Video Game Investment Banking / PE / VC
What are some of the top sellside and buyside players in the video game / digital media space? Very interested in both video games and digital entertainment (Netflix). My current understanding of the financial landscape - please let me know if I'm off on any of these:
Investment Banking:
- LionTree
- Raine
- Aream
- Morgan Stanley - Media & Communications
- Barclays - Communications & Media
- PJT Partners - hired former CSO of Activision Blizzard to LA office
- Goldman Sachs - video game advisory group within TMT
PE / VC/HF:
- Insight Partners
- Griffin Gaming Partners - partnered with LionTree
- Ashler Capital - video game & internet group
Otherwise, information on the space seems quite sparse - if anyone has any direct experiences or information, it would be appreciated.
Maybe I sound like an old millennial but I really despise how much micro-transactions are being done in gaming. I'd imagine a lot of this has to do with PE/VC funds investing and a lot of finance/business minds joining the industry like Bobby Kotick (despise him as a person but business wise, he's done a lot of intelligent strategic moves that have made him a very wealthy man, $500M+). Anyone else miss the days of the late 2000s/early 2010s? So many good sports/FPS games back then (COD MW series + Black Ops, NBA 2k10-2k12, also mid-late 2000s college football/Madden were fire)
EDIT: Jagex is probably one of the best modeled gaming company IMO atm. It's privately owned by Carlyle but their model is very interesting. Very player friendly. Their F2P has always been pretty decent and I've heard their members gameplay has become far less grindy (for low-mid level players and heard the endgame content is fantastic - know quite a few 10+ year RS players who play on and off which is super rare for friends I had in other MMPORGS where they eventually quit). Steady gaming population. Games like FF14 beat them out but likely have a much higher budget.