Skyrim is easily one of the biggest and most popular games ever made. The title is full to the brim with content across the board, with the vanilla game in itself taking players hundreds of hours to complete. Of course, it would be impossible to talk about the draws of Skyrim without mentioning the amazing modding community that has consistently been delivering excellent fan-made content that makes Skyrim even more of a joy to play through.

Push to Talk is a weekly newsletter about the business of making and marketing video games, written by games industry veteran and marketing director Ryan Rigney. Subscribe here for eclectic and spicy interviews and essays in your inbox every Friday.One poorly understood aspect of the modern games industry is the question of how players find new games. Particularly for smaller indie devs with little or no advertising budget, its sort of miraculous that any game can go from 0 players to thousands, let alone millions.Most people give the credit for breakout hit indie games to streamers and YouTubers, and those are definitely important. But for PC games in particular, I believe strongly that the #1 place people are finding games is through Steam itself.Valves platform is thought of primarily as a storefront, but its also a vast, algorithmically-powered discovery engine.When you build a game on Steam, you get access to metrics that show where your store page traffic is coming from. The platform tells you whether people clicked in from an outside link, or whether they searched for your game directly. Maybe they heard about it from a friend, or a content creator. Some of this stuff is fuzzy. But other stats are easier to follow, especially the ones related to the promotion that Steam itself does on behalf of your game. Im referring to things like the Discovery Queue, the More Like This promo slots on store pages, and even that little pip that pops up in the bottom corner of your screen when your friend boots up a game.All of those display surfaces are effectively ad slots for promoting games, though Valve (to their great credit) doesnt allow developers or publishers to buy up ad space in these channels. Instead, you have to earn it. Youve gotta have strong metrics, namely by making money,1 earning good reviews, and keeping players engaged. If your game can do all that, the Steam algorithm decides it might have a hit on its hands and works overtime to show it to more people who might like it.For the last game I worked on, Omega Strikers, something like 70% of our store page traffic came from Steam itself promoting us. Some devs give me a surprised look when I say this, because we had outsized success with content creators and pulled off some wild marketing stunts (particularly our Studio TRIGGER-produced trailer that Nintendo promoted). But the data doesnt lie: Every marketing tactic we ever did combined brought in fewer Omega Strikers players than the Steam algorithm alone did. Many millions of people found out about OS just because Steam showed it to them.So if you want to sell millions of copies of a PC game, youve gotta get picked up by the algorithm. The twist, of course, is that somebody has to find, buy, and play your game before that happens. So how do you find those first players?This week I reached out to four successful indie game devs to ask where they think their first 1,000 players came from, as well as the tens or hundreds of thousands after that. Each of their games have at least a couple thousand overwhelmingly positive reviewsvery successful projects, given the small size of their dev teams.These teams all took very different paths to get their first 1,000 sales, but there are some clear common themes in their responses as well.First up, an adorable game about cleaning up the ocean and raising alien critters:TikTok brilliance with LoddlenautMy four-year-old son is already a serious gamer, and when I showed him Loddlenaut he immediately fell in love. After trying it once, hes continued asking me when we can play that really nice game where I dont have to fight any bad guys.And thats a pretty accurate description of Loddlenaut. Its a peaceful game about cleaning up the ocean and also raising weird little creatures inspired by axolotls. The closest comparison point might be the Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure 2.Id say our first 1,000 sales almost entirely came from wishlist conversions on Steam, says Ricardo Escobar, cofounder of Loddlenaut studio Moon Lagoon.The game had around 55,000 wishlists when it launched, Escobar says, with most of those coming from either the game being featured in Steam events or from the popularity of the Moon Lagoon teams Tiktok account, which had a number of viral posts.So that accounts for the initial wave of sales. And after that? Mostly Steam.During our launch week, we were lucky enough to earn a spot on Steams New & Trending tab, which gave our game enough traffic for Steams algorithm to start putting Loddlenaut in peoples Discovery Queue, Escobar says. That got us on Valves