PocketGamer.biz Podcast Episode #5: Garena Free Fire 80m DAUs, Gamescom goes digital, and more!

hello and welcome to the baka gamer beers podcast which i think is now on its fifth episode that seems like a big big number the big five there's no zero after that my name is Rick Carelli I'm the editor Bona game abyss and I'm slowly sweating to death in a very hot room on this very hot almost fun holiday weekend now I'm joined by two wonderful staff writers Kayleigh Pattinson hello I'm Matthew Ford hello how is everybody doing in this hot hot heat that needs to stop melting yeah we're British we're not used to this we don't have aircon I can't open the window because people are just screaming outside all times so this is it and if I slowly die during this podcast that's on on everybody else and not me it's how I feel but it is it is a bank holiday weekend coming up we're blessed with another day off on Monday anyone have any great plans I've got a few little things planned I mean I mean to

be honest you can't do it let's be honest you can't do much at all of the minute but I'm sort of I mean I'm not doing anything crazy like going doing a conga in a street party but I'd like got one of the things the government's open now he's like golf courses oh yeah cool my uncle one a few weeks ago and how is you don't interact with any humans whatsoever and you literally just pay on your card you turn up and I think I think there's a couple people dotted around the cost make sure everyone spread out yeah but then they just let you you and maybe warn of the pair on and in that slot so you literally see nobody can go play a game of golf which is much needed during this crazy times were all living through that sounds absolutely dope that's pretty good yeah just walking around there's nobody around and I get to play a bit of golf so is that is that your plan you're going off to play some golf on Monday it is yes that is a plastic I am incredibly

jealous Kayleigh are you doing anything exciting presumably not golf no no I can't hit golf balls stabilized neither can I I just play like no I'm I'm having a barbecue with a load of beers and just feeling sorry for myself in the back garden really nice to be fed like it those sound absolutely perfect I unfortunately don't have garden space nor can I leave my home so I'll be doing much the same as I do every day sitting around probably watching yes sit around sweating and watching Hell's Kitchen USA lovely what a great day it will be but that's that's in the future and we need to think about them now and then now is that recording a podcast for gamers so we should talk about that instead of our own lives and instead talk about things like green a free-fire oh no that's gonna be our first thing well I've just ruined the surprise but Ubisoft is doing handling Google Gamescom going digital

completely will we now know it's probably happening Nintendo apparently not doing any like proper directs in the future Apple acquiring next vr oculus quest hitting a certain figure and some other interesting stories but as previously spoiled garena free-fire has hit 18 million daily active users which is quite the sum it was on 60 million daily active users in March of this year second two months to add another 20 million di use which is pretty wild it's also a lokan yeah it's broken a billion dollars in lifetime revenue it made ninety million dollars in the first quarter of 2019 it's basically gone wild so I'm gonna watch the question I asked every single podcast that we do why they'd have you even played this game my answer is always no I've doubled very briefly with it and you can see a lot of mechanics taken from like similar to the

stuff like you pop G and everything like that but it is pretty different and yes it's a huge game it's just massive in the Asian market and you know it's games like pop G and I'm growing a free-fire are like the big two out there and more so than thought like you know for Nighy come not compare compared to a lot of games it's done well but in the overall Toomas names fortnight has done well it seems to be in Asia itself yeah it's struggled if you compare to the other regions as well so I think it's just obvious yeah that was actually gonna be my next question like why hasn't Pope G in fortnight you know just completely wiped this off the map how because the feelin I always get with these battle Royales is you basically have fortnight which everybody knows about and it's like the holy grail of battle rail and then pub G which kind of did really well to begin with started the whole craze and now is the dwindling

numbers except cook G Mobile which is gone so I just don't understand how slot smaller games can continue to thrive when you've got these two behemoths that are just completely demolishing the rest of the market but I think you've got a point about the greener through fire is mostly big in the Asian market and not necessarily over here yeah and it's not like it's an entirely small company I mean garena are owned by tenzin I mean I sure I know every everyone's owned by ten cent these days but they're by sea which i think is has like some investment from like i think they understand how to market better over there as well and you know if you look at the portfolio it does seem to reflect ourself thing I mean it's impressed whatever you look at it though the game launched in November 2017 and as know it would launch in 2017 and then by November 2019 it done a billion yeah which is crazy that's absolutely it is a mad mad number and so few games have

