The Weekly Download

Greedfall Developer Spiders Shuts Down & Resident Evil Turboboosts Capcom Earnings

• Big Games Machine • Season 1 • Episode 28

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SPEAKER_00

The weekly download podcast about interesting game industry news.

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Brought to you by Big Games Machine.

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When I think of a legendary duo like Scorpion and Sub Zero, who else would I rank among them in terms of legendary duos? I might consider Tommy Fanalex Beach, host of the weekly download podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Almost as iconic. And and oddly, also just a palette swap of each other in the original format. Are we? Yeah, we're just a palette swap. Seriously, if people were like, if people were too people look people to lay us over each other, we look like we're actually identical. Which way am I going?

SPEAKER_00

Hello though. Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the listening, that would have made no sense. It might have done. If we've got any Mortal Kombat film fans, imagine there's like that 0.1% of people who only care about the Mortal Kombat films, and they're like, oh, there's games based on these films. Did you know that? What a life would you be living? Amazing thing. What a life. But you'd be missing out on so much. You'd be missing out on all of the games industry news, which is why we're here, of course, to run through the biggest stories or some of the biggest stories of the week. Now, this week we are looking at, as always, three nice stories. We've got this news about Capcom. Alex, I don't know if you know. Resident Evil Requiem has sold really well, and Capcom have basically said, Oh, we think we're going to make more money now. So we've got this news that Capcom have.

SPEAKER_01

It's always nice when people say, when people say, because it's the end of we'll get into this, but the it's the end of their financial year, I'm betting. And they're like, yeah, we're going, we think we'll make more money this year. I mean, in this is one of those scenarios where we're not we're not speculating. We've made more money this year. We're just saying we've increased the forecasts.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, guys, we shipped like five million units in a week for like our new Resident Evil game. So yeah. Oh yeah, and then we had like this and that. But yeah, we'll be looking at this Capcom news. Also, we're looking at the news that developers at uh developers behind Magic the Gathering Arena unionizing, and that's in the the US. And then our final big story this week is the sad news that Greedfall Studio Spiders, who of course were under uh Nakon, NACON, um they have officially closed down. Uh and the quote I've got is that it no longer exists. The studio is gone. Uh obviously that's part of the bigger situation we're seeing at Nakon. But we'll go into that. We'll go into that and more when we get started. But before we do any of that, we will take a small break. And when we come back, we will be starting with the news around Capcom. And so here we are with that first story that we just promised, all about Capcom. So this is the news that Capcom is raising its financial year 2025 outlook, following a boost from Resident Evil Requiem. Yes, an outlook, uh, an outlook slash forecast in uh in practicality, maybe not.

SPEAKER_01

It's like putting your hand out the window and saying I forecast rain as it's it's raining, guys.

SPEAKER_00

But yeah, if we look at the actual data here, so Capcom has revised its financial year 25 outlook upwards, unsurprisingly. Uh, we're seeing projected net sales up 2.8% to 195.3 billion yen, which is around$1.2 billion, our American viewers. Or if anyone here perfectly understands yen, then we don't need to talk about dollars. Uh but it's good to frame that. And we're also looking at net income up 6.9%, so that's 54.5 billion yen or around$340 million. So if we dive into the why uh and what's behind this, the context to why Capcom has revised these figures. One of the standouts, and Alex, I know this will be no surprise to you. Like I joked in our introduction, but yes, Resident Evil Requiem shifted over 5 million units within its first week. It's already hit 7 million. Interesting to me is this data point that it outperformed the launch of Resident Evil Village by 60%. So we are really yeah, we are we are seeing that Resident Evil Requiem on its own is part of this. But the one more thing I'll say before I allow you to dive in. Something else which I think is is really fascinating is that, and I know that a lot of these games have gone on quite heavy sales, on heavy discounts, but the launch and success of Requiem has had a really big effect on the back catalogue of Resident Evil games, and we're seeing big boosts in sales for remake of Resident Evil 4 and Village in particular. So Resident Evil done incredibly well, Capcom done incredibly well. Is that a surprise?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I I think part of this story is well that it isn't just RE. I mean, Pragmata's obviously come out and smashed it as well. What's that a million? Over a million something.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that was a million in its first weekend. I I don't think we've had updated sales since, but to do that in two days.

SPEAKER_01

Brand new IP. I mean, part of me holds out that it's an extension of PNO3, but I seriously doubt it is. Which would oddly have come out the same week as I four, so or the same period as I four, not the same week, many, many, many, many months ago. Anyway, not the point. Um I mean it's really interesting. I mean, the kind of bleed over of the old sales makes a lot of sense to me. In my head, I was thinking like, oh, it makes sense that people have gone back and picked up four, because that's kind of it's not the last time we saw Leon, but obviously it's a Leon story, so you're kind of jumping into that. And if you've for some reason jumped in and maybe didn't pick up the remake of four because you dropped out of everything, and then you saw this was the closing of the the raccoon storyline. Maybe that plays into that, bringing fans in. Similarly, eight doesn't connect too heavily to the series, so I think that is is more just kind of a jumping back in and kind of wanting more of more Resident Evil because it was so good. Like I do and combined with the sales, obviously. So it it's really good to see that it does have that kind of echo back through the catalogue. Uh the fact that it's the most recent two probably makes sense, and that's probably the first time they've seen large it's not the first time they've seen large discounts, I know, because a village has been up quite a lot, but maybe it's the first time it's been Resident Evil's been in mind while these big discounts have come up and people have thought about jumping in.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and and I think they were they were very big discounts as well, weren't they?

