Week in Mobile Games E36 - Games industry M&A hits overdrive with Plarium and Easybrain deals

hello welcome to the pocketgamer.biz week in mobile games where we discuss the week's news and provide some insights we're back after one week off due to traveling but we're all good to go I'm Craig Chapel head content at pocketgamer.biz with me today is paig Deputy editor and Aaron our news editor how are you both doing Aaron what's been going on yeah good thanks it's been a few weeks since I've been on the podcast actually um but yeah good to be back I'll Qui swing to the side so you you know keep up with my weekly different Pokemon figure or or plush in this case um for the for the audio listeners you'll have to go on YouTube um but uh yeah all good with me I've um been busy playing Pokemon Crystal for the first time which is from the Game Boy Color

it's a couple of years ago um obviously I'm obliged to say before my time but yeah I've been enjoying it it's been um fun seeing kind of the old you know the old ways that I kind of take for granted where they've improved stuff since then uh like you had a really limited number of items you could carry around which is just so annoying in the old game was now are you saying it's a bad game I'm saying I think it would have been good for its time I am quite enjoying it um there are just certain things where it's like oh you know that that would be really annoying in a modern game like it would probably get slated for it now but that was just kind of the limitations at the time did it have hm's is that the thing they took out the game right they took that out to about eight years ago um but yeah I I was playing back in the original hm days so yeah they're present and accounted for your your best because

you obviously already carry around your best Pokemon and then it's like right well do I teach one of these cut or do I have to carry around a Pokemon I don't even like yeah I went for the latter tough tough [Laughter] times yes that's been keeping me busy thanks s Paige what you been up to yeah not much um I do feel like the end of this year feels weird I feel like Halloween ended and just Christmas began the next day like everywhere is just Christmas stuff and it was no not even like a two-day period change in between it was just instant but yeah not been doing too much I'm very hooked on the new Dragon Age game so that is where most of my bit of free time is going into and Craig I watched your Netflix movie recommendation um I think like a couple of podcasts ago you mentioned don't move and it sounded familiar and it's because the night before I'd watched the trailer for it so that's why I was like that sounds really familiar and then I watched it and it was like it

was worth a watch for a Netflix film that's that's the highest praise usually you can give a Netflix film is this just worth a watch it's all right like without spoilers your very small synopsis of it's a film called don't move where a person actually moves a lot is pretty like that that kind of works probably covers more ground well definitely covers more ground in a day than I cover being able to move yeah definitely like I don't think I I haven't yesterday I did I barely left the house I there to go down the road for a takeaway and uh yeah this person goes a lot a lot further than that well glad you enjoyed it um as for myself I've uh I meant to mention this before I I played Ticket to Ride For the First Time which seems kind of insane to say but I enjoyed it very much so yeah for everyone yeah obviously the table top game I I played it with two friends

uh who whove played it before and I won but after coming last so they're kind of like helping me out a bit because I made like I guess there's like strategy you you kind of you can't make it too obvious where you want to go because they might block you off right so they were being quite kind in not mostly not blocking me off so that helped but ultimately they knew I was going to be terrible in this game and and so they they got more points than me but apparently if you really we had to delve deep into the rules so they drew on a number of aspects so they had the same amount of points there were other factors so then you start going okay what happens when you're on the same amount of points and then I can't remember the other criteria and then they're like okay no we're both drawn on that we're both drawn on that what's what's the final final what's the final thing you could win on and it was longest trade which I had so I just I

think they still agre with me a win is a win I've never played it like I always see things about it cuz it's like the train thing it's like I know what it is but yeah just I've never played it but if that's how you won then it's actually really fun yeah I can see why it's so like world famous I guess I'm surprised I haven't played it I haven't played that many board games stupidly like I barely I think I've played Katan lot once uh and also played at VR which is a weird experience uh I digress all right so before we move on to the news as always a few shout outs so don't forget please our top 50 was out ages it feels like ages ago now but still very relevant and interesting especially with a few of the Acquisitions that are going on I guess we can touch one and we've just done we've actually just finished Pocket Gamer connect Jordan which was at the weekend I will uh I'll give some takeaways at the end of this show but we also have Pocket Gamer connects London coming on January 20th to 21st which is

