The Weekly Download

Genshin Impact developer invests $14.6 BILLION into AI for games

• Big Games Machine • Season 1 • Episode 32

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0:00 | 34:32
SPEAKER_03

The weekly download, podcast about interesting game industry news, brought to you by Big Games Machine. Hello, hello, welcome back to the weekly download brought to you by Big Games Machine. I'm your host, Tom, returning after missing last week. And today I I'm not joined by you again, Yaz, but our our audience is joined by you again. So introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_00

Hi, I'm Yaz. I'm back again. Not to quite a minute.

SPEAKER_03

Two weeks in a row. I think I think this is I think you're the first person outside of me or Alex to do two weeks in a row. So there you go.

SPEAKER_00

What can I say?

SPEAKER_03

Congrats. Congrats. You're becoming a mainstay. Um but yes, back again. We've got some stories to run through today. We're going to be looking at a few bits and bobs across the last seven days of the industry. So we'll be taking a look at the news that Hoyoverse is set to invest up to $14.6 billion in in-house AI tools. It's a lot of money. We'll also be looking at even more money-related news, which is that Microsoft is set to pay $250 million to Activision Blizzard shareholders as part of a lawsuit. And then finally, just realize all three of today's stories are about money. I didn't even realize that until now.

SPEAKER_00

Very finance focused.

SPEAKER_03

Finally, yeah, well, money, money in the news. But finally this week, we'll be looking at the story around one of Valnet site, a gamer, and who allegedly, when we're seeing reports around this, they're now changing their payment system for freelancers to a per article session system rather than flat rates. So we'll be getting into that. We'll be getting into these two other stories in just a moment, but we'll be right back. Welcome back. Our first story this week is, of course, the news that Hoyoverse is going to be investing around 14.6 billion pounds in in-house AI tools. Now, this isn't just, I'm thinking immediately, this isn't just a very expensive version of Chat GPT. They're essentially going to be building a lot of their own infrastructure. So we're looking at GPU clusters, training systems, application architecture, all these fancy technical terms. MPCs are a really big focus too. These AI-powered MPCs, say that 10 times and keep stumbling over them like I have just done in the bit that you won't hear. They're designed to be more reactive and lifelike. I think we're seeing these kind of buzzwords around AI-powered MPCs a lot. And yeah, this is, I think, another example where we're seeing more publishers and developers looking to take AI stuff in-house, seeing a lot of investment into those areas. Crafton be making a lot of noise about it. And we're seeing things in the last few weeks that Ubisoft are using it a lot for experimentation. My first thought, and my question, I think, for you, Yaz, is my worry here is that especially on the MPC side of things, I feel like this is really going to change the way that MPCs work in games. You know, historically, developers have and and writers have been able to build quests and characters with NPCs that are very much everyone's getting the same experience and you can really carefully manage what that looks like and you can really tell a fixed story. Whereas if we're going to move into a situation where we're seeing a lot more of these AI-powered NPCs, what what does that look like? You know, I know you're you're a writer. I I'm not as good of a writer as you, but I, you know, I like to write. Hey, come on. I, you know, we we we both really value narrative and and writing, and it feels I don't I don't understand how these two things can mesh together and and work.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I agree with you. It's it's a really fine line they're gonna have to tread. You know, there's there's a lot of backlash already in the community about AI generated things. For example, Crafton's Inzoy, that's not had good reception, and that is very blatantly using a lot of AI. And as a result, the NPCs and the gameplay don't feel unique despite the fact that maybe internally it was uber efficient. I think AI can be used well, you know, especially for like hardware upgrades to make things more efficient on the software side. But when it comes to the creative side, the assets of the game, the story behind it, that needs to still be very human-driven, and that's what is going to push the sales.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's I mean, my to me, Zelda is is my favourite series, and so much of that, even I don't think Zelda is often the stories in the games can be quite weak, but there's so much lore and and background to every version of that game you ever see, and that's all so carefully pieced together, and then the fans go in and and find stuff, and it's that like any game, it's these shared experiences which I think are what make this form of entertainment so good, and and so I think it's why people are so invested in it, is because we all have uh we might have a different experience with a game, but the thread lines of those stories and of those characters in particular tend to be the same. So the idea that one day we're going to have not that I I don't think Nintendo's a great example because Nintendo's been quite strongly against this kind of stuff. But if we look at something like, you know, if we're looking at Hoyoverse with this petite planet, the idea that as a life sim, everyone's going to have a different experience of di like with the same characters, it it just doesn't it it doesn't sit right with me and it it will be interesting to see if you know if they are doing this, how the community reacts because you you bring up a great point about Inzoi, and that's something where there was a lot of backlash to parts of that, but we've not really seen too much of the AI-powered NPC stuff, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00

