The Weekly Download

V-Bucks Price Hike, PEGI Loot Box Crackdown & Sega’s Sales Struggle…

• Big Games Machine • Season 1 • Episode 21

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SPEAKER_00

The weekly download, podcast about interesting game, industry news.

SPEAKER_02

Brought to you by Big Games Machine.

SPEAKER_01

Like the last time when we had an Xbox special for the entire time. Yeah, just the Mario. Mario minifigure.

SPEAKER_00

What shade of red do you think they'll use for the arms? The Mario red print.

SPEAKER_01

Blue, surely? What are you talking about for the arms? Red? His arms are red. Turn around. No, you're right. You're right. I'm wrong. Yeah, he's got blue.

SPEAKER_00

I can check if you want, but I think it's getting everything wrong today.

SPEAKER_01

This is a bad sign.

SPEAKER_00

You are getting everything wrong. But anyway, I don't know. I have no idea where this intro is going to start, but welcome to the weekly downloads. We're five and a half minutes into recording the episode. We've just done the intro. We'll we'll see.

SPEAKER_01

And I haven't said a true thing the entire time. No, you just have to get confidence.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that is true. I mean, if you can't get it right, at least get it wrong, but sound like you're right. Is that something we need we should be encouraging people to do? I don't know, maybe. But welcome back. I am joined again by Alex. You were you were away last week playing Resident Evil. I think we'll we'll park the Resident Evil chat until the end.

SPEAKER_02

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_00

We'll we'll have your little thoughts at the end, I think, when we when we have the rundown. I'm keen to get into today's episode. I am looking forward to today's episode because I think we've got some quite different topics. As you noted before we started, Alex, no Ubisoft today, no high guard. We're looking at some really good stuff. There's a there's a huge story which has come out around Peggy and Peggy's rating systems, especially in regards to loot boxes, which I think is something that will I know I I think I say this a lot, but I think this is something which will change a lot of stuff with with these reclassifications.

SPEAKER_01

Just in case people who don't live in Europe are fumbling around for Peggy, even though you probably will recognise it from Games Common thing, it's the European ESRB, essentially. It's the the rating system.

SPEAKER_00

So the rating system for games, which is which is having a lot of changes. So we're going to cover that as one of our big stories. We're also going to be looking at the the cost of V-Books going up, um, why Epic is is making that decision. Um is there more to it than just corporate greed and other such things? I think there is. There's a lot of nuance there that we'll have a look at. And then finally, we're also going to be looking at a story about Sony, who secretly have been running a dynamic pricing experiment on the PlayStation store since late last year. More details about that in a bit. But what we'll do, we'll break away now, we'll come back in a second, and when we do, we are going to take a look at this Peggy Games rating story. And our first story today is about loot boxes because we're going to be looking at the news that Peggy, which as Alex said in the introduction, that is the European games rating system. So, you know, you've how old should you be to play a game? Peggy will tell you. Well, the interesting news here is that Peggy is overhauling how it's rating games. So we're moving away now from just being about content. So, you know, sex, violence, gore, all these kind of things. We're now seeing the introduction of consideration for mechanics and risks around those mechanics. So, in brief, any game submitted to Peggy now that has paid loot boxes or what we're calling paid random items will now automatically receive a Peggy 16 at a minimum. Now, there's a few other nuances in there, but I think we'll we'll lead with that as the context before we look at some other things. And Alex, I'll I'll open up the floor to you.

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna I I should have checked the exact wording on this because a lot of the finer points of this when we get into them and the other ratings, it's coming down to the descriptors. But for a long time, the Peggy rating has said online interactions are not covered by this kind of rating. And I think anything with an online mechanic automatically gets bumped into the is it seven, eight? What's the one that sits between three and twelve? I think it's seven. Yeah. So I think there are some like, you know, online interactions that have always kind of sat outside the rating. So it's interesting to see them really digging into that and looking at what, you know, essentially, for the most part, live service mechanics and and the different elements of that, how that impacts a lot of it. And I think there is I'll let you pick it up from there and get into the some of the minutiae, because I think some of this is really some of what I've seen of this thing's really smart, and I think it's something that are probably going to be very helpful for people that aren't just too young to use it, but maybe also just want to opt out of some things.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, 100%. I I mean we can look at the we can look at some of the specifics. So I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna read off my script here, so ignore my glazed eyes. I want to make sure I get this right. So Peggy 16, that rating will cover card packs, so what you see in like ultimate team game modes in things like EA Sports FC, Gatcha systems, and then keys for random crates. A lot of those games, which are which will get rebranded as 16 in this new system, previously sat in the Peggy 3 or 7 range, as as you've said, Alex. Peggy 12, that will now be for games with paid battle passes or time-limited offers that expire. So that includes pressure to play mechanics, so you lose out if you don't log in, for example. So login streaks. And then the last one, Peggy 18, we're looking at social casino games, so uh, you know, social casino games, we're looking at NFT-linked games if where tokens are required to play and can be traded. I can't remember the last time I've seen NFT appear in anything, so perhaps a blast from the past. And then also unrestricted chat. So that'll be games that have got no moderation or reporting tools. I feel like that last one, I can't imagine there's many games nowadays that don't have systems in place.

