The Weekly Download

Xbox Studio Closures & Rockstar's Ongoing Legal Crisis

• Big Games Machine • Season 1 • Episode 34

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SPEAKER_01

Someone's desire to get their fix on GTA 6 that they've been obsessively looking forward to for several years is not tied into Rockstar's treatment of dirty stuff.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the weekly download, the definitive weekly podcast on the video game industry. Uh hello and welcome back to the weekly download. Once again, I am your host. We've lost Tom, but I am standing in dutifully and channeling him always. Choose for illness. Just he's not bunking off. He's choose to know. Tom never bunks off. He is one of the hardest working individuals I know. As anybody that watches this podcast or receives our daily download newsletter, or the weekly uh download on LinkedIn will testify. Tom is an incredibly hardworking uh member of the team. And any journalists out there who get a message from him almost daily about one game or another will also testify to that. He's nothing if not grafting. Uh but as he is out, I will be taking charge. And I am joined this week by James K, one of the company founders. Hi James.

SPEAKER_01

Hello.

SPEAKER_00

Hello, nice to be here. Welcome back. It's been a while since you and I were on an aired episode together. Because you were one you were one of the three uh horsemen of Destiny's Apocalypse when we did our last video. But which lost lost to time, sadly. Much like Destiny will be soon, I fear.

SPEAKER_01

No, it's not imminent, not imminent demise. It's just not updating it for a long time.

SPEAKER_00

And honestly, more inclined to go back than I have been in two and a half years. So maybe it's a weird, amazing marketing strategy.

SPEAKER_01

I did hop back in after our last chat into Destiny 1. I did start jumping around in it, but that's another conversation.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it is, but I jumped on the other day and found out that I can't jump back in because it's the last time I had a physical game was Destiny. So another thing that's lost to time. It is that long ago. I've got all the DLC, but not beginning. Anyway, not important. We're back once again with three of the week's biggest stories and then some of the smaller ones to wrap things up to give you a quick taster of what we're in for today. We will be touching on some studios that are at risk of closure as Microsoft continues to resize and uh restructure. We'll all be sub-looking at EA's new plans for in-game advertising. And finally, we'll be looking at Rockstar's ongoing challenges with their legal dispute around the firing of 30 members of the team and their unionization. So without further ado, we are gonna jump straight in. So, first up this week, it's another piece of Xbox news. And this and once again, it could be closures or downsizing or restructuring or changes. It's kind of a little bit up in the air because this is from reports coming out of Kotaku and Bloomberg that Xbox is actively negotiating for the potential closures or spin-offs of some studios. These include uh Compulsion Games, which uh most famously recently did South of Midnight, but perhaps kind of at least a bit more historically, but with the leads on We Happy Few, that kind of strange everybody wearing face masks, uh mannequin masks game from about 10 years ago. Uh that's what got them noticed in the first place. Doublefine, which obviously Psychonauts is kind of one of their bigger games, but also have put out a lot of uh fantastic titles recently, all of which names I am blanking, one of which are in a lighthouse, and the other one is kind of a clay pot uh battle game. Yeah, I was gonna say this happens, names just shoot out of my head. And finally, and and you know, almost most notably because they have the most recent announcement is Ninja Theory, who were led on Hellblade and Senuous Sacrifice, and you know, I think had Andy Circus involved with them as part of the studio, uh, because they're kind of very up on motion capture and physical capture. But yes, as Compulsion Games uh has has won a BAFTA and a Peabody Award for uh South of Midnight, but then sales failed to meet expectations, and similarly the other games are kind of critical darlings in in many ways. So I mean, what do you think this is speaking to? That this is kind of an active discussion, James. What Araxbox up to at the moment?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I I read a really good analysis of this the other day by you know on Super Used Playlist. I don't know if anyone gets used Van Droynen's newsletter, but he's just a professor of he's very clever, basically, and he's really on the money and on the ball. And I would look up Super Used, that's J-O-O-S-T, Super Used Playlist. But he did a really in-depth look at what's going on at Xbox and Ashasharma and and like where she can go at the moment, how this kind of fits into it. And obviously, she sort of laid the groundwork in that company email where it said there's going to be pain, you know, and obviously Matthew Ball is uh famous. He joined the team now. You know, he did his gargantuan annual analysis of the games industry, so he'll be a very valuable asset to the team. But effectively, she's executed phase one, which is lowering the price of Game Pass, right? So, and and stripping Call of Duty out of it for the future. So you've basically taken that product, you've made it cheaper, but you've also removed some of the value proposition. So that's yet to be seen. But the numbers apparently look good. So why send the article is she's basically lowered prices, so you'd like to think more people come in. But the reality is that Xbox, you know, spent hundreds of millions acquiring studios, and obviously, there is sort of the end of the console life cycle approaching the moment. You've got she she Asha Shaum, I think she might send her Bloomberg interviewer elsewhere that storage and RAM prices are up threefold, and she thinks they'll go up fivefold by the end of the year. So the idea of like a hardware cycle, like you know, being cheap and new Xbox appearing, like that's not as that's not a saviour, right? And also for Xbox, there's the Steam console, which is always lurking in the wings, which is a massive threat, I think, to Xbox. But anyway, the article basically says the only place you can really go now is you raise prices and you can't cut prices and then raise them again. This is game pass, and and and so the only thing you can do is cut your costs, right? And cutting costs is is unfortunately saying goodbye to people. And so, even on the surface of it, if it looks like studios are profitable and and they've made uh critically acclaimed hits, because we've seen this in the past with the game that's gone out of my head and there was matters.

