While Sony and Apollo’s $26 billion all cash offer for Paramount last week turned heads for its potential impact on the streaming market, Sony’s desire to expand its video gaming empire is seen as the linchpin for a successful merger, according to one analyst. 

Paramount has been on the block for several years now but since the first hints of a sale emerged, the streaming market has tightened, with consolidation and shareholder demands for real profits driving the market, which is contending with higher interest rates and fickle viewers.

Despite its legacy, Paramount is having to compete with much larger players in the industry like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video and its size is forcing it to find a larger benefactor. That’s the conclusion from Ben Woods video analyst with MIDiA Research. 

“Paramount’s future hinges on being part of a much bigger (and more diversified) entertainment company,” Woods said. “With chief executive Bob Bakish leaving to make way for three division-level executives, Paramount appears to be clearing its decks ahead of an acquisition-shaped sea change.”

One of Paramount’s chief attractions is its extensive IP which includes its film franchises from Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible to its TV networks which include CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV as well as its broadcast rights to soccer’s Premier League. Extending this IP to Sony’s Playstation gaming platform could be the deciding factor that tips the scales in Sony’s favor. 

The breadth of possibilities enabled by a combined Sony-Paramount entity could boost Sony’s subscriber base, enhancing the company’s presence as a diversified media company across multiple platforms. 

“Sony could leverage its large gaming subscription base, its impressive music library, its Paramount-boosted TV / movie roster, and even CBS’s sports partnerships to offer a unique subscription offering across various media types appealing to various demographics,” Woods added. “One clear distribution opportunity would come from packaging up Paramount Plus with PlayStation Plus and targeting PlayStation Network’s near 130 million users.

“Having all this content under one umbrella in one app—ad-supported tier—could help bolster overall engagement with Sony’s IP and give it a bigger presence in today’s fiercely competitive attention economy,” he concluded. “So far, Sony has struggled to fully realie the power of transforming its games, movies, hardware, and music businesses into a united force. Paramount could well be the binding agent it needs to bring this cross-entertainment promise to bear.”

Read Tadesse's report here. 

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.—In another example of streaming services adding games to their lineup, Sling TV has launched its first-ever game offering, Arcade. 

The free Arcade gaming platform allows users to launch and play games in Arcade while simultaneously enjoying their favorite sports, news and entertainment TV. Arcade is available for Sling TV and Sling Freestream customers.

"Sling continues to put its subscribers and users first. We want people to not only love the flexibility and control but we want the entire experience to be fun and engaging," said Gary Schanman, group president, Dish Video Services. "Sling is now more than just TV. We want people to enjoy their entertainment just as much as we do. The new Arcade offering combines some great classic games with our great TV programming. No other streaming platform gives you access to more entertainment options for free."

Sling is working with Play.Works to offer a classic games that will be updated regularly the company said. 

"Play.Works continues to innovate on TV and Arcade is another example of this," said ceo Jonathan Boltax of Play.Works. "Play.Works catalog of games built from the ground-up for TV drives retention and usage."

Ten games are currently available to subscribers and users on Fire and Android TV. Those gaming titles include, Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Sweet Sugar, Solitaire Clash, Poker Online, Neon Rider, Pixel Dash, Centipede, Doodle Jump, Coin Town. Arcade will continue to roll out to additional devices over the next few months.  

"Sling is the most versatile, straightforward streaming service where subscribers and users can tailor everything to match their personal interests," added Schanman. "Arcade will allow our users to experience the thrill of an immersive arcade gaming experience like never before with our innovative technology."

Arcade is currently available for users on Fire and Android TV all other platforms are arriving shortly. Find more information about Arcade, visit www.sling.com/arcade. 

LONDON—Although it runs counter to logic, video gamers actually spend more time and money on video streaming than non-gamers, according to a new report by MIDiA Research, which cites the recent success of HBO’s TV adaptation of the popular video game “The Last of Us” to argue that SVOD companies should cater more to gamers. 

As of Q4 2022, 67% of consumers identify as gamers, spending an average of 8.8 hours per month on streaming TV shows and movies, compared to 6.9 hours for non-gamers. Gamers spend more on video streaming, with an average monthly spend of $12.60, compared to $9.50 for non-gamers. This makes gamers a disproportionately important segment in the SVOD landscape, and their preferences should be considered in the commissioning and storytelling strategies of video streaming services, the researcher said.

