Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 152 ”Gaming’s Best and Bleakest of 2023”

[INTRO THEME]
[INTRODUCTIONS] (3-5 minutes)
Show introduction:
Insights Into Entertainment Episode 152: Gaming’s Best and Bleakest of 2023

Host introductions
Host (Sam Whalen)
My co-host (Joseph Whalen)

[SUMMARY]

On today’s show we’re going to run down the nominations for the Game Awards, and discuss the massive amount of industry layoffs despite a record year for industry profits. Who should be held accountable for layoffs? Is there a way to prevent them? All that and more on this episode of Insights Into Tomorrow.

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[TRANSITION]

[SEGMENT 1 – Game award nominees]

https://thegameawards.com/nominees/game-of-the-year
https://bit.ly/3SGNcR1
Before we get into the depressing news, let’s take a moment to celebrate some of gaming’s highlights from this past year.
Game of the Year
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
Publisher: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Highlights:
“Tears of the Kingdom” has been highly praised for its improvements over “Breath of the Wild”, offering an expanded world and features that encourage exploration and experimentation.
Its blend of traditional Zelda elements with innovative mechanics makes it a standout title in the series and the broader action-adventure genre.
Marvel’s Spider Man 2
Publisher: Insomniac Games/SIE
Highlights:
“Marvel’s Spider-Man 2” stands out for its dual-character gameplay, innovative combat and traversal mechanics, and an expansive narrative that enriches the Spider-Man universe.
The game’s high ratings and varied content offer a comprehensive and engaging experience for fans of the superhero genre and action-adventure gaming.
Alan Wake II
Publisher: Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing
Highlights:
Alan Wake 2″ is noted for its shift towards a more intense survival horror experience, combined with its intriguing narrative and innovative gameplay mechanics.
The game has received generally positive reviews from critics and is appreciated for its storytelling, mood, and incorporation of horror elements into its gameplay

Baldur’s Gate 3
Publisher: Larian Studios
Highlights:
The game has received critical acclaim for its gameplay, narrative, and production quality, and it won multiple awards, including the Golden Joystick Award for Game of the Year.
Its deep integration of Dungeons & Dragons mechanics, combined with a rich narrative and flexible gameplay, makes it a standout in the role-playing game genre.
Resident Evil 4
Publisher: Capcom
Highlights: This remake of the classic game has been praised for its impressive graphics, audio, and revamped gameplay mechanics. It retains the core mechanics of the original while introducing new features and expanding content.
Super Mario Wonder
Publisher: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Highlights: The game is celebrated for its control mechanics, animation, expressive characters, innovative level designs, and dynamic audio. It features new power-ups and a fresh visual design that breaks from traditional Mario aesthetics.

It has been a banner year for gaming, with new potential Game of the Year contenders seemingly releasing every month.
Sea of Stars, Armored Core 6, Final Fantasy XVI, Starfield.
However, the brains behind the game awards and industry veteran, Geoff Kiehgly, was steadfast in that only six games could make the final cut for GOTY.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has received 8 nominations, including Best Performance – Neil Newbon (Astarion), Best Multiplayer, Best Score & Music – Borislav Slavov, Best Narrative, Best Community Support, Best RPG, Best Game Direction

We don’t have time to cover the long list of nominations, but here are some others we’d like to highlight.
Best Performance
BEN STARR, FINAL FANTASY XVI
CAMERON MONAGHAN, STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR
IDRIS ELBA, CYBERPUNK 2077: PHANTOM LIBERTY
MELANIE LIBURD, ALAN WAKE 2
NEIL NEWBON, BALDUR’S GATE 3
YURI LOWENTHAL, MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2

Sam’s completely unbiased opinion is that Yuri should win.
Best Independent Game
Defined as, “For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system.”
Cocoon
Viewfinder
Sea of Stars
Dredge
Dave the Diver
Worth noting that while Dave the Diver is developed by Mintrocket, a small team, they are owned by Nexon, a giant South Korean publisher valued at billions of dollars.

Q&A
“With such a diverse range of games like ‘Zelda Tears of the Kingdom’ and ‘Resident Evil 4’ making the cut this year, how do you think the evolution of gameplay mechanics and storytelling in these games reflects the changing landscape of the gaming industry?”

“Baldur’s Gate 3 has received a whopping 8 nominations, including for Best Performance and Best RPG. In your opinion, what makes a game truly stand out in these highly competitive categories?”

“Considering the nomination of ‘Dave the Diver’ as Best Independent Game, despite its backing by a major publisher, how do you see the lines blurring between independent and mainstream gaming, and what impact does this have on the industry?”

[SEGMENT 2: Industry Layoffs]

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/over-6000-games-industry-jobs-lost-in-2023-so-far
https://bit.ly/46ksJVx
Despite being lauded as one of the best years in gaming history, the industry has been hit by massive layoffs at every level.
At the time of writing, over 6,000 people have been laid off in the gaming industry.
The helpful, but depressingly named website, http://www.videogamelayoffs.com/, has been tracking the numbers since the beginning of the year.
https://bit.ly/3sBzNiC

Unity is leading in number of layoffs, with around 900 staff let go in 2023.
Unity also changed its pricing structure this year, effectively nuking its brand in the public eye.
From the Verge, “On Tuesday, Unity announced that on January 1st, 2024, it would be implementing a pay-per-download pricing scheme that would charge developers a flat fee any time a game using Unity software is installed.”
“Before a game is charged with these new fees, it must meet a specific revenue and download threshold that changes based on which tier of Unity subscription a developer pays for. These fees are further broken down depending on where a game is purchased, meaning that a game bought in the US, UK, and other “standard” markets is assessed a higher fee than when it’s bought in “emerging” markets like India or China.
This did not go over well at any level, and led to many developers, publishers, and consumers disavowing Unity.
Unity has tried to walk back many of these statements, stating that new policies won’t be as severe as they initially seemed, but the damage has already been done.

It seems now that every week more layoffs are announced at different studios.
Even as we were prepping for this show Humble Bundle has announced layoffs as well.
Embracer Group- https://www.ign.com/articles/embattled-embracer-group-confirms-more-than-900-staff-laid-off-so-far-and-warns-of-more-to-come
https://bit.ly/47hxtfJ

Embracer acquired multiple studios in 2021, including Gearbox and Crystal Dynamics.
They’re now cleaning house according to IGN’s Wesley Yin-Poole,
“Embracer Group has said it has laid off 904 staff, or 5% of its workforce, since its financial struggles began following the collapse of a $2 billion deal, reportedly with the Saudi government funded company Savvy Games Group.”
In a recent statement Embracer said they wanted to become a “stronger” company.

Amazon Games
Amazon recently cut 180 jobs from their games department.
This comes during the largest sweep of layoffs at Amazon as a whole, with nearly 27,000 jobs being cut in the last year.
All this as, “The company’s revenue rose 13% to $143.1 billion in the third quarter, while net income more than tripled to $9.9 billion from $2.9 billion a year earlier.” according to CNBC’s Ashley Capoot

Q&A
“Despite the gaming industry experiencing one of its best years, over 6,000 people have faced layoffs.
How do you think these job losses at various levels are impacting the industry’s morale and future prospects, especially in light of such successful game releases?”

“Unity’s decision to change its pricing structure has been met with significant backlash, leading to a negative public perception and layoffs.
Could you elaborate on how such corporate decisions not only affect the company’s reputation but also the broader gaming development community?”

“Amazon Games recently cut 180 jobs, even though Amazon’s overall revenue and net income have seen substantial growth.
How do you reconcile these large-scale layoffs with the apparent financial success of these companies, and what does this say about the current state of the gaming industry?”

[SEGMENT 3: What Causes Mass Layoffs?]

The trend of layoffs in the video game industry can be attributed to several factors, and understanding these is key to forecasting the trend’s duration and its impact on the industry’s future.

Causes of Layoffs
Economic Fluctuations:
The video game industry is not immune to broader economic trends.
Economic downturns or market uncertainty can lead to budget cuts and staff reductions.

Post-Pandemic Adjustments:
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a surge in gaming as people sought entertainment during lockdowns.
This surge may have led to overhiring or overexpansion in some companies.
As the world returns to normalcy, demand may stabilize or decrease, leading to restructuring.

Shifts in Consumer Behavior:
Changes in gaming trends and consumer preferences can impact revenue streams.
Companies may need to restructure to align with these shifts, leading to layoffs in departments that no longer align with new strategies.

Technological Changes:
Advancements in technology can render certain skills or positions obsolete.
As companies invest in automation and new tech, there may be a reduced need for certain roles.

Financial Management and Strategic Shifts:
Poor financial management or strategic pivots can necessitate cost-cutting measures, including layoffs.

Impact on the Video Game Industry

Innovation and Competition:
Layoffs can lead to a consolidation of talent, with larger companies absorbing experienced personnel.
This could foster innovation but might also reduce competition if smaller companies struggle to compete.

Indie Development Growth:
As talented individuals leave larger companies, there might be a surge in indie game development.
This can lead to a more diverse and innovative gaming landscape.

Shifts in Job Roles:
The industry may witness a shift in the types of roles that are in demand, with a greater emphasis on emerging technologies like AI, VR, and cloud gaming.

Impact on Game Quality and Diversity:
Layoffs can lead to reduced manpower and potentially impact the quality and diversity of games produced.
However, they can also force companies to focus on core competencies and produce higher-quality titles.

Employee Well-being and Industry Reputation:
Repeated cycles of hiring and layoffs can impact employee morale and the industry’s reputation as a stable career choice.
This might affect the ability to attract top talent in the future.
Q&A
“Considering the influence of economic fluctuations on the video game industry, how do you think companies can better prepare for market uncertainties to avoid drastic measures like layoffs, especially given the industry’s recent success?”

“With advancements in technology leading to changes in job roles and possibly making some positions obsolete, what shifts do you foresee in the kinds of skills and roles that will be in demand in the video game industry in the near future?”

