Delicious Digest #15 - Penguins, Dogfooding, and Unicorns
A weekly newsletter of what I’ve seen in (mostly) tech & games and thought was interesting. This week: Penguins, Dogfooding, and Unicorns.
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😳 Must reads of the week
◼ “How Games Make Money”, an interesting new podcast. Useful particularly if you’re new to the business. Links: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast
◼ League of Legends maker Riot will launch a F2P shooter “Valorant” in summer, “looks like Overwatch meets CS:GO”. Link
🗞 News
◼ The Coronavirus pandemic is of course the topic of the day. It’s hard to fathom the impact. Here’s a try: a (long) list of postponed or cancelled trade fairs and exhibitions. The effects and repercussions will last a while. Stay safe everyone! Link
◼ But AMD says the next-gen consoles' ship dates aren’t at risk from Coronavirus. Phew, that was my biggest worry… Link
◼ Google’s self-driving car company Waymo raises a $2.25 billion in first external funding round. This was supposed to “be here” 2y ago. Now it looks more like externalising risks and bracing for a much longer ramp. Link
◼ Facebook has rewritten the Messenger app for iOS completely from scratch using as many native iOS capability as possible. Link
See also: “Things You Should Never Do, Part I” Link
◼ Great article on why fast-growing startup unicorns go off the rails (or “BlitzFail”). Link
🕹 Games
◼ “This terrifying gaming bed is just a toilet short of perfection”. Every once in a while, a headline is just perfect. Link
◼ Mario Kart Tour for iPhone is getting real-time multiplayer. Link
◼ Interesting op-ed on game streaming: it might be better to think of it as an alternative for those who don’t own a console or gaming PC. Convenience of access. Not competing with Steam on a hardcore player’s PC. Link
◼ Some rumors are pointing towards Overwatch and Diablo being adapted as TV shows. Here’s to hope! Link
◼ Last of Us, meanwhile, definitely is coming to HBO. Yummie! Link
◼ Reinforcement learning Penguins in Unity. AI is everywhere. Link
◼ “How Scopely took over the Scrabble mobile game franchise from EA” Link
◼ “There is insufficient scientific evidence to support a causal link between violent video games and violent behavior, according to […] the American Psychological Association.” Link
😋 Tasty Tidbits
◼ Listening to music can make some people perform better some cognitive tasks. Confused? Good. Turn off the music, read the article. Link (PDF)
◼ Dogfooding. The real deal. Link
◼ Innovation in 1914: “Bombs Dropped from Zeppelins Are Highly Accurate” Link
◼ Speaking of Zeppelins: insanely detailed and beautiful paper zeppelins, hand-made by two French artists. Link
◼ Voyager 2, a space probe launched in 1977, is still fully operational after a hotfix administered from over 18 billion kilometers distance. Link
◼ Tasty indeed: an online collection of over 2000 Mexican cookbooks from 1789 to the present. Link
◼ “Amateurs talk tactics – professionals study logistics.” A gloriously nerdy, six-part series analysis of the Battle of Gondor in Lord of the Rings. Link
I work for King. All views in this newsletter are personal and my own. They do not represent the views of King or ActivisionBlizzard. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only and it’s surely no investment advice. This newsletter links to other websites and information obtained from third-party sources and I cannot ensure nor verify accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.