One of the key insights from the research is that coordinating episodic releases of TV adaptations alongside game releases, such as downloadable content (DLC) or new game seasons, can turn competition between video and games into synergy. This approach can lead to increased engagement, potential uplift in users and average revenue per user (ARPU), and better retention of gamers—the largest and most valuable entertainment segment of video streaming's user base.

MIDiA says “The Last of Us” series, produced by PlayStation Productions, has been a prime example of a successful TV adaptation that closely replicated the original game's essence, resonating with fans, and its research suggests that replicating the original game title more closely in TV adaptations can be a winning strategy due to the sheer number of gamers who now subscribe to video services.

Karol Severin, lead games analyst and co-founder of MIDiA Research, stated, "Given the value and the number of gamers among video subscribers, it makes sense to have TV adaptations of games replicate the original title more closely than ever before, as demonstrated by the successful case of ‘The Last of Us.’ Expect a lot more of this in the coming months."

Tim Mulligan, lead video analyst and co-founder of MIDiA Research, emphasised the need for SVOD services to understand their gamer user base's specific preferences to cater to them effectively.

"The overall gamer segment illustrates an opportunity for SVOD services to commission TV show adaptations of games and for the TV shows to remain closely tied to the original game” Mulligan. “However, to activate this effectively, it is crucial for SVOD services to dive deeper into the gamer preferences of their specific userbase."

The research also suggests that game developers, publishers, and distributors can benefit from increased brand awareness, engagement, and sales uplift through cross-promotion of the IP as a TV show. This can rekindle interest in older games and unlock hype for DLCs, game seasons, and in-game purchases, presenting a valuable marketing opportunity for the gaming industry, MIDiA added.

Perry Gresham, forecast and modelling analyst for MIDiA Research, commented, "Gamers are arguably the key segment for the video industry. They represent a super-majority of the user base for all primary SVOD services and eclipse non-gamers for most video consumption behaviours, including number of paid subscriptions and time spent watching SVOD.” 

Ben Woods, video analyst for MIDiA Research, said: “Gaming companies producing shows based on their IP may ultimately decide to cut out the middleman—the TV and movie studios—and make exclusive series and movies for their own subscription services.”

Sam Griffin, research associate for MIDiA Research, said: “In the peak attention era, the TV show format works. Unlike a movie, a TV show episode is much more suited to viewing on a commute, for example. It offers greater ability for games IP holders to generate incremental revenues and brand engagement—particularly important for story-driven games that do not offer in-game purchasing.”

NEW YORK—Video games released by the top U.S.-focused console publishers over the past two years suggests that the industry has increased space for diversity with more people of color, women and the LGBTQ+ community appearing in video games according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The analysis found that at least one playable character that was a person of color, a woman or from the LGBTQ+ community was featured in 84% of the 38 console games published by Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and Take-Two in 2022, up slightly from 80% of 35 games released in 2021. 

Of those groups, women were mostly represented in games published in 2022, with 27 titles offering an option to select or create a female character. People of color were not far behind at 25 games.

The LGBTQ+ community had the lowest representation in the games we analyzed at just six titles in 2022.

"The metaverse will likely deepen the desire for consumers to feel accurately represented in virtual worlds as it extends avatar experiences to remote meetings and other social settings,” explained Neil Barbour, analyst, S&P Global Market Intelligence. “Publishers and platform holders addressing this issue now will be better positioned as the metaverse's footprint grows." 

This analysis includes the top three U.S.-based publishers by revenue, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Take-Two, as well as the publishing arms of the three top console platform holders, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.

The full report is available for download here.

 NEW YORK—While economic worries have slowed deal making in the media sector, merger and acquisition activity in the hot video game industry continues at a record pace with two billion-dollar deals in June pushing the year's total gross transaction value of M&A to $102.21 billion, according to a new analysis from Kagan, a media research group within S&P Global Market Intelligence. 

Neil Barbour, the lead analyst on the new Kagan report noted that large M&A activity in the video game sector in 2022 reflected the industry's status as a revenue powerhouse as well as one of emerging growth opportunities. In addition, cloud gaming has the potential to grow console-style gaming's user base while in-game purchases will play a major role in metaverse development, Kagan reported. 

June was the second-largest month for M&A so far in 2022 ($3.40 billion in total), but it paled in comparison to the blockbuster deals announced in January whose value totaled $97.20 billion, Kagan said. 