“How do layoffs, driven by various factors like post-pandemic adjustments and shifts in consumer behavior, potentially affect the quality and diversity of games produced?
And what impact might this have on the well-being of employees and the industry’s reputation as a career destination?”

[TRANSITION]

Final Thoughts?

[OUTRO AND CREDITS]

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00:00:03:15 – 00:00:53:03
Narrator
Insightful podcasts by informative host insights into things to a podcast network. Welcome to Insights into Entertainment, a podcast Series Taking a deeper look into entertainment and media. Your hosts, Joseph and Michelle Whelan, a husband and wife team of pop culture fanatics, are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fandom.

00:00:53:05 – 00:01:11:21
Sam
Hello everyone, and welcome to Insights into Entertainment. Episode 152 Gaming’s best and bleakest of 2023. That’s right. If I’m hosting, that means it’s an episode about gaming. I am your host, Sam Whalen, and the guy that I just keep dragging into the River of Gaming news. My co-host, Joseph Whalen. How’s it going?

00:01:11:22 – 00:01:19:10
Joseph
Hey. Hey. You know, and if you’re hosting as well, it means we’re going to get into some negative stuff at the end of the show, too. That’s right. That’s our M.O..

00:01:19:11 – 00:01:40:01
Sam
Yeah. We’re going to start off positive, though. So today we’re doing, like I said, another gaming episode. We’re going to talk about the Game Awards. The nominations are out. The actual ceremonies are on December the seventh. So right around the corner. But yeah, we’re going to cover some of the nominations and we’re going to get into some bummer stuff because, well, it has been one of the best years for gaming.

00:01:40:03 – 00:01:58:22
Sam
It has been one of the worst years for gaming industry layoffs. So we’re going to get into some of the hardest hit companies from that and who should be held accountable for these layoffs and if there’s a way to prevent them. But before we get into that, we have to plug all of our subscriptions or we need you to subscribe.

00:01:59:00 – 00:02:03:23
Sam
That’s on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast. Is Stitcher still around? Last time I did this.

00:02:03:23 – 00:02:05:08
Joseph
I think they are gone.

00:02:05:08 – 00:02:28:22
Sam
Now. Yeah, well, if you’re still on Stitcher, find a way to subscribe to us. We’d appreciate it. I iHeartRadio tune in. Amazon and Pandora. Everyone loves Pandora. Shut up Pandora. I forgot about that. Of course, you can always contact us as well if you have any questions, comments or concerns. You can email us the comments at insights in the things dot com we are on x Insights underscore.

00:02:28:23 – 00:02:32:04
Sam
Sorry ad insights underscore things.

00:02:32:06 – 00:02:34:19
Joseph
I got it. Yeah. It was limited in what my options were.

00:02:34:23 – 00:02:51:19
Sam
They were maybe already taken. Facebook you can search insights into things, Instagram insights into things anywhere. Just search it. It’ll come up. And of course, all these links can be found on our website. WW w dot insights in the things dot com. Let’s get right into it.

00:02:51:23 – 00:02:54:17
Joseph
All right.

00:02:54:19 – 00:03:09:08
Sam
Uh, all right. So we’re going to talk about the Game award nominations, and I know what you’re thinking. Do you want to start with some smaller stuff? No, we’re going to start with the big one because that’s what everybody’s here for. All right. So we’re going to start with are we.

00:03:09:08 – 00:03:11:14
Joseph
Planning on talking about anything other than the big one?

00:03:11:17 – 00:03:32:14
Sam
Yeah, I got we got a couple of things in there. But there’s one there’s one other smaller category that I want to talk about, just because there’s controversy and who doesn’t love controversy. But yeah, we’re going to talk about the game of the year nominations. We’ve got six nominations for you. So let’s take a look at them and we’ve got them up on your screen for your viewing pleasure.

00:03:32:16 – 00:03:35:18
Sam
We’ve got the first one up is we’re going to go from right to left.

00:03:35:18 – 00:03:41:18
Joseph
I guess you get the different order than the script. Sorry.

00:03:41:20 – 00:03:48:01
Sam
We’ve got Zelda tears of the Kingdom. This is, of course, published by Nintendo and EPD. What’s that?

00:03:48:02 – 00:03:50:06
Joseph
I don’t know.

00:03:50:08 – 00:03:53:03
Sam
Nintendo. Yeah. Oh, Nintendo. I guess it’s like a third.

00:03:53:04 – 00:03:55:23
Joseph
Division team and something. Something. Sure.

00:03:56:01 – 00:04:03:06
Sam
Yeah. So here’s The Kingdom has been highly praised for its improvements over Breath of the Wild, offering an expanded world and features that encourage.

00:04:03:06 – 00:04:06:04
Joseph
Maybe or maybe it should be a GP for.

00:04:06:04 – 00:04:06:16
Sam
What.

00:04:06:18 – 00:04:08:15
Joseph
Epic Games publishing.

00:04:08:17 – 00:04:11:02
Sam
Well, Epic Games doesn’t publish Breath of the Wild.

00:04:11:04 – 00:04:12:17
Joseph
I’m looking at Alan Wake. I’m sorry.

00:04:12:17 – 00:04:14:13
Sam
We’ll get to that in a second.

00:04:14:15 – 00:04:16:15
Joseph
Jump ahead.

00:04:16:17 – 00:04:36:14
Sam
I wonder. I know I got to know what internal EPD stands for. Someone sent us an email chat. If you’re listening, tell us what Nintendo EPD stands for anyway. It’s a blend of traditional Zelda elements with innovative mechanics. Makes it stand out in the series. Everybody loves Zelda, right? I mean, we’re going to get it’s always going to get nominated Breath of the Wild receive similar praise.

00:04:36:19 – 00:04:42:09
Sam
But you were actually we were talking off air before the show. You said you’re not really into Nintendo anymore. Like you used to be.

00:04:42:11 – 00:04:58:20
Joseph
I’m not I haven’t been a Nintendo person for probably 15 years now. It turned out to me was just always a little to kid like, and that’s exactly what they go for. So yeah, it’s not a knock against them, that’s for sure.

00:04:58:22 – 00:05:20:15
Sam
Yeah. I mean there there are games like Zelda and Mario that I think while they are they look kind of kiddy. I do think they they can appeal to everybody and I wasn’t a big breath of the wild fan I, I don’t even think I finished it and I haven’t finished Kira’s the kingdom yet either, but I’m enjoying it much more than I enjoyed Breath of the Wild.

00:05:20:17 – 00:05:28:22
Sam
I just think it’s it’s pretty incredible. I mean, you know, it’s one of those games where they just drop into the world and they give you a set of tools and they just say, Go.

00:05:29:00 – 00:05:38:04
Joseph
Yeah. I mean, they do a fantastic job on their games. It’s just it doesn’t appeal to me. There’s an audience that appeals to and and for that they love it.

00:05:38:06 – 00:05:56:08
Sam
Yeah. And again, Nintendo getting a lot of love too nominations from Nintendo this year but yeah I mean what is there to say it’s Zelda if you like Breath of Wild you’re going like Gears of the Kingdom. A lot of people, it is their frontrunner for winning this. A lot of people think it’s going to go to tiers of the kingdom.

00:05:56:10 – 00:05:58:00
Sam
I don’t personally.

00:05:58:02 – 00:05:59:00
Joseph
There’s neither do.

00:05:59:00 – 00:06:44:15
Sam
I. Yeah, you’ll see where our biases lie coming up shortly. But yeah, that’s tiers of the kingdom. Moving on to nomination number two, we’ve got Marvel, Spider-Man two. This is published by Insomniac Games. Insomniac, probably my second favorite PlayStation acquired studio behind Sony Santa monica, who of course, the God of war, the new go to war games insomniac just incredible banger after banger games ratchet and clank Spider-Man one others that I’m not remembering there an Oh I think they did sunset overdrive which was before they got bought by PlayStation sounds like overdrive Great game You should all check it out but yeah Marvel Spider-Man two stands out for its dual character gameplay, innovative combat and

00:06:44:15 – 00:07:02:23
Sam
traversal mechanics, and an expansive narrative that enriches the Spider-Man universe. I’m probably about three quarters of the way through this. I’ve been trying to take my time it because I do love these games and I don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to gorge myself on. I like to take my time when it comes to these things, but I didn’t finish it for the show.

00:07:02:23 – 00:07:06:22
Sam
So what you going to do? But you haven’t started at all, Right. But you played the first one. I.

00:07:07:00 – 00:07:16:10
Joseph
I haven’t started yet. What are your thoughts on it so far? How similar is it to the first? What’s a storyline look like? Obviously the graphics and everything are fantastic.

00:07:16:11 – 00:07:32:03
Sam
Oh yeah, it looks even better somehow because now we’re fully with the power of the Ps5 Oh, we didn’t show it, but it was the power of the Ps5 It looks incredible. It is more Spider-Man though. I mean a lot like what we saw with Tears of the Kingdom. It’s more of the same, but for me, that’s a good thing.

00:07:32:03 – 00:07:39:22
Sam
I love Spider-Man. The you know, the initial one, the first one for PS4. I loved Miles Morales. Did you play that spinoff?

00:07:40:04 – 00:07:42:07
Joseph
I did, yeah.

00:07:42:09 – 00:07:53:16
Sam
So, yeah, it’s more of that. But they find ways to innovate on it and make it more fun. There’s new traversal mechanics. She’s got the web wings, there’s a lot more. You feel faster. There’s there’s like these big heavy maps.

00:07:53:16 – 00:07:54:15
Joseph
Fire helps with that.

00:07:54:21 – 00:08:08:14
Sam
Yeah. The one thing and I don’t know if I told you about this as I was playing it but the fast travel is like incredible. So the fast travel, you zoom out to the world map, you click a point and it’s instant. Like you just zooms into the map and you’re just there.

00:08:08:14 – 00:08:09:06
Joseph
Yeah.