SPEAKER_01

I feel like Yeah, they go and they they Capcom regularly gives like 60 to 80% discounts on the old Resident Evil games. Like I've picked up most of them on 50 or 60 percent. It makes so much systems.

SPEAKER_00

Because I buy the It's uh I I think this idea of hey, we're releasing a new game, obviously that's full price, worth saying that on the I don't know if they did it on other platforms, but on the Switch 2 as well, you had that the bundle they did of the three. I was gonna ask how much that plays into it. That the two older games, and and that was a really good deal. And and I think it makes total sense that Capcom have done these sales and and turn around and be like, hey, you like this one? Well go and get this one for um five dollars, and and that's definitely you know it I think Requiem is the headline part of this forecast and why it's tilted upwards, but it is also just smart business, I think, on Capcom's part. That not only we have had Pragmata, we've had Monster Hunter Stories 3 do really well, but that Resident Evil Core, they've had a really great couple of months, and that is through releasing a great game, and then also opening the floodgates to the older entries and saying, you know, take your pick, because it's not a gamble to go and play them if you're not having to pay$60 for it.

SPEAKER_01

I would be fascinated as kind of an extension of this, I'm gonna call it an echo of like the the effect, the impact on past titles. I'd love to see numbers to see if the dreadful they're not dreadful, they're the pretty bad Resident Evil animated movies that are canon to Leon's story got any uplift of this on Netflix or Amazon. Um they're odd, actually. They're not bad. The issue with them is they try and follow a storyline, so they all end with a big monster fight, which is unnecessary. I just want them to be like political thrillers, and they never are, they're just like games without the gameplay, which yeah, give us what we want.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's the fact that you've brought up the the films is I think we can lead on to a another point here, which is of interest, which is the fact that not only are we seeing the success for Capcom on the game side, but somewhat similar to when we spoke about Koe Tecmo and their non-game related activities, we're seeing Capcom's arcade and amusement side of uh of things is doing really well too. Obviously, I I understand that's still games, but it's you know it's a slightly different um sector, isn't it? And I think it's not home, I think is the No, and and that shows to me that even in the arcades, even in the when you've got all these different options of things to play, people are still levitating towards Capcom brands and Capcom properties, which I guess the the two kind of go hand in hand. If if Resident Evil does really well on on home console, then it does make people more likely to engage with Capcom games when they see them out and about, potentially.

SPEAKER_01

So they were doing like a run through the original Spencer mansion in an arcade style first-person shooter, but I might be misremembering that. That might just be a dream you've had.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah because it it does sound it sounds very uh something else to be into.

SPEAKER_01

Um yeah, the one thing I will say is that Mr.

SPEAKER_00

X barging through my bedroom door. See, there you go. Look, I know present evil knowledge. I know Mr. X. Well done. Yeah, well done. That was good.

SPEAKER_01

I pulled that one out of the uh grabbing it from the ether. Yeah. One thing that is quite nice about this, I'm not gonna say reassuring, but Capcom has resisted. They still do like updates, DLC, stuff like that, but none of these games really have strong like season passes or ongoing in-app purchases. They have some. And Capcom certainly has dabbled. And I think perhaps one of the reasons they haven't stuck with it is because they dabbled poorly. None of their offerings were very good when they have tried it. But it is great to see that you know, a company not only forging ahead with new IPs, sticking with legacy stuff, but also making them all premium titles with a decent output and a decent like reviews essentially off the back of the games they're making. Like it does, it almost speaks to a different era of games, but it's really reassuring to see that that still works as a model for a large company. I don't know if Capcom's off the top of my head, I don't know where their forecasts measure against some of the bigger companies in terms of like what they manage and what their goals are. But if they're pitching at the right level to keep everybody there and working, make their profits and go forward, it's great to see the achievable model.

SPEAKER_00

I think we can look at the industry and think that sometimes the infinite growth model isn't the best model. I think what you said kind of leads on to something I did want to ask you because I feel like you're my, you know, you I know you you love Resident Evil, you're you're kind of into the Yeah, you're into the Capcom sphere of you're my what is it in Smash Bros. Shadow Fighter. Is it Shadow Fighters? Yeah, but it it it comes from this point that you've made around that Capcom seemingly are doing a really good job of turning high quality games around quite quickly. We're not we're not having to deal with five, six-year release cycles for 200 hours. Me, it seems Capcom is really good at two or three year cycles of development, uh reusing engines, they're they're using assets intelligently, they're making games that aren't a hundred hours long from what I've seen. I know you've replayed um Requiem a lot, but that that one playthrough time seems to be like ten to fifteen hours from what I've seen. There are runs that are like three out, like once you're at the high end, like it's to me. I think that's the it I think there's a divide between what marketing suggests that players might want, which is these endless sprawling experiences, versus the reality of what players engage with and uh and finish. Most importantly, I think we forget that games should be finished sometimes when we buy them.

SPEAKER_01

I am now going to bounce between all of those points. Like it I'm in a game of Arcanoid.

SPEAKER_00

So you you do that, and then that'll be our last point. Okay. That'll be our last point on the topic.