SPEAKER_00

Hi-fi, hi-fi.

SPEAKER_01

That's it. That's it. There was massive uproar because that had just been released and was really profitable.

SPEAKER_00

And they had a second game in the works, which is you know similar to what's happened with Ninja Theory.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And so Ninja Theory, there's a whole thing, isn't it? They announced another Hellblade game recently, knowing this would happen, probably to their summer showcase, like which is notable. But but they're saying they're doing that so they can increase the attractiveness of the studio either being bought or buying itself out or whatever.

SPEAKER_00

I was gonna say, I mean, it it's it's a really interesting way to to maybe help a studio out. And like it would be in no one's gonna be able to say this, but it'd be interesting to know if Ninja Theory knew this was kind of part of the roadmap for them.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, Ninja Theory is in the UK, aren't they? So if there's a possibility of getting bought or everything, they they would have known because you have to start sorting out the HR side of things a long time before, and they, you know, and stuff like that. So I don't think it would have been been sprung on them.

SPEAKER_00

But weirdly, I think they started this is gonna be one of those. Don't quote me on this, is but I think they may I they were behind Heavenly Blade because it was Andy Circus as well, which was a PlayStation exclusive. So it's really gone through this kind of it'll be interesting to see if they end up sucked back into that in this kind of weird ping-ponging motion they're in.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, look, that's it with Xbox. She can only do one thing, which is then cut the cost base. And then the third thing, which dovetails nicely into our next piece, which I'm not going to go into now, is I read, he said, you know, there's so many hundreds of millions of eyeballs on Gaze Passes. Advertising is a very viable route for her to go down to get revenue from advertising, and obviously we'll discuss that with EA. Um, use generated content, interestingly enough, is another area uh they're exploring. Um, and then there's a whole thing as well around the whole aspect of exclusives. I think we've kind of come full circle, haven't we, Alex? That you very much used to get a console because it only had Gears of War on the Xbox, or only had it wasn't only Destiny wasn't exclusive. Sorry, bring it Destiny, wasn't it? That one of like there were aspects of it that were exclusive, like weapons, not the whole game.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, PlayStation had some exclusive weapons and things, and I think it had DLC drops earlier and maybe some quests at the very beginning.

SPEAKER_01

So there's a whole thing of exclusives, God of War, PlayStation, you know, Spider-Man or PlayStation. There's so many games I've loved on PlayStation that have been exclusive. So they do work, I think. I think once you lose that exclusivity, what compulsion is there really to go with one console or another? They become like quite bland, I suppose. Although, interestingly, for the business model, I know Hellday Helldivers obviously once it expanded out beyond uh was it originally just on PlayStation, I think? Yes. That that rocketed on PC.

