• Nintendo just dropped a major re-release on the Nintendo Switch with "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe."
• The game originally launched on Nintendo's failed Wii U, but is getting new life on Nintendo's Switch as a repackaged "Deluxe" edition which includes a bunch of extra stuff.
• Having spent several hours playing "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe," I'd strongly recommend it to any classic "Super Mario" superfans.

"New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe" is Super Mario as pastiche: It's composed entirely from bits and pieces of various classic, 2D Super Mario games.

Character selection is lifted from"Super Mario Bros. 2," and the overworld map is from "Super Mario Bros. 3." Each Koopa Kid boss fight is directly reminiscent of the same boss fights in "Super Mario World." That's blended with elements of the more recent "New Super Mario Bros." series, and it produces a delightful evolution of both.

If you're looking for dozens of hours of Nintendo's smartest, toughest, most traditional "Super Mario" gaming, look no further than "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe." 

Here's what I mean:

SEE ALSO: The 7 biggest things to expect from Nintendo in 2019

"New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe" is two games in one: Both "New Super Mario Bros. U," and "New Super Luigi U."

Though "New Super Mario Bros. U" was a hit on the Wii U, it still sold under 6 million copies — a surprisingly low number for one of the world's most popular gaming franchises. It wasn't the game's fault, but a measure of the Wii U's failure.

With that in mind, Nintendo is giving the game a new chance with a major re-release on the Nintendo Switch. It's a smart move, as the game feels purpose-built for the kind of gaming that the Nintendo Switch allows — it's exactly the type of game that's easy to play on-the-go or at home.

So, what is it?

It's two games — "New Super Mario Bros. U" and "New Super Luigi U" — combined into a single, $60 package. It comes with a new playable character in "Toadette." It's a re-release that gives an already great set of games a chance to reach new players on a far, far more successful Nintendo platform.

What's the difference between the two games? Difficulty.

If "New Super Mario Bros. U" is the base game, "New Super Luigi Bros. U" is the master quest. 

It would be reductive to say that the latter game is a harder version of the former, but it's not inaccurate. You can't actually play as Mario in "New Super Luigi Bros. U," but you can play as everyone else: Luigi, Toad, Toadette, and Nabbit. 

Part of the challenge is that Luigi is a more difficult character to control than Mario, and part of the challenge is that the entire game is rebalanced around being more difficult. Enemies act differently and appear in greater numbers. Platforms are in different places, or outright removed. Levels are designed to put challenge above all else.

If you've ever played literally any 2D Super Mario game, included "Super Mario Run" on smartphones, you're familiar with the gameplay of "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe."

In "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe," you're stomping on goombas and eating power-up mushrooms and always, always seeking out the next flagpole.

It's a pixel-perfect, 2D-style, classic Mario game with a ton of polish.

It plays like the memory you have of "Super Mario Bros." on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, albeit with far prettier visuals, more complex level design, and better controls. 

Unbelievably, after 30 years of "Super Mario" games, "New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe" still packs in plenty of incredibly impressive, delightful game design. Much of the game makes you feel clever, which is a testament to the subtlty of the game's developers. It's just difficult enough.

There are a few new additions you might not be ready for if you've never played the "New Super Mario Bros." series. Did you know that Mario is now regularly capable of wall jumps? Pretty much all the new gymnastics Mario learned from his 3D jaunt in "Super Mario 64" is now built into the 2D series as well, from ground pounds to wall jumps. 

• The "Mission: Impossible" franchise is returning for two more entries in 2021 and 2022.
• Adjusted for inflation, five of the six movies in the series have each grossed over $700 million worldwide.

The "Mission: Impossible" franchise is returning for two more, back-t0-back entries. 

Star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie— who directed the last two installments, "Rogue Nation" and "Fallout" — announced on Twitter on Monday that they would return for the seventh and eighth movies in the long-running action series, which will be released in summer 2021 and summer 2022.

Read more: Jordan Peele's 'Get Out' follow-up moved its release date away from 'Captain Marvel,' and that's beneficial for both movies

Critics and audiences alike loved last year's "Fallout," which was one of the best-reviewed movies of 2018 with a 97% Rotten Tomatoes critic score. It grossed $220 million domestically and $791 million worldwide, a series-best global total. Even when other entries in the franchise are adjusted for inflation, it's still only slightly behind 2000's "Mission: Impossible II."

Since the first movie debuted in 1996, the "Mission: Impossible" franchise has been a reliable money maker. Worldwide box office has grown more and more important for Hollywood, and helped sustain other franchises like "Transformers" and "Pirates of the Caribbean."

We adjusted each movie's global box office for inflation and as you can see in the chart below, the franchise is not slowing down:

SEE ALSO: 'Bohemian Rhapsody' has been a runaway hit outside the US, which helps explain its big Golden Globes upset

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A drag ballet troupe has been performing around the world for nearly 50 years

• Two highly anticipated TV shows documenting the wild Fyre Festival saga begin streaming this week. Hulu's version debuted on Monday, while Netflix's will follow on Friday.
• Billy McFarland, the festival organizer who was sentenced to six years in prison in October and ordered to forfeit $26 million, is interviewed in Hulu's version. Hulu confirmed to The Ringer that McFarland was paid for doing the interview but denied that it was as much as $250,000. 
• According to the director of Netflix's documentary, McFarland asked for $125,000 for an interview.  

This week, Hulu and Netflix go head to head with their competing Fyre Festival documentaries, which tell the story of the infamous party in the Bahamas that left thousands of people stranded with half-built huts to sleep in and cold sandwiches to eat. 

There is at least one distinct difference between Hulu's version, "Fyre Fraud," which was released on Monday, and the one Netflix is rolling out just a few days later. Hulu's documentary includes a paid interview with the festival's disgraced organizer, Billy McFarland, who is currently serving a six-year prison sentence.

According to a recent report by The Ringer, McFarland requested as much as $250,000 for the interview. 

Read more:These photos reveal why the 27-year-old organizer of the disastrous Fyre Festival has been sentenced to 6 years in prison

Chris Smith, director of Netflix's Fyre Festival documentary, told The Ringer that Netflix declined an interview with McFarland because he was requesting hundreds of thousands of dollars for it.

Smith said McFarland had told him that he was being offered $250,000 for an interview with Hulu and asked them to pay him $125,000. 

"After spending time with so many people who had such a negative impact on their lives from their experience on Fyre, it felt particularly wrong to us for him to be benefiting," Smith said to The Ringer. "It was a difficult decision but we had to walk away for that reason."

According to Smith, McFarland then came back and asked whether Netflix would do it for $100,000 in cash. Netflix declined. 

Netflix did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Jenner Furst, who co-directed Hulu's "Fyre Fraud," confirmed to The Ringer that McFarland was paid for his eight-hour interview and behind-the-scenes footage but denied that it was $250,000.

"I can't tell you the amount," he said, "but what I can tell you is that if you printed [$250,000], that would be a lie. That was not the amount. It was less than that. I don't know why Chris [Smith] is quoting him that way. We both made a film about the same person. We know the person is a compulsive liar."

After being arrested on charges related to Fyre Festival, McFarland became involved in other fraudulent schemes. In June 2018, he was charged with selling fake tickets through a different company, called NYC VIP Access, starting in late 2017. He pleaded guilty to those charges.

Before McFarland's sentencing in October, his attorney, Randall Jackson, argued that McFarland had a bipolar-related disorder and asked the judge to give him a lighter sentence.

SEE ALSO: These photos reveal why the 27-year-old organizer of the disastrous Fyre Festival has been sentenced to 6 years in prison

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 11 things you probably didn't know about Walmart

• NBCUniversal will launch its own ad-supported streaming service in 2020.
• NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke told The Wall Street Journal that the company could consider moving "The Office" from Netflix to the new service.
• "The Office" and NBC's "Parks and Recreation" are two of Netflix's most popular shows, according to data from analytics firm Jumpshot provided to Business Insider.
• Netflix has been investing heavily in original content as more companies enter the streaming war.

