The Secret Behind the Success of ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’

Despite skepticism, gaming is big & rapidly growing: $152bn and ~10% CAGR. Netflix said “We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO”. Very few business models work in gaming other than simply building successful games: most of the money in the industry stays with the game developers/publishers and the major gaming/streaming platforms.

Fortnite had a number of rare attributes. It was the first mainstream AAA game that could be played on any nearly major gaming device globally, including two generations of PlayStations and Xboxes, the Nintendo Switch, Mac, PC, iPhone, and Android. The title was also free, which meant players didn’t have to buy multiple copies to be able to play on... See more

Nintendo continues to find success—last year, during the pandemic, Animal Crossing broke Nintendo’s first-year sales record with 31 million copies sold. Today, Nintendo is the 3rd-largest gaming company in the world, behind Sony and Tencent, with $12 billion in revenue.