SPEAKER_00

I think it launched on PC around the same time.

SPEAKER_01

That that rocketed. So as of my very long answer to your question is look, it makes sense then because she has to cut costs somewhere, right?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, the one thing that kind of jumped off the page, and you know, there's there's this idea that, you know, you're are you kind of cutting like diving in and cutting out from the the people that are what you'd call it's not hardcore gamers, that's not what I mean. But you know, the kind of people who are into who play a lot of titles and want kind of diversity, because what they're certainly cutting into, all of these games are kind of award-winning, but they're all single-player experiences, they're all one-offs, they're not things that keep people in the ecosystem.

SPEAKER_01

They're not the live service DLC, you know. It goes back to the discussion about destiny, right? Is the longevity of the game. Like if you don't, if you don't have hit your targets day one or week one, that's an indicator of the fact that if you don't have DLCs planned, if you don't have other things planned, then then it is, yeah, it is problematic. But then then again, there's uh famously, as we discussed in here before, there are live those games that famously failed horribly. So you can't sort of it's a very difficult, it's a very tricky business.

SPEAKER_00

It does kind of sit in a strange place though, doesn't it? If that if that's the way they're going, it's like, yeah, you're gonna get these games for free, but they're live service games, so it behooved us to give them to you for free anyway. Like we want to get you in so you can spend money on skins and things, so you suddenly end up in this place where actually what Game Pass is doing, if if they do go down a more strictly live service route, is that they're subsidizing the development of you know triple A level games, but then filtering people through into an ad-supported uh skin skin shop.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, the vehicle of me, but but I would say, because I'm a PlayStation owner, right? I haven't had Xbox since Xbox 360 and the Red Ring of Death. But you know, I've got the most basic level of PlayStation. I don't pay for the because I just don't have the time. Not because I've got any objection to it, I just don't have the time. So I've got the most basic version of the essentials, PlayStation, and you get you like three games a month. And I've actually gotten them, but you they always come accompanied with lots of upsells of of DLC and skins and currency. So that is clearly just that's why it's all these games on Game Pass and and these services, is they're they're just trying to drive extra revenue, aren't they?

SPEAKER_00

And none of these games, none of these games from the store, none of these studios that are being let go have historically utilized any of those services. Right. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

And maybe that was the yeah, maybe that was.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, to to echo Tom's thought at the end here, I mean, our Xbox going to focus only on major IPs, but I I think it's I think it's more of a I think it's more strategic than that. I don't think it's IP based. I don't think it's the too big to fail. I think it's the you've got to fit into a strategy that means yes, we're gonna give the games away for free, but that doesn't mean that they're not gonna continue to drive some spend.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see where she goes, or they go next with sort of bringing it back from the brink.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I'm keen to see what happens next. Now, as you alluded to, James, there are then the next story is also going to revolve a little bit around ads, and that uh is that EA has officially launched EA Advertising, an ad platform that's designed to be integrate brand ads directly into their games, into a variety of games, and specifically sports probably are going to be one of the focuses of this. The scope of the platform spans dynamic real-time billboard overlays in EA sports games, in case you can't tell, I'm echoing Tom here, not my own thoughts, to reward order-driven gameplay challenges with sponsored rewards. EA insists that any ads will enhance, not disrupt, the player experience by making the game environments more like real-world culture. James, shameless cash grab, or do you think it will make games more realistic?

