3 lessons from Roblox’s growth to gaming dominance

Our recently published EC-1 on Roblox recounts the origin story and growth prospects of the company. But there’s one more piece to the story: what Roblox’s impact will be on gaming and the broader startup industry, if the company manages to multiply its current 90 million users. We’ve distilled three key ideas out of the EC-1 — lessons that may apply not only to game developers and gaming entrepreneurs, but also to the broader startup industry.

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VOLTA

Volta is a visual services studio dedicated to creating high-end concept & production art, 3D artwork, cinematics, and animation, matte painting & VFX for video games, tv shows and feature films.

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Technologies, Business

VR Headsets of the Future Might Be Made With Mirrors?

Article | July 20, 2022

Do you get headaches or feel nauseous while using VR headsets? About 20% of people do. Even if VR headsets don’t cause you physical discomfort, you might feel that your virtual worlds seem flat..That’s because they are flat. VR headsets using close-to-eye displays rely on lenses. While a lot of cool technology goes into them, they really work a lot like television or computer screens. Advancements like eye-tracking and autofocus try to fix these problems. But, they’ll never work. At least not according to Doug Magyari. Magyari and Immy, his company based in Troy, Michigan, believe that they have the solution: VR headsets that don’t use lenses.

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Technologies, Business

Discord: A Novel Medium for B2B Marketing

Article | August 3, 2022

Discord is a real-time chat platform where anyone with a community can interact. Users can talk to others in the community on special channels and get invites to join different servers. Many people prefer to reach out to online customers through social media, but messaging apps like Discord have 20% more monthly active users than traditional social media platforms. (Business Insider) Discord generates revenue through premium subscriptions and game distribution. It does not use advertisements. However, it can help marketers through its community that grows with video, voice, text communication and more. Let us look at how: Helps Build a Moderated Community You can set up a Discord server as a moderated social discussion platform. Create different channels based on your audience’s preference and allow them to bond. And as your community grows, so will the popularity of your business. Word-of-mouth marketing is still very effective. Connects Your Brand with Like-minded Audience You can also meet others who share your interests on various Discord servers. When you know what you're looking for, finding relevant servers is simple. Check with your team members, and your community, and join those groups. There, you'll meet other business owners and pursue collaboration opportunities. Allows Sharing Relevant Industry Content Share your website articles and other industry updates on Discord. You can take the advantage of your employees’ social media presence because they are linked to a single server. They'll spread the word about the articles through other Discord servers and their personal social media accounts. It will assist you in gaining authority among your target audience. Another way to market your company is to post branded memes, GIFs, and funny screenshots. Helps Offer Great Customer Service People expect prompt service, and because Discord delivers messages in real-time, you can address issues as they arise. You can easily send direct messages to members and have private conversations with them. Parting Words Although Discord is primarily a messaging app for individuals, it also has many advantages for B2B marketing. Discord is ideal for community management and true engagement.

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Business

Should You Buy A PSVR In 2020?

Article | July 11, 2022

At 5+ million units sold, Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) is thought to be the most successful VR headset on the market. The kit’s had a great run since launch in 2016, but should you buy a PSVR in 2020? Just under two years ago, we stated that you should “definitely” buy a PSVR in holiday promotions. The price, paired with a growing library of games, made it an easy recommendation. But this industry moves quickly and there are a lot of new factors that complicate the question of if PSVR remains a worthy purchase.

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Media and Broadcasting

The productisation of music rights

Article | June 4, 2021

News that New York-based Pershing Square Tontine Holdings is planning to acquire 10% of UMGis the latest in a wave of financial transactions in the music rights space. Alongside this, Believe’s impending IPO has the potential to be one of the biggest things to happen to the independent music sector in some time, and comes as part of a wave of IPOs (e.g.WMG,UMG), SPACs (e.g.Anghami,Reservoir) and no end of catalogue funds and acquisition vehicles. This trend, with good cause, has been referred to as the ‘financialisation of music’ but that only captures part of what is at play here. This is more than simply an influx of capital and debt; financial institutions are now becoming part of the plumbing of the music business, and in turn they are changing the definition of what constitutes success. This shift in objectives and desired outcomes has the potential to rebalance how the music industry operates.

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VOLTA

Volta is a visual services studio dedicated to creating high-end concept & production art, 3D artwork, cinematics, and animation, matte painting & VFX for video games, tv shows and feature films.