When Netflix first launched its streaming platform over a decade ago, it used a big catalog of traditional TV shows to kickstart viewership. Now, as more media giants plan to launch their own streaming competitors, Netflix is in jeopardy of losing some of its most popular shows.

NBCUniversal announced Monday that it plans to launch its own ad-supported streaming service in 2020 that would be free to users who already subscribe to traditional pay TV through companies like Comcast and Sky. The service could include popular NBC TV shows and Universal movies, as well as original content.

Users who don't already have pay TV will be able to subscribe to the service for a monthly fee around $10 a month, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited an anonymous source familiar with the matter. 

READ MORE: Hulu gained on Netflix in the US during a year of massive user growth, but there's a big challenge it will have to overcome in 2019 to keep up the pace

NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke told the Journal that the company may consider moving "The Office" from Netflix to the new streaming service once the licensing agreement expires in 2021. NBC declined to comment further to Business Insider.

That's bad news for Netflix because "The Office" is its most popular show, according to data from analytics firm Jumpshot provided to Business Insider. And NBC's "Parks and Recreation" is its third most popular show.

The chart below shows the 10 most popular shows on Netflix of 2018, courtesy of Jumpshot, which "tracks five billion actions a day across 100 million devices to deliver insights into online consumer behavior":

Netflix's second most popular show, the Warner Bros.-owned "Friends," is safe on Netflix — for now. The hit 1990s sitcom will remain on the service through 2019, but Netflix and AT&T, which bought Time Warner last year, are finalizing a deal to keep "Friends" on Netflix while also allowing AT&T the ability to put the show on its own platform that is expected to launch this year.

Netflix is paying up to $100 million for "Friends," according to The New York Times, significantly more than the $30 million it was paying per year for the rights. 

A similar scenario could happen with "The Office," "Parks and Recreation," and more NBC shows. Other NBC shows in Netflix's top 50, according to Jumpshot, included "The Good Place" and "The West Wing." Would Netflix drop so much money for multiple shows when it's already investing heavily in original content? 85% of new spending in 2018 went toward originals.

Netflix anticipated the competition, so it will likely continue to focus on original programming over licensing agreements.

"The way we look at this long term is that our competitors will want that content on their own services,” Netflix's content chief Ted Sarandos said during an earnings call in July. "That was a bet we’ve made a long time ago when we got into original programming."

SEE ALSO: Netflix has been smacked with a lawsuit over 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' that claims it 'tarnishes' the 'choose your own adventure' trademark

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A drag ballet troupe has been performing around the world for nearly 50 years

• Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced her widely-expected candidacy for the presidency on CBS' "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Tuesday.
• Asked why she was running, Gillibrand, a mother of two sons, said she would "fight for other people's kids as hard as I would fight for my own."
• Gillibrand joins a number of other popular Democrats who have made their own announcements ahead of the 2020 US presidential election

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced her candidacy for the US presidency on CBS' "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Tuesday, a widely-expected political move amid similar announcements from other Democrats in recent days.

"So, I'm just curious," "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert, asked Gillibrand. "Do you have anything you would like to announce?"

"Yes," Gillibrand said, smiling.

"And what would that be, madam," Colbert asked.

"I'm filing an exploratory committee for president of the United States tonight," Gillibrand said, amid cheers from the crowd.

Asked why she was running, Gillibrand, a mother of two sons, said she would "fight for other people's kids as hard as I would fight for my own."

Read more: New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is set to announce she's running for president in 2020, according to reports

Gillibrand listed off a number of broad political issues she would take on as president, including healthcare reform and improving public schools, and added that all of her suggestions would be impossible to achieve "if you don't take on the systems of power."

"It's taking on the corruption and greed in Washington," Gillibrand said. "Taking on the special interests that write legislation in the dead of night. And I know that I have the compassion, the courage, and the fearless determination to get that done."

Gillibrand joins a number of other popular Democrats who have made their own announcements ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, and former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julián Castro all announced they would be running.

Last week, Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California appeared on the show and gave a strong hint she, too, would be running for president.

You can watch Sen. Gillibrand's announcement here »

SEE ALSO: New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is set to announce she's running for president in 2020, according to reports

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy'

• Netflix's price hike, announced Tuesday, could hurt the company eventually, if not immediately, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said.
• Customers may not notice it right away, but may pay more attention later this year when Disney launches a rival service with movies and shows that are no longer on Netflix, he said.
• Few consumers are likely to choose more than one pure streaming service, and Netflix's price hike has left it vulnerable to price competition, he added.

Netflix's price hike may come back to bite the streaming video leader — and maybe not so far in the future.

The company's second price increase in less than two years, announced on Tuesday, delighted investors accustomed to the intoxicating pricing power that comes when a business dominates a market the way Netflix does. 

But Netflix is about to face a new class of heavyweight competitors, Michael Pachter, a financial analyst who covers the company for Wedbush, told Business Insider in an interview Tuesday. What's more, many of these new rivals are likely to remove the movies and TV shows they currently license to Netflix, folding the content into their own streaming video services instead.

With its prices going up, its offerings arguably becoming less attractive, and a growing number of options to choose from, consumers, including some of Netflix's current customers, are likely to start opting for other streaming services, Pachter said.

When it comes to which streaming video offering customers subscribe to, "it's not going to be all Netflix anymore," Pachter said.

Analysts and investors seem sanguine about the price hike

Netflix announced its biggest-ever price increases on Tuesday, saying that it will hike its plan prices by 13% t0 18%. Thanks to the move, its most popular plan will cost $13 a month, up from $11 currently. That puts Netflix's price within spitting distance of that of traditional premium TV leader HBO, which charges $15 a month for its standalone HBO Now streaming service.

Despite the steepness of the price hike and the fact that it is the second for the company in less than two years, few analysts seemed worried about it. Netflix's subscriber base continued to grow after its last price hike, noted Tuna Amobi, a financial analyst who covers the company for CFRA. Netflix added about 4 million new paying subscribers in the first nine months of last year, following its late 2017 price increase.

"It went seamlessly," Amobi said. He continued: "I think they have pricing power in [their business] model."

For their part, investors seemed enthused by the latest price hike. Following Netflix's announcement, the company's stock finished Tuesday's regular trading session up 6.5%.

Although Pachter is a longtime bear on Netflix's stock— he has an underperform rating and a $150 price target on it — he's similarly sanguine about the price hike. Few, if any, Netflix subscribers will cancel their service immediately due to it, he said. Instead the real danger to the company of the increase will materialize later this year, he said.

Read this: Netflix is betting billions on its original shows and movies — but this analyst warns it's a far riskier gamble than investors realize

Netflix is losing content and gaining rivals

Netflix's deal with Disney is ending this year, and the company will likely start pulling its movies and show from the former's service soon. Assuming it completes its planned acquisition of 21st Century Fox, it could also start pulling Fox's shows.

Consumers likely won't notice many of the changes right away, Pachter said. But when Disney launches its own streaming service later this year with content that used to be on Netflix, that likely will be a wakeup call.

"Sometime later this year, people are going notice that there's nothing on Netflix," he said.

And the situation could soon get worse. Warner Bros. plans to launch its own streaming service later this year and could similarly pull its shows and movies from Netflix and put them on its offering. Comcast owned NBC Universal announced this week that it will launch its own streaming service next year.

Together, video from Disney, Fox, Warner, and Comcast comprise some 20% of all the content on Netflix, according to research from Ampere Analysis reported by Recode.

"When all that shit disappears, Netflix has a problem," Pachter said bluntly.

It could be undercut on price

And by raising its prices, Netflix has also made itself vulnerable to competition on price. Disney CEO Bob Iger has said his company's streaming service will be "substantially cheaper" that Netflix — and that was before the latter's latest price hike. Likewise, Netflix's current rivals, Amazon and Hulu, could play up the difference in price between their offerings and that of the streaming giant. Hulu's ad-free service costs $12 a month, while Amazon Prime costs $10 a month on an annual basis.

