Yoni Ginsberg

🚨 Travis Kelce is about to make Roblox history today 🚨 The National Football League (NFL) superstar (and Taylor Swift's boyfriend) is jumping into "Grow a Garden" as a guest player - not just watching from the sidelines, but actually playing WITH the game owner Janzen Madsen using admin powers to mess with other players. This is massive for three reasons: 📈 We've seen celebs partner with Roblox before, but never actually be a guest inside hugely successful experiences with the creators. This crosses into authentic participation territory. 🎯 Audience crossover goldmine - Kelce brings a huge following who've likely never touched Roblox. Plus the inevitable Swifties fan spillover. 💡 If this works (and it probably will), every major celebrity team should start exploring "guest player" opportunities. Developers should start to have ideas ready for guest appearences. This is Roblox's 'Drake-playing-Fortnite-with-Ninja' moment. That stream arguably legitimized gaming for mainstream culture and broke records. Today could deliver the same cultural shift for Roblox. This is proof that Roblox experiences can attract A-list talent for real, unscripted content. The platform's creator tools make these collaborations possible in ways traditional gaming can't match. The concurrent player numbers will be worth watching 📈📈📈

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Mobile gaming has matured. No more cheap growth, no more acquisition sprees. What we’re seeing now is leaner, smarter, more disciplined publishing. Post-pandemic normalization, Apple’s IDFA changes, and rising UA costs have forced companies to rethink their strategies—the once M&A-heavy growth model has given way to profitability-oriented restructurings, team layoffs, and strategic reviews. InvestGame dives into how Western publicly listed mobile gaming publishers Playtika, Stillfront, Modern Times Group MTG AB, Nexters ($GDEV), and PLAYSTUDIOS are tackling the shifting landscape. Each brings a unique angle to their gaming portfolios—from social casino and casual to mid-core segments—and distinct strategic approaches. – Playtika is doubling down on casual and direct-to-consumer. – Stillfront hit pause on M&A to focus on operational efficiency. – MTG shows that smart deals (like PlaySimple and Snowprint) still pay off. – GDEV is rebalancing UA and platforms. – Playstudios is betting on loyalty mechanics to drive retention. The gold rush is over. Now it’s about profitability, player LTV, and execution. Good read on how mobile is adapting—first comment. #investgame #gdev #playtika #playstudios #stillfront #mtg #mobile #marketing

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Public game companies are often starring in Mission: Impossible, the price of participation in the modern capital system. You don’t need to spend 25+ years, like me, studying business and finance or working in it to understand. Average operating margin in games is about 15%. Average annual return of the S&P 500 is around 10%. So if a company holds a 15% margin and doesn’t improve it, it must grow revenue by 10% every year just to match the market, not beat it. If it can’t grow, it must cut costs to increase margin. Or do both. The market doesn’t care how or why, people, values, intent, or culture. It cares about capital return. This pressure kicks in the minute you go public. You start a ticking clock. From that point on, the expectation is not just performance, but outperformance. Matching the index isn’t enough for investors. Even assuming the best intentions, good leadership, and a thoughtful plan, the system still pushes you to grow faster, cut deeper, and deliver more. For public companies, it’s not a suggestion. It’s structural. This can happen if you're private too, but you get to choose. You could keep revenue flat forever if you wanted and value other things. Not if you're public Let’s put some numbers behind it. If your revenue doubles over 7.2 years (10% growth expectation) and operating margin holds steady at 15%, you’ve doubled net income. You’ve met expectations. If you only grow revenue to 150% instead of 200% over that period, you fell short. To hit the same net income target, you need to increase your margin from 15 to 20%. That requires cutting expenses 6% over those 7.2 years, assuming no inflation, new hires, added complexity. Best case. This explains much of the engine behind: Layoffs after record quarters Radical cost-cutting Pivots to live services Subscription models Aggressive in-game monetization Acquisitions made for growth optics that don’t pay off Internal restructures for market signaling Product decisions driven by investor sentiment Beyond the math, I understand why equity can look cheaper than debt. It doesn’t require regular interest payments and doesn’t immediately impact cash flow. But that cost is paid elsewhere. In outside pressure. In activist investors. In shifting sentiment that forces faster action. In leadership teams who know they may only hold their roles for three or five years, and feel compelled to take higher-stakes, binary bets that show near-term gains instead of pacing a ten or fifteen-year growth plan. This isn't to say these outcomes are inevitable. I’m not suggesting absolutes. I’m simply offering what I believe are fair, objective descriptors of the structural realities that come with public equity financing and how they may explain many of the outcomes we're all seeing unfold in real time across the games industry and beyond. Understanding that structure helps make sense of the decisions we keep seeing. Sometimes it really is just like Mission: Impossible.

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EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for $55 Billion. This is your daily reminder that game franchises are worth billions. EA shareholders will receive $210 per share, a 25% premium over its pre-deal price, and once the transaction closes in fiscal 2027, EA will no longer trade on public markets. This is one of the biggest moves in gaming history, comparable in scale to Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition. EA is one of the five major Western publishers, sitting on franchises like Battlefield, Apex Legends, The Sims, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and a portfolio of sports games that generate billions annually. Going private could allow EA to operate without quarterly shareholder pressure, but the deal is financed partly with $20 billion in debt, which means cost-cutting is inevitable. Layoffs, studio closures, and selling off dormant IP are all realistic outcomes. This acquisition is also part of a bigger Saudi strategy. PIF has spent years diversifying away from oil, investing in esports, Formula 1, and now one of the most profitable gaming companies in the world. It signals how seriously Gulf states see gaming as a future growth industry and a cultural tool. From a consumer standpoint, this could go in two directions: If the consortium truly wants to grow EA rather than strip it for parts, it could mean reviving neglected franchises and experimenting with new IP without the quarterly earnings pressure. On the other hand, private equity deals often focus on generating value quickly, which could mean more microtransactions, subscription pushes, and a further narrowing of EA’s focus to guaranteed earners like EA Sports FC and Battlefield. One of the most recognizable names in gaming has been taken off the public market and placed under the control of foreign investors. It is the clearest sign yet that video games are no longer just a niche hobby but a major asset class that nations, sovereign funds, and global financiers are willing to spend tens of billions to control.

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