the the big one expecting well I think we're expecting over 2500 industry professionals and there'll be lots of stuff I'm sure going on in London around that time so exciting one and then obviously next year back in San Francisco we'll have we have the game Expo Summit in Dubai can I say this I think we I well we we're also going to be going to Barcelona for the first time next year dates to be confirmed so that's exciting and then obviously Helsinki and Jordan again uh yeah we're keeping busy with events let's say all right but that's enough of the Shilling so we're going to go on to news and the I guess the big story of the day and the week mini clip acquires easy brain from embracer group for $1.2 billion so uh this is interesting for a few reasons other than the other than just being interesting

um so easy brain makes a casual puzzle and logic titles in their portfolio they have sudoku.com pixel art color by number and they also have block doku killer soku nonr Grove pad or puddles puzzles and more their portfolio has generated 1.5 billion downloads they purchased it for 1.2 billion the interesting thing is that embracer first acquired easy brain which are based in Cyprus uh in 2021 for $640 million plus a potential additional 125 million in earn outs I didn't actually check uh because I think part of the problem with some of these deals but I'd need to check this so this is not confirmed but that it might have been in like the 125 million one did you reach those targets and secondly I don't know if they paid out also in like shares some of that so it might been devalued anyway uh as embracer slowly

crumbled uh I'm quite surprised by the cost not a slight on easy braid at all it's just that this actually seems like quite this is a lot this is a lot larger sum than the previous acquisition when you consider that it felt like embracer was basically in a fire sale and they still had a lot of debt to clear they've now actually cleared a lot of that other than the debt they loaded on to Asma D I believe but this said they reduced their debt for 1.2 billion to about 45 million um so that's a pretty CLE sweep I I'll have to take their word for that I don't know what the taxes are that uh but yeah really interesting acquisition obviously mini clip can't remember when they did it they acquired cybo uh and then was it this year last year they they moved into PC with future lab acquisition so it's always really interesting to see how they kind of expands their portfolio this seems like

a this seems like an interesting choice the team there is very astute with their with their m&a very very expensive uh but what what do you two think yeah I know you mentioned it the other day and you kind of said like any guesses on who it could be this this wasn't one but now I'm seeing it it's like oh yeah like it it does make sense but yeah it's just the sum like I said it's not like in a it's not like slighting them type of way but it is just it is a massive a massive sum and quite a jump so but no like it's it's an interesting acquisition it seems like there's well why not you're going to get to some more but there's been quite a few of those recently yeah I was going to say it does it seems like um yeah there's just so many big Acquisitions going on these days obviously Activision Blizzard was the biggest but like yeah it feels like there's always you know something in the billions going on these days yeah like we had super play obviously about two

billion yeah really interesting couple Al stats actually that um easy brain generated 300 just below $39 million in net sales during the year ending march 2024 with adjusted a bit of $16.5 million the user acquisition costs mounted to 138.5 million uh which was 45% of net sales which is that's kind of mental yeah really interesting deal and uh I guess we'll see more oh and and you alluded to the fact there I I I I did threaten to do this in our in our uh kind of work chat I was just like do I have to put on social media there after after when it's hour be like I knew it was coming but I didn't have enough sources to say and I didn't know who it was I just knew there was a billion dollar acquisition coming never mind we we should have run just someone is getting required well the other thing we threat

to do isn't it was we're talking with Dad Sullivan at Pock gamer.com and we just we just run a rumors article by uh by Mr C bait and just anything we hear we'll just say We'll blame it on that we'll blame it on that person uh that that would help that would help much all but I'd actually have to fact check things I could just say wherever I like I'm sure that stats upol so uh elsewhere is the other big deal I guess over the past week which is modern times group acquired rage Shadow Legends maker Plum for $620 million so you alluded to page yeah there's more more deals going on and oh my gosh yeah this is another really interesting one I really like plarium raids obviously been hugely successful I think it's billion dollar game right think it's on PC now they make a lot of money off store I've heard a few that significant significant money store they're obviously up for