"If you don't think Amazon going exploit that in advertisements, you're wrong," Pachter said. "They will."

To date, consumers interested in streaming video have generally opted to subscribe to Netflix. While many consumers subscribe to Amazon Prime also, most do so because they signed up for the service's free shipping offering, not for streaming video, Pachter said. Hulu also doesn't directly compete with Netflix, because most consumers use it to watch broadcast TV shows they missed, he said.

The upcoming services from Disney and Warner are likely to be much more competitive with Netflix. Because most consumers have limited budgets, Patcher reckons the streaming video market is likely to shake out similarly to the market for premium cable channels: the majority of consumers will subscribe to just one. Although HBO is the leader, many consumers subscribe to Showtime or Starz instead, he said.

"Most people pick one," he said.

• Read more about Netflix:
• The future is bright for Netflix and bleak for basic cable — these 3 charts show why
• Netflix's CEO says streaming has 5 to 10 years left of major growth before the company needs to start worrying
• Netflix's 1 million subscriber miss is exactly why it’s time for the company to stop hiding a critical part of its business
• Netflix has hit a speed bump with original series and movies, and it could spell bad news for investors

SEE ALSO: Netflix is now the most popular TV service in the US — here's why its lead is likely to only get larger

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We put the 7 best smartphones of 2018 head-to-head and there was a clear winner for the best value

• Microsoft is building a service that intends to be the "Netflix for games."
• The goal of the service, named "Project xCloud," is to stream high-end video games to any device.
• "We have as much a shot to build a subscription service as anybody else," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on Monday at an invitational editors' meeting at Microsoft's headquarters.

SEATTLE — "We describe it as, shorthand, 'Netflix for games,'" Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told journalists at an invitational editors' meeting at Microsoft's headquarters on Monday.

Nadella was speaking about Microsoft's cloud ambitions outside of enterprise software — and more specifically, the company's ambitious push into video game streaming with Project xCloud.

The idea is simple: play high-quality, blockbuster games on any device.

Internally, Microsoft refers to it by the nickname "Netflix for games," Nadella said. That's what the industry generally calls this idea.

Rather than your device powering the game, a more powerful computer somewhere remote would power it — you only have to stream it to your phone, game console, laptop, or whatever other device.

Though the concept is simple, executing it is far more difficult. Video games often demand precision timing, and the kind of unpredictable latency introduced by streaming over the internet is difficult to mitigate.

Nearly every major tech company is working on a form of video game streaming technology right now.

But Nadella thinks Microsoft is in a better position to tackle the issue than the competition. "We have as much a shot to build a subscription service as anybody else," he said on Monday.

Some have been announced or are already operating, like Google's Project Stream and Sony's PlayStation Now, while others are little more than whispers at the moment, like streaming services from Verizon and Amazon.

Nadella said Microsoft had the upper hand with its Xbox gaming arm, which gives Microsoft a strategic advantage that much of the competition is lacking.

"We have a huge back catalog, which is: We have our own games," he said, referring to the Microsoft-published back catalog of games on the Xbox that includes "Halo," "Forza," and much more.

He also pointed to services like Xbox Live, which draws tens of millions of paying users monthly, and the company's ability to synergize between its Windows and Xbox businesses.

"We have a structural position in that we have both a console business as well as a PC business," he said, "which happens to be bigger than the console business when it comes to gaming."

Look no further than Microsoft's "Play Anywhere" initiative for evidence of that cooperation.

The initiative has been huge for stoking goodwill with players: You buy an "Xbox Play Anywhere" game on either Xbox or Windows 10, and you immediately own it in both places at no additional cost. Even your game-saves transfer between the two platforms.

It's part of a bigger push within Microsoft's Xbox group, led by Microsoft's vice president of gaming, Phil Spencer, to make Xbox into a platform rather than a piece of hardware.

"There are 2 billion people who play video games on the planet today. We're not going to sell 2 billion consoles," Spencer told Business Insider in an interview in June.

"Many of those people don't own a television; many have never owned a PC. For many people on the planet, the phone is their compute device," he said. "It's really about reaching a customer wherever they are, on the devices that they have."

For now, Project xCloud — the "Netflix for games" service Nadella spoke about — is still in development. Microsoft is planning to run public tests of the service in 2019.

For a closer look at the service, check out this video:

SEE ALSO: Microsoft's Project xCloud will let you stream Xbox games straight to your smartphone or tablet

DON'T MISS: The 6 biggest things we expect from Xbox in 2019

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The safest way to walk on ice is to impersonate a penguin — here's why

• The director of Netflix's Fyre Festival documentary, Chris Smith, told Business Insider that he was tipped off that Hulu was going to release its Fyre doc ahead of his movie's release.
• Smith said when he told Netflix what Hulu was planning "it just wasn't an issue to them," as the company stayed focused on its global release on Friday.
• According to Google Trends, there's more interest in Netflix's "Fyre" (available Friday) than Hulu's "Fyre Fraud" (now available).

Hulu shocked many by surprise-releasing its documentary on the infamous Fyre Festival four days before the long-planned release of Netflix's Fyre doc. But it wasn't a shock to director Chris Smith.

Smith, who directed Netflix's "Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened" (available on Friday), told Business Insider on Tuesday that he and his team were tipped off about what Hulu was doing.

"We knew it was coming and I brought it up with Netflix and it just wasn't an issue to them," Smith said.

In the movie world, generally when two titles are coming out that cover the same topic, it's a mad dash to get to audiences first, as that first project usually gets the most attention. But that pertains to theatrical releases. It's a whole different ballgame in the streaming world.

Read more: The disgraced organizer of the Fyre Festival reportedly asked for $250,000 to be interviewed for Hulu's new documentary about the fiasco

Unlike theatrical releases, which have grosses reported to the public every weekend, viewership numbers for either Fyre movie will likely never be made public (unless the figures are huge). And because of that, there seems to be no panic by Netflix to change its strategy.

And there's also the streaming giant's reach.

Though Hulu has around 25 million subscribers and is gaining a little ground on Netflix in the US, globally Netflix is still king with 137 million subscribers worldwide.

"With Netflix the reach is so far in so many countries that our focus just remained staying with the original plan — a global launch," Smith said.

The Fyre Festival was a 2017 event in the Bahamas coordinated by entrepreneur Billy McFarland, who is currently serving six years in prison for wire fraud. Attendees paid up to $25,000 for elaborate accommodations, but when they arrived, they found little food and none of the artists that were promised, including Blink-182 and Migos.

Despite Hulu's "Fyre Fraud," directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, getting out of the gate first, there seems to be more interest in Netflix's "Fyre" when looking at Google search interest on the topic from Google Trends.

This might be part of the reason why Netflix didn't bat an eye when Hulu jumped its release.

"Netflix has done a lot of things right over the last few years and their reach in general is so much broader," Smith said. "A lot of people I know are like, 'I have Hulu and I don't even know how to open it up, I forgot my password.' Netflix has become ubiquitous with television, so for us [the Hulu release] wasn't that much of a big deal because we just knew that so many more people are going to see it on Netflix."

SEE ALSO: These photos reveal why the 27-year-old organizer of the disastrous Fyre Festival has been sentenced to 6 years in prison

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the extreme workout regimen of a professional ballerina

• UBS analysts estimate Disney's upcoming Netflix competitor, Disney+, will hit 5 million subscribers in the first year after its launch and 50 million subscribers in its first five years.
• Disney's streaming aspirations could weigh on earnings in the short term, but the analysts think investors should consider the long-term positive growth.
• Still, UBS foresees at least two risks to Disney's direct-to-consumer strategy.

Disney is expected to give reigning streaming champion Netflix some formidable competition when it launches its own streaming platform, Disney+, later this year. But Wall Street analysts at UBS foresee at least two risks to Disney's new direct-to-consumer strategy.

