Gaming Mondays #1
Gaming Mondays" is your exclusive guide to understanding how gaming, Web3, and immersive tech are reinventing engagement, creativity, and community.
Gm gm,
Welcome to the debut of “Gaming Mondays.” This newsletter doesn’t just cover what’s new in the UGC gaming scene; it also dives into the broader implications of these shifts. Expect to see a flood of professionals stepping into this space over the next few weeks and months, each claiming to be “the” expert. Take it all with a grain of salt.
No self-proclaimed experts here—just gamers who live and breathe this world, sharing what they see. This UGC space? It belongs to our generation. We’re not just researching it; we’re in it, experiencing every update, every shift. These aren’t expert opinions, they’re the views of those who keep their hands on the controls and ears to the ground.
With that out of the way, let’s get into it.
Oasis: The Surreal AI Twist on Minecraft 🧩
If you thought you’d seen all there was to Minecraft, Oasis proves otherwise. This demo feels more like a strange, interactive dream than a game. Here’s why it’s got everyone talking: Oasis uses a model trained on over 100,000 hours of Minecraft gameplay, generating scenes frame by frame based on patterns it’s learned from hours of footage. The model holds just a few seconds of environmental memory, meaning the world around players constantly regenerates with each movement. Look at the sky for a few seconds, and you’ll teleport to a new, randomly generated setting. This quirk led players to dub it "Dementia Minecraft"—an unexpected nickname for an experience that’s equally bizarre and intriguing.
And while the teleportation gimmick is funny, there’s serious tech here. Decart’s model uses Nvidia H100 GPUs, which limits both user access and resolution, but they’re aiming to scale up using Etched’s new “Sohu” chips in future versions. The ultimate goal? Founder Dean Leitersdorf envisions a “world where every single pixel is generated in real-time, creating a video-based interface between humans and machines.” It’s a lofty dream, but the buzz around Oasis shows there’s an appetite for experimental AI-powered games. Over 1 million users joined in just the first 79 hours.
A philosophical underpinning of this innovation could be attributed to a concept like Alan Turing's "imitation game," where the ultimate goal is for technology to create interactions so real they blur the line between artificial and organic experiences. But Oasis has a distinct approach, with AI that doesn’t attempt to replicate traditional, memory-bound gaming. Instead, it resets environments, adding a layer of unpredictability and humor, revealing both potential and limitations. We like this.
Fortnite's Record-Breaking Player Surge
In a remarkable feat, Fortnite recently achieved its highest concurrent player count, surpassing 11 million players during the "Big Bang" live event on December 2, 2023. This milestone coincided with the launch of Chapter 5, featuring a performance by Eminem and the introduction of new modes like LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival.
This surge in player engagement can be attributed to Fortnite's strategic blend of nostalgia and contemporary cultural elements. The reintroduction of classic maps from Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 has resonated with long-time players, while collaborations with prominent artists such as Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Ice Spice, and Juice WRLD have attracted a diverse audience.
Harrison Gutteridge, who has developed virtual strategies for brands like L’Oréal and Tommy Hilfiger, notes, "Collaborating with artists like Juice WRLD and Ice Spice brings new depth to the platform. They’re not just popular artists—they align with Fortnite’s Gen Z audience. Ice Spice, in particular, taps into a younger female demographic."
The Rise of Zepeto
GEEIQ: Leveraging Data to Validate Virtual Success
ZEPETO’s recent partnership with GEEIQ is a masterstroke for data-driven brand engagement. GEEIQ, known for guiding brands through the complex metrics of virtual spaces, now enables ZEPETO to offer its brand partners clear, measurable insights on return on investment and user engagement. This partnership empowers brands on ZEPETO to gauge precisely how well their campaigns are resonating with users. It's a step that doesn’t just promise better metrics—it acknowledges the growing need for accountability and proof of impact in virtual environments. The collaboration signals to the industry that ZEPETO’s virtual spaces aren’t just about aesthetics—they are measurable, monetizable ecosystems where brand activations can flourish with tangible value.
Sawhorse Productions: Reinventing Digital Style and Engagement
With Sawhorse Productions, ZEPETO takes immersive brand experiences to a new level. Most notably, Walmart’s No Boundaries brand recently debuted its fall collection within ZEPETO, designed by Sawhorse. This activation isn’t just about dressing avatars; it’s a cultural entry point, especially for Gen Z, which seeks deeper connections with brands. Collaborating with ZEPETO creator Xexi to design exclusive virtual items, the project shows how a retail brand can transcend the limits of physical stores to create an enduring, stylized virtual experience. By working with Sawhorse, ZEPETO harnesses the power of virtual “ownership” as a powerful engagement tool for young consumers—who can now “wear” their brand affinity within the platform.