LOS GATO, Calif.—Netflix continued its push into video games this week with the announcement that it had acquired game developer Boss Fight Entertainment and by unveiling three additional mobile games, including its first first-person shooter.

"Since we launched mobile games to our members around the world just four months ago, we’ve been expanding our games catalog bit by bit as we build out our in-house creative development team,” reported Amir Rahimi, vice president of Game Studios at Netflix. “So today, we’re excited to announce that Boss Fight Entertainment is joining Netflix.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Boss Fight Entertainment was founded in 2013 by David Rippy (CEO), Bill Jackson (CCO), and Scott Winsett (COO). “This studio’s extensive experience building hit games across genres will help accelerate our ability to provide Netflix members with great games wherever they want to play them,” Rahimi said. 

Headquartered in Allen, Texas, the Boss Fight Entertainment team will continue to operate out of their current studios in Allen (Dallas), Austin, and Seattle, which will also enable Netflix to tap into great creative talent beyond California, Rahimi said. 

“Boss Fight’s mission is to bring simple, beautiful, and fun game experiences to our players wherever they want to play,” said the founders of Boss Fight Entertainment. “Netflix’s commitment to offer ad-free games as part of members’ subscriptions enables game developers like us to focus on creating delightful game play without worrying about monetization.  We couldn’t be more excited to join Netflix at this early stage as we continue doing what we love to do while helping to shape the future of games on Netflix together.”

The new mobile games are “This Is A True Story” (Frosty Pop), “Shatter Remastered” (PikPok), and “Into The Dead 2: Unleashed” (PikPok).

SEATTLE—As a number of tech and streaming giants like Microsoft and Netflix are beefing up their operations in the $200 billion global video game business, Amazon has expanded its Luna cloud gaming service to the entire mainland U.S. with an expanded library of games and new features. 

The service launched last year in beta to some customers. 

With the full U.S. launch, Amazon is providing a new Prime Gaming Channel that allows Amazon Prime customers to try a rotating selection of free games on Luna. Players can now access even more games by subscribing to the new Retro Channel and Jackbox Games Channel. 

New Luna features include Live Broadcasting to Twitch and the Luna Phone Controller, which is available in the Luna Controller app for iPhone and Android phones.

The Amazon Luna cloud gaming service lets users play games on devices they already own, including Fire TV, Fire tablets, Windows PCs, Chromebook, Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Android phones. 

Luna is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which makes it easier to stream games without lengthy downloads or updates, expensive hardware, or complicated configurations, the company said. 

“Luna harnesses the power of the cloud, enabling customers to instantly play high quality, immersive games on the devices they already own,” said Daniel Rausch, vice president, Amazon Entertainment Devices and Services. “Today, we’re excited to make Luna available to all customers in the mainland United States, with a unique offer for Prime members to play free games, new Twitch broadcast features for creators, and a broad lineup of titles for any gamer to enjoy.”

Amazon Prime members can now play a rotating selection of games for free on Luna through a dedicated Prime Gaming Channel.

The Retro Channel, which features classic games, costs $4.99 a month

The Jackbox Games Channel costs $4.99 a month. 

New Features on Luna include live broadcasting to Twitch and a Luna Phone Control. 

Users can play on their own devices via the Luna Controller app or by purchasing the Luna Controller. 

On April 1, starting a new subscription for Luna+ will cost $9.99 per month and Family Channel will cost $5.99 per month. Existing early access customers, and customers who sign up for Luna+ or Family Channel by March 31, 2022, can lock in founder’s pricing and keep Luna+ at $5.99 per month and Family Channel $2.99 per month, so long as they maintain their subscriptions in good standing.

TIBURON, Calif.—Serious gamers may be saying goodbye to PCs and hello to TV and cloud-based gaming systems over the next few years. Jon Peddie Research, in a recent report, forecasts that due to the decline of the PC platform globally, 20 million PC gamers will choose to go with TV gaming platforms between 2018 and 2022.

The PC market is being affected because of slower innovation and introduction of new products, but also because of improved TV displays and console semiconductors.

Some of the TV-based systems that gamers will gravitate toward are long-established brands like PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, but new services are also making an impact. Game streaming services have been announced by both Google and Apple that can be accessed through TVs. Other streaming and cloud gaming platforms are also available for passionate gamers.

“In the next five years, we will see potential customers with access to TV gaming swell by the hundreds of millions,” said Ted Pollak, senior analyst, Gaming Industry.