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Applications

MayaMD & LG Electronics Offer New AI Healthcare at Home Program Via Smart TV

MayaMD | February 14, 2022

MayaMD, one of LG NOVA's Proto Challenge first winners, will offer its AI health assistant via LG Smart TVs, creating an exciting new opportunity in the fast-growing home healthcare market. This partnership between MayaMD and LG Electronics kicked off last month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and is open to interested healthcare providers. Multiple studies have shown that home healthcare solutions offer patients and providers more convenient and less costly care options. These findings have become all the more relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many patients to delay necessary care. This new offering from MayaMD and LG Electronics allows patients and providers the ability to collaborate at a distance without missing a beat. Initial pilots will integrate MayaMD's state of the art conversational AI health assistant with LG Smart TVs in order to provide care to patients with heart disease. The objective of these pilots will be to measure the impact of this technology on patient engagement and health outcomes. According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the US, accounting for 650,000 deaths annually. Since adults with heart disease tend to be more sedentary, and over 70% of adults spend 3+ hours per day using a smart TV, it makes sense that patient engagement would increase via this new delivery channel. "There is so much room for growth here, and we welcome healthcare providers that want to take part in this exciting journey. First come, first serve!", says Dr. Vipindas Chengat, cofounder of MayaMD. A recent study in a peer-reviewed medical journal with researchers and medical faculty from the University of Michigan, UCLA, and University of Utah found that MayaMD's AI health assistant performed at par or better than individual clinicians when providing triage advice, illustrating just how powerful AI can be. We are grateful for the support from LG and encourage providers to reach out to us if interested in participating. This is a phenomenal opportunity," Christian Habermann, cofounder & CMO. About MayaMD MayaMD creates digital tools powered by AI to deliver relevant health and medical information for patients, insurers and providers.

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Products

Polygon Studios Invests in GameOn, Strategically Partners to Bring NFT Games to the Masses

GameOn | December 03, 2021

GameOn Entertainment Technologies Inc. (CSE: GET) (OTCQB: GMETF), a leading game technology provider to media, sports and entertainment companies, is pleased today to announce a strategic partnership with Polygon ($MATIC) & Polygon Studios to build NFT-Based games on their Ethereum-based scaling platform. The deal will see Polygon Studios provide non-dilutive funding for 50% of GameOn's ongoing product development costs. GameOn's product team is spearheaded by Santi Jaramillo, former Head of Sports at Dapper Labs and creator of NBA Top Shot. Polygon, a pioneering blockchain that has onboarded millions to the Web3 ecosystem, recently announced Polygon Studios and plans to commit USD$100 million to projects leading the transition to Web3. Investments include DraftKings, DeFine and now GameOn. MATIC, the native cryptocurrency of Polygon, recently outperformed Bitcoin and Ethereum. Blockchain-based game companies such as Forte have surpassed $1 billion valuations. The Polygon blockchain boasts investors that include Mark Cuban. GameOn continues to deepen its relationship with the lucrative Indian market that is nascent and primed for NFT and blockchain adoption, including a recent expanded partnership with entertainment super app MX Player, and a $6 million investment from its parent company, Times Internet. The Polygon Studios investment allows GameOn to offer the full stack of capabilities from the creation, minting and selling of NFTs, to the game layers it already deploys for white label customers such as prediction and fantasy games, like the Chibi Dinos partnership. For GameOn shareholders, this collaboration provides an opportunity to participate in the upside of the burgeoning crypto and NFT spaces, while accelerating GameOn's product development in a non-dilutive manner. Leveraging Polygon's technology, GameOn continues to lean into blockchain and NFTs, bringing innovative gamification to the rapidly growing Web3 and metaverse economies. Through resource-driving partnerships and M&A, we'll continue to double down on being the one-stop shop for gamification, including NFT-based games." Matt Bailey, GameOn CEO. "Polygon is dedicated to supporting companies that usher in the future of Web3," said Sandeep Nailwal, Polygon Co-Founder. "GameOn is one of the fastest-growing game technology providers in the blockchain space. We're excited to support their development of NFT-based games on Polygon." ABOUT GAMEON ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. GameOn (CSE: GET) (OTCQB: GMETF) powers the biggest sports, media and entertainment companies with the most innovative white label game technologies. GameOn provides broadcasters, TV networks, streaming platforms, leagues, tournaments, sportsbooks and NFT projects with white label prediction games, fantasy games and NFT-based games. Since completing the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator powered by Techstars in 2018, GameOn has secured revenue-generating partnerships with global companies including NBCUniversal, Bravo and MX Player. GameOn has a dynamic and experienced management team led by CEO, Matt Bailey (Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center), Chief Product Officer, Santiago Jaramillo (Dapper Labs, NBA Top Shot, EA Sports) and VP of Partnerships, Ryan Nowack (Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks, New York Rangers), as well as its Directors, J Moses (Take-Two Interactive), Shafin Tejani (Victory Square Technologies), Liz Schimel (Apple, Comcast, Meredith) and Carey Dillen (YYOGA, FIFA, IOC). ABOUT POLYGON Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building and connecting Secured Chains like Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, Validium, etc, and Standalone Chains like Polygon POS, designed for flexibility and independence. Polygon's scaling solutions have seen widespread adoption with 500+ Dapps, ~567M+ txns, and ~6M+ daily txns. If you're an Ethereum Developer, you're already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon's fast and secure txns for your Dapp, get started here. ABOUT POLYGON STUDIOS Polygon Studios is the Gaming and NFT arm of Polygon focused on growing the global Blockchain Gaming and NFT Industry and bridging the gap between Web 2 and Web 3 gaming through investment, marketing and developer support. The Polygon Studios ecosystem comprises highly loved games and NFT projects like OpenSea, Upshot, Aavegotchi, Zed Run, Skyweaver by Horizon Games, Decentraland, Megacryptopolis, Neon District, Cometh, and Decentral Games. If you're a game developer, builder or NFT creator looking to join the Polygon Studios ecosystem, get started here.