done that we actually keep a list on Pocky game a dog beds of the unicorns who have reached a billion dollars in revenue please do check that out I've actually been playing free fire because every time it comes up and like I should really play that and so I thought okay I'll sit down and play it and the thing that really impresses me about it because I've tried to get into fortnight and did for a beer I tried to get into put to you mobile and completely flat-out failed what I really liked about free fire is that it's it's actually designed for mobile play it's really short but your game because you you have 48 people landing on the island it might be 50 but I've always had had 48 in a game the maps themselves are absolutely tiny and the round times are like aiming for 10-15 minutes rather than like a pub G game can stretch on for about an hour if it go if you play it long enough from well enough and there's just so much more focus on actual action and less about because I always feel that fortnight of G or more about like building up your resources and slowly and tactically moving in and that kind of thing free fire feels much more like

get in there and kill as many people as possible it's gonna be fun absolutely I was gonna argue that I'd say it just play better than fortnight onload ah well that's it that's like big well that's all what you like I do think as you say he's been designed for the platform specifically from that and he does just from the time I've played in both I felt you know if I was gonna go a long term on one I could see why this one would be the choice yeah I guess it just appeals to different types of play as well because I guess you know it took we took about 40 nights not doing too great Asia or maybe that's because it is this longer game that you have to really sink into whereas this is a faster paced and more interesting thing and also also that they do like the the military ssin and in the building at the menus and stuff like that the UI is very very Asian there are so many different things that you can spend on different Gacha that you can do all that kind of thing lots of relatively scantily clad women

who you can unlock as characters you know it's it appeals to a certain type of player and it seems to do very well doing that speaking of games that are a bit like other games except this time it's a lawsuit case that was a good segue I'm happy with that one Ubisoft and decided to launch a lawsuit against Apple and Google over a game called area f2 somewhat helped me out yeah yeah that's it thank you area f2 which was made by well it wasn't made by Apple or Google GUI isn't it EJ that sounds good to me we'll take it but the quick light is interesting because they went after Apple and Google for allowing the game on their stores and apparently the Ubisoft got in touch with him and said you this is copy of Rainbow six siege which is what the game is claimed to have ripped off and told Apple and Google Apple Google did nothing continued to offer the game and so they

decided to sue them we did the story a couple of days ago and now actually I believe that area f2 has been taken down completely off thing yeah so the question is was they was that fully Google the right people to go after or should movie soft have been saving this very joy this whole lawsuit thing I think you answered itself really yeah I would have gone for a joy they copied your game not Google and Apple I mean it's possible that we maybe didn't look too closely into the court proceedings and the a joy was listed as part of that but it's still sort of a weird you know going after the the actual the platform holders rather than the developer of the game to file your lawsuit I guess if the main aim of the lawsuit is to get the game taken down then sure but usually you think more suit you think right I want money and that kind of thing I don't know it was a weird story to see Ubisoft going after the big boys of

mobile just for this one game that had ripped them off supposedly yeah I think I think you just nailed it there as well you know these two are the big boys of the platform you know a joy I never heard of them before this and I don't know if anyone also had so I think if you go for Apple or Google it's gonna make more noise for one yeah she's more likely for them to react to it and I think obviously they've just published it without you know the guidelines I'm sad just not looking for it they've gone ahead with it so I think by going up on Google the hope to get some action out written quicker in cricket like much we're and that seems happened no that's absolutely true I guess like they just if you're gonna what if you wanted something done quickly start annoying the people I are up then just eat joy and it was especially funny because I saw and not to not to you know say anything bad about our sister sites and everything like that the game would calm did did start doing some guys for area 52 so it was getting popular and then the game

