The world of virtual events has become increasingly graphically rich. And the best way to learn about evolving graphical riches is by peeking into Siggraph’s annual conference. This year’s keynote, from Nvidia, announces a new graphics SDK designed to help developers create rich 3D graphics that behave according to the laws of physics. Geek out on Nvidia’s blog and learn how it’s advancing AI humans. (Yikes!)

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo each reported a fall in quarterly video game sales. Ubisoft down. Electronic Arts down. Take-Two shares dropped after its annual forecast missed estimates. Activision underperformed even though it beat its competitors. According to NPD the entire ecosystem — hardware, accessories, and titles — is in sad shape. The main reason, according to analysts, is the post-pandemic fleeing from the house. 

But we think there’s more going on than meets the eye. There are way too many subscription-based gaming services: Xbox Game Pass (Microsoft), PlayStation Plus (Sony), Google Stadia, GeForce Now (Nvidia), Nintendo Switch Online, EA Play (Electronic Arts), Apple Arcade, and Amazon Luna. There are the (thankfully free) digital game storefronts and launchers: Valve’s Steam, Epic Games Store, and Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net. Even Netflix is now offering streaming gaming, though they suffer from marketing woes.

The silver lining? Gaming companies have a really valuable skill set that could be put to serious work (and revenue) in emerging industries. For example, we’re pretty excited about the Microsoft/Unity partnership because it blends cloud, metaverse and traditional gaming prowess. The gamification of everything from health to entertainment is crying out for good gaming engines. Metaverse gaming and the blockchain will reinvent what it means to game in a DeFi world. Advice to gaming companies? Just like your characters, you need to evolve or die. 

We’ve sung the praises of events like Consensus, which issued tokens to attendees depending on how much they interacted with the conference and exhibits. The idea surfaced again in Toronto at the Blockchain Futurist Conference, Canada’s largest blockchain and crypto event. Produced by Untraceable Events, the conference featured the launch of UNNY, the Real Life Engagement Token that drives attendees to take action during the conference in exchange for tokens redeemable for things like food and VIP access, and even charity. Copy that!

President Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 this month. It’s a bipartisan bill that calls for investing billions in scientific research and domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Micron will invest $40 billion in U.S. chip manufacturing, which the company says will create 40,000 jobs. Intel will build a new plant in Albany and create more jobs in Ohio. Overall, it’s a great boon for American jobs and manufacturing. But companies like AMD and Nvidia both use offshore manufactured chips and will benefit less.

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