SPEAKER_01

So you've got the floor. But you might have a few bits to you might want clarified, so don't say that's too quickly. Firstly, absolutely the three-year development cycle, they've they've nailed down the RE engine's clearly empowering them massively there. That said, Pragmata's obviously been in the works for like eight years. So let's so the fact that they are continuing to commit to the same, to some games in there, other games they've dropped and some they've clearly kind of fostered through at a like like a lower level until they were comfortable with it. So I suspect their prototyping there is also quite strong, even though we probably don't have visibility on that. That three-year development cycle works incredibly well for RE. I think they scope their games really smartly. The remakes are quite sprawling for the Resident Evil games, but that's because they're mirroring a structure that was there before. And when they've tried to cut that back, it's gone poorly. Like R3 was probably the poorest receive of their recent game. It's not bad, but it came out at a poor time and it was significantly shorter than the competition. When you look at Requiem, it feels bigger than it is because of the way it's designed, the way it utilizes the space, the way it zigzags on itself, the way it makes you feel tense the first time you're playing it. So you play it slowly and it feels like this 12 to 20 hour experience, and then you go back in with unlimited ammo and it's poultry. But that power fantasy also feels quite cathartic at the on the back end of that. So they gets really hard. Yeah. Running running through and destroying a big boss with like in a paltry fashion because you've got a massive weapon isn't satisfying until you've had the fear and you've gone back and stick it to them, right? That that's the beauty of it. You get the catharsis on the back end. But to the other point, they also have those unlimited experiences. But those unlimited experiences are about building relationships with friends and building little it's it's clans or or that are going in because they know how each other play, they're supplementing each other. I'm talking about Monster Hunter now, to be clear. This isn't a resident evil thing. But they build games that you know it pulls you back in. It's not time dependent, it's not driven like a weekly grind, it's not on a battle pass. But when you have the time, you go in and you have these really exciting-I don't know if you've played the Monster Hunter games, but when you've got a little group together and you're going to party that has to go and do it, it's so much fun trying to upgrade and upgrade, and you're grinding to unlock the stuff that in most games would be in app purchases. But that's not what you're there for. You've got to take down that Rathalos however many times to get the bones to make your helmet or your bug swords, it's not called a bug sword. Um that's what I played, I shouldn't remember what it was called. But yeah. Um they've got this really interesting selection of games that uh are all premium titles, and I mean that in the the non-in-app purchase sense.

SPEAKER_00

They don't seem to They really scoped it all very well. From a from a quick look, I think the final thing I'd say to add to you said about you look at the games they are releasing, and they don't seem to be competing with each other either. That was going to be that was actually gonna be my point. Like, yeah, you've got these really strong single-player games of various different genres, but then you look you've got something like Monster Hunter Wilds. I look at Capcom's Steam, you know, not library, but I look at their Steam releases, and there's not really anything that competes with Monster Hunter Wilds, is there? And there's nothing that competes with Requiem or Monster Hunter stories or you know, something like Progmata. None of these games have direct competition among themselves, which I'm sure helps. And it sounds like an obvious thing to say, but I think we see a lot of bigger publishers cannibalise their own games sometimes. Like I'd look at if you look at Sony with Marathon and and their Marathon is obviously one of very few live service games to have made out of Sony after they made such a push for it. Survive out of Sony, which is the other way of putting it to survive, but then they've got something like Fair Games, which is still in development, and that's by all accounts going to be competition for marathon if it if it does come out, which and Capcom's not doing that.

SPEAKER_01

Capcom seems to be releasing a library of very different, very I was gonna say we're not I don't wanna we did say we'd wrap it up, but you come to a very interesting point because you look at EA, and I don't think they ask they to take your Ubisoft does it as well. They have like a formula that's basically there, and whether you're driving a car to the top of a hill, so you get the new map, or you're climbing a tower, or you're hacking into a radar station, like it's a formula the Ubisoft formula is there, and that starts to make everything feel a bit. But I don't think EA is necessarily standing on their own feet when it comes to like putting out all the sports games, but it does make their library feel flat, I guess would be an expression. A more polite word than I would have gone for. Well, there we go. But I think it's true. I am nothing if not polite. But that's where, like you say, Capcom, even though they're creating an game year on year, they are iterating almost year on year with Resident Evil, but not necessarily also benefiting from the new game remake, new game remake pattern that they've fallen into.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's similar to Square. I think to Square Enix, sorry, not to We forgot Street Fighter.

SPEAKER_01

Street Fighter's also.

SPEAKER_00

We did forget Street Fighter. But I think it's similar to Square, where they're just they are not quietly, but they're just they're releasing games at a good cadence, they're releasing, you know, re-releases of old games, they're they're remaking games, they're launching new stuff, they're they're quite again not quietly, but they they're just going out there and they're they're doing business. And I'm not surprised to see these these sales figures. To me, it's less about how they compare to other companies and more that Capcom think they're beating their own expectations, which is good. I think that's healthy, especially the way that they're doing it. And I think with with that, Alex, if you've got any more thoughts, I'll I'll let you share them. But we'll consciously bring this time. So hurry up. Okay. This is why I shouldn't have led with a Resident Evil story.

