Karol Severin | MIDiA Research

How games continue to drive a cultural shift

Karol Severin

24 Jul 2020

The strides gaming has made in recent years regarding its cultural relevance are hard to ignore. Twenty years ago, consumers defined their cultural image through the music they listened to, the clothes...

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The hidden value of esports audiences

Karol Severin

20 Jul 2020

Games

esports

AVOD

Esports video viewers are becoming more interesting to brands and media companies. Increasingly more focus is now put on accurately valuing esports audiences. Gamers (and even more so, esports viewers)...

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Sony buys stake in Epic Games: Small equity, large impact

Karol Severin

13 Jul 2020

Games

Epic Games

Sony

Sony has made a strategic investment of $250 million to acquire a minority stake in Epic Games. According to Venture Beat , Sony will own 1.4% of the company, valuing Epic Games at $17.86 billion. While...

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Quick Take: Amazon’s pull-back of Crucible is a setback, but don’t sign it off just yet

Karol Severin

6 Jul 2020

Games

Amazon

Crucible

Amazon has decided to pull the release of its game, Crucible, back to beta following feedback from early users. Much of the games community is taking jabs at Amazon about its lack of gaming DNA and deeming...

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Ninja’s next move crucial, as Apple Rejects Facebook Gaming App

Karol Severin

24 Jun 2020

Ninja

games streaming

Twitch

For the lack of better word, times are about get crazy for the mid-to-top tier end of games streamers and creators as the content wars heat up, so here are some observations and hopefully some useful pro...

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Recovery Economics
Outlook for Music, Games, Video & Sports

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin and Alistair Taylor

June 2020

Video

recorded music

Music Streaming

MIDiA analysts present in this webinar report how the entertainment industries can plan not to simply bounce back, but to rebuild their value propositions and supply chains to adjust to the realities of...

Media Companies Divesting From Games Is A Double-Edged Sword

Karol Severin

17 Jun 2020

Games

Covid-19

at&t

Just a couple of weeks ago MIDiA Research wrote about Endeavor selling off its Epic Games stake . Now it has emerged that AT&T is looking to sell off Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment (WBIE), the...

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What PlayStation 5 Tells Us About Sony's Trajectory

Karol Severin

12 Jun 2020

Games

gaming

playstation 5

PlayStation put on an impressive showcase of 20+ upcoming titles, culminating in presenting the design of its new console, PlayStation 5, due to launch later this year. Though no launch date, price or...

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Recovery Economics
Games Sees Temporary Bounce but Should Prepare For Decline

Karol Severin

June 2020

Amazon

Netflix

Games

The effects of the coronavirus-induced crisis unfolded in multiple stages, each with its own characteristics. During the early outbreak and strict lockdowns, games engagement benefited greatly. The cessation...

Recovery Economics
Bounce Forward not Back - Slides

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin and Keith Jopling

June 2020

Free Report

Video

Music

Games

MIDiA analysts present in this webinar how the entertainment industries can plan not to simply bounce back, but to rebuild their value propositions and supply chains to adjust to the realities of the new...

Dealing with Crises During The Crisis Is a Part Of New Normal

Karol Severin

2 Jun 2020

Call of Duty

crisis management

Games

Sony , EA , and Activision were among companies to postpone marketing events and product release efforts in light of the current protests against police brutality and racism in the United States. The current...

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PlayStation Now and Xbox Game Pass Increase Subscribers, But Recovery Will Favour Disruptors

Karol Severin

22 May 2020

Games

Both PlayStation (PS ) and Xbox have recently announced significant increases in their games streaming service user bases. Xbox Game Pass now has 10 million subscribers and PlayStation now has 2.2 million...

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Recovery Economics
Post-Lockdown Innovation

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Alistair Taylor and Keith Jopling

May 2020

COVID-19 social distancing measures caused unprecedented dislocation to the entertainment economy. With a recession now a question of ‘how bad’ rather than ‘if’, entertainment companies have to...

Endeavor, Epic Games and the Future Of Digital Entertainment Venues

Karol Severin

15 May 2020

digital entertainement venues

endeavor

Epic Games

Just a couple of months ago Endeavor was on its journey of building a true cross-entertainment conglomerate. Endeavor recognised a long time ago the synergies which can be achieved from cross-entertainment...

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Recovery Economics
Music, Games, Live Streams and the Future of Concerts

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin and Keith Jopling

May 2020

live music

live

artists

In April 2020 Travis Scott’s Fortnite event pulled in 27 million players. While this was happening, the global artist community was scrambling to plug the income and engagement gap caused by COVID-19’s...

The ‘Covid Bounce’ In Games Can Cloud Judgement About What Lies Ahead

Karol Severin

1 May 2020

Covid-19

Games

Compared to most, the games industry has benefited from the Covid-19 outbreak and related lockdowns. For a lot of games companies, engagement has increased and so have revenues, albeit just partially....

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COVID-19
Impact on Entertainment Demand and Behaviours

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Alistair Taylor, Keith Jopling and Hanna Kahlert

April 2020

Free Report

Spotify

Amazon

Netflix

COVID-19 is having a clear and direct impact on the entertainment and media industries, driven by investor uncertainty – resulting in plummeting share prices – and restrictions on movement of people...

Watch Out, Twitch, YouTube and Apple Arcade: Facebook Gaming Is Coming For Your Market Share

Karol Severin

21 Apr 2020

Applee arcade

Facebook

facebook games app

Facebook has launched a new app, Facebook Gaming, currently available on Google Play. Though the company has been in games for years, this is a major development in its games-related strategy as...

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The Gaming Boom Is Driven by Different Genders In Different Age Groups

Karol Severin

16 Apr 2020

covid-19 impact

female gaming

gamer demographihcs

We know that we are experiencing a spike in games engagement during this crisis. 21% of adult consumers in the US say they’ve spent more time playing games online ‘in the last two weeks’ (fielded...

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Tech Major Market Shares 2019
Amazon Powers Ahead

Cover image for Tech Major Market Shares 2019

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin and Alistair Taylor

April 2020

Apple

iTunes store

Spotify

The tech majors are power players in the global digital content marketplace through a combination of their own content services, ad monetisation and control of audiences via devices, search and social....