sale from Aristocrat Leisure who earlier this year is Casino firm in Australia they announced that they were going to basically pull out of anything that's not Casino which would affect plarium and Big Fish Games and specifically I think Big Fish Games is nons Social Casino tiles so I was thinking that oh maybe mini clip could buy Big Fish which kind of didn't make sense because I was like well I guess they wouldn't want soci casino that would be an interesting turn so yeah I was wrong but this is another but this is like the opposite of the the other deal so plarium's bought for $620 million and do I have what the original value is here hopefully I do not I think it they were initially bought for like 900 S million so there's been like a heavy loss for this acquisition I guess raid is I don't have the data and plus I think a lot of it's private because of the money make off store I'm not sure

it's as big as it used to be I'd love player to call me out on that if that's not correct um but yeah a couple hundred million they haven't made a profit on it we haven't seen as many raid sponsorships in the past yeah yeah quite maybe we will now they found a new home with MTG another rollup company uh we'll see see what happen and then elsewhere just some other big figures that are coming out say games is going to invest $30 million in hybrid casual Studios over the next three years so I said they're they're looking to expand it's looking to expand its Network and cultivate relations relationships with Studios and has already actually allocated $10 million from the fund into five teams as well as investment they said they will offer industry expertise to those Studios uh and it will also provide services like marketing analytics HR and recruitment

so actually quite a wide array they said among it successful Investments was my perfect hotel which obviously uh I'm sure many people know if you don't check it out it's a really kind of good example of a successful hybrid casual game um apparent developed by Redux games um and apparently that surpassed aund million in Revenue uh which is fascinating so it's just really interesting say games were one of the well I say one of those one of all of the big hyper casual Publishers that have had to Pivot into hybrid casual and I think they've basically done it fully and they're just doubling down on on that space and I'm interested like we'll try and chat with them like is the 30 million that you've had so much success in the space and I guess my perfect Hotel be an example that yeah we need to invest a lot more more here and and so we can grow quickly or is it investment

to kind of make sure you can kick this Market to growth I guess and actually make money from it so I'm quite curious about that um yeah another example of a big deal what do you what do you both think of hybrid casual it seems to be where the Market's gone really but yeah I don't know I think it's more I'm more just interest especially now you're sort of like your last three things there just seems to be a lot of money kicking around like to say the last few years have obviously been you know really tough lots of layoffs lots of Studio closures there does seem to be a pickup with obviously m&a activity and then these kinds of Investments so yeah I think it's just interesting that as we're coming towards the end of the year I don't know if I expected to see this much money going around so I don't know interesting for like what is maybe to come for the beginning of next year yeah it's really interesting I think I feel like with the two deals that we've discussed it's because there there are opportunities cuz they're for sale and they might not come up again anytime

soon yeah I feel like that's probably personally one of the reasons that's happened and then Super play I don't know if yeah that's an example of what you're saying just there's some money flowing around again the interestingly like the same time we're also seeing quite a lot of layoffs still um and I feel like some of some of that has almost been saved up for the end of the year and then today it's like games adjacent um but AMD is has laid off a thousand employees well today this week 4% of the global Workforce so yeah an interest a curious of the year I was just to your um yeah hybrid casual point I think like over the past or a couple of years ago now um it seemed a lot of developers were finding it more expensive to make hyper casual games I guess because it was so saturated they have to put more in to make theirs stand out so I guess kind of Mak sense that hybrid casual would be

the kind of natural progression of that I the thing that fascinates me about hybrid casual is it's just something that's been willed into existence because archero was a good game and it did it did do something different like it was very Innovative very good uh haby's kind of did it again with survivor.io kind of you can say what you want about vampire survivors that but they did very well and then yeah I wrote article about it last year theu fun it's just like is this a thing cuz it's hyper casual Publishers absolutely desperate to find another way to make money uh and I guess use the the foundation foundations that they've built on something otherwise their businesses will just go away because obviously look to the points you made and then also and then also privacy changes just uh you don't make as much money from the ads and the ex RIT costs just doesn't make

sense anymore so you need that that purchase Revenue as well uh but to their credit it would appear that actually for successful H for the sorry trying to how do I word this for top like for top games in this madeup genre they they're actually doing a they're actually doing well they've actually made it work these Publishers like voodo is doing insane is it like uh up to 300 mil or something um homers growing they're expanding their hyper casual team and I think that's because of actual success again not just because they're trying to will it well it's both not just because they're trying to will it into existence but they're actually getting money out of it and qu's been doing the same they're all at it basically uh but fair fair play interesting way that the industry is evolved I could talk forever about hyper casual I'll St next time so just have a quick investment news I'll just go through the