got Paul's about an hour after they started boasting which is a shame although I believe I saw I read the statement we haven't updated our story of pocket up is yet but we probably should I believe the developer has taken it down for maintenance and to expand on the game and make sure that it's it's the right game to give to their audience all that kind of thing I think basically they're gonna go through and try and remove anything that looks a bit CG to be honest yes that's basically the whole game yeah I played it and it was basically a copy Wow okay that's the case with a lot of games and you do find this I my experience a lot more mobile to be honest especially across the App Store you know you'll find many games taking assets from very well-known games the likes of Super Mario anything like that you'll always see like you know bird famously have war pipes and yeah and so you know assets always seem to be copied or took from some other game for a lot of parts so I think it's

just something that Apple and Google need to address more you know and maybe this might be a heads up you know a weight waking up call to them I doubt it but you never know I guess the Chris so sorry the thing is though like Rainbow six siege is massive in eSports so we'd be soft aren't going on anyone getting into their territory yeah especially free copying their own game that's they're gonna do what they can to stop it at what point does it stop being like a coffee and is just sort of an inspiration like how close to siege actually is area f2 like is it are we saying like that's the same okay the same play the maps and the characters and that kind of thing is that basic oh yeah basically the same okay okay just like her title it's been like scribble down hahaha girl succeed yeah Ubisoft logo has just been carefully like matched out and then II joy is on top of it allegedly we're not saying that it's just what we've

heard and that was the allegations that have been made we would not say that don't cite us in any more lawsuits thank you so the area of - has now been pulled because of the because also I'm sure we'll see it back in the future and I mean sieges game and loads of people still play it and it makes tons of money so if they've if they managed to change it enough and it comes back maybe err EFT will become popular in its own right who knows unless it decides to change itself massively in which case it probably won't let's move on from from games in Gen James very focused and let's think about more general games because I'm interested to talk about games calm in particular it's decided as it's now launched it it's now announced its full digital event for August with Jeff Keely at the helm I got his name right first time that time he did he did the opening night ceremony for them last time he's going to be doing a similar thing this year except obviously digital and I

believe there will be other streams and stuff Geoff Keighley is a busy boy isn't he because they're like is like the third or fourth digital event that he's organizing in some ways what games come he's got Summer Games fest he's probably you know Summer Games Fest is just an umbrella for all the stuff he's doing within that with all the other companies I the question I have and something that I'm kind of feeling at the minute is anyone else feeling a bit fatigued over the number of digital events but in particular consumer events I see a lot of nods I'm not to be honest I I like and like the more the better for me you know especially in these times where we can't go anywhere do anything it's always interesting to see more digital events but it is getting a bit mad at the minute the amount of them what is a games plus IGN's summer of gaming you be so forward GDC summer and then we've got our own even PG digital and not bad so it's

great to have it all but yeah it's just gonna be an experimental time at the minute and I think you know maybe the first two years there'll be all these it'll be lots of them but then in a few years time you know the proper winners will surface and we'll only see the best yeah clearly any extra thoughts I think I think Matt just nailed it on the head to be honest logic again god damn it why are we so logical on this show god no yeah no I think it's it's a good point that we're kind of everybody's just trying their own things and eventually the best will rise and the worst will disappear out as people look at their stats and go actually this isn't working and some others think maybe it's better in in a way I actually you know initially I was thinking well maybe we won't miss e3 because it's got worse over the years they did the whole linking everyone's information that kind of thing no one's really excited about a3 anymore Gamescom maybe but still you know crowds and people and you know I

kind of miss III especially for us as journalists when you sort of have to think about how much time you're going to invest in like writing these things up and getting all this information out III at least it was like okay here's a week where everything's going to happen and that's where I'm going to focus my attention Gamescom here's a week where I can focus now it's like summer gains fest it's gonna be three months and we're not entirely sure what dates it's gonna be then there's gonna be another three days of next games plus new game plus which is a lot of Japanese developers you got Sager and a bunch of others else as you've got three days of that then you probably got another three days of IGN or that'll be several months or something like that so it's just like the cycle never stops and you never get a chance to have a breather and actually appreciate the stuff that's come through because I think that's that's one that's the problem I'm having is all the stuff is being announced and then I don't have time to go oh I'm excited about this before the next thing comes longer oh no I have to be excited about that yeah I tell together I mean the fantastic thing

