Darren Falcus

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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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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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 break-up of what was the most predictably unworkable roll-up in industry history continues apace with companies like Asmodee returned to the original independent state they should never have left to join such an unproven video games publishing business. The remarkable expansion and dissolution of this group in the space of just 4 years or so almost demands a new corporate finance term: disconsolidation? roll-down? https://lnkd.in/eYNPgBH2

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Really enjoyable Strategy workshop with the Ukie team today at our Team Quarterly. A great opportunity to explore the trends and uncertainties shaping the video game and interactive entertainment industry and how we can support our members businesses to succeed. Discussions took in the huge changes happening in platforms and hardware, how players will find and play games 5-10 years from now and the importance of maintaining diverse and plural revenue streams across developers and publishers. Fascinating questions around AI, streaming and whether the stage is finally set for convergence to deliver The Oasis (Ready Player One reference for the non-games people out there!) Play and creativity are as old as humanity, but the new capabilities of creativity and tech are opening entirely new frontiers for interactive storytelling and experiences. The central question seems to be how to maintain sufficient diversity and accessibility in the video game ecosystem to encourage risk-taking and new ideas. Lots more to cover in a future post (recognition, regulation and revenue, to name but a few) but lots to think about for today!

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This is not gaming. This is gambling. Gambling has always been lurking on the periphery of games. Enterprising opportunists always look at the play in games and think, if people like doing this, maybe I can get them to wager speculative money on the outcomes. That is 'web3' & NFTs (cryptocurrency). That is GameStonk (stock market). That is Kick (streaming). That is Skillz (esports). Now Dave & Busters wants a piece of that sweet gambling action. This is not a gaming initiative. This is just gambling trying to find another avenue to being games-adjacent and exploiting gamers. That's what gambling does ----- CNBC/NBCNews: "Dave & Buster's to allow customers to bet on arcade games"(Contessa Brewer & Jessica Golden) (April 30, 2024) NBC: https://lnkd.in/gJpBauF9 ----- Kotaku: "Dave & Buster's Will Soon Let You Place Bets On Arcade Games The trend of gambling being shoved into everything continues with skee ball" (Zack Zwiezen) "Starting later this year, popular family entertainment restaurant chain Dave & Buster’s will offer its customers (who are 18 years or older) the ability to place “friendly wagers” on various games using the company’s app. Has this ever happened to you? While you were at Dave & Buster’s, slamming down some flatbread and chugging overpriced booze, your friend suggested they could set a new high score in skee ball. You laugh and respond with a playful “Oh I’d bet $20 you can’t do that!” and then they scoff and try anyway. But they fail, and you realize that if you had stopped to place a wager on this interaction you could have made some money. Well, don’t worry, because soon, you’ll be able to do just that at your local Dave & Buster’s establishment. On April 30, as reported by NBC, Dave & Buster’s announced its plans to soon start offering its five million loyalty members an option to place bets on its various games using the company’s app. The entertainment chain, with over 200 locations in North America, will add the wager functionality to its loyalty app in the next few months. It’s partnering with Lucra—a gambling software company—to power its new friendly wager system. The idea is that while you are at Dave & Buster’s, you and your friends can place bets on how well you’ll do at different games. The app will manage all of these bets and payouts. Now if I bet $5 on my friend failing at an arcade game, most people would call that gambling. However, Lucra’s chief operating officer disagrees. According to NBC, Lucra says “skill-based games” are not subject to the same rules and regulations as slot machines or other types of gambling. The company is careful to not use specific terms like “bet” or “wager” when talking about its software and how it will work with places like Dave & Buster’s. “We use real-money contests or challenges,” Madding told NBC. Call it whatever you want, this news is just another example of gambling being shoved into more of our lives." Kotaku: https://lnkd.in/gaPsgjJ7 #gambling

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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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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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A colleague shared this video with me recently, a focus on the Business side of the games industry - A very useful and interesting interview with Mat Piscatella of Circana https://lnkd.in/eqzszimj I feel the recent challenges the industry has had to navigate means more focus on some of the points raised in the video need to be prioritised. The business landscape of games has changed, margins are tighter and competition is more fierce, let alone meeting the increasing expectation of players in terms of quality and value. Use of data and understanding the relationship between how players consume games and their purchase behaviour has never been more important. The games industry is relatively young, and perhaps the next few years will see some maturity in this area