For example, with Animal Crossing, right, a big part of it is that every villager has its own personality, and people have done tier rankings online for the villagers, for God's sake. Like people get invested in characters and NPCs, and yeah, if it's not the same throughout, that does pose a bit of a weird situation, doesn't it? It for me, like I don't play any games at Hoyo versus Dumb, but now that I know that they're investing more in AI, it probably makes me less likely to ever try one of their games in the future. And I wonder if that's gonna have a knock-on effect in like other consumers as well.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it's so divisive, isn't it? Yeah. I think that's the whichever side you fall on it. I I think in theory, something like this is like it sounds amazing, I think, in theory, but I do it it's the do you need more choice here? Like, do you need every single character to be able to do a million different things?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Because I imagine there's definitely going to have to be to use to think of like going to like play bowling. You've got like the site, like if you've got the barriers up, I think there has to be barriers here.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Where characters can do anything within reason, but they can't completely go off and and you know the I know that Epic last year introduced the uh an AI Dart Veda NPC, and and there was a lot of problems with that because people were getting Darfer to say some very questionable things, which we we won't go into. But yeah, I mean it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I think the last point that I want to touch on before we move on is that this is a lot of money. It is 14.6 billion pounds is hard to to me, it's hard to see how what what is the return in of investment on this? How does this how is this a success? Because I think if you look at the flat amount of money, I don't see how these features or these uses in games that the consumers will see. Well, obviously you mentioned before things in the back end for efficiency. How much of this is going to be so beneficial for customers and for consumers that that money does come back to them? Or is or is that even the I don't know if that's the goal to to make that money back? But yeah, I'm kind of thinking that's a lot of money to spend on.

SPEAKER_00

And is this going to result in like layoffs as well? I mean, we see it so often, but I feel like it's always one of those things where it's like short-term gains doesn't always result in long-term benefits. So definitely want to watch. I'm curious how they sort of define their success with this.

SPEAKER_03

Looking at this story around Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, it kind of feels like we're in 2023 again and we're talking about the acquisition of Activision and and everything to do with that. But this story is kind of an offshoot of that. So Microsoft has agreed to pay $250 million, a lot of money, not quite $14.6 billion, to settle a lawsuit from Swedish pension fund AP7 regarding the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The lawsuit claimed that Activision Blizzard uh CEO, I believe that was his title, Bobby Kotik, pushed through the sale at a lower price than they would have wished for and maybe below market value to avoid dealing with the there was so much uh of these harassment allegations and a lot of investigations in 2023 into conduct at Activision Blizzard. I think something we have to say is that Microsoft is paying this money. Their own statements have said this isn't an admission of guilt about what's happened. This is essentially Microsoft saying, we don't want to drag this on, we don't want to deal with this anymore. So we want to avoid this continued litigation. Let's just end this now. To have this weird offshoot, and we're going to talk about Embracer, which feels like it's come out of nowhere. But Bobby Kotik's team, in response to this suit, claimed that the pension fund in question, AP7, they were working alongside Embracer Group to try and make Activision weaker and to stop Activision from being successful, which is some very ironic to have this spy story potentially happening when a new James Bond game is out this week. Uh, we're always on trend. But to very quickly give you this quote from the the suit, this is from Bobby Kotik's team, which is that this Delaware lawsuit was apparently aimed to help pave the way for Embracer to increase its foothold in the California market at the expense of Activision. Embracer have come out and basically said, and again, we'll quote, it it's not involved in this, and that they quote, do not need any help from a Swedish pension fund in competing with Activision, which I got spighting talk. I I quite like that. But that's the that's the context of of what this story is. I think the big thing for me is that this feels like the we can maybe stop talking about Bobby Kotik now. I think this is Microsoft looking and thinking we can spend this money. It's a lot of money, but it's actually only less than a percent of the total cost of the merger. And is it worth paying that to clear this story and to stop the headlines appearing, I guess? What do you think?