SPEAKER_01

If you kind of stumble into somebody in the open world, you can click that. But if if the if is it and moderate, like if they have open chat but they have moderation, I wonder if that's okay.

SPEAKER_00

I think I think if there's a capacity to report and Yeah. But no, that that is a good example where you can have those interactions without being in a party in that closed network. I think my understanding is if that would probably not fall into 18 because there's things in place to which is why I think most games will have systems like that. So I don't think the Peggy 18 stuff is too much of a change. But the the the 16 and 12 in particular is is huge. And I think there's a few big points here. The first of which is I think how are sports games in particular going to deal with this idea that FIFA sorry, not FIFA, the idea that EA Sports FC, Madden, MBA, 2K, all these games who have got these random pack mechanics within them. The idea that those games will now have a 16 rating, their market is, you know, someone who was that age myself, their market is very heavily in the under-16 category. A lot of the people playing those games and investing money into it are under 16. And it's a similar thing with gacha games as well on the mobile side of things. So I think this feels if it's implemented properly and companies can't find a way around it. This feels massive because I think this will change how a lot of you know advertising works, and you you're always going to get, you know, guilty as charged. I was playing Medal of Honor with my dad when I was seven years old. So I think there's always some people who will ignore age ratings, right or wrong. But the wider point is that if these games are going to get re-categorized, that will surely have a massive impact on how they can advertise and how they target consumers.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I mean it's a difficult thing to know. So I think, you know, I suspect parents aren't going to stop their kids buying EAFC, right? I think that's ultimately where that's gonna come down to. Like, I wonder how much of the scope is there, but it is good to have it marked out and have those descriptors on the back of people. I mean, I've worked in game stores, and honestly, when I thought of this, I was like, oh great, so now you're gonna have to be IDing 12-year-olds for all these games that they that otherwise you never thought of doing. Because that was all, you know, always the challenge. Like, kids are always people are always trying to younger people are always trying to buy games that are outside their thing, and you you you've got to get their age group and you've got you've got to get that evidence, and that is going to be a bind if FIFA's like that, not that there are many game stores out there anymore, of course.

SPEAKER_00

Especially because I think it's harder to my take on it is that I I think this is being done because I think there's a recognition that if the games industry and the bodies within it don't regulate themselves, more governments are going to step in. We've seen the loot boxes, the the gambling, there's a lot of stuff with Valve, the the state of New York uh suing Valve in relation to loot boxes and randomized mechanics. To come back to what's your point, I think the funny side of it to me is that it's very easy to justify to a parent why their child shouldn't play Call of Duty or Battlefield because the age rating those games have is because of the content. Whereas if someone can't recognise that a lot of these mechanics are inherently gambling to some degree, even if there's no real money coming out of it, there still is the element of gambling, but that's harder to present as being a threat, perhaps in comparison to Grand Theft Auto, which is very explicit about the content that it has and why it's aged age-gated the way it is.

SPEAKER_01

And it is fascinating to see the kind of way they've stratified it, and I think it's really quite smart. It's kind of like habit forming, but not doing anything. Ultimately, you're you with the the Peggy 12, which is season passes and battle passes, it's treat teaching you to do something habitually, but it's very upfront about what it's doing. It's non-manipulative in terms of, you know, you know what you're getting. Next one is you don't know what you're getting, you're paying for stuff. It's essentially gambling, but it's not real money. So it's so I I can see where they're going in terms of how they're controlling that. The one thing that isn't kind of mentioned here is that one of the things in the article I read on this was that there there could be things they implement to reduce that. So if FIFA were to put in a an ability for a parent to lock a child out, like to essentially have an under-16 version that is opted into by the parent, then it could be rebalanced again on top of that. So there are definitely ways around this, which I think is really smart. And it was one of the things that I was alluding to earlier is like there are people out there with impulse control problems that they fully acknowledge. Like there are people with, you know, gambling issues, all sorts of different problems who probably played FIFA for years and then had to stop because this was a problem for them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I having this ability. I'll I'll admit that that I'm one of those people because it is very so having that They hook you when you're young, and it's a very difficult thing to break out of. And it got to the point with me where I just had to stop buying the games because as a 12-year-old, I was getting sucked into a system which was very manipulative without even realizing.

SPEAKER_01

And that's a feature of the game, as opposed to and that is that is a mode of the game, not the game, but it was so in your face. So the ability to just to turn that mode off and opt out and not see it and lose all of those other elements would be, I think. I feel long overdue, actually, even beyond the age rating. I think for people that don't want to see it, don't want it opt in.

SPEAKER_00

I app I appreciate that that's probably not going to help a lot of companies bottom lines, but I think just in terms of But then it would because it's uh it's an ethical workaround, isn't it, to this that does make sense. I I think I'm keen for us to wrap because we've got lots to talk about today, but I I think on the whole this is this is a good thing. I think it's long overdue. I think that we're past the point as we started this section with these ratings in the past were about content. For years now, we've seen a lot of these mechanics run rampant. I think we are well past, if I'm, you know, if from my opinion, I think we're well past the the worst of the loot box phase. I feel like we we've kind of the industry's matured past that to a degree, but I still think there's enough of it that this makes sense. And and I think even when we do go down to look at the the Peggy 12 rating and with the battle passes and especially the limited time stuff, login streaks, that's something that is very manipulative. And I know we've both been victim of games that do that as well.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I think that that's the one that that's the one that leapt out to me as kind of a I hadn't even considered how unhealthy that was.

