Deep Dives
Deconstructing the frontier of video games
Sign up to receive new explorations of games, genres, trends, and companies straight in your inbox.
Our Deep Dives
DEEP DIVES
No data was found
Genshin Impact: Deconstructing Mobile’s Next Frontier
This design deep dive is a collaboration between Tom Hammond, CEO at UserWise which is company providing live-ops tools, Eva Grillova, Senior Game Designer at Socialpoint and my long time deconstruction partner, and me (Manyu). Also big thank yous to MTM’s very own Owen Soh and Aaron for their support throughout the writing process. Every…
Why VENN has A LOT Left to Prove
According to Newzoo, the global games market will generate revenues of $159B in 2020. And everyone is familiar with how that number eclipses the movie industry by an easy 4 times, while the music industry by almost 3 times. But do you find it odd that games STILL don’t have dedicated TV network programming? That’s…
How to Win Beyond Console: The 6 Paths to Mobile
The emergence of smartphones and app stores a decade ago marked the beginning of a seismic shift in the gaming industry. As the years rolled on, it gradually became clear that mobile gaming would grow to become the dominant gaming platform both in terms of reach and revenue. This new and massive market opportunity wasn’t…
Stillfront: Understanding Gaming’s Dark Horse
Welcome to Master the Meta, the #1 newsletter analysing the business strategy of the gaming industry. This company deep dive is a collaboration between Aaron Bush and Abhimanyu Kumar from Master the Meta, a newsletter analysing the business strategy of the gaming industry, and Joakim Achren from Elite Game Developers, an online resource that helps…
Three Reasons Why Playco is Worth $1 Billion
This past week, the mobile gaming industry got a new unicorn! On September 21st, Playco announced a whopping $100M Series A at a valuation just north of $1B. Playco regards itself as the first instant play gaming company that hopes to create games that not just millions, but billions of people can play together. Instant…
How Gaming’s Most Underrated Acquirer Struck Another Incredible Deal
Sep 20View fullsize On September 17th, Stillfront Group announced its acquisition of Nanobit, thereby making the company now 15 studios strong! More notably, this is Stillfront’s 3rd acquisition already in 2020 — Storm8 (January 2020) and Candywriter (April 2020) — resulting in a very impressive rate of one acquisition per quarter. If that doesn’t awe…
Everything You Need to Know About the IDFA
If you’re a regular reader or have been following general mobile advertising news, you must already be well aware of Apple’s bombshell move to become user privacy first by deprecating the IDFA, and in turn completely resetting the mobile advertising ecosystem as we know it today. For those of you catching up, here is a…
Unity: Analysing the First Game Engine IPO
Welcome to Master the Meta, the #1 newsletter analysing the business strategy of the gaming industry. Hi everyone, On August 24th 2020, Unity filed its S-1, a ~300 page document jam-packed with information that not only explains what the business does, but also details how it scaled and what it wants to accomplish in the…
A Look Under the Hood of Skillz
Two weeks back, mobile game developer Big Run Studios (BRS) raised a second seed funding round of $5.25M through investment firms Transcend Fund and Galaxy Interactive. This comes a few months after BRS’ first seed round of $1.4M, and is most likely due to the recent success of their flagship title “Blackout Blitz” – a…
Why Nintendo Isn’t the Next Disney (And What It Will Be Instead)
Welcome to Master the Meta, a newsletter focused on the business of video games. There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and false beliefs that “Nintendo is the next Disney.” Even if hyperbolic — because apparently some people have never heard this comparison — it’s as if there is a natural cycle at play….
A gaming research, consulting,
and advisory firm.
© 2025 Naavik, Inc.
