[music] Hello everyone and welcome to Deconstructor of Fun. This weekend games 397. Oh my god, we're almost at 400. We're trying to figure out what to do for that episode. I'm Jen Dano. I play the marketing and publishing role in the podcast. Today we have
Eric Crest, strategy and investing.
Phil Black Monizations are
Mishka Katkov. I started this in my 30s. That's how long we've been doing this.
[laughter]
Eric was in his 40s. No,
I was going back and looking at some of the pictures.
Not by that head of hair. [laughter]
I I promise we are going to do some pictures of in the way back machine of what I could grab. I think in Riverside we go back to episode like 150.
We were without video for a long time. It was Joseph Kim who started putting out the videos. We're happily incognito.
Yeah, that's when the ratings went down.
[laughter]
Oh, that's funny. Here's what we got going on the episode today. The Roblox tragedy continues. And out this morning, uh, I think everyone knows we're record on Wednesday morning Pacific time. Apple overhauls its EU app store fees, loosens rules for alternative app stores. We made some calculations kind of and there's also some very interesting news on AT changes coming out of Germany that are going to cause a lot of shakeups in things. We are going to cover it lightly cuz it just came out. We haven't had time to digest everything, but we'll give you the initial take. Webtune digital comics platform is acquiring 60% in RA game holdings for 100 million. So they are now making a play. Everyone's making a play for gaming. Although Netflix seemingly isn't because they closed two more studios to IPO or not to IPO or to IPO indeed list. This is the curious case of Deolver Digital. Castle Crushers. Uh Mishka's determined to get
it in. [laughter] And then uh if we make it
number one game number one game in Voodoo's portfolio, Eric, sorry he's actually right about this.
I looked at the numbers. They're terrible. Oh, they're just
No, this is this isn't a North Guard situation.
Oh god. Okay. Uh and then a game that actually has mattered throughout history, Kingdom Hearts. So, they get an animated series coming out of D23 that happened this this past week. If you're a Marvel Star Wars nerd or a Disney nerd, that is the show to watch. There's also Kingdom Hearts 4 coming in late 2027. I worked on the toys for this and I want to tell story. So, if we get there, you'll get that story. But first, Chris, I want to know if you are the next judge, Judy, because you are in jury duty. Did you get kicked out for contempt of court? We were kind of debating. We thought you would. What happened?
What a waste of [ __ ] time. It was like the dumbest case. It was a DUI that this woman was trying to get out of and she looked like dead to rights to me. But um anyway, I I literally was two
people away from being selected, but it would only have been a week and a half. But I just definitely dodged a bullet because it just would have been the worst case. However, however, this weekend I did save my family's life. As we were walking on a path in the wilderness, I came upon a rattlesnake and I jumped and screamed like a little girl, making sure that my family was safe, right? I notified them that there was a danger in the wood. So, I was a hero. I was a hero.
Oh my god. But I can just hear the music playing right now.
You're like Kevin Cosner holding Whitney Houston and the bodyguard. I see.
So brave. So brave.
More like Macgyver. Maybe he came up with some contraction. [laughter] [gasps]
Oh, I just see I just see you going like in like anyway.
Well, good job, Chris. I'm very proud of you for being protect lord and protector
of the family. So, let's go to not quite chilling, but just another amplification. I was just in Seattle. Crest was there with me. So, some of the folks there are part of Slice. It's a conference. It's a one-day industry event designed for indies and AA devs, empowering game developers with practical tools, strategic insights, and essential connections. Whether you're just getting started or leading a growing studio. So, this is on September 2nd in Seattle. Go to seattlelesslice.org. or they gave us a promo code if you'd like to go. It's doof uh-slice 26. So just trying to help them. I know there's a lot of people out of work in Seattle right now and so they wanted to make sure that that would be a place to help folks. So do that. Mishka, what else do you have?
A couple of things. So Afan Butt was on the podcast. He's the co-founder of Investment Bank ARM. Now that sounds super not interesting, but it is actually a very interesting podcast if
you are a founder, somebody who aspires to be a founder or somebody who has employee stock options. So essentially the podcast is about how deals get done and it's not theoretical. He actually talks about the cases of Loom game, Supercell, Peak Game. So very tangible, very very real stories on on what to look for, [clears throat] how to create or not create FOMO, etc., etc., deal structures and so forth. So highly suggest you check that one out. It was filmed and others put in really, really interesting people on them. And then we have Paddle that's fully booked, over booked, so come in early. And then we have a supper club that never had a link and that is also oversubscribed. So, if you are coming to that, whether you chose the Mixer or the full event, see you there.
Awesome. Thank you. You're the only one of us going, right? Phil, you're not going.
Hi, everybody.
I thought Phil would be there, but he's not. So, I'm I'm I'm like breaking
myself in half being [laughter]
Yeah, Phil does invite only executive events from this this point on.
I mean, look at I learned it from you, man. What do you want me to tell you? [laughter] I'm the man of the people. I'm in Gamescom.
I love that you're all bougie now, both of you. Okay, fine. That's pretty funny. All right. Uh, let's see. Corrections.
I got some messages regarding my last week's analysis of Loom games and how it kind of broke everybody's minds in in Turkey because it was such a big deal in such a short amount of time. And now everybody is looking to repeat something. And my argument was that maybe this is not something you can repeat unlike you can do with puzzle games that they followed since. So essentially I got some replies from Turkish founders and they said yes but and what they added is the industry has changed in the sense that anybody in Turkey can raise $3 to5 million. That's super easy. Just say you're ex Peak or X
what and and investors will wire you money. But that's what everybody kind of has and it's very very difficult to compete for talent. There's not really talent around. So they are essentially forced to do games like that, hybrid casual puzzle games, something that is relatively quick to launch and the subsidies of Turkey really help with that. So they offset building and shipping and try to find the lightning in the bottle uh or try to get the lightning into the bottle. So it's not per se that it's because of the loom games, but it's because of the way the investment have gone and how little talent there is. though they are they have been pivoting to hyper casual in short.
So what are you correcting?
I'm not correct. I'm just adding I said I said it's because of the loom games like everybody got FOMO and they want to do that. Uh but I was added that that it's because of the investments that have been flowing and the lack of talent that it's structurally they have to do what Loom games did.
Okay, understood.
