Call of Duty under attack, but who is winning (and losing) in the battle of the shooters?

This week, Unity and Epic are friends. Rockstar's Union RA intensifies. The Xbox ROG Ally exceeds expectations. The Game Awards finalists are announced, [music] and our big topic of the week, Call of Duty's misfire, and the rise of the new shooters. Hello and welcome to the Game Business Show. I can't tackle all those topics by myself, so I have with me a media personality, YouTube creator, media entrepreneur. Some people know him as Skillup. I know him as Ralph Panavano. and he's with me right now. Hello, Ralph. Welcome to the show.
Hello. What a kind introduction. Media personality and media entrepreneur. I've never been called such things. It's very exciting.
Well, you are an entrepreur because you've launched you've launched a website, right?
That's true. Is that is that entrepreneurial though in the in 2025 to launch a website? I wonder I wonder.
I uh I when I joined games in shop is uh nine years ago. So um the first thing I did was launch a magazine and everyone looked at me like I was absolutely crazy. But I'm not looking at you like you're crazy cuz you're doing you're trying to

do things differently. You're trying to take a different approach.
Do you know on that point on that point just to interrupt you? One of the biggest requests that we get from our paid subscribers is do you have any plans to make a physical magazine as an extension of this? People want that [ __ ] They love it. So no, I'm not remotely surprised to hear that you launched a magazine back then. They're still alive, man. I still have my Edge subscription. I've never stopped. I don't know about you, but it's still there. So
I I don't subscribe to Edge. I do get them. I get them every now and again. I subscribe to Retro Gamer.
All right. Sure.
Because I'm old.
Sure.
And I actually find that's where it works because Retro Gamer will write about some obscure game that's never getting any traffic on YouTube or or website, but they can write about it because they've got a small audience of people that will pay them6 a month or whatever for it. Um, that's why I feel magazines work. I wasn't planning to ask about magazines. I was going to ask about this week in video games.
Yes. No, I should take the opportunity to talk about my thing as opposed to directing the conversation elsewhere. But I will say actually while we're on the topic, Danny Odw's new thing that he's spun up. Have you seen his second

channel?
No, I haven't seen the second channel.
Okay. Right. So, obviously he does No Clip, but but he also has spun up a new thing now called No Clip 2. Very innovative title, but it's basically exactly what you've spoken about then with the retro magazine thing where it's like, you know, you just want to be able to find little stuff that's not getting much light shone on it elsewhere. He's basically made a thing that's exactly that, you know, and he's profiling really cool games and it's his small team and it's great. So, I love it and I think it just sort of to bring it back to what I'm doing, you know, I think that the reality is there are a lot of people who really love this thing and uh I think they are being underserviced by what's out there at the moment cuz I think media by and large needs to scale up and out to be able to survive in this very competitive landscape. like it needs as much SEO as it could scoop up. Uh, and I think, you know, some outlets obviously are going down the path of AI assisted writing and whatever else. I don't think that's great. That's not for me at all. But, you know, obviously they're doing what they can to survive.

And I think that there's a group of consumers who are kind of left behind who are like, "No, we we want really good coverage. We want it to be adree. Um, we want a team of writers that we know and trust and we're happy to kick in a few bucks a month to make it happen." And so that was kind of bet that I made a few like sort of two years ago when I started sort of thought bubbling this. Um and yeah, uh it two years later it it exists now and it's been going for a while and it's it's it's good. It's it's a sustainable outlet we're really happy with.
Oh, cool. I mean, we've spoken about the media on the show a few times and it's it's the reality is it's it's all of our fault because we don't pay for our media. So we got into a situation where uh the customer of an IGN or a GameSpot isn't actually the reader, it's the advertiser and the advertiser needs traffic. So So the advertise so the reader becomes the product that they're selling and therefore they need to generate as much traffic as possible and it becomes this game and when the num and that's okay if you've got a big you're making loads of money and you can have teams of people writing about new games and interesting things as well as

the people doing the SEO stuff. when the numbers start getting tighter, when the margins get smaller and they have to start making layoffs, they're not laying off the people that are bringing in the revenue and the traffic, they're laying off the people that are doing the the more interesting things, the more relevant things, the more the more things that gives you a purpose. And that's where the media sort of gets into this weird difficult position that it's in it's in today. And when [clears throat] did when did you launch this weekend in video games?
So, it was in July of this year. Yep. It was in July. Uh so, there was uh before then we'd spent Yeah. like 18 months or so on planning and builds. I hired a guy called Edmund Tran who was former GameSpot senior editor. He then founded a site in Australia called GamesHub which was spectacularly successful. He did really really well. Um fastest growing site in Australia. Um and then after that he was looking for something different and I really had to work to convince him to come on board cuz he was very happy with where he was. But, uh, I was like, "Hey, man, let's just have a crack at this." And he said yes. Um, and

since then, it's been, you know, really fantastic. As I said, we now have a team of of of there's three full-time people on the site now. Wow.
Um, there's obviously Ed heading it up, Patrick Dayne, um, who's senior news editor. Uh, and we also have a graduate, uh, her name is Matty Agy, and she's about to graduate from journalism studies actually, and about to become a full-time. So, that's a lie, actually. She's parttime currently, but uh if she accepts the offer, she will be full-time uh when she graduates. So, I think that's another important thing with this as well. You go to summer games, everyone is our age and above.
Yeah.
Uh there is no new blood entering this space. There's new blood entering content creation, but in terms of games media, games coverage, game journalism, whatever you want to call it,
there's no new blood, man. There's just so little. And so I think it's really important for us to like put that letter down and and otherwise it's it's not going to exist in the future.
When I started you applied for a job on a magazine that's what you did and you started off as an editorial assistant and I worked on a business title called

MCV. I started off as a um which had an Australia Australian arm or Pacific Arm at one point.
I know I know very well.
I remember launching that um as a junior but I didn't do it myself but I was a part of the the UK team that helped that happen. But you rose up and you learn all the tricks and all the all the things on the way. And but when I go to universities now and they ask how do you get in? I'm like actually there isn't many jobs.
It's like you kind of have to do it yourself. You have to do your own and that's quite that's quite you know you have to be a certain type of person to I wouldn't have been I wouldn't have been that person I don't think
in Australia now skill up with three people on the channel and three people on the website. We are now the largest games media employer in Australia.
Oh wow.
By a significant margin. Right. And that's in terms of editorial by the way because I think like one of I think like maybe IGN has sales people. I'm not exactly sure but in terms of like an editorial team employed full-time to cover games. We're the largest. And that's not good. That's not good at all. You know like there should be many

