Massive Layoffs | Roundtable News | 334

hey everybody it's been a while a lot has happened I want to first of all kind of explain you know the inconsistent uh podcast um episodes I kind of went through like some personal family stuff the past couple months and it's kind of been messing up with my flow um funny enough a lot of the episodes have been recorded and and backlogged I just haven't had the energy to kind of fully release them but but um as things are subsiding as as time is healing uh I'm looking to begin doing that I know a lot of you guys have been reaching out asking what's up uh I want to thank you for for the listeners that are are sticking by and uh patiently waiting um the episodes will be coming back every Tuesday consistently uh and uh you know I want to thank you guys for for the support report uh during this time moving on uh

I do want to highlight uh for those who are jumping on the Discord server it's kind of really cool to see uh well at least your icon put an icon to the the listenership numbers um so welcome everybody that is joining you know it's a place of discussion it's a way for me to kind of talk to you guys in between episodes share the latest and greatest news directly so you don't have to wait for a round table every month but also my thoughts and and and insight about your own personal projects uh and hear your personal opinions uh you know as an effort I'm I'm constantly trying to kind of involve you guys more into the show uh by highlighting anything that you guys are are currently working on you know I i' I've always wanted to kind of use the podcast as a platform for everyone uh to kind of blast

um their work within the community so you know don't be shy uh any opportunities that you have anything that you want to talk about anything that you want to share or you talk directly I'm pretty regular in there uh jump in the Discord server that you can find uh either in the link description below or to the main website gev unchain domcom for those who don't know I actually do a pretty uh prolific show notes you know all these episodes do are usually accompanied by an article uh it is a way for me to kind of always look back and if I don't want to watch the whole episode for an hour I can quickly read through about the highlights the opinions facts I am looking to kind of use it as a guide for those who want you know to to reference an episode and get some quick notes uh

and takeaways from it so these articles are are a way to kind of make it easier for you guys to kind of backtrack uh because the goal for each episode has always been about being Timeless as much as possible even the round table news even though it's more on opinions of of recent news they're they're Timeless in a way where it's the game industry seems to like to repeat itself right so you know the commentary the humor hopefully shows no age uh in that respect you know whenever you have a chance you want to find other links and other uh additional things about the podcast goes to the website uh as part of a thing that I'm doing every week too I I'm reading customer reviews right this can come in the forms of the uh most mostly from the Apple podcast um show uh page but also from the Spotify show page for G Dev chain

and this comes by the uh Graces of Mr M pretzel right uh thankfully this is a five star review even if it wasn't I will still read it because I think I can still learn and grow from where I am right now every day so I don't mind it uh this is titled Unchained and off the chain well so thank you Mr Pretzel he says uh Brandon fam is the raid boss of game developed podcasters he's going to hit you up about seven different ways with some powerful beams of Truth and he drops that most uh coveted of craftables the lustrous pros of wisdom uh this hopefully this is what you wrote or not GPT I can't even tell anymore Brandon often keep things light and relatable but when he needs to he can go deep with a one shot kill for heavier topics you know I am deep his pure piercing damage is unmatched whether every Green topics like indie

game marketing and genre breakdowns or the news of the day Game Dev chain has you covered highly recommended thank you Mr Pretzel uh shout out to you uh any chance that you have man um drop in the Discord drop a handle so that I can refer some of these uh notes or reviews back to you for those who wants to follow uh but a lot this episode we talk a lot about what going on recently it's kind of been delayed for my own personal reasons but it it was uh you know I see what's going on out there obviously right uh you know I like to think of myself being on the front lines of these news of what's happening with the latest trends and and what's going on with with everything um I talked at length with with Ry even though I kind of kid around saying I I kind of saw this coming you know I'm always the Doom and Gloom guy half at least on the round table news

dedicated episode but you know even for me this is Extreme uh I don't like the fact that um I'm seeing so much of this is happening and it's to me we're barely halfway through November which is crazy uh it is a large amount of time for for anyone to be without a job and it it unfortunately doesn't seem like it's going to get any better I have a lot of theories on it uh that I fully explained but this is this is I feel like a six-month winter like we're talking about mid 2024 where where where companies are going to let up finally uh so um I think the the best thing you can do is just be

professional uh as in you know even if you're at home still show up at your chair in front of your computer and and do what you need to do for an amount of time put in the time to either put in the projects look for work polish your portfolio um reach out within your network just use that time that you would have spent working um looking for work I I think that is always going to help Propel uh you above many others and I I I wish you guys all the best so this um this is our main topic for this episode so hopefully you guys can learn from the Insight of what's going on

[Music] what's up everybody welcome to another episode of Game Dev unchain the number one game development podcast about game development and the lifestyle thereof I am your host Brandon fam and with me who else but the great Ray Graham what's up Ray hey manab how you doing man thank you so much what's going on all right uh if you haven't read the title this is that time of the month for Round Table news episode uh we are it's been a while actually and it's a eventful one because everything that I reminisce I need to cut these Round Table episodes from the beginning of the year up right to kind of lead into what is happening now all these layoffs right Ray has a theory I have many other theories that are correct right and then

and then let's get right into [Music] it I would have to say this man I am as equally even though I was somewhat suspecting this this is shockingly the worst I've ever seen the industry do these type of things it's like this has got to be the worst like everybody and their mom is laying people off right now like did it uh Monday they don't even go by the rules on a Monday they were laying pee off I mean I'd rather be laid off on a Monday man like really yes like you work the whole week you work the whole week and then you get laid off like on a Wednesday or you or a Thursday like you worked Monday and Tuesday like well I mean in a way you kind of work through Friday too if you look at the other way you work next it's it's a little bit more honest so you know you come in for a weekend you're like all right guys like this we're going to change your life this week is no more a week right um but

yeah man you know I think it's it is what it is you know I think you know we're in this moment in time where the the the economy is bad is in not great shape and uh all these but here's the the number one argument is you know these companies are making so much money are being profitable people are getting bonuses still right all of these companies are afraid you know they're afraid of of what's going on and so they're preparing and one way they prepare is to just cut cut expense right which is people um and so so that's that's exactly what's what's going on right now well let me get some figures up here I was reading this and you know of course the famous Jason shrier the the the ball breaker of the game industry uh you know he he he broke the news about the Bungie thing right that happened as of this recording just

basically a couple days yesterday uh and uh somewhat shocking but not really I mean we're talking about two years after Sony acquired uh Bungie for billions of dollars right think and of course naturally people think oh this is some security here um I think I think the most shocking thing was there board details came out and it was like they announced at a team like months ago or something that they that they know that they missed their projected Revenue by like 45% because of Destiny some some large number yeah right 45% is like a ridiculous difference right yeah and like okay we're g to do what we need to do to to kind of make up the shortfall and then the lofs game right that makes sense I mean we were kind of well let's be fair I was kind of saying

how Destiny is like who talks about Destiny anymore and it makes you know if it isn't making money if your one thing isn't making money you can't just basically keep spending hoping s something else will pop up years or months down the line so it is cruel to say and for people to hear because it is a toot it is a time that all game companies are doing these type of cuts and it's just so torturous to kind of keep hearing yet another company that seemingly on the surface level was doing well right if we count the acquisition two years ago but you know in terms of economics you you know games are just not producing yeah and I think that's hard for people to swallow because I this is a record-breaking year right we are constantly climbing in terms of profit yeah and what people want to know is

like hey we made profit a year ago can't we can't that overlap some some security for you know can you give me a couple months more than three you know more than a quarterly uh report uh to kind of like in terms yeah in terms of game quality this has been a crazy year right there's been like some some good games have come out Alan wus came out Alan wus dropped you know there's the whole city skylines too yeah Saga right um and there but there's just been some good games Mario wonders out right so a lot of good games came out this year and um and it's like everybody's like yeah it's great for games games are coming out right but also I think a part of it is like these games also because they're so good because they're so polished because they're so high quality uh cost money to make you know what I mean and then in uncertain Economic Times all these companies are looking like how can they