Saturi, it's the Japanese Zen Buddhist term for sudden enlightenment. That flash where everything clicks. We're told that Heroic Labs team had theirs [music] when they realized that most studios run live ops like a horoscope. Vague, kind of generic, same advice for everyone. So, they built Sattorii, realtime experimentation, player level personalization, events that [clears throat] actually respond to player behavior. Save Sananara to your old live ops stand and Konichiwa to Sattorii from heroic labs.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know this is web store rumbringer. 70% of top apps are using a web store. And the best ones, they're doing it with app charge. Do you want a $20,000 inapp purchase? Yeah, app charge does that. Do you want to pretend that subscriptions are still a viable monetization strategy for games? Yeah, app charge even lets you do that. They get what high average
revenue per paying customer means. [music] And they're already doing over half a billion dollars in transactions a year. So, are you going to be the first to do a $20,000 AP? Don't accept microtransactions. Embrace macrotransactions. Learn more on appcharge.com. Uh, let's go to our first topic. Crest, I think you put this in Roblox. I'm going to have to start banning child torture video discussions. Um, it feels like
it's funny because if my expression of what I think the Roblox platform is terrible, this is even worse. So, I mean,
this is pretty bad.
It doesn't get much worse than this, guys. You know, like, so I don't know. I read through this and I was like kind of appalled. But I want to say like my own bias on this and as much as trash I talk about Roblox is that like Roblox has spent a gajillions of dollars on these privacy things for children. Like this
is like part of what their platform has been has been defined by you know like I mean I've talked to these guys. I know they've spent insane amounts of money doing this and some of the things that are happening on the platform are kind of like kind of illustrate this to some degree, but basically the story is that they are under congressional investigation and [clears throat] it's like the children are hurting type investigation.
This is in the US, right?
Yes, this is in the US, right? And the quote is, "Let us be clear, children on your platform are hurting. Congress will not look the other way." So, US senators Josh Howley and Dick Dur have announced that Roblox will be the subject of congressional investigation amidst claims that the gaming platform is a threat to child safety. I quote, "You trumpet Roblox is a safe digital playground for children as young as five, but the public record raises serious questions about the promises of safety. Over the past decade, police have arrested numerous individuals committing serious act of violence and harm against children. They met via Roblox, including grooming, sexual abuse, kidnap, and even murder. Roblox is being used to trade child sexual
abuse material, participate in sexually explicit and often violent virtual experiences with children, bribe and extort children into producing explicit content, and lure children into in-person meetings. It is heartbreaking. And I'm like,
awful.
My child torture video comments just don't even do justice to that at all. I mean, not even close.
There's going to be a lot of beeped out, by the way. A lot of words beeped out in this. Roblox appears to prioritize revenue and engagement metrics over the safety and well-being of our children. And the alleged criminal activity on Roblox warrants congressional scrutiny. Let us be clear, children on your platform are hurting. Congress will not look the other way. Right. Roblox evidently reported themselves 65,000 instances of suspected child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2025, more than double the 2024 total. So, Roblox chief safety officer Matt Kaufman, who has been on the Decorative podcast, I didn't know that, responded
that safety is foundational to the platform and that they'll share how they protect kids. This adds to a pile of existing pressure. The Australian government inquiry of Florida AG investigated a Texas AG lawsuit in a $12 million settlement from in Nevada over child safety policy. So, my take here, look, the news just keeps getting worse for this beloved Roblox platform. What shocks me about this is that every time I talk to people about this particular thing is that there's no mention of Discord at all in these investigations. So my understanding that it's actually really well kind of known is that you find them on Roblox but you actually groom them on Discord, you know. So like because Roblox is a relatively protected platform from a chat perspective and you're limited in how you can actually interact with children on the platform by its nature, they actually move them through DMs to uh Discord which has far less safety procedures and safety protocols and that's where actually much of this grooming is. So anyway, we will see if if Discord gets pulled into this
ultimately, but my my sense in talking to some people about this is that Roblox will likely actually remove the Discord link altogether, right? Which could have an impact on the social nature of their platform holistically, frankly, longer term, and you know, could actually change kind of the nature of how the platform actually brings people together outside of this child grooming thing. So and again when they went public like when I was covering this company from the very get-go the primary issue was like child safety and it was a huge risk at the time and they they spent exa exorbitant amounts of money to ensure that this was happening but what's happened is like the predators have found workarounds right so with discord and other platforms and so as we see more concerns from governments about child safety for both social media as well as these social platforms like these gaming platforms We're just they're going to get continue to get scrutiny and to have issues. So, we'll see how far this goes with the in the US anyway, but this is just more of
a sign to come of what's coming.
Yeah, Roblox has put tremendous effort into protecting kids on the platform. They actually came in on the podcast before and talked about it. So, there's three major things that they've done. So, one is the age assurance, the facial age estimation that became mandatory for chat access. So user lands between six different bands you know from n under 9 to 9 to 12 1350 yada yada yada and they can only chat within their band and download. Then the second part that they did was agebased account tiers. So they introduced Roblox kids that was default all communication off and restrict play to minimal and mild contact. And then they have Roblox select which is 9 to 15 that allows up to moderate content. And third one was detection reporting. So they have the Sentinel AI. It's an open-source behavioral model for preemptive brooming detection. In-game reporting was rebuilt in mid of 2026, so just recently with outcome notifications
now reaching reporters roughly 99% of the time, which closes the loop that used to make reporting feel pointless. Now again, when we're talking about these numbers of incidents, Roblox DAU is insane. So they can't have any mistakes because even the tiniest like oh it's just 1% that 1% is tens of thousands of kids. So as they were doing these things like probably preemptively probably based on what they were expecting and probably just because they want to improve their platform they've been eating genuine business hits. So in 2026, the last quarterly report, they came in again at 132 million DAU against what was consensus of 144 by market. Uh their hours of playtime were down but almost 10%. Their booking guidance was cut but roughly 900 million. Uh but the real story that I I don't think we talk about enough and what should really scare the investors is that currently only 51% of their global DAU has
completed a checks. Uh this was by the end of Q1. Uh and 65% have completed the A checks in the US which is primary monetizing plat uh geo. So that means that nearly half of the user base is sitting in these degraded experiences because they are very mild and they're also chatless and you can imagine that 35% of the users in the US don't have chat enabled. The face estimation also verifies only age not the identity of the person. So if you are a determined adult, you know who those are, uh, and they pass and land at 15 15 band, they can now start chatting with 15y olds. And the main litigation point that they've been had is moving kids away from their platform, which has all these elements to stop uh, this sort of a predatory activity to offplatform discord. These changes that they have done doesn't really affect that. So, Discord and and moving off to not only
Discord, but I assume like Snap and others, they're not solved. They're not solved by by these elements. So, um yeah, I mean, two questions to Eric based on this is like what do you think Roblox should do and what do you think this means to Discord that are looking to IPO?