outlets that are bigger than us because you know six people is not a big team. So, um, and there were up until, you know, just a few years ago, there were multiple outlets that were larger in scale and they've all gone sadly. Um, so yeah, it's it's it's very difficult times.
Well, I'm glad that it sort of started well and it's sustainable and then we can hopefully um things can kick up for you um going forward. Well, let's talk about the games industry news, which is the game business show. We talk about some of the we're going to begin by talking about some of the stories of the week. This one I wasn't planning for this. You're being jumped on this one because I'm just dropping this on you because it wasn't in our pre-briefing notes. It's only just happened when we're recording. I mean, if you thought Halo coming to PlayStation was an iconic moment of of of enemies becoming friends, how about this one? Epic Games showed up at Unity's Unite conference this week to announce the two companies are working together so that Unity's g Unity games, so games made in Unity, can come to Fortnite, but also Unity's crossplatform commerce platform is coming to Unreal Engine. is to allow

developers to manage pricing, promotions, live operations basically from the from the Unreal Engine. Um, it's I don't know this is this is this is like a this is Sonic and Mario on stage for us. Um, it's good for Unity because it's another major games platform which which Fortnite is that it can it can cater to four for its games. It's another reason to go with the Unity engine if you're debating it. It's good for Fortnite and Epic because it allows for even more games into that ecosystem. It plays into their metaverse metaverse vision for the future.
But how's it function though? What are we talking about here? Because there's Unity engine and there's Unreal Engine. And so what is the proposal here? Like what are the mechanics of this?
Well, the idea is you could publish your Unity games into um into Fortnite. So, you know, one of the one of the games I'm not going to pretend to know. I mean, I've got the press release here. It's the exact pipeline.
So, I wonder if it's like their launcher because obviously there's Fortnite has kind of like a front front facing

whatever. And I wonder if you'd be able to click on a game and it's running the Unity like running a game in the Unity. Okay. Wow.
That's what I previous to currently you need to use for Fortnite and you can exactly the idea is you know you can make a game in Unity and do that. Um I mean this is Tim Sweeny's metaverse vision. It's about having an open metaverse. It's what he wants. Um the commerce platform thing and this is perhaps a little bit boring for you Ralph but the uh uh this this ties with the opening up of the app stores. So Google and and um and Apple opening their app stores to third party apps. developers can now sell directly to their customers which means there's a need for um uh services exola which you may have seen logos for exola everywhere this is what they do you can do things like um um um sell direct to customers this commerce how you can react to people track the data the track telemetry all that kind of stuff unity has its own thing and now putting that into the epic um uh real engine allows is is a sort of another option for developers to use um epic really wants really wants people selling direct or or going through other app stores that

aren't Steam, that aren't um Google Play, that aren't um the um the App Store. So, um this is their um they want to make that as easy as possible for developers to do and this is sort of all part of that. So, yeah, it's it was just um I had an I'm going to share I had a this this week's episode or possibly even next week's episode, one of these episodes I'm doing was supposed to be with the CEO of Unity and the very last minute they said, "Okay, something might be happening." It's supposed the interview was supposed to happen before
uh uh um their Unite conference, but they said, "Okay, something might be happening that means that we're going to have to put postpone this." So hopefully it'll happen still down the line. But um
now you should pitch a joint interview with Tim Sweeney and Unity, and you should get that exclusive. That's what you should do.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Well, Tim Tim was on the show back in June. I'd love to have him back, but uh I'd love to have Unity on. I'd love to have both of them on. Yes, do. Yes, I'm going to pitch that. Good idea. I'll do that now. Um
you're welcome. My pleasure. [laughter]
Um, uh, the second story that's that that's sort of happened this week that,

you know, you must have seen this one. This is the ongoing row between Rockstar and the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain. We we we last week's show sort of came we recorded it just before a few more stories broke um around this. So, to recap, last month Rockstar laid off over 30 employees. Uh, the union, the IWGB said all of these employees were union members. And this was uh this move was a blatant and ruthless act of union busting. That's what they called it. Rockstar denied this. They said that the people laid off had leaked information on the public forum related to Rockstar, which constituted gross misconduct. The union has since shared that this form that Rockstar is referring to is actually a private trade union discord channel. Um now the IWGB said they tried to meet with Rockstar, but it's received no response. There have been protests outside of Rockstar's offices, particularly the one in Edinburgh. Last week, over 200, I think it was 220 Rockstar employees demanded that fired workers should be reinstated. The issue has been brought up in the UK Parliament by Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine. Um, there's been a

lot of coverage on this. Bloomberg have been all over it. People make games, an excellent video covering the protests. I mean, have you been following the the drama?
We actually had uh Mattie Agny, our uh junior reporter, was there at the uh rally, not the Edinburgh one, the other one. Uh she was there in person covering it. Uh we also uh I have watched the people make games stuff. I mean from the minute that this is broken. Um yeah been very across it because look I don't exactly know what happened but I certainly don't believe anything that Rockstar is saying like not a single [ __ ] word. You know what I mean? So um like the fact that they won't even meet with these people, the fact that they've offered no evidence whatsoever. They make these claims and like you know there's 30 30 people out of the job now. Like that's that's ridiculous. Like none of it stands up. None of it passes any sniff test. I just think it's it's gross. So happy to happy to hear the detail. Happy to happy to hear that.
Well, this this certainly not a great

look for Rockstar, but is a complicated one to comment on because we don't know what was shared on the Discord. Is it just an excuse Rockstar is using to to to do this?
But let's be real, like first of all, there's 30 people that got sacked. If if there was some incriminating evidence shared on the Discord, wouldn't one of those people come out and said, "Oh, actually, you know, like there was something, you know what I mean? Like wouldn't someone say actually they got us dead to rights on this thing or they everyone just being like keeping their mouth shut for solidarity?" If there was something leaked, where is it? Like why isn't it on every corners of the every corner of the internet?
One reason I find this hard to comment on is that was this request information requested by the union? And there are examples I've been given down the years of perhaps slightly slightly um naive or or young or someone that's just inexperienced maybe maybe inexperienced the word I'm looking for um uh uh unions doing something that can ends up actually causing more harm to their members the other way around. I don't know if that's at all what's happened here because I don't have any of that uh uh uh context. Rockstars

understandably shut Rockstar shut you know there'll be load that their lawyers will be telling them that's what they'll be following.
Yeah. But like if one person shared some information that they shouldn't have shared. Sure. Absolutely. Okay. But then if 30 other people 34 other people were in a Discord and they didn't share anything but one person did.
Do you know what I mean? Like again I don't know what happened either.
That's that's why that's why my brain my brain wondered was it every information that was requested and then 30 people on this Discord shared that information. I don't again I don't know and I think that's what makes it a little bit hard a little bit hard to comment on. I mean it's clearly a very sorry story. There's people out there who were working on the biggest entertainment launch of all time who have just found themselves out of a job. You know it hasn't painted Rockstar in a very good light at all. Hasn't painted the video game industry in a very light at all. I just hope the folks can sort of get around a table and and sort this one out because it it as I say it does feel, you know, nothing's actually leaked out from whatever these information that's been that's been shared. I'm sure I'm sure it's naivity rather than malic anything malicious and

and you know but um I suspect an element of um uh uh you know there's an element of legal ele there's a legal element to this where lawyers will be saying any any admission any olive branch any forgiveness or whatever will you know will make you liable for something I don't know but I'm hoping um I hope because it's just
absolutely
just for the employees more than anything else. Uh, sure. And as I said, I totally agree with all that and I too am, you know, I can't I'm not making any allegations because I don't know all the facts. That's very clear. But all I'm saying is that nothing that Rockstar has said makes any sense. Nothing that all of the people have that have lost their jobs has none of that sounds no one has come forward at any point to suggest that 35 people should have lost their jobs. Like that none of this makes sense at this point. So I don't believe anything that Rockstar is saying. If they if they'd like to furnish some evidence, sure, I'll happily hear it. But right now I'm just like no this doesn't this doesn't sound right at all.
Yeah. Yeah. Well we'll we'll we'll see.

