Latest / The Game Business Show / Games media crisis deepens, Bloober hunts weird horror titles, and New York Games Week soft launches

Transcript

Games media crisis deepens, Bloober hunts weird horror titles, and New York Games Week soft launches · The Game Business Show

0:00
SPEAKER_00: This week we dive into Bloober Team's new horror-based games label and we discuss
0:05
SPEAKER_00: the future of events with New York Games Week.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to The Game Business Show.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Now this week's edition is sponsored by Keyword Studios.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: They are of course the video game industry's biggest end-to-end partner.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: They help developers to make their games,
0:20
SPEAKER_00: launch them successfully, and they make sure they're supported at a global scale.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: They've got 13,000 people across 26 countries to ensure they can do just that.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: And they have strong technology.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: They know how to partner with people and connect teams with the right experts around
0:34
SPEAKER_00: the player experience.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: Now for the fans, that means marketing shaped around players, the communities and the culture.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: From audience insight and campaign strategy to global creative activation,
0:44
SPEAKER_00: Keyword Studios helps developers reach fans with work that feels relevant,
0:48
SPEAKER_00: timely and built for the way players actually discover, share and engage with games.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: You can find out more on the Keyword Studios website or alternatively check out
0:56
SPEAKER_00: the links in today's newsletter that's attached with this show.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: And speaking of this show, we've got a huge one for you.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: We've got a couple of big interviews.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: One is with Timon Smek-Tala and Piotr Baviano.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Now, Timon is the new head of Broken Mirror Games, which is the sub-label of Bloober Team.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: And Piotr is the CEO of Bloober Team.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: We're going to chat to them about building
1:16
SPEAKER_00: and signing experimental games alongside their big AAA projects such as Silent Hill.
1:20
SPEAKER_00: It was a really good, interesting chat.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: And we have Guy Blomberg coming on after that.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Guy is an events veteran.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: He's worked at Dreamhack.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: He's worked at PAX.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: He's worked with me on numerous games, initialot biz events.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: He and I actually were a little involved in E3 as well, the one that never came out.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, he's going to talk to us about his new project,
1:37
SPEAKER_00: New York Games Week, and we just sort of chat about the events industry in general.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: So look forward to that one as well.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: That's later on in the show.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: But before we get to them, I have a few notices.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: First, we're going to have a bunch of events coming up over the next three months
1:49
SPEAKER_00: that we'd love to So if you'd like to meet me,
1:51
SPEAKER_00: if you'd like to meet The Game Business team, come along to these.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: We're going to Middlesbrough in the UK in the middle of October to host a couple
1:56
SPEAKER_00: of sessions,
1:57
SPEAKER_00: including an onstage interview with video games legend,
2:00
SPEAKER_00: the father of PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: We're then going to be in London at the end of October for Comic-Con to do
2:05
SPEAKER_00: an interview with Brenda and John Romero.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: That should be interesting.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: There's also going to be, you know, all of this will be put out as a podcast, by the way.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if you can't make it, you still get the content.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: And then we also have a couple of interviews potentially happening at
2:17
SPEAKER_00: an exclusive legal event that's also in London taking place just before
2:20
SPEAKER_00: the Game Awards.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: So join us for those if you want to.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you more details as we get closer to them.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, before I continue,
2:29
SPEAKER_00: I do want to mention a throwaway line in last week's episode of the show,
2:33
SPEAKER_00: which led to some, shall we say, unwanted headlines.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: So for those of you who are paid subscribers,
2:38
SPEAKER_00: you'll know that I do something on a Monday called Here's the Dring.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And Here's the Dring is basically an opinion from me.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a bit of a gossip column as well.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty casual.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's for those who pay to subscribe to TGB.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Now last week, I did one for Tokyo Game Show.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: It was me reporting on all the things I heard in the Tokyo bars, which was...
2:55
SPEAKER_00: What was the industry chatting about, basically?
2:57
SPEAKER_00: And one of the many things in that newsletter was the Hideo Kojima to Xbox story.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And in that column,
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I talked about some of the numbers that were being thrown around
3:05
SPEAKER_00: about how much his game fizzing was going to cost to make.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Now, this was gossip.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: This was rumors.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: But the numbers that were being thrown around ranged from $300 million to $600 million.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: The one I heard most frequently was $400 million.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they were the people that I would most potentially trust with getting the right number.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: But even then, it's not something that I would run a headline on.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately though, nobody really knew what Xbox had agreed on in terms of their price.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: Now in last week's news and analysis show,
3:32
SPEAKER_00: the equivalent of this show last week,
3:35
SPEAKER_00: I actually mentioned that $400 million figure.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't in the script.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: I kind of went off script a little bit.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: It isn't in the newsletter.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: I just casually mentioned the reported number that I'd heard.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Now naturally, they've got picked up by Resetera, by Reddit.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: I got a text on Saturday to say,
3:49
SPEAKER_00: hey, are you saying that Xbox paid $400 million for Kojima's game?
3:53
SPEAKER_00: So I had to quickly clarify this was just a rumor that had leaked over
3:56
SPEAKER_00: from one podcast into another.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: People...
3:58
SPEAKER_00: We're reporting my rumoured figure as fact, and it absolutely should not be treated as that.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: However,
4:03
SPEAKER_00: I actually do now know roughly exactly what Xbox is paying for visits,
4:07
SPEAKER_00: and it's less than half that rumoured number.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the $400 million figure is what PlayStation were being quoted,
4:13
SPEAKER_00: maybe PlayStation were different things, I don't know.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: It's all speculation.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Maybe someone was just making it all up.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: My point being, the $400 million quote from last week was just a bit of gossip that I'd heard.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: I now know that's absolutely not why Xbox paid for it.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: If you actually listened to the podcast, it was kind of irrelevant.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: I was sort of talking about the fact that Xbox was still investing in big projects.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: They weren't just cutting stuff.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: They were making things as well.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: And that was a point I was trying to make.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: And whether it was $400 million,
4:38
SPEAKER_00: $200 million, $150 million, $10 million, the point still stands.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: But regardless, I just want to clarify that that number Was, isn't true.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, before I head over to our interviews this week,
4:49
SPEAKER_00: I just want to talk about the games media very briefly.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: It's been a bit of another tough week for people working in the world of writing
4:55
SPEAKER_00: about video games.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: We just had layoffs at future, including people at GamesRadar and TechRadar.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: There's also been Metro in the UK.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: It's a UK newspaper that has a big game section.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they've all been put on notice as well.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about the state of the game's media a lot.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: There's a few things going on here.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: The ad market is sort of okay at the moment, but people are struggling with traffic acquisition.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: This is partly to do with Google.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's mostly to do with Google.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: The AI Google algorithm,
5:19
SPEAKER_00: which means that now you don't need to click through to the website to get
5:22
SPEAKER_00: the information you need.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Google will scan the website, take the information and present it on the Google search bar.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Some media outlets view this as stealing their content effectively.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: There are journalists doing the things that I'm doing with Substacks and Podcasts
5:35
SPEAKER_00: and Paywalls and Patreons and all sorts to try and break their reliance on Google
5:39
SPEAKER_00: but although that's okay for influencers and sort of small outlets like
5:43
SPEAKER_00: The Game Business where we don't have huge overheads it's tough
5:46
SPEAKER_00: for more dedicated websites with big teams that are built on basically getting lots
5:49
SPEAKER_00: of traffic.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Now AI is really unsettling the media space right now and more important
5:53
SPEAKER_00: than ever it's become about audience which is a good thing
5:57
SPEAKER_00: but unfortunately there is a whole media industry that's having to adapt to that
6:00
SPEAKER_00: and frankly It's going to inevitably get smaller and we're seeing lots
6:04
SPEAKER_00: of people lose their jobs as a result.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: As much as I believe in the rise of these publications such as this one,
6:10
SPEAKER_00: obviously I believe in this,
6:11
SPEAKER_00: there's very little room for growth in terms of being able
6:13
SPEAKER_00: to hire multiple journalists.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: So stuff like this or what Steven Tortillo is doing and all those wonderful people,
6:19
SPEAKER_00: it's interesting,
6:20
SPEAKER_00: it's fascinating,
6:20
SPEAKER_00: I enjoy doing it, but I can't actually see it replacing what's sort of falling away.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: Of course, traditional media won't go away entirely.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: It'll get to the level.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: It will get to a level.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: It will stabilize.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: And GTA should be a nice boost for the media sector as well in come November.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that'll be a long term boost.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: And we will see more of these stories in the months, weeks and years ahead.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: Now, on that cheery note, let's talk about horror, shall we?