radar, and they later offered us a front page midweek deal slot in January 2024, which ended up being our biggest month of sales.Since then, the Moon Lagoon team has been discounting Loddlenaut as frequently as possible (which sends a notification to everyone who has wishlisted) and participating in every Steam event theyre eligible for.In our experience, organic Steam traffic is by far the biggest driver of sales and wishlists, Escobar says. But he still thinks theres a place for social media platforms in terms of driving sales and wishlists. His ranking in order of effectiveness: TikTok, Instagram Reels, X, and Reddit.Popping off in France with Chants of SennaarThe first game from French developers Rundisc was a local multiplayer arena shooter called Varion that earned just 17 reviews on Steam. But the followup, Chants of Sennaar, has over 17,000 reviews, implying something like half a million copies sold on Steam alone.2 For a $20 puzzle game, thats a major breakout hit.I dont think we had any problems reaching the first 1,000 players very quickly, says Julien Moya, Co-founder & Creative Director at Rundisc.Moya says that the game launched with a fairly large number of wishlists, which he credits in large part to the teams decision to release a demo version of Chants of Sennaar on Steam. This demo had been tested by several French journalists from the video game press, who had given it very good feedback, so our game was already somewhat anticipated by a part of the French public that loves puzzle games, Moya says.In recent years its become unusual to hear devs say that press coverage made a big difference for them. But Moya has another even more contrarian hypothesis for why Chants of Sennaar took off shortly after launch: launching alongside a much bigger game.We were released the day before Starfield, Moya says, which could have been a disaster, but paradoxically we think it actually helped us: since nobody wanted to release during that week, there were very few indie games announced, so we climbed very high on Steams Popular upcoming list. That gave us a lot of visibility, which really helped to boost our international wishlists.Theres evidence to support this theory. I watched some content creator coverage of the game, and Canadian streamer NorthernLion explicitly says in his video about CoN that he found out about it through the Steam new releases list.Getting enough traction on launch to make it into Steams new and trending charts is huge, but it doesnt guarantee hundreds of thousands of sales, especially for a $20 puzzle game about decoding languages.So where did all those hundreds of thousands of players come from?There are so many factors that its hard to summarize, Moya says. The biggest driver was obviously the player reviews, which were dithyrambic.3 On Steam, its very much a critical mass thing: when something starts to get attention, it gets pushed out and attracts even more players. Thats what happened with us.Moya also specifically credits Stephen Totilo of Game File and Jason Schreier of Bloomberg as journalists who helped raise awareness of the game in the US. Schreier published a very positive review of Chants of Sennaar on Bloomberg calling it one of the best games of the year, Moya says. Im pretty sure that article helped a lot to get us known in the US.Ultimately, the release of the game went much better than wed hoped, Moya says. We thought wed made a good game, but we expected it to be more divisive. The fact that it appealed to virtually all players, including people who werent necessarily fans of this type of game in the first place, was a real surprise. Looking back, Im not sure what could have gone better.Making streamers cry with Lil Gator GameAnother adorable, kid-friendly game: Lil Gator Game became a breakout hit on both console and PC when it launched in 2022.We blew past 1,000 pretty quickly, Connor P Quinn, Game Director on Lil Gator Game. To drive wishlists on Steam, Quinn says that his team followed the conventional wisdom: posted on Twitter pretty regularly, put together a discord community, mentioned wishlisting a lot, went to some events, gave keys to big streamers, and had a small launch discount.But, Quinn says, the games power to move people emotionally was the real difference maker. I dont think theres any substitute for someone popular getting excited about you, Quinn says. You can be dead in the water for months and someone with a big following getting excited about you will bring a whole fresh host of customers.Lil Gator Game seems to be particularly good at this, as every once in a while streamers find it and post gameplay with titles like: I Played 100% of Lil Gator Game It Made Me Cry.Having a concept thats streamable can be a big part of it, Quinn says, although I dont love that as conventional wisdom for artists. There are niches for everything!Nailing a throwback niche with SKALD: Against the Black PrioryOne of the hardest genres to sell on Steam are retro pixel art RPGs, so its impressive that SKALD: Against the Black