protect themselves against expenditures right um and and this has now started to drum up the conversation again around video game unions and and things like that like and I don't know like I don't know if a union protects you from being and people could correct me wrong or maybe you can protects you from being laid off but it might put in certain protections where you could get a good Severance when you're laid off right but uh I've heard that well we you know the previous guest and previous reading the idea is that you got to have these things in place before hiring so that you know you kind of have the security blanket basically double the salary that your person you know the person you're hiring so that you have this kind of in the bank in case happens right basically pre-planning before hiring someone and and proving that that's there but again and you know for those who are already

hired uh I mean part of Union bit busting tactics is just to fire the crew right uh before they unionize and sure yeah yeah and we've heard both sides of stories like there isn't this magic formula about unionizing that just solves all problems right I mean if the money isn't there the money just isn't there and it and it could prevent you know prospective projects from ever really getting off the ground because you have to do so much reserving Bud because because I think that's what's happening right it's not that the money isn't there it's that the the companies are be are fearful right of of the situation where you can't just go out and get more money right or or going out and get more money is going to be really costly to you investors are tightening Pockets you know like all the things are kind of drying up right so so then what are the countes going to do they're like all right we're going to be

conservative right and and kind of scale back and not grow as much and all that the money money's there they could keep these people on right but then that kind of puts them in their in the danger zone of like oh do we have three years or seven years type of think yeah what people so are you thinking that that the Sierra despite being a record-breaking year for games despite of all these like Mega games coming out people over excited to me I I'm impressed by the fact that all these people are bu these $6 games at the same time right I mean I thought this used to be a problem where you can't buy two or three a quarter right that's imposs you have one game per year didn't seem like an issue right everyone just from just staring to Starfield and buying Spider-Man 2 right now people are buying Allan Wake 2 like they have all the money in the world to spend um well well we haven't seen we

haven't seen the numbers yet right like these games are good games right except for Starfield but um but uh but we um yeah but we we have not seen what the sales numbers are for these things quite yet so we don't know exactly Spider-Man who are the winners or the losers like 2.5 mil with yeah yeah I I think it's I think it's pretty safe to say Spider-Man 2 would be fine right but um but like we don't know the sales number for say Allen way yet right and some of these other games right there's been a lot of good games but I don't know like how many people running out buying them right because I think I think I did see some stuff around people's spending habits have declined as you know as the econ conserving to yeah as as they are also conserving and worried about the economy right so so I don't know like what impact that'll have on I haven't seen the numbers or anything like that but I imagine there's some sort of impact there um

this this roller coaster started all the way back I think beginning of the year I mean you've been hearing I mean the bulk of the big companies were in September August right but we've been hearing this type of story since you know March right so I have friends and I'm sure you have friends that have been looking for the last 68 months and now they're kind of been pushed back in the back of the line uh sorry to say right uh and people are going in LinkedIn just writing these messages just to be in the algorithm I'm not even sure if that's even helping to be honest like are people and I see I'm hearing situations about like you know the people who are able to successfully find jobs are people who already have jobs and are just jumping ship and you know on a recruiters radar they're they're somewhat more desirable for whatever reason right and we can dig into that what what is the reason like

more stability less you know is it one of those like is a desirable candidate obviously because they still have a job therefore they're on the top of the stack what is it exactly because there to me if I look at a surface level there's a logic to it but I haven't really thought processed it enough to understand all right why why exactly people who have jobs who are secure and up to get jobs faster than the those who have been basically laid off for for months right yeah I think I think it's also the ones I hear that have been laid out for months at least some the few examples I've seen are people that have wanted to stick to their guns right of like I need to find a remote job and need it needs to have the right culture and the right team and the right this and that right uh and it's hard out there right cuz cuz a lot of those roles are not there team

companies are downsizing and and there is and there is a bit of a return to office thing going on there's still some remote roles but there's still there's like more folks are like yeah n hybrid you got to be hybrid or you got to do this you got to do that right so so I think it's been it's been hard for people right to find a new role um from from the examples I've seen people are like yeah it's taking me seven months six months uh to find a find a new role I don't know if people that are currently currently in jobs and looking for another job are getting them fast right like they are because I like even you know not that I'm looking for jobs or anything like that but like the it's it's kind of slim pickings out there yeah period right so um so there's definitely a higher freeze until January type of thing that I've been hearing a lot for there's always that yeah you have to wait till the new year to see what the budget what the budget will hold right um definitely especially right now like looking for a job right

now is just crazy you wouldn't do that like Christmas is coming fast approaching impossible man yeah yeah yeah um so so there's all of that that's going on but but I have seen cases where people are like okay I've been looking for seven months and uh and like somebody was even sharing stats like they did applied to like 38 companies yeah uh heard back from 16 and and and got to like actual final interviews or are pretty decent into the interview stage with like three yeah right um 38 applications is still quite a bit yeah right you know what I mean um but but but that's like a 50% you hear you'll hear back right um and then it's a much much lower percentage to even get into the interview panel right yeah so so it's hard out there for sure a lot of these LinkedIn um job uh positions that they post up you

can see how many applies it's like I saw somebody one of my friends on the network were kind of making fun of the fact it's like it was I think it was a 2K creative director job or something and and he was pointing out like there's a thousand applicants for it and he was saying that you know in the country they're probably like actually 60 qualified people for this job right yeah out of the industry and there's a thousand candidates but wait hold up creative director at 2K or I think it was a 2K posting there was over a thousand applicant because they show the number on the header right when people apply for the job and he was kind of pointing out the fact like you know in reality there's probably maybe 60 real qualified people in the country for this job who are these 1 and this is and this kind of pointed out like the other side of the coin the recruiters that do still have a job because that is like a big sector

that has been laid off as well a lot of companies are you know getting rid of the recruitment Department like people who I've seen have never really posted looking for a job are posting looking for a job as a recruiter which is very surprising to me but also means to me like these companies aren't looking for anyone for 6 months you know forget January like if you're getting of getting rid of your HR recruiter Department you're not looking to hire months at least yeah you're not looking to hire a lot it's not like they have no recruiters right it's like we just don't need all of y'all right you know what I mean um and so it's it's just like yeah they're scaling back super SL on the numbers of of people that they're going to recruit for sure 100% the biggest thing that I felt all right again guys we're seeking on on

the personal opinions here you know I think the biggest impact that we saw with the layoffs is the epic thing right the Epic kind of getting rid of the Enterprise basically anything that isn't fortnite it sounded like uh isn't that isn't making money kind of like echoing what you were saying just there's a lot of things inefficiencies um that these companies are kind of digging into it's like hey you're not producing this is it right um surp but in addition to that you know the they got rid of a lot of Med media molecu The Fallout The Fall Guys team as well the rocket League team these are teams that they just acquired like a couple years ago they didn't get rid of they didn't get rid of all of them no but they got rid of like some key mbers on that on this team that I've seen and it was shocking because uh well I mean like you always thought like

yes Acquisitions there's some overlap there's bound to be some Fallout from that right but that's within the acquisition not like two years later uh I I mean it's it's it's clear right like I think it's like you know Tim sweee wrote the blog post about it right it's pretty clear where his thought process was is like we're spending more than we're making yeah right and uh and when money was free when you could get Investments when you could borrow money whatever or get people to invest in you yeah uh it was very easy to say hey in the interest of growth the show growth yeah let us let us start branching out into other things right like you know when they purchased band um band camp that never made sense right right um that that that just never made sense right so um and so now times are hard it's like oh okay maybe we shouldn't have did that

