Bob Makin

No squatch sightings last weekend...but wow...what a week since. A massively productive one for The Glitch (on all fronts), and apparently some other things happened around the industry as well...huh. Alright...let's-a-go: OMY@C 🤘 ⛏ - Metallica will be in Fortnite soon. The event is called "Metallica: Fuel Fire Fury," and it will kick off on June 22nd. The San Francisco band got on the Fortnite Festival stage yesterday - so if you're curious...hop on in there. RIP Cliff. RIP Eddie. 🍎 - Apple's WWDC was this week...and their formal entry into Ai was the big takeaway. "Apple Intelligence," was the name they landed on. Essentially, it's Ai integrated through every aspect of their various OS's...adding personal context to everything. My first reaction was...do I want that though? On one hand, this feels like the first real indication of where consumer Ai is headed...on the other: privacy? A big part of Apple's presentation of their Ai is "setting a brand-new standard for privacy in Ai." So...they're well aware of the line that's being crossed. Apple's 5-minute video overview (on their site) shows you how "Ai for the rest of us" will work...and it's easy to be cynical about it. A squirrel DJ...cool. Custom emoji's...neat. Still...you should watch it. When app devs finally start building for this though...look out. PREDICTION: iPhone 16 will be the best selling iPhone yet. The 6 sold 222M units total...71.5MM units in it's first 3 months...so we'll know by year's end how this crazy statement is trending. 📺 🎮 - Mike Verdu will soon be leaving his role as VP of Netflix Games (and starting a new role with the company). Speculation is rampant about what this means for the games unit. It's possible that it means...nothing at all. I'm still massively bullish on the gaming opportunity for Netflix. My personal opinion is that transmedia is the biggest, most exciting play here...but I've also heard there are internal headwinds on that. 🤷‍♂️ 🍷 ⛵ - I'm not going to Cannes...again. Maybe some day. I'll drink rosé and look important at home...again. I'm not bitter. 📺 🎮 - Follow Friday: Two nerds with a webcam...that you absolutely should be following if you're in the games business: 1) Chris Melissinos (Principal Evangelist for Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Video interviews with games industry legends, deep retro dives, and discussions on the top news. 2) Alexander Seropian (Founder/CEO of Look North World) - Host of "The Fourth Curtain," is always a headliner event. 📺 - Palm Royale (Apple+). Kristen Wiig as a social climber in 1960's south Florida. So good. Save a grasshopper for me. 🎵 - Spotify's "Daylist" - pull the throttle back a bit with your list names though. "90's Indie Twee Friday Afternoon," might be accurate...but it's embarrassing. 🎮 - It's been 2 weeks since I picked up Hogwarts Legacy and Vampire Survivors...haven't started either yet. THAT's how busy it's been.

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I recently created a section on my site, called One Pagers – https://lnkd.in/eR9EbsKB The idea is to capture big and important areas of my life into one page. I’ve kicked things off with a one pager on How to Invest – https://lnkd.in/eKjpCa-v This has been a ten + year journey for me, with many twists and turns. I’ve finally settled on something straight forward, which will help me achieve my long term financial goals. And importantly, is right for me. I’m not saying this is the only way to invest, or that it will work for you. But, I do think it’s a pretty solid medium risk strategy for how most people might want to think about investing for the future. And in any case, it’s not a bad place to start thinking from. P.S. A gigantic thanks to my friend Paraskevas Avraam. He has been a HUGE help in evolving my own thinking on investing, and helped me become more self aware of my tolerance for risk over the last ten years or so. P.P.S The next one pager I will write will be bringing together my stance for how to train and exercise. Watch this space.

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A little blog post I wrote on how we do flexible working at Netspeak Games - always keen to hear what other companies do! Comment in the thread below 👇 https://lnkd.in/eJY8FXwd #flexibleworking #gamesindustry #blog