SPEAKER_02

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01

And that's they'll be coming for Duolingo next. Duolingo is gonna get a 12 Peggy. Yeah, yeah. Peggy 12. I think it's a really I really think it's really smart as uh, you know, something to limit limit how this how this is used and how it functions. And I do wonder how the you know, obviously we we can see exactly where Fortnite fits into all this, but I'm not sure where Roblox is gonna fit into it, given some of these ratings as well, which could be interesting.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we'll have to my favourite phrase isn't it, we'll have to keep an eye on this. But I think that I I think this is planned to be introduced in June, June 2026.

SPEAKER_01

Keep a peg eye on this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well done. And on that brilliant pun, we'll break away and come back in a second when everyone's calmed down from the laughter at that fantastic pun. And we are back with our second story of the day. Um, no more loot boxes, but we are still talking about money and pricing, and reports have surfaced uh this week that Sony has been quietly running some sneaky A B testing for its prices uh on the PlayStation store since the end of last year. Uh seeing estimates that there's about 150 games being involved in this across 68 territories, and I believe because there's slightly different consumer laws, the US and Japan are both excluded from this experiment. Users are reporting that they're seeing discounts on the same games that range from 5 to 18% in terms of so one person might see 35% off one other person might see 30. And we we've got games from Sony, 2K, Bethesda, Ubisoft. Essentially, this algorithm looks at your purchase history and what you've played and how quick you are to take advantage of sales or not, and then decides what price you're willing to pay. So that's the that's the context. As I always do, Alex, I open up the floor. What have you got? Uh what are your thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_01

This is it's absolutely wild. Like, there is obviously it's something that we see, it's becoming more possible to do surge pricing. I I know there are reports on like stores in America all it was a whole blow-up around Black Friday and them all having like digital pricing rather than having like tags so they could change dynamically with any moment. Lidl style. They do that at Lidl, but I've not seen Lidl uh do any dynamic shenanigans. And obviously there are a lot of things that do price dynamically, but for the most part, the reason for that dynamic pricing, especially with something like Uber, is to meet demand. And you know, arguably there are some things, you know, demand is lower. If you pay, you have to pay more to get the service at that time. And you know, there are arguably times that if you're running out of turkeys around Christmas, for example, it makes sense for people to make, I guess, a bit more money when the demand goes up, because Lord knows nobody wants to eat a turkey in March. So get your money while you can.

SPEAKER_00

Do we want to eat them at Christmas? Is it's not even well, that's not even a good it's not even a good meat.

SPEAKER_01

But when it comes to anyway, when it comes to the idea that you're being surge priced, essentially, it's not surge pricing, that's it that is different, but on something digital that's always there, that doesn't go off, that doesn't have an issue with infinite supply. Infinite supply, then what are we doing? If you if you want to sell you gave for less money, so you gave less than spike it for one person.

SPEAKER_00

My first thought, and it's what I've got down in today's script, was it feels like Ticketmaster, it feels like this evolution towards there's no there might be a a recommended retail price, but if you're and it's why for me, I I as long as it's possible, I will never have a digital only system because of not because of this necessarily, but because of the possibility of things like this. Are digital storefronts now going to evolve into this kind of system where what you pay and what someone else pays is different because of because of your habits? It it almost feels like, and I hate using these words, but if it feels like Sony is rewarding more casual players and punishing the more not loyal, but the people who do invest more into games, who do buy. I'm looking, I'm thinking, as someone who really likes a lot of Sony's big tent pole third-person narrative games, I tend to pick up a lot of those games very quickly after they come out. Am I going to get worse sales because of that habit? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Apparently, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it it feels like that. And I think, well, if Sony do this, I'd expect Microsoft to do it. I'd expect Nintendo to do it, I'd expect Valve to do it sales. We offered you, well, they they've got their Mario sale at the moment, and you can get 33% off Super Mario Odyssey. You could get 33% off Super Mario Odyssey seven years ago. So maybe with Nintendo it would be like, well, you're a very uh you're a very casual player. We've offered you 35% off Super Mario Odyssey. Dive in.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. But you get the point that I'm making. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

It feels like it could happen elsewhere if there's not enough of a backlash against this. And the consumers will decide if they want to do that or not, won't they?

SPEAKER_01

And I don't this isn't a I'm just checking, this isn't one of our stories today, uh, but it does overlap because there's a I think I think it's a class action lawsuit that they're trying to bring in the UK around uh the the PlayStation has on the marketplace. And this isn't I don't want to distract from this point, uh, but like one of the points of that is that regularly you are paying 20 to 25% more for a digital copy. And the promise when we moved to digital, this is probably before you were playing games, but there's always this promise that once we remove the distribution costs and the plastic and all these other things. Everything will be so cheap, everything will be so cheap, it'll all be like steam. No, apparently it's like they can gouge the loyal players.

