Did Apple really resolve its EU dispute? | Week in Mobile Games podcast

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Hello and welcome to the pocketgamer.biz podcast week in mobile games where we chat about the week's news and provide some insights. I'm Craig Chapple, head of content at pocketgamer.biz. With me as ever is our deputy editor Paige Cook, our features and data editor Aaron Astle, and our editorial director for events Mario Aguilar. How are you all doing? Paige, what have you been up to? Good to have you back on the show.
Yeah, I had a really nice holiday. So, we went on like a cruise for the first time. My partner's family, they do them quite a lot and we've never holidayed with them. So, we joined them for a cruise. It was around Iceland and it was like booked as a specific trip to see the eclipse, which we did get a very beautiful view of. So, that really made it. And yeah, the whole experience was like, yeah, really really nice. I just like the concept that like you stop in multiple places. Like you wake up and you look out of the window and you're like, "Oh, there's a different view today." And then, I don't know, you sail at night and then you wake up again and it's like, "Oh, it's a different view." So,

yeah, we had like a really good time. Yeah, the eclipse was amazing and like a really really cool experience to to have that. So, yeah, had a very nice time.
That sounds awesome. Like, I've never done a cruise. So, that sounds It does sound lovely seeing something new every day and I've heard there's loads to do.
if it would be our kind of thing, so that's why we went on a bit of a shorter one, but I can confirm we would do one again. So, obviously it must have been a good experience.
Nice. My thoughts about cruises are slightly tainted by what only ever gets reported in the news. So, obviously, if there's like an outbreak of a virus, which I think actually happened not that long ago. People, you know, people then struggling to find a country that will take them. And there's a Netflix documentary. I haven't actually watched, but I saw the trailer. I don't know if anyone's heard about it. It's called Trainwreck Poop Cruise. And
I have seen that.
I think I'm just like looking at it and I think it's like the the engine like gets disabled and all the plumbing gets disabled.

Yeah. Do you know like before you go on a plane, you all of a sudden see this plane accidents everywhere? This was the same thing. So all of a sudden we're going on this cruise and I go on Netflix and there's like three documentaries about cruises that are like sinking [laughter] and terrible things. I was like, "Oh my god. Like no, we can't watch those." But yeah, it it was fine. They were One thing that I was very like it was very noticeable they're so clean. At least the one we went on. Like there are literally people whose job is to just walk around and give you hand sanitizer constantly.
Oh, brilliant.
So yeah, you felt very sort of safe and it felt very clean. So yeah, that that did reassure me because yeah, all these documentaries before I was like, "No, why?"
All right, good to have you back, Paige. And
Good to be back.
And Marion, what have you been up to?
So while Paige was at the seas, I was in the mountains. So I went to I went to place Mount Blue Sky. It's the It's about 2 hours away from where we live in Colorado and it's the um highest paved road in North America. So I don't know how many thousand feet we went up, but it was really really cool.

We saw um marmots, I think they're called. We saw mountain goats. We saw bunch of animals and it was And actually I I kind of experienced my first bout of altitude sickness. Be it not that much, but still cuz we were so high. Both of us, me and my partner were feeling a bit ill and we were like, "What is this all about?" And then we kind of realized we're like, "Oh, it's cuz we're so bloody high." And there were actual signs that said if you feel sort of nauseous, make sure you're drinking water and all this kind of thing because you will get altitude sickness. But other than that, um it was incredible. It really was so so cool.
Was there a lot of other people around? Or is it just you two? Like how was it?
There was probably like 20 other people that we came across, which is not much. I think it's cuz we went on a on a Sunday. So we beat the crowds, which I was glad about cuz the one scary thing is you were driving on the roads and the roads were literally like if you fell off the road, you'd be dead. So, not having many cars was like quite nice for that aspect.
Yeah, that's uh that actually sounds terrifying.