when they really look at it it's like okay cost versus versus what it's actually bringing in yeah yeah maybe we shouldn't have did that right and so so get rid of band camp and and a few other things right so yeah so it's it's like a great consolidation like all these companies that were just like growth growth growth growth growth money's free which honestly I think is a horrible way like I understand how you could get wrapped up into it I understand how the investors are probably also the investors that are already in are breathing down your neck amp to grow so that they can make more money right and the C is more valuable um but I don't believe like you grow in all these different directions and ignore your bread and butter or or should say ignore right but you but you're not really you're not really doubling down the bread and butter you're spreading yourself out thinner right and so now that the money is drying up everybody's like the bread and butter makes money though right and so

and so now they're like trimming it back down the focus on on the on the bread the bread and the butter right that's what you're seeing yeah yeah I mean I think what I was hearing a lot from too is like you know as a I have a personal feeling about this like my opinions on the software business have changed so much because you know a lot as the consumer it's like oh yeah free free is awesome but what we're seeing too is like oh they made the engine free and they can't you know they're they're not making money off their engine right obviously I mean they they monetize it through royalties and through other things right but but but but generally surprise surprise guys the engine business the game engine business yeah it's a tough business versus versus how much people it takes to make a general

game engine and how much those people cost yeah uh it does not make money yeah right and so and so every engine has a different way of like okay let's invest in the engine but let's raise revenue other ways right yeah um and with I think it was it's fortnite and with others it's other means yeah I I think it was I think it was a mistake it set a presedent for for everything I for whatever reason we've been training the consumers uh the the the creatives as well as the you know the the buyers of these games into a locked number that never made sense right I mean we're still charging 60 people kind of blow blow up when it's 70 even though if you look at games for the last 20 30 years it's the only thing that has hasn't raised money that much right uh even though like the price of

making these things have grown exponentially uh you go to the movie theater it's you know be through inflation and through budget it's it costs a lot more to go see movies now right yeah and the same way we're doing the same to the creative the people who are making these softwares they put a lot of work Z people were freaking out when zush went they sold right uh to Maxon and they finally charge a subscription right and and and people were like ah this this this like they sold out you know they were you know with us and now they're not I was like dude the type of updates they were giving yeah and basically letting you upgrade for free there was no way they were making or turning the profit into that yeah I I'll say this right though I'll say this I think free software yeah is a huge

benefit to the community of course right and and honestly that's how you grow Community right like this stuff is free access lower to beer debt entry you teach kids get people get people to learn to trade through using your software and then they become professionals using your software and you grow Community plugins add-ons all the things blender is a good example of all of this right um you know and it it creates a thriving ecosystem and in a community right um You just have to find a way to monetize it yeah right because nothing comes for free right but like that is a good approach when you think about luring the be entry and and helping out the community and growing a community right so now you have your community and you're like okay how do I monetize this well I work at Joe Blow company that's making millions of dollars a year

yeah yeah we should pay our fair share because now we're using all these features all the tools the community ecosystem we're benefiting and we're making money so of course some of the money we make should go to you as well from using your software right so like you know professional pro versions of subscriptions based on revenue and all that kind of stuff like this all makes sense yeah you know what I mean right and and um and I think that's fine like I think it's completely fine for it is completely fine and good for those companies that figure that out basically a roundabout way of like charging you yeah cover for a quality product for a quality you got cover it the funny thing is over the years and listeners kind of see me flip-flop or like evolve right in terms of my opinion I always made fun of adovi I hated adovi because of how they kind of do exactly that they charge exactly how

they feel it's worth right but now I get it I mean they're the only software company that we use as an artist let's say that is thriving as a software company uh well I mean no Adobe ain't ain't complaining about the money they have about Photoshop look all right here's two examples sure no sure they they make money as a company right right like the the the the public at large hates them like of course they hate them but to me to me now that I'm seeing from the other side of things like I what I see is like a destruction of all these great software companies always struggling right we're making these great games we're making these great products game tools have like evolved like no none other then why are the software companies should be why should they be suffering when they have proven that they're they Pro hey I know I know it's a flip listen listen to me listen to me

right listen just let me finish my rant here like these software companies right are are are basically dying off uh because they they've been very suppor of the community but have the community shown up for them no they freak out as soon as you charge a cent right I will say this right here here's a clear example right I know I know if you've heard of substance right and I know you heard of quick soul and mega scans right sure of course so those two stories happen kind of coincidentally at the same time substance sold to adobi at the same time when Quicks sold to Epic right very similar texturing Mega hits two two schools of thoughts going about it a different way very substance is growing have have grown since the acquisition their tools have gotten more getting better and and more creative and people are paying for it uh personal use Indie use hobbyist use and and and and and and

on the professional level right and people are gladly paying for it because it's integral to their pipeline it's integral to what they need to do and if you want to get in the industry this is the norm this is what you need to learn right at a discounted rate you're still paying for it even if it's 10 bucks a month you're still paying for it you know the right way unless you're pirating of course but they have an Avenue for you to pay for right at reasonable price even as a student right yeah yeah quickel was part of this huge layoff at Epic right that team yeah that team got that team got like kind of destroyed I mean they're they're kind of weaving it back into this like uh big asset store called um what is it called um the fob the Fab or something what is it called I know you don't keep up with epic sketch FB play FB yeah it's a combination

of yeah Sketch Fab but it's a library of assets that is Creator you know they're coping you guys in a way right Creator units are regenerat right but the beauty of what me skin was was because it was curated quality right and now they're kind of throwing it all together into this stupidity oh it's going Fab Fab fa digal a new Marketplace that giv All Digital people watching can see it yeah everything you need to build new worlds right just from this front screen it looks like right I see a bunch of crap being polluted into the marketplace and but you know what it is but you know what this is you know what this is though this is their creative way of trying to monetize and this is yeah it's it's this wrong dude it's wrong they're trying to they're trying

to create the metaverse right and you UE FN um and this Marketplace they're doing a huge push into into user generated content right and it's all in the context right now of like fortnite right but you can see how maybe it'll be something else right and um and if you have a b.com all these all these these assets you have all the quixel stuff in there you can also have all the user generated stuff in there and it's just now you yeah because they also they also acquire sketch Fab that's right so they're combining sketch Fab quick soulle all the right into one thing you know what I mean and and so now you have like this enormous library of user generated content and content that's professionally made that you can monetize the hell out of right um and then now and then if you start thinking about the a AI you know here's a huge training data data

set as well right so um so like you can see what they where they're going with that right oh yeah um I can see but also but also like um the the the comparison that you're taking though um one of those companies is a mature company and one of them is d right and so there's going to be growing pains and things that happen that that uh might not happen in a more mature company let me reply to that this will fail the name is dumb the idea is dumb right here here's the problem with user generated content to to a certain degree right yeah yeah people want curated quality stuff they don't want to spend their time going and scoll through crap right sure yeah I'm

making a quality game I need quality assets all right you can make it so that you can follow quality users or whatever right and they're here's the thing there's a roundabout way of basically we need money right and this is the crap we came up with right dude just charge what you think it's worth and people will fall honestly it will do the industry better if you just train people it's like hey we make good software this is what it's worth and this is why you need to pay for it and just cut through the crap right because look at how much suffering that has to go through for for a science project right there's no guarantee this will work they fired all these people they dismantled these teams that they bought because they were like you know trigger happy with money right and they're coming up with this the unreal Enterprise team that they tried to make up was the dumbest idea and it was full of yeah dude and

that team was dismantled by the way right that didn't make the news that was part of the big layoff like that they made the Enterprise team right and they were hoping and it was a good idea to kind of aim towards Enterprise and they're finally charging Enterprise like uh like you know the engine which they should have done at the beginning and but like they completely destroyed the team because they brought in a lot of like guys that are not developers right to use and teach the engine because they're just part of this effects industry right and they just know the language or know how to talk to talk find out that they they had they aren't producing they're spending a huge amount of money all right for nothing right as part of this kind of like flush of like fortnite's the only thing that makes money so whatever they came up with this one is like hey you know what would be cool if people make their own and this is probably taken from the