6:44
SPEAKER_00: One of the big horror studios in the world is Bloober Team.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: They make Silent Hill 2.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: They make Kronos.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: They do loads of cool stuff.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: And the developers started off making When they started they did sort of okay horror games.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: They were alright.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And then they've been getting gradually better and Silent Hill 2 was like brilliant.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: The developer now wants to become known as the greatest horror game studio in the world.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: And to do that,
7:04
SPEAKER_00: alongside its big AAA games,
7:06
SPEAKER_00: it's now launched a new label designed to find more interesting,
7:09
SPEAKER_00: unique, different horror titles from other studios.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: That label they've launched is called Broken Mirror Games,
7:14
SPEAKER_00: and it's been led by a chap called Timon Smektala,
7:16
SPEAKER_00: who used to be the franchise director on the Dying Light series.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, Broken Mirror Games is working on numerous titles,
7:22
SPEAKER_00: but the two that have been announced are the licensed game,
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Sword Genesis,
7:26
SPEAKER_00: and the Switch 2 exclusive,
7:28
SPEAKER_00: called Onyx The Dark Whip, which I actually saw at Tokyo Game Show.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: It's very interesting.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I thought this interview would be good is we just had Tencent on
7:36
SPEAKER_00: the show on Tuesday just gone.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And they talked about how the studios it looks to invest in are studios
7:40
SPEAKER_00: that are like Larian and Front Software,
7:42
SPEAKER_00: have a long-term vision to be leaders in the sector that they're in.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not with game one,
7:46
SPEAKER_00: maybe not with game two,
7:47
SPEAKER_00: maybe not even with game three,
7:49
SPEAKER_00: but eventually have a path to becoming the leader in the space they operate in.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Bloober Team, which has been invested in by Tencent, has that goal.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: That's what it wants to be,
7:57
SPEAKER_00: the world's leading horror studio, and this new label is part of that vision.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: So I found this really interesting,
8:02
SPEAKER_00: so do enjoy my chat with Pieter and Timian and Broken Mirror Games.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: Hello, welcome to the show.
8:10
SPEAKER_02: Hello, welcome.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: So are you new to the family?
8:15
SPEAKER_02: Me, of course.
8:15
SPEAKER_02: I'm new to the bluebirding family.
8:18
SPEAKER_02: I have joined starting September, so basically this is my first month.
8:23
SPEAKER_02: But I'm not, of course, new to the industry.
8:25
SPEAKER_02: I have spent more than 20 years in the gaming industry.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: A lot of that time was in the early part of my career was Actually in journalism,
8:35
SPEAKER_02: I was covering the whole industry in the biggest Polish magazine called CV Action,
8:41
SPEAKER_02: but this is actually ancient history for me because the last 13 years I have spent
8:45
SPEAKER_02: at Techland where I was working on the diamond functions.
8:49
SPEAKER_02: And in the last few years, I started basically as a producer slash junior game designer.
8:56
SPEAKER_02: I ended up as a franchise director for the whole series.
8:59
SPEAKER_02: So it was quite an adventure, quite a trip.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: And in the last years,
9:05
SPEAKER_02: I was responsible for the franchise as a whole,
9:08
SPEAKER_02: its position on the market, transmedia, publishing, also game direction.
9:13
SPEAKER_02: A lot of things in that area.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: And now I,
9:17
SPEAKER_02: based on the invite from Piotr from Bluebird team,
9:20
SPEAKER_02: I decided to join our own curated imprint called Broken Mirror Games.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: Which I will take over managing the portfolio and making sure that it delivers
9:32
SPEAKER_02: the quality and some additional elements that we will talk about.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's quite a step to go from that massive franchise.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Why make the move?
9:43
SPEAKER_00: What was the inspiration?
9:45
SPEAKER_02: I think the promise and the vision for both Bloober Team and Eurogames that I got
9:51
SPEAKER_02: from Peter was something that excited me a lot because I think the strategy for
9:56
SPEAKER_02: the whole group is super clear.
9:58
SPEAKER_02: Bloober Team focuses on their particular brand of psychological horrors,
10:03
SPEAKER_02: so Bloober knows what it's doing,
10:05
SPEAKER_02: but also Bloober wants to basically become a platform,
10:09
SPEAKER_02: a name to go to for horror games.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: Then when you focus,
10:14
SPEAKER_02: like when you know what you're doing,
10:15
SPEAKER_02: when you focus on the thing that you do best,
10:17
SPEAKER_02: you also realize that there are different aspects of horror,
10:19
SPEAKER_02: different perspectives of horror.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: And Broken Mirror Games is supposed to deliver that.
10:24
SPEAKER_02: So we are this crazy,
10:27
SPEAKER_02: inventive,
10:28
SPEAKER_02: adventurous child of Blueberry team that has the liberty to try different things.
10:33
SPEAKER_02: And I think the titles that we have already announced and that the public knows
10:37
SPEAKER_02: about them already kind of show And we look at horror from different angles.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: So definitely that was the thing.
10:45
SPEAKER_02: I am that kind of a person that constantly is looking for something.
10:49
SPEAKER_02: He constantly is looking for new experiences.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: And if you look at my history, I have spent 13 years making parkour zombie games.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: So I decided it's time to open up some new synapse connections in my brain.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: I went to see Onyx at Tokyo Game Show and you can already get a distinct vibe there.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: You sort of said it there, but sort of I got it top line.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: What is the vision for Broken Mirror?
11:16
SPEAKER_00: What is the goal of it?
11:17
SPEAKER_00: You've sort of talked about why it's different to Bloober.
11:19
SPEAKER_02: It's actually there in the name.
11:20
SPEAKER_02: It's a broken mirror.
11:21
SPEAKER_02: So we want to show different perspectives of horror.
11:26
SPEAKER_02: When you break a mirror, it gets fractured.
11:29
SPEAKER_02: And like,
11:29
SPEAKER_02: even though you look at the same thing through it or Then each part of
11:35
SPEAKER_02: the mirror shows it slightly differently,
11:38
SPEAKER_02: and this is exactly what we are trying to do.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: So it's similar player, it's multiplayer, it's a big release PC consoles or Switch exclusive.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: It's more action-oriented table horror.
11:50
SPEAKER_02: It's like whatever we come up with,
11:52
SPEAKER_02: whatever we find exciting,
11:53
SPEAKER_02: whatever we feel that it brings something new to the horror genre,
11:57
SPEAKER_02: we will try to explore that.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: So obviously this is great and I think it's a really cool thing
12:01
SPEAKER_00: to do something that's allowed you to explore and be inventive.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: And I'll ask about Onyx and stuff in a moment,
12:04
SPEAKER_00: but the,
12:05
SPEAKER_00: how do you make sure it doesn't get in the way of those important AAA projects that,
12:10
SPEAKER_00: you know,
12:10
SPEAKER_00: the Silent Hills,
12:11
SPEAKER_00: the Kronos' that sort of blew between, how do you make sure you can stay focused?
12:17
SPEAKER_02: We also have a very unique development model where Bloober Team has its own tips.
12:24
SPEAKER_02: They work on the games that Bloober Team does and we kind of build the expertise there.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: For Broken Mirror Games,
12:30
SPEAKER_02: we look at partners from other development studios,
12:33
SPEAKER_02: either established,
12:34
SPEAKER_02: I would say,
12:35
SPEAKER_02: horror luminaries or just people we believe in,
12:38
SPEAKER_02: people we trust in, people that sometimes even come up to us with a pitch.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: And if we see a developer that gets the horror in the same way or with
12:48
SPEAKER_02: the same depth that we do,
12:50
SPEAKER_02: or maybe has a cool game idea and needs that bluebird team expertise to bring horror
12:56
SPEAKER_02: into that cool game idea or make sure that the horror is expressed there,
13:01
SPEAKER_02: those are the approaches that we are considering.
13:03
SPEAKER_02: Of course,
13:04
SPEAKER_02: everyone knows that the industry is in a very tough place,
13:06
SPEAKER_02: so we also need to be meaningful of the margin side of it.
13:12
SPEAKER_02: And the business side of it,
13:13
SPEAKER_02: but definitely we started with the idea,
13:15
SPEAKER_02: we started with the pitch,
13:16
SPEAKER_02: we started with the question, does it bring something new to the genre?
13:20
SPEAKER_02: Is it something that excites us?
13:22
SPEAKER_02: Is it something that we have not known before because we also don't want
13:25
SPEAKER_02: to repeat ourselves too much?