00:08:09:08 – 00:08:27:11
Sam
It’s I don’t know how they do it. Like, it’s it’s remarkable to see in action and yeah they’ve added more because of the map is larger as well. So they’ve added a couple more boroughs in New York like Queens and stuff and more suburban areas. I forget the name of it because I’m not from New York, but more a more suburban areas.

00:08:27:13 – 00:08:32:04
Joseph
But so what can you tell us about the story without giving away any spoilers?

00:08:32:04 – 00:08:52:00
Sam
Yeah, I mean, if you seen it in the trailers, you know, we’re dealing with the same bit. We’re dealing with venom. And honestly, you can probably guess where the story’s going to go because it’s the same usually every time when Spider-Man deals. You know, if you’ve seen the Sam Raimi movies, it’s it’s a similar story. And honestly, so far, nothing has really surprised me with the story.

00:08:52:00 – 00:09:13:21
Sam
I’ve pretty much been able to guess every beat. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing right? Because, you know, you still love these characters. You’ve got Peter Parker and Miles Morales now, which is really, really neat being able to switch between those two at will and the really cool thing is like in story missions, when you’re switching between them on the fly, it’s scripted and missions, but it’s still really incredible to see it happen.

00:09:13:21 – 00:09:31:23
Sam
It reminds me of Grand Theft Auto five doing the same thing, switching right in Endgame. But yeah, I mean, it’s the story. There really isn’t anything to spoil. Honestly, not yet anyway. I mean, I’m sure some stuff will happen because I haven’t finished it yet. But if you’ve seen a Spider-Man symbiote suit story, it’s pretty similar.

00:09:32:03 – 00:09:33:09
Joseph
So is this your pick?

00:09:33:11 – 00:09:57:09
Sam
No, no, my pick is your pick. Okay, we’ll get to shortly. But that is Spider-Man two. Now, this next one, I have probably the least amount of information on personal experience as well. It’s on week two, published by Remedy Entertainment and Epic Games as well. Funny thing about this, the it’s there’s no digital or physical version. It’s all digital.

00:09:57:11 – 00:09:59:00
Sam
So fun fact that’s I.

00:09:59:05 – 00:10:00:19
Joseph
Think it’s just a sign of the times.

00:10:00:19 – 00:10:31:16
Sam
Yeah well especially with it being published by Epic they want everyone to go through their, their storefront. But yeah, I don’t think too is noted for its shift towards a more intense survival horror, which you can see in the footage we’re showing. It’s very scary, combined with its intriguing narrative and innovative gameplay mechanics. So yeah, again, off air we were talking about this and I mentioned how there they work in real footage and I’m curious, we’ll see it in these trailers, but the use of the blending of real footage and gameplay is really, really neat.

00:10:31:18 – 00:10:51:03
Sam
And I would play it on the Coward and I want to get scared, but you don’t have to play the first week to know what’s going on. It helps. And this game is also part of like the Remedy Universe. Remedy also published a game called Control, which I think was up for Game of the year two or three years ago.

00:10:51:03 – 00:11:04:13
Sam
I’m selling it. Okay. But it’s it’s like a connected universe now. So they’re bringing the stuff from control in there. Bring in the stuff from the first Island weekend, and they’re bringing in some stuff from Max Payne kind of.

00:11:04:16 – 00:11:05:11
Joseph
Wow, Really?

00:11:05:11 – 00:11:25:21
Sam
Well, yeah, because like they say that that’s not part of the remedy verse because they didn’t like necessarily own it at the time. I think they published one and two was in three was the Rockstar, I think. But there’s a character in Wake too. Who is these? You can follow this logic here. He’s voiced by the voice actor for Max Payne.

00:11:25:22 – 00:11:43:23
Sam
I forget the guy’s name, but the MO cap is Sam Lake, the head of Remedy. He’s like the figurehead. Sam Link did the mocap for Max Payne one two So when you think of what Max Payne looks like, he looks like Sam Legg, but he’s voiced by a different guy in Allen wig, too. It’s Sam Lake, but it’s not his voice.

00:11:44:01 – 00:12:03:11
Sam
It’s really weird. But that sums up Allen wig, too. It’s a weird game. It looks very artsy. I probably will play it one day. It From what I’ve heard, it’s incredible. It’s really doing a lot for the the genre, you know, the genre, the the medium pushing things forward and doing all kinds of stuff that hasn’t really ever been seen before.

00:12:03:11 – 00:12:06:21
Sam
And that’s exactly what remini’s best at. The very interesting element.

00:12:06:22 – 00:12:40:08
Joseph
To not really never having played anything in the series yet. I’m not into the the scare type things. I don’t like the dark type game. I like the types of games that I can sit down, get immersed in, play through a story when I have the time and I get obsessed with games like that. Yeah. The other thing that I’ll play is that if I, if I just have 15, 20 minutes and I just want some mindless distraction that’s, you know, fire up the Xbox, play a shooter, play a sports game, something like that.

00:12:40:08 – 00:12:40:21
Joseph
Yeah, that’s.

00:12:40:21 – 00:12:55:10
Sam
That’s the thing with Ellen Wiig too and with control as well. You, you do get immersed. You kind of have to get immersed because there’s so much going on. And that’s another reason I haven’t played it yet. Because, like, if it’s going to be scary and I have to pay attention, it’s like I just can’t do it because like scared.

00:12:55:10 – 00:13:09:08
Sam
I’ll be honest folks, when I play a scary game. Vimes all the way down. Lights are on. I’m usually watching something else. Like I’m not like listening, right, Because it’s the audio that gets me. I can probably do with the visuals, but I’m going to have to pay attention. Alloway And I’m going to be terrified all the time.

00:13:09:08 – 00:13:21:16
Sam
So we’ll see what happens. I don’t know if it’s nominated for other stuff. It probably is. I don’t I don’t think it’s going to win. I think it’s probably towards the bottom tier for what people are guessing is going to win.

00:13:21:17 – 00:13:22:23
Joseph
Right.

00:13:23:01 – 00:13:54:02
Sam
But now we move on to our totally biased pick. Next up is Baldur’s Gate three, published by Larian Studios. The game has received critical acclaim for its gameplay narrative and production quality. It’s already won multiple awards, recently cleaned up at the Golden Joystick Awards, its deep integration of DNA mechanics and Dungeons Dragons for you normies out there, combined with a rich narrative and flexible gameplay, which is probably my favorite part about it, makes it a standout in the role playing game genre.

00:13:54:04 – 00:13:56:18
Sam
It’s revolutionary, right? I mean.

00:13:56:18 – 00:13:57:10
Joseph
Absolutely.

00:13:57:11 – 00:14:16:18
Sam
I’ve never played well. That’s not true. I have played something like it, and it was the last game published by Larian Studios Divinity Original Sin, which I was trying to get everybody to play. But, you know, it was a little it wasn’t as accessible as Baldur’s Gate three. And, you know, this game has taken everybody by storm and everybody’s talking about it.

00:14:16:18 – 00:14:19:11
Sam
You have like 500 hours in it.

00:14:19:12 – 00:14:52:15
Joseph
And I have an unhealthy amount of time into this game. For some reason. It’s it it really is a remarkable, remarkable game. It to me, it’s a it’s a genre defining game. Yep. And like, you know, you look at the images of it and the playthroughs. Great. The graphics are wonderful. You know, if you’re okay with turn based combat, it’s a it’s a great thing, but it captures the mechanics of a tabletop dandy game, which is very difficult to do.

00:14:52:17 – 00:15:08:11
Joseph
And the the variants of the game. I’ve done two full playthroughs now and I have five short starts through x ray and I’ve yet to have the same thing happened twice in any story section.

00:15:08:11 – 00:15:09:04
Sam
Wow.

00:15:09:06 – 00:15:55:17
Joseph
It’s it’s amazing that the game itself is that adaptive and your choices matter. A lot of game systems tell you your choices matter, right? Well, normally it matters as to what your next cut scene is. This is something and larrain’s known for this where your choices don’t matter, but your choices have consequences. And you may make a choice in Act one that 30 hours later in Act three comes back and has a completely different effect on how the game goes, how people treat you, how the story goes to sit down and to even come up with a mind map of how these different storylines go blows my mind.

00:15:55:20 – 00:15:56:19
Sam
I don’t know how they did it.

00:15:56:23 – 00:16:07:05
Joseph
Like people are afraid of AI taking over the world. Whatever this game engine uses to come up with its story is more dangerous, I think, and more intelligent than any A.I. out there.

00:16:07:08 – 00:16:28:22
Sam
Yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. There’s really not much else to say. It’s incredible. And in that description we write off, I think the flexible gameplay is really my favorite aspect of it. It feels like indie, you know, I love Dungeons and Dragons and this is as close as you can get. And in some ways I think it’s better than actually playing the indie because I think it it on boards, everything so much simpler, right?

00:16:28:22 – 00:16:54:03
Sam
At least on console you know, your your actions and everything you can do when I’m playing daddy in real life and I’ve got even using the app and pen and paper, you kind of forget a lot of stuff you can do because there’s so much information. But I think what Borders Gate three does so well is streamline that and make it so You really are considering everything you can do, even if it’s just like shoving somebody off a cliff, which is like, you know, you can end a boss way by doing that if you pass the check.

00:16:54:03 – 00:17:04:04
Sam
And it’s like the indie in that regard where a DM could spend 3 hours planning a boss encounter and you walk up and you pass the first persuasion check and the fights over, you don’t have to fight the guy.

00:17:04:04 – 00:17:06:00
Joseph
I know that feeling.

00:17:06:02 – 00:17:24:10
Sam
But like I just I don’t know how to describe it. I think it’s a game that everyone can play. Like it is a little bit complicated and it’s a little bit it’s definitely you can tell it was meant for PC first. Sure, But I think they did a great job making it for console too. Like, I think it’s still it still works.