SPEAKER_00

That's the corporations lie, the corporations lie.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, again, why do I fall for this every time? says I with my disc disclus PlayStation 5.

SPEAKER_00

But that that that's that is the crux of it, isn't it? I I think that I understand it from a business perspective. And hey, if they're doing this testing and it's working, the fact is that every other industry is doing the exact same thing. We brought up Ticketmaster. If you want to go and get tickets for something on Ticketmaster, it depends on if no one wants them, they get cheaper, and if people do want them, they go up in price.

SPEAKER_01

I do understand why things are differently priced at different times.

SPEAKER_00

Alex, these digital games are limited numbers. It's very hard. It's very hard to store all these digital games in the cloud. It's very expensive.

SPEAKER_01

I understood when Schmupps used to have like and when you have limited run physical editions, I understand why they're more expensive. You know, you've got a time in which you can, you know, they probably will have a limited one of the companies is called limited run. Uh, but you know, there is there will likely be a time at stop making them and there's a reason that they're there for a premium for especially for popular games. But I do not understand I mean I do understand why they're doing it with digital, but there is no excuse for them doing it actually.

SPEAKER_00

No and I I don't I we're coming to this story quite early. I can I cannot see this going away without a lot of quite widespread backlash towards it. This is something that doesn't it's not it's not layoffs at studios it's not journalists losing jobs to AI. This is something that affects everyone if you've got a PlayStation you know if if you've got a PS5 and you want to play games it doesn't matter if you're only playing two games a year and you don't care about the rest of the industry you can be affected by this and that's why I can't actually yeah they're all for it. Yeah my game's achievement it's brilliant we took a small little break to try and see if we could find some and we we couldn't but there's definite proof that this is happening okay there's definite proof it is happening I do think the reason we can't is because at the moment the march sale's on uh and that's gonna I think during a march sale because they want people to cover it and tweet and write about it they want them all to be a little bit oh they've realized oh they've realized everyone knows and gone oh no oh no turn it off turn it off anyway we tried we failed to find some but definitely if anyone's got any you know if anyone has anything about this please do please do share it if anybody else 10 minutes looking at up games and seeing what the discount is online with a get with a friend on on you know discord or and at least it's Skype then not Skype Skype's dead get get on get on Discord with someone have a little browser on the PlayStation store see if you can spot some but we know it's happening there's proof it's happening so to be to be serious for a second before we move on to our last story this is it it is happening it's as you said Alex it's companies can do this now because they have the data they know how long we're playing games for they know what they probably know what you buy and then don't play for six months or what you buy play for ten minutes and then never touch again. They have this kind of data so they can be very specific about what they offer.

SPEAKER_01

And I've and I've known and I've worked at companies where there is you know that they do use that to essentially funnel some players in some things towards you know bundles and certain price brackets of items like purchasing changes what you see in the store but the idea that for the base game this is selecting different prices for you is something quite different especially when and I think you know it it it isn't helped by the fact that you can also buy it in a store like that it's a physical in that sense it's a concrete thing.

SPEAKER_00

But oddly the the the concrete things are the ones that you can imagine dynamic pricing for because there are reasons to do it then but on a digital format I just I can't I can't reconcile it as a as a neither can I well on that note we'll break and then come back with a story that maybe we can reconcile maybe we can't but we'll be back in a second and then we'll be having a look at the V-Bucks price situation and welcome back we're just gonna leave that in our last story of today as Alex levitates into the air takes us to the battle bus actually maybe you were on the battle bus while you were doing that the battle bus from Fortnite I'm not gonna keep saying that word and Epic games where Epic is now raising the price of V-Books to offset the increased operational costs and there is a Lego? The Lego Llama. Lego Llama. I I feel like I've just derailed this already it's okay we won't we won't start talking about Lego. It's the Fortnite Llama it's pretty it's pretty cool. Did you have to pay with V-Books for that?

SPEAKER_01

No it was at the Well that's good because VBooks are going up in price.

SPEAKER_00

GDC very nice. Yes so starting from the 19th of March so as we're recording that will be next Thursday well and next Thursday when you hear this tomorrow or whenever you hear this if you're hearing this after the the 19th of March it's already happened so unlucky no cheap VBooks for you anymore. But Epic is increasing the price of VBooks and the cost of the real money packs to buy VBooks in Fortnite. Epic's official reasoning behind this is that and I quote this is from the article on this so they they need to help pay the bills despite reporting$6.2 billion in gross revenue last year I will say to not be facetious I think what is a valid point here is that Fortnite is a is a powerhouse for revenue that's true no one can dispute that but the developmental cost and the cost of IP servers licensing compared with a few years ago we have to appreciate the fact that Fortnite as a game now is inherently covered in licenses at every opportunity. So there is an increased cost to that which I imagine is what's being referenced to here but yeah the the long and short of it is that V-Books are seeing a small increase in price as well as a a few other adjustments which we'll we'll go into in a moment. Alex I I seed the flaw.

SPEAKER_01

It's not small it's not small but it yeah that is quite a lot but yeah I I I I guess I hadn't considered I mean I guess what you're saying isn't that you know they're not changing the price because they're they're they're changing price because they're not making as much money not because they're losing money and at some point they probably have to be a bit of a potentially I think that's the I don't know if that's true but I think that's that's me trying to be more balanced and understand the the reasoning behind this and I think that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00

It's not the game that it was in 2018 anymore. The cost no go for it.