13:27
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think Onyx,
13:28
SPEAKER_00: let's talk about that because I think that kind of embodies it in a way because,
13:33
SPEAKER_00: look, Peter, we talked about this last year, I'm a big Eternal Darkness fan.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: I was excited when I saw that project.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: One of the first things I did was say, hey, can I go and see this at Tokyo Game Show?
13:42
SPEAKER_00: But it's a switch to exclusive.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: You can only play it in handheld mode.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: It feels like quite a risky project.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: You're narrowing down your audience quite a bit by doing that.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Is that indicative of what we can expect,
13:55
SPEAKER_00: the fact that actually we're not necessarily going to follow the rules of what
14:00
SPEAKER_00: the industry says?
14:01
SPEAKER_02: I cannot say we'll just jump only on the risky projects.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: I don't think Peter will allow me to do so.
14:12
SPEAKER_02: Still, of course, only see something that interests us.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: But also, what's important to say here is that we are looking at this long term.
14:21
SPEAKER_02: I have just joined, so everything is special.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: But when we are talking about how we see broken mirror games,
14:27
SPEAKER_02: we are not talking about how we see broken mirror games today.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: We are not talking about how we see broken mirror games in six months.
14:32
SPEAKER_02: We are talking about how we see it.
14:34
SPEAKER_02: In a year, we actually have a much more long-term plans for the imprint.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: And Onyx is a good example of that.
14:42
SPEAKER_02: We understand it's a risky project,
14:43
SPEAKER_02: but this is actually a project... Actually, maybe risky is not the best word.
14:48
SPEAKER_02: I will get back to it in a second.
14:49
SPEAKER_02: But it's also a project that allows us to build a relation with Nintendo
14:54
SPEAKER_02: and allows us to build a relation with Nintendo players.
14:57
SPEAKER_02: And now I will get back to the risky part.
15:00
SPEAKER_02: You say risky,
15:01
SPEAKER_02: I would prefer to call it innovative or novel or vain to try
15:05
SPEAKER_02: to invent something new.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: And also when you look at Nintendo as a brand,
15:10
SPEAKER_02: Nintendo as the quality that they bring to the market,
15:13
SPEAKER_02: the gaming market, this is exactly what Nintendo is bringing.
15:17
SPEAKER_02: Like they don't chase the trends.
15:20
SPEAKER_02: They don't chase higher specs and the poor shaders.
15:23
SPEAKER_02: What they chase is innovation that fuels gameplay.
15:26
SPEAKER_02: And so Onyx is that kind of a game.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you just have to take those innovation leap of faiths and we are doing that with Onyx.
15:35
SPEAKER_02: I actually would love you to play the version of Onyx that we have right now in
15:38
SPEAKER_02: the studio because the Tokyo one is not the newest one.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: Which I think shows even more how innovative this game will be.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: And of course that's maybe for the future.
15:48
SPEAKER_02: So I think that kind of answers your question.
15:51
SPEAKER_03: I think Christopher we talked together at GameStone more than a year ago.
15:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
15:57
SPEAKER_03: And I told you that I'm a physician
15:58
SPEAKER_03: to know how I'm doing my right muscles very deeply in my heart.
16:01
SPEAKER_03: And by the way, I was also a game journalist.
16:05
SPEAKER_03: I made the first website in Poland.
16:07
SPEAKER_03: The world of Nintendo.
16:09
SPEAKER_03: And then I organized the first two Nintendo camps in Poland, so it was pretty cool.
16:15
SPEAKER_03: And right now,
16:17
SPEAKER_03: because of Onyx,
16:18
SPEAKER_03: I'm also making modernist culture,
16:20
SPEAKER_03: because I really would like to have exclusive horrors on Nintendo platforms.
16:24
SPEAKER_03: And the god era of GameCube now,
16:27
SPEAKER_03: with Eternal Darkness, with Nintendo Zero, which was a really cool game.
16:33
SPEAKER_03: I would like to get back to those times, trying to do this right now.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: So as you can see, it's not only business, it's just making dreams come true.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Resident Evil 0 and the remake and 4 and Eternal Darkness.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: It was a glorious time to be a horror fan and a Nintendo fan.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: And Luigi's Mansion, obviously, as well, to a degree, I guess.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Peter, last year you told me,
16:52
SPEAKER_00: I think you said you were 250 people at Bluebird last year,
16:56
SPEAKER_00: and you talked about doing the best you can to avoid layoffs,
16:59
SPEAKER_00: because if you can keep a team together,
17:01
SPEAKER_00: they can, you know, they learn and they develop, and I love that.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: And that would make me assume that you're going to be a little bit more risk averse,
17:07
SPEAKER_00: be a bit safer with the projects that you choose to sign and work on.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Whereas this,
17:12
SPEAKER_00: I know the word risky isn't the word you use there,
17:14
SPEAKER_00: it's novel and innovative,
17:15
SPEAKER_00: but it feels like you're taking a few rolls of the dice on that.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what makes you comfortable doing this sort of thing?
17:23
SPEAKER_03: You know, I'm always telling you that every single step should be safe for the company.
17:29
SPEAKER_03: This project will not destroy the studio.
17:32
SPEAKER_03: So I told you about 250 people, right now we have 170.
17:37
SPEAKER_03: So we are going into a little bit contrary to the market and we don't want
17:42
SPEAKER_03: to be bigger and we don't want to create projects which are very big but taking at
17:49
SPEAKER_03: the same time risks.
17:51
SPEAKER_03: So if you think about Onyx,
17:52
SPEAKER_03: if you think about some other second party projects,
17:56
SPEAKER_03: they are a little bit smaller than those which you are doing on first party.
18:00
SPEAKER_03: But at the same time,
18:02
SPEAKER_03: we are putting a lot of our attention and even if we are feeling
18:07
SPEAKER_03: that maybe it's too much to put a much bigger budget into this project,
18:13
SPEAKER_03: we still believe in the quality because you are as good as your last project
18:18
SPEAKER_03: and we would like,
18:20
SPEAKER_03: if we are not sure that we are able to deliver the quality is better to cancel
18:24
SPEAKER_03: the product.
18:25
SPEAKER_03: Right now, we have seven cycles in our portfolio.
18:29
SPEAKER_03: Two on first part and five on the second part.
18:32
SPEAKER_03: And we are very proud about what we are doing.
18:36
SPEAKER_03: So I hope that as long as you are keeping doing this job, You will be able to succeed that.
18:42
SPEAKER_03: And you know,
18:43
SPEAKER_03: the way that we organize our company in a little bit more vertical rather
18:49
SPEAKER_03: than horizontal way is helping us to understand players,
18:53
SPEAKER_03: but also not making the same mistakes by creating the other games.
18:57
SPEAKER_03: Because if you are doing a different kind of game, It's a good choice that you will fail again.
19:03
SPEAKER_03: And if you did something great in your last title,
19:06
SPEAKER_03: you will be able to improve it if you are going into the same river.
19:12
SPEAKER_02: So self-balance,
19:13
SPEAKER_02: I would say,
19:14
SPEAKER_02: of course,
19:15
SPEAKER_02: there's this old saying that you don't have all of your eggs in your basket, right?
19:18
SPEAKER_02: So actually, this is that.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: Proving hero games in the second party is also a way
19:23
SPEAKER_02: to build another pillar around diversity of stability,
19:26
SPEAKER_02: but we Try to apply logic, apply reason, apply sense first.
19:34
SPEAKER_02: When you look at things, is it self-published?
19:36
SPEAKER_02: Is it publisher?
19:37
SPEAKER_02: How big the team is?
19:38
SPEAKER_02: What's the genre?
19:39
SPEAKER_02: Who's the marketing partner?