I mean, first of all, I mean, I think Roblox should basically discontinue the relationship with Discord, you know, and and they're going to take a hit, right? because their virality of their game and their their social construct is going to be gone because most of the chat that's going on with these games evidently is in Discord or a good share of it anyway. You know, Roblox is doing everything they can in order to fight this by changing their algorithm and and putting in all these protections and all that stuff. So, they just got to keep grinding at it. I think the issue and the the thing that we've talked about before and I don't want to go re relitigate this again is that this new platform is not the same platform right so it does not deserve the valuation that it had before it's basically a fraction of what it's worth without the
viral growth and without the user growth and what without the ability to monetize uh this type of content. So, I mean, they're just they're in in a situation in which they have to reinvent themselves to some degree because what they've been selling for the last like three or four years is just no longer the platform in this scenario. So, we'll see if they can adjust and and and you know, re reinvent themselves. It's just I think it's going to be very challenging.
Uh, sorry, this is nothing though. This is Josh Holly. Eric, you know, you know Josh Holly. Josh Holly is probably the one of the worst US senators of all time. Eric, do you remember when Josh Holly tried to literally introduce a ban on pay to progress mechanics? He literally tried to regulate Candy Crush out of existence. It's explicitly called out in the legislation that he proposed. He will jump on any opportunity as a political entrepreneur to make waves. And Roblox has been bleeding. Like that is their problem. But I think this is a total nothing burger. Like the thing
that Roblox needs to keep their eye on the prize is these social media bans in countries. Like if France says Roblox falls under social media, this becomes a real problem for them. I I don't think this stuff matters.
I'm not disagreeing with you. I The temperature is [ __ ] raising. Like this is not the frog boiling. This is like it is popping off the top right now.
And then and yeah, when there's smoke, there's fire. And and you're right, the US is [ __ ] completely useless when it comes to this [ __ ] but the Europeans are not, right? And if they see blood in the water, dude, they're coming, right? And and so that's why I think Roblox is taking these efforts like proactively almost to make sure that they are abiding by the potential regulations that are going to happen. But you're right, the US is useless when it comes to
Well, they are getting closer on KOSA, which is the Children's Online Safety Act. I think it's passed both the House and the Senate. They just have to reconcile it a little bit, but
I'll look into that for next week. Yeah,
it's so we we should look into I I just did a podcast with two legal experts in games, one on M&A and one on like everything else, which includes like, you know, children's online privacy and safety and and everything going on there. And like one of the key things that I learned is everyone's like, "Hey, this game is for those over 18 on their website or in the game." Like that does not save you from these problems. You know, evidence to what's going on with Roblox. I mean, luckily for Roblox, like the US government can't agree on anything to get anything done right now. But Phil is right. I think the challenge is going to be when these other countries figure out that Roblox is a social media platform and they in the band.
No, Jen, don't don't give them don't don't let us be quoted in a regulatory paper.
It's different, Jen. It's a game.
I I I'm just I I'm just saying they I I don't It's not my opinion. I think that they are going to soon realize that that's actually what these things are and what's going on. I think that's the
danger for these games. And by the way, not just Roblox or Roblox will get hit, but all of them. Not that I I'm not saying that that's right, but that could be coming. That could be coming.
Yeah. I put out a rumor that AT was coming back or like [laughter] IDFA is coming back. I mean, I heard it from some investors, guys, who are never really reliable because all they're doing is promoting nonsense in order to like push their book, right? So, it's it's hard. But we heard recently is that there's been um Apple's kind of been forced to restructure at in Germany based upon a German complaint. Um, and this is a article from our old partner Eric Seafford. So the core German complaint was this. The regulator found that Apple's own consent prompt for personalization ad was worded to encouraged optin while the AT prompt it forces on third party apps was designed to discourage it. So basically Apple was working against the publisher and for themselves. Big [ __ ] shocker, right?
Actually, you know what [clears throat] the the the more macro thing? Any negative news on Apple, I just [ __ ] revel in it, dude. I [ __ ] hate Apple. I think Apple's evil even though I own every single device they make, but whatever. Okay.
Uh so okay
plus uh third parties sometimes had to ask for consent multiple times even after users had already consented under the data protection law. So the remedy here in Germany is that they must align these at prompts with their existing prompts for them with third party publishers basically is what's happening right so at the end of the day they're going to make it easier for people to opt into at which is really really really good potentially for publishers and potentially really really good for Facebook in particular which was the one that was destroyed by this potential particular thing back in the day. So, this actually may confirm like kind of the rumor that I was hearing back. Um, it's clearly not as dramatic as bringing back IDFA completely, right? But if you change the AT prompt, it is possible
that Facebook and other big companies may get more opt-ins for AT and allow people to use IDFA, right? Eric is a bit skeptical that the US will follow suit. This is obviously just Germany, but if a few countries in Europe actually follow this, I think it's potentially more than likely that that the US will follow suit. And I think Facebook will likely push this issue uh and get it done.
Yeah, if you're following along online, we have the two prompts. Apple's first party prompt and then the one that you'll see for third parties that when you launch a game to allow tracking, you can see how dramatically different these are positioned. We're back in like the regulatory arena. Uh first of all, credit to the Germans who read every single goddamn piece of text for bringing this case forward. Uh [laughter] no wonder it was the Germans who brought this case. There's one in France that has also been ruled by the French competition. an authority in a similar way. So interesting to see if the EU does anything. I I was curious about what is the actual AT opt-in rate. I feel like sometimes this gets lost in the AT conversation. And when we look
into adjusts last 2026 Q1 report, they actually had a 39% opt-in and about 31% they had for puzzle, 42 for casual, 36 in Europe, and 33 in North America. I was surprised North America was so low. And of course, North America is our key market and Appsflyer had around a 40% approval response. So we have multiple sources kind of hovering around this high 30% range. And I would just encourage people to remember like the harm of AT is based on what the penetration of AT is. If this is the level of harm and then you you throw in fingerprinting which also helps soften the bow. I guess I'm left wondering what the ultimate effect of this whole drama was over the last 10 years. And I don't think we still have like good empirical information about what the realized effect of this is. I think we see in the genre evolution. I don't think there's like a concise empirical study of what the actual effect is. The thing I'll say though, Eric, is like even if this gets fixed and as game developers, we can make the AT prompts more customizable. And by the way, already you see what game
developers are doing, which is they do the pre-screen, the pre-screen before you get to the AT screen. They say, "Oh my god, the AT screen is coming. Here's what it's going to be about." And that's where usually I've seen developers try to inject their own language, which I'm sure Apple would go over with a fine tooth comb if it became more popular. But even if they're able to improve these optin rates, so what, [snorts] right? Like any gains that we have in better advertising is just going to go to Facebook, to Apple, and to Google. This doesn't solve the problem. Like you used to say with web stores.