UBS projects Disney+ will reach 5 million subscribers in the first year after its launch and 50 million subscribers in its first five years, analysts said in a report released Tuesday. That would make Disney+ the fastest-growing streaming platform yet. For reference, Netflix currently has 137 million subscribers globally.

"We believe Disney is the only traditional media company with the scale, brand recognition and IP [intellectual property] to join Netflix and Amazon as a leader in the retail market place for subscription video," the analysts said in the report. "We expect Disney+ to drive the fastest uptake of any DTC platform to date."

Read more: Disney revealed new details about its Netflix competitor, Disney+, including 'Star Wars' and Marvel TV shows

UBS expects Disney's streaming aspirations to weigh on earnings in the immediate future but said investors should consider the positive long-term effects.

"[We] expect the benefit to terminal value to offset near term dilution and support the company's valuation," the analysts said. "We expect Disney+ to contribute positive earnings by 2024 and see long term upside as Disney increases scale and benefits from secular shifts to streaming, 1st party viewership data, and vertically integrating distribution. We believe Disney is uniquely positioned with a collection of the strongest content/brands and a track
record of maximizing the value of its IP."

But the analysts still see at least two major risks to Disney's strategy. Mainly that Disney might find it difficult to replicate the success it's used to.

One trap Disney could fall into is the urge to "protect existing earnings streams which currently support Disney shares," analysts said. "This could cause Disney to generate less growth than we show in direct-to-consumer businesses."

Read more: NBC says it may eventually pull 'The Office' off Netflix to fuel its own streaming service

There is also the "possibility that the economic benefits of the retail model do not materialize in the timeframe or to the extent expected once the land grab phase begins to wane," the analysts said. "Disney currently benefits from an optimized wholesale distribution model the economics of which will be difficult to replicate in a fragmented retail world."

UBS anticipates Disney will spend $500 million on advertising in 2020 and $800 million on advertising by 2025 for the service and estimates it will spend $1 billion in 2020 on original content, which could grow to $1.6 billion a year by 2025. UBS also expects Disney to "cannibalize existing licensing revenues," which could have an impact of $1.1 billion in 2020.

SEE ALSO: Netflix is rolling out its biggest price increase ever to US subscribers

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the extreme workout regimen of a professional ballerina

• Sony's got a big 2019.
• The much-anticipated follow-up to "The Last of Us" is expected to arrive on the PlayStation 4 — one of the last huge, exclusive games coming to Sony's PlayStation 4 consoles.
• Sony is also expected to announce the next PlayStation console in 2019, which may or may not be called the PlayStation 5.

For the 91-plus million PlayStation 4 owners, 2019 is going to be another big year.

Between the impending launch of blockbuster-to-be "The Last of Us: Part II," the expected launch of the mysterious (and gorgeous-looking) "Death Stranding," and the likely announcement of the next PlayStation console, Sony has a pretty massive year coming up.

So, with that in mind, we're looking ahead at the year to come in all things PlayStation.

SEE ALSO: The 10 best PlayStation 4 games for your new console

1. The PlayStation 5 is likely to get announced.

It's true: Sony has already announced its ongoing work on a successor to its current game console, the PlayStation 4 — which it may have already hinted will be called (what else) the PlayStation 5. 

Starting as early as May 2018, Sony executives were openly discussing work on the new console. And with PlayStation skipping the game industry's annual June trade show, E3, for the first time ever, it's entirely possible that the company will hold its own event specifically to announce the next PlayStation.

That said, we know little about what the console will be. We do know that it might not arrive until 2021.

"We will use the next three years to prepare the next step," PlayStation head John Kodera said in May.

Here's what we expect from the next PlayStation console: 

1. More horsepower, offering 4K/HDR support natively and, likely, support for G-Sync/FreeSync.
2. Backwards compatibility: Support for PlayStation 4 games, and potentially more.
3. A new, more powerful virtual reality headset.
4. An evolution of the PlayStation Now streaming service, potentially with PlayStation 5 games outright streamable.

2. The last few major exclusive games for the PlayStation 4, starting with "Days Gone."

"Days Gone" is shaping up to be something like "Sons of Anarchy" meets "28 Days Later." You play as a lone biker surviving in the wake of a global pandemic. Billions were wiped out, and many millions more became "freakers" — that's zombies to you and me.

As if zombies weren't scary enough, "Days Gone" turns them into a water-like mass capable of flooding into corridors with the speed and fury of a tsunami. They're a far more overwhelming threat than the "Night of the Living Dead" zombies in games like "Resident Evil."

That is, of course, when you're not riding away on your sweet hog — which is always an option.

"Days Gone" is the first major PlayStation 4 exclusive scheduled to arrive this year, on April 26.

Check out the latest trailer for "Days Gone" right here:

Youtube Embed:
//www.youtube.com/embed/VDpHSP0e_U4
Width: 800px
Height: 450px

• "Fortnite" continues to be the biggest game in the world, with tens of millions of monthly players across seven different platforms.
• Even though the game is free, it managed to pull in nearly $2.5 billion in 2018, according to Nielsen's SuperData tracking arm.
• "Fortnite" offers a seasonal Battle Pass, which costs $10 and is wildly popular. More than one-third of US players are buying the Battle Pass, according to SuperData.

"Fortnite" continues to dominate the attention of tens of millions of players around the world.

Despite the fact that it's a free game, "Fortnite" brings in billions of dollars through sales of virtual items, sales of virtual money, and the ever-important seasonal Battle Pass.

More specifically: "Fortnite" made $2.4 billion in 2018, according to Nielsen's SuperData tracking arm. 

That's the first overall revenue number for "Fortnite" that we've seen for a full calendar year of availability. The game's maker, Epic Games, hasn't released revenue numbers for "Fortnite."

"Fortnite" first arrived in the summer of 2017, with the now ubiquitous "Battle Royale" mode arriving as a free update in September 2017.

The rest of 2017 and early 2018 was focused on putting "Fortnite" on more platforms.

By late summer 2018, the game was available on seven different gaming platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.

Players on any platform can play with any other platform. "Fortnite" is the first truly cross-platform game; it even forced Sony to abandon its exclusionary stance on cross-platform gaming.

It's no surprise, then, that "Fortnite" is estimated to have grossed over $2.4 billion in 2018 across those many platforms.

With tens of millions of players around the world buying Battle Passes, and in-game items, and converting their real money into "V-Bucks," the game was able to amass billions in revenue without charging any upfront cost to consumers — a game-changer in an era of $60 blockbuster games.

That makes it the highest-earning free-to-play game of 2018, as well as the highest-earning game of the year, according to SuperData. It also puts "Fortnite" earnings above "Red Dead Redemption 2," and "Call of Duty," and every other big game you can think of that arrived in 2018.

And there's no sign of it slowing down any time soon.

SEE ALSO: The CEO behind 'Fortnite' is now worth over $7 billion

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I'm a diehard iPhone user who switched to Android for a week — here's what I loved and hated about the Google Pixel 3 XL

• Wall Street expects Netflix to succeed in a crowded streaming market in 2019, even as more competitors, like Disney and AT&T, enter the field.
• Netflix increased prices this week, but some Wall Street analysts are optimistic that the price hike will be successful.
• Analysts said that traditional TV viewership is declining and that Netflix's push into international markets will give it a boost.
• But Netflix will also have to rely less on licensing agreements as original content becomes more and more essential.

Netflix could face one of its toughest years yet in 2019 as more services from the likes of Disney and AT&T enter the streaming war.

But the overall Wall Street consensus is positive going into Netflix's Q4 earnings on Thursday, with analysts seeming optimistic about Netflix's recent price hike and the streamer's chances against the competition this year.

Many analysts anticipate good news on January 17, when Netflix will report its earnings for the last quarter of 2018, even after Netflix increased its prices on Tuesday, effective immediately for new subscribers and within three months for current users. It's increasing prices by 13% to 18%, and its most popular plan will see the biggest hike, from $11 to $13.