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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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40 years ago this year, I ported Jet Set Willy to the Commodore 64 from the ZX Spectrum. It was the highest profile gig in the British games industry at the time. Today, I pondered on what it was that made 1984 to 1986 the most magical years of my time in video games. Here are ten reasons. 1. It didn’t take very long to make a game. A month, two, maybe three, but rarely longer than six. 2. No deviation on the pure concept because of outside influence, either from customers or publishers. 3. No Internet, so no hate on your early demos, and no hate mobs for your finished game. If I did The Comet Game today, I’d be screwed forever. Also, no Internet feedback meant you stayed the course to find out and so you actually shipped. 4. No online component necessary, no, or very limited post launch support required, so no planning for shit that doesn’t matter for the 90% of games that don’t make it commercially. The cost of failure was low. 5. Your finished game was your pitch, so you weren’t wasting a year as Dunning-Kruger publishers “uhmd” and “ahhhd” over whether they should sign you or not. It was yes or no. And you moved on to someone else. If it was done and half decent, someone would publish. 6. No Internet, so I didn’t waste time asking Twitter what game I should make. I either made something or I didn’t. And once I did, if someone didn’t publish my game, I’d do what my mum suggested and just make another one. Since it didn’t take too long, it wasn’t the end. 7. No middleware, all assembler, all technical limitations known and addressable through creativity. Therefore no paralysis through infinite choice of which latest shiny sexy tech stack to use and no switching. It was you, 6502 and hard work. 8. I was young. No family to support, no rent, and despite type 1 diabetes, I thought I was invincible and often tested this to the limit, almost dying on several occasions. This gave me insane drive and unbroken time. 72 hour sessions were a thing. It wasn’t crunch. It was love. 9. 9. Only four channels of telly (Channel 4 was new) and no Internet meant no distractions apart from playing games with my dear friends Geoff and David. Inspiration and ideation came from long walks through my beloved London. 10. The video games scene was new and I was young. Life was opening up and the world was opening up. Tech was improving at an insane rate and I was right up there with some of the best in my field by 1986. Earning money also opened my world up. Money gives you options. Tomorrow, I’ll share what I think I can do to bring the spirit of those halcyon days back at 58 years young. If you liked this short thread, and haven’t read my massive thread “Code is Just” about how I started in 1982, a revised version is pinned to my Twitter profile.

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So, my time at IGEA has come to an end and oh what an incredible time it has been! Over the last few years, I have worked on so many amazing projects alongside an array of absolutely wonderful people, many of which I regard as life-long friends. I am so grateful that I was encouraged and empowered to pour my passion into important initiatives, lend my voice to pivotal industry conversations and lead projects that have had such a huge impact. Upon reflection, these are the projects that I led that I’m most proud of: 1. The Australian Game Developer Awards (The AGDAs): Since 2020 I have continually overhauled every aspect of The AGDAs, from the judging process to the ceremony run sheet. There was no stone left unturned in my pursuit to transform a small conference after-party to a sold-out cocktail gala that thousands of people enjoy in-person and online. But honestly, the aspect I’m most proud of was redesigning the judging system. This multi-tier judging system with over 80 judges ensures that talented Aussie developers are elevated and celebrated for all to see. To put this into perspective, on average over 600 game keys are redeemed in order to narrow it down to 12 game award winners.   2. The SMART Program: I had the privilege of designing and managing this early-career development program as well as personally mentoring the immensely talented mentees as they navigated their journey into the games industry. The program included event activations, professional development workshops and mentor sessions with a variety of industry leaders. I can’t even begin to explain just how rewarding it is to see my mentees go on to secure jobs, acquire games funding and give back to the community. 3. ESG Transformation: By representing the Australian industry as a member of the UNEP’s Playing 4 the Planet alliance, I’ve been able to gain a deeper insight into the sustainability practices needed to tackle our industry’s carbon emissions. This transformation is most evident in the green practices implemented at our industry’s key conference, GCAP. By utilising on-demand printing and redesigning the swag to be both reusable and made from sustainable fabrics, single-use plastics have been eliminated and GCAP is well under way on its journey to lead the way in sustainable event practices. This was only made possible thanks to the passionate and talented people both locally and internationally who have shared their expertise and given their support along the way. So, a big, big thank you to my IGEA Colleagues and all the industry partners that I’ve had the pleasure to work with, you’ve been instrumental in the success of all of this. This may be the end of my chapter at IGEA, but it is only the beginning of my journey to empower and support all the brilliant creative technologists making amazing products. All I can say for now is watch this space, because there’s plenty more that you’ll be hearing from me soon!