19:41
SPEAKER_02: So even though the project might seem Then I think
19:45
SPEAKER_02: the business side is much more stable and actually tries
19:48
SPEAKER_02: to balance different approaches and different things.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: I think this is something that elasticity,
19:55
SPEAKER_02: that being agile is actually something that the current state of the industry wants.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting because I was talking to Tencent.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: This week's episode is with Tencent.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: And I know that there's history there.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: But their strategy is that they believe that studios should focus in
20:11
SPEAKER_00: on something they're really good at.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: And then the next game,
20:13
SPEAKER_00: they talked about the FromSoftware journey It went from Demon's Souls to Dark Souls
20:17
SPEAKER_00: to Bloodborne and then it led to Elden Ring and you can see the journey
20:21
SPEAKER_00: because they basically stayed in a genre and they learned from it
20:25
SPEAKER_00: and they developed it and they did sort of side ones but it all led to a sort of
20:28
SPEAKER_00: a journey for that studio.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Larian was another one that went You know, those divinities led into Baldur's Gate.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: And I guess that's a sort of similar thing that you're doing here with,
20:35
SPEAKER_00: you've got your horror games,
20:37
SPEAKER_00: you know,
20:37
SPEAKER_00: the ones you're making first party,
20:38
SPEAKER_00: you're working with these other studios,
20:39
SPEAKER_00: you're learning from them,
20:40
SPEAKER_00: you're seeing what works,
20:41
SPEAKER_00: what doesn't work,
20:42
SPEAKER_00: and then it all feeds into basically becoming a better studio at the thing you do.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I picked up from what you just said,
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Peter, and it sounds like a sensible, thought-out strategy.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: There's no question there.
20:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well,
20:53
SPEAKER_02: actually,
20:53
SPEAKER_02: I think there's something that they can add to
20:55
SPEAKER_02: because I think there's actually even slightly more to it.
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Of course,
20:58
SPEAKER_02: Tesla is everywhere in the gaming industry right now,
21:01
SPEAKER_02: and everyone listens to what they say.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: But the first part, the Bluber King is exactly doing that.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: They're building expertise within the genre,
21:09
SPEAKER_02: within the type of experience,
21:11
SPEAKER_02: within the type of the game that Bluber wants to make.
21:15
SPEAKER_02: But at the same time,
21:16
SPEAKER_02: I think the ambition is bigger than just the creator of this particular brand
21:20
SPEAKER_02: of games.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: The ambition for Global Team is to be the horror household name, horror platform.
21:29
SPEAKER_02: And it seems it makes sense looking at the popularity of horror in book culture.
21:33
SPEAKER_02: The biggest franchises in movies are basically the horror franchises.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: So, Lugar follows the strategy of the convention that it seems Tencent is also championing.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: Palosso has bigger ambitions and tries to build a bigger platform,
21:46
SPEAKER_02: a bigger perspective on horror in general.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: And I think this is actually why it starts to make even more sense.
21:53
SPEAKER_03: Would you be able to do this by our first party games?
21:57
SPEAKER_03: Of course, from a technical point of view, but it's like breaking the eye of the studio.
22:02
SPEAKER_03: So that's why we would like to see what we are doing the best at first party.
22:07
SPEAKER_03: And on second party Broken Mirror games,
22:09
SPEAKER_03: we are able to create new things by working with the studios,
22:13
SPEAKER_03: which have expertise on this particular things.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: You said you're working on,
22:17
SPEAKER_00: is it five, the second-party broken mirror side of things at the moment?
22:21
SPEAKER_00: How many can you?
22:22
SPEAKER_00: Is there a limit to how many you can handle?
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Is it five?
22:27
SPEAKER_02: Right now, again, it's a question of balance.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: And I think we would not like to work on more today.
22:35
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying what the answer will be next month.
22:38
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying what the answer will be in two months.
22:41
SPEAKER_02: But I think we already have our payphone.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: And of course, we are focusing on the games that have been already announced.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: And these are Soul Genesis and Onix that are great, both with the release platform next year.
22:53
SPEAKER_02: It is a lot, definitely.
22:54
SPEAKER_02: And I also don't want to kind of jump onto it,
22:59
SPEAKER_02: expanding the theme too much right now, just going crazy with ideas.
23:03
SPEAKER_02: We already have a lot.
23:04
SPEAKER_02: Actually, five is a super substantial number, how to think of it.
23:10
SPEAKER_02: So I would not like to expand that much.
23:14
SPEAKER_02: But having said so,
23:16
SPEAKER_02: if there's a great idea,
23:17
SPEAKER_02: if there's a great pitch,
23:18
SPEAKER_02: if we find a game that's,
23:21
SPEAKER_02: I don't know,
23:21
SPEAKER_02: like Gamescom Asia and we find a game from Tide that is super interesting
23:27
SPEAKER_02: and we feel it has potential, And of course, we're going to see that.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: But I think, again, you have to be risk-averse with the current climate.
23:34
SPEAKER_02: You have to be reasonable.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: You have to be focused on what you believe.
23:39
SPEAKER_02: And this is the path to success, and this is what we are trying to achieve.
23:42
SPEAKER_03: From the business perspective, we don't switch more than five, but we are dream cashers.
23:48
SPEAKER_03: And if we'll find something like Alex,
23:50
SPEAKER_03: for example, again, I can't promise you that we're not born.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: What do you look for then?
23:57
SPEAKER_00: You mentioned there it's sort of unique teams doing innovative things that sort
24:00
SPEAKER_00: of capture attention.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Is there something more nailed down when it comes to partners that you do work with?
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Is there like you need a proven track record?
24:07
SPEAKER_02: The pitch needs to be strong.
24:08
SPEAKER_02: And when I say pitch needs to be strong,
24:10
SPEAKER_02: I don't mean that there's a nice deck where all of the USPs
24:14
SPEAKER_02: and game pillars are defined.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: It needs to be an idea where we look at it and we say,
24:18
SPEAKER_02: wow, this is something that really brings a new take on the horizon.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: Basically,
24:24
SPEAKER_02: we need to see new Backrooms,
24:26
SPEAKER_02: new Obsessions, in the game form, like if you get the parallel.
24:29
SPEAKER_02: And even if we look at something that's a little bit established,
24:33
SPEAKER_02: like for example,
24:33
SPEAKER_02: the online horror multiplayer of Saw Genesis,
24:37
SPEAKER_02: I think the experience that we will be bringing with Saw Genesis is different
24:42
SPEAKER_02: than everything that's out there in the market.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: This is a genre, okay, but how we take on the genre is different.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: In a way,
24:49
SPEAKER_02: the dynamics between the hero,
24:51
SPEAKER_02: let's say,
24:51
SPEAKER_02: judge in our case and the victims, the accused in our case is completely different.
24:57
SPEAKER_02: We built a completely different experience just using some of our elements of the genre.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: So definitely the creative first.
25:03
SPEAKER_02: You were asking about teams.
25:05
SPEAKER_02: So far we are working mostly with teams that we have some kind of a history
25:11
SPEAKER_02: as Glover and that were partners for us for some time.
25:15
SPEAKER_02: And we kind of build that relation,
25:16
SPEAKER_02: build trust, build common understanding of what we are trying to achieve.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: So for example,
25:22
SPEAKER_02: first of all Genesis,
25:23
SPEAKER_02: it's actual studios for Onyx is Parasite,
25:28
SPEAKER_02: a studio that Basically it was built by ex-Bluber team members.
25:32
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, there's a history there, but it's not the whole story.
25:36
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to go into too many details,
25:38
SPEAKER_02: but we have just announced those two titles at this moment.
25:44
SPEAKER_02: Again, I would also like to emphasize that we will be looking everywhere
25:49
SPEAKER_02: for those horror experiences.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: So if it's a cool horror game made in Thailand or Brazil or Or somewhere in Poland,
25:59
SPEAKER_02: then you will definitely consider that.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know if you would have to say it.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: Is there like a limit on the sort of budgets that you work within?
26:07
SPEAKER_03: We don't have a limitation in thinking.
26:11
SPEAKER_03: Of course, it has to make Sinosol or the Visa side.
26:14
SPEAKER_03: We don't want to get smaller products.
26:17
SPEAKER_03: I would say that OREX is a program that was the generalest part.
26:22
SPEAKER_03: Because, you know, we are thinking to add additional value.
26:25
SPEAKER_03: We spend a lot of time grading AA and almost AAA models.
26:31
SPEAKER_03: And we are feeling here very well.
26:33
SPEAKER_03: So you could expect those things which will be doing in the future rather not small,
26:38
SPEAKER_03: but a little bit smaller than this what we are doing in the first part.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: But again, we don't have that defined.
26:45
SPEAKER_02: I think that's the best answer to your question.
26:47
SPEAKER_02: Is the top budget for a Broken Mirror and Games project defined?
26:51
SPEAKER_02: It's not.
26:53
SPEAKER_02: Well, again,
26:53
SPEAKER_02: we start with the creative part and then we try to make it work if we believe in it.
26:58
SPEAKER_02: So looking for partners,
27:00
SPEAKER_02: trying to find us by ourselves, just trying to build a business case behind it.
27:05
SPEAKER_02: So I can easily imagine that
27:09
SPEAKER_02: You can also go AAA if that will happen.
