At last week’s Snap Partner Summit, a number of announcements — including a navigation redesign and Bitmoji for Games — have broader implications for the gaming industry and beyond. Especially when such messaging games, built on HTML5 and “mini programs” or apps-within-apps (as discussed by Connie Chan in context of WeChat and more), merge the key trends of mobile, social, and cloud gaming; in fact, they:
We break it all down in this week’s episode of 16 Minutes on the News with a16z consumer partners on gaming Jonathan Lai (formerly head of BD for Tencent North America and former product manager at Riot Games) and Andrew Green (who worked at Take-Two Interactive, Atari, Electronic Arts, and TinyCo) in conversation with host Sonal Chokshi… what do such announcements-as-news tell us about where we are and where we’re going on the long arc of innovation?
This week, we have two separate episodes of 16 Minutes, both about gaming — but based on very different news — be sure to also check out the other episode, on the first videogame approved by the FDA as a prescription medicine for ADHD.
Jonathan Lai is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, focused on a16z speedrun. He invests in early-stage teams building tomorrow’s AI x creative landscape—from developer tools to 3D simulations, vertical agents, and novel storytelling formats across video, games, audio, and more.
Andrew Green
Sonal Chokshi is Editor in Chief of Crypto at Andreessen Horowitz.
16 minutes is a short news podcast covering the top headlines of the week, separating what’s real from what’s hype.