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The Sumo Group closures really have broken me a bit, and I need to rant about the state of things. I'm sorry if it seems I'm glossing over all the closures before this one, but so many ex-students went there, so many ex-colleagues passed through there, and so my timeline is just filled with people looking for work. We keep talking and talking about the economic factors involved, Brexit and Covid and this and that ... the thing I can't stop thinking of is that in my life I've watched the world slowly pitch into a place of despondent capitalism. Art has become more about making stars and fame than helping people escape and reflect. A drive for "truth" and objectivity has resulted, paradoxically, in people putting more stock in spreadsheets and numbers than people. I can't help but feel that if you're bleating about finance and trade deals and business decisions, you're ignoring the fact that general support for artistic and creative endeavours has declined sharply and is still declining, even in the so-called "art world". Games are ultimately always going to be the first to fall in a culture war against creativity, because games are ultimately and profoundly pointless things. That's the whole majesty of the medium: they make us feel profound feelings, they help us explore our existence by being separate from reality, but to do so they MUST bring us nothing tangible in return. The truth is that our industry will probably bounce back to some degree, but it's not any financial structures or cost systems that will save game development as a medium and an art form - it's a cultural shift to recognise the importance of expressive and explorative subjective art in the world today, and the need to support creative endeavours without the pressure of financial recompense.

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Our 5 biggest struggles as a Glasgow based studio were: 1. Not being a London based studio 2. Limited local opportunities in our niche 3. Small local talent pool (voice actors) 4. Non local prospects wanted to work with a sound design partner on their street So here's what we did: 1. Persevered. And guess what? The world changed. The business landscape shifted. It turns out: 1. Not being a London based studio is now our biggest advantage 2. Now our local industry is growing and we can add tremendous value to it. 3. We cast our projects from all over the UK and beyond. Unbeatable casting service. 4. We only work with clients who focus on the creative and relationships. Not convenience. What areas have you or your studio struggled with? How have things changed?

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What’s the one thing that only you can do? Some thought it was strange when we setup a voice casting & recording location in London. Why? Because we already had studios in the UK. Glasgow to be precise. Do you really need multiple locations in one country the size of the UK? No. You do not. And we worked with a hybrid model for years. A mix of recording in our own rooms and partner studios in London. But the time comes when it makes sense to invest in what you believe. And we believe in helping clients improve the: - Diversity - Authenticity - Variety Of their voice casting efforts. It's simple really. By catering for voice talent from the north of the country to the south - and everywhere in between - we can: - Hear / see more actors That's it. More actors = more diversity More actors = more authentic performances More actors = more new talent coming through More actors = more personal experiences and stories More actors = more opportunities for those who are often overlooked. That's what we believe anyway. #VoiceCasting #VoiceProduction #MultiLocationVoiceCasting

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Video Games Industry Memo has landed in subscribers inboxes once again, providing my cadre of readers with the following golden nuggets: 📈 A finance cheat sheet that summarises financial results from Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, Tencent, Roblox and EA in one handy quick read. 📰 The top news from the industry this week including an Epic fine, Ofcom forcing Twitch into changes, the Polish competition authority going after Steam and the PlayStation store and a fascinatingly thick non-disparagement clause. 💼 The big job moves and postings, including two CEOs in at PlayStation and great job roles going at places such as Double Eleven, Improbable and Dambuster Studios. 🚀 A shoutout for Homeworld 3 as my pick of this week's video game releases. VGIM readers were able to feast their eyes on the magnificence of the latest edition from 8am this morning. But if you're not signed up and want to have a read then never fear - you can check it out online too. Head to the website below and make sure you sign up on the dotted subscriber line to never miss an edition 👇 https://lnkd.in/eAjngNag

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Right, it's been a while so let's do one of my favourite things: hawk my newsletter to the lovely LinkedIn punters. Video Games Industry Memo comes out every Thursday morning with the mission to explain games to you in 15 minutes flat. Each newsletter is stuffed with: 🤔 One big read that unpicks a topic shaping the industry 📰 Five news hits to help you get across the news agenda 💼 The job movers and job vacancies in games worth checking out 📅 Events and conferences worth keeping an eye on 🎮 And three video game releases to play over the weekend The feedback on VGIM from my 1450 subs has generally been tip top, with readers describing it as "the gold standard of industry newsletters" and "like having a conversation with you every time I read it." Get subscribed to the newsletter ahead of tomorrow's edition, which looks closely at the fortunes of Embracer Group 👀 https://lnkd.in/eEd6mCPM

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Need a new ringleader for your next big thing? I know the people you need to talk to. You're looking for some super senior, staff level PGMs who absolutely know how to run multi-million dollar initiatives, and I happen to know some of the best in the business are suddenly on the market from my previous team at MGM. They coordinated multiple front and back end teams toward implementation of very different technologies, utilized both strategic waterfall and tactical agile methodologies, implemented and ran communication plans and reporting at C-suite level. Intricately tech savvy and able to navigate complex organizational structures effortlessly. These are not entry or even mid-level candidates. Extremely competent and should be picked up for companies looking to get serious about actually shipping large, complex technology projects. I'm happy to make the introductions. Let me know who needs to meet them. Note: I am not a recruiter, just their former manager who knows that these are exceptional people who should be connected with exceptional companies. #opentowork #programmanagement #tpm #pgm #tech