27:13
SPEAKER_02: But I think the order of things is a good idea.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: There's a great developer that we trust and that we feel has this vision defined
27:22
SPEAKER_02: in their heads, in their documentation, in the team.
27:25
SPEAKER_02: They know what they try to believe and they have a chance of delivering it.
27:29
SPEAKER_02: And then we try to build the business case around.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: How big is the Broken Mirror team?
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Is it entirely self-contained?
27:34
SPEAKER_00: Do you lean on resources from Bloober as well?
27:37
SPEAKER_02: But a little.
27:38
SPEAKER_02: So like,
27:39
SPEAKER_02: it's mostly,
27:39
SPEAKER_02: you know,
27:39
SPEAKER_02: because we work in majority with external developers,
27:43
SPEAKER_02: that a lot of the development work is handled by those things.
27:48
SPEAKER_02: What we have here is,
27:49
SPEAKER_02: I would say like a creative and production and business and marketing team
27:55
SPEAKER_02: that understands and gets the visual and broken mirror games and can help
27:59
SPEAKER_02: to produce those games,
28:00
SPEAKER_02: can help with the creative part,
28:02
SPEAKER_02: with the design part,
28:03
SPEAKER_02: with the direction part, of course, can help with publishing the marketing.
28:08
SPEAKER_02: If that's on our site and a DNA,
28:10
SPEAKER_02: the creative part of the DNA This is something that you can also attach
28:14
SPEAKER_02: to our project as Broken Neural Games and this uses the heritage,
28:18
SPEAKER_02: the knowledge, the know-how of the Bluber team.
28:20
SPEAKER_02: Now when it comes to development-centric resources,
28:23
SPEAKER_02: if you put it this way, it depends on the setup.
28:25
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you use,
28:27
SPEAKER_02: let's say,
28:29
SPEAKER_02: the mock-up teams,
28:30
SPEAKER_02: the animation teams,
28:31
SPEAKER_02: the audio teams,
28:33
SPEAKER_02: whatever is needed and wherever Bluber can apply the experience that it gets.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: I think that it's also correlated with the actual stage of first part
28:43
SPEAKER_03: the development because for example if we are working on production
28:47
SPEAKER_03: the whole thing is not involved in the production so we are able to put some
28:53
SPEAKER_03: of our works into second part of the project so in some way it's also giving us
28:59
SPEAKER_03: the right balance because we don't need to think about Okay,
29:03
SPEAKER_03: we are finishing the game, so maybe we should have some stuff.
29:07
SPEAKER_03: We always are thinking, okay, how we could use our resources.
29:11
SPEAKER_03: Now, the best of all is that most of those people are with us for more than five,
29:16
SPEAKER_03: ten years, so they have DNA of Bluebird Team and we don't want to change it.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: I think I need to say this at this point that maybe embarrassing me there a little,
29:26
SPEAKER_02: but I think the first thing that I got,
29:29
SPEAKER_02: and I got it almost instantly as I entered the offices,
29:33
SPEAKER_02: that the long-term Family-based relation building that happens
29:38
SPEAKER_02: in this team is something very, very unique.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: In a way,
29:40
SPEAKER_02: like we have a Polish heart,
29:41
SPEAKER_02: but this is super Japanese in a way that,
29:44
SPEAKER_02: you know, we built those relations basically last decades.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: And honestly,
29:49
SPEAKER_02: like I have just joined,
29:50
SPEAKER_02: but I can easily see myself working at the Google team and being
29:54
SPEAKER_02: with Broken Mirror Games like 20 years from now.
29:57
SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
29:58
SPEAKER_02: Because we are the youngest.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: Although I'm worried about Timmons' cough,
30:07
SPEAKER_00: that it might not make it to the end of the
30:10
SPEAKER_02: interview.
30:13
SPEAKER_02: Very strong AC here, so that's the reason.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll end actually with one final question.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: It's a question I often ask at the end because you've talked
30:20
SPEAKER_00: about having this long term, you know, relationships.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: You start here and then,
30:23
SPEAKER_00: you know, you're thinking pops multiple games ahead and all that kind of stuff.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: But where would you like to see Broken Mirror in five years, shall we say?
30:32
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think it's actually a very easy thing to answer.
30:35
SPEAKER_02: Like, so first of all,
30:36
SPEAKER_02: I think bigger in terms of Bloober Team,
30:39
SPEAKER_02: what I would like to see and also help to happen is that we'll get closer
30:43
SPEAKER_02: to building that horror platform.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: So when players think horror, the first developer, they think about it's Bloober Team, right?
30:51
SPEAKER_02: They see that logo and they say, oh, wow, we are into like a really tense horror, right?
30:57
SPEAKER_02: Like we'll get scared and we'll have lots of fun as we get scared.
31:01
SPEAKER_02: And when it comes to broken newer games,
31:04
SPEAKER_02: I see us as adding to that legacy by being this imprint that surprises people.
31:12
SPEAKER_02: That basically, I like this metaphor, so sorry, but I will repeat it.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: I'd like us to be basically the Backrooms or the Obsession, right?
31:20
SPEAKER_02: Like this year,
31:21
SPEAKER_02: you got Insidious,
31:22
SPEAKER_02: you got Evil Dead,
31:23
SPEAKER_02: like the established horror genres,
31:25
SPEAKER_02: they were successful, but then Backrooms surprised everyone.
31:29
SPEAKER_02: Like no one expected this movie to be so strong and it's a different thing of horror.
31:34
SPEAKER_02: So I would like us to be able to deliver that.
31:37
SPEAKER_02: And now going back to what players will feel I would like to achieve is
31:41
SPEAKER_02: that Imagine there's like the Game Awards on Summer Game Fest and
31:46
SPEAKER_02: the logo appears,
31:47
SPEAKER_02: broken mirror games,
31:48
SPEAKER_02: imprint on the team and they already think, oh wow,
31:52
SPEAKER_02: I will get scared,
31:53
SPEAKER_02: I will have lots of fun and I wonder will they have cooked up this time
31:56
SPEAKER_02: because I'm sure this will be something that I have never played before.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: It's always quite special I imagine for a studio when the logo of the studio is
32:03
SPEAKER_00: the one that gets the roar from the crowd, right?
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
32:08
SPEAKER_02: So this is the goal for us as Bloober team and like me,
32:12
SPEAKER_02: adding a little part with the team from the Broken Mirror game side.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for your time.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: I look forward to Onyx.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: It's on my wish list if they existed on Nintendo.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: But I'm very much looking forward to that game.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I think it sounds fun what you're doing.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: So good luck with it all.
32:30
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Thank you to Pieter and Timian there.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Right, next week there is a video games event on.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: You may not have heard about it because they've announced it quite last minute.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: It's called New York Games Week.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: It's a collection of events under this one banner all taking place in New York City.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: And one of the people behind it is Guy Blomberg.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Guy's an old friend of mine.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: He's a video games events veteran.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: He's worked on PAX, he's worked on E3, he's worked on Comic Cons, he's worked on Dreamhack.
32:53
SPEAKER_00: He's very, very,
32:54
SPEAKER_00: very well known for working on big video game shows and he's sort
32:57
SPEAKER_00: of soft launching this New York project.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: And he's taking a slightly different decentralized approach to this one,
33:02
SPEAKER_00: which he hopes will enable the event to avoid some of the challenges
33:06
SPEAKER_00: that other events like GDC have been facing.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: So I decided to chat to Guy all about it.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: And here he is.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: Hello, Guy.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the show.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Hello, Dring.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: How are you?
33:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing really well.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: It's been a long time.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, it's not been a long time since we've spoken.
33:21
SPEAKER_01: No, it's probably been a while since we've been in an official capacity with each other.
33:25
SPEAKER_01: How's that?
33:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is absolutely true.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: And now you're doing a new event, sort of.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: Is it a festival?
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Is that right to call it?
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Or is it New York Games Week?
33:34
SPEAKER_01: I think festival is accurate.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: I think festival is a celebration.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, it's more celebratory.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: It's more fun.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, it's over the period of a week, New York Games Week.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: You announced it quite late.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: We're doing New York Games Week.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, it's on in a month.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Has it been behind the scenes for a little while or was this experimental?