about e3 which made it very special was that it was three to four days of just announcements and hype you know unbelievable things and dreams coming true for people that had never thought it happened but you know in the game space you know and there wasn't there's nothing like III I don't if there ever will be again to be honest but there isn't a thing like you know the Oscars every year they don't just you know show loads of trailers and like announce loads of films their films are announced years and years in advance but games you know we get we'd get them all e3 and now is have it spread out over a few more it's gonna be exciting still but it's not gonna be the same buzzer buzzing yeah this it lacks that concentrate energy as well because you know it's so spread out and stuff that instead of having it all in one tidal wave it'll just be little bits here and there yeah from a consumers perspective I think it would be as exciting but from a developer publisher perspective it makes perfect sense because are they gonna get

more of ya more coverage you know from all of us guys so logically as they emit sense and and the other thing is that um because you read all these like horror stories of developers getting getting like vertical slices ready for e3 and tech demos and that kind of thing and then you read back like seven years later it's like oh yeah the game wasn't actually playable that none of that was gonna make it into the game and all this kind of thing you see games come out three years later very different now developers have more of an opportunity to go actually we're not ready for Summer Games fest let's wait until New Game+ or whatever let's wait and to announce our own thing at our own time and they can kind of go at their own pace so maybe we'll have less disappointment in the market as well with art with less hype I think that's the thing that you mention it like III was well it was June every year and second we could do normally with developers been able to release or announce anything at any time during the year it's sort of being coming like that so the last few years it used to be everything was announcing June or around the summer period now

it's just 12 months a year yeah like anything can drop any time which is great that's very exciting you thought you were gonna continue on I know it's just great I was going somewhere it's very exciting it's great and exciting but oh god I'm exhausted it's kind of how I feel anyway Warren company that is apparently not going to be getting involved in any of this hype particularly not in one concentrated form as we've been saying is Nintendo they are reportedly not going to be doing any more directs for the foreseeable future and will continue to just keep dropping stuff at random Matthew you seem to be the only one left in the core are you sad about the lack of Nintendo Direct are you more excited to just have ran announcements thrown out you at any one time I mean there's nothing like a Nintendo Direct is there it's it's something special it always says with

Nintendo Rex as well and we've began a lack of them recently hmm I mean I think September was the last major one we got and then obviously they dropped Paper Mario last week just in a tweet and then there was a small other X I feel like a mini directs maybe nan-in dehorner yeah there was a thing that's been a couple of indie ones this year and there's been a couple of ones that are just like just random announcements no not run around since like one game at a time so we had I think throughout the year we had a couple of the fire emblem know what fire emblem I'm losing my mind it's going it's so hot what's that game that everyone plays Smash Bros yes yeah we had a few of those so coming out of there very focused like we're just gonna do an hour yet smash bros that kind of thing so yeah with Sakurai giving you an in-depth look yeah yeah so it kind of I guess have moved away from the big directors anyway but it's a little interesting that we it's now like it's just not gonna happen at all now it's gonna be a tweet here and there yeah I

still think we'll get them it just seems like Nintendo's moving out the way cuz as we were just previously discussing it everyone's doing their own conferences digitally at the minute so I think Nintendo are gonna wait until it's all blown over maybe the September slot again and then come back with another one but but to play devil's advocate Nintendo might even do something different you know they started out the trend of directs doing these videos now that everyone's doing and they might go off right it's time for us to do something different altogether that would be pretty funny if Nintendo just started this whole trend even so everybody else doing it when actually no are not interested anymore a Nintendo weird in the best and worst place they will do whatever they think is right for where however long and whatever they want to do it it's great I love them so much yet give a little nod to the to the Hatter yes lots of announcements coming over the summer nan from Nintendo