It was all like equal parts terrifying and like Yeah, we did this
[laughter]
My partner's going like really slow on the roads and I was like, "Can you go faster?" And he was like, "No, I'm absolutely not going faster." And looking back, it's probably a good decision.
Yeah, sounds it. I I I know I know it's like completely not the same, but I was wondering like how busy it was cuz I know like some Well, some of the world's most famous mountains where the people climb get very busy. Like I think Everest these days is it's like a queue, oddly, to go up one of the world's tallest mountains.
Yeah, I've seen those pictures. That looks Yeah, I don't know if I'd ever go to Everest or any of those sort of crazy high ones.
All right, that's awesome. So, all right, there's plenty of your trips away from the team. Aaron, what you been up to?
Yeah, nothing quite as adventurous as Adil Maryam, but I went out in Oxford over the weekend. So, yeah, not not quite as exciting as Iceland or something like that, but that was quite a good night out. Went to like a kind of gothicky alternative music night and ended up staying out

with a few people afterwards. So, a while since I've been out quite that late. I got home at like 3:00 in the morning. Um so, it was a a good night out. Um drinks are expensive going out. Um so, that was, you know, um my wallet certainly felt lighter by the time I got home. Um but no, it was quite a fun night. So, uh met a bunch of new people and stuff. Getting introduced to, you know, friends of friends kind of thing. So, yeah, quite a fun weekend, really.
Yeah, Ox- Oxford's a lovely place, so it sounds pretty cool. And uh for anyone for anyone watching internationally, like the the cost of stuff, I guess I The only comparison I have would be to London. I imagine it's got to be cheaper in Oxford, but I don't actually you But like if if you think like the price of a normal beer or cocktail, you could be looking at two to three times potentially like the price, depending on where you are and what you what you're trying to get. Especially cocktails, not a good time.
Yeah.
All right. Also, as myself, I I barely

left the house, so I have nothing very interesting to add. The only thing is virtually, I've [laughter] been playing some games. Transport myself to other worlds, I guess. And I've been playing Alien: Isolation a bit again. I decided to relax, I'd play it on nightmare mode, having forgotten completely how to play the game. And so, you can't look at maps, so you don't know where you're going anytime. So, you just have to explore whilst whilst you're being hunted down by an alien. It's a old game now. I think it was 2013 release. The sequel, I think, is due in theory this year or next year. It's got to be next year at this point, surely, I think. I think Creative Assembly is back on it, but I imagine most of the team moved on. I hope they're still there, but 2013 release, 13 years later, I I kind of doubt it. But, I hope so. But, uh if you haven't played it, fantastic game. Highly recommend it. Brilliant horror title. Still stands up today. Yeah, really really good.
looks so good. I replayed it not too long ago, and I was like, "Wow, this game still looks and plays like really really well."
Yeah, like it it doesn't feel like when

you play it, it doesn't feel like an old game. I I guess I don't quite know how the horror genre maybe has developed in that time for like other sort of similarish games. But, I it doesn't mechanically feel like a really old game, either. Like, if you were to play an old shooter from 15 years ago or an old sort of RPG adventure game, you'd probably notice the difference how like mechanically they've changed, but this one to me it still it still stands up, yeah, really well even from that perspective. Right, so that's how we're all doing. We're going to move on. Firstly, as always, a few shout-outs for our events. So, we have the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards coming up August 25th. We're actually sold out. If you do want to come, maybe there's like maybe get in touch, maybe there's a waitlist. I don't know if we can get another table, but we are sold out now. Very much looking forward to that. We will announce the winners on the night live, and we will announce them on the night on the site after the show as well. So, good luck to everyone involved, and we have a few special awards to to reveal

as well. And then for our events, we've got Pocket Gamer Connects Nordics in Helsinki on October 20th to 21st, and we have Pocket Gamer Connects Summit in Montreal on November 10th in 2026, and we've got some other events coming up. We've also got London returning next year in January, which will be the big one. But, I think it was like nearly around 3,000 people the last London event. So, it's our biggest show of the year. So, you definitely want to You definitely want to be there. Right, enough of the shills. So, uh we're going to jump into the news, and the big news story of the week is Apple has finally announced changes to its business terms for apps in the European Union, following what it says was close collaboration, to quote, with the European Commission. It said the changes, again quote, resolve Apple's disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative distribution. Though, I don't know if they actually have resolved it or Apple's just saying that they have. The European Commission, as far as I know, has actually said nothing. So, Apple also now have all

