COULD GAMING'S 'EPIC' STRUGGLES OPEN THE DOOR FOR MORE ADVERTISERS?

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

Epic Games' recent layoff of a thousand employees and Fortnite's declining audience highlight a wider downturn in gaming, but industry insiders say advertising alone would not have solved Epic's core challenges around engagement and mobile access. Large publishers remain reluctant to adopt scalable ad formats, often stuck in a cycle of licensing brand IP and then awkwardly asking those same brands to buy ad placements. Roblox is the furthest along in testing in-game ads, but revenue from advertising is still modest, and many of its game developers do not see the value in running them.