SPEAKER_01

No, I I think I just think it's fine. I think people are too cynical. Like, honestly, just this is an example of where if gamers are annoyed about it, it just annoys me. Because like ultimately No, look, ultimately, the it's hard times at the moment in the industry we're in. And these companies have to look for ways to make money, right? The difference here is how they make the money if they do it invasively or inclusively. I've just added those words in, right? Or naturally. So I think it's EA in any case has been stuffed full of advertising and what have you for ages, I think. And you've got loads of Red Bull this and sponsored initiatives. And and look, look at, I mean, look at Fortnite, right? Fortnite's the exemplar of of sponsored skins for Disney, Star Wars, anything and everything, you know, themed, themed packs. But but as far as I'm saying, if it it there's a difference between an interstitial, which is what they're called, where you're just like do it's like now, right? I don't pay for Amazon Prime ad removal for £2.99 in the month because I'm too tight. So I just tolerate the fact that it's gonna cut in halfway through my film or during Clarkton's farm that I'm particularly enjoying at the moment, don't judge me. And well, you didn't have to tell anyone, you didn't have to tell anyone.

SPEAKER_00

You volunteered.

SPEAKER_01

It's great telly, it's great television. And and you just sit there and go, I'm gonna watch a white trace advert for a minute or Morrison's or whatever. Like, I'll just take that, I'll do that twice, right? And so that is if you're playing a game and it cuts in, suddenly you're played that, that's annoying. If I'm driving around Vice City or I'm watching it, like we're all watching the Walk Up at the moment to different degrees, right? And I just I just sit there and stare at the you know, yesterday I remember seeing a Ramco when I was watching the Senegal France match and the Ramco billboards on the side, and they're all dynamic and they all change, and they're McDonald's and Coca-Cola. That's that's just replicating that in the game. And the good thing for that for EA is it's dynamic inventory, it's inventory that can be dynamically rotated and out or put in, just basically billboards, things on the side of the road. We are assailed with advertising 24-7. Like everywhere we go, there's advertising, right? And this is just another manifestation that I think is quite legitimate. And so it doesn't bother me.

SPEAKER_00

What I find interesting about it is that you know that they've clearly done it because it's a way to generate investor interest and and possibly even like partner interest. Yeah. But what's weird is by knowing, it makes it more it's gonna make it stand out more when it starts hitting. It's like when somebody points out to you that every car in a Marvel movie is an Audi.

SPEAKER_01

And you're like, Yes, once you know, that's product, it's product placement, yeah, terrible product placement.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly, exactly. But but but until you're kind of really looking out for it, you you kind of don't notice as much. So I think this is something that will blend in. And like you say, if it's not an interstitial, like, and this was something they fell into with, I think uh it was uh I can't remember which game it was, but they had kind of the the splits. Maybe oh, it was UFC. Thomas put a note here. Thank you, Doug. Oh, yeah, yeah. Where they put like four unskippable ads in the middle of like replays. And it's like, yeah, this is ruining my experience when I've paid money for this. But a billboard ad, like you say, it kind of in some ways adds to the realism. And as long as whatever ads are in it are in keeping with the world they're being put into, I I don't see it as massively negative at all. Like we we were saying before, it was about 20, nearly 20 years ago that Burnout Paradise did exactly this, and then it was novel and exciting and like live updates, and now it just we're in a slightly more cynical world with good reason. But I I don't see it as being massively upsetting or invasive to anything.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I mean the only the only reason that people would probably be annoyed, but this has happened before, is like if you look at mobile, mobile is ad-driven, right? And incentive driven, albeit the ads are not in-game ads, they're they are overlays. You're literally stopped the game to watch an ad, or like that is invasive, but you accept that because it's free. On console, if you're paying £60 for you know the native uh I even remember what FIFA's called anymore. Sorry, because I don't play it.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I had this EA Club. I had this conversation at the weekend because I forgot as well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, EAC, I don't remember any way to get it.

SPEAKER_00

EFC or EA Club? EAC.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, people would be screaming at me now because of my ignorance.

SPEAKER_00

But I'm sure I haven't helped. I'm sure I got that wrong.

SPEAKER_01

So if you if you've paid your 60 quid, 50 quid, whatever, then you might go, I'm better, but I still have to sit through advertising.

SPEAKER_00

Like that, I get that, but it's it's as if it's just there and it's on the side of the pitch, it's like yeah, or if at the start of a replay it spins and gives you a Pringles logo and then spins and comes straight back out. It's like that's not invasive, that that's like it would be on TV, and that feel maybe the wrong, maybe the wrong ad, but you know, it it still feels like it's part of that experience.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, advertising is just a fact of life. No matter where you go, you're just slapped with it all the time, constantly. And so you just accept it, and there's just be another place that people accept it. So, like, grin and bear it. Bah humbug.