developers on a single set of business terms. If you remember, there was like the normal set and then the alternative set that you could apply for. I know that it said doing this change would reduce the complexity of the rules, like the complexity that Apple itself created. I think the new terms were like over 25,000 words through various documents as well. Anyway, so the new terms are for the App Store apps using Apple in-app purchase, the commission will be 26%. Uh for the vast majority of developers, including those in the App Store small business program, mini app final program, or video partner program, and for auto-renew subscriptions after the first year it'll be 15% though I'm just quoting for vast majority there. Like I think for anyone doing serious business on the App Store is 26. Uh, for App Store apps using alternative payment processing the commission will be 20% and developers mentioning those other programs will have a reduced rate of 10%. Uh, for App Store apps that link out uh, of the apps to complete purchases the commission will be 15%

which is quite high but it is lower than it I guess it has been. Developers in the programs mentioned will pay a reduced rate of 10% still. And then for apps distributed via alternative app marketplaces or the web Apple will charge a 5% core technology commission. So the core technology fee has been scrapped. That was previously announced in the last terms. Apple is also eliminating scrapping the initial acquisition fee. So you were going to have to pay I think per year for every install. You don't have to do that anymore. And they're going to get rid of the store service fee which is quite surprising. I wonder if they end up bringing that back. So just a few things I guess they're stepping back from some of the things that they were trying to do but they always do this. Kind of a bit of a back and forth. And like I said before I would say although Apple is saying it's resolved its dispute with the EU like is the EU saying that? Has it said anything? So we don't know. I wouldn't just take Apple's word for that. This line was interesting. To provide consistency and clarity for users developers distributing apps in the EU

will select their payment options. Apple in-app purchase alternative payment processing in their app linking out to a web or combination and must maintain those options for 12 months. Also there's some caveats for kids games and young users. For users under 13 years old apps on the App Store cannot link out to websites for transactions to protect against the risk of scams that target younger kids. Curious how that will be managed. Um, there are still hurdles for alternative app marketplaces. You basically need to prove as a company your financial stability. So you could be publicly traded. Weirdly to have venture backing is proof of this, be audited. In response to this, to kind of close out, Epic said that Apple has announced new junk fees that do nothing to open the mobile app ecosystem to competition as required by the DMA, Digital Markets Act. And then, just quickly, the quote is, "The law makes it clear that Apple must allow developers to offer link-outs to the web for purchases free of charge and has to allow effective use of competing stores." "Apple's terms deliberately violate the DMA. If the

commission accepts the terms and drops their ongoing enforcement actions, the law become meaningless and consumers and developers will not experience the benefits it was designed to provide." And Tim Sweeney himself said about junk fees, "Still unlawfully charging," etc. I might be a bit harsh cuz obviously Epic is this is the one that's going to help put us here. It feels a bit like there's a kind of one rule for Google and one rule for Apple at the moment with Epic after their own settlement. I guess this is all a step in the right direction, like I guess in in my opinion, but I'd be surprised if the EU is like, "Yeah, this is all fine." And I think it's also worth noting that in the Epic versus Apple case in the US, and this is me quoting Epic, I think Apple said that the cost of implementing, like basically out out of App Store purchases, is like pretty much 0%, which makes sense, right? So, why do they need to charge 15%? Obviously, they need to make money. So, there's a bit of work to do there, but very interesting. Let's see what the EU actually says. It's

taken a long time to get to this point, especially after uh they were I think there was rumors of a fine like at the end of last year and that a decision was going to be made at the end of last year and it's now August. So, it's taken a long time, but yeah. Ongoing story, seemingly forever, one to watch. Anyone got any thoughts on that?
I was going to say, you mentioned it, Craig, but when I did research for this a little bit as well, Google Well, Apple said that everything was sorted, but the EU didn't mention anything of everything being sorted. So, you're just taking We're taking their word with that, but as it stands, it hasn't actually all been sort of, you know, sorted out.
Yeah. It to me, it's just it's Apple being a bit cheeky and just when they they Yeah. Resolve, it just means, I guess in their opinion, it's resolved.
Exactly.
Mad. All right. So, yeah, we'll we'll keep track of that probably through the years ahead and see where it all goes. Right. Up next, Paige, you've got quite a big story that's happening at the moment.
Yeah, something we talk about, I feel like a lot on the podcast, is Roblox. And sometimes we talk about it because a