SPEAKER_00

It's a messy one, isn't it? This is very, very messy. It's I genuinely don't really know where I sit with this. I I mean, I feel like this shouldn't have all happened in the first place, but there we go. Um yeah, I mean, I think it's PR control, the bottom line of it, really, isn't it? They don't want to be tied to this anymore, they don't want their reputation to be damaged, so they pay the money and off to go. And for them, it's probably a splash in the water, like realistically speaking.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, 0.5% of the total 69 billion, if if anyone needs reminding, that's what the act the Activision, the acquisition of Activision costs. So I I think you're definitely on the money. It feels like let's just let's give them the money.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's not I'd love to be in a position where I can turn around and be like, ah, $250 million, it's not that much, guys.

SPEAKER_00

Let's just But you know it's you know it's some higher up that did say, Oh, this is nothing, this is peanuts, just I'll sign it and let's yeah. Which I don't know, it's it's a bit of a grey area, isn't it? I don't really I don't really like the outcome of this.

SPEAKER_03

Well, we've seen there was if we're looking at the these stories around the harassment allegations which we saw in the past, a lot of those were settled in 2023 and in 2024. So this feels for me, I I think it you can't really spin it and be like, oh yeah, this is about like taking it to Bobby Kotik and and making him pay for these alleged um things that have happened. It it's just kind of we can, you know, it's a pension fund, pension funds are there to make money for the people who invest into them. So it yeah, I I it it does all feel very murky, but I think that Microsoft will be glad that this is done. It's another we keep seeing since Asha Sharma has come in and taken over Microsoft, she's continuing, whether she's responsible for things like this or not. Her her reign has kept bringing up these I don't necessarily think this is a positive story for Microsoft, but I think it's definitely good news for them because it does allow them to say, you know, that was then, this is now, we're we're done with this. The Activision Blizzard of Microsoft isn't the Activision Blizzard of Bobby Kotik. I I just hope, and I'm I'm sure you feel the same. I just hope that those allegations that have come in the past, you know, if there's some truth to what has been claimed, you have to hope that those lessons have been learned and by bringing things under Microsoft that things are better because we don't the industry does not need these kind of stories. And you know, there's so much money that's being passed around because of of these things that, as you said, never should have have have happened in the first place.

SPEAKER_00

So Yeah, it definitely feels like Xbox in particular, with its all its stuff it's been doing lately with the new leadership and stuff. I think they're just trying to have a clean slate on everything, you know, new name, yeah, new leadership team, this as well, just yeah, trying to wipe it all start again if they can.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's something that Alex spoke about um a few times where we've where we've looked at Xbox stories in the past few months, and it it almost feels like from the outside, a bit like Phil Spencer was. Maybe some of these things that have been going on in the last few months were in the works anyway, before Phil Spencer departed. But Xbox and Microsoft were like, if we just hold this for a little bit, we can make everyone love our new leadership team. And and they can, as you said, it feels like they've got a fresh slate, they are doing they are doing good things. Um obviously this not this isn't necessarily a good thing, but I think it as we've said it, it's about pushing something out of the way and and you know we're it's about video games. Like we don't need these kind of things being stories, we don't need to see money that could have been used to make some very good games instead having to go into lawsuits because of acquisitions and and mergers and and things that for players and for us, we might be industry professionals, but we're we're gamers before anything else. We we want to see uh conversations about games. So I think unless you have any closing thoughts, we'll we'll wrap this one and then we'll we'll come back and yeah, we'll we'll be back in a moment. And we are back with our third and final major story of the day. Before we get down into the rundown, which will be a lot more fun, I promise you Yaz has picked out a great story this week as well, which I'm excited to look at. But before we do that, we'll take a look at this story we've seen this week that is around Valnet. Uh, they're the parent company of a lot of sites. The Gamer, Game Rant, Polygon now. We're seeing reports that the gamer, so staff at the gamer, are now being moved into a new payment system, which is essentially tying their wages, the income they make from their writing. Rather than receiving flat rates, they're now going to receive money based on article sessions, which is views. Writers will reportedly earn $5 per 1,000 views, while editors will earn $3 per $1,000 views under the contract that these new that these writers will be working under, this new contract, if an article doesn't hit the 1,000 session view threshold within 15 days, as we understand, they will earn nothing for the time put into writing the article, which, you know, you can tell from Yaz's face, not happy about this. Neither am I. Some staff who have spoken to reporters about this think that this might be attempt to initiate soft layoffs by essentially making it such by making the conditions that they're working in so bad and by making the money they're earning so low that people just quit on their own. Management on the other side, they don't think that it's like this. They believe it's an exciting performance-based bonus system. Though I we're both, again, we're both writers to some degree. But if you're not getting a guaranteed flat rate for what you're writing, that can't be a bonus. That to me, I feel like if someone turned around to use Yazm was like, oh, if you write this byline, I'll I'll maybe, you know, if it if loads of people look at it, I'll give you some bonus money. And then you're like, oh, so what am I getting for doing it in the first place? And they're like, oh no, no. That's the that's how the bonus works.