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⚠️SCAM ALERT⚠️ Please be aware that scam recruiters using the email domain "jobs@studiogames.ca" are impersonating Hinterland and other Canadian game studios. If you receive any correspondence from this email address, please report it. SCAMMER RED FLAGS 🚩 AND ADVICE‼️ 1) NEVER send MONEY‼️ NO RECRUITER WILL OR SHOULD EVER ASK YOU FOR ANY‼️ 2) NEVER include PERSONAL INFORMATION without verifying the SOURCE, the COMPANY, or the REASONING. An application should be enough, and NO applications should include passport, ID, or BANK INFORMATION. 3) RUSHED. SCAMMERS like to get in and get out and don’t like taking more time than needed, so they will want you to ACT FAST, this is so you don’t figure it out. Most job studios take their time hiring, in fact they’re ridiculously slow in most cases so that should be a red flag 🚩 4) TRUST YOUR GUT‼️ If it’s too good to be true, it probably is fake. 5) VERIFY THE RECRUITERS NAME AND THAT THEY WORK FOR THE COMPANY. If the person who contacted you can’t be found, that’s a red flag 🚩 If you can find them, then try to reach out to them and verify it. “Dear (name), I received your job offer email, and I’d like to discuss it further..”

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Scottish games industry is shit. The government need to support businesses better. The attrition rate is so awful it needs to be addressed. Stable studios means stable job opportunities. We can’t tackle education before this otherwise there’s no jobs for graduates. Or worse, no support if they try start their own studios. Let’s stop putting the horse before the cart, it’s time to address the very real issues facing Scottish development studios. - lack of targeted financial support because we aren’t our own sector - lack of tax deductions and local council support. - acknowledgement of the business models employed by studios to survive.

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Tiffany & Co. talking about a return to normal. The key take away is that we should all look for areas that are employed earlier in the pipeline from our particular skillsets. So, for Animation, look for Pre-Production; storyboard artists, character designers, layout and background, etc. opportunities being posted and hired for. If they are getting hired, that means productions are starting up again - that production ball is starting to roll. I'm seeing studios hire recruiters again - that's a good sign, you don't need to hire the people whose key job metric is souring and hiring other people if you are not planning to move ahead with a production. It's still slow, I won't downplay that - but there are cracks in the ice. And please know that while everyone is saying that this is the Worst it has Ever Been, that phrase gets tossed around quite a bit whenever these "market adjustments" happen. It's kinda like when someone says, "This is the best slice of pizza I have ever had!" - really? Is it, or were you just really hungry and in the mood for pizza? I'm not here to in anyway diminish the struggle, it's very real and it's very hard on those affected and those who love and care for them, but there is hope - as everything, including this market downturn, is temporary.

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I'm so saddened to hear that KeokeN Interactive had to lay off their team, as announced by the studio itself today 2 hours ago. To support those affected, our community has three resource "homes" built to help you: HOME 1 - 🔗 AMIRSATVAT.COM: Our hub offering 15 resources to help you find work, including 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. HOME 2 - 🔗 Please visit discord.gg/amirsatvat to join our Discord, a live extension of our community resources. With nearly 2,000 members, we are in an open-join phase. HOME 3 - 🔗 LinkedIn: Our community here includes over 85,000 members, with 1-3 daily posts offering support and career assistance in the games industry. To our broader community, your involvement makes a difference. Here’s how you 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 1,800 jobs and 31,000 coaching conversations to date and has been visited by over 100,000 gamers lifetime. We're committed to providing daily encouragement and support during these challenging times. We will never stop fighting for you, but it starts with your engagement! I wish I could guarantee jobs for gamers. Unfortunately, I can't do that. However, what I can promise is that our extensive data shows you are more likely to find employment if you engage with our community's resources. Moreover, you will find significant daily encouragement and support in us.