game's done really well, and the other half of the time we talk about it because of all the, you know, sort of child safety concerns. And that's what this is this time around. So, they're facing new new investigation over child safety concerns. This one's out of the US. So, Senators Josh Hawley and Dick Durbin, they've raised some very serious allegations around grooming and sexual abuse involving children on the platform. They pointed to Roblox reporting over 65,000 suspected child sexual exploitation cases. And that was to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This was in 2025, which they say is apparently more than double of the number reported from the previous year. Um so, in their letter to the Roblox CEO, one of the quotes that they said was that, "You trumpet Roblox as a safe digital playground for children as young as five, but the public record raises serious questions about this promise of safety." And then another quite big statement from them is they essentially said that Roblox seems

to, you know, prioritize revenue and engagement over actually, you know, you know, tackling these child safety issues. So, obviously, yeah, another very serious matter against them. We've seen various US states in the past take legal action against them, as well as, you know, wider, like other international concerns, too. I know that Roblox has made some changes, and, you know, I think we've covered quite a lot of them on the site. You know, they did like a new age-based account type. They introduced new wider parental controls, but also just this week we had another story that was out of Australia. So, the internet regulator there found that adults could still contact children on Roblox despite the safety measures that are in place and that are supposed to help prevent that from happening. They've now given Roblox 3 months to essentially roll out some kind of measure that combats this. So, yeah, you know, like, you know, Roblox is this enormous online space now that does attract so many, you know, young players. So, it is just, you know, it's incredibly important to make sure that

those spaces are safe ones and it does just feel like, you know, we read so many stories of like like you said like these, you know, new safety measures or, you know, accounts, you know, supposed supposed to be for children, but then, you know, it's very quickly followed up by yet another concern of, you know, things happening that shouldn't be happening on that platform. So, I guess we'll see if any of these investigations lead to any kind of meaningful change, but it yeah, it just just seem to be this very big recurring issue and you kind of got to ask, you know, why why is it already taking this long to have measures in place that are preventing this and, you know, actually working, you know, it's all good and well saying you've got new parental controls that stop it, but if you're saying, you know, people are finding that that isn't the case, then, you know, that's that's not enough.
Anyone got any thoughts on that?
I was going to say that it's been escalating cuz I was following this story last year as well. It's been escalating to the point that it's finally reached Washington. And and I remember interviewing someone called Kate Manogue who used to work for Meta

and she she said this one line that I thought was so sort of pertinent and hard-hitting. And she said that um if you're not in the room, if you're building a platform that you're not in the room to supervise, you have to design it for the worst-case way that people might use it. Her argument is also it's moving. I think we can all see this now. It's moved essentially, not even moving, from a gaming from just purely gaming to a social platform and there's no guardrails or sort of laws and rules and regulations to ensure that the majority of their player base who's underage, under the age of 18, is being protected. So, the fact that it's reached this point at, you know, Washington, which is how much higher can it go from here? Um, I think they have to do something now. Uh, what what what that looks like, I'm not I'm not 100% sure, but yeah, it's a long time coming.
Sometimes just from the outside looking in, I sometimes wonder if a US Senate investigation is serious or performative. I have no idea. I I would treat this as serious, but sometimes I cuz I've seen we've seen like social media bosses, for example, pulled into Senate hearings and people shout a lot

and then nothing actually nothing actually happens. I don't know if this is how different this is to say that, but I I guess it's just a couple things on this. So, I I guess over the years it's been very difficult for any of these platforms to police this stuff. So, Habbo Hotel famously, was it a Channel 4 investigation maybe, way back when? They kind of allowed that as there's a lot of problems with kind of pedophiles on that. And now Roblox really not helped by the CEO interview, was it last year? The quite famous one now, talking about safety concerns and just the concern that were they growing were they prioritizing growth over child safety? So, maybe that's all the kind of stuff that's just going to come up now. I know obviously Roblox does try and do a lot at the moment, but is it I guess is it too little, too late?
um, in a similar vein to your quote there, Mariam, as well. It's like I've just had an interview out that I did with Magic Potion on Imagine Island,