SPEAKER_01

I know. The the the only thing it it also maybe speaks to having realistic expectations going in. Uh because they they they clearly scoped everything out, and even within that, and maybe they thought they were being aggressive with their projections, but they surpassed them. And obviously, it's always easier to seem like you are modest when you've surpassed something. Well, under underpromise, over-deliver. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly that. We can move on now. Awesome. We can move on. Let's be right. Yeah, we'll be right back and we'll be taking a look at this news around uh magic, the gambering. Promise to underdeliver on this next section. And we are back, and as Alex just promised, let's try and underdeliver on this section. Let's try and really this section's not gonna be very rusty. So if by the end of it it's great, you'll be happy. But yes, this next story, moving away from Capcom and two wizards of the coast. A supermajority of the team behind Magic the Gathering Arena are unionizing. They're not just asking for better pay, though. It feels inevitable, but AI protections are coming into this too. Now I've got I'm just gonna read a little section from this open letter from the unionizing developers that were sent, well, not sent to, but to address two wizards of the coast. I'm hopefully not going to stumble through this, but I I will try my best. So I love reading the Magic the Gathering. Well, so do I. It it gives me a good excuse to look at the screen and and it'd be very obvious that I'm reading. I'll make I'll make awkward eye contact with the camera the whole time.

SPEAKER_01

So that's filming options. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So Magic the Gathering Arena is a vital part of how the world engages with Magic the Gathering. We believe that unionizing will increase staff well-being and retention, promote transparency and ensure equity, and create the healthy environment needed to continue making exceptional products. We know the workers that make the game can and should be treated better, and our aim is to show that to the world through our union efforts. We are building the games industry we want to see in the world, which is a very, very nice. Okay, Alex, you can break contact now, thank you. My word. I came back to my screen and that was a a scary sight. But these words are being backed by over a hundred developers who have formed a union under the wider communications workers of America. This is the first public unionization effort at a Hasbro subsidiary. I was gonna say Alex.

SPEAKER_01

I've said Wizards of the Coast, it might be Hasbro. I don't I don't know what the kind of breakdown of that is now in terms of unionizing for and under and I believe it's Hasbro.

SPEAKER_00

I I believe it's under Wizards of the Coast, which is why I think that's where the address is going. Obviously, um Wizards of the Coast is a is a Hasbro subsidiary, but I imagine that this is between Wizards of the Coast and the team behind Magic the Gathering Arena. One of the sorry Alex, something I do want to just add again, one of the core drivers according to the union is management's increased pressure to adopt the use of LLMs and generative AI.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

This is despite developers who have raised explicit ethical and quality concerns. Hasbro's CEO actually recently praised AI to investors as part of their recent earnings call, I believe. While you've got the developers on the flip side who are who are kind of talking about, well, hey, doesn't this defeat, you know, doesn't this take away the bit of the soul of um of of Magic the Gathering? So it seems unionization, AI, working protections, it it's all the same topics that we've seen before, but very big example in this case. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

There's been a lot of warning signs. I I kind of dip in and out of Magic the Gather and Dungeons and Dragons content on. So forgive me if one, I'm not quite as up to date as I should be, or some of my information's a little dated, but there's been a lot of kind of a drive by Hasbro generally to kind of make more money from a lot of their tabletop products and move into digital stuff. That's both with DD and how you access their kind of campaigns and books and also uh and wanting to make a game like Boulders Gate, because obviously that was made under the DD licence, and they didn't feel they probably feel they didn't get as much from that license as they could have, especially considering how well Boulders Gate 3 went. And yeah, AI it is all wrapped up in part of that and trying to maximise profits. And I do think what's interesting in what the union's pushing for here, and I think it's absolutely correct, they should be pushing for all of this, is that at some point trying to get more money, better at work stuff, as well as pushing back on AI, which obviously is going to increase their productivity, is going to be it's going to be a hard fight because that it every part of that, it's not just like, okay, we promise to keep doing everything we can, you just pay us more money and you know we'll we'll deliver more. But if you're pulling out these tools that can help, and I'm I'm not a huge fan of AI as regular listeners of the podcast, I'll know. But it is a challenge when you're you're trying to pull, trying to get everything in that equation. So I do wonder what's going to what they're going to have to concede on. Compromise on, that's the word I'm groping for. Compromise on in terms of what they're pushing for at the moment. But I'm very happy to see because as you alluded to, the soul is very powerful here, like because ultimately drafting language, doing the incredible art that's on a lot of the Magic the Gathering cards is probably quite easy to do a few generations of without it being pulled apart, maybe one or two seasons of. But then very quickly, I think the cracks will start to show, but by that time it'll be too late. And that's the problem that you run into with these things. Like you you pull out the the Jenga blocks and you can't always put them back in fast enough to save a brand if you've done the damage.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Yeah. So we can't be having that going on. Um I I again I think Alex, I share a similar point, uh a similar stand to you in regards to the AI stuff, although I don't want to just read that part of it and let the rest of it cloud and let that let that cloud the rest of my vision. But I do I'd speculate. I don't think it's a coincidence that in the last six to twelve months we've seen a lot more stories like this popping up, and at the crux of every single one, and it seems that it's kind of become the focal point for all of these campaigns. AI protections are being banded around in order to also push other points as well. And I I think that the the use of LLMs and generative AI, I think that's the point where a lot of workers, you know, we've seen it not just at at Wizards of the Coast now, but we've seen it at Blizzard, we've seen it as Bethesda, you know, we've seen the big story at the end of last year around Rockstar in the UK and and unionization, but it feels like the these mandates around generative AI are starting to act as the breaking point where a lot of workers in these bigger studios and publishers within the industry are turning around and saying, Okay, we're not standing for that. Oh, while we're here, I've got a hundred people behind me, and this is what else we want. And with so many, I don't know how big this team is, but a hundred oh yeah. A hundred developers have formed this union, that feels like at any company that's a that's a decent sized chunk of of who you're working with. I and I imagine this is probably quite a large part of the team. So you'd think they've got a very good starting point for for negotiations here.

