Today's ep is the first and last edition of the Down Round Book club. We're talking about Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment, by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier. It documents the story of Blizzard Entertainment, the developer behind WarCraft, Diablo and StarCraft which is as of last year a subsidiary of Microsoft.

James read it last week and felt it hit on some interesting Down Round areas, namely:
The evolution of monetisation
Why eSports was never going to work
The tension between art and commerce in creative businesses
Laundry powder, which we discuss for at least 5 minutes

<p>Today's ep is the first and last edition of the Down Round Book club. We're talking about <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Play-Nice-Future-Blizzard-Entertainment/dp/1538725428">Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment</a>, by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier. It documents the story of Blizzard Entertainment, the developer behind WarCraft, Diablo and StarCraft which is as of last year a subsidiary of Microsoft.</p>
<p>James read it last week and felt it hit on some interesting Down Round areas, namely:</p>
<ul>
<li>The evolution of monetisation</li>
<li>Why eSports was never going to work</li>
<li>The tension between art and commerce in creative businesses</li>
<li>Laundry powder, which we discuss for at least 5 minutes</li>
</ul>

The number one podcast about tech business and culture, from James "JR" Hennessy and Raph Dixon.

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