Stifel was optimistic that Netflix could execute the pricing increase in a report released on Tuesday, but was cautious on domestic subscriber additions in Q1 of 2019. Instinet sees the price hike having short-term effects on subscriber growth, but doesn't "see it as a long-term detriment," analysts said in a Tuesday report. And analysts from RBC said that the increase "has a high probability of success, further fueling the Netflix flywheel," in a report released Tuesday.

READ MORE: Hulu gained on Netflix in the US during a year of massive user growth, but there's a big challenge it will have to overcome in 2019 to keep up the pace

'We see the potential for upside...'

For Q4 of 2018, Stifel expects that Netflix gained 2.035 million subscribers domestically, which would exceed Netflix's own projection of 1.8 million. Internationally, Stifel estimates that Netflix gained 7.757 million subscribers.

UBS sees an upside in Netflix's Q4 subscriber growth, due in large part to positive download trends of the company's mobile app and strong search trends.

"We see the potential for upside to Q4 domestic and int'l sub guide given solid app download ranking, credit/debit card spend, & OTT consumption data, Google search trends (pointing to a well-performing Q4 slate) and 3rd party data," UBS analysts said in a Thursday report.

"Emerging markets in Latam & Asia (e.g., India) are the bright spots on local language content push," UBS continued.

Netflix announced 17 new Asian original programs in November in an effort to break through, since the company had yet to exceed 2 million subscribers in any Asian market. Of the 17 originals, most hailed from India, where Netflix is fighting hard to gain traction since it can't operate in China without a local partner.

"We expect subscriber momentum will continue as Netflix continues to improve its service and the global shift to streaming broadens and given the strong 2H18 growth performance," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a report published on Thursday.

Netflix is expected to have a solid 2019 even as more competitors emerge

Disney is expected to launch its own direct-to-consumer service in late 2019, called Disney+, and Morgan Stanley analysts said in a report on Friday that they believed Disney could succeed in the the crowded streaming market. But the analysts also said three factors kept them positive that Netflix could, as well.

"First, we believe Netflix's opportunity comes from the nearly $500bn global TV market, of which total subscription OTT still represents less than 5% of revenues," Morgan Stanley analysts said. The analysts said there could be multiple winners in the streaming video (SVOD) space, and that linear TV viewership would continue to decline.

The Morgan Stanley analysts predicted most traditional TV/studio owners would not pivot to streaming, and instead opt to "live in the studio side of the streaming value chain, producing exclusive first-run content for Netflix, rather than launching global branded streaming platforms."

Netflix will rely less on licensing agreements

Netflix will continue to transition away from licensed content and toward its own originals in 2019.

Original content will be more important than ever as more streaming companies throw their hats in the ring. Even though Netflix has invested heavily in original programming over the last year, some of its most popular shows, like "Friends," are still available through licensing agreements.

Netflix and AT&T, which bought Time Warner last year, recently agreed that "Friends" can remain on Netflix through 2019, but that AT&T would also be allowed to have the popular sitcom on its own streaming service when it launches this year. 

Disney also ended a deal with Netflix last year, and all of its content starting with "Captain Marvel" will be available on Disney+ after leaving theaters.

Morgan Stanley analysts pointed to a shift toward Netflix originals, which it said was evident in Netflix's financials.

"First, the growth in licensing obligations to third parties has slowed, declining ~15% YoY on a per sub basis in 2018," the analysts said. "This is a function of licensing commitments burning off faster than they are being taken on as the business grows. Second, cash spend on content not tied to pre-existing obligations - a rough proxy for in-house production - has ramped to over $5bn in '18,nearly doubling YoY to ~40% of annual cash content spend."

Netflix was trading around $351 per share on Wednesday.

SEE ALSO: 'Black Mirror' creator tells fans to 'f--- off' if they don't like making choices during Netflix's 'Bandersnatch'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the extreme workout regimen of a professional ballerina

• Actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard have listed their four-story Brooklyn townhouse for $4.59 million.
• They purchased the home 12 years ago for $1.91 million, as The Wall Street Journal reports.
• The past several months have seen an assortment of high-profile real estate transactions in Brooklyn, including Matt Damon purchasing Brooklyn's most expensive apartment in late December.

Hollywood power couple Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are selling their 3,600-square-foot Brooklyn townhouse for $4.599 million.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, they purchased the home at 36 Sterling in Park Slope in 2006 for $1.9 million. The couple moved in while Gyllenhaal was pregnant with their first daughter; now that both daughters are attending schools outside the neighborhood, they're listing the house.

According to the Sotheby's listing, the house has four bedrooms, a fireplace, and a south-facing garden.

Read more: Shaq is selling his lakeside Florida mansion for $22 million, and it comes with a 17-car garage and a 6,000-square-foot basketball court — here's a look inside

The past several months have seen a variety of high-profile celebrity real estate transactions in Brooklyn. Matt Damon bought the borough's most expensive home — a $16.7 million penthouse— in December. And, in January, Curbed reported that celebrity couple Emily Blunt and John Krasinski splashed out $11 million for a condo in the same building as Damon.

Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard's four-story townhouse is listed with Debbie Korb of Sotheby's International Realty.

Below, take a look at the property.

SEE ALSO: Hollywood-style trailers, exclusive dinner parties, and 'Instagram museums': The CEO of a real estate PR firm dishes on how he sells multimillion-dollar mansions to the super-rich

READ MORE: A SoHo triplex penthouse got a $5.5 million price chop, but it could still break the record for the most expensive apartment ever sold in downtown NYC

Celebrity couple Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard got married in May 2009 and, in 2012, purchased a Park Slope, Brooklyn, townhouse for a reported $1.9 million.

Source: People, The Wall Street Journal

The couple has two daughters and, according to The Wall Street Journal, is selling the house because both girls are going to school outside of the neighborhood.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The couple's home is in Park Slope, an expensive Brooklyn neighborhood that borders Prospect Park to the east.

Source: Google Maps

• Free-to-play video games generated $87.7 billion in revenue during 2018, according to a new report from research firm SuperData.
• Asian players account for 62% of spending on free games, and seven of the top 10 grossing free-to-play games belong to Asian publishers.
• "Fortnite" was the top grossing game of 2018, free or otherwise, with an estimated $2.4 billion in revenue.
• Revenue generated by mobile games ($61.3 billion) exceeded the combined earnings of games on traditional video game consoles ($12.7 billion) and PC ($35.7 billion).

Led by "Fortnite: Battle Royale," the free-to-play video game market surged to $87.7 billion in revenue during 2018 — more than triple the earnings of blockbuster games released by major publishers last year. In fact, free-to-play titles accounted for nearly 80% of all spending on digital games in 2018.

That's according to new research out Wednesday from Nielsen's SuperData tracking arm, which measures data from the gaming, AR, and VR markets. 

SuperData found that games played on smartphones account for an increasing majority of play time, and free games still rule mobile app stores. Case in point: "Fortnite" remains the most popular game in the world at the start of 2019, enjoying more than 80 million active users per month.

Read more: Fortnite made $318 million in May — almost $100 million more than any free-to-play game has made in a month

Free games like "Fortnite" earn revenue through microtransactions, usually in the form of small purchases that boost a player's performance or reward them with a special item. Those incremental purchases add up to big spending: mobile games earned $61.3 billion in digital sales in 2018, while games on traditional video game consoles and PC earned $48.4 billion combined. 

Free-to-play and mobile games are especially popular in Asia; SuperData reports that 62% of all spending on free-to-play games comes from the Asian market. Despite China blocking the release of new video games in the country for most of the year, the Asian mobile games market managed to grow by 18% during 2018, compared to 13% growth for mobile games in North America and Europe.

In fact, seven of the top 10 grossing free-to-play games belong to Asian publishers, with the exceptions being "Fortnite," "League of Legends," and "Pokémon Go." "Fortnite" earned more than any free-to-play title in 2018 with an estimated $2.4 billion in revenue, spread between releases on PC, mobile devices, and all three major video game consoles.

