Gaming is integral to the lives of Gen Alpha and Gen Z with 9 in 10 describing themselves as gaming enthusiasts.
For anyone that doesn’t play games, or have kids that do, you may not be aware of how far they have come in the last few years. Games are now enormously complex social worlds, home to massive communities. For many people, games are the primary way they communicate, hangout and spend their time with friends online.
At their core, online games are about connecting people. But making content for games is hard. The investor Andrew Chen says games startups are more like space tech or biotech startups than app builders. It takes years for a game to get from concept to release and game studios cannot keep up with the demand for high quality in game content.
So what’s the solution? Many people in the industry would argue that it’s UGC - User Generated Content, where in-game tools allow anyone to develop assets and mechanics for the community to enjoy. This has worked well for Roblox and many are trying to emulate their success but are finding it hard. AI will make producing UGC content faster but it won’t make monetising it easier. If anything it will create such a tsunami of dross that it will be harder for the really great UGC to be surfaced to users. It’s not that easy to make a business out of UGC in gaming.
At Condense, we think real-world content is the best way to engage users. What if your favourite artist or sports personality could step into your game? What if audiences could interact with real-world content and attend in-game events that had an atmosphere and a buzz to them just like being in a stadium or an intimate gig venue? What if artists performing live could talk directly to players who appear next to them on virtual production screens? What if these events could be live streamed to YouTube/TikTok/Twitch and there was real social capital in being seen next to your real life hero?
We make that all possible, now. And we do it in a way that is simple and inexpensive.
Earlier this year we worked with Deloitte, Diageo and Hypebeast to put on a world's first. We hosted James Reid and DJ HYO in our Bristol studio and streamed their performances live for 50 competition winners wearing Meta Quest 2 headsets in the Philippines. Their prize was the hardware and an intimate VR gig with two artists that are massive in South East Asia. You can check out some highlights in the video below.
If your business produces live content check out Studio 5,, our live events platform for spatial computing and contact us about becoming a content partner.