Roblox book right the Minecraft page of of like hey user gener content right but they what's weird about it is that you know the unreal Marketplace is a very mature audience right you know you don't see kids going in there and then buying something I guess they're trying to do that with ufn right right but it is failing by the way it is failing by the way right I I don't I don't defying failing I have no idea like what the engagement isn't there right it just isn't right people who who who Who's A friend of you that's really talking about it's a NE IDE I I know one friend who has created a Content I think we both know the one friend yeah and and and I think like within a week a thousand it's an Avenue that yeah I'm sure if I if I were to pull that one friend and it's like yo

do the same thing in Roblox you think he'll get more than a thousand that's what I'm saying right his thing his thing ain't going to look nearly as nice in Roblox sure but you know he's going to attract more with his talent right that's what I'm saying it's like why why spend all this effort I mean the UN it's just the wrong audience and you're and they're just you know what it is they're grasping for straws right here like this desperate it's like it's just a Half Bake idea it's like no identity here no I think what you're seeing is like like I said it's consolidation right so they're consolidating around the engine yeah because they bought all this crap they don't know what to deal with and now like hey why don't we combine this crap together maybe this big pile of crap will be actually something that is no it's a big pile of crap that's what it is no that's why that's why you do it right is because you want that stuff to be integrated right and so you're consolidating yeah and they're consolidating around the engine and they're consolidating around ufn the

metaverse this is call it fortnite metaverse right that that's really what real artists in there because they realize like as everybody should realize the engine business is not making a ton of money right yeah fortnite money is not going to last forever right yeah and so what is the next thing right um platform plays are always good us generated content is a thing being your own wall metaverse like the beginning of it um is a thing right and honestly like from what I'm seeing too when it comes to if you were like hey I want to start a video game company right now um there's a few things that are getting funded immediately or damn near immediately um you know any sort of platform play multiplayer thing is is always is going to get Peak people's interests um anything you just utter the words AI um

people are interested even in this market in this economy right um and then the other one is ufn like Venture capitalists are like oh you want to you want to do something you okay maybe we might we might invest in that like because they see it as like a new frontier that is kind of on the on the potentially to go up right at the end of the day you know they're just betting right but they but they feel good about that bet right is what you know what are they gonna learn Ray I think 100% 100% people wrong I'm not totally not interested in it right but like you look at the the faab like like does that even sound cool to you it's like I'm going to go on Fab and buy some stuff for quality game look get some Fab stuff guess what it's a kid in his house he

built some nice chairs for me you know you know I need that yeah and you heard you heard in Tim's Tim's blog when he announced the the the layoffs right when he start with the layoffs he was like they've been paying out a lot of money like also it seems like their terms for creators are very favorable and so they've been paying out a lot of money to to content people and not recoup the cost that is costing them to do all this host all this hosting all this Cloud you mean they've been bad at business the whole time I was surprised well like when you have infinite when you have infinite money pouring in right and it's always just pouring in you think you could just use it all you know what I mean and uh you know it's like the guy who wins the lottery right and then suddenly he's a good businessman you know I mean like that's why the thing fortnite was like it was a gold r rush it was they hit the lottery with that game right and they

enjoyed the benefits from it and and but also and it was in a time where they got also get additional investment right like Sony got additional investment you know when I you know when they were talking about the metaverse you know unreal and the Epic guys sounds like the closest to realizing Ready Player one right to me I still feel that I hope this UI FN thing isn't that I hope they are secretly haven't shown you know their their hand yet on on what they meant on the metaverse right I mean it's a start right but you need start oh my God you need tools to build stuff you need and the thing is the tools have to get easier and easier and easier like the tools can't even be as complicated as they are right it's too complicated and it's just not approachable like none of my kids are none of my kids are talking about it and none of their friends are doing it therefore it has failed right

done what okay hold on is your kids and their friends playing fortnite at all they play fortnite okay but they still play Roblox and they build in Roblox but they're not they're not building in in in they're not in ufn doing any of this ufn is what you and I see a bunch of 40 plus year olds well because no because that's the thing right it's like a professional Creator could go in there and like yeah but the professional Creator Market to your to your kids of okay but that is not what see this is where we need to Tim right sit 10 back hey Roblox is ruled by a bunch of kids and they're doing things that we don't understand that's why it it it's working right like I look at ROBLOX still I was like I don't get it what is so fun about this that's why they're succeeding they are on the frontier that is the real Frontier right

and child labor child lab yeah child labor right and we he these kids paying themselves through college and stuff I like what is going on right so the ufn I get it like it's like a modding of fortnite right that's why it's not going to work because it's a same like you're not doing anything new and the fact that any of these kids are these kids most of these creators aren't the kids it's like what are you guys doing I was just reading I was just reading something on this topic like legit on this topic and I have to find it because it was like ufn from an Investor's point of view yeah uh and and how they how they think about it um it's a perfect newsletter I get it's a yeah Yokum Yokum uh akan I believe is his name right I hate to say it man this is how I feel about it it feels nfti is right it it feels blockchain is you know

people are you it's not a Ponzi scheme it's not a Ponzi scheme but it's being too hyped up like the the hypeness of it yeah listen do what I'm saying though listen do what I saying right so so investor perspective right um a few business models have emerged on ufn yeah right and similar Creator platforms like Roblox right uh game fam the game fan model which is basically like a company that basically uh creates another platform on top of ufn kind of thing and provides even more games through through there right um low and Indie developer and just say hey I just want to create and and monetize uh you know like some some deers could make a million a year just doing that right uh and then like a a for real Triple A Team going hey let's make like something that's like super super high quality in uif right so that

would reduce uh time to to make the thing right and so all of those things are kind of interesting to developers so those are like different business mods that investors are interested in now if you were ask me Ray which one of those would you do I'll say none of them right I I won't call it stupid I won't say it's a dumb idea I say I won't do none of them why because betting I'm betting my financial future on another company making sure that the platform is still running and available for me to use and I do not know if that's G to be true in a year or two years time right well that's that's what makes that's what gives me Paws right other folks other folks are like it's a gold rush let me be the first one there right exactly that's what that's what I'm drawing the similarities to nft blockchain it feels like everyone's

suddenly excited about something that isn't proven right and we're talking about this was fortnite a few years ago and this is fortnite now right it is declining and you you you you you're modeling this new business idea around a declining game right unreal fortnite all right it's not stabilizing it's declining right so you know of this grabbing being pivoted and kind of using as a rebound right and then suddenly be more popular than before potential potential no you're on you're you're on a stair stepping down effect right let me teach you the economics of stock graphs this is a stair step down go things go down things go up itend but it it it have it will never reach the height that it was you know at maybe not it does it doesn't have to right and that's why that's why you have a consolidation that's why you

get rid of the fluff get rid of the people and you focus on what you really want to focus on and so you reduce expenditure right all this extra expenditure you reduce that so that you can actually run a profitable business doesn't need to go back up to $9 billion a year just feel like there's old what is it that now what is it now probably like five or seven or eight you know it's probably still making billions it's still on De but I was it just sounds like an you just don't get it you don't get Roblox you don't get U I respect Roblox because I don't get it right it obviously is doing something right yeah yeah what I don't respect is you know I made fun of Epic for all these years right all the way from pubg the original idea for fortnite and then all these like shady moves they've been doing trying to you know you know ride off of like Among Us by copying one of its modes and then got dinged for it right

