Five things on Friday #390
The last FToF of 2024.
Things of note for the week ending Saturday 21st December, 2024.
INTRO
Well hello there. It’s the last Five things on Friday of 2024. Not bad eh?
I’ll save a reflections edition for another time. Maybe. This one is more a ‘I can’t believe we made it’ edition. And, with a year that started off with losing a friend to cancer, the mrs getting diagnosed with some serious illness things, and then of course the job change - well, 2024 certainly started off with some perspective.
Closing off the year, heading into Christmas, and the projects I’ve been on have been kind of nuts.
I’ve helped five different agencies win pitches.
I’ve worked directly with clients on strategy training, business consulting, and brand planning.
I’ve focused on helping female-founded businesses.
I’ve sat among peers and heroes judging work for the Eurobest Awards.
I’ve spoken on stage in front of 800+ people down under in Perth at State of Social.
I’ve worked on blockbuster TV shows such as ARCANE and [more to come/redacted].
I’ve setup work for some of the biggest game streamers in the world.
I’ve written creative strategy for mobile apps, community campaigns, and developers.
And of course, I’m closing off the year with not one but two massive game launches (and a touch of repositioning work) for LEGO Fortnite with Brick Life and Odyssey.
THE ADS ARE NOW LIVE.
BRICK LIFE:
AND ODYSSEY:
Oh, and we did the HERE’S EVERYTHING film at the top of the news page too…
So yes, that was the year that was (that I can remember at the time of writing, at least - I’m sure I’ve forgotten some stuff), chuck in a boat load of travel and some stonking massive project deliveries before Christmas (most of which I still can’t talk about)… well,
I think I might take some time off.
…
Wherever you are in the world reading this, I hope you are slowly/eventually making your way into a break period. That you get some peace and quiet. And that you too find some time to rest.
It’s not a big THINGS this week, so hopefully it shouldn’t take up your entire weekend to read it.
But we’ll see how we go.
Shall we?
—
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. COPYRIGHT AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
This week, the UK Government issued a public open consultation on how and where to apply copyright law in regard to AI companies’ scraping and stealing of creative content to power their LLMs and generative image/video makers.
The consultation thinks - or at least suggests - that perhaps the AI companies should be given a pass.
Regular readers will know what I think about this and yes, of course, I’ve already filled in the questions on the public consultation. I’ll be writing to my MP at some point this weekend too.
If you also believe creative industries should be protected and not shredded to pieces then here’s a handy Bluesky thread on how to do that.
Today, the UK government announced a proposal to change copyright law - for the benefit of AI companies - that would cause huge, irreversible harm to creators. More info below, but most importantly here's what you can do (wherever you live): 1. Email your MP. Template letter in 🧵 👇 1/10
— Ed Newton-Rex (@ednewtonrex.bsky.social) 2024-12-17T18:19:47.246Z
I fundamentally disagree with retroactively granting permissions to flaunt copyright law.
This stuff should be explicit opt-in, not opt out.
THING 2. THE ORIGIN OF THE GET/WHO/TO/BY
I delivered some strategy training recently and, as part of the frameworks section, we spent a fair bit of time examining ‘the GTB’, when to use it, what it’s for and specifically understanding just how to use it properly.
At the start of 2024, very smart person Baiba Matisone did a fantastic write up of the origins of the GWTB (never forget the WHO) and while over time the framework gets used and abused - changed and moved - it’s always good to understand just where these things come from.
THING 3. GAME DATA: WRAPPED
A little self-indulgence? Sure, why not.
It’s that time of year again.
The time of year where all the major game platforms release their own versions of Spotify Wrapped and let players everywhere see just how much time they’ve spent in their respective games all year round.
PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and Steam all have versions of this - all available now - and as such, I’m able to do my annual review of everything that’s passed through my consoles this year.
Let’s kick off with: Total Games Played
172 all in all. Not bad! Xbox winning out here - proving the breadth that a Game Pass subscription can bring. More variety, more options - really nice to see.
This year is also the first year that Sony split out its hardware, so you can see both on this chart and the next where the game (and time) went on the PS VR2 and the PlayStation Portal.
Next: Total Hours Played (hold on tight)
1513 hours. What.
At first glance, this is insane. Even for me. But when we get into the time spent with each individual game (next chart) you’ll see how the influence of the kids playing Fortnite and Minecraft have really whacked these numbers up. Also: the Portal and the Switch being neck-a-neck (there’s literally 2hrs in it) is fascinating to me. Bring on Switch 2 next year :)
And finally, 2024 in games.