SPEAKER_00

This gives me the vibe that some sales manager has made this decision and wants to encourage this like competitiveness of oh, maybe if they know they'll get paid more for more sessions, they'll do better or really drive them. But obviously, the people creating the content see the other side and like, no, it won't. This is awful. At least, you know, that's how I see it.

SPEAKER_03

I I think what you're saying, obviously that you're that's your that's not your position, but that makes sense for a you know, if an executive is think is thinking like that, that kind of makes sense if there is a flat rate in there. If you are encouraging people, you know, I I've I've freelanced for Valnet before, so I'm gonna be careful with what I say. Not that I think it matters because it's been five, six years, but if if you're encouraging freelancers to go out and try and find trending topics and stories to write about, and there's an incentive to do that because you'll get paid more to do it, that makes sense. But if there's no guarantee that, you know, you we both know how long it can take to write good, proper pieces of work. It doesn't have to be journalism. It, you know, if you're writing bylines, if you're writing press releases, if you're writing pitches, that takes time. And the idea of doing that and publishing it, and there's no guarantee that you even get anything for it, it it's ludicrous. And I think my concern as someone who works in PR and works with a lot of indie games is that if a writer if a writer knows they're only going to get paid for people looking at the page, there's zero incentive to cover anything that isn't a massive new release, a major live service game, or you know, I I don't mean to be mean to anyone who does this kind of content, but this more low quality listical style of and you know the stuff that I used to write because we were talking about earlier, but the kind of oh, who's the best version of this character, or or the the top ten Switch games that have got a Mario Easter egg, or there's no incentive to do anything that's not that kind of content because you're not going you you're clearly not going to get paid for it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So it's free labor, essentially, is what they're trying to get at here. And I think that is terrible. And I know that writers are currently in a revolt around it, and fair play to them, I would be exactly the same as well. I just I think you're right, this is definitely a soft launch for people quitting, moving on, making people quit without having to make them redundant because it's always easier when the employer employee quits than being fired or redundancy. I just know that if I was in this situation, I'd be moo looking to move on straight away.

SPEAKER_03

I think it's uh Yeah, you know, and the but the problem is there's not the we've seen this race to the bottom for games media and games journalism for quite a few years now. I as someone who was in that position, I feel more offended by this than I do by what we've seen recently with websites being acquired and then turned into AI generated content mills. I find that this does this upsets and angers me more because it feels like that it's an attempt to kind of have your cake and I can't think what's the saying, to eat your cake and have your cake and eat it? I can't think what the take your cake and eat it or something.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I know what you mean. I agree with you.

SPEAKER_03

It's like, oh, we've still got human writers, so that's good. But if if your article gets eight hundred views, you're not gonna get anything for it. So someone gets Well you get nothing. But even then, if you get if you get a thousand, you only get five dollars. Which I think is about I don't I'm trying to think what that is in pounds for obviously us in the UK, it's maybe like four pounds.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think it's it's three pounds seventy three.

SPEAKER_03

Three pounds seventy three. So if you're you know if you spend yeah, just the idea of you spend an hour putting an article together, and I think that's even that's ridiculously quick. The idea of here's a headline, here's a story, write about it, and the idea that you can do that in an hour is a bit unrealistic and you might earn five dollars for that. Or but obviously the ceiling is that you might earn loads, but then the reality is there's only so many views to go around on a day.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like not every piece is gonna be a viral hit, you know. And it it definitely detracts from that evergreen content as well, which I think is really important. You were saying, you know, they would lean in towards the trending stuff all the time. Well, what about the evergreen stuff that's actually still really important to look at, and you know, regular loyal viewers and readers will expect to see regularly. So messy again.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, let's see. I think as you said, there's definitely been that we we're aware of the fact that there's pushback against this, so but it has been implemented. We'll we'll see how it goes. If it kicks up, if there's enough of a a PR storm, I guess, against this and people are really unhappy, then maybe we'll see things change. I I'm very cynical. I think that a lot of consumers and and readers of these sites don't really care about the people behind them. They just want the content. But I think that you know, I I hope that there's there's more to this story, and and if there is, we'll definitely talk about it because we're with with our work that these relationships are really important to us with journalists, and we want to make sure that everyone's getting what they deserve and and this feels like it's not going to do that. So we'll we'll see. But shall we shall we break away and when we come back we'll speak about some some happier things. Some happy. How does that sound to you?