which is like a web game uh, platformy aimed at Gen Alpha um, title. And so, like we spoke about child safety quite a bit because it's mainly for kids and so like it was Stephen McDonald I interviewed who's the CEO and founder and he'd said you shouldn't hand people unlimited tools that can be used to pray on young vulnerable people and then act surprised when someone abuses them. But yeah, I think it's similar to your
Yeah, you essentially do have to design these things for the worst case scenario and assume that not everyone's going to be using it for the best intentions and in my opinion Roblox hasn't done that. I think there's a quote the quote that you said page they said they've been sort of maximizing their efforts towards profit and revenue. I don't think that's too far off the mark cuz it's quite I think it's too easy to say what's really hard to do. I think there are definitely ways that you can do it or at least make more of an effort that's currently being made.
All right, that's another story that will that will run and run and we'll be reporting on the site soon where it goes. Right, thank you for that page.

Marion, you've had a big interview. What have you got?
I have okay, it's a bit of a topic switch up. I've had an interview with the CEO of Fenris Creations Hilmar Pétursson and I thought it was such a fascinating look into how a nearly 30 year old game EVE Online has gone through a pretty eventful 2026 so far. I mean in a case of what are we at? August? In a case of 7 to 8 months they've had so much going on and it's also one of the oldest continuous continuously running games that's still active today. So I thought it was well worth a deep dive into. For a bit of context for those who don't know I've never played it but after this interview I kind of want to play it but I'm scared to cuz people a lot of people said it's a very difficult game. EVE Online is a massively multiplayer game set in a science fiction universe called New Eden. So it launched in 2003 and unlike a lot of traditional games that we know of there's no set way to win. Um players you play as an immortal pilot essentially and the idea is is is to essentially find your own purpose within the game. EVE is described by its creators as a player driven sandbox

where you can carve out your legacy be it through alliances, war, trade, exploration, something that you can imagine within the game, you can do it. So, it's a very interesting case study because essentially within this world, these players have built out these entire sort of ecosystems and economies where they have politics, grudges, people scam each other, there's friendships, there's alliances, there's all that kind of stuff. So, it's really interesting from that perspective. So, that's the context of what the game is. So, in April of this year, Finnish Creations bought back their game from Pearl Abyss, which is a South Korean developer, for $120 million. So, they're independent again. I believe they were with Pearl Abyss for about 6 years. And when I asked Hilmar about this, he said that he almost said it as a as a prediction, he said that I think that this is not an unusual thing that's happened. I think the industry may be entering a period of de-consolidation, and he called it, and I really like the drama of this line, a rapid unplanned disassembly of the games industry. So, I really I really like that. So, that's a prediction that as to what he thinks is

going to happen. And then the other thing that I thought was really interesting is that when they bought themselves back from Pearl Abyss, Google DeepMind, because the game is so sufficiently complicated enough with these ecosystems and this its own player-driven economy, Google has actually got AI agents training on an offline version of EVE to look at player player behavior, long-term horizon planning, memory, and they essentially want to see if AI agents can operate and remember and adapt inside a highly complex virtual world. So, you can imagine just from that how much is going on within this one game and all this sort of player interactions. So, they've got 20 years of human-created economies and conflicts and whatnot. And finally, the thing that I thought was really interesting, again this happened this year in March, they migrated from an Ethereum-based testnet to a Sui-based blockchain. So, what that means is they the game now has smart contracts. So, players within the game can structure things like gates, storage units, turrets. So, Fenris no longer is defining every mechanic of the game. They've very much handed over a large

portion to its players, which if you're a player of this game for, which has been going on for nearing three decades, that's so exciting. You can cuz what they said it could actually look like in practice is a gate could charge a toll or only admit certain players. A storage unit could become a marketplace or a bounty system. So, players are programming the world that they play in. Again, pretty unusual to Eve Online. I don't think there's many if at all if there's any games doing that. And then, the final takeaway that I thought was so interesting from my conversation with Hilmar is so much of the modern-day sort of playbook surrounding monetization and gaming is how do we lower player friction and make onboarding easier so that we can sort of maximize our player base and make UA and monetization easy. And he said, "We don't do that at all. We've never even considered doing that because I believe that the player the players of Eve know that this game is essentially a problem-solving game at its core, and it's it's complicated enough so that people want to solve these problems together with their fellow players, and it's what gives it gives the game its charm." So, I thought that was really