least not in a direct form all very exciting times if you don't die of the heat first so let's do let's take a break from the podcast for a second it is so okay right now sorry I love how deadpan that was okay we're resuming the podcast now I didn't actually stop recording that I just that's a nice little outtake moment friend and I made it to the halfway point okay what are we talking about games Apple is a big thing in games and I just open the wrong window it's all going wrong again guys I'm so sorry Apple are big in games they make the phones that we play them on most of the time and they have just acquired virtual reality specialist next vr we are not entirely sure how much they paid for it although there are rumors that it was coming to around a hundred million dollars we're not entirely sure why they

acquired next VR we're not entirely sure what they're gonna do with them who's excited for Apple VR I guess it's been rumored for a while it's gonna happen now surely Kaylie I hope that happens logically not go down the VRA but VR excites me like I like the direction it's going and seeing the development specialist grown in recent years and I think Apple could be a big player in VR especially with their new acquisition as long as they actually follow through of it and don't get bored and halfway through yeah I guess the thing about Apple buying them is the Apple already has kind of a captive audience for its phones because they're selling like millions and millions of those every year and always launching new ones and they've obviously done experiments into AR so VR is just kind

of a next step for them so I guess you know within two to three years we may end up seeing like Google cardboard but for iPhones which would be great or just or gear VR where you slot the whole thing in and then strap it to your face that could be fun I don't know Matthew would you would you be interested in Apple VR if it was to come to pass absolutely I'm a huge fear advocate I've got a PlayStation VR myself and I try and jump into it every now and then the problem I have which I think many people finding is wires with the unit it's very frustrating so and then take down and everything and that's why the oculus has done so well being Wireless and I'm saying that if Apple can do something similar and integrate it with more balance from way definitely my attention it's an interesting purchase in this climate I think I mean I don't know if they've seen the company would particularly tree probably it was just a good offer at the time or something

there it was a hundred million dollars it's done exactly well pocket checked no no no well for actually no still just because I've see VI UNIX are a high-end product hmm and you know were likely going through another recession now especially in the UK we know that's going to happen I don't know how many people will be able to you know purchase these devices going forward I mean if you look at Sony recently that they've dropped off a bit with their maxing and you know coverage of PlayStation VR apart from the Ironman game they've got coming up and just announced a bundle for that and they've been very quiet and there's not much on the horizon and I think that might be the same for VR it's a it struggled in the past it may struggle again even though sales of PlayStation VR have been pretty decent and for a high-end products but I just uh you know right now I don't think I could get another one and yeah well I'll get one in the first place but you know

I mean if I was getting it so I'm just interested to see how long they are scaley to stick with it and you know it's something five years down the line they still got it are they still invested or is it just something that took a punt up yeah I guess the the question really is how much of his bapple already invested their time into into VR because they've been rumors about them doing VR for about two or three years at this point and now they've actually sort of like cemented those rumours by acquiring a PR firms like is that is the acquisition just to help them get over the finishing line and start publishing it out or is it more about sort of like they haven't actually invested that time yet and we're still three years out from Apple doing any sort of VR you know those questions we don't have the answers to unfortunately but it would be interesting to see yeah I mean I hope so as you say like you know you mentioned Google car but it would be good if that call can come up with like a cheaper version something along those lines for okay I sincerely remember would do a cheaper version yeah nothing Google car

bad sorry what I mean is like a more high-end products of CF yeah you miss you know it can be about 300 400 quid if not you need a high-end you need a fully decked up PC as well which is over a grunt and if they can come up with something you know around the hundred to two hundred mark that could go a long way that's very true 1vr head so that has been a phenomenally well lately and does not even have any wires and actually fulfills all our needs to consider it mobile is the oculus quest I am desperate to get my hands on one I almost bought one yesterday but then realized I'm not a for survival is quest no matter how much I try to convince myself that I don't need any money right now is now according to oculus and it's it's so celebrating its first year anniversaries its first birthday they're over a hundred million dollars now been spent on content on the quest so that's games as apps that's movies that kind of thing further details include that we've seen ten titles surpassed the two million