SuperData reports that 34% of American players invest in "Fortnite" battle passes, seasonal subscriptions that offer rewards in exchange for real-life cash or in-game currency. The battle pass costs about $10 and a new pass is released every 10 weeks.

"Fortnite" players can also purchase "V-bucks" to exchange for items in the game; the in-game currency ended up on thousands of wish lists during the 2018 holiday season.

While free-to-play games are mostly associated with mobile and PC, "Fortnite" has helped make the trend more popular on consoles. According to SuperData, free-to-play console games saw a 458% increase in revenue in 2018, driven primarily by "Fortnite," making it the fastest-growing model of digital video game. (The popularity of "Fortnite" had other benefits for console gamers, too: In 2018, Sony began allowing cross-play to let the massive free-to-play community connect across different platforms.)

Free-to-play games even eclipsed blockbuster video games from major studios in 2018. Digital revenue for "premium" games totalled $17.9 billion last year, but that's less than a third of what was spent on free games.

Plus, they find the vast majority of their audience in the West. According to SuperData, North America and Europe account for 80% of all spending on "premium" games. Customers are also trending towards more digital purchases for high-quality games, rather than buying physical copies.

Though video game culture remains focused on big releases, revenue reports show the industry trending towards more free releases and "games as service" models like "Fortnite." With the mobile market generating more revenue than traditional gaming platforms, game developers will continue to explore how to best capitalize on the mobile audience.

SEE ALSO: There's a simple, obvious reason 'Fortnite' is the biggest game in the world right now

NOW READ: Fortnite made $318 million in May — almost $100 million more than any free-to-play game has made in a month

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The safest way to walk on ice is to impersonate a penguin — here's why

• Netflix announced on Wednesday a new show about President Donald Trump's new branch of the US military, the Space Force, from Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, the main comedic forces behind "The Office." 
• The show will follow "the story of the men and women who have to figure" out Trump's quixotic demand for a military branch dedicated to outer space.
• Experts who spoke to Business Insider called Trump's move to create a new military branch dedicated to space premature. 

Netflix announced on Wednesday a new show about President Donald Trump's new branch of the US military, the Space Force, from Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, the main comedic forces behind "The Office." 

"On June 18, 2018 the federal government announced the creation of a 6th major division of the United States armed forces," a teaser for the new series read. 

"The goal of the new branch is 'to defend satellites from attack' and 'perform other space-related tasks' or something," it continues. "This is the story of the men and women who have to figure it out."

Trump's Space Force, which the Air Force explicitly opposed for years before his presidency, met with resistance from experts and the Pentagon.

However, most experts agree that the US does need to protect its space assets such as satellites, but previous administrations had been satisfied with the Air Force's Space Command.

Read more:Trump's Space Force is about beating China, as Beijing is talking as if it already owns space

Experts who spoke to Business Insider called Trump's move to create a new military branch dedicated to space premature, and Mark Kelley, a former US astronaut, called it "dumb."

So far, Space Command does not have an independent headquarters or command structure. 

"The Office" remains one of the most popular shows on Netflix and is credited with bringing the mockumentary storytelling format to the US. 

Watch the teaser here:

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The US Air Force refuels combat jets in midair with a 'flying boom system' — watch it in action

• Niantic, the developer of "Pokémon Go" and the forthcoming "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," announced that it's raised $245 million in a deal valuing it at "almost $4 billion."
• CEO John Hanke tells us that Niantic is cash-flow positive, but the money helps it bunker down for a possible venture capital crunch as it starts the years-long road towards a possible IPO.
• The funding round brings in Samsung and Axiomatic Games as strategic investors — two companies that Hanke says are very important for helping Niantic realize its dream of bringing tech closer into the real world.
• Meanwhile, Niantic is also investing in the Real World Platform, which will see it license big pieces of its tech to other developers. Hanke says that Niantic can be both a gaming studio and a developer tools company. 
• "Pokémon Go," still Niantic's flagship game, has generated more than $2 billion in revenue since launch, says Hanke, and will see a further investment in real-world events for players.

Niantic, the developer of "Pokémon Go" and the forthcoming "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," says that it's now valued at "almost $4 billion," following a $245 million funding round led by IVP, with participation from strategic investors Samsung and Axiomatic Gaming.

John Hanke, the CEO of Niantic, tells Business Insider that the company didn't need the money, strictly speaking: "Pokémon Go," revitalized by a plethora of fan-requested features, has brought in over $2 billion of revenues since its 2016 launch, says Hanke. Furthermore, he says, Niantic is cash-flow positive, and still has lots of cash in the bank from previous investment rounds. 

Still, Hanke says, the time was right, as he foresees a crunch coming, where it'll be harder for companies like Niantic to raise investment capital amid a possible economic downturn. He's not necessarily against Niantic getting acquired, he says, and indeed, Niantic itself spun out of Google. Still, it's hard to guess how much control a would-be buyer would exert, and staying independent is the best way to ensure that Niantic gets to do what it wants to do. 

So while Niantic doesn't plan to IPO for "many more years," the cash helps make sure the company can weather any storms between now and then as an independent company.

“The best way to invent the future is to be around to build it," Hanke said.

Why these investors?

Beyond the money, Hanke says that those strategic investors were a big reason why Niantic chose to go after new funding, serving to "cement relationships that were already in place." Now that these companies have a financial stake in Niantic, the lines of communication are much more open, and the company can benefit from their expertise.

Samsung, Hanke notes, is an expert at Android phones, and has made big investments in augmented reality — the technology for overlaying digital imagery over the real world, largely introduced to the mainstream by "Pokémon Go" itself. Otherwise, Hanke says that he sees promise in using Samsung's investments in smart sensors to bring augmented reality closer to the real world, as physical objects can have presences in the real world. 

Axiomatic, for its part, is an entertainment and sports management firm with a controlling stake in Team Liquid, a well-known esports organization, as well as an investment in "Fortnite" maker Epic Games. Co-chaired by Peter Guber, Bruce Karsh, Ted Leonsis, and Jeff Vinik — all of whom own one or more professional, major league sports teams — Hanke believes Axiomatic can bring a lot of expertise about how to engage fans and throw live events. 

Combined, Hanke says, these partners can help Niantic come up with ways to make real-world gaming events "much more fun." He notes that Niantic has been encouraged by the success of Community Day, a series of events thrown by the company to encourage "Pokémon Go" players to hit the streets en masse, and that the company is prioritizing figuring out ways to do more big events, indoors and outdoors — which dovetails with the company's goal of using tech to get people on their feet and exploring the world around them. 

Read more:The CEO behind 'Pokémon Go' explains why it's become such a phenomenon

“We will attempt to expand and continue to invest in events," Hanke says.

Here comes Harry Potter

The next big game launch for Niantic is "Harry Potter: Wizards Unite," developed in conjunction with Portkey Games, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. All we know is that it's expected to launch this year, and Hanke was tight-lipped about sharing any details. 

He says that there's a simple reason why the stewards of "Pokémon" and "Harry Potter," two of the most valuable franchises on the planet, have chosen to go with Niantic: Nobody else puts the same level of polish or care into a smartphone game, let alone one that involves exploring the real world, and the extra effort pays off in fan engagement, he says. 

When the likes of The Pokémon Company or Warner Bros. come to Niantic, they're saying "let’s do it big, let’s do it right, let’s invest in it," says Hanke. “There’s no comparable companies."

Otherwise, Hanke hints that Niantic has more games coming, even as it invests further in its existing lineup, including "Pokémon Go" and "Ingress Prime."

The cloud connection

The other facet of Niantic's business is the Real World Platform, which the company teased in the middle of last year. 

Essentially, the Real World Platform will enable software developers to take advantage of the technology Niantic created for its own games. Developers will be able to use Niantic's augmented reality tech, as well as the company's secret sauce for multiplayer gaming and for connecting gameplay to real-world locations. 

