Belinda Ercan
@BelindaErcan
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Gamer + Marketing Insider | Exploring trends, strategies & market dynamics beyond gameplay. Welcome to The Informed Gamer
Joined February 2024
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Tired of echo chambers on Youtube about the games industry?
The Informed Gamer zeroes in on what others gloss over: the big picture. From trends and strategies to market dynamics, I cut through the noise and gamer rants.
If you want substance over echoes, follow for more.
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Mind officially blown this morning seeing
@Asmongold
dive into my latest video!
Usually, my days start and end watching his streams.
But today the script was flipped.
Huge thanks for the shout-out and sharing your thoughts! 🙏
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"China's Plan to Clone the Entire Gaming Industry" is out now!
Wrapping my head around China's gaming culture was both pleasure and pain - thanks to all the complex laws and endless translations.
BUT, I suffered so you don't have to. Enjoy the ride!
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New upload (after YT took it down due to policy violation)
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This video needs no explanation. Just watch. I mean, JUST watch.
But if you'd like to read rather than watch, you can do so on
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"Monopoly GO's Evil Strategy to Make You Poor" is out now!
It's a 'board game' in casino's clothing.
If we all had the magic glasses from 'They Live' to spot this wolf in sheep’s clothing, Scopely wouldn't have slyly pocketed $2B in less than 1 year
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New video on “Elden Ring’s Ohh so Simple Strategy that Made Billions” is out now.
#EldenRing
’s "poor" marketing became its secret weapon and I’ll uncover the “Unseen Architect” behind it :)
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Happy Hump Day, Informed Gamers! :)
What draws you to a game that uses minimal marketing (Elden Ring) compared to games with huge marketing campaigns (GTA, Red Dead, Kojima)?
Does a game's quality alone drive its success or is there more to the story?
PURE GAME QUALITY
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MYSTERIOUS VIBES
2
COMMUNITY RECOMMENDATIONS
8
DEVELOPER'S REPUTATION
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Imagine losing $320,000 to
#hackers
every second—welcome to the world of
#cybercrime
, soon to be the 3rd largest
#economy
!
With the
#games
industry in the crosshairs, I wondered why major game companies, who are no strangers to hacker attacks, still can't properly shield
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“How Xbox is Building a $32 Billion Gaming Empire” is out now!
Watch my new episode here
It's
#Microsoft
’s journey from consoles & exclusives, to publishing on mobile, PC & cloud, to playing the long game with AI.
On a quest to uniting a divided
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@BerkKarsikaya
@natecurtiss_yt
@MauricioMozo5
Me. Nate helps refine the hook. I believe writing scripts should almost always be the creator’s job, if possible.
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Gamer & marketer Belinda here!
This is my official X feed for "The Informed Gamer," my new Youtube channel for deep gaming insights.
Follow for updates and highlights from my new journey into all things
#gamingindustry
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Breaking down the success of
#Palworld
- it wasn't luck, it was strategy! Discover the 3 simple things they did right in my latest video on
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Applied to games:
Thesis: Games used to be traditionally centered around consoles/PCs.
Antithesis: With the rise of smartphones, mobile gaming shifted dynamics & monetization.
Synthesis: Now, console/PC devs tap into mobile, blending traditional & mobile gaming strategies.
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The long tail theory, when applied to
#gaming
looks something like this:
At the top of the curve, we’ve got our juggernauts - the games everyone knows and loves.
Further down the curve, that's where fresh games live – not as famous but absolutely adored by a smaller group of
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The
#Hegeliandialectic
applied to
#gaming
:
What happens when strong opposing forces, like tradition and innovation, clash?
Progress. There are 3 stages to this:
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5 facts you didn't know - and neither did I - about Monopoly
While prepping my next video on the mobile game
#MonopolyGo
, I learned that:
#1
The first version of Monpoly was actually inveted by a woman.
Lizzie Magie (German word for 'magic' btw) received a patent in 1904 for
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@RiskarCC
@natecurtiss_yt
@MauricioMozo5
I use pink to indicate when it’s A-roll (so just me on cam), and the yellow highlights are filled with comments on b-roll that I collected throughout my research.
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@Kojo
@natecurtiss_yt
Reading the news, trends, forecasts, reports every single morning. Keeping an eye on the big picture and connecting several seemingly disparate dots into a coherent story. When I read the news on Scopely cashing in $2Billion in revenue, I thought this could make a nice strategy
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10/ With over 25M Game Pass subs, Xbox consoles remain a loss leader. Microsoft's profit strategy? Software, content, and digital services. A smart pivot to where the real business is.