dollars in revenue mark including titles like moss from pistol-whipped and when there's twenty quest games alone that have hit the 1 million dollar revenue mark and these games are usually retailing for about 25 quid at the word worst so you're thinking like 400,000 copies off my head which is pretty substantial when you consider that you know a few years ago we would say go nobody's got a VR it's not selling at all there's a very niche market and now we're seeing like developers making 2 million dollars and probably selling you know in the region of about a million copies of the game which is exciting and very interesting I mean doesn't it is this an indication the the quest is the way for but this in his own contained unit mobile VR is the way forward does this prove it or is this not actually in that exciting a number any thoughts you on saying this Kelly oh yeah I'll take it now I think it is

exciting and I do actually um I think the number actually does reflect how well mobile VR can do and the oculus quest I think it's the future of VR in general because earlier Matt mentioned about lions and that's what the problem with the PlayStation VR and the quest is completely wireless and much like Rick I would absolutely kill to have one face yeah if anybody from Facebook with oculus is watching they feel like supplying three nice young poor people with oculus arrests I know they're back in stock I checked your website yesterday I had it in my hit basket ready to buy and then had to stop myself at the last minute when I just made my water bill curse the thing with oculus is there and they're all in on VR and you know they've been doing the incremental updates over time you know

you did start off wired and they have made the upgrade and it's finally gone Wireless as opposed to you know the competitors like Sony certainly have you know their consoles and which they're much more focused on and the VR is saw the side project so in that respect I can see oculus in the long term coming out you know on top yeah absolutely I mean they are a VR first and only company so and they're still supporting the things they've got the rift s which is all wired and they've got the go which I think they're still kind of supporting which is like gear VR s a very simple very cheap mobile VR you know they've they've got that basically this stranglehold on the marketplace unless you're getting valve index or and some other VR headset which I think a lot of people might be wanting to because of half-life Alex hey yeah HTC vive that's the other one yeah yeah I getting one thank you yeah I think we've all agreed there that

we are on a quest my address is six note you can reach me at Rick Kelly at still media speaking of things that are selling well minecraft has now hit 200 million copies sold which is pretty darn impressive through a game that launched how old is minecraft now is like it's at least yeah 2009 I'm so old I bought I bought minecraft what it was like you had to go on a crummy looking website and they were doing like a Valentine's Day sale or if you bought one copy for $14 or something you got a second copy to give to a friend because they'd only really just started doing multiplayer wait it's wild to think that now it's owned by Microsoft and we never speak about

its original creator anymore it's just such a such a strange game yeah as part of the two hundred million dollar that what no two hundred million sales are to apologize Mojang has now rebranded itself as Mojang studios i am not entirely sure why can anyone explain this one to me it's because of all the studios they have so down every one two one one title I do believe so this I didn't even more behind it I didn't even know that mojo had like multiple studios I thought they were still just like 1c yeah that's remote studios that a part of mojang so now Mojang studios in the collective it includes includes all of them i think i mean that only sounds like it would make sense yeah I don't really have anything else to say on this I just thought you is really weird I mean Minecrafts continue to perform

incredibly well over the years and I imagine will continue to perform incredibly well as we go forward and you know as new generations are introduced to the game and just small people will continue to jump in and going wrong because you know the most part is a younger audience that don't play these games and then they move off play all the other tails and then you keep going forward I mean a friend of mine recently and during all this quarantine chaos and bought the game on switch and then she's doing pretty addicted to it ever since so and you know she's about my age and some mid 20s so you know I think minecraft just one of those great games but you know it can hit anybody at any time and will continue to thrive I think the other interesting thing as well as it's hitting an average of 126 million monthly active users which means that like people are buying it and then people keep playing it no matter what you've still got people tuning and turning it on and starting it up even eleven years it feels like yesterday that minecraft came out I don't know why