SPEAKER_01

And I mean I'm on your side with whatever you're gonna say I feel so but much like the last PlayStation story these are all imagined things like it's a strange move. And I guess in some ways it's quite upfront because what they could have just as easily done and in some ways I do wonder about the timing on this in terms of business the revenue for the year because I bet you they're going to see a spike in V-buck sales before day of the change which is as we come into the end of the year um amounts because they could just put up the cost of everything by 20%. And in some ways it's quite good because if people bought it in the past it's retaining its value so if they're buying items with it that's there.

SPEAKER_00

So in that sense it's an interesting I do say I'd I I will say I don't think it would be feasible to change the in-game cost of items. I feel like that would be a much bigger I think I think that this we we do PR don't we I think it's interesting to look at it from that frame point which is that this is hard to swallow but it's hear me out. When you go to a different country that uses a different currency you more easily spend money because you have no lose the understanding of how much you're spending and I think it's the same with something like this I think the the change so as an example so$8$8.99 used to get you a thousand V Bucks under this new system you'll get$800. So you're not spending more you're just getting less for your money which feels easier to deal with than if you were spending more to get what you're literally doing is increasing the value of each individual V-buck before the change is made.

SPEAKER_01

So which I think I feel like we're having like a maths lesson like I think the end result is you know Pete you are still paying more per item and I don't know it's a weird way of dealing with it because what you're doing is increasing the value of your currency by 20% rather than I think something there's something in the timing of this. And I've I've only it's only dawned on me as we've had this discussion I think part of this is to drive more V-buck sales.

SPEAKER_00

If they knew the change was going to happen maybe they've brought it to this point for that very reason. I think that makes total sense.

SPEAKER_01

I mean this is here here's a fun and semi-related story about Japan because I love telling stories about Japan. They increased the tax rate on cigarettes and the goal was much like in the UK to dissuade people from buying cigarettes by putting up the cost. And they thought they'd done it because for the two months after that there were a drop in cigarette sales what in fact happened was everybody went out and stocked up on cigarettes for two months worth of cigarettes and actually I think they stocked up for longer than that because the people eyeing you smoked more cigarettes in the window after because they had more cigarettes. Then six months down the line they're like oh everyone's buying them again. We failed and that's another thing right because it's gonna mean you're gonna have all these V-bucks sat in your pocket that you bought in a hurry because you realized they were going to be worth more money afterwards but once you've got them you're gonna spend them so they're perhaps in a we and talking going back to the first story because it's all connected today we didn't realise this when we started you're habit forming and once you're in the habit of buying them you might be more likely to spend them and then buy them again even if they are now worth less per V-buck. Not to get all the things there is there is I do think there's a weird way of dealing with it financially is to increase the value per e buck.

SPEAKER_00

And I think something else which is interesting is the fact that the so for anyone who's not played Fortnite they have they have a battle pass system. That battle pass used to well as of now it won't next week but as of now that costs a thousand V-bucks so it and that's been the case since the beginning I'm fairly sure so you could go in you could pay your$899 get the thousand V-Bucks go straight in and buy the battle pass and then you'd earn I think around$1500 V-Bucks from that battle pass if you completed it. So not only you'd pay that flat in theory you'd pay that uh flat fee God that's a struggle of$899 you'd get the battle pass once and then if you didn't spend any of the V-Bucks you got from it you could just keep buying the battle pass in the future. Now that last point is still going to be possible. So the battle pass will now cost 800 V-bucks so it still costs the same$899 but you're actually getting only 800 V-Bucks now for completing it. So you don't get those additional ones. So on the surface the the entry point for the battle pass system is still the same. And in theory you can buy it once and every time a new battle pass comes around you can use those V-Bucks you've got from it on the next one. But now you don't have those extra ones that that's something that that's being lost as well. So that's another case where we're seeing the as you said Alex the the value of this not real currency going up because the supply that you get through the game is is being reduced. So there's a few on the surface what is quite a simple change is I imagine going to have quite a large impact on a lot of the player base I think there is probably a lot of people who will in the past have bought the occasional battle pass and used the V-Bucks from it to keep buying them going forward. And while that still is possible now it's a much worse value proposition than it was.

SPEAKER_01

Which you know I I guess makes sense because people who bought it at the beginning and have used it year on year on year have gathered up all those little extra bits of V-Bucks and essentially that's not free money, but you know what I mean. So I under I almost understand them wanting to put an end to that but even more so when the value of a V-buck has gone up. It's a is a strange way of dealing with it to me. I would have anticipated them putting the price up of everything.

SPEAKER_00

This feels a strange choice by the way it is but I I not going to agree agree to disagree but I I do see the logic. Yeah I I I see the logic to an extent I think something to keep an eye out for is that not Fortnite wasn't the first big live service game by any means but I think it was one of the first ones to go out there with like the the battle pass system. Fortnite's monetization system became the de facto monetization system for a lot of other games and that includes the the prices of those different entry points of the different currency amounts. So as with the the Sony story we've discussed I do think that if this goes ahead and there's not enough backlash to cause issues, I do expect other live service games to adjust their economies to suit this because I think they'll look and that the the decision makers will look and go say a year's in a year's time, well it's not really had an impact on Epic negatively so we can probably do the same thing and boost our not boost our earnings but we can adjust our costs in the same way to not lose out on that additional revenue.

