consultancy

AppWizard
April 23, 2025
Digital media agency Infinitize has launched an initiative called Vendetta, described as "publishing-as-a-service," to support independent developers by providing marketing expertise. Infinitize has partnered with The Lippin Group to enhance its outreach strategies. CEO Jenny Zha emphasized that Vendetta aims to empower innovative indie developers rather than focusing solely on large studios. Specific indie studios benefiting from this initiative have not yet been disclosed.
AppWizard
April 18, 2025
PC game publishers are seeking innovative revenue enhancement methods and new audience engagement. Rokky, founded in 2009, has grown from five to around 60 employees and offers a distribution platform that connects game publishers with various digital storefronts, focusing on markets outside Europe. The company collaborates with publishers for content and engages stores for sales, easing the burden on publishers managing multiple relationships. Rokky highlights the potential of untapped markets in China and Asia, where traditional advertising is restricted. They have established connections with local marketing agencies and influencers to navigate these challenges. Andreev advises leveraging influencer partnerships for marketing in China, emphasizing the importance of social media. The grey market poses challenges for publishers, where game keys are resold at inflated prices across regions. Rokky suggests region-locking keys and adjusting pricing strategies based on local economic conditions to mitigate revenue loss from cross-border sales. Andreev envisions a future shift towards seamless activation processes, moving away from traditional key-selling methods to instant activation upon purchase, enhancing the user experience.
AppWizard
March 18, 2025
Ben Porter, director at NewZoo, will present insights from the company's annual gaming industry analysis at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). NewZoo's survey indicates that the PC gaming market is growing, with an estimated 873.5 million PC gamers in 2023, projected to rise to 907.5 million by 2024, surpassing the console gaming audience of approximately 653.1 million. A significant portion of PC players, 67%, will spend their gaming hours on titles that are six years or older, while 25% will play games aged two to five years, leaving only 8% for newer releases. The most played games include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive/Counter-Strike 2 (7.1%), League of Legends (6.4%), Roblox (6.2%), Dota 2 (5.8%), and Fortnite (5.4%). Overall, 92% of player time is devoted to games more than two years old, highlighting a preference for established titles over new releases.
Winsage
November 8, 2024
On November 5, Microsoft mistakenly assigned a globally unique identifier (GUID) to the Windows Server 2025 upgrade, leading to confusion among IT professionals. The upgrade was incorrectly labeled as KB5044284, a security update, which caused certain third-party patching software to misclassify it and deploy Windows Server 2025 unexpectedly on some servers. Heimdal, a security firm, reported that a customer found the new operating system installed without prior notice. The licensing check for Server 2025 occurs only after the upgrade is completed, potentially obligating users to purchase a new license without a straightforward rollback option. As of November 7, Microsoft had retracted the problematic update, but no rollback had been made available. Jim Gaynor from IT consultancy Directions on Microsoft emphasized the importance of vigilance in patch management and cautioned against the risks of integrating paid upgrades into security update channels.
AppWizard
October 6, 2024
In early September, Warner Bros. released a teaser for A Minecraft Movie, directed by Jared Hess, featuring Jack Black as Steve and Jason Momoa. The trailer's whimsical tone sparked online backlash, particularly against cast member Danielle Brooks, with right-wing influencers criticizing her inclusion as “forced diversity.” This reaction mirrored past campaigns against diversity in entertainment, reminiscent of Gamergate. Wendy Via noted that the portrayal of “wokeness” as a threat in entertainment is not new, citing similar criticisms aimed at other projects like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and The Acolyte. The backlash against A Minecraft Movie aligns with a broader trend of targeting diverse representation in media, with right-leaning fans of the franchise feeling activated by the film's adaptation. The US Department of Justice also indicted two employees of the Russian news network RT for allegedly funding the right-wing influencer network Tenet Media, which disseminated Kremlin-approved narratives. Additionally, reports indicated that The Acolyte would not be renewed for a second season, which some interpreted as a victory for far-right narratives against diversity in media.
Tech Optimizer
September 24, 2024
The South African Campaign of the Year was awarded to The Friday Street Club for "Go Solr The Light Paper." The Alkemi Collective received a Special Mention for the Esther Mahlangu Retrospective. Paddington Station Inc. was named Grand Prix Agency of the Year and Best Small Public Relations Consultancy. Tribeca PR was recognized as the Best Mid-Sized Public Relations Consultancy, and Flow Communications won Best Large Public Relations Consultancy. Paul W. Reynell, Caroline Smith, and Bradly Howland received leadership recognition. Keabetswe Taele was named Best Public Relations Professional, with Awande Dlamini as runner-up. Thato Moloi was the Best Up-and-Coming Public Relations Professional, followed by Mikateko Maswanganyi and Kaylin van der Vent. Tasneem Felix and Zané Neethling were runners-up for Best Public Relations Intern of the Year. Martin Slabbert received the Dedication Award. Brandsmith's "#WomenpreneurHerPerfectPitch" campaign won Gold in the B2B Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Campaign category. Weber Shandwick's "Iron Sharpens Iron" won Silver in Education & Training. MSL's "Disney+: Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire" won Gold for Consumer PR in B2C, while Flow Communications received Bronze for their work with SANBI. The Friday Street Club's "Go Solr – The Light Paper" won Gold in the Environmental category, and Tribeca PR's "WE are Malan Scholes Attorneys" won Gold in Corporate Communications. Ogilvy South Africa's "Life Healthcare Always On" won Gold in digital reputation management, and Dialogue Communications' "#BokFriday" won in social media. Honorary awards were given to Maria Dax, Kate Bapela, and Malesela Maubane for their contributions to public relations.
AppWizard
August 5, 2024
Squid Shock Studios, the developer of the game Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, is facing challenges after their publisher, Humble Games, shut down, resulting in a loss of critical post-launch support. The studio lost access to essential systems on July 25th and can currently only manage the game on Steam, with console support still unavailable. To seek additional support, Squid Shock has launched a Patreon membership program with six tiers, starting at £1 per month, and has gained 22 paid members so far. They have also submitted a new patch to the QA team for version 1.1 of their game.
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