SPEAKER_00

That's it.

SPEAKER_03

We'll come back to the rapid rundown. Why are we laughing? You're wondering. It's because Yaz has just reminded me of the fact that I'm there going, oh, we've got some really happy stories. We do. Well, we have one really happy one. We have one that's quite funny, and then the first one is around Destiny 2, and it's it's not too happy. Reportedly, most of Bungie's staff who are working on Destiny 2 didn't even know that active development was going to end until it went public. We keep seeing these kind of things where people find out about layoffs, where people find out about studio situations through the media. And again, we work in PR, I don't get how this is happening. I don't understand how there's not memos going around internally days ahead of time. And I understand perhaps there's a concern about leaks, but the idea that people at Bungie who might have spent a decade working on the Destiny series and they log into Blue Sky or they go on IGN and then they're tapping their employee their like co-worker on the shoulder and being like, are we not doing this anymore?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Doesn't feel great.

SPEAKER_00

Are you are you a Destiny player yourself or I'm not, no, so I've been interested a few times. I've heard great things about it, but never actually played it myself. Not actually credibly. Do you want to start now? Do I want to start now? Probably not.

SPEAKER_03

And you hear a lot of- Can't wait to see what comes next.

SPEAKER_00

Well, well, I think redundancies are coming next. Um, and that puts me off again. You know, you hear about these bad things, you hear about AI replacing jobs, you hear about redundancies, you hear about reduced budgets, yada yada yada. And it just puts me off wanting to try these studios games. Like it just creates a really bad brand impression. And I I won't be the only one, you know. I think there'll be a lot of community lashback.

SPEAKER_03

So yeah, it's not and they'll be flashing back to the good times, I'm sure, when we're still getting content. Uh but yeah, we'll a little a little teaser, I guess, for next week. We've got um we've got a few members of the team who are very much big Destiny fans, and and next week we'll be having a slightly different episode. We're gonna do a special episode which will be completely on on Destiny 2. Won't be exploring the game necessarily, but a lot of it will be, as we've said, the kind of uh as PR people, it'll be our take on how Bungie and Sony have handled this and you know what they've done right, what they've done wrong. Um so stay tuned for that. But next story, yeah, as this is this is the one that we promised everyone that was really good. So I'm gonna I'm gonna hand over the the microphone and say, tell us, tell us about Paralives, please. Give us some joy.

SPEAKER_00

Life simulation fans rejoice. Paralives came out on Monday. Very long anticipated and awaited from a lovely little indie studio. I think they're got about 15 people. I actually saw a TikTok the other, yeah. I got a TikTok the other day of them literally pressing publish on their game and they were all whooping in the office. It was so cute, but it's done very well within the first eight hours of the game coming out. It sold 250,000 copies. It currently has a very positive rating on Steam. Out of the nearly 5,000 online reviews, a good 80-85% of them are positive. And the game's currently peaked at about almost 80k players.

SPEAKER_03

It's a good start.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, this genre has been crying out for more games because the Sims 4 has been a 10, 11-year disappointment that keeps demanding money from its fans. Inzoy, Inzoy, like at the start, did really well, and they were like, Yeah, we've sold a million copies in the week. But then actually you look into the details, and about 300,000 of those copies were uh refunded. So that's a lot.

SPEAKER_03

Are you you're uh have you played this? Have you played this one yet?

SPEAKER_00

It's on my wish list for tomorrow when we get paid.

SPEAKER_03

Very nice, very nice.

SPEAKER_00

But the good thing with Paralives is there'll be no DLC. All updates to the game, all new content that is added will be added for free for everyone that owns it. It's currently 10% off right now, and so it's gonna be like the lowest price it'll ever be. It is early access, which means as time goes on and they add more, like the price will go up. But it's done so, so well to kick off you know, their launch. And we needed it. This the genre needs it.