SPEAKER_01

Potentially that's that's just me speculating but I don't I think it would likely happen if there's no issue I think I actually I'm looking at this now and I think the the most telling part of this is actually at the other end of the scale. It's at the microtransaction scale because I'm I'm I'm looking at the numbers here. They're double double in of cost they're doubling the cost of 50 V bucks which means to buy the equivalent of 800 if you're going to do it in microtransactions you're going to have to spend sixteen dollars now instead of the nine dollars value. Whereas previously doing the same thing would cost you ten dollars to get to get to a thousand which is a the 10% saving if you buy the$900 pack.

SPEAKER_00

One and you you can't get any smaller it's$50 then it's$800. So you can if you need to top up a few hundred to get a skin or to get a pickaxe or something you don't really have any choice and as you said that's actually a a massive increase.

SPEAKER_01

I wonder how much of this is a determination that most of their sales and microtransactions top things up and that's where they're sitting on this because that's actually that's actually where I'd be most nervous because you know if you if you're earning a few extra V-bucks here and there from the battle pass and like you you're all happy over here and then you realize oh I just want this that double cost has doubled.

SPEAKER_00

That's gonna yeah that's gonna uh exactly it's doubled for that tiny for that smaller amount so no that's the only one as far as we know that is um uh a real currency change rather than an adjustment of the in-game currency yeah which makes it stand out even more yeah they haven't made that 40 V-bucks for 59 cents they've made it as you say they've doubled the cost yeah but interesting which is not a 20% it is a hundred percent increase on the smallest end of this yeah I I'd like to retract my comment at the start it's only an extra 49 cents who doesn't have that spare.

SPEAKER_01

Well that's exactly the problem right that that's and also likely there's probably minimum transaction somewhere and there might be all sorts of things caught up in that with anyway.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah I think so I think it's a bit odd we we'll wrap I think the last thing I'll say and I don't want to start a new discussion with this is but I I'm aware something we've not touched on is that there is a there's going to be like a cashback style scheme with this so if you that that's been introduced where if you buy VBooks directly through Epic games on whichever you know wherever you play Fortnite if you buy the VBooks directly through them as opposed to through a storefront which is a much bigger issue that Epic have had in the past with uh you know transaction fees and such you'll get 20% ironically that's where the 20%'s gone you'll get that 20% back as a cashback essentially as like a credit which I don't want to start a whole nother discussion but that it is interesting that they've taken that 20% from one place and put it in another and they've done it in a way to try and push people into their ecosystem but it's something we've seen Epic content with for a long time to try and capture more of those transactions and this is their answer. Seems to be I guess that makes a lot more sense that yeah that puts a lot of this in other context I'm gonna say it's something to keep an eye on uh but this change is set to take place on the 19th. I imagine that there'll probably be more stories around this in the coming week so I think we will revisit this at some point but for now it's yeah it it you know we're we're we've had conversations today around battle passes and and microtransactions and other such things and you know it's it shows it's still a very prevalent thing and Peggy are on the money with these changes because it's such a a big conversation but we'll we'll wrap there and then when we come back we're gonna look at a a few stories we're gonna look at Mega Man and then we're also gonna look at Sega I was going to make a Sonic joke then but then I was I was like something about blue flashes or it's gone. I don't even think of Sonic when I think of Sega now to be honest. Sorry Sonic fans but we'll be right back and welcome back to this week's rapid rundown sometimes less rapid than other weeks but we'll try and keep things as quick as possible and our first story for this week is the news that Ben Diskin who was the voice of Mega Man in Mega Man 11 so the most recent entry in that the storied Mega Man franchise will not be returning to his role in the new entry because of contract concerns specifically because Capcom and Sagafra are not seeing eye to eye at the moment and Diskin Sagaphra or Sagafra. Sagafra it's just a that's a tricky one to say Segaphra. That's the second story. But Diskin was told by Capcom that he would have to work without the protections of a union contract. He said no so he won't be reprising the role.