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This is an interesting one: UK PETITION TO ‘STOP PUBLISHERS KILLING GAMES’ EMERGES For context, in the UK anyone who gets more than 10k signatures on a petition has the right to have it debated by the government. This petition gained 27k signatures very quickly. It didn't get the response they wanted (and got closed early because of the UK's upcoming election). However, it's an interesting one, especially in the detail. Essentially it highlights that when players buy a game the terms state that the game can be cancelled at any time. That applies to both games as a product or service - and there is debate over the definition of those two. And this happens a lot. The petition references Ubisoft's The Crew servers being taken down after 10 years. It's perhaps hard to totally get behind that. But the point is interesting. What the petition actually asks is: "Require publishers to leave video games (and related game assets / features) they have sold to customers in a reasonably working state when support ends, so that no further intervention whatsoever is necessary for the game to function, as a statutory consumer right." https://lnkd.in/ems4fd7z

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Today's update from my ongoing process of engagement and learning about the UK video games and interactive entertainment industry is about the value of talking to people, particularly face-to-face. This might be an early candidate for the 'this is not an insight' awards, but bear with me.... So, my 'first 100 days' plan, such as it is, is essentially about building relationships, learning about the industry, engaging with members and shaping an overall picture of what the industry needs and how my organisation can help. In this process, there is nothing better than getting out and speaking to the broadest range of stakeholders to start to build up an overall picture of where the organisation needs to go. I've learnt over the years to approach these conversations with an entirely open mind and to ask questions rather than trying to advance a view. The honest truth, coming into an industry as an outsider, is that there are layers, connections, meanings and ideas which you won't begin to understand at the beginning which can have a profound impact on your overall direction and priorities. Take, for example, a concept which is becoming increasingly central in my thinking about our future strategy - that the industry sits in its own unique category at the intersection of creativity, technology and community. Each of those words, and the concept of the exciting boundary intersection between them, comes from a conversation. 'Creativity' came from speaking with a group of Trustees about the art of making video games - the sheer creative vision and energy it takes to release a game which captures the hearts and minds of players. 'Technology' came from speaking with a stakeholder in Scotland who reminded me that video games have always pushed boundaries - asking 'why not?' and testing the limits of new technologies to deliver amazing player experiences. But it was only yesterday that Luke Hebblethwaite, Head of Games at BAFTA slotted in 'community' as the missing piece - yes, games occupy an exciting space at the meeting point of code and creativity, but the magic ingredient that breathes life into them is the communities they inspire. Both in-game and in people's daily lives, games bring people together, create shared experiences and connect people in a way that crosses all boundaries. In all of these conversations, I take lots of notes. What you end up with is a bit of a 'stream of consciousness', but over a period of weeks, concepts begin to emerge, structures take shape and a sense of direction and purpose starts to come together. The point is fast approaching whereby I need to consolidate all of this into a simple, compelling strategy and action plan. But the sense of 'discovery through conversation' won't stop there - once the plan is live, I will continue to get out and meet as many people as possible both to hear their critiques and their ambitions and to build a coalition towards bringing the vision and strategy to reality.

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❤️ Some random recognition for #GamesIndustry founders who I know are under-recognised for their relentless hard-work, perseverance and selflessness. I've never met anyone who has run their own business and said "Yeah it's pretty easy", because it isn't. It's tough. Crazy difficult, exhausting and most of the time, pretty thankless. Especially for bootstrapped small businesses who are focused on doing things right by their teams and clients. Notably, these folks are ALSO acting intentionally to have a positive impact on the wider industry/world beyond their own personal gain, which is the most admirable trait of all in my book and something I have seen first-hand in all of the below. Whether that's directly a part of their business objective or efforts to support people and initiatives beyond the insane grind that is building a business: Adam Clewes-Boyne - BetaJester Ltd Alyx Jones - Silver Script Games Anisa Sanusi - founder of Limit Break Mentorship Annie Durwood - Antivenin Games Ashley Gwinnell - IMPRESS Cameron Keywood - DragonCog Interactive Ltd Declan Cassidy - Into Games George Osborn - Half-Space Consulting Jay Shin 🔜 WASD - Arrogant Pixel LTD Melissa Phillips - Games Leadership Network MJ Widomska - YRS TRULY Sam Swain - Apparance Studios Ltd Thank you to all you legends and keep doing what you're doing. Patience is the ultimate strategy and your work is noted and appreciated 🙏. This isn't an exhaustive list by any means. I know there are many more I could and should include here. But these are just some of the amazing people I've had the privilege to work or engage with recently you should add to your radar of small business founders putting in the hard yards to make the industry better. This post was inspired by a similar post by Kosala U. I encourage you to throw in some praise to founders you admire in the comments or make a similar post of your own and share some rare recognition 🙏

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