Learn by doing
How games are made and the business behind them, in 30 short lessons. You move the numbers, read the real documents, then check yourself.
Move the window. The headline writes itself.
ARC Raiders players up 444%
Sep 26 to Oct 13: from 30,012 to 163,265 players.
Every one of these headlines is true. Picking the window that suits the story is cherry-picking.
The lessonWhat is a tick rate?
A game server steps its world a fixed number of times a second. Slide to see the gap between two steps.
15.6 ms between ticks at 64 a second
0 ms6 ticks in 100 ms100 ms
Netcode basics: tick rate, prediction and lag compensationSay a player pays $27 today. When is it revenue?
The money is booked at the till. The accounts count it as revenue month by month, as the game keeps delivering.
Roblox spreads bookings over the estimated life of a paying user: 27 months at Dec 31, 2025. A straight line here, to keep it simple.
Bookings versus revenue in live-service gamesLearn from this week's news
Paths
Finance
Read a share price, a filing and a payout the way the numbers actually work.
- 1What a share price and market value areHands-on
- 2Why share prices moveHands-on
- 3How share buybacks workHands-on
- 4Dilution and stock-based payHands-on
- 5Reading an 8-KHands-on
- 6Mergers, acquisitions and tender offersHands-on
- 7Reading a 10-QHands-on
- 8Results versus guidanceHands-on
- 9Layoffs and the cost of restructuringHands-on
- 10Enterprise value, equity value and what shareholders getHands-on
- 11Reading a Form 4Hands-on
- 12Bookings versus revenue in live-service gamesHands-on
- 13Reading a European annual reportHands-on
- 14Inside information, and why it shows up at the AMFHands-on
- 15Judicial reorganisation in France, and how it differs from Chapter 11Hands-on
Jargon, flipped
Tap a word for what it means, in one sentence.