AGM KNOWLEDGE INSIDER

Check out the latest posts from AGM Leaders

Melanie Wills, Managing Director, EMEA

By Erin Corbett, EVP, Partnerships

TL;DR

In a hurry? Here's our pick of the top news items of the week.

Apple has rejected Epic Games' submission of its Games Store twice over concerns that it looked too much like the App Store. (Tech Crunch)
Netflix is starting to phase out its least-expensive, ad-free plan in the UK and Canada. (The Verge)
Dollywood was voted the favorite theme park among US consumers and also won the top prize for having the top new attraction. (Fox)
Meta plans to bring more generative AI into games, specifically VR, AR and mixed reality games. (Tech Crunch)

53% of Americans are planning to take a summer trip, and about a third of those people are willing to go into debt to pay for it. (WCNC)
From January 2023 to May 2024, the number of US adults that had gone to two to four professional sporting events in the past 12 months increased from 9% to 15%. (Morning Consult)
More than half of respondents in a new connected car survey want screens in the front and rear cabins of their next car, opening avenues for content owners. (Variety)
73% of football fans in the UK are concerned about the amount of gambling advertising and sponsorship around the sport. (European Gaming)

Tubi launched in the UK with focus on fandoms, including Bollywood, Nollywood and Arthouse. (THR)
Threads hit 175M users a year since its launch, growing at a steady clip. (The Verge)
Telegram is now letting creators share paid content to channels. (Tech Crunch)

A majority of video games lack LGBTQ+ characters or storylines, with such inclusive games making up only 2% of Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo’s total digital libraries. (Forbes)
Both Netflix and Amazon ordered more originals outside the US than in the US in Q1, with the number of Netflix commissions out of Western Europe nearly matching that in North America, and Asia Pacific titles also seeing a notable uptick. (THR)
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri shared that creators should be focusing on how to make their content more share-worthy, with shares being the most important KPI. (Social Media Today)

WhatsApp is getting an AI selfie generator, which will let users place themselves within fantastical scenes for a profile pic. (Social Media Today)
TikTok has sought to trademark the name “Genie” for its coming AI chatbot tool, which will let users pose questions in-stream and get immediate responses, among other functions. (Social Media Today)
Mark Zuckerberg announced a new version of Horizon OS is rolling out with a feature allowing Quest owners to multitask with up to six virtual windows. (The Verge)
Anthropic is launching a program to fund the development of new types of benchmarks capable of evaluating the performance and impact of AI models. (Tech Crunch)

After a strong start to the year, China’s box sales have slowed in recent months, with ticket revenue for the first half of 2024 down 9% from last year. (THR)
Six Flags and Cedar Fair successfully completed their merger to become the largest amusement park operator in North America. (USA Today)
“Despicable Me 4" generated $27M in the US upon its debut and is expected to earn $120M over the five-day holiday weekend. (Variety)
The US is showing unprecedented interest in cricket, as 190K attended T20 World Cup matches hosted in the states for the first time. (USA Today)

Paris hotels are not feeling the impact from the Olympics that they had hoped for, as bad weather, Olympic-related transport problems and price hikes keep summer tourists away. (EuroNews)
Wine Spectator has released their 2024 award winners and this year’s 3.7K winning restaurants hail from all 50 US states and over 75 countries and territories. (Wine Spectator)
Hyatt Hotels Corp. acquired Me and All Hotels from German company Lindner Hotels. Me and All will become a brand within Hyatt's lifestyle portfolio, bringing the total number of Hyatt brands to 26 worldwide. (Travel Weekly)
New research from Booking.com shows the importance of inclusivity in travel experiences for LGBTQ+ consumers. (Travel Pulse)
Australia ranked as the 10th largest inbound travel market to the US in 2023, a 49% increase from 2022, with a further 24% increase forecast for 2024. (Karryon)

The Odd Gentlemen developed "Harmonium: The Musical," an inclusive game that highlights Deaf culture through the story of a young girl using sign language and other accessible gameplay mechanics. (The Verge)
Ubisoft's "XDefiant" has reached 11M players since its release on May 21. (GamesIndustry.biz)
"Attack on Titan VR" will launch exclusively on the META Quest Store July 23. (Game Tyrant)
"Fortnite" in VR still isn't happening, as Epic Games' CEO reconfirmed there are currently "no plans." (UploadVR)