There is an often-repeated but mistaken belief that core gamers and games companies in general are some sort of vanguard of innovative business thinking. I’ve heard this quite a bit lately in the context of crypto gaming. It’s wrong. 1/9
Mitch Lasky
1,048 posts
Mitch Lasky
@mitchlasky
Partner @Benchmark, 5X Midas List, startup CEO, public CEO, Board @Discord @thatgamecompany (ex @Snap, @riotgames) Owner/Director @LAFC; Co-host @gamecraftpod
Joined March 2007
- The laziest VC move in games is "pedigree chasing": only funding ex-Riot, Epic, or Blizzard employees (and not always leads). The founders of those massive companies (and countless other successful ones) had zero "big game company" experience. But now they're the Ivy League. 😂
- Replying to @mitchlaskyThat doesn’t mean crypto gaming is necessarily going to succeed (although I think it will) — but it’s funny how the things core gamers and devs have broadly agreed upon (VR, HTML5) haven’t worked, while things they feared and hated have. 😀9/9
- The metaverse is where Silicon Valley's bias for engineering over game design goes to die
- How did the video game business evolve from its packaged goods roots in the early '90s to the complex, multi-platform, online business of today? What events sparked the major revolutions in business models and distribution? /1
- This was one of the most fun interviews I’ve done. @patrick_oshag and I share a great deal of context about the games business, so we could cover a LOT of ground. joincolossus.com/episodes/99764…
- Replying to @mitchlaskyAnd today we are hearing the same things about NFTs and crypto gaming. “It’s all a scam” — sounds oddly familiar to what people were saying about Zynga's free-to-play games in 2007. 8/9
- We're back! @blakeir and I are launching another season of @gamecraftpod. Last season was the history lesson; this season is all about the business in 2024. The first episode ("The State of Play") drops tomorrow morning. Also, Season 1 is now on YouTube:
- “Silicon Valley” has ruined TechCrunch Disrupt for me. All the nerd streetwear and demo-speak urgency. Feels like sophisticated self-parody.
- I used to ridicule VC’s calling themselves “founding investors”; but now late-stage logo collectors are calling their drive-bys “venture”
- Replying to @mitchlaskyIn 2003, when EA was trying to invest in my mobile game startup, an executive reviewed our products and said, “A monkey could make these games.” He was looking at the world thru a lens of PC-game quality, like DSLR camera companies thinking mobile phone photography sucked. 3/9
- Replying to @mitchlaskyWhile the games industry has been a laboratory of experimentation (mainly because it’s not an oligopoly like other media), most key business model innovations were originally met with intense skepticism bordering on religious hatred by core gamers and incumbent publishers. 2/9
- Replying to @mitchlasky18 years later, mobile gaming is 50% of the $160B games industry. The key that unlocked mobile — in-app purchase — was similarly met with resistance. Incumbents were trying to sell $15 mobile games, and getting crushed by King and SuperCell. 4/9
