📓 Creativ Brief: Games Developer Conference Recapped!
Meta AI app. Digital decline. Discord gaming features. AI consumer applications. GDC photos.
Our team finished a week long exploration among gaming marketers, developers, and technologists in San Francisco. Here are the team’s top 6 takeaways.
Cloud computing will be the next technological breakthrough in gaming. There are multiple applications that video games will use. Cloud-based server hosting solutions (like Amazon Gamelift/AWS) are becoming more popular for studios looking to build their own consumer facing platforms. Netflix Games and Crunchyroll are using cloud solutions to deliver game experiences to consumers on their mobile devices. And generally, cloud computing allows wider distribution of higher fidelity game experiences by sharing processing power between hardware and cloud processing.
AI is still omnipresent, but specific applications are emerging with commercial success. This includes our own applications of machine intelligence on large data sets to retrieve client answers to consumer questions. Multiple game development solutions such as code completion, level generation, narrative tools, voice-to-image or text-to-image prompting, are emerging as critical parts of game design and development.
File storage and database solutions were a new emergent category. These solutions focus on organizing large files into easily found packet buckets. Examples include design file systems, player and live-ops data solutions, and monetization solutions that can organize large data sets and make individual items easily searchable and retrievable.
User acquisition costs continue to rise. We have a corresponding news article on this, but studios, publishers, and indies told us across the board that their cost per install is rising. Digital marketing is becoming harder than ever.
Saturation. We heard a stat that roughly 20k new games will hit Steam alone in 2024. We can expect this number to be similar in 2025. Marketing is more important than ever. The adage that great products find markets themselves is a myth.
Using technology to create breakthrough games. Multiple executives with new projects were hunting for ways a novel application of technology, like AI, VR, AR or more, can produce a breakthrough game experience for consumers. This is a fascinating thought about how tech can deliver consumer wins.
We’ll keep our head to the ground as the industry continues to shift beneath us. Thanks for reading!
3 Stories Dominating Media and Tech Headlines
Meta plans to release a standalone Meta AI app in effort to compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The company intends to debut a Meta AI standalone app during the second quarter, according to people familiar with the matter. It marks a major step in Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s plans to make his company the leader in artificial intelligence by the end of the year, ahead of competitors such as OpenAI and Alphabet, said the people, who asked not to be named because the project is confidential.
Why it matters: The new battlefield between technology firms is squarely in AI. Each large technology company, except for Apple, has invested in a foundational model and the rails to deliver it. Meta’s Llama models are set to get their own platform.
Marketers Need to Rethink the Role of Digital in Campaigns. More than three decades have passed since the first banner ad appeared on a website. Digital wasn’t just a new frontier, it was a place that experienced stratospheric year-over-year growth—and the unspoken expectation was that growth would continue forever.
Why it Matters: Digital acquisition costs are rising by double digits each year. Advertisers are increasingly finding harder conversions for more money. The consolidation of digital distribution among a few players is much to blame.
Discord announced plans to expand its successful Video Quests and Social Integration advertising format to mobile devices. This strategic move marks the company’s first mobile ad offering, significantly broadening reach for advertisers while maintaining Discord’s commitment to user-first, reward-focused advertising experiences. It also launched an SDK to pull its social chat features into games directly.
Why it matters: A major trend at GDC was socialized game experiences. Discord is majorly expanding its product line beyond their desktop social platform and audio chat. We’re bullish on this platform as a medium to reach consumers.
Creativ Spotlight - SpecialGuestx Nominated for Innovative Lead
Miguel Espada, Cofounder and executive creative technologist, has been nominated for innovative lead for Campaign US’ Agency of the year list. Congratulations!
You can see all nominees here.
Stat of the Week - AI Features Consumers like
Much has been said about integrating AI into products and services. It seems as though all AI integrations are not created equal. The top application across all categories is customer service quality, followed by data transparency. Two very basic applications that consumers want.
One Fun Thing - Creativ Wraps at GDC
Miles and I had a great time navigating through GDC all week. We met with clients, tried new games, learned a few things, and knocked back a few drinks with longtime friends and new contacts.