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Business

Esports.net Partners Up with PandaScore to Boost User Experiences

Esports.net | December 02, 2021

Esports.net, one of Catena Media's top esports products, has partnered with PandaScore to offer users stats and real-time data powered by AI technology. With Esports.net, PandaScore has established a wide range of relationships with esports betting operators, esports organizations, news sites, and iGaming affiliate portals. The PandaScore tech team has built a reputation for offering myriad real-time odds and other valuable information for esports bettors. The list of games that are part of this service includes League of Legends, CS:GO, Dota 2, and Valorant. On Esports.net, the PandaScore team will be able to provide crucial data that will reach more than 250,000 users per month. "This is an exciting partnership that will greatly enhance our user experience," said Gianfranco Capozzi, head of esports at Catena Media and product owner for Esports.net. "The PandaScore team has enormous experience in the esports industry, offering robust service and a treasure trove of relevant features for both beginners and advanced users. I am also a great believer in artificial intelligence technology and PandaScore can help us provide our users with an even more immersive experience." We have six years of hard work behind our AI and modeling, delivering high-quality data and statistics to all our clients. Our stats and widgets are key to enriching the services of our partners and the experiences of their audiences. We're really excited to be part of what will make Esports.net one of the most advanced esports service providers on the market." Flavien Guillocheau, CEO at PandaScore Following the recent redesign of Esports.net and infusion of fresh features, the new capabilities are expected to provide an improved user experience for esports fans and casual gamers. Esports.net is the top portal for esports news, events, teams, players and streamers, providing information through its own editorial team as well as other premium content providers in the industry. About Esports.net: Esports.net is a news-focused website that provides users with esports news, wiki guides, daily fantasy and esports betting tips. Esports.net is an official product of Catena Media, one of the leading international providers of media services for online gaming operators. A flagship product in a growing portfolio counting over 10 esports products, Esports.net is dedicated to the esports community and is supported by a number of premium content providers, independent authors and industry experts. Their objective is to fill the gap between the iGaming industry and the emerging esports & gaming audience. About PandaScore: Founded in 2015, PandaScore is the world's AI-powered hub of esports data, whose odds feed is the leading esports product serving the betting industry. The company's combination of innovative data models, artificial intelligence and dedicated esports traders empowers bookmakers with the best esports data and odds to deliver quality ROI, the best uptime and deepest in-play markets in the flourishing, high-growth esports betting sector. PandaScore is a trusted esports data and odds supplier with distribution partnerships including Scientific Games, as well as high profile clients including Entain Australia which runs the Ladbrokes and Neds brands, Betcris, Favbet, FortuneJack, LOOT.BET and more. PandaScore has offices in France, Malta and the UK.