SPEAKER_01

And I I I think I I don't know. I I'm reading your script, and I can't remember if you mentioned this in speech or if I'm got your voice saying it might be. Go for it. Go for it. But they laid they laid off two thousand people. Yeah. Yeah, they they laid off two thousand people two years ago. And you can't look at that, then keep hearing generative AI and not be like, well, I'm next then, and I need some form of protection. That protection might even end up being as little as like what the severance looks like when they replace you with AI, but you need something because you need those you you can't build or plan or do anything without that. And um, yeah, it it I think the industry and the uncertainty around everything in the industry has be some become so great that I think every time a company tries to put anything else new in or take anything else away, it's just gonna get increasingly and understandably um I'm not gonna say the um mo dramatic. I should I guess I wanted to say violent, but I didn't want to say violent, but dramatically.

SPEAKER_00

I think emotion is the I think emotive is the word here. I think I I it's why I I I do think that the AI aspects of this will be the ones that get blown up the most, and I I think they're the most important in terms of making these this domino effect happen. But yeah, you're right, when you've got such these big layoffs in the past, you've got the CEO of the parent company that you're working under coming out and and praising this technology, it would be to me, it would be ill-advised to not think, okay, how can we protect ourselves? And as we are seeing, the best way to do that is to organize. And I think that obviously we've seen they have formed a union. This isn't, you know, this isn't something that's been speculated, it's happened. The question now, when where we'll come back to the story, I'm sure, is seeing what the reaction is, is seeing what internally this looks like. Are we going to have a situation? And I I'm not going to give any examples or anything like that, but we see situations where things like this happen and then studios get restructured shortly after. You know, could that happen? But I I I think on the whole, this is um I think it's good to see from my personal perspective, but I think more importantly, it is just another example of a very big player within this space now having to deal with unions, god forbid, they have to deal with the unions. Um I yeah, I I've seen this and I'm wondering who's next because I think it's going to keep on happening. I think every time it happens and it works, we don't know if this will work long time, but every time we do see people announcing it and saying we are doing this, it empowers someone else at another studio to turn around and say, Okay, well, we can join them too. I'm imagining in a few years' time we're gonna have like the Avengers End game of US AAA publishers unionizing, and I don't know what will happen. Who's your fanos gonna be? That's the question.

SPEAKER_01

Don't know.

SPEAKER_00

I'm not gonna name any uh I was gonna say no DC Underdeliver.

SPEAKER_01

Underdeliver before you answer that question. Underdeliver and move on.

SPEAKER_00

Underdeliver. I will I believe we have underdelivered that story. So, Alex, if you have nothing else to say, we can move on to our final story where I will aim to meet expectations. And we are back with our final big story of the day. And as I did just promise, of course, we are going to aim to meet your expectations of this one, share some analysis, leave a few bread trails for you to go away and and look into things more deeply. Maybe a few cobwebs might end up being there because we've neglected a few points. And and I mentioned cobwebs because this story is around spiders, the developer behind Greedfall, its sequel, and Steel Rising. They were a subsidiary of Nakon. I I feel like it. I say Nakon because what if I say Nakon, I think of Raycon. And I don't want to be thinking about Raycon. So we'll we'll go with Nakon. But Spiders, this studio, officially has been liquidated. We we reported in our, well not reported, but in our daily download newsletter yesterday, this was one of the the stories that we spoke about, and it was speculated at the time. We have now had the confirmation. Biders ceases to exist pretty much overnight. No buyer could be found. We know NACON itself is facing insolvency, and the studio issued what I thought was just a really sad statement, which essentially said we don't exist anymore. Planned DLC for Greed Falls sequel, which launched at the beginning of March, I think. That DLC will still be released. The developers won't be doing it, they won't be there to support it. This will be something that Nakon handle and publish. And then I imagine from there all the games will just not disappear, but dissipate, and that'll that'll be that, which is really sad. I you know, spiders has been around for about 20 years at this point. They've built some notoriety with releasing, you know, solid double A RPGs, but I don't know. I guess we're in an era where maybe the the appeal for those kind of games isn't there, and that's left spiders in a position where, you know, as we've said, Nakon tried to sell them, but no one wanted to buy for whatever that price was, and and so here they are.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it may make you wonder I mean, I guess ultimately somebody's gonna likely hoover up the license because at some point that's gonna be put out to the wind, and somebody feels that rather than taking on a studio, the license is more valuable, the license is more valuable to them or going to be worth picking up, but they'll likely pull it apart, like or not.