I think it's just because it keeps getting new updates and all that they keep throwing more and more at it like on PC they've got the exciting new lighting engine and all this kind of thing the bedrock update and minecraft together where they've finally got cross-platform on every console on everything it's it's just wild that this it continues to be this big thing and yet we're seeing other big things kind of growing around it like fortnight and put G the the games industry is just wild man it's all I've got to say about video game is that cool video games are so cool why do we have these cool jobs where all we do is sit around and talk about video games all day Joey took write another video game a thread let's talk about another video game that I'm excited about mostly curious but kind of into Harry Potter puzzles and spells finally released it's sort of first debut trailer showing off some of the gameplay some of the iconic locations that you'll be visiting we don't normally cover this kind of thing but I think it's it's worth looking at because

obviously Harry Potter is a huge licensed Zynga as the company might developing it and they're a huge company and they know how to make a good casual game you've got portkey games and one brothers obviously doing all the licensing behind it so it's a lot a lot of people a lot of money live effort going into this game did anyone anyone check out the trailer and go hell yeah I'm going to play this no yeah III watch the trailer who's throwing like it's a match three game you know there wasn't much in the trailer to go off to be honest it's just a few stills of like as they say iconic locations from the series and nothing must seem to get excited well if you like much three games you like Harry Potter I'm sure you'll like this the thing is though does anyone really like Harry Potter that much anymore to play games of Harry Potter yes the real question yeah you think I give me that big RPG that was Rocksteady Studios yes

but this sort of thing and to be honest the one I'm more interested in is a magic awakened yes they want from Nettie's which is like I think it could be an RPG card game and that one speaks an awesome and I I think that could pull from the universe a lot more a lot more interesting than just a match three game for me personally I mean I played a lot of Wizards unite the only one well yeah that's very true this is obviously the Niantic game and which was the follow-up to Pokemon girl which I yeah it didn't take off and not nearly as well and again that had good ideas around it it just quite didn't quite stick the landing yeah I guess you know we've seen a few Harry Potter games I say a few we seen like two Harry Potter games comes in Mobile recently because we had Hogwarts mystery from gem city which is kind of

like the classic glue Kardashian game which didn't really it still got following I think it's in the second year of running now and the jam city is still clearly putting effort into it and there's a dedicated fan base but I don't think it it flew off the shelves as people were hoping was as united recommend is they play well but it's not just very well it's not been like a phenomenal success though and the same could be said of the Wizards unite which I guess a lot of people were looking at and thinking hell yeah we've got this huge license we've got the power of Niantic and Pokemon go behind it if we must these - together we've got another billion-dollar hit and that I feel again is sort of when I say failed I mean I don't I feel it's like not lived up to the expectations that you would have for something with the Harry Potter brand on it so my question is is the Harry Potter brand still even worth going after for these games because obviously people seem to think there is still worth in the Harry Potter brand because otherwise they wouldn't be picking it up and and there wouldn't be port key games licensing it out and stuff but we've

still got we've got yeah that's the other question isn't it is them what's the audience and who's actually gonna play these games and we'll find out more of that more answers to that after we see I forgot what it's called puzzles and spells launch because you know once that comes out we'll see if casual players are still playing it we've got the the magic awake and dizzy was saying which sounds like a more hardcore RPG card game are people gonna be interested in that because it has the Harry Potter license we may never know who is who is playing Harry Potter games these days we'll find out shortly hopefully when these 2d games come out yeah I just don't think anybody's nailed it I mean that I think the closest is maybe the Lego games yeah take on this world they get they do extremely great jobs with all eyepiece you know Star Wars lore the Rings you know Marvel games whatever and they just seem to understand why people love these IPS and all the lower and it behind him Amador think we've had that

yet on any platform outside of a lego formats like a real undertaking of the universe so I still think there's I still think there's massive weight behind the Harry Potter name and everything like that and it's definitely not help these games you know thundering a little bit but just I'd still definitely be excited of any new games new game announcements I mean as a person with six Harry Potter games on his desk just below him that I'm now eyeing up I think they pretty much nailed it if you gobbler fire no no Goblet fire order of the Phoenix I mean what a great what a classic title that is I'll take your word for it oh yeah thank you Thank You Kelly for the backup is this the leg of one on the actual real no the actual real one the the fish officially licensed Daniel Radcliffe is on the box as well Larry this noise glory phenomenal great stuff they was