Priory has over 2,000 reviews on Steam.Like all of the developers interviewed in this piece, Norwegian game dev Anders Lauridsen, the creator of SKALD, says that his first 1,000 sales came fairly quickly, in part because the game launched with a good chunk of wishlists.You can say what you want about wishlists as a metric, but I have a hard time thinking of a better pre-launch KPI, Lauridsen says. It doesnt guarantee anything one way or the other, but you certainly get a feel for how its going to go.So how do you generate wishlists?The main thing was many years of grinding on social media, Discord and the devlog that gave us a solid base of tens of thousands of wishlists from people who were RPG-fans, says Lauridsen. I have no doubt that they were the core of day one purchases.Lauridsen also credits his publisher, Raw Fury, who produced trailers, took the game to events, and promoted it with paid ads. This bolstered the numbers quite a bit, he says.The most important thing that Lauridsen stresses however, was how carefully he and his partners at Raw Fury positioned the game.I really love what he has to say here, so Im just going to quote him in full:Its really important to note that both myself and Raw Fury always recognized that we were making a niche product. As such the most important thing was to not try and make or sell something that was all things to all people. Instead we made a lot of effort making sure we were talking to the people who were our target audience.So this gets you to the starting line and day one sales, right. Then the question becomes how do you maintain momentum? This is where you both need a) a good product and b) luck. Fortunately luck is something you can plan for to a degree (Hint: a good product makes it a lot more likely you get lucky).Having a good product will help you get good reviews (from consumers and publications) and having raised awareness of the product pre-launch will make it a lot more likely that you get coverage. This means you should have spent some time distributing press- and content creator keys.And this, in turn, is where the luck comes in: You can only go so far in trying to facilitate people talking about (and covering your game). There are so many factors you dont control in terms of where peoples attention goes.For me I was lucky. We got a lot of coverage from a lot of big names in the CRPG space. Swen Vincke [the CEO of Baldurs Gate 3 studio Larian] alone was one of the biggest drivers of early sales due to him being incredibly gracious with talking about the product. Then again, this isnt pure luck either: Swen is a huge CRPG fan (duh) and very much part of the core demographic that we aggressively targeted.Anders Lauridsen, creator of SKALD: Against the Black PrioryThis is golden advice for anyone making a game (or any creative work). Understanding positioning allows you to create your own luck by creating work thats magnetic for the sort of people wholl understand and hopefully love what youve made.To recap:To get your first 1,000 players, try every channel and conventional tactic to build up pre-release awareness. If one channel works better than others, double down on it.On Steam, dont launch until youve got enough wishlists to have a real shot at hitting the New and Trending chartDemos can be amazing for building pre-launch advocacy and excitementMake a game that makes people feel somethingUnderstand your niche and nail your positioningMake a game so good that famous games industry CEOs rave about itEasy, right? This is a surprising disadvantage that Free to Play games have on Steam. Revenue per player tends to be lower and less immediate for F2P games, which hurts F2P games in the discovery algorithm (unless youre a very well monetizing game like Apex Legends or the F2P games Valve itself produces).I wrote a little more on the art of estimating sales from Steam reviews in this post.Im ngl I had to look that one up. Dithyrambic: of or relating to an impassioned oration, or describes a dithyramb, which refers to a wild Greek choral song or, more broadly, to an enthusiastic speech. (Dictionary.com)

Marvel Rivals has been enjoying a successful launch, and fan morale remains high as we head into season one. Ill play a few games with my friends throughout the week, my social media feeds are full of buzz about the game, and the future looks bright. But I cant help but look sidelong at the other hero shooter that inevitably comes up when we discuss Marvel Rivals: Overwatch 2.All of this initial cheer and excitement feels really familiar, and I remember experiencing it back in the early days of Overwatch. At first, I waited to see whether Marvel Rivals would burn out quickly once the novelty wore off. Now that the game has been out for over a month and the NetEase team is adding new heroes like the Fantastic Four, it feels like the shooter has the potential to stick around.Then again, the Marvel Rivals developers have the luxury of watching a similar game strike its own course and falter over the years. Overwatch had an