SPEAKER_00

Well, well, we did see on the bringing up the license talk is really interesting because yesterday we saw with Wu Chang Fallen Feathers, which launched last year. A few weeks ago, we we heard reports that the internal team had uh the the core of the internal team who were developed that had kind of gone their separate ways, and then that IP was bought in a similar way to what we might see with spiders with Greedfalls. Wuchang Fallen Feathers, the IP was bought for I think around four million dollars. So obviously there's precedent for that, but there's another bit of that very recent example of the precedent that that we're seeing, and I imagine it could happen because I think that to me, Greedfall definitely has enough of a name around it, I'd say enough of a community that someone could take that on quite cheaply and try something different with it. Obviously, it's that's good on one hand, and then the other side is that it's not the original people, so does it matter what it's called? We could see it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean I'd heard I I've heard all the individual parts of this story in terms of I've heard of Greedfall, I've heard of NACON. I think folk say I think looking, there, Focus Entertainment or Focus Interactive put out the first Greedfall and it's clearly purchased by Nacon. I think they published the first one and then Nacon acquired. Yeah, yeah. So you end up in a very weird place with that as to you know licensing and where the value lies and and what happened there. But but this is all to say, like it's uh with a an industry where people are already struggling to like keep the studios open that they have, the idea of buying out spiders probably did not seem appealing. Whereas somebody probably has an a classic RPG in development out there, like, right, we'll buy Greedful, we'll put the name on there. Tipex it out.

SPEAKER_02

There we go.

SPEAKER_00

Greedful 2. It it's well, there's technically already a Greedfall 2, yeah. Um for now. But that I mean we do see it, we do see it quite a lot, don't we? Where you can probably wait a couple of years, all this IP will end up with whatever happens with NACON, all this IP might end up in the hands of a creditor or or something, and then there's a real fire sale to to sell this stuff. To m to me, and I know it's slightly different, but I think back to a few weeks ago where we spoke about um oh the I can't think of the studio. We we were talking about a studio that had moved into becoming a support studio, and I can't think who it was now. No, no, no, no. This is this is useless for everyone listening. I cannot think of the studio in question, but it it it's just this I don't think that new studios deserve to die more than older ones do, but it it always does make me sad when we when we have examples of teams of of developers who have existed for long enough that in the UK at least they're allowed to go and buy a drink and get a driver's license, and and yet they just completely disappear essentially overnight, which is what's happened here, and and there'll be all this uncertainty around where the IP goes, where the tech goes, where developers go. Um yeah, very, very sad. I just I cannot recall that example that we were speaking about now.

SPEAKER_01

I'm scrambling through our past. Yeah, I can't see it. I can't I can't see who it is.

SPEAKER_00

I'll let me let me have a try. I'll try and have a look. Alex, do you have any more thoughts about this one before we do uh wrap up?

SPEAKER_01

Not massively. I think that the question of whether AA studios still kind of are of value or still out there. I think they definitely are, and I think there are some groups that are definitely making it run. I I feel like to an extent, Prague Martha almost falls into that looping background to that point. But I think there are still games absolutely to do that. I'm just EDOS Montreal.

SPEAKER_00

EDOS Montreal. That's who we were speaking about. IDOS, IDOS.

SPEAKER_01

IDOS. Thank you for beating me to your the correction. Um, um like I know there are a couple of developers out there that are kind of putting out these kind of mid-tier games that kind of sit in between AAA and that, and I think it really comes down to how they're scoped, how long they take to develop. And I'm just not sure that it sits for those massive RPGs unless they're kind of a very unless the team is in an area of the world that wages are affordable so that what you pull back in is is manageable, and that that's where I think things have to buckle.

SPEAKER_00

I guess the problem is if you're working on a RPG now, there's an expectation it's a really big and long game, unless it's from a small indie team. It I think there seems to be not much of an audience for a double A RPG that's 20 hours long compared to what they used to be. Whereas now it's you know it's something we want 10 to 12 hours of more like to me. If I ever played an RPG and finished it in 15 hours, I would be surprised. I wouldn't be unhappy necessarily, but I'd be surprised because I just don't think audiences now we're not trained to expect that. So maybe it does make it less appealing, maybe there's less of a space for it. But you know, I I know that I know that we're kind of we're from slightly different generations, but we do look back and reminisce about the the double A. You know, back in the day you could get some really bad double A games, and and but we were happy. We were happy with them. They weren't great games, they weren't terrible games, they were just very meh games. And not to suggest that that's what spiders did, but I think they filled that that middle ground of not major, huge experiences, just something fun. Like the not the best game ever, but fun.

SPEAKER_01

I always whenever I think of play, I think of a very old game called Singularity, and then the double the sticks series of like goblin stealth games, and there's absolutely a place for them. It's just like scoping things appropriately and Raven Software Singularity. Yep, yep, that'd be right. And just the kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00

And they'll never make a game like that again because now they're in the Call of Duty uh pipeline.

SPEAKER_01

So But there there are so many games now that a double A succeeding is just the budget for a double A has by definition, it's not triple A, but it it's at a point. Yeah, to develop something takes a lot of money at that kind of scale, which is why those kind of smaller experiences fill in.

SPEAKER_00

Quote that, quote that, get that. That's a social media clip right there. God making big games costs big money. Well, basically. Who said that? Was it Alex Beach or Jason Schreier? No, but it is sorry, I don't mean to degrade the point you're making. Because it is true, but that's the issue, is that I think there's only space for really small budgets or huge budgets, and it's very difficult to especially in the West.

SPEAKER_01

It's a very hard place to sit as a double-A developer to like need that kind of money and then have the kind of success you need to pull it back, is the is the problem. Yeah, because the sales expectations are higher and higher as all that thing. And the competition everything's going up.