they were so long ago as you say that's PlayStation 2 yeah I mean that yeah that's that that's the time when Harry Potter was still popular in the general populace and people were still going out and seen the films have read the books and that kind of thing I mean I think I feel like the time is probably passed for Harry Potter this is some aches that you probably write because if you'd look at the fantastic beasts series in film they've been losing money they're not losing money but like not made nearly as much as am the the Harry Potter series like each one since I think they've only had two so far but that's why the third one has been poor on hold just because there isn't that much I don't that must might be a story thing as much as anything but audiences aren't going out as much to see it yeah I mean yeah you know what IP do we think people should be going after if not Harry Potter and obviously not Marvel because everybody's getting muffle if we were gonna see a new IP what's popular what's what's cool with the kids let's solve this problem right now because I don't have anything else to talk about so we're gonna sit here

for ten minutes and solve the IP problem let's go what's your favorite IDs at the moment vastly underrepresented and you should we could make mobile games off Kaylie I'm gonna put you on the spot DC [Laughter] injustice there was a DC like battle-ax game it was pretty good okay yeah there's a few I know you mean we haven't had a massive DC game for a while and there was a Batman Arkham game as well on mobile which and stupendously failed and I remember think what be a good or what's big right now what is big in cinema marathon all the woman game would be cool but I'd rather of them console that's this what if you are what if you are gonna go free it has to be I don't

know yes to be to be a good mechanic behind it has to be a reason like Pokemon did with Pokemon go you know something that just fits it's not I'd rather of a game that doesn't slap an IP on focuses on one mechanic and nails it yeah I guess you know let's talk about Pokemon go because that's their game still remains great and I think the reason that works is because it gave you that sensation of being a pokemon trainer and going out into the world and catching pokémon and like you can transport over to Harry Potter but it doesn't make any sense because Harry Potter didn't go out like collecting things he went out fighting bad guys briefly at the end of the whole series yeah then when I click something the last two oh yeah seven things came out of that Afrin out of things to talk about so we should just wrap up the podcasts that's the end of my schedule it's been great I really enjoy doing this I I don't know

if anybody makes it to the ends of the podcast but if you do thank you so much for sticking with us we will be back again next week to discuss more about mobile games and the games industry and everything like that and I will be setting homework for these two to come up with some better IPs and to represent it I will talk about that at the start of next episode we weren't that worried um yeah a quick reminder we are doing roundtable zanpakuto is now I believe I think we're waiting a week for the next one so we'll probably be back on June 2nd one of those we did one this week on topic of parents pitch we had some great guests great chat it was really good really informative and people seem to really like it that's on YouTube now if you want to check it out and we'll find a written version of it well you know some highlights from it written up by me at some point in the near future we do also have Pocket connects digital coming very very quickly I'm going to get the date right this time is June 8th to the 12th nailed it yet we'll probably end up doing a PG based podcast during that as

well as part of the show or just alongside it it'll be great we've got loads of guests planned and talks and panels and that kind of thing we're revamping the meeting system big times it's going to be really good this time trust us on this one it really will be much better and all sorts of other improvements and stuff the first time was a great learning curve for us and the second one is gonna be even better so please do get tickets for that if you haven't already I believe midterm sale prices on those are ending very very shortly they may even be gone by the time this episodes out so do get your tickets fast we've also got blockchain and game connects digital I think at some point in the future I'm not sure about that one but if you're interested in blockchain gaming do check that out as well give it a Google I'm sure there'll be information on block to block drinking up is as well that everything that we were allowed to announce I've got an IP okay okay great Oh James Bond yes yes no one has nailed

James Bond I've always thought the Hitman developers should do so on call of Io right now listen guys we got the game for you but they're on their own boy they own Warner Brothers these days no they went independent they're owned by Warner Brothers now they're independent you could do whatever they like okay we've phenomenal we've nailed it that makes me very happy we can end with what gets on a good note okay I think that's everything so it's say goodbye from Kaylie hey goodbye from Matthew goodbye and it's goodbye from me thank you once again do check out pocket bears for all your latest and greatest in news and games information we'll be back next week see you later bye