I mean there has legal proceedings have been called. I didn't mention that quite key part of the uh the development in the last last week which hopefully will will I mean not not even not even so we can report on it or even talk about it so that it can just get you know get sorted out because um you know um nobody really wants to be talking about this. We should be talking about Grand Theft Auto. We don't want people out of work. Um and um we want ultimately a happy healthy games industry. I had before this story I had heard that Rockstar had, you know, was a significantly um different place to work than it had been, you know, historically if you go back to Rockstar Spouse and all that kind of stuff. So um um
I'd heard the same thing. I'd my understanding is that conditions had improved.
Um
but yeah, I mean obviously this is
Yeah, this is a a very different reality that we're operating in now. So
um yeah, hopefully the information comes to light sooner rather than later.
Yeah. Well, I'll move on to something a little bit less um um miserable. I guess this is um um um this

is uh the sales. It's about the ROG Xbox alloy. Um particularly the ROG Xbox ally X is exceeded expectations according to Asus. It's the third iteration of the ROG Ally. Um this PC gaming handhelds if you've not if you've been living under a rock. And this one was developed in partnership with Xbox. It featured an Xbox launcher. Had a sort of more Xboxy control interface. Asus said, "Since its launch, we see the appetite uh we see the market response for it has been extremely positive. Particularly, there's been an appetite for the premium higherend models. That's the X model exceeding our expectations. Uh they added that that X variant is in short supply. As ASUS expects Ally range to generate between $96 million and $160 million. That's quite a range this current fiscal quarter. Um and approximately $130 million and $160 million per quarter going forward. That's a big jump. I'm surprised at that going forward number cuz I mean I can expect a launch bump and a Christmas bump but I don't know that number the carrying forward quarterly that one struck out to me as being a bit like optimistic maybe I don't know I'm I'm

assuming what I'm guessing is there's a supply element to this the reason why the numbers so low for for the going quarter is they they can't necessarily develop the parts and so that's my guess um but you know is it does speak to the increasing strength of the PC games market which
um you know and It's stepping into it's stepping on the toes of the console industry and obviously the Steam machines we talked about um last week. Um I mean it's still ultimately a niche high-end product, but
um the these things are proving to they're proving successful. They're proving to successful for the hardware makers. They're allowing um the likes of Xbox to engage their audience for longer in different places and different locations. It's um is talks of PlayStation looking into the handheld space again. And obviously Nintendo's benefited from this since 20. I'm surprised it's taken so long for people to look at the Switch and go, you know what, [laughter] there's something there.
To be fair though, they definitely did. I mean, over the years, we've had many, many swings of the handheld market, but no one but Nintendo has been able to crack it, you know. So, uh, I mean,

Valve have cracked it in their own very niche way, you know, just a few percentage points of what the Switch has achieved, but it's still enough for them to make it a foothold.
Yeah. Well, it's not even about install base. It's about, you know, the people who are playing on the Steam Deck are the people that are the most active avid Steam players and you're giving, if you get those people to play for, I don't know, 10% more because now they can play in different rooms or play out of the home,
that's 10% more of the highest spending people, that's a that's that's significant. It can be significant. So, um yeah, that's that's the business model. It's not even about, you know, not about quantity. It's about and that's um but yeah, it's great to see. I mean I spoke to shortly after the launch I spoke to the UK hardware um as GFK and they said that the numbers were huge you know it was so much bigger so much bigger than they expected there was a lot of hype behind it I think Xbox I think perhaps there might I don't know some people wondered if Xbox fans were misled into it thinking it was an actual Xbox handheld rather than a PC gaming handheld I don't know I don't think you spend that amount of money not knowing

what you're buying
I agree I agree
um but um um yeah it's very good a big success. Um uh the other story uh of the week, the finalists are here for the game awards. Uh the six back battling it out for the game of the year award are Player Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2 on the Beach, Donkey Kong Bonanza, which is my game of the year. It's also one of the only games I've played this year. Hades [laughter] 2, Hollow Night, Silk Song, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Uh the most nominated game is Exhibition 33. 12 in total. I think that's a record for any game. followed by seven for Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yoai, six for Hades 2, five for Hollow Night Six Soul and four for Split Fiction. In terms of the top publishers, Sony secured 19 nominations. Kepler achieved 13. Um, both EA and Microsoft are tied on 10, Sega got seven, Super Giant six, and Team Cherry five. Ralph, are your favorites in there? What do you make of the finalists?
Uh, I mean, I I I think first of all,

I'll also I'll disclose that I'm a member of the voting jury, whatever. That doesn't mean anything by the way in the sense that all it means is I cast one ballot uh and amongst hundreds of others. So, you know, don't don't think that means anything. But, uh you know, I I said to a friend of mine a little while ago, I I bet you're about to see like the biggest sweep in games awards history with Clear Obscure. And sure enough, a few days later, it comes out that uh you know, it's nominated for 12 awards uh including game of the year. I mean, from the very minute that I rolled credits on that game, I'm like an almost impossible task to top this for 2025, uh, just truly remarkable experience in every way. Uh, and so, yeah, they deserve their flowers and the story behind the making of that game as well is just remarkable. Like, it's just it's crazy. Um, so very excited to see that team in that position and I'll be very surprised if they don't take it away. I'll put it that way. Um because yeah there's just it's there's a huge amount of momentum behind that game and

it's all well served. It's obviously there's an element of the way the game awards works is there's people it's media outlets from around the world right so you so there's an element of you know Australia UK and and and us English speakaking as Jim Ryan once described it to me the Anglo-Saxon markets which I thought was a very odd way to call it that are you [laughter]
I don't know I don't know I did think that was an odd way of phrasing it um the um um we have perhaps certain tastes and expectations that perhaps aren't necessary reflected in other markets but Um, I would be surprised as well, um, if anyone else takes that home. Um, which I've never played.
I want to say Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, though. I mean, I just feel so bad for them in the sense that in another year, like, if Clear Obscuer wasn't out this year, I I mean, [sighs] it deserves it. It really truly does. It's just such an incredible video game. It's just so crazy until you you haven't played it, have you?
Kingdom Come Difference, too. No, I haven't. I I I've we did one of our