SPEAKER_00

No, all I'd say before we move on is just looking at Greed for the Dying World, which is the sequel, launched at the i in early March. Um, I have a a plug-in tool, which I'm not gonna say it's the most accurate tool in the world, but estimated revenue of around a million, just under a thousand reviews, so this is just on Steam, it looks to have done okay. Player count not amazingly high, but it it doesn't look like the kind of release which would kill off a studio. As I say that actually, having gone and double check the player count, the peak player count was 940 players. So maybe maybe we're not happy with that. But we'll we'll sad to hear this news about spiders, and obviously I wish that everyone connected to the studio manages to to land back on their feet. Sadly, it's just we we keep seeing these kind of stories, don't we? But we'll break away, we'll come back, and we'll we'll try and raise the spirits by taking a look at a few funny stories as part of this week's rapid rundown. Welcome to the rapid rundown. Alex has just been refreshing himself for a little drink. I've been doing that a lot quite. Taking a look at two stories this week. The first of which I'm going to lead with our second story, Alex, actually. Which is the news that earlier in the week, Atari acquired emulation studio implicit conversions. Now, I don't need to explain who Atari are, I'd like to hope, but implicit conversions are an emulation expertise studio. I think they're particularly quite strong with PlayStation, with Legacy PlayStation games. I picked this one out because I these kind of acquisitions to me make me think that Atari are looking around and they're trying to figure out what they can be the experts on in a very busy industry compared to the one that started with Atari in the late 70s? Early 80s. And they're thinking everyone wants to emulate games at the moment, everyone wants to release ROM packs, they want to re-release their old games. Can we become, can Atari become the experts in emulation? And I I think we'll see more of these acquisitions is is my bet because it makes a lot of sense to me.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean it it's a weird one. Okay, there we go then.

SPEAKER_00

Right. That story's done.

SPEAKER_01

On to the next one. I guess I don't know how I don't know how much you can make on that. I guess it's gonna be where that kind of lives or dies. Like how many plastic fake Raspberry Pi Atari machines can you sell and how are you going to package up? Because I know that there's all sorts of like the Intellivision thing where you're buying carts independently.

SPEAKER_00

To me, I'm wondering if they'll start acting, they'll start that's not the right word to use.

SPEAKER_01

There's gonna be a subscription, isn't there?

SPEAKER_00

Well, my theory was that they'll start using companies like implicit conversions to basically go to Sony and be like, oh, you wanna you wanna pull like the Ratchet and Clank trilogy? I'm definitely not a fan of those games. I absolutely love them. But do you do you want to pull this trilogy to the PS5, we can do that.

SPEAKER_01

Hey, I I see you lost Blue Point Studios.

SPEAKER_00

We couldn't emulate your games ever again. Why have they got like a strange American accent? Hey, hey man. But I mean it's a good idea. If you look at what implicit have done in the past, their catalogue includes Immortal Combat trilogy, Rayman, Fear Effect. So they're definitely a studio who are able to bring these games to modern platforms. So I don't know how much as a strategy, I don't know how to really there is in it as your s as your sole kind of way to go. I guess though the the margins would be quite low. I can't imagine it would cost much to do some of the work.

SPEAKER_01

So assuming that assuming the licenses are giving it up and just one, but you you're always going to be sharing the profits with whoever's licensing it. Then you've got the studio and then I don't know. No, we don't know. Anyway, anyway, that's the tiring. Ultimately it's going to depend on the games they get licenses to. True.

SPEAKER_00

That's very true. Please, please, no more. We cannot need any more Street Fighter 2 compilations. I feel like there's about 500 of them. So if we're doing anything that's not classic Street Fighter or I'm trying to think what else I see a lot. Always Street Fighter. I'm at least Tetris, you can, you know, I I don't necessarily mind Tetris as much because they tend it's just the Street Fighter collections. I see so many. I'm sorry, Street Fighter fans. I don't have any issue with Street Fighter 2. I've heard it's quite good. But I think I can buy that around seven different ways on the Switch at this point.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I don't need to do it once.

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna say, have you bought any of them? Because they're gonna keep doing it until you do that.

SPEAKER_00

You know, my you know, my fighting game experience, 2D fighting games, is Tekken Tag Tournament 2 on the Wii U. Not 2D Oh, okay. Super Smash Bros. on the 3DS and Super Smash Bros. Yeah, just 2D. Ultimate. I think. The only yeah, they're the only fighting games I've ever played. I hate them. I'm sorry. Um something I don't hate though is this other story, which is all around Pokemon cards and scalpers. So uh at least one branch of Bic Camera, which is an electronics retailer in Japan. It is, it's a huge one, too. There we go. 45. It's not quite as good as Yorobashi camera, but we'll take a Bit camera if we can. Okay, we'll go with Bit Camera, because they're they're the ones that are doing this. And what they're essentially doing is saying, we don't need jingle. You know, we've got a jingle. Well, there's always a jingle. Give us the jingle, right? I can't, I can't do it. I can't do it. I promise a jingle and they're not delivering. No, sorry. But yeah, Bit Camera, they're essentially thinking, hey, how can we stop how how can we stop? They're not gonna ask you to go online and do one of those silly fill-the-box things and prove you're not a robot. Their solution is that so here we go. So they're gonna limit the amount of boxes of cards that people can buy, which is an obvious one, but that that what they're also going to do is ask every single customer a 15 second uh 15 second? A 15 question, that'll be a very quick quiz. 15 question quiz based on the Pokemon universe, and we and only those who answer the questions correctly can buy the item. The sign, there's a sign also that talks about this in the store, and it also warns that if you take a photo of the quiz questions, you will be kicked out, they will not allow you to buy everything. Um, which I think this could possibly be the greatest solution to scalping we've ever seen. And I genuinely think this could work across the board because I'm picturing concert tickets. If you want to buy a ticket to go see uh why is Madonna the first name that's come to my head? If you want to go see Madonna in concert, here's a pop quiz you have to answer. If you don't get 70%, you don't get any tickets.