00:17:24:10 – 00:17:54:01
Joseph
Well and that’s the one thing that’s worth mentioning on on PC is it was built for PC and in fact you have a completely different interface on PC. But if you fire up a game controller on the PC, it changes that game interface. So it looks just like the console. So it’s completely and that’s another thing. The fact that they went through and made two completely separate interfaces for how you were going to interact with the game, just that level of forethought was extraordinary.

00:17:54:01 – 00:18:24:06
Joseph
Yeah. And and I have to say, you know, you and I both played the indie. We both DM from time to time. This has changed the way that I play the indie now. It’s educated me on on different character class information, all that stuff. But the fact that it shows you, you know, you can sit down at a table top and roll dice and throw a fireball at somebody and and it kind of just rolls off your tongue and you move onto the next thing.

00:18:24:08 – 00:18:50:23
Joseph
You don’t know what it looks like. And then here, not only do they visualize what spell casting in combat looks like, they show it in different ways for different classes, you know, and even, you know, if you go with a bard, the bard can cast, you know, any number of spells. But depending on the instrument that the Bard is using, the visualization can looks different and is custom to the instrument, which is just incredible.

00:18:50:23 – 00:18:59:08
Joseph
Yeah, it adds so much ambiance and so much so much life to the game. That’s why I think this one should win.

00:18:59:11 – 00:19:12:06
Sam
Oh yeah. Even if it is spoilers folks, I think. But I don’t think it’s going to it’s, it’s nominated for eight things. First of all, I do not think it’s going to sweep. I think it will get most of them. But like it’s up for like multiplayer game and I think it’s going to win that.

00:19:12:08 – 00:19:14:12
Joseph
And the multiplayer aspect is terrible.

00:19:14:12 – 00:19:20:14
Sam
It’s not great. I like that it’s in there and I want to do a play through with my friends whenever they get it.

00:19:20:16 – 00:19:27:06
Joseph
Well, the multiplayer, all right, so multiplayer in as much as.

00:19:27:08 – 00:19:28:01
Sam
Multiple players.

00:19:28:01 – 00:19:29:11
Joseph
Where people can be in the game.

00:19:29:13 – 00:19:30:18
Sam
There are multiple players.

00:19:30:22 – 00:19:51:09
Joseph
But they’re all playing their own story essentially. And you can interact with their story to a certain amount, though there’s no instant thing that happens here, right? So you don’t have a shared experience. You go off and you have dialog on your own that’s relevant to your character and you can share that with other people, but they can’t participate in it, right?

00:19:51:11 – 00:20:10:08
Joseph
It’s not an MMO, it’s a kind of a co-operative play through that you do so most of the time, right? It’s not even all the time, so it’s not really a good multiplayer game. It’s a great single player game that has some multiplayer capability.

00:20:10:12 – 00:20:32:07
Sam
Yeah, I think the one thing that does shine in the multiplayer is the combat. I think because we played it very briefly and that’s the only experience I’ve had with the multiplayer was the one hour that we probably played right. So, you know, I can’t speak to it fully, but the combat in multiplayer is great because the combat is normally turn based and it still is in multiplayer, but it syncs up whoever the real players are.

00:20:32:07 – 00:20:41:21
Sam
So if you and I are playing, our turns would happen simultaneously. But everything else is still turn based so you can sync up abilities. There is a lot of potential there. We just didn’t play enough of it to find out.

00:20:42:01 – 00:20:55:22
Joseph
Well, and the one thing I will say that was what was great in multiplayer is as you play through your character’s turn, you end your turn in single player. If you end your term prematurely, it’s over.

00:20:55:22 – 00:20:56:14
Sam
Yep.

00:20:56:16 – 00:21:06:15
Joseph
In multiplayer, you and your turn. You have to confirm that you’re ending in that safety feature needs to be reworked into the single player. It is. It is now you can.

00:21:06:16 – 00:21:11:10
Sam
Yeah, I turned it on because I kept actually ending my turn. You can toggle it so you have to hold triangle end.

00:21:11:10 – 00:21:14:03
Joseph
Okay at launch that wasn’t really Yeah.

00:21:14:07 – 00:21:18:07
Sam
Because I would I might turn accidentally all the time. Yeah. And I was like there’s got to be a setting. All right.

00:21:18:07 – 00:21:19:20
Joseph
I have to go turn that now.

00:21:20:00 – 00:21:28:12
Sam
Much better because I’ve there have been so many times I’ve done it accidentally and like, haven’t even done an action. And then, you know, I get beat up because I didn’t do anything right.

00:21:28:15 – 00:21:45:04
Joseph
The one thing I didn’t like about the multiplayer, though, is as you go through the game, you pick up companions. Oh yeah. Well, the rule is whoever talks to the companion gets them, and I can’t hand that companion off to you so you can go do something else while I go do something else.

00:21:45:06 – 00:21:48:01
Sam
Especially when cut scenes can be triggered just by. Just by.

00:21:48:01 – 00:21:49:16
Joseph
Proximity. Yeah.

00:21:49:18 – 00:22:05:01
Sam
So that’s a little weird, but everything else is great. I think I just get unlucky when it comes to these things, and I usually have technical bugs when other people don’t. I have had some bugs with it, but considering everything that’s going on, it’s like, it’s like a miracle. It’s like it’s from like a like on a high.

00:22:05:03 – 00:22:21:05
Sam
It was sent down and it runs and it works. And if you think you can do something, you probably can it you feel so free. And I’ve never really put it on the game like that where there really are no I mean, there are constraints, right, in terms of like you can’t like clip through a wall or something, right?

00:22:21:05 – 00:22:30:06
Sam
But like, I’ve never played another game where I go into a situation and I feel like I could handle it in almost infinite ways.

00:22:30:10 – 00:22:42:07
Joseph
It’s a game that is sophisticated well beyond its years. Yeah, like I wouldn’t expect something with this level of intelligence to come out for 5 to 6 years. Yep.

00:22:42:09 – 00:22:46:09
Sam
We could probably do a whole episode on it, but we do have some other nominations to talk about.

00:22:46:09 – 00:22:49:04
Joseph
We’ve got two more to go through. Let’s get rid of the rest of these.

00:22:49:06 – 00:23:08:15
Sam
So next up is resident Evil four, published by Capcom. This game is awesome. I played this game. I never played the original Resident Evil, so I was able to play this. This game rocks like I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like if you played through an action movie like an eighties action movie and it is scary.

00:23:08:20 – 00:23:34:18
Sam
There are some parts where the vine had to go down and the lights had to come on. But overall you have like a million guns, so you feel like you’re in control. It’s less of you’re running from the monster, more like you’re running to the monster to shoot it. Some highlights. This remake of the Classic Game has been praised for its impressive graphics, audio and revamped gameplay mechanics while retaining the core mechanics of the original and introducing new features and expanded content.

00:23:34:20 – 00:23:52:14
Sam
Yeah, like I said, I never played the original, so I can’t really speak to that. But I’ve played this game and finish it and I absolutely loved it. I’m glad it got a nomination. I know some people are maybe a little bit perturbed by that because it’s a remake, but if you play the game, it really is a remake.

00:23:52:14 – 00:24:10:06
Sam
It it is different from the original and from what I’ve seen, it is its own game and it stands on its own. I really think it does. And I highly recommend that if you’re, you know, if you like action games because it is more of an action game than it is a survival horror game. And if you like eighties movies because it feels like that.

00:24:10:08 – 00:24:10:23
Joseph
There you go.

00:24:11:00 – 00:24:12:19
Sam
Have you played any Resident evil?

00:24:12:21 – 00:24:25:23
Joseph
I’ve played Resident Evil a long time ago on PS2 when it first came out or if if it goes back that far again I’m not I don’t like dark games. Yeah.

00:24:26:01 – 00:24:27:11
Sam
So it’s resident evil, right?

00:24:27:11 – 00:24:29:14
Joseph
It’s not one that I’ve ever really jumped on.

00:24:29:15 – 00:24:54:14
Sam
Yeah. In terms of where I think it ranks in terms of potential to win, I think it’s probably towards the top. But I just after talking about Baldur’s Gate, I just, I don’t see how anything could beat that. We’ve got a little guest in the studio, Little Engine flight influence. So yeah, Resident Evil four And our final one here is Super Mario Wonder, published as well by Nintendo.

00:24:54:16 – 00:25:01:11
Sam
I own this game, but I don’t I have yet to play it because I’m lending it to my girlfriend. But it looks cool. It looks.

00:25:01:11 – 00:25:03:07
Joseph
Cool. Sacrifices we must make.

00:25:03:07 – 00:25:29:02
Sam
I know highlights. This game is celebrated for its control mechanics, animation and expressive characters, innovative level design and dynamic audio isn’t all right. Dynamic audio. And I mean, I guess it features new power ups and a fresh visual design that breaks from the traditional Mario esthetic. And that’s really so many people for years were asking for this 2D Mario, these 2D Mario games to get a visual not upgrade but a visual change.

00:25:29:02 – 00:25:49:12
Sam
And that’s what we got in this game. I mean, this doesn’t look like other Mario games, which is I think, a big reason why it’s such a standout. I’m looking forward to it. I just a game of the year. I don’t know. This was a surprise for me, but I think it’s because it’s Mario and it’s Nintendo and I think there’s just a level of industry praise that comes with that.

00:25:49:17 – 00:25:58:04
Joseph
Well, and correct me if I’m wrong with this looks suspiciously like a standard Mario platformer.

00:25:58:05 – 00:25:59:10
Sam
Well, yeah.

00:25:59:12 – 00:26:01:02
Joseph
With the really nice graphics.

00:26:01:06 – 00:26:19:10
Sam
It does look very pretty. They are the bunch of new power ups and stuff, from what I’ve heard that from people that have played it, it’s not as it didn’t break the mold as much as people wanted it to. I think a lot of people were just hungry for a, you know, just just full send it, you know, just do something different.

00:26:19:14 – 00:26:22:12
Sam
Oh, he’s on me now. I know.