SPEAKER_01

This is an interesting one to me we've seen voice actors get not re-hired again and again some of which kind of more famously David Hayter in the Metal Gear as Snake are replaced by Keith Sutherland. You just sit and you look at it it's like there is very little there are very few people that have had the their kind of performances are so locked in in a lot of game franchises that they are untouchable. I think at this point probably Nolan North and Troy Baker probably have some say on some of their larger roles but for the most part and Kratos whose whose name I forget Chris Judge is that from SG1. Anyway anyway anyway the point being there are very few voice actors who command enough authority to hold on to their role and I think you know people are most publishers are going to have or developers are going to like have their concerns around what comes up but it is concerning if that is fully the issue if it's all driven by the union element then that that that is troubling because obviously it means that the people that have even less power are going to have even less power in that scenario.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah well what uh again I I never want to dive too deep into these but this is really interesting. I I think it what what is of note to me was that and I'm I'm gonna quote the article here because I want to make sure I'm getting this right so Diskin said that he was told that there were full AI protections in place from Capcom that you know his voice would never get used for AI but he was unwilling to go ahead with things because of what you've said which is that as a smaller scale actor without the protection of the union if something did happen he wouldn't be in a position to be able to contest it or deal with it. And I think that's very valid. I know that Sag Afra aren't perfect and I know that there there's been issues with them in the past About these do-not work orders and other such things, but I think on a personal level, as an individual, it's a really valid point to make. And I think you have to stand for what you believe.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I, you know, I'm I'm it's interesting that it's come out and become this big of a deal. I think, and I'm not sure about this with SAG Afra, but I know there are some unions where if you employ one person under a union contract, everybody on in the recording. Yeah, I think that that is the case. That is the case. Yeah, so it could be that in in different circumstances, Capcom don't have don't mind unions, but that they have these other people who aren't in the union. That's who they're using. Uh and he simply doesn't.

SPEAKER_00

There is two sides to it, isn't there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's they've changed the voice actor for Chris for Lee. This is the Resident Evil thing again, but like they've changed the voice actor for so many times. It's not your time is in that thing. I know, but when you look at things that are like where voice actors were like really kind of part of the performance, it doesn't matter. They've they've changed them. Like there's no love lost. And yes, you were right, it's Christopher Judge. Thank you for boom.

SPEAKER_00

I'm happy with that. I just pulled that name out of nowhere. Yeah. But okay. So Mega Man, we've looked at the not the I don't know if Mega Man has like a nickname. The Blue Something, surely? The Blue Boy.

SPEAKER_01

Rock Man.

SPEAKER_00

Rockman. Japanese name. I'm gonna call him Blue Boy, because then I can relay it to another Blue Boy, Sonic and Sega. And Sega this week have come out and basically said that we've released loads of great games in the last 18 months. The critics love them, and it's not really done anything for our sales. So thanks a lot, I guess, is the is the story from Sega, which is interesting. I mean, if we look at some of the games they have released, we've got, and I'm gonna use Metacritic's course here, we've got Shinobi out of Vengeance, 87, Two-Point Museum, 84, Tefori Fantasio, 94. So that's really in the upper echelon. That's the Persona team, of course. And then Sonic Racing Crossworlds, 82. So they've you know, they've had critically successful games, but they've not met the sales expectations for these.

SPEAKER_01

There are two games on that list that I'm absolutely committed to buying. I'm very keen to buy them. I just haven't had time possibly waiting for a sale. Possibly waiting for them on like different platforms is is another thing. I mean, not with Shinobi, but with uh Refantasia, I think metaphor, yeah. Like, I'm it's an interesting thing to say. Like those those are all those are it's very rare that you could give me a list of four games and it'd be like, yeah, two of those are absolutely harmless, especially when they're so diverse as a set of games. But I think, yeah, um, it's tricky like going in and jumping in. You've got one of them that's retro, one of them that's something completely new, essentially, and neither of them have either resonated or quite captured people's attention in the way they were hoping.

SPEAKER_00

But I I know for I'm not gonna argue with Sega here, but my understanding was that Metaphor, ReFantasio, sold really well at launch. I to me that it feels a bit similar to Ubisoft in that Ubisoft and Sega, I think, are in a position where people, unlike Nintendo, expect really quick sales on a lot of their games. In the case of Metaphor, that's from the Persona studio, you know, that's Persona developers making this game, and Persona games get rebranded and repackaged about four times a year at this rate. And I know that they said at launch that Metaphor would never get a golden edition or a complete edition in the way that those Persona games did. But that I think, in combination with the sales, there is a hesitancy to sometimes buy games when nowadays, and it's a problem across the board, you don't know what the game will look like in six months or a year, or so you know, you you might not immediately get into this because a year down the line it could be 75% off and it's a better version than the one that came out.

SPEAKER_01

So I don't I I think what stopped me is that Metaphor is just a massive time sink, and it it it's had a few sales, but no absolutely huge ones, as I recall, it being on a couple of my wish lists. And really I want it on something mobile because it's one of those games where I don't necessarily want to be tied to the well, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

I think I was waiting for the Switch 2 initially and then I'd happily play it again on Switch 2, even though it is very long. But anyway, that's the that's Sega. I think keep going, Sega, come on. You can do it. You've got some great IP. We believe in you.

SPEAKER_01

I'll buy it at some point. I'll buy it at some point if it's me that makes it.

SPEAKER_00

Alex will buy it at some point. I think I bought Shinobi. I don't think I've played it, but I think I've bought it.

SPEAKER_01

No, I'm very keen to buy Shinobi and Alex. Is half the problem. Ninja Gaiden, the two of those. A lot of those, I don't know if they're calling them D-Makes or whatever, whatever wherever they'd sit. I'm very much up for the Just good games.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Bloody good games. Those on the topics of a good game that is also bloody. Alex, I'm gonna give you, to finish today's episode, because you weren't here last week, a little treat, I'm gonna give you a little bit of resident evil time.

