'html5' Tag
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Mopping up on Messenger (FB)
June 9, 2019Mobile gaming entrepreneurs who read this blog regularly have probably noticed that I have not written for a while about Facebook Messenger’s Instant Games platform (FBIG). The lapse is not due to my lack of enthusiasm about mobile gaming as an investment. On the contrary, we have recently added another gaming project to the portfolio […]
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LINE Quick Game… not so fast
November 7, 2018Well, that’s embarrassing. It looks as though every single HTML5 Quick Game on LINE Messenger is undergoing “maintenance” for the month of November. This must be egg on the face for LINE, since they released the Quick Game platform barely two months ago. I quickly became a fan, mainly because I found it far less […]
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LINE Messenger’s HTML5 Quick Games
October 7, 2018Our portfolio company CoolGames launched Daily Sudoku on LINE Messenger’s new Quick Games section the other day. The game is a fun little distraction, so I encourage LINE users to give it a try. These HTML5 games are monetized via interstitial ads. Curiously, my first time playing triggered an ad from Facebook: So I suppose […]
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Messaging platforms: a game-changer or a mobile distraction ?
September 12, 2018Here are two relevant extracts from my portfolio company CoolGames’ presentation at the PocketGamer conference in Helsinki yesterday. On the potential for games on messaging platforms worldwide: On today’s key challenge for games publishers on these platforms: Here’s a fun little 1-minute video which highlights the flow of gameplay:
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Angry Birds Flock to FB Messenger
May 8, 2018It’s the VE Day holiday in much of Europe today, and today also marks the global launch of Angry Birds on Facebook Messenger. In a pan-European alliance, Finnish creator of the original Angry Birds game, Rovio, partnered with our Dutch portfolio company CoolGames to produce an HTML5 version of Angry Birds for release on the […]
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Opportunity in HTML5 Playable Ads
April 3, 2018I’ve written in the past about the broad potential for HTML5 in casual games. This potential is already playing out on mobile messaging platforms, like Facebook’s Instant Games. I’ve also imagined a world in which HTML5 might usher in a new generation of mobile advertising solutions by facilitating playable ads. A friend at a prominent […]
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FB Messenger Instant Games Infographic
June 23, 2017As I’ve said before, I believe that Facebook Messenger’s Instant Games platform has the potential to disrupt the App Store distribution model of mobile games, at least pertaining to casual games. Playing a snackable, casual game inside a messenger chat feed is far more seamless, in my opinion, then going to the App Store, hunting […]
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Mobile messengers and the post-app world
May 17, 2017It’s no secret that I’ve been a believer in the inevitability of a swing back toward centralized architectures in mobile. Although I probably mis-timed my call of the HTML5 inflection point, I remain convinced that it is approaching, and I believe Facebook is leading the way. Facebook has now almost completed its initial worldwide rollout […]
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FB Messenger Instant Games: A new era of friendly play (except for iOS/Android)
November 30, 2016Quick primer for the millenials in the audience who weren’t yet born: computing used to be performed by these (relatively) powerful, monstrous machines called mainframes. Mainframes were programmed and accessed via dumb terminals which resembled not much more than a keyboard, screen, and wired connection to the mainframe, kind of like on those portrayed on […]
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Instant speculation abounds with FB Messenger’s Instant Games
November 6, 2016Subscription media service The Information broke a story on Friday about Facebook Messenger allegedly planning to integrate HTML5 games into their platform, enabling users to play “Instant Games” directly in their chat feed. Assuming the reports are accurate, I find this development quite interesting for a number of reasons. First, this represents further confirmation that the […]
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No disrespect to VR, but I think HTML5 games will become trendy again
February 12, 2016Almost exactly three years ago I attempted to expose my thinking on why I was enthusiastic about HTML5, at least from an investor’s perspective. Three years is of course an eternity in tech, and HTML5 has certainly progressed substantially in some ways I expected, while in other ways demonstrated my zeal in overestimating the immediacy […]
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What I think about when I think about mobile gaming
October 21, 2014When people inquire about my investment strategy, I explain that I try to structure my investment thinking around themes or theses. Readers of this blog will recognize that one of my favorite investment themes over the past few years has centered on the value chain of mobile gaming. Often, I visualize aspects of a theme […]