33:52
SPEAKER_00: Talk me through it.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: Well, I just don't think people have the attention span to actually think about
33:56
SPEAKER_01: an event more than one month out.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: So we figured we'd just announce it one month out.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: No, that's not true.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: This came about at the beginning of the year.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: So I've been in New York for about eight years now,
34:05
SPEAKER_01: and I know a lot of the event organizers here, the Game Days of Color.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: Tribeca Games Festival,
34:10
SPEAKER_01: the Harold and the New York Game Critics Circle Game Awards and all this kind
34:14
SPEAKER_01: of stuff.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of these smaller gaming events are kind of,
34:18
SPEAKER_01: they're awesome in their own run, but they're very disparate and spread out.
34:21
SPEAKER_01: And there was this idea,
34:23
SPEAKER_01: this collaborative idea to try and get everyone to kind of come together during
34:28
SPEAKER_01: a similar period of time to try and create like a sense of,
34:31
SPEAKER_01: oh, we should be in New York around about this time.
34:34
SPEAKER_01: And so the idea came about at the beginning of the year and
34:36
SPEAKER_01: then it's just been slowly worked on.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: We were going to actually do it next year when we had enough time,
34:41
SPEAKER_01: but we figured, let's just do it this year.
34:44
SPEAKER_01: Let's put a flag in the ground and see how it goes.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: That way you can kind of iron out the bugs and figure out what does and doesn't work
34:50
SPEAKER_01: a bit without too much pressure.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: But it's gone much bigger and much better than anticipated for the first year,
35:00
SPEAKER_01: which is a good Good and bad on mid-levels.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: So you've gone into early access on New York Games Week.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a great way of phrasing it.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't want to call it like the beta or the trial period or things like this,
35:13
SPEAKER_01: but it is what it is and it's coming together pretty well.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: So what is coming together pretty well?
35:21
SPEAKER_01: It's funny because you and I have been working in events.
35:24
SPEAKER_01: We've done events and we've been around events.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: And many people listening to this obviously experience with events.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: This is coming at it without the idea of a singular physical location.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: The way I'm kind of thinking about it But it is almost decentralized.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of gaming events that we go to are trying very hard to try
35:44
SPEAKER_01: and pull people back into the physical location.
35:47
SPEAKER_01: And rightfully so, you know, like everyone, we go to a lot of events.
35:51
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, you're going to that event?
35:52
SPEAKER_01: No, I'll be in the city around about that time.
35:54
SPEAKER_01: I'll be at the hotel bars around that time.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: The idea of this was, well,
35:58
SPEAKER_01: what if we can create something that works around that and goes backwards from that?
36:04
SPEAKER_01: So it is industry focused.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: There's a B2B component to it,
36:07
SPEAKER_01: probably the most important component, but it's also consumer focused.
36:09
SPEAKER_01: Every bar and venue around the city is going to be doing something.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: There'll be signage up around the city and a celebration, that's the festival component.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: But the part that interests me the most is Maybe,
36:21
SPEAKER_01: possibly building a B2B industry FOMO event where the city itself is the venue,
36:30
SPEAKER_01: which I think is uniquely specific to New York City, but we'll see.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: This is why it's kind of new and interesting and exciting to see what happens.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: Because we obviously briefly and, you know, we've still got the scars touched on E3.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: We did.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: And that was that was tough because there were lots of people as well going,
36:50
SPEAKER_00: oh, we can be around the city.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: And I know from an attendee point of view,
36:54
SPEAKER_00: Going to E3 and then having to go through multiple different security checkpoints.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: And even now,
36:57
SPEAKER_00: Summer Game Fest,
36:58
SPEAKER_00: which is brilliant,
36:59
SPEAKER_00: there's still multiple, you know, you're still traveling around and things.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: It's not the best experience.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: GDC is obviously trying to embrace the city approach as well,
37:06
SPEAKER_00: as well as having the centralized thing.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: I guess for me,
37:11
SPEAKER_00: I've always worried about the business model behind what is the role of
37:14
SPEAKER_00: the central organizing committee, I guess.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: But I guess you start from the point,
37:19
SPEAKER_00: you know, you don't have the got to protect the show floor.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: You've got that.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm talking.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving your answer for you.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of the interesting thing.
37:27
SPEAKER_01: I haven't really seen anyone else try and do this before.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: This is why it's interesting.
37:32
SPEAKER_01: And I'd say there's three tiers that I think about when you come to
37:36
SPEAKER_01: a B2B business event model and the tiers of people that come to it.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: Students or people trying to get into the industry or trying to actually meet
37:46
SPEAKER_01: and network or find out more information.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: For them,
37:48
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of panels and talks and curated opportunities and workshops and things
37:53
SPEAKER_01: of this are really important and valuable.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: The second tier,
37:56
SPEAKER_01: I would say,
37:57
SPEAKER_01: are people that are either starting out or they're from underrepresented countries
38:01
SPEAKER_01: or they don't have a lot of contacts within the games industry.
38:04
SPEAKER_01: When they come to an event like GDC or DICE or like a GameSpeed or whatever,
38:08
SPEAKER_01: like they don't know a lot of people there.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to forge those relationships and those connections.
38:13
SPEAKER_01: Then you got the third tier,
38:14
SPEAKER_01: which is the people that already know everyone or the people that know most people
38:17
SPEAKER_01: or they're going to the event, but they're not going to the event.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: They're just going around the event because the fact that they're in town,
38:23
SPEAKER_01: most of their meetings will actually happen around those events.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: If you think about those three tiers,
38:27
SPEAKER_01: And I think about the people primarily who are,
38:31
SPEAKER_01: you know,
38:31
SPEAKER_01: like you or me or a lot of,
38:32
SPEAKER_01: you know,
38:33
SPEAKER_01: colleagues and people that we know that they go to these spaces and they're around,
38:37
SPEAKER_01: they're organizing their own dinners and meetups and they're hanging out in
38:41
SPEAKER_01: the hotels and a lot of the rooms where they're doing demos and things like this,
38:45
SPEAKER_01: like they don't need a physical location.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: And for the other folks,
38:48
SPEAKER_01: is there a better way to actually connect people rather than telling them you need
38:52
SPEAKER_01: to buy a ticket and go to this physical location?
38:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: We'll find out.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: I think you might know.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: What's the goal then?
39:00
SPEAKER_00: You're not calling it a test run,
39:02
SPEAKER_00: but I appreciate there's an element of getting feedback this year
39:04
SPEAKER_00: and seeing how it goes and then adapting.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: But where do you want this to be?
39:08
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
39:08
SPEAKER_01: I would like this to become a beat on the global gaming calendar.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: I would like this to be in the same conversation that a lot of people talk about
39:16
SPEAKER_01: when they're like,
39:16
SPEAKER_01: oh yeah,
39:17
SPEAKER_01: we're going to, yeah,
39:18
SPEAKER_01: we'll be at Gamescom or we'll be at PAX,
39:19
SPEAKER_01: we'll be at DICE,
39:20
SPEAKER_01: we'll be at like, you know, a Tokyo Game Show, whatever kind of thing.
39:23
SPEAKER_01: I would like New York Games Week to be part of that same conversation
39:27
SPEAKER_01: because they're really,
39:28
SPEAKER_01: outside of,
39:29
SPEAKER_01: you know,
39:29
SPEAKER_01: PAX East,
39:30
SPEAKER_01: there's not really a lot of beats on the East Coast here in North America
39:35
SPEAKER_01: that really draw people here.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
39:38
SPEAKER_01: I think the West Coast is primarily where a lot of your game publishers
39:42
SPEAKER_01: and game developers are sprung up from.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: When you think about LA and San Francisco and areas over there, that's Silicon Valley.
39:49
SPEAKER_01: That's where Microsoft,
39:50
SPEAKER_01: that's where Amazon,
39:50
SPEAKER_01: that's where Seattle and the West That's where they're all located.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: Not so much here.
39:55
SPEAKER_01: New York is interesting because you don't have a lot of the developers.
39:59
SPEAKER_01: You've got no publishers except for Rockstar and Atari.
40:03
SPEAKER_01: You've got very few mid-tier gaming companies.
40:07
SPEAKER_01: What you do have is your finance,
40:10
SPEAKER_01: you have your journalists, you have your media, you have your headquarters.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: I think that's interesting.
40:15
SPEAKER_01: What if we can actually build a beat where a lot of the people that have funding
40:19
SPEAKER_01: or money or are adjacent marketing or in the film industry or IP,
40:24
SPEAKER_01: what if they're all here and we have a reason for everyone else in
40:27
SPEAKER_01: the games industry to actually come together?
40:29
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
40:30
SPEAKER_01: It's I'm curious.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: I'm curious to see how it goes as well,
40:33
SPEAKER_01: but I'm pretty excited that we've been able to put something together with
40:36
SPEAKER_01: the support of the economic development group and the mayor's office as well.