No.
Yeah. It's already moved on. You always moved on.
Yeah. I feel like we're kind of done with this drama.
Yeah. This is a point that they try to make is that Apploven still owns Max. They're the ones that have dominated this. I think the impact really has been a market share shift to AppL from other sources, right? You know, and they they basically destroyed the ecosystem overnight and and created this [ __ ] behemoth of Apploven, right? I don't think you can unwind that at this point. And this is actually a point that both Deboo and uh Eric make is that the genie
is out of the bottle. Having said that though is that if this allows Facebook to be more competitive, that could be a better UA channel potentially is if if this is more broadly adopted, but yeah, unclear as if it's actually going to impact things. As Jen said, UA UA has kind of moved on.
All of these folks have figured out through either fingerprinting or predictive mechanic. They've everyone's kind of figured out how to deal with it.
No, Facebook is not really. They're still trying. Their market share went from 80% to like 15%. And it's stuck there.
Yeah.
But yes, so they they got hit, but they have since been coming back.
They have No,
they're trying.
They're trying.
They're trying. Desperately trying, but not being very successful at it
despite all the efforts. So, I mean, and and the competitive advantage to app. So, anything that moves to app to Facebook's way, I mean, look at the
numbers. Look at the stock. It's like [ __ ] horrible.
Anyway,
for Facebook,
I don't think it's because of their UA play.
Did you hear Zuck's uh uh diet tribe manifesto? It was pretty funny.
All right, let's go on to the other Apple story. So, this is also in Europe. Apple cuts its EU app store commission to 26% and replaces the 50 cent, how do you say 50 cents? Is that how you say it? install fee with a flat 5%. So, this came out this morning, so forgive us. We're going to just hit the key beats. Um, next up will be us comparing this to what's going on with Google Play. You know, what are all the implications? I don't think any of us quite have had enough time to do that yet, but here's what's going on. Apple's inapp purchase commission in the EU drops to 26% from 30%. with 15% for small business programs. What has also happened is it's
moving to 20% on reduced terms for games using their own payment processor. And then Apple charges 15% when developers link players out to the web and 5% for apps distributed outside of the app store. So we have a little chart that kind of breaks each of these costs down. If you're watching us, helpful to have that. So, the core technology fee on installs past a million, went away, and now it's a a flat 5% core technology commission. The other thing I did see that was interesting is careful when you pick which program you're in because apparently you're locked in for 12 months. So, just as you think about which one of these things that you're going to follow, uh, you get you're stuck. So, all of these terms take effect October 1st. So, as we record August 19th, we don't have a lot of time to make that. The European Commission says it welcomes the changes and it's going to monitor implementation. So,
they don't approve it. They just come back later on and complain about it after it's live for a little while. So, Mishka, why don't you talk a little bit about what you're seeing? Yeah, well I'm seeing this, you know, since 1 hour ago, but in short, Apple is replacing its EU terms on October 1st and the headline is that pre-installed core technology fee is dead. So that was the one that they would have taken from everybody and it's good because they would have charged it based on downloads which should have you know killed a good portion of the industry. In its place is a flat core technology commission on revenue from apps distributed via alternative marketplaces or the web. The initial acquisition fee and the store service fee are essentially gone. So that's good. The other changes is that the alternative payments can now sit along Apple inapp purchase flow for the first time but with as Jen you said the 12 month lock in which depending on the
configuration you choose. Uh and then the alternative store operators no longer need to prove developer scale but they must be a either publicly traded bced all of them or c an established firm that passes an audit. So that's interesting. You can always assume which one of these will have the these payment providers will have the most trouble with this one.
Uh not VC back. Anyways, uh the EU Commission has said it welcomes the changes and then Epic naturally excels that they calls them junk fees and says that charging anything for linkouts violates the DMA outright. So Epic to the rescue as always. Uh there's an image as well if you're watching this. So basically Apple inapp purchases the standard is 26 for small business partners. I think this is the the under 1 million a year it's 15. Then there's the alternative payment inapp a standard is 20% link out 15 alternative marketplaces in web distribution 5. So I
tried to do the math. Now keep in mind I did this math half an hour ago. So native inner purchase nets you 74% of the revenue. So that will be your net and the link out is 15 plus roughly 3% of processing fee which would be 82 of whatever survives the web checkout. Now let's take an example of a game that usually would use web shop. So a game that makes $3 million in gross revenue per month. So today it would be Apple in a purchase at 30%. So their net would be 2.1. uh if they do nothing in October after October 1st, Apple inapp purchases will be at 26%. So their net will go up by 120,000. Yay. Of doing after doing nothing on Apple. So essentially 1.4 u million a year plus. The option B is you build a payment stack. to hire the people or took a web shop provider like
app charge took on the VIT liability across 27 European countries and landed within a rounding error of 26%. So we have a calculation here. The gross is 3 million. Apple takes 20% which will be $600,000. The payment providers and web shop PSP was that payment service provider fees will be about $105,000. Fraud and chargebacks at at 1% would be about 30k and then tax compliance refund support would be at 40k. So you will be at net 2,225,000. So that is if you build it everything internally then you can do the link out. So this is where you link out the player to go to buy from your web shop. Apple takes 15% of that. Then there's a 3.5% payment service provider which leaves you at a very healthy 81.5% of the revenue. The problem in these linkouts is always the handoff. So when
the user leaves a game and opens a Safari or Chrome, whatever the web browser is, they enter their card details and then they need to come back. And if your conversion between this crazy flow is 70%, the 3 million becomes 2.1 million gross and the net will be 1.7. So you just lost half a million month versus doing nothing. And you actually have to have at 3 million rage uh over 90% of app conversion rate through they're linked out. They have to go there now. They have to come back. That has to be over 90% for it to match the Apple's inapp purchase flow at the moment. And then Jen is showing the image of of what it is like to to pay to them. And the only reversion based on these uh things that come out in October in EU uh that would work is if you only target whales, which many companies have been doing because whales have saved credentials. And in that same $3 million a month game through inapp purchases, say 10% of your players will be bringing
60% of revenue. That's 1.8 million. If you do nothing, you are basically getting 1.3 million net out of that 1.8 coming from your top 10%. If you link them out, uh you would be getting, you know, 1.35. So you are winning, you know, few percentage points after all that. So the way it's constructed is definitely um an attack against web shop providers and D2C.
Yeah, I think we need to spend more time with this. So when I was eyeballing this versus Google Play, there are differences in what Google Play was announced. I think they don't currently have any charge for distribution outside of the platform store, but there was a difference in the linkout fees. So we'll we'll go and find some experts and do some more homework and come back on what this means. It's confusing is the other thing it beats. I feel bad for any finance person to have to like figure out what the hell this all means.