SPEAKER_00

Wait and see how it's done before you get angry, would be my version of that. But yeah, sure. Eat your adverts. Okay, our final big story of the week. And Rockstar cannot shake these union busting uh allegations, accusations, as a British employment tribunal has just rejected Rockstar Games' request to throw out blacklisting claim claims from an upcoming trial regarding alleged union busting. But this calls back to a story from last October when Rockstar abruptly fired about 30 workers from their studio, all of whom happened to be union members. Rockstar claimed it was gross.

SPEAKER_01

No, they were trying to form a, I think they were in chat rooms or trying to form a union. So I I'm not, you can call take me to court on this one, but I'm not sure it's because they were trying to form a union or they were unionizing because they were in chat rooms together, like plotting, allegedly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that wasn't the I know that wasn't the room that kind of got them in trouble. It was because there was somebody from external to the company or a freelancer in the chat room that caused that is what they're pointing at for the misconduct.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But yes, that does ring a bell, so perhaps. But either way, these 30 people were those that were either interested in or within a union, and Rockstar was claiming gross misconduct from all 30 of them. Yes, exactly. But the workers' union of Great Britain, who are the people that were either they were hoping to join or had joined, one of the two, this is fun, it's like Schrdinger's Union, labelled it blatant union busting. Now, this led to soon after 200 members of Rockstar all essentially going on strike or or condemning the firings, uh, and there were certainly pickets outside the office as covered on People Make Games. Fantastic video. If you haven't seen it and you're interested in the story, I recommend you go and see that. But Prime Minister uh Steer Karma. Kia Starmer called it deeply concerning. Steer Karma. Steer Karma.

SPEAKER_01

It's quite good. It's good spoon risen.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Now the full trial will take place on September 10th this year, but uh as it sits, the their request to throw out for these blacklisting claims uh has been stopped. James, obviously, you have some idea of this one. You've already corrected some of the story. Uh so what where are your thoughts kind of sit on this on the prospect of this being based?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I don't have hugely strong thoughts, and I'm a business owner, so I'm very anti-worker and anti-union as well, naturally. But well, this particular one is around the blacklisting, isn't it? Or claims of it's not blacking, it's claims of blacklisting, is that they can't, they've lost the appeal that says that as part of the tribunal, that the allegations cannot be withdrawn about them blacklisting people or marking marking them, if I'm correct. But I I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I don't know what feelings there are to have about it in the sense that w it's about workers' rights, I suppose. I mean, I'm kind of fascinated to know how Rockstar lost 30 people in such an intense crunch period before GTA 6. That's kind of more interesting thing, more interesting thing for me. But yeah, I suppose what unionization in the UK for game developers is not a massive thing. But uh, I think that's you know, it's really also, I suppose, the precedent that this sets around game development and you know, joking aside about I'm sad he said people losing their jobs. Absolutely. But it it really is about, I think, the precedent for what unionization for game developers could look like and the things that the claims that they could bring. I suppose that's the subtext uh for me in this.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think gaming's always an interesting one because it is, you know, especially on. There's a lot of teams where some level of work is done for a while and then, you know, work dips off, and then if you're in a union, you can't let go of let's say the music anybody on the music team, audio team, and it's like, well, their job's done. What are they we've not got another game until after this? So it does put you in a weird place if people start unionizing and what those rights look like. But I don't mind unionization as a concept. I am not a business owner. But I I think what what was interesting about this when it was initially done was that it actually puts Rockstar in this incredibly difficult position where they, you know, they they like to keep everything behind the curtain. And obviously, once they take this to court, they're in a place where they they have to justify what this gross misconduct was and what came up as part of that, and now they're in a position where they they're kind of between a rock and a hard place in terms of what they can reveal as part of the case, if it's going to go on record, and then put them in this strange loop.

