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A variety of developers effectively swore off working with the firm again during the Xbox 360 days.
Fast-forward to 2023, and we live in a very different world.
The Gunk launched into Xbox Game Pass.
One person responsible for that turnaround is Agostino Simonetta.
Note: some responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Thunderful is by no means a tiny team, especially when you factor in the wider Thunderful Group.
The Gunk launched into Xbox Game Pass.
The company expands beyond games, into toy distribution, developer support, consultancy, and more.
However, it’s lean and mean with a bright growth trajectory ahead of it.
Simonetta remarked that he doesn’t like the term “indie,” owing to its mixed connotations.
“Hopefully, gamers will know Thunderful as a developer of great products.
‘, ‘why are we here?’
When you play Lost in Random or Viewfinder, whether it’s games we’ve built internally or externally.
The Gunk launched into Xbox Game Pass.
He was like, ‘Did you work on The Gunk?
Navigating the storms of change, the Thunderful way
2023 has been a strange year for gaming.
However, we’ve also seen a lot of structural upheaval.
I asked how Thunderful is navigating upheaval in the wider gaming ecosystem, and embracing uncertainty in uncertain times.
“Over the years, we’ve seen so many business models change.
So many ecosystem changes.
I was part of the team that launched PS Plus, and helped contribute to Xbox Game Pass.
I also contributed to launching free-to-play on PlayStation.
New business models and new ways of creating always create nervousness.
I think it’s natural.
New business models don’t tend to replace old business models overnight.
Business models evolve due to consumer needs, and technological evolution digital distribution enabled the indie movement to grow.
Very few companies can stop evolution simply because they don’t like it.”
“With Xbox Game Pass and PS Plus, the keyword is access.
Access and enabling people to play things they wouldn’t necessarily buy.
We’re still learning.
Will these services replace transactional businesses?
There are a lot of opinions.
We’ve seen NFTs trend and then vanish as soon as they appeared, after all.
If I had to point to one thing, it would be ‘citizen creators.’
We’re seeing creator citizens in platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, where you could create your own games.
The fact Unity and Unreal have free-to-access tiers we’re seeing so much more input coming from citizen creators.
Human beings are creative animals, from cave paintings to music, to interactive experiences today.
Another major industry earthquake happened recently, in the form of the big Xbox-Activision merger.