I don't know. My my two main points has always been from the very beginning is that one doesn't solve the UA problem and two it's complexity that will benefit the big, right? So it's in some ways regulatory capture, not regulatory capture, but rules that are set up to support the big because the big are the only ones that can deal with this [ __ ] across all these different regions and different rules and regulations and the reporting requirements and the revenue recognition blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Yeah,
this makes it very much more difficult for the small, right? Um to
Can you name one gaming company that's had a stock price increase on the news of reduced app store fees? give you a single one that's we've seen any movement in share price because who what what share price moves when this [ __ ] when this [ __ ] happens and obviously it's it's tough to do share price movement information tracking rational
public there's nobody public anymore
the the advertisers are the share price that move
it's Facebook it's apploving that's who
that's who moves on this news because they are going to be the winners of this as we've talked about I think the only thing that matters and we have the table in front of us is whenever we see these conversations about oh the the eve is doing or you know X country is doing Y. The most important thing is what are the countries that have the largest share of IP revenue doing and right now that's the United States again at a plurality of IP share which is 35% of global IP revenue. All that matters is what's going to happen in the United States what happens to to linkout revenue which is 0% right now. The EU by the way and the Japan have very similar IP shares. So like those are equally important to keep track of and I know we focus on the EU because they're always making noise but what happens in Japan matters too. and we've seen some walls start to to come down there.
It matters for Japanese companies. I think Crest, you know, you've done this analysis in the past is the top games and game companies in Japan are all Japanese. Same thing for Korea and same thing for China.
Well, I still care about our allies, Jen. I don't know about you. [laughter] I would like to see a strong strong
Asia. I'm just saying for for uh for our audience who want to try to have global reach um where they care about the most to your point is you know US tier one markets that's why we you know care a lot about the European market as well. One of the things that we were trying to figure out too between all of us is like what's the difference between a payment inside of your app versus like linking out to a web store. So we'll get some experts. So here's the next story. Um, and this is a is is a little bit ironic because hopefully today Mishka if you're able to release my uh web tune podcast. So I did a webune.
Oh it is okay. Awesome. I didn't check this morning. So um very timely and ironic news. My podcast focused a little bit more on the marketing side of things. Web tune if you're not familiar with it is a digital comics platform built for Gen Z. They pioneered vertical scrolling comics, so you can read them on your phone or PC. And they have 160
million readers. And when I looked at just tier 1, they have about 21 million MAU, more than Paramount Plus, more than Monopoly Go. Actually, like two or 3x more than Monopoly Go. So, this is a platform that really matters. And what I saw in the news that came out was that they have agreed to buy up to 60% of RARI games holdings, the studio behind games based on their own comics for about 100 million. Uh it's their first move to own a game studio instead of just licensing their IPL. And so Chris, I thought this was interesting for us to talk about because I'm always saying licensing is the best model out there. So they've actually done something a little bit different was is to absorb part of a game studio. So they already know what their stories or their comics have a real audience. So they have a few different ones just to give you a sense of how big these things are. Overgeeared has 1.3 billion views. Omnicient Reader
has 3.1 billion. So instead of licensing that IP to someone else and taking a flat fee, they're now funding the games themselves and keeping a piece of the upside. So they structured this so it's also not a blind bet. Twothirds of the price only pays out once the first game actually launches and Webtune can now claw it back if the revenue misses target. Like like what a deal. So my rate on this is that they're turning its own platform into an IP pipeline. And they're using the pipeline to fund games and capture more of the revenue than just the traditional licensing model. It seems like that's a little bit less risk versus doing a full-on acquisition. Uh more than upside from just licensing. It's a different take on normal crest. Is this like a different way that we should be thinking about licensing and IP and games and and structure? is would Chris Petravic approve?
I don't know, man. Proof is going to be in the pudding, right? Whether they can
actually scale games with this.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know about scaling. I think at least, you know, some of the hardest thing is just to have the funding to take a bet and a swing on making games to begin with. You know, how hard it is to get a licensing deal in place. I mean, you know, even big license wars are struggling because so many lenses or game developers don't have enough money to get started to even take a swing.
So, I I don't understand that. What would be Jen franchise manager cap? Uh why would you not just give this to a scope? I assume scope is not interested because the IP is not interested. Yeah.
So, why can't you find why can't you why why can't you find a smaller upstart to give this to? like let's let's say like an eastside games like kind of like a smaller publisher that's like looking for IP. You're telling me no one would be interested with numbers like this.
They don't have money. So I mean I this is what I'm feeling and seeing is that a lot of these B and C level and I don't mean it to be derogatory but smaller
publishers and developers they don't have enough money to get things started to have the investment to put into because I mean as you guys know just making the game is millions of dollars and then that's not even half the battle. It's 80% of the battle then you have actually the UA is 80% of the battle and the game development is 20% of the battle. then you have to have the stockpile of of UA to be able to do that. So, a lot of people aren't taking the bets.
I agree on the subsidy piece. Like, you want to go out, you want to subsidize your IP, you want to get on different platforms, uh you want to see how it how it functions as a game. I just I'm curious about going first party versus third party. Like, I I wonder if they could they could issue more subsidies to get Upstart developers going, grants. I mean, a traditional publisher model is paying the developer to keep the lights on until they get to release and then do a revenue split. I would just imagine there's there's something they could do here to get more people involved because they have so much IP on their platform. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's all like basically it it's love and deep space for girls. It's kind of like anime Twilight
type
content. Yeah. It's 60% female um all in their gender split.
Yeah.
40% males.
Yeah. So that so listen to my podcast that is out today. You will hear that it is not just a female audience. In fact, Overwatch did a campaign. Square Enix, the other woman I had on our podcast, talked about the successful campaigns they ran with Square and they have top offunnel, mid and bottom of funnel, you know, ad opportunities. And so I was just shocked that the audience wasn't just female
um as as a place. So I think it's an IP mining uh goldbine, you know, so to speak. And I do think you bring up an interesting idea. If you're a lensur, you know, why not look at grants? Why not look at how do you subsidize people to take a swing and a bet on creating games with your IP since it seems to be more and more difficult to do that?
I find this in my consulting practice. I see a lot of people come to me with I I wouldn't call it first tier IP. I call
it maybe like third or fourth tier IP, but they do have numbers behind them. And no, going to Zingga is not going to solve your problem of getting this IP out there. It's it's choosing someone hungrier that want some sort of UA Edge and mobile, which there are a lot of teams that have that that will be obsessed with making your game the best it can be. There's more stuff out there, I think, for for kind of smaller IP holders that that doesn't get explored.