first interviews was with Warhol back in um back in the start of the year. So I I looked into it quite a lot. So yeah, I'm familiar with its quality.
It's crazy. And like until it'sund it's at least 105 hours long, but until you actually immerse yourself in it, you just you can't get a sense of just what an incredible accomplishment it is. And I it's it's a bummer that they maybe they win. I don't think it's like and I cuz one of the other thing I I think that holds it well no holds it back in an awards context is that it's long and it's niche. You know what I mean? and that it's just doesn't have that kind of like momentum behind it from a critical mass of players playing it, you know.
But everyone, please play this video game. It's it's so good. It's just it's incredible. It truly is.
Yeah. Well, I'm sure they they'll console themselves their 4 million sales, but the the
Yeah, absolutely. For sure.
It's an interesting one because at one point this year, there were so many good, you know, split fiction. These didn't even get in the finalist [clears throat] list, right? And there's and there's a lot of these really high quality games that have come out. Um we have seen it in other years where there's one that's you know clearly head and shoulders above the rest but um it's

been a little while maybe 2023 but even then that had Boulders Gate in it like it's it's a you you sit there and think well that year is the year where there's quite a lot of really um interesting stuff I think think I think for me it didn't look there's a lot of games that could have made it in I think but you know things with awards I've run so many of them nothing on this scale
but I've always um and everyone's got different views on how these things should be voted for how these things can be judged and all you can do is does it feel right? Does it feel odd? Is something obviously missing that shouldn't be here that isn't in there and you might you might swap it. You might think this game should be in there and that game shouldn't be and that kind of stuff. I think Mario Kart World's soundtrack should be in the best soundtrack thing. You know, there's like I think Indiana Jones should have got more of a nod. These little these little things, but like is there anything noticeably wrong on this? I don't think so. I
agree. I do think Indiana Jones, it would have been nicer had it I would have it would have been nice to see it more represented. I think there's obviously the recency bias question, you know, where it came out quite a while ago. Uh, and also I think it is also a

little bit niche in its own way. You know, it's an older IP now [clears throat] and I'm not I don't know how many units it's sold, how many people played it, whatever, but I think it's also a really deserving game and and Machine Games just did phenomenal work there as well.
I think it would have had a big good shout last year if it just come out a bit earlier.
You reckon? Yeah, I think you're probably right. Yeah,
I think last year last year's slate of games, there's a lot of sort of eight eight out of 10 games in that and there was obviously Astrobot which you would expected to have picked up a load of awards, but I did think there was um I think Indiana Jones would have definitely been in there if it had come out a bit earlier. So, it's just one of those unfortunate um windows, you know, you know, maybe this year Metroid Prime 4 would have been
maybe not maybe not with the best Miles McKenzie. That's the people love him.
[laughter and gasps]
Give him his flowers. They do.
Yes. People people listening don't even know that there's a there's a slight pre the new Metroid Prime uh previews for the upcoming Nintendo game came out and um there's a apparently a slightly I

mean you can watch the video. There's a you've played it, haven't you, Ralph? There's a slightly irritating companion character you had for a little bit which um isn't very Metroid and it's uh
I read Andy Robinson's write [laughter] up about BGC. Uh he was not a fan. Not not a fan at all.
No, he's he's a very Metroid fan. Like he's he's he's a very big Metroid fan and and he and he and I actually watched the clips and it doesn't feel quite right. But but then I watched the overview trailer which apparently none of the preview I don't know. You weren't actually shown in advance.
No, we weren't shown that exact and I think that would have made a lot of sense. So my Yeah, cuz I saw that preview trailer just as I was finalizing my video and I'm like, "Oh, okay. That makes a lot more sense now." Because you're doing a whole companion thing. I was worried that I was hanging out with Miles the entire game. I'm like, "Ah, I think this is going to be a problem," you know, but um hopefully it levels itself out. Oh, look, I took the position that it's too early to judge. Look, I didn't love this guy, but I just think you just don't know how he's calibrated against the whole experience. So, I'm not I'm just I'm just holding

fire until I play the whole thing. I want to squeeze in one more story before we get into our main topic, which is um EA has just announced there will be no F1 game next year and instead it is preparing a DLC expansion to the current F1 game. The paid expansion arrives next year and will update the game with all the new 2026 changes to the F1 season. So, new cars, drivers, rules, teams, that kind of thing. Um EA has announced that the next full game in the series will arrive in 2027. I thought this is actually quite interesting. Um I, you know, whether or not there was a game plan for next year they've canceled or not, I don't know. But I think there is a I do think every now and again on an iterative franchise when you know you can make these little tweaks in a in a 12-month period taking a 2-year gap and sort of plugging it with a more basic update. I think that's
interesting. The DLC will be $59.95. [laughter] Um, no. I mean, look, I I think this is I think I also thought this was quite interesting cuz I'm like, well, they should just do this all the time, right? Obviously, but then that's EA's entire

business model is not doing this, you know? So, that's why it was interesting because annual franchises, uh, you know, the rock that that EA was built on. Uh, it's still the case today. So, yeah, I do wonder why they are doing this. I wonder what kind of precedent it might set in terms of their game making approach and their cadence. Um, yeah, it's it was a funny move from them for sure.
Yeah, I I I can I get it. Sports games players are different. You know, they do want the new teams, the latest or most authentic experience. So, the idea of getting a game every year that, you know, plays to that, but then also makes some gameplay tweaks under the hood. And the way EA or at least years and years ago, I went to interview about FIFA and they said what they do is they have a vision of where they want the game. they go, "Right, how long is it going to take us to get there if we make a game every year to that point?" So, they iterate, they iterate, and they obviously have to pivot and change and people react to certain things. But, um, and that's and that um, and that's what F1's one of the things with F1 and it's been it's been the case for quite a long time, is the game arrives late,

right? It doesn't look you know, the F1 season starts in March and it tends to come out in the summer. At one point, it came out even later. One point came out almost when the season ended. Masters have sort of managed to bring that back further and further up the the chain. This this possibly gives the opportunity to actually get an F1 game out in time when the season starts, which um which might might help them calibrate that a little bit a bit. Um but I think there's something to be said for it. I think there's something to be said for other games perhaps maybe, you know, you don't have to release. Um, I get it from a commercial point of view, but when it comes to de keeping the brand strong and and not doing things that might harm it or or even not say harm it, but
does that matter? Does that matter for sports games? I mean, I didn't they release the same FIFA Switch port like four years in a row without even updating it. Do you know what I mean?
I don't think you get too bothered about that.
No, no, it doesn't work too much for I'm using this as a segue, Ralph, into the Call of Duty.
All right. Okay. [laughter] Um maybe maybe Call of Duty should take

that approach. Um which brings us on to the main subject. Um uh Call of Duty has come under attack as the new game falls short in the face of strong competition. The new Call of Duty has come out. It's taking a lot of criticism from fans, but and the early data suggests it's a weaker launch uh this year on PC, particularly Steam. Call of Duty Black Ops 7's launch performance peaked at around 100,000 concurrent players over the over the weekend. That's far below what Black Ops 6 managed. That's the last year's game, which was around 300,000. Modern Warfare 3, which was the last disappointing result, was 190,000. It's well behind that of Battlefield 6, which surged to 700 just under 750,000 uh concurrent players at launch um on Steam, and it's uh it still sits around 300,000.
Meanwhile, Arc Raiders last weekend, which is a different type of shooter, but still a shooter, just surpassed 482,000 um um on there as well. It's worth noting that Call of Duty is not the strongest performer on Steam. It never has been. It's part of this Call of Duty