00:26:22:14 – 00:26:25:05
Joseph
Like now he’s knocked out somewhere.

00:26:25:07 – 00:26:33:16
Sam
Oh, sorry about that. But yeah, I think it wasn’t quite the property shake up people were looking for.

00:26:33:17 – 00:26:45:03
Joseph
Well, I think it’s funny that you there was criticism leveled at Resident Evil for being a remake. How is this not a remake?

00:26:45:06 – 00:26:58:15
Sam
Well, not. I mean, all the levels are unique. You’ll probably still get the Mario one One World that has every and every Mario game. But all the levels are new, all the content is new. And that’s really not really do it justice. I don’t think.

00:26:58:17 – 00:27:00:09
Joseph
It didn’t impress me, I’ll tell you that.

00:27:00:09 – 00:27:18:13
Sam
Yeah. So yeah, if there was one that I would, I could be okay cutting from these nominations, it would probably be this. But again, I haven’t played it. Maybe when I play it I’ll change my mind, but fair enough. Yeah. So those are your game of the word Game of the year nominations. Tell us what you think should win in the comments down below.

00:27:18:15 – 00:27:20:18
Sam
I think our vote is soundly Bulger’s game.

00:27:20:19 – 00:27:22:13
Joseph
Absolutely.

00:27:22:15 – 00:27:42:10
Sam
So yeah so that we have some other quick things I want to round up here in this section because we’ve gone kind of long. It has been a banner year for gaming, a couple nominations our games I would like to highlight that didn’t make game of the Year nominations. Sea of Stars. I highly recommend that if you like RPGs, that pixel style, that game is incredible.

00:27:42:10 – 00:27:54:15
Sam
It’s fantastic. Final Fantasy 16 and of course six, these are all nominated in other categories, not just non game of the year. So Starfield, member, Starfield, everybody.

00:27:54:20 – 00:27:56:16
Joseph
I have heard rumors of Starfield.

00:27:56:18 – 00:27:59:06
Sam
It’s bad I don’t like it. I’ll say it.

00:27:59:06 – 00:28:03:05
Joseph
I heard it’s got a really good engine for building starship.

00:28:03:09 – 00:28:04:06
Sam
Yeah I haven’t done any of.

00:28:04:06 – 00:28:06:14
Joseph
That. That’s what everyone seems to love about the game.

00:28:06:14 – 00:28:20:18
Sam
Yeah, it’s, uh, I don’t know. I think it’s since it’s come out, it was praised pretty highly on release, but I think as people have been able to sit with it, I think it’s somewhere in the middle of the pack, which is a disappointment, especially if you’re an Xbox fan, because that was.

00:28:20:20 – 00:28:22:04
Joseph
That was supposed to be their game winner.

00:28:22:04 – 00:28:25:23
Sam
That was supposed to be their game winner. And it’s nominated for one category and it’s really not going to win.

00:28:26:01 – 00:28:27:03
Joseph
For biggest game of the year.

00:28:27:05 – 00:28:46:13
Sam
RPG, I think is what is up for both borders in that category. So it’s not going to win. Yeah. So Jeff Kelley, the guy that runs it, he’s like the brains behind the operation. He said that even though, you know, it’s a great year for gaming, we did have to limit it to six. Let’s see, do we want to cover these other categories?

00:28:46:13 – 00:28:47:13
Sam
Are we short on time?

00:28:47:14 – 00:28:48:23
Joseph
You can run through them real quick.

00:28:48:23 – 00:28:57:21
Sam
So we got best. These are some that I just wanted to highlight. Best performance we have Ben Star, Final Fantasy 16, Cameron Monahan for Jedi Survivor. Have you played?

00:28:57:23 – 00:28:58:21
Joseph
No.

00:28:58:23 – 00:29:00:21
Sam
Yeah, he does a good job. It’s fine.

00:29:00:23 – 00:29:02:22
Joseph
I didn’t I didn’t really like the first one.

00:29:02:23 – 00:29:07:21
Sam
Oh, that’s right, you didn’t. We talked about it before. Idris Elba for Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty.

00:29:07:21 – 00:29:10:13
Joseph
Which was that an add on for Cameron?

00:29:10:13 – 00:29:22:10
Sam
Yes, really? But it’s also like a remake kind of, because with Phantom Liberty came the Cyberpunk 2.0 update, which like, changed the whole game and made it what it should have been at launch, which is impressive and deserves acclaim, but.

00:29:22:12 – 00:29:25:01
Joseph
Not that steaming pile of crap that we got at launch.

00:29:25:01 – 00:29:27:12
Sam
I love cyberpunk since day one, You know, I.

00:29:27:12 – 00:29:33:01
Joseph
Love driving around a city and seeing random piles of trash just fall from the sky. It was such a just delightful thing.

00:29:33:01 – 00:29:47:04
Sam
I’ve been a cyberpunk die hard supporter since day one, not a CD Projekt red supporter because they lied a lot, but I don’t know. People are saying it’s back and it’s kind of wild that Idris Elba is in the game, that.

00:29:47:04 – 00:29:54:18
Joseph
It’s going well. That’s the thing. If you have a if you have a terrible release for a game, sign a celebrity to the next version of Yeah.

00:29:54:20 – 00:30:06:18
Sam
I own this DLC, but I have yet to play it because I was when I was playing Cyberpunk. I’m playing through it to experience the 2.0 stuff, which is very impressive and I highly recommend going back to it. If you want, you can drive around the city.

00:30:06:18 – 00:30:12:14
Joseph
Is it another 15 terabytes of a download? Probably three days of downloaded.

00:30:12:16 – 00:30:15:09
Sam
I’m going to butcher this woman’s name. But Melanie La Bird.

00:30:15:09 – 00:30:16:09
Joseph
Sure, that looks good.

00:30:16:10 – 00:30:29:11
Sam
From Elway too. She plays, I think her name’s Saga. In it. She’s the other main character that isn’t Ellen Wiig, Neil Newbern, who is Asterion. Right. And all three people love that guy. He didn’t survive in my place.

00:30:29:11 – 00:30:31:12
Joseph
He lost didn’t survive in mine either.

00:30:31:13 – 00:30:34:02
Sam
So but I know he’s captured the Internet’s.

00:30:34:04 – 00:30:37:01
Joseph
Turns on a stake through the heart. Really does kill the vampire.

00:30:37:06 – 00:30:57:00
Sam
Yeah, I pretty much instantly killed him. I think he’s one of the frontrunners. And then my boy, Yuri Lowenthal for Marvel’s Spider-Man two. He is the best, and I hope he wins. But that’s how I’m. That’s what I’m pulling for. I love Yuri. He kind of does the same voice all the time. But, man, is it good?

00:30:57:02 – 00:31:00:03
Joseph
So you like the Nicolas Cage of voiceover?

00:31:00:05 – 00:31:21:04
Sam
Yeah. So we’ll see who wins that really quickly. Best independent game. I just wanted to cover this because it’s where the controversy is defined. As for outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system, remember that it’s going to be important. So we’ve got Cocoon having played it want to Viewfinder is really, really interesting.

00:31:21:06 – 00:31:24:19
Sam
The concept of that game is able to pull footage really quick forward if you can.

00:31:24:22 – 00:31:26:03
Joseph
Maybe I can try.

00:31:26:04 – 00:31:46:08
Sam
Because you got to see it. It’s you have a camera and when you take photos you can then go into the photo and it changes the layout of the level. And it’s tough to describe, but once you see it, it will like blow your mind. So, yeah, we’re pulling up a trailer real quick. I played the demo for this.

00:31:46:08 – 00:31:58:16
Sam
I haven’t played the full game, but it is it’s really, really remarkable. And again, it’s one of those games where you wonder how it even runs. So, yeah, check this out. So he just takes the picture.

00:31:58:18 – 00:32:00:00
Joseph
For our viewing audience.

00:32:00:03 – 00:32:09:07
Sam
That’s right. Sorry audio listeners look of a trailer viewfinder. It’s very cool. But yeah, I know this is, I think this is one of the reasons why indie the indie category is this.

00:32:09:09 – 00:32:11:15
Joseph
Looks like something that should be in Molecule’s class.

00:32:11:21 – 00:32:28:14
Sam
Yeah. Like it’s incredible how this works. And like I said, it’s hard to describe for audio listeners, but go check it out. And I think the demo is still available and you’ll pretty much get the gist of it. But yeah, it’s one of those games where it’s like, how is this even running and how does this even work?

00:32:28:16 – 00:33:00:11
Sam
So yeah, that’s you find or see a star is, is also up for the indie category. I love that game that probably is in my top I don’t know top five for game of the year for my personal game of the year. It’s incredible Dredge, which I think is a spooky game. And then David Diver which I love Navy diver also a great game is it an indie game is what people are wondering because they the diver is developed by MIT Rocket which is a small team but MIT Rocket is owned by Nexon, which is a multi-billion dollar gaming company.

00:33:00:13 – 00:33:02:00
Sam
So people are wondering.

00:33:02:02 – 00:33:05:18
Joseph
This is like the Evil Corp from a Bond movie or something.

00:33:05:18 – 00:33:25:10
Sam
Yeah, it sounds like from RoboCop. So yeah, unfortunately, Dave, the divers getting a lot of heat because of this and the team at MIT, Rocket Mint rocket. Mitt Romney, I think I want to say it is a small team, but they’re getting all this heat because is it really an indie game? I don’t know. What do you think?

00:33:25:12 – 00:33:27:22
Sam
Because they had effectively a blank check to make this.

00:33:28:02 – 00:33:46:16
Joseph
Well, and that’s the thing, is that you can have a small team, but when you’re getting backed by a large corporation like that and you’ve got the budget for it and you don’t have the pressures of being that struggling indie developer trying to find that outlet for it and some of the the to push it and market it.

00:33:46:18 – 00:33:50:06
Joseph
I think you very quickly get outside of that indie game realm.