Other Collaborations: Making ZEPETO a Cultural Destination
Beyond GEEIQ and Sawhorse, ZEPETO’s strategic alliances have propelled it into a unique space at the intersection of fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle. The platform’s ongoing partnerships have helped establish it as more than a novelty. ZEPETO is becoming a cultural hub in the virtual world.
Ralph Lauren: This collaboration brought Ralph Lauren’s iconic style to the digital world, with users outfitting their avatars in exclusive virtual pieces. It isn’t just clothing; it’s a way for Ralph Lauren to meet fans in their new virtual habitat, where identity is expressed in pixels rather than fabric.
The Sandbox: This NFT-based partnership allows ZEPETO users to engage with assets that cross over into The Sandbox, merging digital economies and demonstrating ZEPETO’s commitment to metaverse interoperability. For ZEPETO users, it’s a taste of what decentralized digital ownership could mean.
88rising’s Head in the Clouds Festival: In 2024, ZEPETO partnered with this cultural music festival to offer exclusive 3D wearables, bridging physical events and virtual representations. It’s another example of ZEPETO’s unique understanding of cultural trends, as this partnership offers fans a way to commemorate a music festival digitally, while aligning ZEPETO with music’s cultural power among young audiences.
Global Partnership Program: Envisioning a Collaborative Future
ZEPETO’s Global Partnership Program (ZPP) is a call to brands, agencies, and studios to build the next generation of digital brand activations. More than a marketing move, ZPP is an invitation for collaborators to co-create within the ZEPETO ecosystem, shaping the platform’s future and its impact on culture.
Why Roblox’s Clip It is Positioning itself as a contender for short form media.
Last week, Roblox’s new short-form video platform, Clip It, hit an impressive milestone: 1 billion views since launching in March 2024. Often compared to TikTok, Clip It allows users to create, view, and share videos featuring their Roblox avatars in-game, and it’s now setting its sights on an ambitious advertising strategy. Roblox has leveraged Clip It’s popularity to launch a new ad product, merging the interactive appeal of custom-branded Roblox spaces with programmatic ad placement inspired by social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
What is Clip It?
Clip It brings the best of short-form video to Roblox. With an infinite scrolling feed of user-generated content and ads peppered between clips, Clip It offers a TikTok-like experience, with a Roblox twist. This feed not only keeps users engaged but also provides Roblox with a powerful tool for advertising. Currently, all ads in Clip It are standard Roblox programmatic video ads. However, the platform’s creators are gearing up to introduce tailored ad products specifically designed for Clip It, which will integrate more deeply with Roblox’s overall ad ecosystem.
Unique Advertising Opportunities with Clip It
Unlike traditional Roblox games, Clip It positions itself as a social platform. According to Ben Saraille, co-founder of Makeshift (an agency assisting Clip It with ad sales), this distinction changes the game for brands: “For games, even if the size or demo is right, the fit is often wrong, and that makes ads feel foreign or disingenuous. But nothing is off-topic in Clip It, because like YouTube or TikTok, there’s a place for every niche.” With Clip It’s familiar social media style, brands have more latitude to engage users through content that feels natural and immersive.
Programmatic Ads Meet Social Integration
In Roblox, brands typically advertise by creating custom game spaces or placing ads within popular games. Clip It offers a middle ground, combining the targeted reach of programmatic video ads with unique brand integrations. For example, Clip It will soon roll out branded video backgrounds, allowing advertisers to seamlessly incorporate their branding within users' content, similar to the background ad options available on TikTok.
This approach opens the door for more accessible and adaptable brand engagement. Nic Hill, co-founder of Sawhorse Productions and a member of the Roblox Partner Program, calls it a “pyramid of activation options,” explaining that while it’s simple for brands to “drop an ad” on Clip It, they can also develop persistent campaigns that connect with users month after month.
Why Brands Should Take Notice
For brands, Clip It’s social-first nature and high engagement levels offer a unique venue to reach Roblox’s vast user base, which skews young and highly interactive. The billion-view milestone signals just how quickly Clip It has become a staple within Roblox, with over 8 million monthly active users. As the platform matures, Clip It’s advertising products will allow brands to do more than just advertise—they can seamlessly integrate into users' experience, adding value to the content rather than interrupting it.
Saraille also hints that the upcoming year will be transformative: “2025 is set to be our busiest year by far, and we’ve got several items on our product roadmap which will unlock new ideas that haven’t been possible before.” Brands can expect Clip It to adopt many of the familiar features of social media advertising, from full-screen video ads to unique, immersive integrations.
That’s all for now.
See you next time.