Neil McFarland, director of games at Ustwo (Monument Valley), as quoted by Gamesindustry.biz:

Freemium effectively focuses on a niche - they just happen to be whales who spend unlimited amounts of money. Despite freemium games being seemingly for everyone, they’re not really.

…

[Premium’s] clearly not the best business model, but it was about our passion and the need to communicate something about gaming; a meaningful contribution to the medium, and to not overstay our welcome. Just give people something and that’s it - we’re not going to press you for endless hours of your time.

I thank the team at Ustwo for a fulfilling and concise experience. Only 90 minutes yet the sights and sounds of Monument Valley still linger in my mind. Relinking my review here.

Looking forward to the release of the Monument Valley original soundtrack by Stafford Bawler, Obfusc & Grigori.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH2wGpEZVgE

Of all the 8-bit greats, Super Mario Bros. has some of the best examples of well used affordances and well designed learning curves, and it does it all without blocks of text or requiring people to actually read the manual.

Level 1-1 or World 1-1? Either way, great video. Go Right.

Jordan Shapiro, Forbes:

By themselves, gameplay actions seem fairly meaningless. For example, most first person shooters are essentially just complex three dimensional virtual simulations of the carnival classic: whack-a-mole. We’ve seen it with many different skins and themes: military, zombie, duck hunting, dinosaurs. Something pops up and the player needs to react quickly–strike a moving target before you miss your chance.

Well put. Great piece.

John Gruber:

The most surprising (to me) part of Google’s Android TV announcement today was that Sony would be integrating it into their 2015 TV sets. Why in the world would Sony agree to integrate what is obviously a direct competitor to Playstation TV in its own TV sets?

Subsidization? Lack of confidence? A Google play for PlayStation cross-branding? Vice versa?

I don’t think Sony is terribly worried about Android’s role in gaming, especially against Sony’s library of PlayStation back-catalog (though, maybe it should be). At the same time, incorporating other Google services (media and otherwise) will likely serve as a marketing boon for Sony. Nonetheless, it is an odd move.

Jason Tate:

And if there’s anything I’ve learned by reading the posts of music listeners online for over a decade: they hate when bands make money. I’m only half kidding here, but I can’t think of any other industry where I’ve seen the consumer of a product be downright caustic if the creator is turning even a marginal profit.

Great short read. A small reason for my excitement at Xbox One’s original DRM strategy.