First of all, I can't believe this company is public. First of all, web tune. I didn't know that until just 5 seconds ago.
In Korea though, right? Or is it here?
Is that right? Okay.
I thought it was public in Korea.
Okay. The fundamental challenge with this is I can't speak to the Korean market necessarily, but the the market for midsize small games like these that they're going to be able to create is so tiny
that it's going to be really really hard to actually execute against this. All the data suggests that like we're in a market in which is basically winner takes all. It's all battle the big and so these small little games have really hard chance of actually you know uh
expanding. I I was looking at this piece and I I gotta stop getting I got to get off the [ __ ] LinkedIn, dude. But, you know, Yoast is like repping this company Gyld that is trying to do these type of mid-market games and they put out this absolute [ __ ] analysis about annual revenue composition and they're talking about like the top 100 to 1,000 mid-market and 10 whatever. The whole definition is [ __ ] right? because all the catalog they're talking about are actually hit games, right? And so like they're basically suggesting that the middle market is like ripe with opportunities and that's where all the growth is in the business. It's just not the case. Like you can make that case all you want with this [ __ ] analysis, but stop doing [ __ ] analysis. You know,
are they catalog games or are they like smaller doublea indie games that are
It's all catalog because the definition is [ __ ] wrong. like this this whole analysis is such [ __ ] and I don't why he puts this thing out there and
promotes his consulting arrangement with them. Why don't you consult them on how to actually do real analysis? You know, like this is [ __ ] right? But it's the same kind of notion as this is like this all built on the idea that there is a market for these mid-level games on Steam. There is not like there is not. It's big hits. It's games as a service. It's games that continue to to drive iterations, IP, big blockbusters. That's what's dominating the market across console and PC. And so you have what what 20,000 games coming out on Steam every year which majority of them are not profitable. Like 63% make nothing. You know, it's like
Oh, I did Yeah, I did that analysis and it was something like between 1 and 2% of games make more than a million dollar. Wait, no. All right. Well, I'll have to go back and look at it. But yeah, it's it's horrendous because there are so many games, not many of them actually
make any money. But but listen, I get it and we've been talking about this forever on the podcast. You know, new games find it really difficult to penetrate.
It's it's incredibly diff difficult for that to happen. But if you manage your investment in your marketing correctly and you don't care about hitting big numbers, I think that's what this company and other companies are trying to do is like are are you okay with smaller numbers? I don't know how that matters to a publicly traded company. I I I don't think that that is the how you want to go out and be like look we can not grow with I I think they have to do something with their IP though.
Be your franchise manager hat, right? This is about growing customer LTV, right? And having a new surface area to grow customer LTV. And I think in that view, this makes a ton more sense, right? Because that's the only thing. And and remember remember how many times we see from anime companies, particularly those that are in the east, is that they're doing 360 IP management these days, right? And that's something
that really lends itself to the eastern audience. So every time there's a new game, there's an anime that's attached to it, right? There's always the trans media operations that are happening in the east. They're highly effective. Everyone who's in otaku, watches anime, plays video games, they're into that world. And so I think it's much easier to grow these surface areas than they are in the west. This is the right style to do this.
The answer to the question is this is a good strategy for web two. What I'm what I'm suggesting is that they are basically
there's no market for what they're trying to do, but this is a far better model potentially than what they're doing now. Maybe they can figure out ways of discovery and promotion through web tune that actually helps facilitate
outsized hits relative to their competitors. Maybe, you know, compared to Deolver or other like third party publishers or whatever, but
because they actually have a platform as well to market their own wares.
Owning the means of production [music] is always good as
that's what uh Netflix was trying to get into. So, let's go to the next story.
Of our time. Yeah,
sorry, just threw that in there. All right, moving on.
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I I was worried we didn't offend somebody this episode, but luckily
time for some real franchise management.
Yeah. [laughter]
Give us give us the heat, man.
Oh my god. So Netflix Netflix games. We haven't talked about it for a while and we all hear Adam Adam Teler in our ears. Stop talking about Netflix games. Adam, we are going to talk about Netflix games because they're in the news. And the news is that they are sticking with the video games once again reducing the number of studios they own making games. So the streaming giant is closing LA based night school studio which it acquired in 2021 and plans to close
Helsinki based Moonot which was founded in 2022. Next Games they acquired that was a public Finland based company and Moon they acquired the team or hired the team to set up a new studio inside of Netflix but it's called a new game anyways confusing. So just 6 weeks ago night school had released Unhinged which was a novelbased 30inut firstperson horror game streamable on TVs to Netflix users. The game was hailed by Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters in a call with investors citing really solid numbers. Guess what? He cited the same thing with FIFA. What happened there? Like if you get if Netflix co-CEO says you had really solid numbers, you better be looking for a new job right now. Anyways, uh so so this is a prolonged cleanup of Mike Perdue's let's spend $3 billion throwing spaghetti at the wall while paying everybody outrageous comps strategy. and goes with the same bin with the AAA shooter made in LA
initiative manned by ex Call of Duty and Halo developers. And now Netflix Games is making games for kids and couch games. So, does anybody play them? We don't know. I bet the numbers are looking really solid. I tried with my kids actually the Netflix games and they were like, "Cool, give me Sago Mini, Tokaboka, Talking Tom, Paper IO, Subway Surfer." So, they just bounced back. I tried Netflix games. I really did. I said this is the coolest app ever. You should try it. They have Peppa Pig. Didn't work. So I think overall like net, you know, we're just having fun. But Netflix has been in my opinion, I know Crest is not the same opinion, but in my opinion, they have been net positive for the industry because they've been bringing so much funding. Crest, you you you're saying like no, I think you think you think they are bubbling the industry like part of the reason. No. Am I wrong? Are you thinking they're net positive? Oh, I don't want to talk about this.
Oh my god. Are you out of your goddamn [ __ ] mind?
We're moving on. We're I No.
Are you kidding me?
Drop that. Yeah. Do not drop that grenade on Crest for another 5minute rant. Oh,
this is all part of the problem. Why are we in this bubble? Because people made stupid investments in games and expectations got out of their [ __ ] minds, right?
Dude, you really want me to go down this path? Like, this is what what happens.
We We're not go We're not going down this path. I I just
You pay people a million dollars.
No, I'm just kidding. [laughter]
No, no, no. I I I think I go [ __ ]
Their expectations get out of [ __ ] whack with reality, you know?
Yeah.
Spending million dollar salaries for like dozens of executives at these [ __ ] companies. You think that's good for the industry?