incredibly strong start as a hero shooter. The opening cinematic a museum fight where Tracer and Winston faced off against Reaper and Winston over the powerful Doomfist relic was absolutely electrifying. I personally got hooked on the gameplay and became a Pharah main, but I was also intrigued by the overall lore that was drip-fed through events, short stories, and new hero releases.I stayed engaged in the Overwatch community for years, but over that time, my enthusiasm began to dim. Blizzard was slow to release balance patches, letting players marinate in unfortunate meta games like the Brigitte fiasco for months. When patches did come through, they often bent the game in favor of professional play, trying to ensure that there would be a healthy ecosystem for the Overwatch League. I was just there to shoot rockets as Pharah, and this philosophy of updates wasnt to my taste.But what about the initial promise that Overwatch would be a vehicle for some grand lore, an overarching story that would satisfy our curiosity and pay off on so many seeds planted over the years? The Archive missions were an attempt to set these kinds of stories up, but they were often quite limited in scope and scale. In the early days of the game, I would be excited when there was a new hero teaser and we saw a bunch of other characters in frame perhaps any one of these guys could become the next hero!Now, its just exhausting. There is only so long you can dangle threads in front of an audience and promise theyll pay off. After years of relatively small Archives missions, occasional blurbs of lore, and plenty of teasers, I and many other Overwatch fans simply gave up on trying to follow the bread crumbs. The focus on narrative ended up souring the hero shooter for me, since so much of the story is threaded through in-game banter and dialogue.Marvel Rivals, on the other hand, isnt hooking me along and promising me a fulfilling and thrilling story. Thats not to say theres no lore; theres a massive archive of comics and continuities with these characters, and the game helpfully points players towards first appearances or major issues. If I want to read more about Jeff the Land Shark or Hawkeye, I have plenty of options.But Rivals itself is a silly setting in which everyones thrown together in a 2099 realm to fight Dracula and Doctor Doom. The setting is in a comfortable stasis, and I have no doubt that fans find plenty of fodder for writing their own fiction or coming up with their own ships, but its a much cleaner set-up than trying to kick off a grand overarching narrative with high stakes and big payoffs.Well have to see whether Marvel Rivals can stand the test of time; its much easier to run a live-service game for a month than for nearly a decade. But at least NetEase has a list of mistakes that Blizzard blundered into, so it may be able to avoid the same pitfalls. For now, Im still having fun with Marvel Rivals, and I think its popularity is going to turn out to be more than just hype.

In well over a decade of journalism, I've seen a fair amount of copied designs, but I've never seen anything as blatant as Bing's attempt to hoodwink people into believing they're using Google. Since time immemorial, people have used default apps to look for better alternatives, and to switch to those instead. Back in the day, Internet Explorer was often used to download Firefox or Chrome, before being forgotten forever. Now, the same thing is happening with BingMicrosoft's search engineand the company clearly isn't pleased with that.If you haven't changed any defaults on the Microsoft Edge browser, Bing is your search engine. When you type the word "Google" in the browser's address bar, you'll see a page that you may mistake for Google search, but it's actually Bing deceiving you into believing that you're using your preferred search engine. Bing will load a page that looks a lot like Google, complete with a fake Google doodle, a search bar, results laid out in Google's design, and show other spoofed Google UI elements. This was first spotted by 9to5Google.The worst part is that the spoofed page even hides Microsoft Bing's branding entirely by hiding the top bar. You can reveal that by scrolling up a little. When you search for any term other than "Google," Bing's branding and the search bar at the top are prominently visible.It's clear that Microsoft has noticed that people are using Bing to locate Google, their preferred search engine, and chose to try a sneaky way to stop losing users to Google. Parisa Tabriz, who's the vice president of Google Chrome, expressed her displeasure at this move on X (formerly Twitter). Her post reads, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Microsoft spoofing the Google homepage is another tactic in its long history of tricks to confuse users & limit choice. New year; new low @Microsoft." If you're unhappy with such tricks, you can easily switch the default browser on Windows 11.Editor's note: We have reached out to Microsoft for comment but haven't yet gotten a response.

