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How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

elbowgreasegames.substack.com

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Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#4
post #3

Y Combinator forged a long-term, high-trust ecosystem to the benefit of all tech founders. The video games industry needs to do the same.

I feel like this is impossible given how many games flop each year.

As a YC founder turned gamedev, I can tell you that failure is the norm in both pursuits. As with YC, the question is: can we create more outsized outcomes when we succeed?

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#5
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is impossible given how many games flop each year.

As a YC founder turned gamedev, I can tell you that failure is the norm in both pursuits. As with YC, the question is: can we create more outsized outcomes when we succeed?

Great point, I think I'm just being overly pessimistic

Related, I find it interesting is that gacha games seem to ahve the highest possible returns but almost none are made by western game companies.

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#7
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like this is impossible given how many games flop each year.

As a YC founder turned gamedev, I can tell you that failure is the norm in both pursuits. As with YC, the question is: can we create more outsized outcomes when we succeed?

I don't think that's possible and frankly I'd much prefer capital not even try. To the best of my knowledge, the only games which generate the really outsized outcomes you'd need for a VC portfolio do really gross, anti-player shit (gacha, lootboxes, whale fishing, etc.) to get it. Or they become distribution monopolies like Valve, which is fine-ish when Valve is private but would be a ongoing catastrophe if it had been VC-funded. I'd rather not encourage that.

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#8
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a YC founder turned gamedev, I can tell you that failure is the norm in both pursuits. As with YC, the question is: can we create more outsized outcomes when we succeed?

Great point, I think I'm just being overly pessimistic Related, I find it interesting is that gacha games seem to ahve the highest possible returns but almost none are made by western game companies.

You're right though. Industrial software/hardware in general always has money in all times. But gaming is essentially entertainment and people only spend on entertainment last. So gaming industry has a lot of failure but even if you're successful in a huge way, you won't earn huge money. There's a big cap there.

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#9
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a YC founder turned gamedev, I can tell you that failure is the norm in both pursuits. As with YC, the question is: can we create more outsized outcomes when we succeed?

Great point, I think I'm just being overly pessimistic Related, I find it interesting is that gacha games seem to ahve the highest possible returns but almost none are made by western game companies.

Aren't games like CSGO, FIFA, and Overwatch almost exclusively run on gacha-profits?

Re: How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders

#10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point, I think I'm just being overly pessimistic Related, I find it interesting is that gacha games seem to ahve the highest possible returns but almost none are made by western game companies.

Aren't games like CSGO, FIFA, and Overwatch almost exclusively run on gacha-profits?

Yes they are. The implementation tends to differ from how eastern-developed gacha games work, but they're making billions from virtual slot machines nonetheless.
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