00:33:50:08 – 00:34:00:07
Sam
Yeah. And you know, I still highly recommend you go play dead the Diver. It’s a you’re on a sushi bar. You’re you’re exploring you’re a diver. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe.

00:34:00:07 – 00:34:01:09
Joseph
That sounds exciting.

00:34:01:09 – 00:34:12:02
Sam
It’s very exciting. I would make you pool with Charlie, but that was really hard to do for the other game, so. But yeah, the other diver is great, but I don’t think it should be in the indie category. That being said, you should go play it.

00:34:12:04 – 00:34:16:00
Joseph
Okay. Well, I think that’s probably it for this segment.

00:34:16:00 – 00:34:27:13
Sam
Yeah, we are. I think we got everything we could out of that. Couple people always go three. When we come back, we’re going to get into the bummer part of the show where we talk about industry layoffs. We’ll be right back.

00:34:27:15 – 00:35:05:12
Joseph
Uh, for over seven years, the second surf empire has been the premier community guild in the online game, Star Wars, the Old Republic with hundreds of friendly and helpful active members, a weekly schedule of nightly events, annual guild meeting rates and an active community, both on the Web and on Discord. The second Civ empire is more than your typical gaming group.

00:35:05:14 – 00:35:36:05
Joseph
We’re family. Join us on the Star Forge server for nightly events such as Operations, Flash Points, World Boss Funds, Star Wars, Trivia Guild, Lottery and much more. Visit us on the web today at w w w dark the second civ and fire dot com.

00:35:36:07 – 00:35:44:09
Sam
Welcome back, everyone, to insights into entertainment today we’re talking gaming we just got done covering the game award nominations and now we’re going to talk about industry layoffs.

00:35:44:10 – 00:35:46:10
Joseph
We’re talking gaming because you’re on the show. That’s right.

00:35:46:10 – 00:35:48:21
Sam
I should wear like a gamer sweater.

00:35:48:23 – 00:35:51:02
Joseph
Insights into gaming where you.

00:35:51:04 – 00:36:08:04
Sam
Have like Mountain Dew in the intro. All right. So anyway, like I said, at the top of the show, despite being lauded as one of the best years in gaming, the industry has been hit by massive layoffs at every level. And at the time of writing, it’s probably higher now. Around 6000 people have been laid off in the gaming industry.

00:36:08:06 – 00:36:37:01
Sam
There’s a very helpful but depressing website called Video Game Layoffs dot com and has been tracking the numbers since the beginning of the year. This it’s just one of those stories you hear about every week if you’re covered, if you’re not covering I’m not covering anything. I’m not a journalist. But if you’re following gaming news, it’s one of those things that you can’t really ignore, especially this year and, you know, I don’t know anything about economics, but I feel like it’s one of those things where when one company does it, it’s there’s a real chance of it starting a tidal wave of this war.

00:36:37:01 – 00:36:45:12
Sam
It’s like it doesn’t make it okay. But from the company’s point of view, it might have like, well, if everyone’s doing it, we might as well just do it now to cut costs. What do you think?

00:36:45:14 – 00:37:17:06
Joseph
Well, and I think what you run into really is when one company does it, there’s a viable reason for doing it. And usually it’s economic reason or, you know, it could be depending on what the industry. But we’ve seen layoffs across the board, regardless of industry, not just video games and companies that are doing perfectly fine, companies that are doing record numbers, record profits are laying people off.

00:37:17:08 – 00:37:56:00
Joseph
The unfortunate reality is that record profits in order to get record profits, you either have to bring in more income, bring in more revenue, increase your your margin of what it’s costing you to do things. And to do that, you cut costs, you cut labor, and that’s usually the first thing people cut. And when you’ve got games that are releasing and you don’t have another game in the pipeline that requires that level of labor commitment, that’s the first thing that gets cut when it comes to the software industry.

00:37:56:05 – 00:38:14:05
Sam
Yeah. And we’re going to have a segment coming up where we get into more of the nitty gritty on why these layoffs happen. But I just wanted to highlight some of the big, you know, big examples of these layoffs, one of which is at Unity. The software developers they had, they let go around 900 people this year alone.

00:38:14:07 – 00:38:29:09
Sam
Unity has been in some very, very hot water lately. I don’t know if you’ve been following any of this. They changed its pricing structure this year and basically new to their whole brand for no reason and not for no reason. They wanted to make more money, but like it was crazy.

00:38:29:11 – 00:38:32:10
Joseph
So explain what unity is and what their product is.

00:38:32:13 – 00:38:35:04
Sam
So unity is an engine, right?

00:38:35:05 – 00:38:36:06
Joseph
It’s a game engine, yeah.

00:38:36:06 – 00:38:39:00
Sam
That you can develop your game using unity.

00:38:39:00 – 00:39:00:18
Joseph
So a lot of the popular games that are out today are built on this game engine, right? And when a game developer uses this engine, they pay a licensing fee to unity to use it. So for every copy of the game that sold a percentage of that revenue goes to Unity for their royalties for that. And that’s what they overhauled.

00:39:00:20 – 00:39:17:12
Sam
Right. So this is from the Verge unity on. They said that beginning next year they would implement a paper download pricing scheme that would charge developers a flat fee any time a game using Unity software is installed. I think the key word there is installed. Yes, right.

00:39:17:12 – 00:39:21:00
Joseph
Because you can’t do demos at that point in time without paying unity. Right.

00:39:21:00 – 00:39:30:16
Sam
And that is including installs that may not be legal. Right. You know, pirating things like that. Also multiple installations of a game, like if you uninstall it and reinstall it.

00:39:30:18 – 00:39:54:14
Joseph
Well, because what happens is that every time you install a game, the unity engine reaches out to the licensing server. So if you do a demos of the game, if you do, if you have pirated downloads of the game, if you uninstall it and reinstall every time it goes out and hits that licensing server to confirm that it’s a valid license as opposed to what it was before was on sales.

00:39:54:16 – 00:40:00:02
Joseph
So every time you would sell the game, that would then go towards the licensing.

00:40:00:05 – 00:40:16:21
Sam
Issues more from the verge. The the fees are further broken down depending on where a game is purchased, meaning that a game bought in the US, UK and other standard markets is assessed a higher fee than when it’s bought in emerging markets like India or China. So like I don’t know what they were thinking when they did this.

00:40:16:23 – 00:40:37:23
Sam
This made a ton of people angry. Many developers, publishers and consumers completely disavowed unity people wanted to boycott the game of the engine itself. And you got to understand, unity is like the number one. It’s like unity and unreal are the two engines that pretty much everyone uses for any kind of game development. I mean, Unity has tried to walk some of the stuff back, but I think a lot of the damage might already have been done.

00:40:38:05 – 00:40:39:05
Sam
What do you think?

00:40:39:07 – 00:41:02:12
Joseph
Well, and the thing is, the regional phrasing that they’re talking about is not unusual in any other industry. So in any other industry, talk of manufacturing, for instance, you have tariffs on on purchased goods. So, for instance, I have a friend of mine who lives down in Peru for him to buy a graphics card that costs $2,000 up here.

00:41:02:14 – 00:41:30:08
Joseph
He’s got to pay $3,000 for it because of the tariffs. So Unity’s logic is, well, if there’s regional pricing based on tariffs, because purchased goods, then we can do the same thing for licensing. Well, the problem you run into is they’re the first ones that are doing that. Yeah, nobody else does. Is there’s no tariff on licensing. There’s a tariff on imports when you’re talking about actual tin manufactured goods.

00:41:30:10 – 00:41:41:07
Joseph
So there’s no impetus whatsoever for the reasoning behind what they’re doing. That’s why they’re taking the heat for it. And as a result, they’re losing a boatload of business in the process.

00:41:41:11 – 00:41:43:10
Sam
And that results in 900 people losing.

00:41:43:10 – 00:41:45:04
Joseph
Their jobs. Exactly.

00:41:45:06 – 00:41:49:23
Sam
And, you know, should the CEO maybe have taken a pay cut instead of having to fire all these people?

00:41:49:23 – 00:41:55:08
Joseph
Maybe that’s a very controversial philosophy, a lot of rank and file workers.

00:41:55:08 – 00:42:17:00
Sam
And yeah, another company that I want to highlight is embrace her group. They’ve been making all kinds of in the last couple of years. They’ve been snatching up a lot of studios like Gearbox, who made Borderlands and Crystal Dynamics, who you guys are, probably know if you played the new Lara Croft games. Embrace of group is sort of this conglomerate that’s just been eating up studios.

00:42:17:02 – 00:42:19:17
Joseph
Kind of like EA and all the other conglomerates out there.

00:42:19:18 – 00:42:44:07
Sam
Yeah, except they’re not doing it very well. They’re now cleaning House Accord. This is from iTunes. Wesley and Pool and Razor group has said it has laid off 904 people. That’s about 5% of its workforce. It’s since its financial struggles beginning following the collapse of the $2 billion deal, reportedly with the Saudi government funded company savvy games groups.

00:42:44:09 – 00:43:06:02
Sam
When this deal didn’t go through, this was like insane because it fell apart like the day before it was going to happen. And like, the industry was like, what’s going to happen now? Right? Turns out a bunch of people are going get laid off. In a recent statement Embrace, you said they wanted to become a, quote, stronger company, I guess another state.

00:43:06:02 – 00:43:25:21
Sam
They they’re closing whole studios to that they own now. So volition who developed the Saints Row games they got another stab at Saints row and it failed critically and commercially they shut the studio down. So yeah embrace her is kind of just cutting from their company now and a lot of it has to do with that two bit $2 billion deal that fell through.

00:43:25:23 – 00:43:26:12
Sam
I don’t know this.

00:43:26:12 – 00:43:51:21
Joseph
Is this is typical you know corporate is that they’re interested in the bottom line right And anytime you have a publicly traded company that has a board of directors and it has, you know, stock owners, your finan, your fiduciary duty is to the stockholders and you trust the people that are making these decisions who aren’t always in there.

