efficiency of tournament operations. 🎮 Why is this a Game-Changer for Esports? 👉 Lower Operational Costs: With our DID technology, esports organizations can utilize a unified system to manage participant data across multiple tournaments, slashing time and resources spent on manual processes. 👉 Preventing Data Fragmentation: Our solution ensures a unified, interoperable identity for each player, making data centralized, secure, and easily accessible. 👉 Instant Distribution of Prize Money: Slow and manual verification processes delay prize payouts. By integrating verified bank accounts and using escrow systems, our solution ensures secure, transparent, and swift financial transactions, speeding up prize disbursements significantly. Learn more about how we’re setting new standards in esports in our blog post. Feel free to connect with us or leave a comment if you're interested in learning more about our esports solution. #esports #DID #reusableidentity #Hopae #DigitalID #Digitalidentity #Busan #esportplayers

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At Razer, innovation isn't just a buzzword—it's in our DNA. Over the years, we've introduced features that were ahead of their time, often stirring debates and even facing bans. Yet, time and again, these innovations have become standards in the gaming industry. The Razer Boomslang, the world's first gaming mouse that pushed boundaries so far it got banned in competitive play because of high-DPI, which is now pretty much a feature in every gaming mouse on the planet. The Razer Blade: Pioneered the slim, high-performance gaming laptop, proving that power can come in elegant, slim form factors when people questioned the need for the existence of gaming laptops. Now, pretty much the reference for all gaming laptops. The Razer Naga MMO mouse with the industry defining keypad - again, a standard for all multi-button mice today. The Razer Onza controller that was banned by the competitive leagues until it was lifted after all the many esports athletes swore by theirs. And the list goes on... Today, we face similar debate in the industry when we launched Snap Tap Mode on the Huntsman V3 Pro line. Much like our early high DPI mice and HyperPolling technology, Snap Tap will be called cheating, the unfair advantage - but I'm pretty sure the industry will follow as yet another benchmark established by Razer. As always - we continue to push the limits of hardware and software and bring the unfair advantage to our esports athletes and gamers all over the world - the #RazerAdvantage

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Last year in December, I had the pleasure of facilitating a chat with Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan, David Neichel, Paul J. Foster ☀️🌏 and Kwangjun Song The World Esports Summit was hosted in Busan, by International Esports Federation and was a fantastic forum for some of the leading stakeholders, coming together to discuss and share insights on their esports vision, despite having many overlapping interests, with a mix of Global Esports Federation, ESL FACEIT Group - EFG, Saudi Esports Federation, Esports World Cup Foundation, Savvy Games Group and BigPicture Interactive (World Cyber Games). A few takeaways from my perspective: 1️⃣ Esports has massive room for further innovation and it's only just beginning. The International Olympic Committee – IOC are not trying to own all of esports, and Esports World Cup Foundation is not trying to take it all. The Olympics coming is a sign that the mainstream are taking more attention to us, and Esports World Cup is a vision and a bit of a scale that's never been seen before in the history of gaming. They're hoping this leads to ripple effects of other people creating and the ecosystem growing and thriving as a whole. Embrace the moves, and get stuck in. 2️⃣ The future of esports is so much more than just the top-tier, trophy lifters and biggest brands. The world is a big place, internet penetration is constantly improving, new and more accessible games are launched, and the next generations are coming. Making esports thrive for the next 100 years, is about enabling grassroots in all countries, finding sustainability all the way from bottom to top, empowering the volunteers and heroes that bring healthy gaming habits and big dreams to the future generations of superstars. Huge opportunity lies in the layer below the top. 3️⃣ Healthy competition and respectful collaboration is what gets us to the next phase. We need to welcome competition, new initiatives and new takes on the industry as a whole. Constantly fighting each other for the top seat at the table is not going to work in an industry that is by design fragmented. Games are owned by publishers, and there are many different ones. In sports, federations sit on top, they don't here. It gives an amazing opportunity to build unique offerings in each game, combining the right stakeholders that creates the most value for the end users. All in all a great experience, and an absolute pleasure to assist these guys in having this talk, and a great initiative by IESF. An abundance of purpose, experience and drive sitting between them all, and I'd recommend following them all to stay updated on all the progress. So much has happened since December. With the opening of the Esports World Cup, Olympics having officially entered and more things to come, I can only imagine where we might be in another 6 months, let alone 6 years. Esports is the future, and it is here to stay! ❤️ 🎮 🚀 #esports #gaming #leadership #innovation #sports #olympics

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"The Southeast Asian region is well-known as a hub for various outsourcing companies in the games industry. Through years of building skills and expertise working to support massive triple-A titles, creative and technical talent and production knowledge have grown in various countries in the region, attracting the attention of large players in the games industry. One such global presence investing in Southeast Asia is the Singapore-headquartered game development company Virtuos. Aside from their head office, they also manage Vietnam’s largest external game development operation. Their co-development services provide large game developers and publishers access to diverse talent. In turn, this leads to a growth of experience with the top IPs of the global market in a region needing more experts and leaders." Read the full article on VirtualSEA to learn about the avenues that Southeast Asian games have been taking to stake their claim in the global game development discussion: https://lnkd.in/gZq_yPHD

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"The Southeast Asian region is well-known as a hub for various outsourcing companies in the games industry. Through years of building skills and expertise working to support massive triple-A titles, creative and technical talent and production knowledge have grown in various countries in the region, attracting the attention of large players in the games industry. One such global presence investing in Southeast Asia is the Singapore-headquartered game development company Virtuos. Aside from their head office, they also manage Vietnam’s largest external game development operation. Their co-development services provide large game developers and publishers access to diverse talent. In turn, this leads to a growth of experience with the top IPs of the global market in a region needing more experts and leaders." Read the full article on VirtualSEA to learn about the avenues that Southeast Asian games have been taking to stake their claim in the global game development discussion: https://lnkd.in/gZq_yPHD

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