New year. New season. Virtual Economy is back with a news-filled show covering more Cyberpunk 2077, Raw Fury dropping lots of business documents, our trends predictions for the year, Tencent’s takeover of Leyou, Nintendo’s Next Level Games purchase, and more.
TIME STAMPS
- [00:01:40] Cyberpunk 2077 sales and share value fallout
- [00:12:33] Hey. Armed insurrection and an attempted coup of the United States is bad. Black Lives Matter. Trans Rights are Human Rights. White supremacy is garbage.
- [00:14:14] Tencent acquires Leyou
- [00:19:21] Nintendo acquires Next Level Games
- [00:25:38] Epic bought a mall
- [00:32:50] FTC reprimands Tapjoy for deceptive practices
- [00:37:25] Quick Hits
- [00:49:03] Roblox IP… no?
- [01:03:00] The Sinking City relisted as Frogwares vs Nacon continues
- [01:11:00] Dissecting the Raw Fury contract
- [01:37:00] A look at the trends of 2020 and what we expect from 2021
SOURCES
- Disclosure of estimated sales of Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt): https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/investors/regulatory-announcements/current-report-no-67-2020/
- Leyou shareholders agree to $1.3bn Tencent takeover (PocketGamer): https://www.pocketgamer.biz/news/75297/leyou-shareholders-agree-to-13bn-tencent-takeover/
- Notification of the Acquisition of the Canadian Software Developer, Next Level Games (Nintendo IR): https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2021/210105e.pdf
- Xbox Series X survey asks if you want PS5 DualSense features in the Xbox controller (TechCrunch): https://www.techradar.com/news/xbox-series-x-survey-asks-if-you-want-ps5-dualsense-features-on-its-controller
- The Sinking City returns to stores as Nacon wins first decision in legal dispute (GamesIndustry): https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-01-05-the-sinking-city-returns-to-stores-as-nacon-wins-first-decision-in-ongoing-legal-dispute
- Epic Games Announces New Location for Company Headquarters: https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/epic-games-announces-new-location-for-company-headquarters
- FTC: Tapjoy’s deception settlement has implications for Apple and Google (GamesBeat): https://venturebeat.com/2021/01/07/ftc-tapjoys-deception-settlement-has-implications-for-apple-and-google/
- Roblox Announces Anticipated Direct Listing (BusinessWire): https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210106005890/en/Roblox-Announces-Anticipated-Direct-Listing
- MINECRAFT EARTH COMING TO AN END (Mojang): https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/minecraft-earth-coming-end
- Raw Fury Pulls Back Curtain on Publishing Contracts (VirtualEconCast.com): https://virtualeconcast.com/news/raw-fury-pulls-back-curtain-on-publishing-contracts/
- Raw Fury Developer Resources: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kx2oljt3k4c4qcl/AABx7KE8Hj7vILW3gHI0tzzLa?dl=0
- 2020’s Biggest Trends … and Where They’re Heading in 2021 (VirtualEconCast.com): https://virtualeconcast.com/trends/2020s-biggest-trends-and-where-theyre-heading-in-2021/
First off, love the show! As a former podcast host I know how much work goes into putting out episodes regularly.
I had a thought regarding the Roblox IPO. I suspect one of the biggest reasons why Roblox pulled back and plans to come back later for a direct listing is that by doing so they cut out the middle man (banks) which always receive a really sweet deal to help bring a company to market. With tech stocks hot and a larger number of business-types-for-hire with experience bringing companies to the public market I suspect Roblox feels pretty confident about going it alone, especially since DoorDash and Airbnb just IPOed and their stocks both exploded.
Thanks again, keep up the great work.
– Jon
Thanks for listening and for the comment, Jon! They absolutely cut out the middle man, which as you point out is a BIG deal. I’m still wondering how the absence of new stock is going to impact trade volume, float, and share price. Going to be very interesting!