00:43:51:21 – 00:44:14:19
Joseph
They’re business people, but they’re not necessarily software or game industry people. And that’s sort of where you get that that dirty corporate feeling that that people tend to get here is that they’re just looking at the bottom line and they’re going to cut their losses. They’re going to cut what they think are losses in order to make money.

00:44:14:21 – 00:44:51:21
Joseph
And it’s not just software. Iger doing the same thing at Disney and killing Disney. You’ve people industries across the board that are doing this type of stuff. They see something that’s not raking in money. They have a certain margin that they want to meet. And if you’re if you’re not meeting that margin, then you’re a casualty. Ignoring the fact that a lot of times the game industry doesn’t work the same way these other in other manufacturing and entertainment industries where the return on investment tends to be a much longer timeline that the corporate world and the stock world does not want to wait for.

00:44:51:23 – 00:45:16:05
Sam
Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of giant corporate companies, Amazon Games also had some layoffs. Now they recently cut 180 jobs from their games department. This comes during the larger sweep of layoffs at Amazon as a whole. We were talking about, you know, industry wide stuff with nearly 27,000 jobs being cut in the last year. Now we’re talking about 6000 layoffs in the gaming industry alone, 27,000 just from Amazon.

00:45:16:05 – 00:45:18:02
Sam
Just to put that in perspective.

00:45:18:03 – 00:45:29:21
Joseph
But that’s across the board in Amazon. That’s right. Sales, manufacturing, warehousing, everything. And a lot of that for Amazon is not because they’re losing money, because they’re not.

00:45:30:00 – 00:45:31:01
Sam
We actually have record profits.

00:45:31:03 – 00:45:59:02
Joseph
Right. A lot of that has to do with improvements in how their processes work. A lot of automation going in place. The robot robot sized a number of their plants, so they’ve negated the need to have physical labor here and you’ll notice only 180 of those 27,000 jobs were in the game industry. Yeah, I don’t know how many people they had in their game studios to begin with though, right?

00:45:59:04 – 00:46:05:21
Sam
Yeah. So Amazon’s revenues up 13%, probably helped cutting 27,000 people, you know, to pay any.

00:46:05:21 – 00:46:07:08
Joseph
More looks go to the bottom line.

00:46:07:08 – 00:46:25:12
Sam
Yeah Net income tripled to 9.9 billion that’s from CNBC actually compute that’s a funny name sorry actually but yeah so profits are up and like you said, you know, when the bottom line comes up there, it’s capitalism, baby. You know, that’s the way the news goes.

00:46:25:14 – 00:46:43:02
Joseph
So. So despite the game industry experiencing one of its best years, over 6000 people face layoffs. How do you think these job losses at various levels are impacting the industries, morale and future prospects, especially in light of such a successful game release here?

00:46:43:04 – 00:47:17:07
Sam
I mean, I follow a lot of people that are in game development on Twitter and stuff, and I listen to a lot of gaming podcasts, of people that are very close to people in the industry. It sucks. Turns out layoffs suck. I think it’s really, really bad for morale because, you know, I think a lot of people really they grinding, grinding grind and try to get into the industry only for them to have a very high rate of getting laid off anyway, especially when like we talked about before, when a game ships what happens now and yeah, you know, it’s a great year for gaming but it’s tough to ignore all these layoffs.

00:47:17:07 – 00:47:24:03
Sam
And if you were going in the industry, you’re going to have to wonder, you know, am I going to be the next one to get laid off if I even can get a job in the first place?

00:47:24:08 – 00:47:58:23
Joseph
Yeah, it’s when you see this type of thing happen across the board, it’s tough when it’s your own company and they’re doing layoffs. My company did layoffs this year too, and so did mine. And it has an effect on morale and it has an effect on the output. And I think a lot of time the corporate entities that make these decisions never really go out and do a proper impact analysis to see what level of productivity is going to be affected by people with decreased morale because the ideas on, well, if they don’t perform, will just lay them off.

00:47:59:01 – 00:48:21:11
Joseph
Well, when people walk out the door, it’s not a salary and benefits. It’s walking out the door that you can save money on. There’s brain drain. You know, there’s tribal knowledge that walks out that door that as a result, the people that are remaining for the job still has to get done. And the people that are left to do that job are struggling now to do that job.

00:48:21:11 – 00:48:34:13
Joseph
So either it takes longer, the quality drops off, the volume drops off. And I think when corporate entities make these decisions, they don’t always take that impact analysis into account.

00:48:34:14 – 00:48:54:03
Sam
Yeah, and speaking of quality, you just triggered something in my mind. This is a very small facet of this whole thing, but a lot of one of the sections that gets laid off a lot is quality testers. So that reflects in your game when your game doesn’t work because you fired everybody that was going to test it. So I know I’d fired a bunch of them lately.

00:48:54:03 – 00:49:07:15
Sam
I think it’s, you know, it’s but again, it’s one of those things where when your game is no longer in development, you have no need for these quality testers. But with games like Apex Legends, games that are live as a service, that are continuously going in development, where do quality testers fall in that?

00:49:07:17 – 00:49:32:04
Joseph
Well? And that’s the thing. Having worked in the software industry for years, your ratio of testers to developers is usually 2 to 1 and testing is always seen as the first area that gets cut. But what they don’t realize is that you can’t trust a developer to test their own code. They’re too close to it. So you take a look at Larian Studios, right?

00:49:32:06 – 00:50:03:03
Joseph
So Larian Studios did their official release in October of Boulder’s Gate three. They’ve had ten patches and three or 1010 bug fix patches. They put out emergency bug fixes and three or four major patch releases in that time. So the developer doesn’t stop when it goes out the door because it’s never a finished product. You’ve got a lifetime of probably four or five years that you still have to support the product.

00:50:03:05 – 00:50:07:22
Joseph
So getting rid of the people once again, once the game’s out the door is probably shortsighted.

00:50:08:02 – 00:50:14:05
Sam
And within those four or five years, you’re probably going to start development on your next game, especially with something like Watergate three that was insanely successful.

00:50:14:10 – 00:50:35:01
Joseph
And by the time HBO’s Game three comes out by a third year premiere game comes out, you’ve already got a pipeline that’s full of schedules for what’s next in line. And if you don’t, then you might as well just shut your doors, because if given the time frame it takes, where you look at four or five years of development to put a decent game out.

00:50:35:03 – 00:50:42:23
Joseph
So if you don’t already have something in the pipeline and something in the works, when your current game comes out, you’re you’re going to go out of business.

00:50:42:23 – 00:51:00:03
Sam
Yeah, Yeah. It’s it’s tough, right? I mean, you get this a lot with movies too, you know, these things take so long to make and then it’s out and then people immediately want more, right? And I mean, that’s just how it goes. But hopefully that keeps some people employed do So yeah that’s. Those are layoffs or layoff discussion.

00:51:00:05 – 00:51:09:12
Sam
In our next segment, we’re going to talk more about the causes of it. I know you did a lot of research for this, so I’ll let you take over for it. But yeah, layoffs are bad, layoffs are bad.

00:51:09:12 – 00:51:11:10
Joseph
And it sales are bad. Don’t do layoffs.

00:51:11:11 – 00:51:16:09
Sam
Layoffs suck if it happens to you. But we’ll be right back.

00:51:16:11 – 00:51:58:23
Narrator
Uh, Insights into Teens, a podcast series exploring the issues and challenges of today’s youth. Talking to real teens about real teen problems explore issues from braces to puberty, social anxiety to financial responsibility. Each week we talk about the topics concerning today’s youth. We look at how the issues affect teens, how to cope with these issues and how parents, friends and loved ones can help teens handle these challenges.

00:51:59:01 – 00:52:24:19
Narrator
Check out our video episodes on YouTube.com backslash insights into things. Catch our audio versions on podcast are insights into teens. XCOM or on the web at insights into things. XCOM.

00:52:24:21 – 00:52:47:14
Sam
Welcome back to Insights into Entertainment, everybody. We’re wrapping up the show today talking about the cause and the the purpose of all these layoffs. So the trend of layoffs in the video game industry can be attributed to several factors. And understanding this is key to forecasting the trends during and its impact on the industry’s future. And we go to our corporate shill shots of surveillance for the layoff.

00:52:47:14 – 00:52:50:13
Sam
Worried why layoffs are a good thing. Go.

00:52:50:14 – 00:53:13:14
Joseph
No, no way. There are good thing. What causes layoffs. So we already kind of touched on economic fluctuations. So the video game industry is not immune to the broader economic trends in the world. An economic downturn or market uncertainty can lead to budget cuts and staff reductions, and everyone knows where we are with inflation and how tight money is, and everything’s costing more money.

00:53:13:14 – 00:53:40:05
Joseph
So that’s that’s pretty obvious right there. We’re also looking right now, and it’s the first time in the industry’s history that we’re in a post-pandemic period. So we’re still looking at adjustments from that. COVID 19 pandemic led to a surge in gaming as people sold entertainment during the lockdowns. This surge may have led to over hiring or overexpansion some companies.

00:53:40:07 – 00:53:47:03
Joseph
As the world returns to normalcy, demand may stabilize or decrease, leading to restructuring.

00:53:47:04 – 00:54:05:21
Sam
There’s also, you know, people now are like there’s the discussion of work from home. Well, why wouldn’t I just always work from home if I can? Especially when it comes to game development. A lot of these folks packed up their work computers and brought them home to keep working on game during the pandemic as best they could. So now, you know, there’s a discussion of do we even need to be going back in the you know, in the work?

00:54:05:21 – 00:54:13:22
Sam
And that’s across all industries, if we can, you know, can we just keep the work at home thing going? And then, you know, that’s more cost cutting because then you don’t have to rent office space.