SPEAKER_01

So, you know, I'm not even sure. I mean, they've obviously not short of a penny, so they'll have very good solicitors representing them on the case, but it's once again my ignorance. Uh, I don't know if you can settle before you get to tribunal in the UK, or even I don't even know what the P if the if the 30 people are set on taking to tribunal and they wouldn't accept a settlement, and it's not a financial thing, it's a principal thing for them. It's just my ignorance once again. Because yeah, you'd imagine with the company's pockets are as deep as Rockstar, they could either go, well, it's take two, isn't it? It's not Rockstar, we're sockstar versus take two. They could either go, Well, we don't want the negative PR so close to GCA6, we just don't need the headache, pay to make it go away, settle it, whatever. Or yeah, unfortunately, you have to go spend money on lawyers, go through all of this and have your dirty linen aired in public and suffer the stress. It's just stressful. Having to do any anything to a tribunal, anything legal around employment, employees, which I've had to be involved with in the past, I can't talk, speak to, is very stressful and and unpleasant uh for most people. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. And I it I and it's also quite hard to defend yourself when you can't point at what you're saying is a smoking gun because you don't want that known. So it's like, oh. But I guess that the the last kind of thought on this is will I was gonna say, will anyone care? That's not what I mean. A lot of people do care. Obviously, these people lost their jobs. I think everybody in in the industry feels for them. But when it comes to the predominant game buying, GTA buying public, is this really gonna put a dent anywhere near their numbers or is it just something I can continue to do?

SPEAKER_01

No, of course it of course it won't. I mean, I mean, in the nicest way possible, this is a 100% gains industry thing. This is not a consumer thing. Consumers have no idea, clue, or care. Someone's desire to get their fix on GCA6 that they've been obsessively looking forward to for several years, quite frankly, is not tied into Rockstar's treatment of dirty staff as biter pill as that is to swallow. It will not put a teeny weeny, iny meantsy, microscopic little dent in any of the GCA6 sales. And and I think, you know, that's why Rockstar probably used that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Coming up to the rapid rundown. These are slightly, well, not less controversial, but less human-impacting stories. First, Nintendo of Japan is issuing new measures to fight Switch 2 scalpers. Now, we touched on last week that the in-region Japanese, Japanese region, not Japanese language only, switches were going up in price, but they are now also looking at ways to scalping of the international switches that they're sold in Japan. These now will require people to have over 50 hours of gameplay on a switch, and you'll only be able to buy one per console account to avoid people buying them in Japan, then sending them overseas because they're currently slightly cheaper, but with the increases that will be coming to America and the UK, they will soon be significantly cheaper to buy here. So any thoughts around that as a concept, James? Would you be able to buy one? Have you put 50 hours on?

SPEAKER_01

With the increases coming to UK and America, you mean significantly cheaper to buy in Japan still? Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Significantly cheaper to buy in Japan and to ship. Yes. So this is to avoid scalpers being able to do that by attaching these things. The first question I have for you, James, is would you be able to buy a switch to do you have enough hours on your switch? Would you be locked out of buying a switch to in general?

SPEAKER_01

How many hours is it again?

SPEAKER_00

50 plus hours of playtime. It's not a good one.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, no, that's I mean, I mean, Breath of the Wild alone is gonna bust, is gonna bust that one. So I definitely, definitely would be eligible. But it's just your classic grey import thing that's been around forever and a day, especially in the in Europe, where car it's happened to cars, car with the when the Euro used to be massively cheaper in exchange rate to the pound, the entire grey import market, I mean the US as well. I mean, look, it still goes on, right? Like you go onto eBay and there are just things that are magically cheaper, and then that's because they're shipping from the US, but then you've got like huge shipping fees to factor in. But the thing as a consumer that just always worries me are things like gap warranties, you know. Like, is is it an international warranty?

SPEAKER_00

No, it I can answer that because my when I blew up my old Xbox, it was not covered here. Right. Also, power supplies between Japan. That was gonna be my next point.

SPEAKER_01

Because Japan, isn't Japan, you live there fate years. Isn't Japan 240 like the UK, I think, or they got a step or not?