That was my mistake. I I pressed a button. I saw his face. I pressed the button. That was my mistake. All I meant is they've invested a lot in the industry and allow many studios that were very happy to get that additional investment to continue making different games. Anyway,
how many people have they [ __ ] No. How many people have they fired? How many people have they actually let go and put money as well? They hired they
hired many more than they acquired and destroyed. This is like the idea that like Embracer was good for the industry. No, they [ __ ] destroyed the industry. Ubisoft, everybody, all these companies that are failing, you out of your goddamn mind. This is a symptom of the problem, not a of a solution or a good thing for the industry at all.
I I get the point. I concede. Maybe it has been good for some and bad for others.
Yeah. For the for those few people who earn millions of dollars and never shipped the game and they're like, "Oh, what should I do next?" Some of them, you know, all 20 of those people like good for them. Like awesome for them. All the other people who got lost their job.
Yeah.
You know, poor poor Ethan just got got his ass kicked. thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of people that have lost their jobs
despite despite solid numbers. Despite really solid numbers,
we know that's not true. So,
I know.
I mean, that's what they have to say. All right, we're going to move on cuz I can't do this anymore. All right, Deolver Digital. Come on, let's go.
Deolver Digital, quick one. This is something that was interesting for me. So, Deolver Digital is taking itself off the stock market. Now, this is a small company. It's an indie publisher, but I wanted to hear Cres's opinion on this because I don't maybe fully understand about game company IPO, especially who wins and who loses with them. So, Chris, like here's the case. Devolvo Digital, they listed themselves at the hype of of uh of 2020 2021. The price was high. Now, it's pennies on the dollar. The problems is essentially that you're dlisting, but some people who are holding the stock cannot sell the stock. And then they came up with these different ways, but essentially they're just taking off the the whole company off the market. And some people, I bet a lot of people lost a good amount of money because the stock is down 97% [clears throat] since the last 5 years. So this this is essentially evaporated this company. Now, um, yeah, Chris, why do companies do that? Who shouldn't be doing this? And who loses in the end
when the company did lists?
Okay, we tal we've talked about this numerous times on the podcast. these small companies should never have been listed to begin with. Like this was all again part of the hype of during the 2122 R era of this industry that created a bubble and created expectations were out of hand and then bankers get involved and they they're trying to get money from the hype, you know, it's just it's all part of the main grift, you know, which with companies like Lightseed and A16Z and all these others, right? It's like this is the grift, right? And this is what happens is you have companies that go public that have no business being cut public. Right? So the fundamental problem with these type of companies going public is there's not enough intention from investors. There's not enough coverage from investment banks to get the attention of the investors and it's not a growth story, right? Not a predictable revenue stream. It's like and again it's a too small a company to get the interest of shareholders, right? And so like these companies don't have any business going public, right? And you only can do it in these type of windows of insanity,
right? And where all the grifters come in, right? And now all the grifters are gone and now we won't see this anymore, right? So
for a while.
Um
it will be a new wave,
right?
Let's let's get in your your freaking castle crushers cuz I don't want to
drag this out. You're going to talk about this right now.
Are we doing we're going to do it? We are
finally finally. I've been I've been holding on this. So cast
your engine ready.
Yes. Oh my god.
The game is almost dead at this point.
No, when I originally was was writing about this, it was a new hybrid casual head from Woodoo and that scaled to a$und00 million run rate. So a hybrid casual games in short, it has a simple design is simple, snackable session, very high replayability. The production production value is typically quite low. Fast development, early testing, on monetization, they rely on inapp ads and inapp purchases. Uh between you know 20
to up to 70% is coming through inapp purchases. The retention very much skew on on higher early retention and D30 still around 8 to 30%. I can attest it is at least with me average session lengths at at 30 minutes live operations and the marketing is compelling. creatives really showing the gameplay and if you're watching this you're showing uh this amazing simplistic gameplay. So CPI and Fbox. So let me talk about why I love Castle Crushers. So it's a very simple slingshot mechanic. The physics are two moving castles manned by these fun units that they just updated that they're more detailed. I like them when they're more simplistic. Uh you build, you upgrade your castle. That's your meta game. You upgrade your units. uh the game play evolves with more interesting units and the combination you're using when you're having them in your castle. So every unit shoots a different type of thing that could be healing sporting. Anyways, um you unlock new units, you unlock and equip the passive defenses on each castle. The castles has offenses,
utilities. The great thing is the chance, skill, and luck element that make this game almost endlessly replayable. Uh there are different type of floating buffs and debuffs that you can hit when you're targeting the opponent. Making a shot with different units and the units have very different curves and different hit area. So that requires a little bit of mastery. Hitting a castle structure can cause the castle to collapse. So that's an awesome skill and luck element as well. And it is a rewarding experience like any hybrid casual or casual games these days. You got coins flying. You got cards opening. There's daily reward. There's quest reward. There's weekly reward. There's arena reward. There's battle pass. It's just click click click click. Click collect.
It sounds like it sounds like a game. It's it's fun. It's it's so rewarding despite being PVP, but it could be improved to some extent. So, the price points I was surprised. They feel quite high. I don't know if this is normal, but like 10 bucks not 10 bucks not to see ads for 7 days. That's a lot, right?
For seven days. completely.
No. 7 days for you. Yeah, I know. That's why I'm highlighting some of these price points. Again, I'm in some AB testing group of like some whale group, but for me, they [laughter] are they are at least 10 bucks. I use normally in this game like I use only one to two different units and there are eight in a castle at this point because they didn't add cool downs to these units. So, if you have one or two that have interesting ways and just back and forth, the biggest issue is the bots. So, I don't think there's real PvP in the game like in any Woodoo's game. I'm sorry if anybody thought that. My daughter thinks it's real PvP when she's plays Paper IO and others, but I haven't broken it to her. Uh, she also thinks Santa Claus is real. Anyways, uh, the lack of real PB [laughter] Santa Claus doesn't have a religion.
Oh, sorry.
Uh, non- denominational.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a It's a It's a Coca-Cola is the religion of Santa Claus. So, I wish you would have told my mom that
she's American, so she's
Yeah, that is that is not the story I was told growing up. But anyway,
we're liberal. Uh anyway, uh and then um and then there's the lack of real PvP kind of eats it away from the more core users like myself who will be playing even more even longer because we want to dominate other players. So, what would I would improve this for for for Wood? Just add the cooldowns that will enforce you to do to use more units and that increases monetization. Introduce factions, guilds, all this stuff that that will add more social gameplay. Basically, the whole 9 yard of an RPG is missing. And integrate something like heroic games backend stack. Like just just put it at once in and you'll get all these features. I know this is a promo for the company, but that's true. You don't have to develop themselves. just just it added in and it will be much more fun of a game to already a game that is super fun best performing in Rudu's portfolio and I expect this game to hit 100 million in inapp ads and
ad revenue this year making it not muts.