HQ thing, which includes War Zone, all these other things. Um, it's also in things like PC Game Pass. Um, so uh uh but I think it's clear that we're looking at a softer launch this year. Console data is still hard to come by. Um, early results seem a little better than PC. Um, but the data is really early. Uh, uh, it seems once again it biggest platform is PlayStation. It always has been. is still speaking to a good number of Game Pass players on the Xbox. Um, it does appear to be down overall though. Uh, but I say the data is quite rough at the moment. I've got tiny bits of information that I'm sort of stitched together. One of them is I've got the UK physical retail chart data, which is which is not indicative of anything really, but um, but Black Ops 7's launch physical sales in the UK are down 61% compared to Black Ops 6's launch UK physical sales. Um, uh, again, I wouldn't necessarily draw European charts. We do have the European charts on the game business that we we'll report to that on on on Friday. Have you played it, Ralph? Are you a Call of Duty player? Are you?
I first of all, I'm not a regular COD player, but I dip my toe in when people

say, "Hey, this is a good one." I'm like, "All right, I'll check it out." You know, Modern Warfare reboot, whatever. Like, and I one of the Black Ops a little while ago, I played that, too, and I enjoyed it. Uh yeah, but I'm not a regular COD player at all. And I think, you know, I've just heard a cacophony of voices saying, "Hey, don't play this one. it sucks and I'm like, hey, I'm very happy right now. I'm very well serviced by Battlefield and Arc Raiders and so I just haven't had any desire to try it, you know.
Well, I was interested because Call of Duty kind of has them and there's Fortnite, it competes in that sort of space, although it's like the older person's Fortnite, I guess. Um, but um uh I was interested to see the impact Battlefield 6 and our creators actually might have had on Call of Duty. I asked Ampair, which is one of our data partners, to give to sort of give me a bit of insight into crossovers. Who what were Battlefield 6 players playing before they bought Battlefield 6? What are Arc Raiders players? And indeed, what were Call of Duty players doing before um before this? So, Battlefield 6 again, it's not exact, you know, Battlefield 6 is a military shooter, but

it's a different type of military shooter to Call of Duty. Um it it but it has been a major competitor to Call of Duty. According to Ampair, 26% of Battlefield 6 players on PlayStation had played Call of Duty the previous month. 25% of Battlefield 6 players on Xbox played Call of Duty uh the previous months. That's September. That's quite so a quarter on console, a quarter of Battlefield 6's players are um um were Call of Duty players. It's worth noting that Call of Duty doesn't do very well on Steam. I mentioned that. As a result, only there's only a three and a half% overlap between Call of Duty and Battlefield players monthtomonth um on Steam. Counterstrike 2 actually was the big one. So, the biggest shoot on Steam is Counter-Strike 2 and 28% of Battlefield 6 players on Steam played Counter-Strike 2 previously. Um I thought this was I I got a huge list gave me a huge list. Um Battlefield 6 also probably disrupted Hell Divers 2. I want to come back to Hell Divers 2 actually. Um they had a 16% crossover with Battlefield 6. Battlefield 2042, unsurprisingly, 12.4%. And then

Borderlands 4 11.4%. That's on Steam. On PlayStation, Fortnite after Call of Duty it was Fortnite that had the biggest um crossover with um Battlefield 6 at 17%. Then Skate at 16% and then EA Sports FC at 12%. On Xbox it was Hell Divers 2 again. Um number two at 24.6% of um uh Battlefield 6 players played Hell Divers 2 the month previously. On Xbox skate was number three, 17.6%. 6% and Fortnite almost directly behind that at number four. Similar lineup of games slightly different order. Um there's a mix of old and new in there and some more recent releases. Um both Skate and Borderlands 4 obviously came out in September. Um well Hell Divers 2 on Xbox came out in August. So they're quite recent games.
Um uh I'm going to Sorry Ralph, I can be like this. Um [laughter] there's two I've got some Arc Raiders um um numbers. Uh uh it's a big exciting game at the moment. Um, but actually it had a relatively low crossover with Call of Duty, certainly compared to Battlefield. Just 11% of Arc Raiders players on PS5

played Call of Duty a month prior. 13% of Art Raiders players on Xbox play Call of Duty a month prior. And again, like with Battlefield, there was a very, very small overlap on Steam. Um, now I actually there is a slight difference here between Arc Raiders players and Battlefield players. Um, not just the Call of Duty bit, but there is some similarities as well. So on PlayStation, the games that had the most overlap with Arc Raiders, number one was Skate, number two was Borderlands, number three was Fortnite, and number four was Hell Divers 2. On Xbox is similar as this, but Hell Divers 2 is number one again on on Xbox. Um uh 27% of Art Raiders players played Hell Divers 2. The previous um Battlefield uh for Arc Raiders players, yes. Number two was Skate and number three was Borderlands and then Fortnite. Um on Steam, 17% of Art Raiders players played Counterstrike 2. So Scout Strike 2 is number one on Steam as well for Art Raiders as it was for Borderlands Battlefield. Um and number two, Hell Divers 2. Um Bordlands 4 number um uh uh three and Skate was

number four. Um um first I'm going to these are some of the things I noticed looking at these numbers. Obviously I'm just reading out numbers. You have to read see them see them in front of you to understand what I mean. Um, first, Hell Divers 2 has taken a proper pounding from both uh Battlefield and and um uh Arc Raiders. We talk about Call of Duty having a hard time. Um, but in fact, according to Ampair, Hell Divers 2 lost 45% of its monthly active users between September and October. We're talking about over 4 million players. And you can see why they both both Battlefield and um Arc Raiders had a strong crossover with that audience. I hope that also coincided with uh an acknowledgement from Arrowhead about the state of the game being in a very shabby technical state and they announced that they were pausing updates on Hell Divers 2 uh until they got the game in a better better place. I'm not sure if you not sure if I'm getting that correct.