SPEAKER_00

You need a step down.

SPEAKER_01

Step down, step up. Yeah. And so that's the other thing is like it's not for the faint-hearted, because you could void your warranty, and the power thing, the average person, they wouldn't care, but in the old days, gone, sorry, Alex.

SPEAKER_00

So the power thing is mitigated by the fact it runs off USB-C as its power line.

SPEAKER_01

And so that is one thing USB-C has solved for a lot of yes, because in the old days it was like, am I gonna plug this in and it's gonna explode? Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Whereas if you're just that accurate smell and that small crackling noise behind the TV, why isn't the Xbox turning on?

SPEAKER_01

But I kind of I get look, games are region encrypted, right? Like for for let's just look at the wider market now, right? Like games are price region locked. Some are, some, yeah. Yeah, not not everyone, but they they're for the same reason, is you have dynamics in in some countries where they're sold cheaper, right? And and and that's for different reasons. But that's why games are region locked, to stop this gray market that happens with with keys. It's it's the same thing, right? But it's just it's just hardware.

SPEAKER_00

And uh yes, absolutely. I mean, it's more circumnavigable, if that's a word, than it used to be. Like uh if you have an account in that region, because it's not a hardware lock like it used to be, like when we were young. Yeah, it's now kind of like Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Used to have like TVDs and were like regionalized. I remember TVTs, God, this is a bit early 2000s, but TVTs were regionalized, weren't they? So this has been going on forever. Like it's always been a thing.

SPEAKER_00

But and I a friend of mine sent me Street Fighter VI, uh a Japanese version on Switch, which I thought, you know, very nice, like the Street Fighter series, and then I had to create a Japanese account to redeem the DLC that came with the game. Because I can play the game because it's it's physical and that doesn't have a physical lock on it anymore, but any DLC or things attached are required to be in that region.

SPEAKER_01

So I mean, going going going back to your original question, Alex, I think it's legitimate they're stopping it because looking at and bear with me here where I'm going. I I and many other people watching this will go on to Ticketmaster and try and buy tickets for something, and it's like insane because there's bots and there's like bad faith people who are a bit got deeper pockets and more determined than than than you to grab something first in order to resell it. So, really, I don't think Nintendo cares about you or me maybe buying like two or three and flocking them off, right? I think like they're stopping the ones that are trying to get 10, 20, like trying to, and then flocking them through eBay, eBay basically, like that's who they're really stopping. Is that it's like for you and me, we're genuine gamers, we've got more than 50 hours, and that's what they're going. They're going, you are a gamer, you genuinely, and you can have one, right? Like beyond that, I mean, two maybe you are. I could buy one, sell another one on eBay or whatever. But I think they're really going after the people, like those ones who are on Ticketmaster with the bots who are trying to do bulk, bulk stuff and do it purely for profit.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely, yeah. I think you know, because people end up with multiple consoles and so you know, there's an element of that, but like you say, it's the people that buy in bulk and kind of will and then they did we're doing it with Pokemon cards recently in Japan as well, but kind of like stopping people coming and ruining the fun for everybody else just for a profit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shameless profiteering.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Absolutely. And our last quick story of the week, even though that last one wasn't as quick as we thought it would be. No. Epic reveals Unreal 6 is integrating AI models so developers can reduce tedious work. Oh, don't I could talk for England on this? Come on, you go, James. I don't have to chip in. I mean, I'll put him on the spot then.

SPEAKER_01

Is it, is it, is it the I mean, it epic's own history, it's not Epic, so it's Nvidia have had the whole hoo-ha. Was it Epic you were saying?

SPEAKER_00

This is Epic.

