Hi, Ravdeep here. 👋
Perfunktory is a newsletter that aims to break down trending subjects in the field of Music, Technology, Gaming and Culture as perfunctorily as possible. We also have a podcast which can be found here on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
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Welcome back to a brand new segment of the Perfunktory newsletter, and soon to be a new segment on the podcast as well. I hope you’re all having a wonderful Sunday!
With ‘What’s the Hype this week? 🔥’, I intend to cover a bunch of news in the music, tech, gaming and Web3 space that has happened over that particular week.
Since the podcast episode I recorded this week got a little too fast, I did not upload it on the podcast platforms but since I love my subscribers (You!), I am attaching that episode to this issue so you can have a listen and give me feedback!
In a perfect week, the content timetable looks like this for now:
Monday: Perfunktory Newsletter
Wednesday/Thursday: What’s the Hype this week? 🔥 (Email + Podcast)
Saturday: What’s the Hype? with Perfunktory
What’s the Hype in Gaming this week? 👾
🍳 PUBG sees a 486% growth in players after F2P switch
The popular battle royale game PUBG recently changed business models and became a free-to-play game. The switch has proved to be very successful, with developer Krafton announcing today that the game saw a 486% increase in new players in the week after the switch to free-to-play. At its peak, PUBG reached 690,000 total "active" players on Steam as part of the transition.
♾ Elden Ring is 30 hours long
According to a From Software producer, Elden Ring can be finished in roughly 30 hours.
"This will differ significantly by player, but in terms of the targets set during development, the idea is that the main route should be able to be completed within around 30 hours. The game as a whole is quite massive and contains many dozens more hours worth of gameplay, but if we are talking about the main route only, it shouldn't take much longer than that.”
That is the ideal amount of time that the main quests of the game should last in my opinion.
I will be doing a full take on the Microsoft-Activision deal on my newsletter this week so do sign up to receive it in your inbox.
What’s the Hype in Web3 this week? 🔮
📉 Cryptocurrency is tanking!
We’re seeing red all across the board in the cryptocurrency world. On Monday, Bitcoin tumbled to $33,000, eroding 50 per cent of value from its peak of $69,000 in November. On the other hand, Ether fell by over 14% last Friday, its most significant single-day drop in seven months, which triggered liquidations of collateral locked in prominent Ethereum-based lending and borrowing protocols, also referred to as decentralized money markets. At the same time, some of these decentralized finance (DeFi) applications such as the MakerDAO and Compound made a handsome amount of money through liquidation fees.
🐞 Why you should cancel your old listings on OpenSea?
A ‘bug’ discovered a few weeks ago in OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, enabled more than $1M worth of NFTs to be bought at huge discounts on January 24th. A user who goes by jpegdegenlove managed to acquire two Bored Apes, two Mutant Apes, one Cyberkongz Genesis and a Cool Cat for a total of 57.31 ETH ($137K) considering the cheapest Bored Ape currently costs 93ETH.
More Info here —> Bug Allows NFTs Worth Over 1 Million To Be Stolen
What’s the Hype in Music this week? 🎵
🕶 The Weeknd Sets New Record As Spotify’s Most-Streamed Artist
A little over two weeks following the release of his fifth studio album, Dawn FM, The Weeknd has officially broken the record for monthly listeners on Spotify. The Weeknd has more than 86 million monthly listeners with a whopping 2.76 billion plays for “Blinding Lights.” Dawn FM had passed 500 million cumulative streams last week itself.
🎸 Bob Dylan sells his catalogue to Sony for $200 million
Bob Dylan has sold his catalog of recorded music to Sony Music Entertainment in a deal that Billboard estimates is worth about $200 million. That includes all of his studio albums, all the entries in his Bootleg Series, and various singles and rarities. A press release also states that the deal encompasses “the rights to multiple future releases.”
What’s the Hype in Tech this week? 💻
🤖 Meta says its new AI supercomputer will be the world's fastest by mid-2022
Meta has completed the first phase of a new AI supercomputer. Once the AI Research SuperCluster (RSC) is fully built out later this year, the company believes it will be the fastest AI supercomputer on the planet, capable of "performing at nearly 5 exaflops of mixed precision compute." I have no clue what that is but it sounds POWERFUL.
The company says RSC will help researchers develop better AI models that can learn from trillions of examples. Among other things, the models will be able to build better augmented reality tools and "seamlessly analyze text, images and video together," according to Meta. Much of this work is in service of its vision for the Metaverse, in which it says AI-powered apps and products will have a key role.
▶️ CEO’s letter suggests that YouTube is considering NFTs
A letter published today by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, suggests the platform may embrace web3 technologies, including NFTs as a means of helping YouTube creators make more money. While no concrete plans were shared, Wojcicki referred to the innovations taking place in the web3 world as a “source of inspiration to continue innovating on YouTube.” She wrote:
“The past year in the world of crypto, non-fungible tokens, and even decentralized autonomous organizations has highlighted a previously unimaginable opportunity to grow the connection between creators and their fans. We’re always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs, while continuing to strengthen and enhance the experiences creators and fans have on YouTube.”
That’s it for this week. Would be great if you could share the newsletter with your friends and family as that helps a lot and hit that little heart button. Do share your feedback whether you liked this email or if something could be improved.
Thank you and always remember that you are special, you are loved and you matter. See you in the next one!
🔥 What’s the Hype this week? - Meta’s AI Computer, Crypto Crash, Bob Dylan, PUBG and more.