"You put so much tech into those games, it makes sense to leverage it," says Hanke. 

However, Hanke also sees it as having a variety of other uses, which nobody has yet foreseen. That could be in business software, or consumer software, or even robotics — but not necessarily in gaming, entirely. The company has announced a $1 million contest for early developers on the Real World Platform.

He says that while the Real World Platform is a major focus for Niantic going forward, he thinks that it can be both a gaming studio and a developer tools company.

"We really want to be both," says Hanke. 

As he points out, Epic Games is both the developer of mega-phenomenon "Fortnite," and the proprietor of the popular Unreal Engine software for game developers. 

Pokémon, go on

For Hanke, 2018 was a pivotal year for "Pokémon Go," which he says has finally become the game Niantic envisioned all along.

In the last year, Niantic has introduced long-awaited features to "Pokémon Go," including Pokémon battling and trading with friends. In November, too, Nintendo launched "Pokémon: Let's Go" for the Nintendo Switch, which offers an integration with "Pokémon Go."

All of this has led to Pokémon Go seeing a resurgence in popularity. But it took a great deal of effort within the company.

Niantic spent the months after its rocky 2016 launch "on our heels," trying to patch the game up on the fly.

He says that 2017 was characterized by taking a step back, making new hires, and building a plan. But 2018 was when the team achieved a "regular pace of updates," which he says will carry into 2019. Player engagement, for instance, was way up in 2018 from 2017. And that's giving Hanke optimism for the new year.

As it continues this goodwill tour with fans, Hanke says that Niantic keeps up with the "Pokémon Go" community via Reddit. While Hanke says that Niantic tries not to let fan feedback drive its overall product strategy, he says that it's very useful in fine-tuning an idea once it's out. When Pokémon trading and battling came out, Hanke says, fans highlighted all kinds of little problems that Niantic had missed in-house, guiding it to solutions.

Finally, Hanke says that Nintendo and the Pokémon Company — the Nintendo joint venture that owns the trademark — have been very pleased with both "Pokémon Go" and "Pokémon: Let's Go," and are looking for more "synergies" between the game and the core franchise. That's good news for Niantic, too, Hanke says. 

"We've benefitted in a lot of ways," says Hanke.

SEE ALSO: Apple is about to have a big year — here's what to expect it to launch in 2019

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 science-backed ways to a happier and healthier 2019 that you can do the first week of the new year

• 2019 looks to be a punishing year for venture-capital-backed media companies whose advertising growth has slowed.
• But the heads of BuzzFeed, Refinery29, and Group Nine Media say they're bullish on their futures.
• The execs say they're well positioned because they've been diversifying beyond advertising and see themselves as acquirers.

Media outlets backed by venture-capital firms have become associated with stalled growth, layoffs, and fire sales. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti even floated the idea to The New York Times that a merger of a few of them — BuzzFeed, Vice, Vox Media, Group Nine Media, and Refinery29 — could be the way to survive.

But the CEOs of some of these companies are standing their ground, saying they're set up to be the acquirers in a declining market for digital advertising.

"Having a brand that stands for something has always been a differentiator for us," Refinery29 cofounder and CEO Philippe von Borries told Business Insider. "We're still a significant business with longevity."

Read more:With media-merger talk swirling, Vox Media says it will evaluate partnerships and acquisitions

The women's lifestyle publisher was founded in 2005 and raised $125 million as of 2016 from Turner, Scripps Networks, and Hearst. It went through two rounds of layoffs, in 2017 and 2018, and isn't profitable yet. It's going to be another tough year, von Borries said. But given that the company started with an email product, it's not in the same boat as other digital-media companies like Mic that started later and built big but fleeting audiences on Facebook, he argued.

"We launched in 2005, when building an audience was the hardest possible task in the world," he said. "You had to build it one subscriber at a time. A lot of people hitched their wagons to third-party platforms where most of the revenue never showed up. We feel like we have the more relevant and differentiated brand with our audience."

Refinery is still reliant on advertising. Seventy percent of its revenue is advertising, with the rest coming from events and other sources. The plan is to keep growing the non-ad portion this year by expanding live events, growing internationally through advertising, and selling high-quality video to streaming services.

And von Borries said he's looking at companies to acquire in areas like events and direct-to-consumer businesses. "There's significant opportunity for us to be a consolidator," he said. "There's interesting businesses to roll up. I want the business to be relevant and meaningful 10 years from now. And one way is to acquire, but if there's an amazing company that would allow us to accelerate our vision, of course that's something we will consider."

Publishers' millennial pitch is losing relevance

Still, investor interest in funding advertising-based businesses is drying up. And long-form, high-quality video is expensive to make, the sales cycle is long, and the profits are low compared to advertising.

"The biggest challenge they have is that the defining characteristic of millennials is, there is no defining characteristic," said Chris Wexler, senior vice president and executive director of media and analytics at Cramer‑Krasselt. "Marketers desperately want millennials to be more monolithic, but the older end are parents with a couple kids, the younger end is just getting out of college. It's the most culturally diverse group, and they celebrate that. Media companies struggle with mass-culture segmenting. You can't be all things to all people. We're no longer thinking in large, demographic swaths. We're thinking of coalitions of like-minded groups."

The rise of programmatic advertising lessens the value of individual sites to ad buyers, and when they do work on ad buys directly with a site, those deals tend to be bigger but occur infrequently and are low profit.

BuzzFeed, which missed its 2017 revenue target, laid off staff in 2018, and hasn't consistently made a profit, talks about managing costs and "sustainability."

"We've been about outgrowing people. Now it's about outlasting people," Peretti told Business Insider.

In the race to survive, Peretti said BuzzFeed is the best-positioned digital-media company. "Our model is more diversified, our tech and data is more developed, we have a deep understanding of the ecosystem."

BuzzFeed has been growing other revenue streams to complement its core business of native advertising. Around this time last year, Peretti said half the company's revenue would come from non-direct-sold sources like commerce, programmatic advertising, studio, and platforms by 2019. He told Business Insider the company is "close" to that goal. It's also started a $5-per-month membership program for BuzzFeed News. The company passed $300 million in revenue in 2018, Peretti said, which The Times reported was up from $260 million in 2017 (but was below the goal of $350 million).

"One huge difference in BuzzFeed today versus two years ago: When you meet with marketers at CES, they'd just meet with us to do native advertising," Peretti said, referring to the annual international trade show for consumer electronics. "Now we're much more full service. We're not a one-trick pony."

BuzzFeed is already making more money from YouTube

Peretti's case for a multicompany merger is that a combined company would have more clout to demand more ad revenue from the digital distributors Google and Facebook. He said BuzzFeed has already seen this happen with YouTube. As BuzzFeed has become a bigger share of the inventory in Google Preferred, YouTube's top content, BuzzFeed's inventory become more valuable to advertisers, he said.

Another company seen as a candidate for a merger is Group Nine Media, which is itself the product of a rollup of NowThis, The Dodo, Thrillist, and Seeker two years ago, when Discovery Communications put $100 million into the company. Discovery led another round of $40 million in 2017. Media watchers see it as a likely partner with BuzzFeed because they have similar audiences, share an investor in Lerer Hippeau (managing partner Kenneth Lerer is Group Nine CEO Ben Lerer's father and BuzzFeed's chairman), and the CEOs are friends.

Ben Lerer said that Group Nine isn't yet where it wants to be in terms of diversifying its revenue but that it's made progress in getting revenue from platforms and selling its video-studio output in addition to advertising. In 2019, the company plans to add e-commerce to its revenue mix. Lerer wouldn't share any financials but said the company has "plenty of growth to validate it's working."

"We're clearly not screwed," Lerer said. "We had a great last year, and I think we're set up for an even better or equally better in terms of growth, margin improvement."

Lerer said he expects to add some companies in the next year.

"We own brands people are crazy for and are growing in all kinds of ways," Lerer said. "Consolidating is not easy to do. It's people and culture and strategy. We're really, really well positioned to participate meaningfully."