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On why I'm surprised that Xbox fans are suprised of the upcoming changes. It had been planned all along. Here is a timeline of events:
1/ July 2020: Satya Nadella reports 'record subscriber growth' for
#GamePass
with 10M subs.
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Physical availability = how accessible a game is across platforms & how easy it is to jump in.
This kind of mental and physical availability makes sure games like
#Fortnite
stay on top of the game.
As a Redditor told me:
Thoughts?
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If you're a cloud gamer, read on - this one's for you because the industry is booming. (1/4)
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Next year, we'll have 200 zettabytes of data stored EVERYWHERE.
200 zettabytes = 128GB smartphones stacked from Earth to the Sun and back 100+ times.
With 5B people online and over half are
#gamers
, what does this mean for
#CyberSecurity
?
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$10.5 Trillion USD in 2025!
That'll be the damage cost of global
#cybercrime
, with the
#gaming
industry squarely in the crosshairs.
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@BradleySmithYT
I’m so sorry 😅😭 I can’t choose what ads are shown unfortunately. Only WHEN they are shown
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Re Xbox News:
The Console War fuels division, not gaming joy.
Exclusivity benefits companies, not consumers.
True progress? Games available on all platforms, thus removing artificial barriers.
It's baffling to see disputes over companies profiting from consumer limitations.
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@watchaporia
it might sound cliche but it's literally everything. Comic books, old scriptures, poems, bestsellers, literature on business & self-help, sci-fi, fantasy, blogs, essays, newsletters...Reddit..., just everything :)
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#Esports
in 2024 is at a crossroads.
Big investors are stepping back, but Saudi Arabia is betting billions on the game.
Is it for the love of esports, or is there a play for power?
Dive into the debate in my latest video
#gaming
#gamingindustry
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@LSDinmycoffee
@imPatrickT
@Awawat_Trades
@Canoopsy
you actually have no idea how profound and revealing this post is.
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#Splitgate
: Interesting gameplay. A lot of people jumped into it, but the game faced server capacity issues, struggling to keep up with the demand. It simply failed to retain its players.
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@Lunnzies
Thank you Jamie - valuable input. "freedom to experiment" is in line with their Current Gaps in FY23 to Reach 2030 slide from the leaked roadmap. It'd give them the freedom to explore more "out of scope" ideas.
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Thesis: Games were predominantly single-player
Antithesis: Rise of online gaming => shift towards multiplayer-focused games, like
#battleroyale
,
#esports
, etc.
Synthesis: Now, many games offer both robust single-player/story mode campaigns and multiplayer modes.
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Combined with other operating expenses of $1.59 billion, the net impact of the Activision Blizzard buyout during the quarter was an operating loss of $440 million.
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Mid 2010:
GameFly, CiiNow & PlayGiga dove into streaming, only to deliver a "Blockbuster for games" experience that missed gamers' expectations.
By 2018, they vanished as well, ending up as footnotes in the 'what-could’ve-been' chapter. (4/7)
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Why do some games promise the "next-big-franchise" but deliver a backyard?
Let’s dissect:
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2/ Aaron Greenberg tempered expectations, calling Game Pass "not a big profit play" but an investment for the future.
3/ By Nov 2020, Xbox Series X hits the shelves, signaling a new era for Xbox despite consoles being sold at a loss, as per Lori Wright.
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Do you remember the codename for
#Nintendo
's Wii before it was known as Wii?
It was called Project 'Revolution' and one name out of many potential titles. To be precise: More than a 150 titles...
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$2.3 Billion!
That's the massive size of the
#esports
market today.
Despite the growth, key investors are bailing left and right.
The money they expected in return was just not rolling in. Why?
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You can't win by just giving people what they want.
And
#PocketPair
did just that: They surpassed player expectation and went beyond what gamers want with
#Palworld
.
They listend to gamers but also read between the lines, delivering suprises that redefined desires.
Read my
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Because of (A) mental availability and (B) physical availability.
Mental availability = a game's network of memories & recognition => memability.
Like
#Fortnite
's shopping cart antics or
#Minecraft
's endless creativity. These moments create a strong pull.
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The most-streamed games in January:
-
#GTAV
-
#LeagueOfLegends
-
#Palworld
...oh, nope. It's
#EscapefromTarkov
EFT jumped from 13th to 3rd (87.3m hours) due to the game's 'server wipe', which completley resets the game's progression and economy.
With each wipe, EFT
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“The dark times” is how Sony's CEO Kenichiro Yoshida called cloud gaming's initial attempts. Why?