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Applications

MayaMD & LG Electronics Offer New AI Healthcare at Home Program Via Smart TV

MayaMD | February 14, 2022

MayaMD, one of LG NOVA's Proto Challenge first winners, will offer its AI health assistant via LG Smart TVs, creating an exciting new opportunity in the fast-growing home healthcare market. This partnership between MayaMD and LG Electronics kicked off last month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and is open to interested healthcare providers. Multiple studies have shown that home healthcare solutions offer patients and providers more convenient and less costly care options. These findings have become all the more relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many patients to delay necessary care. This new offering from MayaMD and LG Electronics allows patients and providers the ability to collaborate at a distance without missing a beat. Initial pilots will integrate MayaMD's state of the art conversational AI health assistant with LG Smart TVs in order to provide care to patients with heart disease. The objective of these pilots will be to measure the impact of this technology on patient engagement and health outcomes. According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the US, accounting for 650,000 deaths annually. Since adults with heart disease tend to be more sedentary, and over 70% of adults spend 3+ hours per day using a smart TV, it makes sense that patient engagement would increase via this new delivery channel. "There is so much room for growth here, and we welcome healthcare providers that want to take part in this exciting journey. First come, first serve!", says Dr. Vipindas Chengat, cofounder of MayaMD. A recent study in a peer-reviewed medical journal with researchers and medical faculty from the University of Michigan, UCLA, and University of Utah found that MayaMD's AI health assistant performed at par or better than individual clinicians when providing triage advice, illustrating just how powerful AI can be. We are grateful for the support from LG and encourage providers to reach out to us if interested in participating. This is a phenomenal opportunity," Christian Habermann, cofounder & CMO. About MayaMD MayaMD creates digital tools powered by AI to deliver relevant health and medical information for patients, insurers and providers.

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Products

Polygon Studios Invests in GameOn, Strategically Partners to Bring NFT Games to the Masses

GameOn | December 03, 2021

GameOn Entertainment Technologies Inc. (CSE: GET) (OTCQB: GMETF), a leading game technology provider to media, sports and entertainment companies, is pleased today to announce a strategic partnership with Polygon ($MATIC) & Polygon Studios to build NFT-Based games on their Ethereum-based scaling platform. The deal will see Polygon Studios provide non-dilutive funding for 50% of GameOn's ongoing product development costs. GameOn's product team is spearheaded by Santi Jaramillo, former Head of Sports at Dapper Labs and creator of NBA Top Shot. Polygon, a pioneering blockchain that has onboarded millions to the Web3 ecosystem, recently announced Polygon Studios and plans to commit USD$100 million to projects leading the transition to Web3. Investments include DraftKings, DeFine and now GameOn. MATIC, the native cryptocurrency of Polygon, recently outperformed Bitcoin and Ethereum. Blockchain-based game companies such as Forte have surpassed $1 billion valuations. The Polygon blockchain boasts investors that include Mark Cuban. GameOn continues to deepen its relationship with the lucrative Indian market that is nascent and primed for NFT and blockchain adoption, including a recent expanded partnership with entertainment super app MX Player, and a $6 million investment from its parent company, Times Internet. The Polygon Studios investment allows GameOn to offer the full stack of capabilities from the creation, minting and selling of NFTs, to the game layers it already deploys for white label customers such as prediction and fantasy games, like the Chibi Dinos partnership. For GameOn shareholders, this collaboration provides an opportunity to participate in the upside of the burgeoning crypto and NFT spaces, while accelerating GameOn's product development in a non-dilutive manner. Leveraging Polygon's technology, GameOn continues to lean into blockchain and NFTs, bringing innovative gamification to the rapidly growing Web3 and metaverse economies. Through resource-driving partnerships and M&A, we'll continue to double down on being the one-stop shop for gamification, including NFT-based games." Matt Bailey, GameOn CEO. "Polygon is dedicated to supporting companies that usher in the future of Web3," said Sandeep Nailwal, Polygon Co-Founder. "GameOn is one of the fastest-growing game technology providers in the blockchain space. We're excited to support their development of NFT-based games on Polygon." ABOUT GAMEON ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGIES INC. GameOn (CSE: GET) (OTCQB: GMETF) powers the biggest sports, media and entertainment companies with the most innovative white label game technologies. GameOn provides broadcasters, TV networks, streaming platforms, leagues, tournaments, sportsbooks and NFT projects with white label prediction games, fantasy games and NFT-based games. Since completing the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator powered by Techstars in 2018, GameOn has secured revenue-generating partnerships with global companies including NBCUniversal, Bravo and MX Player. GameOn has a dynamic and experienced management team led by CEO, Matt Bailey (Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center), Chief Product Officer, Santiago Jaramillo (Dapper Labs, NBA Top Shot, EA Sports) and VP of Partnerships, Ryan Nowack (Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks, New York Rangers), as well as its Directors, J Moses (Take-Two Interactive), Shafin Tejani (Victory Square Technologies), Liz Schimel (Apple, Comcast, Meredith) and Carey Dillen (YYOGA, FIFA, IOC). ABOUT POLYGON Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building and connecting Secured Chains like Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, Validium, etc, and Standalone Chains like Polygon POS, designed for flexibility and independence. Polygon's scaling solutions have seen widespread adoption with 500+ Dapps, ~567M+ txns, and ~6M+ daily txns. If you're an Ethereum Developer, you're already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon's fast and secure txns for your Dapp, get started here. ABOUT POLYGON STUDIOS Polygon Studios is the Gaming and NFT arm of Polygon focused on growing the global Blockchain Gaming and NFT Industry and bridging the gap between Web 2 and Web 3 gaming through investment, marketing and developer support. The Polygon Studios ecosystem comprises highly loved games and NFT projects like OpenSea, Upshot, Aavegotchi, Zed Run, Skyweaver by Horizon Games, Decentraland, Megacryptopolis, Neon District, Cometh, and Decentral Games. If you're a game developer, builder or NFT creator looking to join the Polygon Studios ecosystem, get started here.

