A one-year global diligence mission assessing whether Mr. Beast should enter the games industry.
In 2023, Mr. Beast engaged me and a small team to lead a global fact-finding mission into whether he should enter the games industry. That year we attended major games industry events and flew to visit studios around the world to learn about exciting up-and-coming game releases.
Role
Partnerships
Company
Beast Games
Duration
2023
Scope
Global Diligence
Mr. Beast had no industry knowledge of games but believed releasing a great game would be good for his business. He wanted us to figure out if it was real and build the case for his final review.
Attended major industry events including GDC and Tokyo Game Show to identify promising games and teams.
Visited studios across California, Washington, Florida, and the UK. Evaluated over 50 games from 50 different teams.
Hired a small 3-man dev team to rapidly prototype game ideas we thought were cool or that Jimmy specifically requested.
Prepared offer materials for two separate games for Jimmy's final review.
Designed a one-week game-jam publishing program for indie designers. Jimmy would publish the winner's game.
Regularly got together with Jimmy to play board games like Dune and Twilight Imperium throughout the life of the project. It was a wonderful experience.
Jimmy ultimately decided that games were expensive and risky, a conclusion we agreed with. He decided to keep his short-term focus on YouTube and chocolate, and revisit the games discussion at a later time.