40:39
SPEAKER_01: So, yeah.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, starting from scratch,
40:41
SPEAKER_00: because obviously one of the things I know we came out of COVID was trying
40:45
SPEAKER_00: to make existing events work and,
40:47
SPEAKER_00: you know,
40:48
SPEAKER_00: trying to maintain what was already built and trying to adapt to where
40:51
SPEAKER_00: the market is today.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: Obviously,
40:52
SPEAKER_00: where do you see this is quite a broad question,
40:54
SPEAKER_00: but as someone who's I've worked on PAXs and dream hacks and all this sort of thing.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: Where do you see the problem with events that you're hoping that you can avoid
41:05
SPEAKER_00: by starting from scratch, basically?
41:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's two sides to it, right?
41:09
SPEAKER_01: And you and I did this when we were doing the E3 stuff.
41:11
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to solve a problem and trying to find a solution,
41:16
SPEAKER_01: you know,
41:16
SPEAKER_01: that makes sense for the industry as opposed to actually just trying to maintain
41:21
SPEAKER_01: the relevance of an existing and longstanding brand.
41:24
SPEAKER_01: The idea of coming
41:25
SPEAKER_01: at New York Games Week fresh is we're not actually building up any physical
41:30
SPEAKER_01: component of it that might not be needed.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: I think the goal is if you can get everyone in town,
41:36
SPEAKER_01: ironically,
41:37
SPEAKER_01: around that same time, then you'll actually see what is needed pop up around that.
41:44
SPEAKER_01: There's thoughts that we've got in the future,
41:46
SPEAKER_01: such as what if we can get like a networking or meet to match system that exists
41:50
SPEAKER_01: over the top of all of it,
41:51
SPEAKER_01: which is what they're doing down in Melbourne International Games Week,
41:53
SPEAKER_01: which I love to see.
41:55
SPEAKER_01: How important are the conference or talk or panel components to it?
41:59
SPEAKER_01: Compare it to the networking or components to it.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: What is actually needed?
42:04
SPEAKER_01: I like the idea of filling in those gaps once we see or hear it as opposed
42:09
SPEAKER_01: to actually creating something based off a model that might be out there.
42:15
SPEAKER_01: The other one is,
42:16
SPEAKER_01: I think, again, you and I were trying to do this with E3 and we see it with GDC.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to work with the community events.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: Summer Game Fest is a perfect example of decentralized.
42:29
SPEAKER_01: Even though it's got Jeff and John's activations and whatnot,
42:33
SPEAKER_01: it very much is this thing where people are in town.
42:37
SPEAKER_01: So we'll see.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: I think creating it and starting it was very much just,
42:43
SPEAKER_01: like I said, putting a flag in the ground, being this is New York Games Week.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: Thankfully,
42:46
SPEAKER_01: it doesn't really compete with a lot of other gaming events either outside
42:50
SPEAKER_01: of North America at the very least.
42:51
SPEAKER_01: Like it's pretty in between a lot of the big global beats, which is nice.
42:57
SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a chance for it to really pop off.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: Plus, and the big one is New York City is a destination location.
43:06
SPEAKER_01: People like the idea of coming here.
43:07
SPEAKER_01: Right?
43:08
SPEAKER_00: Right, Chris?
43:08
SPEAKER_00: Right?
43:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd love to go.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: I went to New York once for the launch of the PlayStation 4 for like 24 hours.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: Or the reveal of the PlayStation 4 rather.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: You need to spend a little bit more time here in New York City.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: And I mean,
43:21
SPEAKER_01: the pitch,
43:22
SPEAKER_01: the great thing about New York Games Week is that you'd get around the city.
43:25
SPEAKER_01: You're not just going to stay inside a convention center and never wait.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, I did one of the things about New York,
43:30
SPEAKER_00: because I've been quite like the brief period I was there,
43:32
SPEAKER_00: it reminded very much of a European city.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: I felt oddly at home in America.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: But who's involved then?
43:39
SPEAKER_00: So you've got,
43:40
SPEAKER_00: so you mentioned some of the names of the other events that you're,
43:42
SPEAKER_00: who's involved in it this year?
43:44
SPEAKER_01: Other events.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: So it's actually being put on by myself, Amit,
43:48
SPEAKER_01: who runs the IGDA NYC chapter here,
43:51
SPEAKER_01: and Christy Pryde,
43:52
SPEAKER_01: who runs the PlayNYC,
43:54
SPEAKER_01: the larger gaming consumer event that's been in town for a while
43:58
SPEAKER_01: and is now partnered with Are there events that are popping up?
44:02
SPEAKER_01: We've got IGDA Gamerpalooza,
44:05
SPEAKER_01: which is the largest indie event that's showcasing,
44:10
SPEAKER_01: I think about 70 or 80 indie developers are showcasing there.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: All the different venues around the city,
44:16
SPEAKER_01: Wonderville and OSNYC and Coexist are popping up with talks and panels
44:21
SPEAKER_01: and activations and showcases, NYU,
44:23
SPEAKER_01: the Alamo Drafthouse is doing a bunch of D&D campaigns, all the gaming industry.
44:30
SPEAKER_01: Gumbo, the Indie NYC Collective are doing industry events.
44:36
SPEAKER_01: There's a boat trip on a yacht under the Brooklyn Bridge for industry folks.
44:40
SPEAKER_01: The Gig, the Games Institute Gathering is doing a meeting.
44:44
SPEAKER_01: Gumbo is celebrating 10 years.
44:47
SPEAKER_01: There's a bunch of industry specific stuff and then consumer stuff.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: Sega's doing a big 35th anniversary for Sonic the Hedgehog.
44:54
SPEAKER_01: There's a launch party for Clive Barker's Hellraiser.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: There's a...
44:59
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
45:00
SPEAKER_01: Fashion in Gaming Awards event.
45:01
SPEAKER_01: New York Comic Con is part of it as well.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a big thing.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: This giant consumer show that might not be gaming,
45:07
SPEAKER_01: but has a huge amount of gaming elements in it.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's another interesting part to this.
45:14
SPEAKER_01: Which is not really being promoted or spoken about yet.
45:17
SPEAKER_01: Because we need to figure out how this all fits together.
45:19
SPEAKER_01: But New York Games Week happens the same time as New York Comic Con.
45:24
SPEAKER_01: The same time as New York Ad Week, Advertising Week.
45:27
SPEAKER_01: And the same time as the New York Film Festival.
45:29
SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting that there's all these other not gaming
45:33
SPEAKER_01: but gaming adjacent industry things that are taking place during the week.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: Which has led to...
45:39
SPEAKER_01: A lot of really interesting conversations about,
45:42
SPEAKER_01: you know,
45:42
SPEAKER_01: there's a couple of,
45:44
SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
45:44
SPEAKER_01: there's some industry dinners and parties that are being held by,
45:47
SPEAKER_01: you know, IP holders that are trying to connect with developers.
45:50
SPEAKER_01: There's some interesting conversations to be had.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: Is the city involved?
45:57
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
45:57
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: We got the New York mayor's office that are behind it and they're supportive of it.
46:01
SPEAKER_01: Zohan and the team, I mean, they're gamers.
46:05
SPEAKER_01: They get it.
46:05
SPEAKER_01: They've been supporting the games industry here in New York for quite some time.
46:08
SPEAKER_01: The Economic Development Association are behind it as well.
46:11
SPEAKER_01: So we've got the support of the city and the promotion,
46:15
SPEAKER_01: the marketing that's going to blast this out to the entire of New York City as well,
46:18
SPEAKER_01: which is important.
46:21
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it feels really good.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: It's difficult because obviously, you know, I love video game events.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: I do think the value of them isn't always easy to explain on a spreadsheet,
46:29
SPEAKER_00: but I think when you go to them,
46:30
SPEAKER_00: I know that you feel the same way, but it does feel challenging.
46:34
SPEAKER_00: Gamescom has had a very successful Gamescom if you ignore the heists,
46:37
SPEAKER_00: but I think it,
46:38
SPEAKER_00: you know,
46:38
SPEAKER_00: is a very busy and very successful event, but it's of a certain scale that.
46:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: And then you've got GDC's,
46:44
SPEAKER_00: I think GDC's issue is actually pretty good, but it's struggling, right?
46:48
SPEAKER_00: It's trying to rebuild itself in a way for the industry going forward.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: I look at,
46:54
SPEAKER_00: and PAXs are sort of still there,
46:55
SPEAKER_00: and you know,
46:56
SPEAKER_00: and then the London Game Festival's doing a thing where it's now moving closer to
46:59
SPEAKER_00: a week, and they're sort of scaling up a little bit.
47:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I do feel that that entire segment of the industry is proving difficult.
47:06
SPEAKER_00: You know,
47:07
SPEAKER_00: when you've got those things like Reboot and stuff that collapsed and those sort
47:11
SPEAKER_00: of things, and people try to work out what they need.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: In an industry where there isn't a lot of money at the moment going around,
47:17
SPEAKER_00: and that's why a lot of people go to these events is to find the money.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't have a question.
47:24
SPEAKER_01: I was wondering where you were going with it.
47:26
SPEAKER_01: But it is interesting, isn't it?
47:28
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, Gamescom is like the model.
47:30
SPEAKER_01: And even,
47:30
SPEAKER_01: you know,
47:31
SPEAKER_01: when we were doing E3 stuff,
47:32
SPEAKER_01: like that was the model that we were looking for,
47:34
SPEAKER_01: this consumer and industry kind of,
47:36
SPEAKER_01: you know,
47:37
SPEAKER_01: two-hander that could jump That would justify getting everyone coming to it.
47:42
SPEAKER_01: But at scale, that's what works.
47:43
SPEAKER_01: I actually,
47:45
SPEAKER_01: at a personal level,
47:45
SPEAKER_01: I think what's more interesting is the smaller,
47:47
SPEAKER_01: more regional events that actually happen and bring the industry together in
47:52
SPEAKER_01: a specific location Create more of a community.
47:55
SPEAKER_01: I think that's really interesting and that's really powerful.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: I love the stuff that GDC are doing with their business hall kind of thing.
48:03
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, we're creating more of a space for business.
48:06
SPEAKER_01: I'm just looking at it from an East Coast.
48:09
SPEAKER_01: There's not really much here, but there should be.
48:14
SPEAKER_01: But I wonder if we can build a gaming convention or a gaming component that serves
48:20
SPEAKER_01: a purpose in a more maybe Is it a more meaningful way or a way that future-proofs it
48:26
SPEAKER_01: in a different way?
48:27
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Well, good luck with it.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we did do an investment summit back in the day at PAX East, didn't we?
48:33
SPEAKER_00: And lots of people turned up to it.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: They did.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: It was a very busy event, and I think it just shows that if you put these things on.
48:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, Chris,
48:40
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad you brought that up,
48:41
SPEAKER_01: because I guess you'll be doing a Game Business Investment Summit
48:44
SPEAKER_01: at New York Games Week next week.
48:45
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
48:46
SPEAKER_01: We've heard it here first.
48:48
SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
48:48
SPEAKER_01: I love to hear it.
48:49
SPEAKER_01: That's such a great commitment this far out.
48:53
SPEAKER_00: I would love to next year.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: Oh, maybe next week.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: Good luck.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a Game Business Live.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: See if we can get big names from New York, maybe Reggie or Strauss.
49:08
SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah.
49:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's certainly good.
49:13
SPEAKER_01: Oh, actually, that's, I mean, look,
49:15
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if this is for the video or not or whatever,
49:17
SPEAKER_01: but because of the support from the mayor's office,
49:19
SPEAKER_01: venues and things like this,
49:21
SPEAKER_01: anyone that does want to come and actually do a B2B event,
49:24
SPEAKER_01: we've got access to venues and spaces.
49:26
SPEAKER_01: The Comic-Con folks, the Repop Comic-Con folks are actually really open to this as well.
49:30
SPEAKER_01: They're like,
49:30
SPEAKER_01: if there's someone that wants to do a conference or a big B2B component,
49:33
SPEAKER_01: they've got spaces and access too.
49:35
SPEAKER_01: I think there's a lot we can do for next year when we have The time to think
49:39
SPEAKER_01: about it, you know?
49:41
SPEAKER_01: So for right now, it's just the fact that we're doing it.
49:43
SPEAKER_01: It's gotten a lot of attention.
49:44
SPEAKER_01: It's got a lot of positivity,
49:46
SPEAKER_01: both with the local New York gaming industry and relevant gaming communities.
49:50
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think people want an excuse to travel to New York and this would be a good one.
49:55
SPEAKER_01: So good luck with it, Guy.
49:58
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Chris.
49:59
SPEAKER_00: Thank you to Guy there.
50:01
SPEAKER_00: That's it for our interviews today.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: The only thing left for me to do is our news wrap up.
50:05
SPEAKER_00: There's only a few stories, but some of them good ones.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: Xbox's digital program is now available to all users.
50:11
SPEAKER_00: The feature which lets players turn their Xbox One and Xbox Series X discs
50:14
SPEAKER_00: into digital games has been available for testing to Xbox Insiders since the end
50:18
SPEAKER_00: of August, and now it's going to be available to everybody.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: Moving over to the other platform holder, Sony is skipping CES 2027.
50:25
SPEAKER_00: It's historically been one of the show's biggest exhibitors,
50:27
SPEAKER_00: stretching all the way back to 1967.
50:30
SPEAKER_00: Sony says it is due to shifting its focus towards entertainment IP and technology
50:34
SPEAKER_00: that supports creators.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: With a positive sales number here,
50:38
SPEAKER_00: War Dogs,
50:38
SPEAKER_00: who of course have been on our show, has now sold 3 million copies worldwide.
50:42
SPEAKER_00: The shooter is from Bulkhead Interactive in the UK.
50:45
SPEAKER_00: We had a couple of stories from Meta last week.
50:47
SPEAKER_00: Meta revealed AI-powered game tools that let players make games using prompts
50:50
SPEAKER_00: on mobile devices and Horizon Create is designed for mobile,
50:54
SPEAKER_00: while Horizon Studio is intended for browsers.
50:56
SPEAKER_00: Both platforms allow assets, systems and iteration history to transfer between them.
51:00
SPEAKER_00: Users simply make text prompts describing their desired game.
51:02
SPEAKER_00: The Meta Horizon engine then generates a playable game,
51:05
SPEAKER_00: which can be published to Facebook and Instagram.
51:07
SPEAKER_00: Lots of that going on at the moment.
51:09
SPEAKER_00: Meta also unveiled VR glasses.
51:11
SPEAKER_00: This VR is back at Meta, which will have Unity support from day one.
51:14
SPEAKER_00: The glasses are five times lighter than the Meta Quest 3,
51:16
SPEAKER_00: do not include straps or heavy hardware, and feature a 5K infinite display.
51:21
SPEAKER_00: $1,300 from spring 2027.
51:25
SPEAKER_00: Mind's Eye developer Builder Rocketboy has appointed administrators.
51:27
SPEAKER_00: Following its recent wave of layoffs,
51:29
SPEAKER_00: the studio formed by Lesley Benzies was initially developing
51:31
SPEAKER_00: a large metaverse style project but pivoted to a smaller action title but failed
51:35
SPEAKER_00: to impress gamers.
51:37
SPEAKER_00: Killer7, No More Heroes and Romeo is a dead man developer.
51:39
SPEAKER_00: Grasshopper Manufacturer is separating from NetEase Games to become an independent studio.
51:43
SPEAKER_00: So another Chinese company pulling out of a Japanese company.
51:45
SPEAKER_00: It's been a bit of a trend that one.
51:47
SPEAKER_00: And the final two stories,
51:48
SPEAKER_00: Trophy Games will acquire Plarion,
51:50
SPEAKER_00: the studio behind Airlines Manager and Airport Simulator First Class.
51:53
SPEAKER_00: It will cost them $2.6 million.
51:55
SPEAKER_00: Plarion is currently owned by Paradox Interactive.
51:57
SPEAKER_00: And finally,
51:58
SPEAKER_00: King signed a collective bargaining agreement with two Swedish unions that prevented
52:01
SPEAKER_00: a planned strike last week.
52:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, that is it for me today.
52:05
SPEAKER_00: Thank you all for joining us.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: We've got loads of big episodes next week as well.
52:08
SPEAKER_00: I'll tease you about those and to our paying subscribers on our Monday morning edition.
52:13
SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned for that one.
52:14
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a subscriber,
52:15
SPEAKER_00: paying or otherwise,
52:15
SPEAKER_00: you can become one by going to thegamebusiness.com and signing up to our newsletter
52:19
SPEAKER_00: and you'll get an alert every time we put out an episode.
52:22
SPEAKER_00: That's it from us today.
52:23
SPEAKER_00: Until next time.
52:25
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in.