SPEAKER_03

I was just gonna say it's uh it it feels like, yeah, it's always been everyone plays Sims, but they kind of play it begrudgingly, is the impression I get from the the outside. So it's great to see more competition. I think we need more competition for those kind of temp those genres where there's kind of one big temp pole game and and everyone just floods back to it. And and you'd like to hope if they continue to you know work hard, continue to add new features and and content and and all these other things that the players will keep with it. And and I think it's one of those situations where you think the studio can help the fan base, and the fan base can help the studio, and it might never be able to compete with Sims right up there, but it's always good to have more options, and you know, I I love I love a good indie studio story. I saw that that video, I think I saw it on Instagram, and I I'm a big fan of the I don't know what the genre is, but the videos of developers pressing the green button on Steam and celebrating. So so great to see, and and I hope that this continues to do well.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Our last story for for the rundown today is about a heist. It's about a heist, it's about Pokemon. That's the only reason why I wore my my uh Singapore airport Pokemon shirt today.

SPEAKER_00

You're dressed for the occasion.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, just to I've I've got to. Although I've not been involved in this heist for the record. Two Japanese men have been arrested over an alleged $213,000 Pokemon card heist targeting a delivery vehicle. My first thought was the Pokemon scalpers have stepped it up.

SPEAKER_02

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

You know, we're we're not just waiting at the machines anymore, we're not just stealing the cards from 10-year-old Timmy who wants to get his first Pokemon deck from the machine. We're now going straight to the source and and and taking them from the delivery vehicle.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And yeah, it's it it's this this Pokemon card craze, uh, from what I can see, it's beginning to die down a bit in terms of the the financial side. You know, a lot of the prices of the the more lucrative cards and boxes and stuff are are starting to go down. But the fact that people are even doing in the doing this in the first place is just you know, it's crazy. This is a I say this as there's various Pokemon things all around me. It's a kid's game.

SPEAKER_02

It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, let's just take a step back and you know, we don't Team Rocket are the bad guys in Pokemon. We don't want to be copying them. Let's not try to steal any Pokemon cards or anything for that matter.

SPEAKER_00

This isn't like a a one-off incident either. You know, I think, especially in Japan, a lot of this happens. It's just baffling. Like Pokemon cards, literally a piece of card with something printed on it is creating this much drama. And yeah, it's just crazy. Like out of all the things you could choose to do a heist on as well. Pokemon cards.

SPEAKER_03

But this is they're they're worth so much. This is what's like it, you know, it is crazy, but then the value of them is crazy as well. So well, not anymore because they got caught. Well, yeah. Or maybe I don't know, uh we don't know if they got away with some of the cards there. Maybe the cards are all hidden somewhere waiting for them to think if they if they've hidden them and then they get out, you know, if they go to prison and they get out one day, how much might they like in 20 years' time? It's like we've got an unseal, we've got a sealed box of uh the mega rising or or whatever said it is. But I think, yeah, don't don't steal Pokemon cards. That's probably where we'll the life lesson will end today's episode.

SPEAKER_00

The moral of the story, children.

SPEAKER_03

Don't steal Pokemon cards. The moral of the story, tell tell developers that you're ending development on the game they're working on. Yes. Support Paralybs.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

And don't steal Pokemon cards. That feels like a pretty good trifecta. And and that is it for another weekly download with a lovely moral message at the end. As always, if you want to read more about these stories, you'll find them all. I'm like kind of pointing downwards. If you're listening, you won't see that. They're all in the description, whether you are on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, if you're watching on YouTube, all the stories will be linked below. I always recommend you go and give them a read, form your own takes, form your own opinions. And if you've enjoyed listening to Yaz and I uh have a have a bit of a waffle about some of the stories of the last seven days, give us a like. Be sure to subscribe wherever you're listening or watching. And if you'd like to read our if you'd like to read the weekly download, you can do so via LinkedIn. We we cover some of the same stories, but we cover a lot more. You get a lot more detail in there. That's every week uh come rain or very hot shine if you're in if you're in the UK. Again, we're British, we have to talk about the weather. Um and and that's kind of all the plug. So, Yaz, I want to say thank you for joining me. I know this wasn't your debut, but it was it's nice to come off to come away for a week and come back. And and to I I said to you earlier this week, I was like, Do you want to come in again? And you were like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, thank you for having me. Always happy to come on.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, neither of us will be here next week though, I don't think. So you won't you won't see us again. But thank you for joining me. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you all next time.

SPEAKER_00

Take care, guys.