There’s a vast pipeline of tools to create video games, movies, and TV shows. Epic wants to own it all.
Epic Games, the company behind the colossally popular and profitable Fortnite, is no stranger to game development infrastructure. It makes the widely-used Unreal Engine, which hundreds of games have used over the last couple decades. But Epic wants to do more than just own the game engine.
So, Epic has been going shopping.
Today, Epic announced it is acquiring SketchFab, a digital marketplace and sharing hub for 3D models. From professionally-designed 3D asset packs for use in game development, to independent artists making highly-detailed replicas of Dinobot from Beast Wars because they feel like it. …
Logology
The Olympic Games are an exercise in branding
Friday’s Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony should serve to remind us that in a fundamental way, the Olympic Games are an exercise in branding. While host nations try to communicate a positive image to the rest of the world, the International Olympic Committee attempts to uphold the spirit of the Olympic movement in the face of mounting challenges to its mythology.
At the heart of these branding efforts are graphic identities that often have been among the most memorable aspects of the events themselves. From the op-art-inspired graphics for Mexico City 1968 to the Strahlenkranz (“Garland of Rays”) mark for Munich…
Ten years after its publication, the late anthropologist’s deconstruction of economics is more valuable than ever
In the beginning was debt. In David Graeber’s sprawling epic on the history of money, he charts its shape-shifting from credit to coinage, to credit again, then bullion and finally to virtual currencies. Throughout, debt is the constant and Graeber makes a ferocious case that it is the lens through which economics might be better defined.
Debt has recently been re-issued, ten years after its original publication in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. That event prompted much soul searching about money and a raft of books purporting to explain how we got into such a mess. Most were…
A streaming giant in need of games, and a gaming platform in need of customers. It could work.
Netflix has a problem. It’s one of the most popular ways to watch TV and movies on the internet, but watching TV and movies isn’t the only way for people to spend their time. Increasingly, another medium is vying for people’s attention, and increasingly it’s winning:
Video games.
Netflix correctly acknowledged, as far back as 2018, that they aren’t just in the movie and TV business. They’re in the leisure business. When people sit down in their living room to do something with they’re downtime, they’re not just forced to choose between watching the latest Netflix show, or some show…
A fascinating new book paints a cautionary tale of Adam Neumann’s incredible rise and the dangers of the messianic leader
I only visited one WeWork office, a co-working space at 33 Irving Pl, in New York City, in 2018. I was there to help judge a technology competition and wondered why this company was meeting in a WeWork office.
I’d heard of WeWork but knew little about it. The buzz around it and the company’s founder Adam Neumann didn’t synch up with what appeared to be a sub-leasing firm. …
Metropolis
Why the well-being of cities depends on a people-first approach
For the last 70 years, cities around the world have been torn apart, retrofitted, and codified to accommodate 2-ton vehicles at the expense of all other modes of transportation. These deeply engrained patterns have dispersed people and businesses out to a sprawling landscape of dependency, diluted our places of vibrancy, and have left behind environmental devastation. In a silver lining to an otherwise devastating year, it only took a few months and a bit of political leniency to revert to a pre-car world.
Life as we know it came to halt in March of last year. As people sheltered in…
Number Crunch
Airlines are going on a buying and hiring spree as customers return to the skies
$30 billion: The estimated cost of the 270 airplanes United Airlines is buying in preparation for the return of air travel, according to Reuters. The order is the largest in the company’s history.
The airlines are betting that the great pandemic staycation is over. Many have begun investing heavily in anticipation of consumers once again taking to the skies. United Airlines announced an order of 200 Boeing 737 MAX jets and 70 Airbus SE A321neos in a deal costing over $30 billion (before discounts). The move is part of the company’s plan to invest in over 500 new planes, many…
Kanye West is proving how lucrative his quasi-religious appeal can be
On June 8, 2021, Kanye West turned 44. Yeezy Gap made the first product from its collection available for a pre-order: the Yeezy Gap round jacket. It was widely available, for a limited time; another time will come in autumn of 2021. All official traces of it at the Gap website and social media have since been scrubbed from the internet, to keep the excitement (hype!), but its footprints still exist. Many people follow Yeezy Gap’s collection and products closely, but I’m much more interested in the organization and the business. …
Number Crunch
Since 2016, employers have been seeking creators at a much higher rate
489,000: That’s the percentage jump in job listings featuring the keyword “Creator” in their title since 2016.
The creator economy has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Platforms like YouTube, Substack, Spotify, and TikTok have given creators the ability to monetize their videos, podcasts, and newsletters.
Medium has found a place within that model, too, giving professional and amateur writers alike the ability to share thoughts on the topics that most interest them. If they choose, those writers can earn money for sharing these thoughts.
Facebook plans to feed into the freelance route, rewarding creators with a total of $1…
The e-commerce platform’s acquisition of Depop is only the latest move in its ambitious expansion plans
When businesses decide how to allocate their capital, they essentially have four options: reinvest, return capital to shareholders through dividends or repurchases, take on mergers and acquisitions, or build the balance sheet. Historically, tech companies have favored reinvesting: hiring more engineers, entering new markets, and building new products. But as tech profits and cash flow has grown, companies are increasingly turning to M&A and capital returns. One tech company that has fueled its expansion through M&A in the last few years is the e-commerce marketplace Etsy, that was founded in 2005 and went public in 2015.
Building a House of Brands
When Josh Silverman and…
Marker
Pop business for the intelligent reader. A publication from Medium.