and then a bunch of other right that they've been doing and it just sounds like wow they're at a point where they can't they can't come up with good ideas right this ufn thing is is is is trying to ride off Roblox I mean it's clear that that's what they're doing right that's what everybody that's doing us generated content is trying to do yeah but like what I'm saying is epic used to be such a front runner on things right and they were right still are right man I feel like there are a bunch of old people coming up with old ideas this is what I see man they look at ROBLOX we can do something like that you know they're not they're not digging deep enough I was like what what made this a phenomenon what what are making these kids want to go home create things in shitty Graphics by the way right and and still have the time of their lives you know and talk about the graphics of Roblox have greatly improved it's great and improved but because Roblox is like hey we money now let's let's do something with it right but like the fundamentals The Innovation behind it was behind you know

was deeper than the graphics and that is something that epic is constantly failing it and this thing will fail I I'll say this I'll I'll say this right I I think they are on they're trying something I think we all agree yeah it's the start right and the tools have to get better have to get simpler they they created a new scripting language a verse that goes along with with uef oh yeah that makes it simpler which is like well Roblox is like Lua right so like you know right so and and and kids kids 14 years old are like whipping up in Lua so you know what I mean um so anyway so like so like whatever like they could have just used L but of course you know you know how companies are sometimes they just want to do their own thing they hire somebody

who's a compiler expert and next you know he wants to do a new language like that's how it goes right there you go I might not have made that same decision but you know you know yeah of course yeah to make something trendy let's make something completely new never no no one has ever heard about great move bro it's it's it's it's a very engineering decision right like that's a very engineering decision like like hey I want to I want to make the perfect language for this let's let's dream up our own version media fail all right that's what I say anyway anyway but I think they're trying you know they're they're trying something and they're seeing and honestly I think I think you know I think Tim Sweeney is like he believes the metaverse they can they can make it happen in fortnite and honest and honestly it's only way you're going to get scale to continue to invest back or

it's one of the ways that they they they think they could they could get scales to to invest back into the engine no man I I just feel like they're just shooting in the dark man with ideas here like when I heard the metav vers like oh well because they have fortnite right two years ago right yeah they have rocket League oh they bought fall guys you know they're building an empire they have all these like uh exclusives social social Games social games but they also you know are getting the publishing so they have these exclusives it's like oh they're building a merse all right at some point they're going to have like this like a Lobby that you can drop in like ready play one and you can use this like I thought that that that was what they were doing right I was like that that to me sounds more epic like that that sounds like Gears of War epic I want to hang out you know with all you know I want to jump in rocket league and then now I want to go in fortnite right and now I want to hang out with my friends

on Fall guys like that sounds fun to me all right they're doing that what the hell is this you what is this what is UN what like why do we need do it's like a complete left turn dude it's like what the hell what are you doing let's come up with a new language it's like dude you have a million languages why can't we just use one that everyone knows it's like why I have to learn this new one for this declining idea it's like why would anyone invest time into this is to do language is definitely like an engineer that's definitely an engineering yeah but this is this is this is what I mean it's like it's like you guys are shooting yourselves in the foot like to me there was an OB this's an there was an obvious Assumption of what they me with the meterse they were buying all these social games just comp together let me have this playground yeah all right that sounds because I love rocket League I play the out of that game even to this day I still love playing that game

f guys I had so much fun I still like there's still potential in that they should have made that mobile right that stupid game B dudes or whatever like completely I was like why you guys didn't jump on that right away right and then yeah and then fortnite of course biggest biggest game ever franchise ever in the world in the last three years right they didn't use that opportunity it's not like it's it's not like they had to like build the from scratch they two out of three were made an unreal Fall Guys was easy enough to kind of dupe right it was like what you know mean it's like it's like can't you just plug the wires just cross cross the wires into each other and just make it portable and make make game make game portable button but but U but anyway anyway I don't get into that but but like I I think I I think like taking all those games and putting them into a hub and being like yo let's play these games is not

thinking big enough okay but it would have been immediate fun an immediate yeah immediate that's a good stop Gap that's a good stop Gap while you're build like Hey we're building a met what is a metaverse it's combining a bunch of these different established universes into together all right let's do something from scratch I was like what I like don't you have like five it's like no no no but let's start something from scratch I knew do you remember core core which oh yeah core yeah you remember core right um and how they they built on top of unreal right and you could they had a whole Hub with a bunch of different games that were used gener content all that thing right um and then I think they started dealing doing stuff with crypto and nfts and things like that oh were they just how you like oh really or were they well of course cuz that's cuz like how are you how you they got a lot of investment man how you going talk yeah

yeah they had a lot of Epic was investing in them yeah at some point I thought epic was gonna buy core I thought so too but no they did the same thing it's like you know what we'll make our own and also like I don't I don't understand the business model of like building a platform like that on top of unreal when fortnite was like right there yeah and uh and clearly going that route too right so like so it was really it was really weird to me but um but and especially when they started doing the nfts I was like ah yeah like that's going to the dark side dark side right and I don't know what the current status of it is I don't know how many people are even M I definitely don't hear as much about it as before I think a couple years ago there was a lot more excitement and then yeah nothing so far I that's when the mous the mous was like the hot hot hot thing at at the moment you know but yeah um but anyway yeah so like I I just think you know epic has something that I think even though it's

declining you say your kids are still playing fortnite before they what's dumb is that um all the crossover all the Crossovers that they're doing like every single it seems like every single week there's like some new costume Crossover with some new brand inside of fortnite right um it's it's you know like it's still still going right so they they're just trying to they're trying to do do something you know with it they do they're mil just milking it to death that's what it is dude let's just say it how it is they're just milking it until it's dead all right uh and the crazy thing is that you're talk Little Big Planet right medium molecule yeah great game do that you know what I mean it's like you're trying what are you doing like why are you making this harder you're like who are you appealing to right are you appealing to game developers all right if they're game

developers well obviously they're just going to want to make the games in unreal and make it you know the game they want they don't want to make like a faux fortnite mod that's not what professional game developers like okay well what what was it we're talking about Gamers making games all right it's called Little Big Planet dude that is the perfect appro Mario Maker right it's basically here are some pieces dreams right here are some pieces that you can Lego piece together don't code right just put it together and make levels and here are some parameters you know with some choices that you can pick yeah who are you appealing to I think the other play I think the other play I think the other play here is is a gateway drug aspect right yeah you get you have people interested in in like A reduced subset of your tools they're in your ecosystem and then as they age and grow

older they then can migrate into your full ecosystem right still D it's still DB anyone that thinks like that that's such an old it's like in 20 years though you know this is going to be a great idea it's like meanwhile you're you're laying off thousands of people every year because you're looking for immediate results this is the the the Zuckerberg effect right this guy has spent billions of dollars $60 billion dollar in the metaverse right in three years finally went back to the drawing T like you know what we just got to do what we did before you know it's like no they're still they're still doing meterse stuff they're still but I mean is a lot more slim yeah it's not be crazy crazy anything goes right but there's still a lot of people doing a lot of metaverse related stuff right but the the this is this is like nerds drunk with power man this idea that 20 years

from now there this gateway drug plan right well you know I I'll be dead by then you'll be dead too but in 20 years we'll be reaping the benefits it's like what are you doing like I can see I can see unreal for gamers right I can see a pathway where they com buy they have the appeal they have fortnite I I think that's correct they have fall guys they have rocket League hey why won't we come with a set of tools like Mario maker to make levels in these universes right make it very simple right and make those version and then we can start to converge these IPS into each other we have a metaverse event right where all these three games are is not happening who says this is not happening I'm saying it's not happening because they're so old dude they're thinking like old people with