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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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Hi everybody, I'm very sorry to have heard that Traega Entertainment had to downsize most of its staff today, as reported in a post by its Game Director Tony Mann. https://lnkd.in/edhWamQ5 To those 19 gamers affected at Traega: 🔗 Please visit AMIRSATVAT.COM, our community's games jobs resources hub with 14 resources that will help you find work. These resources are free and updated regularly. 🔗 Resource 10 is our games org support posts. There you will find a template. If someone on your team can own populating that with information from individuals on your team, with their consent, I will get the finished product edited and out to the community, hitting 100,000 eyeballs. I have done 94 of these, working directly with games teams, and they are highly effective in increasing visibility. To our community: please do your part in making a difference. Some options include: -Spreading the word. Every reshare of this post is appreciated to raise visibility as to these situations. - Offer Support: While you certainly can do it through our community's resources (at amirsatvat.com we present 13 ways you can help), any advice lent, listening ear provided, or other support given is appreciated for those navigating these changes. - Join Our Movement: Become part of our network of volunteers at AMIRSATVAT.COM, providing support to our colleagues in the games industry. Together, our collective of over 84,000 people has enabled 1,700+ jobs and 29,000 community coaching conversations, and we're just getting started. More importantly, this network and its content seeks to provide a daily source of encouragement in this tough time. Thanks for stepping up for our friends at Traega, as outlined below: Character Art: Mike Waver Daniel Gallagher Concept: Dan Carpenter Environment Art: Andrew Baker Cutlar Nordyke Animation: Derek Zivolich Tech: William Harvey Brian Gordon Design: Ken Eland Alexander Loughran UI: Michael Scala Engineering: David Ollman Simon Barker Benjamin Miles Kirk Sexton Production: Karrah Yanta Business Operations: Mike Dixon QA: Chad Finley Troy Way

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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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Road signs are user interfaces and computer systems should accommodate them appropriately. Systems should be designed to accommodate the real world, instead of changing the real world to accommodate deficiencies in the systems. This should be true for place names like St Mary’s Walk or Martha’s Vineyard or people’s names like O’Toole or D’Sousa. https://lnkd.in/eZ7s-xNp Let’s not rename Westward Ho! or Ashby-de-la-Zouch, either. If systems can sensibly sort McDonald and MacDonald together, they can handle St Mary’s, St. Mary’s, St Marys and ST MARYS as variants. The US has a similar daft “discouragement” of apostrophes, but cannot explain why: https://lnkd.in/ekjG5N2r #uxfail #namingconvention #ucd

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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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That we actually need to talk about this tells you everything you need to know about the financial situation of UK universities. So how would a university go bankrupt, nowadays? "There are “three actors that are most likely to force the cessation of a university”, says Bob Rabone, a former University of Sheffield finance director and former chair of the British Universities Finance Directors Group. Those are the Office for Students, a bank lender or HM Revenue and Customs (over unpaid taxes) – “probably in that order”." The latter two are probably not the guys with the knives out: "An organisation’s assets “will always realise less if the business is actually insolvent and is only continuing under a receivership/insolvency process”, Rabone points out. “Avoiding this, if possible, will be the preferred path for HMRC or a funder.”" The Office for Students (OfS), though: "In the event of a “lengthy period of financial distress” at a university, Rabone continues, the OfS “may have a mandate to intervene because of the impact on students…albeit not necessarily directly triggering an insolvency process, but [introducing mechanisms] which could quickly stop a university’s activities”. One example might be removing the university from the OfS register, thereby removing its students’ access to student loans." Which would be the end of it. So the OfS can very much push a uni into bankruptcy. In such a case, students would be creditors, and they would probably be at the end of the line behind other lenders. Now will any of this actually happen, or will the government step in at the last moment, with an additional loan? Of course nobody knows. Conservatives would very much like to see a university fail, for reasons of culture wars. In practice, making several thousand people unemployed is not a great look, in particular if you want to get re-elected. Archived link: https://archive.ph/Ddxr5

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