Phones are in a weird spot right now when it comes to gaming. Theyre easily the most popular gaming devices on the market, but they also kind of suck to play on. Despite phones having the power to run some pretty demanding titles, the lack of built-in physical controls force most mobile games to make a lot of compromises to fit the format. Worse, even the best phone controllers are bulky, add a lot of width to your device, and usually require you to take off your case. 20-year-old YouTuber Josh King has had enough, and together with peripheral company Ohsnap, hes releasing the first phone controller I actually feel like Id want to carry around with me on a daily basisthe MCON.The MCON combines two ideas that Im surprised nobody had taken to market before King and Ohsnap. Essentially, it uses MagSafe to ensure an easy and solid grip on your phone, even with its case on, and slide-out controls akin to the slide-out keyboard on old Android phones to help cut down how much space the whole device takes up when not in use. The current MCON controller without a phone attached. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt The result is a phone controller after my own heart. Im one of the few people who bought Sonys Xperia Play, which also featured a slide-out controller, and I miss it dearly. I love the idea of getting in a few stages in a platformer or a couple of matches in a shooter during my free time much more than idly plugging away at Candy Crush; and yet, I thought the industry had moved past me, always teasing me with increasingly more powerful phones that were nonetheless less useable as gaming devices (at least for my tastes) than a Game Boy.The MCON finally feels like it unleashes the full power of my device in a way that makes me want to use it. Again, its not the first gaming controller for phones, but Im simply not taking my case off every time I want to play, especially if Im going for quick, pick-up-and-play sessions. This is the first real solution for that Ive seen (no, attaching a clamp to your phone and hooking it up to a console controller isn't for me, either), and it helps that its real slick.While Ive gone hands-on with the MCON at CES, its not strictly brand new for the show. Its story began seven months ago, when King posted a video to his YouTube channel running through the same gripes I stated above, expressing astonishment that nobody had beaten him to a MagSafe phone controller, and walking viewers through how he built his own to answer that unserved need. The video went viral, and he tells me that, shortly afterwards, he reached out to peripheral company Ohsnap on LinkedIn after being impressed by videos of their manufacturing process, and started working with the company on mass producing his design. Josh King's original MCON design, prior to working with Ohsnap. Credit: Jake Peterson Fast forward to now, and MCON has a new prototype at CES and an already funded Kickstarter that went live for the show.The new version of MCON, which I got to test just today using my own phone in its own case, is everything I want in a phone controller. It works with your case on. It has a full suite of controls, complete with clickable, drift-resistant Hall Effect sticks. And while it works natively with the iPhones MagSafe, it comes with an adapter for use on just about anything.The idea is simple: When the controller isnt slid out, the MCON looks kind of like a portable MagSafe battery bank, and you can attach your phone to its magnetic surface like you would one of those. But upon pressing the slide-out mechanism, the device will unfold to reveal a full controller, with your phone resting securely on a magnetic mount above it. Said controller can connect to your phone over either Bluetooth or a wired USB-C connection, and theres even enough real estate for your phone to be mounted vertically as well, although that placement will cover the sticks. The MCON controller with a phone mounted vertically. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt That magnetic connection is strong, by the wayduring my demo, I saw it used to connect the MCON to a tablet, and at no point did I worry it was going to fall off.Because its still being Kickstarted, King and Ohsnap told me that MCON is still a little bit away from release, with an estimate set for August. That makes sensethe one complaint I had with the demo units at the show is they feel a little unfinished, and thats because they are. Ive only used prototypes with 3D-printed parts, but more conventional manufacturing will be used for the final product.Still, the MCON looks like its come a long way since Kings original video. The new version adds optional flip-out grips and swaps out King's original, iPhone exclusive MagSafe plate for a universal sliding magnetic puck, two of which can be stacked on top of each other to support especially thick phones. It also has stacked shoulder and trigger buttons, which were missing on the original prototype.But there are still a few items left on King and Ohsnaps to-do list. While the final device will come with the sliding magnetic puck as its connector, the MCON team does plan to release optional magnetic plates meant to fit specific phones that you can use instead, starting with certain popular devices like the iPhone. Additionally, a slim version with shorter joysticks is on the list, as is a potential pro version, although the upgrades there are still a bit under wraps.Further, when the device releases, Ohsnap will post free 3D printing files for modders, so that the community can help support the MCON as well. While the MCON will only sell in either black or white at launch, other colorways are being considered.First, though, it has to come out. Kickstarter supporters can pre-order an MCON for a $99 pledge, and King tells me the price for the final product will probably be somewhere between $99 and $150, although its still being worked out. For that, youll get the controller itself, two magnetic pucks, and a MagSafe adapter for use with devices that dont have MagSafe built-in.Its a humbler device, but thats part of the fun of CES for me. For my needs, this is easily my best-of-show so far. Itll make me actually want to game on my phone, which basically means Ill suddenly get a small portable gaming console that can run big games like the most recent Assassins Creed right in my pocket. As someone whose pockets definitely cant fit a Switch, and who doesnt want to carry around a bulky traditional phone controller, a phone case, and my phone in my purse or backpack, thats everything my Game Boy and Nintendo DS-loving heart wants.