Well, yeah. Well, I had Shams on the show last week. The Arrowhead CEO was is in your seat. There we go.
But and we were talking about how big the Xbox launch had been. So I I was I perhaps I've been a bit naive and not checked how things had gone in October.
It was definitely some there's definitely a lot more negative player sentiment. But I also think there's the kind of drop off like you know is it if it launched in August on Xbox you're naturally going to see that attrition.
It was a big peak in September. 9 million well it was did really well. Yeah
absolutely massive. And so therefore and then Battlefield comes along and it's like well if you've had your feel of hell divers and it's a good excuse to try something new. I think um yeah, Arc Raiders I I think you know I think Arc Raiders kind of scoops up a lot of the kind of core gaming community who might be interested in something like a a shooter but that don't want to go down the Call of Duty path. You know what I mean? Because Call of Duty and Counterstrike are their own very specific games with a very very specific communities. Arc Raiders is scooping up a lot of people from across the board. People who never play those types of games or just curious about them. So, and I think Hell Divers also falls into

that category. I don't think you have to be a big shooter fan to be interested in Hell Divers. I think they have the same sort of appeal if you know what I mean.
There's definitely an anal your analysis I think it's along the right lines. It's it how interestingly back when Hell Divers 2 came out 6 million of Hell Divers 2 players were Call of Duty players but I do think call there are a contingent of Call of Duty players particularly the ones at launch who were people that just jump in to launch. Maybe they play the single player, maybe they're playing the multiplayer for a bit and they drop away like they used to do. See, but I think your analysis right. Arc Raiders has spoken to a wide variety of different audiences, but what I find interesting is its crossover with Borderlands 4 and Skate in particular, games that came out in September is a higher percentage than Battlefield 6's crossover with that audience. So, I think Art Raiders speaks to an audience of people that like to hop around between games, you know. um you said that you your another to back up what your analysis there only 51% of Arc Raiders players played a shooter game in September
versus 72 versus 72% for Battlefield 6.

So, I do think it it just spoke to different people. Um perhaps people that are happy, you know, that did skate, they did battle at Borderlands, they did they'll do loads of different things and they might have gone to Call of Duty as well. As for Battlefield 6, yes, it spoke to those new players as well. You know, some of those games on there, but it did particularly well with established live service games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, Counterstrike. If you think Counter-Strike kind of illustrates my point a little bit, 17% of Arc Raiders players played Counterstrike the Love before. 28% of Battlefield 6 players played Counterstrike them up before. So, of course, they're different games. There's loads of nuance to this. Um, but my reading of this is that a good chunk of Arc Raiders players seem to be those that played the latest releases. Um, while Battlefield 6 players, yes, it has some of those people, too. But it also spoke, it actually convinced people that played other games that may be even embedded in those other in communities, the more legacy live service titles. They they convinced some of them to put those games down and come over and give Battlefield a go. And what that means

for Call of Duty or at least Black Ops 7 is they've got two things they've got to do now. First, it has to try and win back the players that Battlefield has managed to entice over to their game, right? So, you've got 25% of Battlefield 6 players played Call of Duty. You need to entice them back. That's what Battlefield 7. That's one task has to do. It also has to convince people that might have just did, you know, some of the players they tend to get at launch who just come along, go new Call of Duty, I'll give that a go.
They're playing Art Raiders or a bunch of them are. So you've also got to try and graders is quite a recent game. It only came out a couple of weeks ago. So that that's quite that's quite a tough challenging spot to be in. And on what makes it worse is as you we said at the top of this, Black Ops 7 isn't being particularly wellreceived by fans at the moment. Um so it's that's quite a lot of this is something that Call of Duty hasn't really faced for a while. the game isn't resonating with fans in the way, at least according according to the internet uh in the way that um um previous Call of Duty games have. You've

got um art creators scooping up a lot of people that might jump around and play games of games and you've got Battlefield 6, which it it's which is managed to attract some of their players. So, all of that sort of has created a it's a pretty tough cocktail.
Yeah, I don't envy Microsoft's task. I They paid a lot of money for this thing. Uh and to keep it going in the long term, I don't know, man. It's a tough bet, you know, and I just
Yeah, I think as well when you've got these other established games that are at this quality level, yeah, it would be it would be very difficult. I mean, I've certainly seen that with my own friends, people who typically would play Call of Duty regularly. They're just not bothering this year cuz they are playing those other games. Uh, as I said, I'm just another example where I dip my toe in when, you know, when it looks good and when it's when I hear good chat and I've heard zero good chat. So,
uh, yeah, it's it's it's tough. Well, I mean, but it is tough, but it is it isn't like we're talking about some minnow here. We are talking Call of Duty. And actually, I did Ampair did give me some dates early data for Call of Duty, Black Ops 7. Um um uh so this

is this is the data from this is how this is the crossover data for this. So I I I on PlayStation nearly 20% of Call of Duty players the week that week last weekend played Battlefield in October. That is that's about 2.2 2 million people, which is slightly less than the number of people that came from Call of Duty to Battlefield in the first place. On Xbox, 26.4% of Call of Duty players the weekend just gone play Battlefield 6 in October. That's 1.8 million. That's even more than the number of people that went from Call of Duty to Battlefield. Now, obviously, we're talking about different months, different periods here. But, um um it has managed to fight back a little bit. Um but ultimately, in conclusion, there's a big battle going on between the shooters. Millions of people are moving between the games. It's not just the shooter games involved in this fight, though. Um, 47% of Battlefield 6 players on PlayStation played sports games during the pe previous month. 44% played action adventure games. On Steam, 40% of Art Raiders players were playing RPGs in September. Um, only so it is it is a it

is a is a very um competitive space, which is kind of nice because I think if Grand Theft Auto 6 had launched, if you remember, there was a time it was launching this year. Um uh I think we might be looking at a very different um um uh story and it's and it's sort of made for interesting things. But I Ralph, I know that you're a big Destiny fan, aren't you? You used to be used to play a lot cuz I this whole research maybe dive into some of the other games and how things are doing in the other markets. Um
according to Nuzu, Destiny had 2 million players in October and Pear says roughly the same about 2.2 2 million when when the PlayStation deal was finalized in the summer of 2022. That number was around three and a half to four million on both on on on there has been a spike here and there. I think it reached 6 million, but it's at a very big low right now. Um, and obviously Sony just came out talking about having to do a bit of a write down on on how that game is performing. I I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert in