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Business

Esports.net Partners Up with PandaScore to Boost User Experiences

Esports.net | December 02, 2021

Esports.net, one of Catena Media's top esports products, has partnered with PandaScore to offer users stats and real-time data powered by AI technology. With Esports.net, PandaScore has established a wide range of relationships with esports betting operators, esports organizations, news sites, and iGaming affiliate portals. The PandaScore tech team has built a reputation for offering myriad real-time odds and other valuable information for esports bettors. The list of games that are part of this service includes League of Legends, CS:GO, Dota 2, and Valorant. On Esports.net, the PandaScore team will be able to provide crucial data that will reach more than 250,000 users per month. "This is an exciting partnership that will greatly enhance our user experience," said Gianfranco Capozzi, head of esports at Catena Media and product owner for Esports.net. "The PandaScore team has enormous experience in the esports industry, offering robust service and a treasure trove of relevant features for both beginners and advanced users. I am also a great believer in artificial intelligence technology and PandaScore can help us provide our users with an even more immersive experience." We have six years of hard work behind our AI and modeling, delivering high-quality data and statistics to all our clients. Our stats and widgets are key to enriching the services of our partners and the experiences of their audiences. We're really excited to be part of what will make Esports.net one of the most advanced esports service providers on the market." Flavien Guillocheau, CEO at PandaScore Following the recent redesign of Esports.net and infusion of fresh features, the new capabilities are expected to provide an improved user experience for esports fans and casual gamers. Esports.net is the top portal for esports news, events, teams, players and streamers, providing information through its own editorial team as well as other premium content providers in the industry. About Esports.net: Esports.net is a news-focused website that provides users with esports news, wiki guides, daily fantasy and esports betting tips. Esports.net is an official product of Catena Media, one of the leading international providers of media services for online gaming operators. A flagship product in a growing portfolio counting over 10 esports products, Esports.net is dedicated to the esports community and is supported by a number of premium content providers, independent authors and industry experts. Their objective is to fill the gap between the iGaming industry and the emerging esports & gaming audience. About PandaScore: Founded in 2015, PandaScore is the world's AI-powered hub of esports data, whose odds feed is the leading esports product serving the betting industry. The company's combination of innovative data models, artificial intelligence and dedicated esports traders empowers bookmakers with the best esports data and odds to deliver quality ROI, the best uptime and deepest in-play markets in the flourishing, high-growth esports betting sector. PandaScore is a trusted esports data and odds supplier with distribution partnerships including Scientific Games, as well as high profile clients including Entain Australia which runs the Ladbrokes and Neds brands, Betcris, Favbet, FortuneJack, LOOT.BET and more. PandaScore has offices in France, Malta and the UK.

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Events