lots of money that's the problem they're old people with lots of money so they just frankly their their their inner childness that was creative and made them successful before are are just long dead so they're thinking just businessmen and just businessmen trying to make things fun are is just forced right so this effort like I I feel like a lot of these companies Bunch invol too like all these people laying people off right I just feel like we need a cleanse of these older creatives that had their best days right that's my opinion they just had their best their best ideas if they if they made two hits before all right you're done you're retired you're not going to make it anymore all right that's how I feel about it right unless you're kajima right but like every everyone else or or other homeboy than the Nintendo dude yeah other if you're not Japanese let's just

say you are aged out is what I'm saying if you haven't made that game right if you haven't made that hit yet right uh and you made two of those already and you're trying to make your third right what I'm seeing as a pattern the Ken Lavin The Glenn showfield right this is there's a pattern going on right uh dog dog dog yeah two couple things one one thing is now you're talking now you're talking like those Millennials that you were likeing a couple here's the difference right that's what that's one thing one thing second thing second thing right I probably still got couple gapes left no no this is what I'm saying right you're excus because you haven't put out your game yet right sure sure I'm talking about these guys who did their Bioshock who did their like dead right yeah they're Juiced out man they

already had that hit so like they're they're a they're done dude is what I'm saying and unfortunately these guys are still running Bungie these guys are still running blizzard right these guys are still at those decisionmaking yeah a lot of Blizzard folks left and created their own companies right but but I do think that there is a there is a bit of [Music] um need game well one no one hit game is like you're you're rolling dice at the end of the day right you know what I mean yeah and then two and then two there might be an element of like the hunger is gone right there could be is definitely gone dude where you're like okay I already made it now I have to now I have to top the last idea I had you know what I mean it's hard it's same it's same with music your sophomore album right right there's a lot of pressure to kind of repeat the hit

success and for those who who who who are continue to do that well they're most likely Japanese it's like there's there was what was it I was I saw a stat where uh like the original Mario team it was like four out of five contributed to the latest Mario game something like that right it was just like a a thing illustrating how Japanese Nintendo teams stay together all right they build off of their success that's the formula no somebody no somebody made that point right is I think like a lot of the good games like not just Japanese right a lot of good games period yeah um you see them come out of teams that that stay together of course well that makes complete sense because they learn how to work together they Lear to processes have to yeah so one of the huge

um knock on effects of this of the latest spree layoffs right it could you're basically breaking teams apart breaking teams apart making more people jaded and and yeah yeah and so it could it could affect the quality of the next batch of games to come out 100% it's gonna well like all the I've been been through luckily and unfortunately been only been through one layoff right it destroyed it made me jaded in a way right and I'm reading about people who've been laid off twice this year right you weren't you weren't at were you at were you at I was at a spark can I say the name you weren at you weren't at 2K Marin when when that stuff went down no I left before 2K Mar oh okay okay because I saw you know fls but even even 2K lasted I think two three years after I left so it

lasted a good time yeah that's a lot um but like what I'm saying is that a lot of the spark as a game developer especially if you get in the creative you know position to to to actually I have a voice here it is right most people don't get to even that spot because they get basically knocked down before even having that chance and and and basically are are surviving or or just getting through the day right and and and you we lose so much of those I think that's why you see a lot potentially yeah a lot and that's what I'm seeing right A lot of these episodes that I I record I see the the the youth uh in in in in IND indiv developers they go from school to to their project and they have like this they're on their third game and they're still loving it right and they just are not beaten down

and um even though this year has been such a eventful year for many reasons the quality of the games finally coming out have been actually pretty fantastic right and um and and and you got to add into the mixture of the remaster like just going back to the Heyday of like these PS2 Classics you don't like I like remas you don't you don't like remaster I'm looking forward to the Metal Gear Game Dude sure but I I think you're just like especially Konami they're they're just Fresh Out fresh out of ideas oh yeah and they're like they're like let's take some old thing that everybody loved and let's remake it but the original team's not here so so if if we mess it up or not right um so some have been successful yeah you know some you know a lot of them have been success well I think the dead well yeah the Dead Space REM your dead space game was pretty bad that's your game right but it but it's like y um the

Resident Evil remasters yeah like sh Coles yeah we're out IDE but it is Al also a nostalgic here's the thing that I'm noticing with the remaster they take they still take three years yeah I know some people are like oh I want to see with updated graphics and this and that man when you were playing that with it's pixelated or bad Graphics or whatever whatever you want to say you were enjoying it because the game right you know and you can just go back and play that game you don't need a new updated remaster a friend of mine actually messaged me about the about um Advanced Wars the advaned wars remake which which I think is amazing actually um s like a lot of remaster no no I I love events Wars right period right but he was like he like why they even do this to the game because because you know they did 3D graphics and made it look a lot better than than the 2D pixel

look and a lot of people that are into it for the Nostalgia yeah missed the look of it right um it's the same gameplay same everything but but then it kind of lost some of the charm some of the aesthetic was different you know right um you know sometimes you just need to leave stuff alone you know what I mean yeah yeah here's what I love about it right I'm I'm a single player narrative first and foremost right I I I prefer them usually over a lot of my growth and a lot of what I love about video games and wanting to make video GES was because of single player narrative games and how I felt playing through them you know multiplayer you know it's just a fun kind of drug hit or whatever um so I love the fact that these are coming back cuz I get to play with them again and and frankly I just don't see a lot of great single player narrative game as

much as as frequently as before right um we're talking about Allan Wick 2 and whenever Naughty Dog does one right and then you Spider-Man right there's a return to single player the of game because I think the remaster stuff have been coming out showing that is doing well I think Sony's just like focusing we do this this is what we do of War yeah pretty much all their games yeah uh but I do feel like there's a it's not it's not so much of a when I say aging out it's not so much about the age per se in terms of years it's about those guys who who who already did their thing right yeah and and are still sticking around I was like all right just leave it's like give someone else a chance CH you know what I mean and I I feel like there's a lot of great talent being held back right now is what I'm

saying I mean yeah maybe but but I I would say like we do this why because we're passionate about it we want to do we want make gam I know I think those guys do it because they're ego dude it's like I can I can do it again I show you though here's the thing when you are a Creator there are definitely those folks that are creators that are the artist yeah and and they have egos and things like that like 100% right um but but at the end of the day it's also like it's a passion to create right and you do not you don't you don't lose that and sometimes sometimes hey man I just works sometimes it works sometimes it works against you because you're like hey maybe I should just be chilling go old Samurai movies man the guy who conquered the world right learns to step aside and mentor poor all right and and he finds joy into the Next Generation and I just feel like we have a lot of these Old

Masters ain't moving right like it's to me it's a ruining the game industry in a while right yeah maybe yeah I mean the fact that we have like this this this big corner of the game industry called Roblox that me and you don't understand like I don't know what the they do there right just shows me in a way that I need to move aside a bit right and let these guys kind of kind of show me what's up you just need to encourage different techniques and different I am very much I would love for epic to hire some of these roadblocks people and tell them why this ufn thing is stupid it just is right I I like the fact that our friends are kind of figuring things out but only because they don't understand Roblox but I if

someone sat them down and explain them Roblox they would find infinitely more success on Roblox than youf and it would be more sustain it would Roblox is here to stay right you can't say that about ufn I mean I don't know I can't say about any company quite frankly sure but like right now there isn't like a competitor to Rob Roblox is still number one in terms of user generated Minecraft and Roblox right sure yeah yeah like there like is there anything coming out of the no there's nothing coming ufn babyn ufn is dumb dude this is dumb like the like why didn't they make Mario maker out of the the franchises they own it's like it would have been awesome like I would have loved to jump into rocket league and build a few stages right or or or or or something more approachable in fast like I would love to play some obstacles like hey this is my