SPEAKER_01

You only need 40 years of Madonna knowledge to cover it all off.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, the thing is I've got my uh I've got my special Pokemon shirt on today, so I'd like I think I could put it But look at this from the other way around, right?

SPEAKER_01

My mum, bless her, love my mum. Um, used to have to run into Toys I Ross on the way home because somewhere in some newspaper they got a warning that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys were gonna be coming into stock.

SPEAKER_00

So sorry if she if she can't pass the quiz, no ties.

SPEAKER_01

My point exactly. She doesn't even know what toys she came back with. I think the first time I got a foot soldier and maybe Raphael, who to my mind is even you fail the quiz. No turns. I wanted Donatello or Leonardo. Like these were my person that follows the rule and the nerd. Is it is it weird that these were the two I liked? But yeah, like I can't imagine like the dad the salaryman father on his way home having to suddenly have an encyclopedic knowledge of Pokemon or he's gonna have a crying child to come back to.

SPEAKER_00

Timmy, who the hell does Greninja evolve from? Timmy, we need some help here. No, I couldn't. I understand that. That's good. I think I think the problem is it's becoming an increasingly well, it is a big issue. I think you see it everywhere. I think Pokemon cards is one of the most obvious ones. Um, but we're we're seeing more and more inventive ways to combat scalpers. I think the last point from this, which I find interesting, is that so if you pass those other tests, you also need to have a reward card for Big Camera. I've got the camera reward card, and you also have to agree to let the cashier remove the shrink wrap from the box. So, yes, again, this I think this is genius. I think this is evil genius. I like that one. So they can't resell it as new and sealed. And you brought up that very good, you know, that is a problem, what you said. But then the flip side of this is that if this in any way can combat scalpers, especially that last thing about not being able to sell them, not being able to buy them without unsealing them, that it is a solution. I think that could work.

SPEAKER_01

I think if you're buying little Takeshi, full boxes, may maybe there's a bigger issue you've got.

SPEAKER_00

That's why he needs a some seven-year-old.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe there's a another side to that. I think these are the wrong pile of cards, or I could flash up my big camera card. That's different.

SPEAKER_00

I still have my Mario Kart arcade card here somewhere as well. Well, you're gonna need that if you want to get any Mario items. I think that's the way it's going. So what's the lesson here? The lesson maybe is if you love Well, maybe my lesson would be if you want to keep collecting, insert any collectible here, brush up on your knowledge because you might this might come to a it's in Japan at the moment. Who knows? It might end up travelling over.

SPEAKER_01

And then I'm trying to think of the thing that like could really stuff me if I was to walk up and uh In my head, I'm just gonna go Resident Evil. I bet you could pull a quiz together like with 15 questions I couldn't get to the first time. Yeah, how hard are they?

SPEAKER_00

How hard are they? Are we talking like Mastermind level?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Where you go in and you think, oh yeah, I'm an expert at this, and then the first question is about some I always think to me, it's like I'd go on and be like, oh, Zelda. And then the first question would be about like the CDI games. Like, is it gonna be that level of in Pokemon Fire and you know, in Pokemon Red and Blue, what how did you, you know, how did you get Missingo to appear? And then everyone's like, oh that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01

Well I famously just finished Resident Evil 9 having times. I s I'm honestly thinking, could I name the end of game boss on that now?

unknown

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe in that case you'd have to get off your um your like trophy, the the PlayStation trophy for finishing the game. Yeah, I could prove it that way. Yeah, but but anyway, I think we'll we'll wrap there. I'm aware of the fact that we we we've had quite a long rundown today. Don't worry, we underdelivered. Yeah, we did. We underdelivered. I think with the rundown we met expectations. We promised two good stories, and I think we gave two good stories. Uh I feel like I'm doing like a review here. I know we're technically at work, but I feel like I'm in a like performance review. How did the podcast go today, Thomas? Uh but that is that is it for another week, for another weekly download. As always, I do like to mention all the stories we speak about today will be available to we'll have all the links down below so you can go and have a. Yeah, if there we go. If you're watching and you're interested in our weekly download newsletter, not the podcast, give Alex his QR code a scan. That will take you to the LinkedIn. Yeah. And then you can go and find it.

SPEAKER_01

My LinkedIn page. But yeah, you can.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Oh yeah, well, go and find Alex's. You can go and talk to Alex if you wish. We've also got our daily download newsletter, which is five days a week. You can find the links for that in the description below. And with that, that's the uh the the sign off for me, done Alex. Do you have any any last thoughts this week that you'd like to add?

SPEAKER_01

No. No, no, I just feel for little, I've just feel for little Takeshi who's not getting his Pokemon cards for his uh for his burgling YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_00

Alex, he's got to get good, he's got to get his Pokemon knowledge up. It's not difficult. It's not difficult.

SPEAKER_01

If you're not wearing it round your neck and graded, are you really a Pokemon card collector?

SPEAKER_00

No, no, you're not. And on that note, thank you. I like that's how we're ending. On that note, thank you so much for listening. Well, we'll see you next time. Goodbye.