00:54:14:01 – 00:54:37:15
Joseph
Absolutely. A lot of companies are looking at that as a possibility. In fact, behind you is a permanent workstation that’s been set up for my wife now, who works from home two days a week as a result of that, and they saw what they going to get out of it. So the other thing you look at is shifts in consumer behavior, Changes in gaming trends and consumer preferences can impact revenue streams.

00:54:37:17 – 00:55:07:10
Joseph
Companies may need to restructure to align with these shifts, leading to layoffs in departments that no longer align with new strategies. We also have technological change changes. Advancement in technology can render certain skills or positions obsolete. As companies invest in automation and new tech, there may be a reduced need for certain roles. And then we get to the corporate shell side of things with financial management and strategic shifts.

00:55:07:12 – 00:55:25:11
Joseph
So poor financial management or strategic pivots can necessitate cost cutting measures, including layoffs, which is exactly what Unity ran into. You know, they’re trying to make a buck, so they made a change in their strategic, you know, product line there, and it came back to bite them.

00:55:25:14 – 00:55:29:08
Sam
A very nice way of saying we want to make as much money as possible all the time.

00:55:29:09 – 00:55:35:07
Joseph
Absolutely. So tell us about what the actual impact of all this is on the video game industry. Yeah.

00:55:35:07 – 00:55:58:18
Sam
So, I mean, there’s innovation and competition. Layoffs can lead to a consolidation of talent with larger companies absorbing experienced personnel. Yeah, a little bit of that with embracing, you know, now that they’re all part of this conglomerate, maybe they’re having some cross studio development. This could foster innovation, but might also reduce competition. A smaller company struggle to compete, which is definitely true, especially when it comes to indie development, which is what we have next.

00:55:58:20 – 00:56:13:16
Sam
As talented individuals leave larger companies, there might be, excuse me, a surge in indie game development, which I think we talked about this before when we were talking about the Microsoft Blizzard thing where it’s like as as more studios are brought up in part of large corporate structures.

00:56:13:16 – 00:56:16:23
Joseph
Something has to fill that vacuum and the indie companies step in to do that.

00:56:16:23 – 00:56:34:11
Sam
Exactly. There’s you know, this can lead to more diverse and innovative gaming landscape, which I’m all for assuming, you know, it’s you know, I’m all for the creative side of things, as you can probably tell by this. You know, it’s it’s tough to see, but, you know, maybe there is a silver lining.

00:56:34:16 – 00:56:51:17
Joseph
Well, and the one advantage you get from the indie side of things is you don’t get the corporate shills. You don’t get you get idealism. You get companies to come in here with this idealistic view of, I’m going to make this for the fans, I’m going to listen to the fans and I’m going to produce something for the fans.

00:56:51:19 – 00:57:11:06
Joseph
If it doesn’t sell well, then the corporate guys come in, they suck up the company and then they move on. A lot of times, you know, for for the longest time, BioWare was of that philosophy of you had a couple of of of regular guys there that wanted to make good games for people. And they did. And until they sold their souls to it and moved on.

00:57:11:11 – 00:57:12:19
Sam
We would all do it. Let’s be honest.

00:57:12:19 – 00:57:17:13
Joseph
I would to hell if I could get, you know, a couple million dollars for this podcast I sell in the heartbeat.

00:57:17:15 – 00:57:34:19
Sam
Next episode, we’re going to have McDonald’s branding all of this. Yeah, I highly recommend you place the stars because it is a very similar situation. I’m blanking on the name of the developers, but it’s like that where they just they made another game called The Messenger, but they all seem like very down to earth people. We have shifts in job roles.

00:57:34:19 – 00:57:43:13
Sam
The industry may witness a shift in the types of roles that are in demand, with more emphasis on technologies like AI, VR and cloud gaming online. But VR can only be done with VR.

00:57:43:13 – 00:57:48:22
Joseph
I think VR is pretty much Apple wants to bring VR back. I think they’re missing the boat.

00:57:48:22 – 00:57:50:22
Sam
They’re going to make people spend like $10,000 for heads and.

00:57:50:23 – 00:57:53:08
Joseph
So you can get freaky eyes on the outside of your headset.

00:57:53:10 – 00:58:23:17
Sam
Yeah, this we talked about this already a little bit, but the impact on gaming quality and diversity layoffs can lead to reduced manpower impacting quality. However, they can also force companies to focus on core competencies and produce higher quality titles, which is of what Sony is doing. You know, they’re spending and taking the time to have all these first party games that are, you know, industry wide successes commercially and critically, sort of hold up the brand just by virtue of existing.

00:58:23:19 – 00:58:47:18
Sam
And finally, employee well-being and industry reputation, which the gaming industry already has a pretty bad reputation in terms of like crunch culture, which is probably still happening. But I think it has been reduced because it was exposed a lot with how often? A lot of these devs are crunching and you hear stories from like 2005 of people pulling like 30 hour days and it’s like, Oh my God, how do we let that happen?

00:58:47:20 – 00:58:48:23
Sam
But hopefully that’s a little bit better.

00:58:49:01 – 00:59:09:10
Joseph
And I mean, I’ve been on build teams, not for the gaming industry, but in the software industry where we’ve put in 36, 48 hours straight to get a build out the door for, you know, an artificial deadline that was set playing a product manager because you made a promise to a customer. So it happens across the board. Yeah.

00:59:09:12 – 00:59:17:19
Sam
This might affect the ability to attract top talent in the future, which is true if that if your industry has a terrible reputation and fires people all the time, people really don’t work for you.

00:59:17:21 – 00:59:19:02
Joseph
Amen to that.

00:59:19:04 – 00:59:27:03
Sam
So yeah, I mean, those are that pretty much sums everything up. That covers the layoffs. Of course, we started off pretty positively with the Game Awards.

00:59:27:04 – 00:59:42:08
Joseph
So so considering the influence of economic fluctuations on the video game industry, how do you think companies can better prepare for market uncertainties to avoid drastic measures like layoffs, especially given the industry’s recent success?

00:59:42:10 – 01:00:03:23
Sam
I don’t know. I maybe pay higher ups less, which is never going to happen. But it’s a suggestion I know years everybody turns to was his name. He was a Nintendo CEO. I want to maybe I want to I forget his name, but he Nintendo when the Wii U came out and like completely failed, he ended up taking a pay cut so they didn’t have to lay people off.

01:00:04:01 – 01:00:18:22
Sam
Now everybody looks to that like it was a miracle because it kind of was right. And people don’t you know, CEOs are never going to do that. But that would be nice if that was the alternative to laying people off. But, you know, that’s it’s just it’s not the way that capitalism goes, unfortunately.

01:00:19:02 – 01:00:38:07
Joseph
And I think it has to be research and development. I think if you’ve got enough irons in the fire, you throw enough stuff against the wall, something’s going to stick. And if you’ve got a couple of games that are in there, you can tell after two or three years of development, if your your game’s going to be a success.

01:00:38:07 – 01:01:03:12
Joseph
Because at that point in time you’ve trotted out previews at a couple of game shows. You had some industry experts take a look at it, you’ve got some some playtime with it and people need to be more antiseptic, I’ll say, in in their judgment of their products. If you get to that point and the product isn’t very good, you need to cut your ties to it and move on.

01:01:03:14 – 01:01:27:10
Sam
You know, it’s funny you mention that because you should look into the development cycle of Red Fall. We cover that last time I hosted for a gaming show, but since that game’s come out and is awful, devs have come out and said like they knew this game was going to fail but they had to release it anyway because you had to put something out and it was like sunk cost fallacy where we spent all this time, we probably should cancel this game and rework it, but higher ups need us to release something.

01:01:27:10 – 01:01:28:15
Sam
So here’s what you get.

01:01:28:17 – 01:01:47:00
Joseph
And going back to one of my old favorites, the Star Wars, the old Republic, same thing. They spent almost ten years of development on that, six of which was trying to build their own game engine before they realized they could. And they wound up using a ten year old game engine to basically reskin the entire game for it.

01:01:47:02 – 01:02:07:21
Joseph
And then they released it. And within the first six months they lost 50% of their subscribers because the game just wasn’t up to what it was supposed to be. At some point in time, you need to have the sense to pull the plug on it now, and if you can do that and you have other other projects that are in the works that are under development, you shift your resources to something that’s more promising.

01:02:07:22 – 01:02:12:09
Sam
And hopefully, well, you know, with all these layoffs and maybe somebody learn something from it, hopefully.

01:02:12:12 – 01:02:13:14
Joseph
Yeah.

01:02:13:16 – 01:02:21:19
Sam
But yeah. So any final thoughts? I feel like we’ve we’ve covered a lot of this. We’ve shared our opinions.

01:02:21:21 – 01:02:25:06
Joseph
We’ve beaten the horse quite well here.

01:02:25:08 – 01:02:32:06
Sam
Well, I guess that’s going to wrap things up for today. Thank you so much for listening. Before we head out, we’ve got some more show for you. If you thought the.

01:02:32:06 – 01:02:33:08
Joseph
First set wasn’t enough.

01:02:33:09 – 01:03:00:20
Sam
I know the plugs. So nice. We do them twice. If you haven’t already subscribed, what are you doing? Pause this Go subscribe comeback. Rewind it. Play from the beginning. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, maybe Stitcher if it’s still around iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Amazon, and of course Pandora. If you have any comments or questions about today’s show, email us the comments that insights into Things Icon or on Twitter, some people call it X Insights underscore things.

01:03:00:20 – 01:03:23:15
Sam
Twitch. If you have Amazon Prime, that means you’ve got Twitch Prime and we’d love to have that prime sub over at Twitch.tv slash insights in the things where some of you may be watching us live stream right now Facebook at Facebook dot com slash insights in the things podcast Instagram add insights and the thing that all of these links and so much more can be found on insights into things dot com that’s going to wrap things up for today.

01:03:23:17 – 01:03:24:16
Joseph
That’s it and another one in the.

01:03:24:16 – 01:03:25:19
Sam
Books. Stay safe everybody.