obstacles run through it dude dude like that's clearly why they bought them bread that's what you think but they haven't done it yet how how how hard how hard if it if they you know to buy fall guys and do that like it would have taken them a month right I'm sure it's sure it's uh let's leave that game alone and let's think about what the sequel to that is sure and and and how can we blow it up even bigger like I'm sure that's what it is right and how integrate it into all of these other things that we're doing right that dumb engineer that came up with verse language right how fast would he have if you assign him why are you slandering these people I'm slandering them because they are messing they have people fired man it's like I need this I need this D right now like people got laid off because it

basically this is this is the future guys this this language called verse it's like what is it oh it's so much better than everything else there's always a reason why people do things always there's always a reason and and you know there's probably like I I can't even remember the diverse presentations about why was the pros versus the cons of doing it but you know it's pros and cons and like I said it's it's a consolidation around what matters for for them right like let's let's actually invest money in the things that that matter for us you know get rid of band camp and a bunch of other stuff and scale down Workforce here and there the sad thing a lot of a lot of community managers and things like that are losing their jobs which is kind of crazy because like in a time like this you're losing people that are at the front lines really yeah um you know it's kind of crazy but you know they're just like all we don't see value in that right now let's let's put value in the core business you know that's what's

happening yeah at the end of the day I thought like maybe they're waiting till January but because of the amount of recruiters I'm seeing just gone like I I feel like this is going to last until the second third quarter at least right yeah some people some people say the economy is probably going to stay like this for for another year most like yeah end of the year yeah like end of 2024 2024 that that is a long you know what that means this is a long time for people to be unemployed like how's that be you you know what Bri is $20 in in California now that's what I heard yeah you know the bright side though is that um if you wanted to start a company there there's there's there's a Workforce that's available yeah but do I want people who are unwanted I'm kidding I'm

kidding what's scary is there is a domino effect right a lot of the bigger companies making these decisions are making the smaller companies rethink their decisions even though they don't have all the data right yeah of course so it does make me pause even I was like all right obviously they know something that I don't right right yeah um all you all you got to do is like look at your look at your numbers yeah is the numb still going up numbers as theirs and then prepare their numbers are up too and then prepare otherwise right you know yeah um like yeah because you do work for other people right sometimes right our goals are is that drying up right because usually You' see that right like but see some sort of decline it is uh next year it seems to be conservative year yeah and then if it's up then that what does that mean for you that means you also got to be conservative right exactly that's just how it works yeah exactly no

that's completely true and it sucks because um you know people are coming investing in stupid ideas like ufn and stuff and it was nft and it was just all these new unproven ideas and it's just the potential upside that's the sad thing right investors like it completely failing or a complete a success right yeah they don't want they want that write off that tax write off rather than just a little profit yeah well now now it's you know now it's U it's ai's turn right and everybody's thinking of ways of how to integrate AI into into everything you know and so we'll see yeah why why is it unreal doing that who says who says they're not well they're they're they're not because they haven't they're the like the slowest company releasing something like what

we're seeing is like kids in their basement like I have an AI tool and it's right out and then like I haven't heard anything from unreal well what's going happen is those kids in the basement are going to just die off like where with the bubble kind of decompresses a bit right um but then it's going to be big big corporations or bigger companies that are able to integrate it into their existing tools well um yeah and who yeah who says U like U with some dope ass AI tools inside of it could could really do something right there's nothing exciting about you I'm just I'm just telling you like there's ways of of making this stuff um exciting if you start thinking about look at Little Big Planet all the different way look at Mario maker and do that for Rocket League do that fall guys and have a Lobby that I can play all three games you combine all three universes even those tools for me like even like using Dreams A Little Big Planet back in the day yeah like they're

so tedious you know they can't they made it complicated right but there're no they're actually really simple tools it's just that that you're just tedious because you're using a controller for you know right right like they're very tedious to and but I see people making crazy stuff in them I'm just like wow like how like how you guys even doing this without one of the out of a window yeah right but um but so that's the thing it's like it's it's like lowering that tedious bar and making it even more more productive more fun to create things right that that's that's what people are that's what people are really focusing on like what do we need to build for that it's not a new scripting language dude that's what I'm saying man my kids love playing with Legos because they can feel it and they can put it together and they can see the result right and that's what I feel Roblox is doing it simplifies the process super simple super simple right and I feel like the

guys over at media mue was doing that to more of a AAA quality right uh and I feel like epic kind of fits into that slot you know if they really want to do it for real um but they're doing this weird thing where they're making to me to me this is how I feel a an Unreal Engine Light and in a way competing against themselves right you're you're presenting two choices to developers essentially you're not you're not appealing to Gamers you're just not right it's too complicated and you're you're appealing to it's appealing to Craters it's trying to open it's it's what it's doing it's lowering the barrier of using Unreal Engine right and open putting up more use cases for more if you're going to lower then lower it you know like go to the lowest

denominator which is what Little Big Planet was it it create here are assets it can turn and then you place that's it right there's not anything about scripting there's no learning UI like all like you guys are so you guys are so dumb you guys need you guys need a person person to kind of sit there and like hey no one's going to use this you kind of need a millennial to sit there and just like hey this is just too complicated guess right before and I feel like they're just building on top of that you talk about dreams like dream is like an evolution of Little Big Planet right it just got more and more complex but even still very usable right yeah I I think more complex in terms of the technology the technology the interfaces very very similar right they they kept within that but you know you can do more with dreams than you did with little bit Planet one right there was an evolution there and I just feel

like they went backwards unsuccessfully right here's unreal which it is intuitive on to creators using engine to propriety engine you know it's easier than others but in terms of barrier of entry for basically a gamer like this is this is a lot to learn you know it's to do something cool right like you can't just step in and and basically squeeze the the maximum potential within an hour session right and know you just got you got to go into docks yeah you got to read docs you got to look at vide it's like you already failed in my opinion and they they are continually doing that uh going in that direction which is wrong it's a it's a it's a misdirection right if this is if this is the audience they're trying to capture and I'm just so disappointed that that nobody there

has the balls to say this ain't G to work this is dumb you know just dumb what is this Fab thing how is this fat thing going to fall it's like let me drop crappy assets throughout this Half Bake engine and and somehow this I'm cra I'm you know I'm going to be proud about this it's like come on dude it's like you're you're polluting what was great right Mega scans is I still feel right very quality assets right and you're com you're you're you're you're you're you're watering it down with all these assets you could get quality and you can get something else like you know there's going to be filters and like hey I want Mega scans click Mega scans here they are yeah mix gold with SH you you will average down I don't care what you [Laughter] say gold it's still the same amount of gold if I can through it shitty gold

it's like let me wash my gold with I was like why would you do that just keep the gold [Laughter] aside and just let the wash each oh I don't understand just allow allow the people to do what they want to do man um see turns out we'll see how turn out just wait for 12 months from now 12 months now what's going to happen Watch What Happens dude stup know I'm saying I'm not saying you were wrong right but but I'm saying uh I can see where they want to go with it and and I think it's I'm always interested to see where these things end up say oh there's Ready Player One let's go this way it's like what why what again it's a they made a movie about it just do that what are you doing oh my God so many licenses like here's the sad part everything that they bought right even bankamp and all this Fall Guys rocket league right aside from

making rocket League freet to play because you know they thought fortnite money was forever right um none of these like Fall Guys disappeared like everything kind of in my opinion the you don't hear people talking about it as much yes maybe the appeal but they haven't done anything to add to it right which there's a small there's a small core that are still playing these games right but it's not like cultural phenomenon that it was at the height didn't do anything to it like the acquisition didn't give yeah and and and and that's the thing is like I see a lot of these Acquisitions that you know see the fruits of the labor fast enough after Acquisitions are you know oh you made the acquisition so that they have more resources usually usually but usually that's the the bad thing is cuz now that you have more resources oh man I I can take all I take however long I want now