SPEAKER_01

Nvidia had the whole hoo-ha a few months ago over DLSS5, which because of one of our clients, I had to spend a lot of time looking at and looking at the backlash and looking at the mess and everything. So I think for those of us that work in the industry, there's just like a massive, oh, hysteria is a bit of an unfair word. Automatic hysteria over AI. And what I mean by that is you have to accept AI is here for the future. You have to accept it's going to be incorporated by game developers in some form. I think rightly so, rightly so, people with industry are A worried about just quality and slop and B, it putting people out of jobs, right? But but I it's a really hard one because any industry that innovates technically will have people that leave jobs. Like a technology usually comes in, disrupts an industry, and people leave their jobs. It's really a question if it's benefiting in a good way and creating quality output. I think people will be accepting of AI if it's not that weird, uncanny valley that everyone was going mad about with the kind of the DLSS 5 like upgrade going on, or or that it's just helpful. So it's a very nuanced thing when AI is inserted into the sort of game development process and requires nuanced conversation, not blanket hysteria.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. I think there are I I remain more skeptical than you, I think. Well known within the company on AI. But yeah, as you say, it's coming. There will be elements that, you know, probably make sense to utilize for elements. I I think where I kind of remain is that there should be elements of fast iteration and maybe coming up with broad ideas, but ultimately what's what's finally in the game should not be AI, and the creative the the pure creative elements should never fall just to having been driven by AI. I like I don't want my new characters to be like something that looks like a final fantasy, but with with a bob rather than spiky hair. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

But that's why, but that's why it's a nuanced conversation, right? Because some creatives will say, Yeah, I use AI for prototyping and proof of concept, and it's a really useful tool at the beginning. It's just the end result that if it just looks AI and it's not as good, and then people would be powered jobs, that's where it obviously is, I understand it's problematic.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, the cost, if it brings it's difficult, if it brings down some of the costs, it's gonna have to be necessary. But at the same time, it's a creative industry, and and that creativity has to be is protected the wrong word?

SPEAKER_01

Maybe, but kind of yeah, but not protected at all costs, you know, not not protected at all costs, like you know, like cut your nose off to spite your face. There are instances where it is gonna be better than people.

SPEAKER_00

I thought that was going a far darker path, but yes, you're absolutely right. Like No.

SPEAKER_01

I I think you have to innovate gradually. Anyway, sorry.

SPEAKER_00

No, no, excellent. I'm I'm glad you had more to say on that than me, because it I I feel like me and Tom always give it AI short thrift, and you certainly came in with something that's more balanced towards where things are actually going on this. Maybe by retaining some necessary cynicism. We approve. Yes. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01

Or maybe I just maybe I just added it in because I had to.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe. And that's it. We're we're done with another download, James. Any anything you'd like to add about your thoughts today or stories from the Windows Women?

SPEAKER_01

It's been I I it's I mean, new news not obviously focused on negative things, so it's it's not nice that we've had to take a look at the stuff.

SPEAKER_00

We look for the good stuff, just getting harder and harder to find.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think we're gonna have to find some positive things, but unfortunately negative stuff. But no, just another week in the games industry, which you know it was survived until 25, as everyone in the games industry remembers. I was saying yesterday, and now we're halfway through 26, and we're still unfortunately seeing not layoffs to the degree they were happening, no, they are still there's still an industry story, and the industry hasn't really, you know, this is a new reality.

SPEAKER_00

That's just unfortunate, yeah. Hopefully, because we're gonna have two weeks of stories to pull from for our next show, unless we decide to record an episode on our offsite, which I can't imagine going well if we give it a pop. No. So hopefully, with two weeks, we'll have we'll be able to find at least one happy story to add in to the next weekly download, which, as alluded to, won't be weekly for the next one. It will be in two weeks. So that'll be the beginning for July 1st? July 1st, July 2nd. It doesn't make me think that far ahead. No, no. Keep an eye out for that, everyone, which will be when we're back then. In the interim, we will be bringing the daily download to your uh inbox if you want to sign up for that on biggamesmachine.com. Also, a chance that might also be paused while we're off site, or you can sign up for the weekly download or on LinkedIn. Looking forward to seeing everybody next time. James, thank you once again for joining me. Pleasure as ever. Wonderful. And if you've got any questions for us or would like us to answer any idea or any thoughts on marketing and PR, do just drop them in the comments and be sure to like and subscribe wherever you've been watching this. Thank you very much, everyone. See you next time.