First came the “o’s”: Cisco acquired Socio. Now it’s the “in’s”. LinkedIn and Hopin. Hopin raised $400 million in March during the early days of the pandemic. It currently has a $5.65 billion valuation. Now it adds LinkedIn to its roster of investors. (LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, creator of MS Teams, but remains separate in terms of investments.) LinkedIn already allows for hosting of virtual events on its platform, but the Hopin investment will, perhaps, give its users a more robust alternative for larger events. Earlier in the year Hopin went on a shopping spree and bought StreamYard, a video streaming service and a mobile app development company Topi. 

Not unexpected. If you’ve been following along you know we think that you’re bound to see that more companies who skyrocketed to fame during the pandemic because of their virtual solutions will find homes with larger companies looking for a virtual boost. “Virtual events are here to stay,” Scott Roberts, LinkedIn’s vice president of business development, said in a statement. “We recognize our customers use many platforms, so we want to make it easy for them to extend the reach of their live events onto LinkedIn.”

E3 news will be trickling out but there’s always a scene-stealer and this year it seems to be Devolver, a boutique video games company that had an unusual, to say the least, launch at E3. It’s one we can all learn from. 

Hosted by the company’s savvy front-facing, Nina Struthers, their video mocks the gaming industry’s monetization foibles offering a special MaxPass+ -- which turns out to be ad-speak for “you can visit the site for free but you need to pay for what you find there. No subscription necessary.” They announced some cool-looking new games, but the little gems were in the merch, like the wild purple suits which sold for $500 apiece. And, the virtual chili dog hunt that took place around the Devolver offices. Positively nauseating. Clearly they win for knowing their audience and delivering virtual fun.

Phil Libin is on the circuit promoting the new features of Mmhmm (still no vowels). What started as a way to add some fun to endless Zoom calls is now a really slick production environment that can mix pre-recorded and live video and chunk your segments into refined bits. Mmhmm is still integrated with Zoom, Google Meet and the likes but now has its own video player. The video describing the features should be on your do not miss list. Mmhmm good.

Another sign that the metaverse is going mainstream is a series of articles exploring different facets of it by the blog writers at NAB (National Association of Broadcasters).