Karol Severin

Karol is a co-founder and Research Director at MIDiA. With over a decade of experience in consumer research, industry analysis, and consulting, Karol oversees the direction, coverage and quality of all MIDiA’s research output. Prior to co-founding MIDiA, Karol gained experience in TMT market research and consulting, as well as an entertainment industry startup founder. He holds a business management degree from Queen Mary, University of London, with specialisation in strategy, quantitative methods, and entrepreneurship.

What happened with EA and FIFA and why both are probably going to be fine

Karol Severin

12 May 2022

EA Sports

FIFA

Games

As we warned in October 2021, the divorce of EA and FIFA has come into fruition. EA’s FIFA series has been rebranded to EA Sports FC and FIFA (the organisation) is taking its brand away to expand on...

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Quick take: Spotify to connect artists and fans on a Roblox island

Karol Severin

5 May 2022

Roblox

Spotify

Games

Spotify launched a digital island in Roblox yesterday. The destination enables players to take part in interactive quests, buy virtual merchandise, mingle with artists, and create their own sounds and...

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Why games could be the winning entertainment sector as disposable income tightens

Karol Severin

28 Apr 2022

attention recession

Streaming

Subscriptions

Inflation, as well as macroeconomic and geopolitical developments (from Brexit, through chasing Covid-induced debt, right up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) will likely drive disposable income (and...

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You can play Snoop Dogg in Call of Duty, but you can’t PLAY him

Karol Severin

21 Apr 2022

Snoop Dogg

Call of Duty

Warzone

Call of Duty dropped the ‘Tracer Pack: Snoop Dogg Operator Bundle’, costing 2,400 COD Points ($19.99). It comes with Snoop’s playable skin, his own voice lines and progression path towards unlockable...

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Sony continues investing in Epic Games

Karol Severin

19 Apr 2022

Sony

Epic Games

Fortnite

Sony continues investing in Epic Games Although Microsoft stole the headlines with its acquisition of Activision early this year, Sony is certainly not just standing on the side-lines. Last week, it announced...

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Unreal is evolving from a games development tool to a story-telling tool

Karol Severin

7 Apr 2022

Epic Games

Unreal Engine 5

games development

Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, launched Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) this week. Despite being in works for a few years and in private Beta for most of 2021, the overall product strategy focusses on tapping...

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Gamer brand fandom
Assessing partnership suitability between games and entertainment brands

Karol Severin

March 2022

Gaming

Games

Entertainment

Entertainment partnerships in games are booming, with games companies being approached with opportunities from all directions. This increased level of opportunity puts pressure on the available time and...

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Games companies’ video opportunity
From marketing to monetisation

Karol Severin

March 2022

Free Report

Streaming

Gaming

Games

MIDiAs head games analyst, Karol Severin, discusses a key games video opportunity for games companies and games video creators alike, alongside two panellists - CEO of Wormhole Labs and a Twitch content...

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Quick Take: Regulation and war are leading the global games industry's trajectory to diverge

Karol Severin

11 Mar 2022

regulation

Russia

China

Over the last few years, the traditional unit sales-based model in games has been increasingly moving towards engagement-led models. In other words, we are moving away from costly price points to buy complete...

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Webinar: Games companies’ video opportunity

Karol Severin

3 Mar 2022

webinar

games video

Creators

Traditionally, games companies predominantly used games video for marketing purposes. This made perfect sense in the era of unit sales and early-adoption stages of games-related video. Today, 30% of console...

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Reflections from PG Connects London 2022

Karol Severin

25 Feb 2022

PG Connects

industry events

Games industry

PG Connects London 2022 was the first in-person games industry event that I attended in over two years. Having spent the best part of the pandemic on Zoom, which quickly blurred the lines between a call...

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From marketing to monetisation
The games video opportunity for games companies

Karol Severin

February 2022

YouTube

Twitch

facebook gaming

Games-related video consumption is now as big as established TV and video genres. Despite games companies providing the fuel for the games video sector (i.e., games experiences, processed into content...

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Quick take: Roblox is another victim of the attention recession

Karol Severin

17 Feb 2022

Roblox

earnings

attention recession

Earlier this week, Roblox announced its fiscal year (FY) 2021 results. The market response was stark, wiping 20+% fromRoblox’s market cap. While the media is citing Roblox’s slowing growth (particularly...

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Microsoft sets the scene for regulator scrutiny around Activision deal

Karol Severin

10 Feb 2022

acquisitions

Microsoft

Activision

Brad Smith, president and vice chair at Microsoft, published a post on Microsoft’s website yesterday , outlining the company’s new Open App Store principles and addressing key questions around exclusivity...

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The ‘attention recession’ just showed its teeth to Facebook – and took a $200bn bite

Karol Severin

3 Feb 2022

Facebook

Meta

peak attention economy

For the first time in its 18-year existence, Meta reported a drop in daily active users from 1.930 billion to 1.929 billion. This is the ‘attention recession’ we at MIDiA have been warning about since...

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The games video opportunity for games companies

Karol Severin

27 Jan 2022

games video

games streamers

Video creators

Traditionally, games companies predominantly used games video for marketing purposes. This made perfect sense in the era of unit sales and early-adoption stages of games-related video. Today, 30% of console...

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NFTs and entertainment
Opportunity assessment

Karol Severin

January 2022

Games

mobile games

Epic Games

NFTs are taking the media and entertainment worlds by storm, but we are still, arguably, in early-adoption stages. The media and supply-side frenzy is kicking in, posing more noise and challenge for companies...

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Acquiring Activision is Microsoft’s big bang in games

Karol Severin

19 Jan 2022

acquisitions

m&a

Microsoft

Only last week we wrote about Take-Two acquiring Zynga for $12.7 billion in what was the largest games acquisition in history. But that was last week. This week, that record is beaten more than five-fold,...

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Hybrid futures
MIDiA 2022 predictions

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

January 2022

Free Report

Social media

Business Strategy

MIDiA Research Predictions

MIDiA analysts dive into our 2022 predictions, and why we believe it will be ' the year of the creator '. Watch the webinar here ....

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Time for diversification for Take-Two as it bids to acquire Zynga

Karol Severin

12 Jan 2022

take two interactive

Zynga

acquisition

Take-Two Interactive announced an acquisition deal to buy Zynga (pending a 45-day shopping window for Zynga) for $12.7billion. The deal Who got a great deal? It depends on who you ask. It worked out well...

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