SPEAKER_01

So go off. This m this might be why I'm so swiftly. Like, I played so much of it. I played through I I'm on my final run, probably, the the insanity run. Uh yeah, for now. So it's my fifth attempt at the game. The insanity mode is a massive step up in terms of difficulty, like many, many lay, many, many difficulty jumps. I would say, like, I know you're not a fan of horror games, the the story mode of it is I mean, it's still horrifying, but it's not difficult. So, you know, it's it's a lot of things. It's not the difficulty. You know it's not the difficulty. Yeah, yeah. But what what I find fascinating is that they they have brought together the what you call the Winters games, which are seven and eight, the the kind of follow-ups that broke from the the classic lore, and then all of the remake stuff and smushed them into a single game because you've got Grace who plays very much like Ethan did in 7 and 8, and then the Leon gameplay sits as kind of the two, three, four more action-heavy remakes, over-the-shoulder kind of action. At least by default, that's how they both play. And it's done a really good job of marrying those, making them feel like different play experiences, and for the most part, pacing them at a point, pacing them at a phase that you know you it doesn't feel disjointed because you're jumping at the beginning, it feels a bit disjointed because you jump between them so much, and there's a midpoint where you spend too much time with one of them. But for the most part, they do a good job making it feel like the tension, which is good because much like you, actually, though I love a horror game, if I'm playing the horror elements for too long, then it gets too oppressive and I'll drop off and I'll not continue. Whereas there's this kind of kind of catharis of like, okay, lock and load, Leon, here we go.

SPEAKER_00

Well, even like that's uh that's that's I think that's biological as well, isn't it? You can't be in that heightened state for too long because it becomes less effective. You need the break to, as I understand it, to go and have those more action-y and you know blow things up and those elements to then when you come back to the the creepy horror, it is more effective because you've you're you've you've not calmed down necessarily, but you've focused on something else, and then you can come in and and be spooked again. I have no desire to be spooked. My only part of this fight is that I've I've been looking at the sales data, and I'm really surprised by how I think Steam is the biggest platform, PlayStation's obviously next, Xbox is last, but the Switch 2 numbers, apparently PlayStation, as of last like earlier in this week, the end of last week, PlayStation was about 1.6 million. But the estimates for the Switch 2 put it about 900,000 to a million, which I'm really surprised by. But I think it's it's great to see that a great part of a game, or not a part, because it's coming out on day one, but a great release of a of a a franchise like Resident Evil is Capcom are are being rewarded by the player base on Switch. And you know, I think it's you know my thoughts on this. I love the fact that Resident Evil is a a legacy series that continues to do numbers. I think that's important. It's good to see the tent pole franchises that we grew up with. I didn't grow up with them. As you know, the only one I've played is Resident Evil Mercenaries, which I know you hate me for.

SPEAKER_01

I was 16 when the first one came out. I'm not sure if that's growing.

SPEAKER_00

Um but yeah, it it it's great to see it doing well numbers-wise. It's great to see the the critical opinion there, and as a Nintendo fan, too much at times, but as a big Nintendo person, uh it's great to see the Switch 2 version doing so well.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it it is a fantastic game. I have plenty of other thoughts, like, but it it it really does do a great job of marrying up the nostalgia of the early games, the gameplay of the two. I sit here and remain kind of bemused as to what happens with the kind of that Ethan trilogy in there, and they they they tie things through it all. I would say, strangely though, it is it would be an odd jumping on point if you're out there thinking like, is this gonna be my first Resident Evil?

SPEAKER_00

Maybe not. Maybe not. I guess that's why the good thing about them doing the package, though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Like, well, even that's not a package, because you really want to play two. I think two is kind of vital to get two most.

SPEAKER_00

So they've remade them all, so you can hop in wherever you want.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But on that note, I will wrestle back the talking stick. We've given Alex his Resident Evil time. There you go. And I think that's where we'll we'll wrap for today. As always, thank you so much for tuning in to listen to our thoughts, our analysis, our opinions on the biggest stories that shape the industry every week. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, I hope you have. Please subscribe. Whether you're watching on YouTube, listening on Spotify, Apple Music, wherever you get your podcasts, be sure to subscribe. We publish episodes every Friday, so you get all the biggest stories of the week in this little conversation. As long as they're more as long as they happen before Thursday afternoon. But you're in luck if you want the stories for the whole week, because not only do we have this podcast, we also have the weekly download newsletter, which is available via the Big Games Machine LinkedIn. You'll get that on Friday. So that does have Friday morning stories in. We also have the daily download, which is, as you can guess, daily, Monday to Friday, five days a week into your inbox. That's the biggest stories of the day, notable news, a list of all the upcoming events, and a few more fun stories as well. And you get that every day. You just got to subscribe via the link in the description. And other than that, I'm news out. I think we've we've spoken too much about the news today. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go away, decompress, and get ready to work on tomorrow's newsletter. But thank you so much for listening. Alex, it's nice to nice to have you back. Megan was a a valid, a valiant replacement for you last week, but you we've valid replacement.

SPEAKER_01

Not a valid replacement.

SPEAKER_00

But no, it's it's been it's been good to have the our our tennis style back and forth. So thank you. And we'll see you all and hear you all next time. Goodbye.