Bundy. They have had to delay Marathon as well, which is sort of the same. Is it the same genre as Arc Raiders Marathon? Is that
it is there's huge differences between those two games, but they're absolutely trying to strike at the same audience. Core gamers who do not typically play extraction shooters who are being invited to play a sci-fi action extraction shooter. So, absolutely the over the the vend diagram is almost a perfect circle.
Are are you what's going on? What's going on there? [laughter]
Wow. I mean, Jesus, it's so it's so the story with Bungie. I mean, I've I've spent the last 10 years talking about Bungie. Uh cuz obviously I have a lot of affection for that studio. Uh I have a lot of affection for that game. It was definitely one of the most important games to me in terms of, you know, games that I played in my life and friends I've made and helped build my career and whatever else. Destiny, incredible. Um and even before that, obviously, Halo, etc. But, uh look, I I think there are lot there's lots of different speculation with regards to what's

happening internally. There's lots of theories about why the game's in the state that it's in. Uh bottom line though, Bungie concluded a saga without offering any horizon for what the future might look like. You know, they basically had the final shape, which was at the end of a 10-year saga, and they said, "Cool, we're going to wrap that done." And they didn't give us any reason to stick around. And we play we people who play Destiny left very satisfied. We had a great conclusion to that game. We felt like we played it for 10 years. we felt like we just really sort of sucked the marrow from it and Bungie just gave us zero reasons to stick around to like teasing us with the future and the things that they did show us were not at all interesting. Uh and then we get into we get into a situation now where the most recent expansion was horribly received to the point where just a few days ago Bungie has posted an acknowledgement saying the direction we took with that expansion was the wrong direction. So they're they're sort of publicly stating that now. Uh, and it's just at the same time as well, the

studio has shrunk. Uh, you know, there are less people managing the game. Back in the days of, you know, the early expansions like Forsaken, you had three studios. All of Activision's dollars behind it and hundreds of people. Now, it's a much much smaller team. So, their ability to create content significantly reduced. Uh, you have to imagine that some of those people are also been moved off Destiny and onto Marathon to try and bring that back to life. Um, you have to imagine that morale is pretty dire in there right now because everyone's like, "Hey, what if these things don't work out?" So, everyone's always very doom and gloom in on Destiny, or they have been over the 10 years that it's been thriving. Uh, but it's always felt like, you know, clickbait headlines and whatever else. Destiny was always going to keep on keeping on, but now we're in a position where it's like, well, what what will Sony do with this IP and this studio? And and I don't know that we can be really confident in any of the answers. like they've obviously paid a lot of money for it and they're not going to walk away from it, but what do you actually do with it to bring it back to life? And I

I've you can you can point to live services that have gone the the sort of set into long long haul mode, right? Where they go, "Cool, we've got a lot of work ahead of us and they just start building and building and building and they claw their way back." I feel like that's one path forward for Bungie and Destiny specifically. The other path is going to be a Destiny 3, but that's a huge allocation of resources and a lot of risk. Uh, so I don't know what happens there either. There's also obviously concurrent to that marathon where it's uh it's it's just got to work. It has to work. But having played that game myself, that game has some distance to go uh you know, especially compared to Arc Raiders, especially compared to
I think a lot of the other options available in the market, not just in the extraction space, but just in the shooter space as we were talking about just then. So, um, it's pretty tough times for Bungie right now. Absolutely.
Well, you know, then we had we had Embark, we had Arc, you know, we had Patrick Son of the show last month and

he talked about the finals. We talk about Arc Raiders, but the finals is also a big growing franchise for them, but that had a similar collapse in players and they got to the point now where it's profitable and they've managed to see some growth from it even in the face of Arc Raiders. So that that and that was a claw that was that story you were talking about clawing back building it up over time getting it better getting it better getting there getting there
was the same Warframe had huge struggles at the beginning of its life uh and had you know one or two sort of near-death experiences but now it's sort of
you know it's it's not the biggest game but it it's pretty damn big you know it's and it's sort of it's not anywhere um you know and you look at Vermin Tide and and Dark Tide from Fat Shark and the work that they put into those games over the years and Dark Tide is now getting to the point where great game you know uh despite a really really shitty launch and Vermentide also took quite a while to really find its feet. So you can do it but it's a long long-term investment
and yeah and yeah and it's all about patience I guess if you look at Halo Infinite which I know isn't a Bungee

game but obviously there's some association there that fell to about 1 million monthly active users in July 2024. It's never really recovered. It's been around that number a little bit lower than that number since then. And that's obviously we saw the news about um they're not supporting that one anymore. Um and you know Destiny's not that you know Destiny's only a million more than that. It's not it's not hugely off off that scenario.
I I think the difference though is that you know Microsoft has said that they're already working on the next Halo stuff. You know we're getting that's the we're getting we're getting campaign evolved and we know that they're working on a multiplayer game. Right. With Bungie it's like what the hell is happening over there? What's next? We just don't know. So, I just think it's they're very different examples. Uh, but yeah, you're right. They're similar in the sense that they're both games that sort of were in the doldrums or are in the doldrums.
Yeah. One of them didn't recover and this, but you know, as you say, I think Sony will be patient with the motor. He s this is a new sp space for Sony. This isn't a um um that's why they bought Bungie in the first place. It wasn't

really just for Destiny. They bought Bungie because Bungie know to make live service games. We're starting to get the impression that maybe they don't. But but it's I know they do.
This is No, no. I mean, look, here's the other thing, right? You're talking about a studio and they change. It's the ship of thesia sort of stuff and it's the the people change, but also more specifically, you had a situation where senior leadership were all going to get big pay packets after a certain amount of time after the acquisition and you know, certainly some of them have left and um in some cases that's a good thing. In some cases maybe it's not a good thing. Um and so you know how much institutional knowledge is lost when that happens. Um I don't know you know
there's also a bit of motivation element to this that we don't talk about very much is that when it's your when you when you're part of a bigger organization it becomes more of a job. It can become more of a job. Um and when you're part of a um when you when it's your own thing or you're a bit more independent and that you know there's an element of fighting for survival. I often see it it's not always the case. There are plenty of contradictory

examples of this, but I often see it in studios that are owned by big court companies. There's an element of complacency and you know, which probably makes for an happier and more calm working environment, but they they feel protected because they've got that, you know, if our game's delayed, you know, it's all right. Our parent company can can deal with it. Whereas, you know, when you're an independent, I always think the reason why Obsidian and Insomniac put out so many games because they spent so many years having having to release games or they go bust, right, is is is is part of that um momentum. But um and but but Bungie, you know, spent a lot of time as an independent. But I yeah, it's it's certainly a um it's certainly a game that's I hope for the best for them. And you know, I quite like the look of Marathon. not played it um like you, but it it certainly it certainly you know
I think yeah look I I mean I have always been of a view or I have been of a view for a long time now. I actually think the only path back for Bungie is a Destiny 3. I think the IP is extremely strong. I think it's underutilized. I think you know when we talk about the

kind of game that you could make if you were to commit to a Destiny 3. I think about the trans media opportunities that you know with that with that property, the characters and the stories and just there's so much you could do with it and I think just to sort of let it tick along as a second tier live service game is a disservice to it. I think Sony
I would I mean look they know better than I do but uh you know
you're saying be ambitious.
I think be ambitious with this. I think I think find find the resources to make the Destiny 3 that everyone's clamoring for. And I think that if you do it properly, there's a future there because people want an MMO light, you know, sci-fi live service shooter from this studio. Uh and and people will turn up. I will turn up. A lot of my friends will turn up. All of my friends will turn up. Everyone will turn up. 10 years of f of of great memories in that game. And even now, there really isn't anything that can quite take its place. I'll tell you that. Right. Destiny is still pretty unique in the market. Um, and I just think it deserves a third entry and I I

really hope Sony will put the resources behind it.
Wow. Well, I hope so, too. I'll quickly run through some of the other shooters. Fortnite uh I mean it had a Fortnite had a huge peak in December 2023. It hasn't come close to matching that since. And it's been a bit slower this year overall, but it's still hitting around.
Everyone's playing Roblox. Simone's playing Grow Your Garden or that the AI brain rot game.
Roblox is certainly a competitor to it. Um, but the new Simpsons update appears to have done something particularly special for it. Um, certainly caused a spike in interest, probably from people our age. [laughter]
100%. It was the biggest boomer I've ever seen in my entire life. I'm like, "Oh my god, no one under the age of 25 gives a [ __ ] about the Simpsons. This is exclusively for the older category, which makes sense. If you're going to grow your audience and you're like probably like saturation point for like 15 year olds, then yeah, like try and pull like the dad in, you know what I mean? To go and play with his son. It was a very smart move and I'm not surprised at all that it did well.

