Category: Video games

Management, Video games

The Candle Trend: Why “Italian Brainrot” Is a Warning for the Entertainment Industry

Italian Brainrot is not really a brand, a franchise, or even a coherent creative project. It is a label that got stuck to a wave of AI-generated absurdist characters that flooded short-form video and somehow ended up on plush toys, soda cans, and merchandise shelves worldwide. If you work in entertainment IP, the temptation is to log it as a weird little footnote and move on. That would be a mistake, because what happened here has not happened before and it is not going back in the box. Continue reading The Candle Trend: Why “Italian Brainrot” Is a Warning for the Entertainment Industry

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Management, Video games, Vtubing

An Introduction to E³ Part 3: ENABLE

Creative industries have a strange habit of ignoring the conditions required to produce creativity.

Teams are rushed.
Budgets are misallocated.
Projects scale beyond their justification.
Then when the result fails, the conclusion is that the idea didn’t work.

More often, the environment failed the project.

This is where the third pillar of E³ comes in: Enable. Continue reading An Introduction to E³ Part 3: ENABLE

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Management, Video games

An Introduction to E³ Part 2: ENGAGE

We do not live in a one-screen world anymore.

There was a time when content had to serve everyone at once. One television. One living room. One shared experience. If something was broadcast, it was broadcast to a household, not an individual.

That world is gone.

Now everyone has their own screen. Their own feed. Their own algorithm. Their own schedule.

And that changes how IP has to function. Continue reading An Introduction to E³ Part 2: ENGAGE

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Management, Video games, Vtubing

An Introduction to E³ Part 1: EMPOWER

Modern entertainment has a problem.

Demand is exploding, but production cannot keep up.

Games take longer to make. Updates are expected faster. Communities move on quicker. Meanwhile, the biggest IP holders are no longer competing against one game or one show, they are competing against entire ecosystems.

If you want an IP to survive long-term, you need more than output. You need momentum. And the most scalable form of momentum is not produced internally.

It is created by the community. Continue reading An Introduction to E³ Part 1: EMPOWER

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Video games

How User-Generated Content Validated Age of Empires II, And Why UGC Is the Future of Gaming

User-generated content (UGC) is often framed as a nice-to-have or a community perk in gaming. But the story of Age of Empires II shows that UGC can be a de facto market test, incubator of talent, and essential signal of long-term value even convincing a major publisher to revive a dormant franchise. Continue reading How User-Generated Content Validated Age of Empires II, And Why UGC Is the Future of Gaming

Unknown's avatarTim BrowneLeave a comment
Video games

The Game Awards: Gaming’s biggest show and its growing identity crisis

After the somewhat controversial streamer awards earlier in the week, The Game Awards delivered few surprises as Expedition 33 dominated the night and claimed a record nine awards. Even so, the ceremony was not without its own share of debate, alongside several announcements that ranged from exciting to fairly routine for the video game industry. In this article we will break down this year’s show and consider whether The Game Awards remains a positive force for the medium or whether it is beginning to feel like it is chasing the prestige of the Oscars. Continue reading The Game Awards: Gaming’s biggest show and its growing identity crisis

Unknown's avatarTim BrowneLeave a comment
Video games

Stop Replacing Creatives with AI. You’re Killing the Industry You Profit From.

The rise of AI was always going to bring fear over its potential to replace jobs ,but few expected creatives to be first on the menu. Yet here we are. Companies like Activision have openly admitted to using AI-generated content, chasing cheaper alternatives without realising that any money saved is dwarfed by the long-term damage being done to the industry. Continue reading Stop Replacing Creatives with AI. You’re Killing the Industry You Profit From.

Unknown's avatarTim BrowneLeave a comment
Video games

No, EA Probably Won’t Make Battlefront 3

Star Wars Battlefront II had a rough launch in 2017. The game was heavily criticised for tying core gameplay progression to loot boxes and quickly became the industry’s tipping point for backlash against microtransactions.

Developer DICE eventually overhauled the progression system, making everything unlockable through gameplay. But the damage was done. EA’s reputation took a massive hit, and for many players, trust was broken.

It wasn’t until 2020 that Battlefront II ended its live service run not with a whimper, but with a final update that was widely praised by its community. In 2021, the game saw a surprising resurgence in players. Even more impressively, it broke its own peak player count twice in 2025.

So that begs the question: has EA earned back the goodwill and is it finally time for a Battlefront III?
Continue reading No, EA Probably Won’t Make Battlefront 3

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