interesting, too. So, he's staying true to the core of what he believes Eve Online should be and it always has been for the last three decades nearing to three decades. And they've got, you know, a dedicated player base. I was talking to him actually and he's I cuz I play RuneScape, and I was like, "It's kind of similar to RuneScape in the sense of you've got decades-old game and you've got such a dedicated player base for who's been playing for essentially half of their lives in a lot of cases." And yeah, it was just a really fascinating chat, and I really kind of recommend it to people who want to take a look at the really fascinating journey of this beloved game and all that they've accomplished in the last sort of 6 to 7 months.
Yeah, it's a great interview. I definitely recommend checking it out. And he's always got a lot to say. So, Hilmar, so it's always it's always great to have a chat with. I just wanted to say, yeah, on the disassembly front, that was, like you said, that was a really I think that was like one of the best kind of standout lines and his description of that. And I guess it's already happening now, right, with their own management buyout, but there's been management buyouts from Netflix,

Embracer, and recently Xbox. And lots of sell-offs of by various companies of certain of certain businesses. And not always for bad reasons, but uh you know, AppLovin sold its games business. You know, you got rid of Supersonic. Um I don't There was other examples in my head there, but so many examples of what he's saying and yeah, I I'm curious where that all leads. And I feel like it probably wouldn't help with future more acquisitions by companies in future or investments. But I'll let the pros I'll let the experts muse on that one. Right, thanks very much for that, Mary. So, Aaron, what have you got?
Yeah, so um my story this week is about Digimon up, which is a fairly new like idle RPG gacha game. Uh obviously using Bandai Namco's Digimon license. So, I kind of looked at how it performed over its first month for data piece on the site. So, the game launched on the 15th of July and yeah, in its first month, player spending totaled 10 million between Google Play and the App

Store. Uh total earnings were actually likely higher when you include that it has a web shop and there are rewarded ads in the game as well. But yeah, on a kind of player spending basis between the the major stores, it um it just about managed 10 million in a month. Uh that player spending did peak early. So, it made just shy of 800,000 on launch day. And then on day two, it made 1.1 million, which sort of remains its record thus far. It made over a million again on day three, but hasn't done so again since then. Uh and actually, day three marked the beginning of a two-week like full 14-day decline down to just about 150,000 by the 31st of July. It saw a kind of negligible rise in the beginning of August. There were a few new like gotcha additions added, but overall spending continued to decline.

And by the end of month one, like the final day, it made $75,000, which is less than 10% of what it made on launch day 1 month earlier. So, certainly a very quick drop-off, but a fast decline at least at the moment. I'll kind of I'll be surprised if we see it hitting any other big milestones anytime soon. So, I I've played the game a bit. So, like per banner, the gotcha allows you to cuz you kind of have free-to-play currency that you can buy and then a premium only currency. And the the gotcha allows you to do one kind of free currency summon per day on like each banner that's and then even if you have enough currency to do more summons, you can only do one on that each banner per day. And then you have to wait till the next day or spend money on the premium currency, which I think is quite restrictive. But that that's the model that they're going with. There's also like battle passes, uh subscriptions, uh

so there's adverts as well. So, you can like watch ads to increase the speed of the idle battles for a limited time and then kind of digivolve your Digimon more quickly as they level up and things. And there is a a one-time purchase that um you can kind of buy to just remove ads so you can skip that process and still speed up the gameplay, I guess. So, I wonder like how many people bought that at launch and then aren't interested in spending on the gotcha or anything because you kind of at the start you choose a Digimon you want anyway. So, you can get more through summoning and things, but yeah, you kind of you've probably got your favorite already out of the bunch that are there. Beyond that, one thing that's sort of broader than this title but applies to it as well, that I'm kind of curious about is how much impact these kinds of mobile spin-offs actually have on how franchises perform overall, which I think we don't really see from looking at the spending of the individual mobile games. So, like one