SEE ALSO: 'It's a buyer's market': Mic's fire sale has the media business buzzing with rumors of deals

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 science-backed ways to a happier and healthier 2019 that you can do the first week of the new year

• Former CBS CEO Les Moonves will fight CBS over its decision to deny him $120 million severance, CBS said in an SEC filing on Thursday.
• The CBS board of directors denied Moonves the severance in December after concluding that he violated company policies and his contract, and failed to fully cooperate with its investigation into sexual misconduct claims against Moonves.
• A dozen women accused Moonves of sexual misconduct in New Yorker investigations published in August and September.

The former CEO of CBS, Les Moonves, is challenging the company's decision to deny him a $120 million severance in the wake of a dozen sexual misconduct allegations against him.

Moonves notified CBS of his "election to demand binding arbitration" regarding the denial of his severance on Wednesday, according to an SEC filing.

The next step is for CBS and Moonves to agree on an arbitrator through the American Arbitration Association, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

READ MORE: CBS is rolling out new sexual harassment programs following Les Moonves, Charlie Rose allegations

The CBS board of directors denied Moonves' severance in December after concluding that he violated company policies and his employment contract, and failed to fully cooperate with the investigation into the misconduct claims.

"We have determined that there are grounds to terminate for cause, including his willful and material misfeasance, violation of Company policies and breach of his employment contract, as well as his willful failure to cooperate fully with the Company's investigation," the board said in a statement last month. "Mr. Moonves will not receive any severance payment from the Company."

Moonves was accused by a dozen women of sexual misconduct in two New Yorker investigations published in August and September. Moonves stepped down from his position as CEO at CBS in September following the reports.

Moonves had a CBS employee "on call" to perform oral sex, according to The New York Times, which reviewed a report from lawyers investigating the misconduct claims in December. The report said that a number of employees knew of this but "believed that the woman was protected from discipline or termination" because of it, according to The Times. 

Moonves admitted to receiving oral sex from the woman in the report, according to the Times, but described the acts as consensual. Moonves has denied that any of the allegations against him were nonconsensual. 

The Times said the report also noted that Moonves "received oral sex from at least 4 CBS employees under circumstances that sound transactional and improper to the extent that there was no hint of any relationship, romance, or reciprocity."

Moonves was one of the highest-paid CEOs in the US and is worth $700 million, according to Forbes, thanks to a compensation package of cash, restricted shares, and stock options worth $57 million in 2014.

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert ridiculed Les Moonves after the ousted CBS boss lost $120 million in severance

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A drag ballet troupe has been performing around the world for nearly 50 years

• Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), the parent company of MoviePass, announced on Thursday it had sent a registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission to make MoviePass a separate public company, which would be a wholly owned subsidiary of HMNY.
• The new company would take ownership shares of MoviePass and other film-related assets held by HMNY.
• HMNY is currently trading under $0.02 per share and is in imminent danger of being kicked off the Nasdaq.

On Thursday, Helios and Matheson Analytics, the parent company of MoviePass, announced that it had submitted a registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed spin-off company called MoviePass Entertainment Holdings Inc.

That new entity would be a wholly owned subsidiary of HMNY and would take ownership of shares of the movie-ticket subscription service MoviePass and other film-related assets held by HMNY (such as MoviePass Films and MoviePass Ventures).

Read more: A MoviePass product manager resigned and blasted its leadership in a scathing letter email to all staff

In a release, HMNY said it had not yet determined the number of shares to be distributed to its stockholders and warrant holders, as it awaits approval of listing shares of MoviePass on the Nasdaq or an alternate trading market.

In October, HMNY announced a preliminary plan to spin off MoviePass into a separate public company.

"For many years, HMNY has been focused on data analytics, and in that capacity we own assets like Zone Technologies which provides a safety and navigation app for iOS and Android users and a global security concierge service," Helios and Matheson CEO Ted Farnsworth said in a statement in October regarding the spin-off. "Since we acquired control of MoviePass in December 2017, HMNY largely has become synonymous with MoviePass in the public's eye, leading us to believe that our shareholders and the market perception of HMNY might benefit from separating our movie-related assets from the rest of our company."

HMNY has a complicated history as a Nasdaq-listed company.

Before the Farnsworth-MoviePass era, the New York outpost of Helios and Matheson was controlled by an Indian company (Helios and Matheson Information Technology), which stands accused of defrauding at least 5,000 creditors in India, including banks and senior citizens. The company was involved in many facets of information-technology consulting.

This move to spin off MoviePass comes at a time when HMNY is in imminent danger of being delisted from the Nasdaq.

Since it bought MoviePass, HMNY has burned through hundreds of millions of dollars and primarily used the selling of billions of new shares to cover its losses. As it has done so, its stock has fallen over 99% in value. On Thursday, HMNY was trading at under $0.02.

In late December, according to a document filed by Helios and Matheson with the SEC, the Nasdaq warned HMNY it would move to delist it. HMNY said it would appeal the decision.

The stock has not traded above $1 since July.

SEE ALSO: NBC says it may eventually pull "The Office" off Netflix to fuel its own streaming service

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A drag ballet troupe has been performing around the world for nearly 50 years

• Valve Software is one of the most-respected game developers in the business, having created the "Half-Life," "Portal," and "Left 4 Dead" franchises.
• The company's first game in years arrived in late 2018 — a collectible card game named "Artifact," developed by "Magic: The Gathering" creator Richard Garfield.
• Though the game was warmly received by critics at launch, it has largely flopped with players.

The studio that created classic video games like "Half-Life" and "Portal" has a brand-new game named "Artifact." 

Never heard of it? You're not alone.

That's because "Artifact" is a rare flop for Valve — a company that specializes in making games that tens of millions of people play for years.

There are so few people playing "Artifact" that it doesn't even chart on Valve's own top 100 games currently being played on Steam, Valve's ubiquitous PC gaming platform. That means, as of this writing, fewer than a couple thousand people are playing "Artifact." 

Since the game arrived in late November 2018, its player count has continuously dropped to where it is now — with fewer than a few thousand players at any given time.

That is not normal for Valve's games, which tend to be enormously popular. 

Three of the top 10 games currently being played on Steam are made by Valve: "DOTA 2," "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," and "Team Fortress 2."

The most recent of those games, "DOTA 2," came out all the way back in 2013 — and it's still popular enough years later than nearly 700,000 people are playing it on a Thursday morning.

So, what's going on?

The answer isn't black and white. At least part of the issue stems from the game's rocky launch, and what players perceived as a game set up to strongly encourage additional purchases.

That's because "Artifact" is a collectible card game, along the lines of "Magic: The Gathering" and, more recently, "Hearthstone." For $20, you get the game itself in addition to a smattering of collectible cards that you use to play against other people.

The issue, broadly speaking, is that "Artifact" stacked the deck against new players. 

So the criticism goes: In order to build a good deck in "Artifact," you need to either spend a bunch of additional money buying cards from other players/from Valve, or you need to spend a lot of time losing against much better players as you slowly earn cards.

Those early issues led to a lot of very negative Steam user reviews for the game early on, which assuredly didn't help to attract new players. And as the game bled players across the last month, the net effect was a massive dropoff in player count that never recovered. 

"Artifact" is a multiplayer-only game that's dependent on having a large userbase.

The more players, the more varied the player base is — and that's crucial for multiplayer-only games because new players need other new players to play against, while more seasoned players need more seasoned players to play against.  

With so few players sticking with the game over time, the overall player pool shrank to the point where new players were likely to spend a lot of time facing off against far better-equipped opponents. 

Where "Artifact" goes from here is anyone's guess — Valve didn't respond to a request for comment — but the company isn't known for walking away from its games. 

For the time being, "Artifact" appears to be the extremely rare flop from one of the world's most-respected game studios.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 7 science-backed ways to a happier and healthier 2019 that you can do the first week of the new year