Hot off the heels of Lenovos announcement that its miniaturizing its Legion Go gaming handheld with the Legion Go S, fellow PC manufacturer Acer is going in the complete opposite direction with the biggest handheld gaming PC Ive ever seen. The seven-inch Acer Nitro Blaze handheld the company showed off in September isnt even available for purchase yet, and already its getting a much bigger sibling.As part of its CES announcements for 2025, Acer has announced new 11-inch and eight-inch versions of the Nitro Blaze. Theyll have the same internals as the previously announced seven-inch version, meaning an AMD Ryzen 8840HS laptop chip, 16GB of RAM, up to 2TB of storage, and Hall Effect sticks/triggers, but what sets them apart is their screens and sheer size.While the seven-inch and eight-inch versions dont look too dissimilar to a Steam Deck, I cant look at that 11-inch model and think anything other than beeg boy. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt All three Nitro Blazes have a 2560 x 1600 IPS display, with the smaller models running at 144Hz as well, but that 11-inch model just has so much screen real estate. Weirdly, its refresh rate is a slightly smaller 120Hz, but that doesnt keep it from feeling like the most luxurious version available.Frankly, its the biggest gaming handheld Ive ever held, stretching the definition of handheld. I saw some folks on Reddit calling it the final boss of handhelds, which I think is pretty appropriate.But while its not technically the first PC gaming handheld with an 11-inch screen, it definitely seems like the most put-together, going by what the competition is offering. When I picked it up, I was immediately taken aback by how lightweight it feltits just 2.3 pounds, which is a pound heavier than my Steam Deck, but about on par with Asus new category-leading lightweight Copilot+ laptop. This immediately made it feel surprisingly usable, despite how intimidating it looked in its stand.I was easily able to pick it up one-handed as well as nearly toss it around with Acer employees, and while Im not sure its something Id want to pack in an everyday carry bag, it definitely still works as a more portable alternative to a gaming laptop.Also making it more usable is one addition unique to the 11-inch model, although its been seen before. Like on the current, first-gen Lenovo Legion Go, the Acer Nitro Blaze 11 has detachable controllers. Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt These can be used paired together with a kickstand for a tabletop play experience, or in a move that actually gives it an edge on the Legion Go, you can turn them on their side and use them as separate controllers for two-player play. Its a no-brainer, something Nintendo made synonymous with detachable controllers when it introduced the Joy-Con with the Nintendo Switch, so its nice to see someone else finally get their hands on that ball.Speaking frankly, Im not sure theres space (literally) for the Nitro Blaze 11 in my life, and with the Legion Go S about to bring my beloved SteamOS to the smaller third-party PC gaming handheld space, I dont think Id opt for one of its younger cousins.But a different, younger, more explicitly gamer-y me would have been all over this. Theres some maximalist pride to be taken in a gaming handheld with a screen that reaches into the double digits, and while thats always going to come with some compromises, the Nitro Blaze 11 is looking to do that concept about the most justice possible. In a time when I was happily lugging a five-pound gaming laptop from class-to-class, I would have had no issue throwing this in with it.That said, youll need to pay four figures for the privilege of finding a way to tote this absolute unit around. The Nitro Blaze 11 will cost $1,099 when it launches in Q2 of this year, although the Nitro Blaze 8 will be a more affordable (by comparison) $899. Acer representatives told me the Nitro Blaze 7 will launch around the same time as well, coming in at $799.

Buying non-Creator branded products will net you some serious savings.

Nvidia enters the ASIC market to meet the growing demand for efficient AI inference chip solutions

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TikTok creators are urging their followers to find them on other social media sites ahead of Jan. 19, when the video app faces suspension in the U.S.