After over 30 years in the video game industry, I’ve somehow become a games industry investor and am now waiting for some returns!

In the meantime, I’ve moved my focus over to eCommerce. (A $5.5 Trillion industry in 2022.)

We love the idea that brands get very excited when they get their products into more and more retail locations. So we decided to create technology to do the same thing for brands online.

If brands want to get their products into lots of online stores (free awareness forever), or if they want complimentary products to sell in their store from other cool brands, that’s what we provide.

A simple example?  “You sell bicycles online, but not helmets?” You can add helmets today from your favorite helmet companies on Carro, increasing your average order value. Do you need gloves? Bike locks? etc.

Both companies win on Carro, the helmet company gets additional sales (zero marketing cost), and the bicycle company improves its margins.

Over 31,000 Shopify brands have installed so far! They have over a million products. 😊

eCommerce is fun!

Our Website: https://www.getcarro.com/

Our Shopify App: https://apps.shopify.com/carro

Email: hello@getcarro.com

Hehe, it’s so fun to watch all the major video game companies getting behind Cloud Gaming.  Makes me so happy.

Xbox Cloud Gaming

March 17, 2018 — 3 Comments

Reading Verge (one of my favorite tech websites), they are reporting that Cloud Gaming is finally getting embraced by Microsoft as well.

I remember when we started on the Cloud Gaming journey several tech directors went on record saying it would be impossible.  (So much so it was scaring investors.)

Today it’s not only possible, it’s following the path of all other media, where convenience is not to be underestimated.  YouTube made watching videos easy, Netflix made watching movies easy, Spotify made listening to music easy, why not games?

If we’ve learned one thing from free-to-play games, saving time is actually the most valuable thing to people, and gaming itself can’t avoid this paradigm.

Our vision at Gaikai was very simple, we wanted every game ever made, available on every possible device, instantly.  We were acquired by PlayStation when big companies like Samsung & LG decided to buy into the vision and so I still consider it inevitable.

It’s fun to watch the space evolving.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/15/17123452/microsoft-gaming-cloud-xbox-future

(Photo by James Bareham / The Verge)

 

Made a music video!

November 15, 2017 — 1 Comment

So my daughter Emmy wanted to recorder herself singing a cover of the song “Sorry” by Halsey.  (By the way the latest Halsey concert was really great!)   So our friend producer Brandon Jung recorded her in his studio, and I brought my video camera.  I did the edit using Adobe’s Premiere Pro.

 

Just came across this review of my book (via Everipedia.org) by Johnn Four on YouTube.  He really brings up an interesting point I’d never considered, that all the lists in there could help with tabletop games as well.  Thanks Johnn will keep that in mind when we do the Second Edition.  🙂

 

Here’s a video look at the book’s index.

 

 

 

Ireland Week!

October 3, 2017 — 1 Comment

I’ve been invited to speak on a panel during Ireland week, in Los Angeles on Oct 19th.

For those that don’t know, I was Born in Northern Ireland, went to school there until I was 17, then moved to England to work full-time in the video game industry.

When I moved to the USA I lost my accent really quickly, however, what’s really weird is just how freakishly tall I am compared to most Irish people!

That said, I love helping Irish entrepreneurs and love going back to the old country.

I have 10 free passes, just email me if you want one!

https://www.facebook.com/irelandweek

https://www.irelandweek.com/

Looks like I’m up at 1:15PM – SCHEDULE

 

 

Unreal Engine – Wow.

September 29, 2017 — Leave a comment

Unreal Engine continues to take the step towards “photoreal”, it’s an important step as after photoreal exists, the game industry can’t keep repeating the past.

Once rocks are indistinguishable from rocks, we’ll want to see something new.  I can’t wait to see what designers come up with!

 

Our new company VYRL.co builds technology for Influencers, so last night the team decided to work late to help Casey Neistat, he’s raising money on eBay for Puerto Rico and so we built a page to help track the progess in realtime.

So please help Casey if you can:

https://cneistatcharityproject.com/

 

 

I’m SUPER EXCITED about the new Arduboy! This I think is the best way to learn to program computers, to start by modifying games and then to make your own. It’s way more fun than starting with “Hello World” like every long-winded book offers. As a freebie, you also get to learn about controlling electronics in the process. If you have a kid, get them one of these and spend some time playing with it, there are a TON of free games online to start with.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/903888394/arduventure-on-arduboy-8-bit-rpg-for-your-wallet?ref=user_menu

Well there you go…  Two of the top CEO’s the in video game industry talking about streaming games…  Today it’s Yves from Ubisoft.

“Streaming will totally change the way we create and play games, and will again positively disrupt how we think about gaming.”

Find the interview over on GameIndustry.biz here:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-06-14-ubisoft-ceo-streaming-will-be-the-next-big-thing