Yeah, for those of us still waiting for that remaster of the Simpsons hit and run, this uh this was the this was the game for us. Um yeah, so they've had a bit of a spike, so that's obviously interesting. Counterstrike 2, you may mention that Counter-Strike 2 came out of attack from Battlefield Anarch Raiders, but Steam DB, uh, you know, it's actually doing better than ever. It had its peak at 1.86 million players early in the year. It's still at over 1.6 million. Um, uh, Ampair says it's roughly hitting 20 million monthly active users. It's still holding its own even with Fortnite and Call of Duty and Battlefield Argus trying to trip away its audience. That's obviously been a huge thing. Obviously, we're all waiting for apparently Halfife 3 is going to be announced. Um um I've heard that now for the last 20 years, but [laughter] um that's probably waiting for that. That's was my friend of mine um Alex Donaldson who runs at Euro Gamer. He said that um he said that
uh oh, wouldn't it be a good thing if Halfife 3 was a pack in with the Steam machines and I went, "Yeah, it's a good way of getting to the over 40 audience

[laughter] is the uh
it's the new orange it's orange box, but black box, I'll call it." Yeah.
Put Portal 3 in there as well. and then we'll we'll all come back. But although I joke, but I absolutely would um pick up a Steam Machine.
That is an incredible headline to say that yeah, you get Halfife 3 for free when you buy a Steam Machine. Like that's I don't know how much that actually results in conversions, but people are going to be talking about that for sure.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, um I I've sort of gone through all the big shooters. Um that's that's it is is clearly it's quite I find it's quite exciting. Competition is really good. The more competition is is is really exciting. It's great that a new IP that's an extraction shooter, which is not the biggest genre in the world, has come out and done these incredible numbers. Um, certainly on PC. I think that's a wonderful thing. Great success for Embark. I know there's um there's been chat, we talked about it last week on the show about um the AI voice act acting thing for
and with COD.
That's another Yeah,
ridiculous looking tile. Oh my god, that like studio Giblly [ __ ] God, that looks awful.
Um, so there's been a bit been a bit

around that, but generally speaking, I think it's great that a small it's not small. They're still a 300 person studio, but they're working on four games.
They're really crazy.
So, uh, to be able to do that and compete in the space and, you know, but here's the thing with live service games. We talk about Battlefield now. We talk about Call of Duty. It could the situation could be reversed in a month. We've gone from Hell Divers 2 having 9 million monthly active users in September and and delivering incredible results to that plummeting down to sort of
the same numbers I doing three or four months ago. It can it can change in a moment. I mean, I tell you, the Battlefield community or the core community is not happy at all with the state of the game. That's for sure.
I've noticed I've noticed the user scores gone down a little bit on Battlefield.
It has. I I think that um the game has launched in a really and I love it. By the way, I play Battlefield every day and have played every single day and I've never gone haven't gone a single day without completing all my daily challenges and [ __ ] So, I'm very juiced into that game right now. Um, but yeah, look, it does feel as though EA are trying to take it into a direction the

Battlefield community aren't interested in. You know, they they're deploying new game modes that are about smaller team play like this, you know, gauntlet mode they've got and, you know, they've got the battle royale stuff and the maps that they're dropping aren't sort of big maps. They're sort of medium-sized. Uh, and the latest map they dropped before that just about two weeks ago is was not good at all by any metric. point is that um that game is facing its own struggles and I do think that EA need to listen to their community a little more and be guided by that
because um that's key with this.
I think probably a lot of the stuff that we're seeing them drop now is stuff that was in the works before came out.
Yeah, we'll see the reaction perhaps after that. But I say it's such a I love talking about it. But Ralph, it's I've coming up to the hour. Um I'm running out of time. Um it's been a pleasure to have you on. If people want to find out uh hear about, you know, your views on things and to read your journalism and all sorts, where should they go?
I wouldn't wouldn't call it that. No, I'm joking. I wouldn't call them what I do journalism, but my team that works

for me, absolutely. They know what they're doing. Um they we So, we're sort of divided in two. That's the website that's headed up by Edmond Tran, who is um fantastic um really knowledgeable, runs a great ship. Um and that's this week invidames.com. Um, I do on the YouTube channel I do, uh, sort of, yeah, a weekly news show called This Week in Video Games. Uh, and it's basically just, you know, summary of what's going on with a little bit of commentary over the top. Uh, and I my the main thing on the channel is the reviews. Um, try and review as much as I can. It's tough obviously because there's a lot going on, a lot of my plate these days. Um, but that's it. So, it's skill up on the on YouTube. It's this week of video games.com for the website. Uh, and find me on on Blue Sky. I left I [clears throat] left Twitter back in 2023. Feels feels feels good to have not posted there in a long time. I tell you that much.
Yeah. Well, it's I find all of it quite if I can if I can not post on any of it, I'd be much happier. The um the uh and also you do the do that podcast with

Excuse me. I totally forgot. Well, that's also on the on the YouTube channel on Skill Up Guest. It's Friends per Second. I got my co-hosts uh Jake and Lucy and that's our thing. Um we love doing that. It's it's every two weeks. Uh we're really lucky to have fantastic guests on um most of the time and uh yeah, it's it's a really good it's a really it's it's nice because we can just hang out and I think a lot of what we do otherwise is like reviewing games and working to deadlines and you know covering things and whatever. Just being able to get together with those guys and hang out for two hours every two weeks is a real highlight.
Yeah, Lucy's been a regular on our show as well. So it's nice that it's a good there's a touch point there.
Absolutely. Ralph, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for joining us.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
That's it for today's episode of the Game Business Show. If you're fascinated by Call of Duty's performance this year, make sure to check back with us on Friday for the European charts to see how well the game is doing. We'll be back next week, of course, with the Game Business Micro on Monday. We'll have another new show as well. But our big interview on Tuesday is with the Tekken

team where we cover game budgets, the state of the fighting genre, and a whole lot more. Until then, thank you for tuning in.