Yeah, I think 2025 is the year I get the kids to start using their own log ins 😅
Things of note here:
It’s great to see the bangers show up. Dave the Diver was my Christmas game last year and so the fact that it leaked over into the start of 2024 shows how much I loved playing it. Outlaws and Helldivers are both great notable newcomers too.
No Man’s Sky and Destiny 2 - both formidable live service games in their own right - keeping respectable positions is great to see. For what it’s worth, I wrote about just why Destiny 2 was one my games of the year over at Video Games Industry Memo (in short: thank The Final Shape).
And as a good pal said to me ‘It strikes me you like space’ - he is right. I do. More space games in 2025 please.
One thing that is a bit annoying is that not only is the Fortnite pile impossible to weed through (my eldest plays BR, I play LEGO Fortnite - but I can’t pull those apart) but also, for some unknown reason, Microsoft splits Minecraft out twice. If the makes of these wrap ups are reading this, next year I’d like to see more detail please. Top 10 (by hours) not just top three.
Please x
That is all.
How was your wrapped? Have you done it? What did you get? Any surprises? TELL ME EVERYTHING.
THING 4. THE THING ABOUT SAM SMITH PUBS IS…
…well, they’re quite hard to write about.
Ever drink in a Sam Smith pub? I’m sure you’ve heard of one… Well, either way this is a fascinating long read.
And probably my favourite thing this week.
THING 5. NAUTILUS CEPHALOPODS
It’s the last FToF of the year so it would be remiss of me to not include some random deep sea discovery. And this one is ace.
“The last ROV Hercules dive of 2024 certainly was the grand finale of the season: our Corps of Exploration witnessed four Palau nautilus individuals (Nautilus belauensis) in Palau’s German Channel! These are the first sightings of nautiloids — the most primitive cephalopods — from E/V Nautilus after 1000+ ROV dives over the last 15 years of operations. This marine mollusk found in the Indo-Pacific is rarely photographed- let alone caught on video -and 2024’s expeditions represent the first of OET’s adventures within the nautilus’s expected distribution range.”
And here it is:
BONUS SECTION
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
ENJOY.
’Why James Whatley uses Buttondown’. The brilliant people and platform behind this newsletter asked me if I'd answer some questions for their series of Buttondown Stories. I did and it was fun too! Love Buttondown :)
Let’s just all take a moment to rewatch the new SUPERMAN trailer.
We can probably make time to rewatch the 28 Years Later trailer too.
‘Wonder Women’ [of advertising] by Vikki Ross is a fantastic end of year read.
‘You have fundamentally misunderstood Doctor Who’ is a great thing to have in your back pocket should the drunk nan get a bit rowdy during this year’s Christmas Day episode…
I know people that worked on this 🥰
Forgotten about Stadia already? Well, Google hasn’t. They’re giving you another YEAR to make the controller useful. Helpful for those of us who still use the old controller as a door stop.
Recent OpenAI partners, Vox Media and Conde Naste, announce redundancies. I’m sure they’re not connected at all.
Related: Future Publishing announced its partnership with OpenAI (and people are rightfully not happy about it). Redundancies to follow in 3, 2,…
James Herring’s ‘top 50 brand campaigns of the year’ is a good refresher for next time someone says ‘What’s been your favourite ad recently?’
‘We found everything we could about Luigi Mangione’s gaming history — and it doesn’t say much about him’ - a right and measured response to the idiotic reporting around Mangione playing Among Us.
I mentioned at the top about judging the Eurobest… well, ALL the winners have now been announced and genuinely, I am so happy for every single one of them. I probably have a longer post in my about all of this but not today… Meanwhile, here’s a snapshot of some of the winners:
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
Well here we are. We made it. It is, at the time of writing, 1650 on Saturday December 21st 2024. The kids are playing variations of Fortnite (BR and Brick Life), the Mrs is doing a Sudoku and I am writing to you. We are in our matching pyjamas.
‘Tis the season.
Today is my first proper genuine day off since around mid-August ish and my God it feels good to properly switch off.
A small handful of you will know -recent successes aside- what kind of year this has been and to think about where we are now vs where we were then… well, we are grateful.
Thank you for all the support. Thank you for reading. Thank you for your patience with the occasional nature of this ‘weekly’ ‘Friday’ newsletter. And above all else, just thank you for being there.
You know who you are.
Until next year,
Whatley out x
…
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