Well, it's timeline time (1/7)
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#Microsoft
's filing reveals that the company paid $75.4 billion to acquire
#Activisionblizzard
- larger than the $68.7 billion figure that Microsoft originally disclosed.
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So what's up with these mega-projections? There are 4 major reasons, all explained in my video
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Brief
#History
Of In-Game Activism
2011 -
#EVEonline
. One of the first in-game protests, where players rebelled not against each other but against the introduction of
#microtransactions
. A vast protest at
#Jita
, the trade hub, with 1000 pilots, marked the 'Summer of Rage'.
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2021: World of Warcraft players staged a sit-in against Activision Blizzard’s culture, showing gaming's growing role in societal issues.
#WoW
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4/ 2021, the push for future gains continued as Microsoft eyed Activision Blizzard
5/ Xbox loses as much as $200 on every Xbox, says Phil Spencer in Nov 2022.
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#layoffs2024
, unfinished games, canceled releases, remakes, remasters, corporate greed, declining game quality...what else?
Gaming communities always sound like the gaming industry is on the brink of self-destruction.
But let's hit "pause" for a second - Is it truly "Game
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Only 2.5% of 2022 PC games hit 50K players. Why?
Sure, most of the "games" released on Steam are shovelware. But beyond that, it's because:
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#MonsterHunter
: Awesome concept. Beautiful game. But trying to understand the crafting system was like learning a new language.
You don’t wanna spend your 1-2 hours of play sitting through tutorials, right?!
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(A) its harder than ever for new games to find an audience. Nostalgia and brand loyalty of legacy franchises overshadow new IP.
#Palworld
is an outlier.
(B) We gravitate to the familiar. We play what we know. Why?
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#Outriders
, by People Can Fly.
Published by Square Enix in 2021, it had the buzz, was highly anticipated, and on "track to become the company's next major franchise" - they stumbled with server issues and a repetitive gameplay.
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13.97M unit sales in 2011!
The
#Xbox
360 was the best-selling
#gaming
console in 2011! What happend?
#GearsOfWar3
,
#Halo
and
#FableIII
,
#Halo
DLC packs,
#ForzaMotorsport
4, Iron Brigade.
Kinect motion sensor continued driving sales too.
2011 was a very seismic year for xbox.
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@DomTheBombYT
Agree. The console war just fuels division, not gaming joy. Advocating for games to be accessible on all platforms benefits us all and removes artificial barriers to the games we love. It's baffling to see disputes over companies profiting from consumer limitations!
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If you're like trends, strategies & market dynamics beyond gameplay, follow for more:
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#Godfall
: Looking all shiny and next-gen, it's got all the bells and whistles but failed to deliver enough depth to keep players coming back.
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Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) is a 'massive' gamer.
For MBS,
#esports
is one of the most important industries, with an expected 25% profit from its investments.
In fact, the MENA (Middel East & North Africa) Gaming Market is booming.
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𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀: The state of affairs
𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀: The opposing force to the thesis.
𝗦𝘆𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀: The resolution of the conflict between thesis and antithesis, resulting in a new state.
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@majornelson
Good. I just posted this:
The long tail theory, when applied to
#gaming
looks something like this:
At the top of the curve, we’ve got our juggernauts - the games everyone knows and loves.
Further down the curve, that's where fresh games live – not as famous but absolutely adored by a smaller group of
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It's booming with a $6B to a projected $10B by 2029.
Saudi Arabia's gaming market alone stands at $1B with a projected $3B by 2030.
With 23M gamers (that's 70% of the population!), it's the largest market by games revenue.
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Here's the 3-step not-so-secret yet obvious strategy behind
#Palworld
's success. It's simpler than you think (1/5)
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The "net impact" from its Activision Blizzard deal was $2.08 billion in revenue.
Total costs of the buyout, beyond the purchase price, came to $930 million.
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6/ Oct 2022, Phil claims Game Pass is profitable, making up 15% of MSFT revenue. How they crunched these numbers remains elusive.
7/ Dec 2022: Game prices jump to $70. Plus, a strategic play to bring CoD to Nintendo and Steam emerges amidst the AB deal.
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Regarding the upcoming
#xbox
announcements:
Let's hypothetically assume:
- Xbox offers exclusivity period. E.g. first-party game avail on Xbox only for first 6 months, then made avail cross-platform
- Xbox Game Pass avail on Steam (or vice versa)
- Xbox to soley focus on its
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8/ This move to diversify, as Spencer noted, is part of becoming " more relevant on more screens"
9/ Fast forward to 2023: 'Content and services are our north star,' says Xbox, pivoting from hardware to a holistic gaming service.
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