Okay, now that Castle Crashers is done, we can talk about the real conversation we should be talking about which is voodoo, right? Everyone wants to talk about the Vietnamese. Everyone wants to talk about what's happening with China. Everyone wants to talk about the disaster in the United States. We have not talked about what is going on in France cuz what happens to the French hyper casual mafia and what has happened to them when the hyper casual shift has happened because there is a headline that Pucker Gamer runs that drives me crazy [snorts] every time we talk about hyper and hybrid to casual. And what is happening is we get the same headline over time. Oh my god, hybrid casual revenues are increasing. The thing you got to remember is that they're increasing because they're a from a really low base and b they're so much less than the hyper casual revenues. So this is not a mark of success. This is fake news. Fake news. Now here is the real news. Mishka that really turned me on to Castle Crashers. It has already made $20 million year to date. It is the number one game in Voodoo's portfolio in
terms of IEP revenue. It is by far and away their shining success. And I played the game. I'm only on D1 right now, but it's actually a very competently well-made game. classic copying of the meta. A lot of UI elements are straight from Brawl Stars like control cight straight.
Um maybe maybe the French can like compete with with the Chinese when it comes to copying. I don't know if we've given them enough credit, [laughter] but when you when you look at this when you look at this portfolio scorecard, and I know we're only looking at IP revenue, which is not important, but it should be important, right? We want it to be important even if it's only a minority of the company's revenue. But all these bets they had, do you remember collect them all was kind of their their kind of hybrid casual puzzle bet?
Hasn't really worked out the way they hoped to. Mob Control, remember that lasted for a little bit? That was a really great attempt at this hybrid casual.
And you've seen Marbles Sword and Sandloop. Like they've been trying to they've been trying to basically do a poor man's version of the Turks and it hasn't been very successful. And so I have concerns about how Voodoo is doing
in the long run, especially year-over-year. Remember the other thing that they did that we haven't talked about in a long time is they went out and they bought B Real, the social media network site. They have actually been putting this thing on a little bit of a revival.
It has had an increase in DAU according to Sensor Tower since the start of 2026. I've also seen more ads for their games inside of Be Real, but this now when you kind of look at their scorecard, it really looks like this was some sort of escape hatch for them that this was some sort of perverted bet to get out of the hybrid casual business. You remember they were they're kind of peeking around in the app business and this was one of their first foray. I I wonder if they'll do more of that, but their game portfolio does not look good right now. I don't know where the French land after this, but it does not look good for them. I feel like they're going to get squeezed on all ends. Since you were posting something, I just saw Josh Shanley put in the the sensor tower numbers on top 10 hybrid hyper casual games. Number one, 154 million in net revenue. Pixel. So pretty interesting. And that compared to
the entire Voodoo's portfolio is bigger, right?
Yep. I mean, where is Voodoo on this list? Where is Voodoo on the top 10 hyper casual games? If you're not on there, you're not conversation. Is paper IO them? [sighs and gasps] I think it actually is.
Yeah, it is.
Is paper IO them? Because we also might not have the right. That's the other thing just to keep in mind is sometimes we don't have the right pub it. You know, hyper casual publishers have a bunch of publisher IDs on sensor tower. That's their asterisk. I'll put them.
I'm not sure. I I remember that paper.io was them. It says it's a French French flag. I'm just, you know, I'm assuming black all in hole. We know who's that.
It's crazy that PixelFlow is beating block blast. Yeah.
Is it just US? What is it?
This is net revenue in H1 2026. Pixel flow is the largest
hybrid or hyper casual games with 70% of inapp purchases and 30% of ads coming in
at $154 million in the first half of the year. So, at this rate, they would be hitting $300 million in net revenue, which is a nice hit or addition to Scoobly's FAT portfolio.
I was just going to say it, you know, Scopi is not who we think of when we think of, you know, hybrid casual or IAA now that they purchased
Pixel Flow. I wonder if that's something that they're going to be looking into as a as a muscle they're going to look to build because, you know, we all know that they are. IP masters, right?
I there they are masters of IP, right?
IP and AP, right? Like yeah, most of it has been optimized around traditional free-to-play
um with a little bit of admon, but you know, and and they have a great Admon team, but it hasn't been the core focus of how they've driven revenue. I wonder if that's an expansion strategy for them now with Pixel Flow coming in. Anyway,
we have gone very late. Did you want to say one more thing? I think we should wrap that up your so that we'll never talk about Castle Crushers again.
Uh to download Castle Crushers uh make European company proud by playing and paying or at least watching ads. It has castles like Europe. So you will enjoy it. If you're an American, you don't know what castle is. It is something that you have in Disney. Uh but it it was used in warfare, not to house [ __ ] Mickey Mouse. So you will enjoy that.
Princesses of France. Be well friends.
All right, everyone. That wraps it for today. I'll talk about Kingdom Hearts next week. See you next week.
Next week. Bye.
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Roblox currently faces a critical juncture as it navigates intense congressional scrutiny regarding child safety and systemic exploitation. Despite significant investments in AI-driven monitoring and age-restricted communication, the platform struggles with user migration to external, less-regulated channels. This regulatory pressure, combined with slowing viral growth and declining daily active user metrics, has cast doubt on the company’s long-term valuation and operational sustainability. The situation underscores the broader tension between maintaining open social ecosystems and the mounting legal liabilities associated with user-generated content platforms.
Simultaneously, the mobile gaming landscape is undergoing a structural shift driven by evolving regulatory frameworks and market consolidation. Apple’s revised EU fee structure, which replaces per-install charges with a flat commission on alternative distribution channels, offers potential relief but remains complex, favoring large-scale operators over smaller developers. This environment has exacerbated the difficulties faced by mid-tier game studios, which struggle to compete in a market increasingly defined by winner-takes-all dynamics. Consequently, firms like Netflix are scaling back gaming ambitions, while others, such as Webtoon, are attempting to leverage internal IP to capture greater value, albeit with uncertain prospects for profitability.
The broader industry trend reflects a move away from the hyper-casual market toward hybrid-casual models, though success remains highly concentrated. While select titles like Voodoo’s Castle Crushers demonstrate the potential for significant revenue, the overall sector faces volatility. The strategic pivot of companies like Voodoo toward social networking platforms suggests a growing recognition that the gaming market has become increasingly difficult to monetize. Ultimately, the industry is correcting from a period of over-valuation, leaving many small-to-mid-sized public entities vulnerable as they fail to achieve the scale required to survive in a high-stakes, hit-driven economy.
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