example that came to mind for me was like Monster Hunter Now, which we used to talk about a lot on the podcast when it was a bit more relevant. But, like me picking that up was what ultimately got me to get Monster Hunter Rise on the Switch. So, like I'd already played games in the franchise before, but now came out. You know, I had fun with that, and then it was like, "Yeah, but I want, you know, I want a proper fix of Monster Hunter Now." So, that kind of spurred me to go and actually buy Rise, which obviously, you know, presumably I'm not the only person who got, you know, encouraged to as a result. And obviously, you don't see that in how how these mobile games perform. And like similarly, like I already liked Digimon before. That's really why I tried Digimon at. But, then that reminded me that like Time Stranger, which is a more like main series game that came out on Switch recently. So, I kind of had a look for that and ended up sort of trying the demo out, quite liked that. So, I've been like playing the game, bought the game to play it. So, like I haven't spent any money in Digimon at

that would be reflected in that 10 million, but you could argue that from a marketing point of view, it made some money for the for the overall brand from me in that way. And actually recently, so Bandai Namco president said that the Digimon IP has reached its highest profitability in history recently, surpassing even its success during the late '90s, early 2000s when the virtual pets and like the anime were pretty big. So, yeah, they're clearly, you know, they've got main series games, like anime stuff. I think there's a card game as well. There's a mobile card game that's supposed to be coming out this year. But, it seems like they're doing quite a lot with the brand at the moment in general.
So, that was the Firstly, that was the sneakiest way to get a Monster Hunter mention on this week's show.
Yeah. I haven't brought it up in a long time. It felt So, it felt overdue.
So, did we talk about it last I can't remember. It was last time.
Maybe maybe in passing in context of

like Pokémon GO or something. I don't think Monster Hunter's had its own segment for quite a while.
Fair enough. And I know we want the game out recently. Digimon out is just not It's not for me. I didn't even know there were pays to get rid of ads. I didn't I didn't come across a single ad when I played it.
That's cuz it's like optional rewarded ads. So, you can just buy a subscription pass and then you don't need to watch the rewarded ads. So,
Oh, I see. Sorry, I misunderstood. Okay. Yeah, I I guess you know, the game's had like talk about the decline. The game's kind of It already feels like it's already had its kind of time in the sun. Hopefully, they can kind of Hopefully, they can figure it out and it does continue. I guess it's
As you say, in a way. It flattens, isn't it?
Yeah. I can see the like ad pass being more valuable if the ads were more annoying and intrusive, but I'm not saying I would want that from a gameplay perspective. But as you say, like you don't need to encounter ads at all. You have to go out of your way to watch one to get stuff from it. So, how necessary really is it to pay to get rid of ads?

Like I am not the target audience of this game. I just I just completely didn't get it when I was playing it. Like it wasn't It didn't Nothing was obvious to me personally. But I I am stupid. But it Nothing was like obvious to me. Like, "Oh, this is what you're going for." And then they give I've I've mentioned before, but they give you all like this good free stuff, which we shouldn't be fit to moan about. But it was like a level Here's a level 30 Digimon or whatever it was. And I was like, "I am I am scraping together level one and two items at the moment throughout my entire play session. And you're giving me
crazy gear.
Is the game targeted towards like nostalgic adults who played it when they were younger or is the target audience kids out of curiosity or is it a mix of both like I'm hearing about it I'm like curious to know.
I think it's more adults like based on the trailer and the marketing it's like you used to have a little V pet you know physical thing with a Digimon on it and like now you know relive that through your phone and like the trailer has like a businessman at work and he's got his

Digimon on his phone. So I think it is more nostalgia baiting really.
Right. I guess so but I wasn't 100% sure but that's interesting.
Right. So I think that brings us to the end of the week in mobile games. That's a very quick one. Good take always good insights. So thanks to that everyone. And thank you everybody for watching. This is our 102nd episode. We are currently planning we'll see how it goes to do a live episode at Gamescom and if we do do that it will be me and Adam Smart will be back on the show again reporting live from the Gamescom show floor. So we'll try our best. All right. Uh yeah thanks everyone again and everyone have a great weekend and we'll catch you on the next one. Goodbye.
Bye.