right you get kind of plac it in there or or you become super ambitious yeah and then and then it's like oh here's a six-year plan for like in six years we'll have something where like when you when you don't have all that Runway you have to be quick Nimble and and make make stuff happen make fast decision I will say this Allen wake too I see the resources I'm looking at that game like dude they really the Triple A the out of this Fran you know Jud number one bad ass dude I was like I'm ready to play this man I'm ready to read this book that's no that's one of the few and that's one of the few um custom engine games out there right North North flight North flight engine from from look like I can see yeah yeah why the acquisition made this game better right and unfortunately I haven't seen any of that wait who who who acquired remedy remedy is in partnership with uh I think Microsoft who bought remedy no they

someone bought him though if it was Microsoft it would be on Game Pass so I think it's I think it is a I think it is a Microsoft thing no it's not Microsoft like their their last game one of their games Quantum break was on Microsoft but but they're not owned by micos so I'm trying to look at yeah know I don't think there was they were acquired oh so so epic games is funding and Publishing Allen way too so so they're the publisher but then I don't think they are I don't think they're it's beyond that yeah that's why it's on epic epic game store right feel like they got acquired by Sony or

something or not because there definitely wasn't influx of stuff because I've heard rumors that Max pay's being remas I know you love him you no no it's it's it's confirmed yeah they do it in max pain yeah yeah there's definitely a influx of they tent no no bought more Stak into it I guess yeah like epic epic fully funded two so it's only available in the Epic store it's only available epic store yeah Dum I was looking forward to playing that on Steam is that on Steam anyway but but um but yeah like it it is all the latest techniques um the facial animation is

some of the best I've seen right it looks like they did like full-on performance capture and like the full FMV in there which is you know yeah old school 90s stuff I was like dude that's kind of cool I don't mind but it's it's it's good it's it's very good um I love I started playing it I started playing it today actually it looks it looks really good that's what I'm saying like it's exciting to like it gives me I was just saying like these games with these old you know old school guys that don't have ideas well here's a guy that you know went through hell the creative that team right they were successful they had to sell max pain to Rockstar or something the Indie basically made Allan Wake made their way back up to control and now they're making Alli W to the way they want to and no and control control did very well right control it very well but like this

is a path of like hardship and failure and Reinventing themselves it's like all right here's a company that very few companies are are are able to replicate right and I was like dude we need more of these guys you know yeah it's it's just they stay together you know the the the vision the like you you play their games it's like okay this is the type of game I'm going to get right and you know it's a very clear creative creative Direction and vision and then um and then it's just quality like like technical quality too like at a technical level it's just just really good well we uh we definitely went over the hour mark r I'm I'm thankful again to for you the I I guess I did most of the ranting but ranting with me H mock my words dude I'm just

laughing I'm just laughing at it and be like y this manad I just feel epic is just doing so many things wrong man I I feel they're so desperate and their ideas are so old that it hurts my feelings because I I I'm a lifetime user of the engine right I was like what the are you doing it's like are you guys going to be around like the reason why I hate when people is like well is this it's just another store that you can buy games on what's the big deal just buy it it's like no I just don't think it's going to be around that's my steam is GNA be around it's been around for the last 20 years it'll be around the next 20 years you have a higher confidence that steam will still be around but you know all of these things like that's why a lot of people don't like any of these stores right because they're like I want to own my game and I want to be able to download it and back it up and do all this and play it yeah

right um you know people have good reason because they just don't trust the platform St of course but here Ste steam's been there for like a long time here's here's what people are subconsciously doing about Steam and then also who are people like me and yourself are consciously thinking about steam is like a 200 plus you know Valas is a 200 plus team right they're they're only like they're only a few hundreds it's like they're going to be around they're all billionaires yeah I'm I'm over at Epic and I see how they're spending their money and everything's failing right they can't even do their metaverse correctly it's you have five like Mega you have five verses right just cross it and that's your metaverse it's like no we're doing ufn I like what what are you doing it's like I feel like they're losing money rightfully so yeah they're losing money because

they if fortnite was gone tomorrow right let's say that all this stuff that they own right does that give you any confidence in their business model this is why they they they fired everyone right what correct if fortnite was taken away they were SP they they're spending more money than they were making yeah because they have nothing and they have bad ideas and and fortnite funds their engine and they're looking for other ways to diversify it's the same reason why I don't go to a loty rener for for business advice right this is why I I like yeah you guys first of all the idea that made you a lot of money you stole that right it wasn't even yours that's what I'm saying I was like you guys are failing I just I just want to point out when I when I bring that up when I brought that up in the past yeah

you always were like n n n don't worry about that I've always made fun of them ideas for pubg man i' I've never really I love their engine obviously for obvious reasons I think they make a good engine the engine will still be there you can still make your engine is losing their money this is what I'm scared of is like because of their up the one thing that is I feel like they are making a good product you know that in fortnite they can't monetize it because they just refuse to yeah be a business the engine doesn't like that's thing like it does not need to be funded funded in that way right they need money to to build the engine of course of course it people need it it doesn't need to be funded directly through the engine right it doesn't need to be right um so

yeah well hopefully next time we talk don't be in better shape but they're they're giving me Facebook metaverse Vibe right now which is you know we saw how that turned out I was kind of I mean it's still it's it's funny like they don't push metaverse a lot but but it's still a thing that they're building and there's you know new headsets just came out what do you think of the new headsets have you tried I haven't I haven't tried it yet I need I need to try yeah I'm in that weird I think Apple did it right man like they're making me wait like I like do I want to buy that or wait for the vision I still want to try that can I Still Play Steam games on division or do I am I stuck with the meta Quest 3 to Play Steam games those are two different devices man completely two different price points two like it's completely different thing one pair of eyes man I don't want to buy two

goggles that's where I'm at right now like I'm looking at those Ray bands like I've seen those videos like I want that or do I not want that it's like it's not doing enough like that's another stupid thing right they I don't even know why those are being made like that I don't know why why it's being made I because they're just trying to Milk The Cow before Apple Vision comes out like I just need I just need live translation dude it's like can't they make these things with live translation by now like that would be my killer app it's like if I can put a set of glasses and speak to someone and basically see live translation of what they're talking about it it'll be the coolest thing in the world no way can do it yeah no well Google has the has the earphones I don't know how well it works but I tried I got yeah did not work they was like oh it's like the what do you call it what's that it's the Babble fish right from yeah from uh from the from the movie uh or the Douglas Adams book it's like you put in your ear you

can hear people translate it's like no it didn't I'm just using the app he works the same exact way anyway anyways well thanks for raning with me man I hope your view and perspectives come true because they're always more positive than mine I'm tired trying to be hopeful I'm tired I'm tired of seeing these idiots mess up man is it's ruining everything H it's disappointing we have so much money but it seems like we just I guess we're a bunch of kids man just keep spending on stupid stuff stupid toys um don't get a Riv on uh anyways all right chill uh as always are you on X how people fighting you LinkedIn are you against X I'm on I'm on I'm on Twitter still um and it's it's uh w a d a r a SS on

Twitter um and then um cuz you know the URL still says Twitter so all all that noise um and then um and then also you can find me on L of course great great great well thank you guys been a fun ride see you guys all next week hello everybody Brandon here I want to talk to you today about something very special we've been on this wild ride together haven't we from my early days as a senior employee feeling a bit lost all the way to Leading multiple Studios transitioning to smaller Indie teenss and the mobile industry and now running my own game studio for the last six years throughout this time you've been here listening and learning along with me sharing this never-ending journey of Discovery this year I'm kind of on this quest of meeting serial Studio Founders discussing Acquisitions or exploring what it takes to grow a studio to over 100 developers I've always tried to find an

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