headlines but funstop games secured $5 million to accelerate game devel game development and expand globally and star form secured $6 million to bolster it shooter game Metal store so congrats to them on the funding rounds that's it for my section of news paig what have you got um well let's keep it uh money orientated for the start of mine um I was going to talk a little bit about a report we had on India's games market so um it's a lum Kai report um and basically India is projected to see a lot of growth um it's supposed to have 7.5 billion by 2028 this is largely supposed to be driven by the growth of inap purchases um casual and midcore games and just you know in-game advertising revenues and obviously the Indian games Market has kind of been huge anyway it's not exactly new news especially in terms of downloads they haven't always been able to convert

those downloads into paying players and it seems like the last couple of years we're seeing that a bit more like yes there's loads of downloads but now we're also seeing more people that want to be a paying player um and yeah I just thought it was interesting that their growth it also said that India's home to 568 million Gamers which 25% of those are now paying users so that's that's been on the increase for the last few years um and it was 15.4 billion downloads in 2023 physical year which means India is essentially retained a position of being one of the top countries for mobile downloads um so yeah I just think it's it's really interesting the growth there and kind of just with other things as well like you know obviously when you look at games and you think you know maybe it's big in America or something like that I actually think so much of the growth isn't in those places you know like it's it's huge in India there's so much going on in Asian markets as well like you know the

Chinese market there's there's so much there especially for mobile so yeah I just think it's interesting how those markets are growing and the kind of hubs that they're becoming Oscar spoke about it a few weeks ago uh about kind of his experiences and his thoughts on the Indian market uh yeah like it's definitely well place for growth but literally since I've since I started working out pocket G business the first time in 2016 and maybe before that I've just been hearing for a long time like oh this this this Market is about to take off and kind of did a little bit with a couple shooter games like pubg and Gina um which make like I think the vast majority of Revenue I think um obviously Ludo games do grow well but I feel like it's always it it's always just in this it's going to do well and then never

like the forecast for 7.5 billion by 2028 I I need to set a reminder in a calendar and then and then so in 2028 I can I can say well well hopefully it does hit that and exceeds that I when we're back on the podcast we can be like so episode 300s I can't do math I would be anyway um it's but yeah like I don't know forecasts always freak me out because they're never fully accurate that yeah I so far forward you can predict like anything could kind of happen somewhere else could boom and actually that's the place that gets huge which means that you're not seeing as much so like it the the numbers are interesting but yeah there's always a little bit of I guess it's a stat that's on a report it's not a fact doesn't mean that by 2028 like that's that's definitely going to happen yeah yeah I I I I chat with

um J poell the Power Group early this year and it was like I should I should do an audit of forecasts see well all right all these companies said this is going to happen did it were they close even I'm sure most people take a lot of this bit with a grade of Sal but then it also does like you know these kind of forecasts inform how you think about a market and so yeah well maybe maybe I I I have no idea right I I'm just I see 7.5 but I think that's a lot uh we we'll see yeah um and then another one from me is about just a quick one really on dream game so their new Match 3 game Royal Kingdom they kind of just was a trailer sort of out of nowhere um and that has a release date of November 21st so that's for a global launch because it's already been in soft launch since April and since then it's already generated 20.5 million according

to at Magic so you know that's that's a pretty impressive soft launch and most of that revenue is coming out of the UK um and the spending has increased as well since the announcement of a global launch and you know I I just think of obviously Royal match you know that's been huge for dream games it's reached 3.9 billion in you know the three four four years I think that it's been out um and I think I'm just intrigued to see is it one of those ones where can they replicate that success and this game be you know in the vicinity of that success or is it one of those things where it happens once and you can't quite reach it again so like yeah it's just one of those ones that I kind of want to keep an eye on because I know the the new game has a bit more of a focus on there's a bit more of a Competitive Edge to it so yeah I think it's just going to be one to watch with them side by side and see if it can get to the same level I'm really excited for this one I think I think uh I think it'll be really

successful curious if it cannibalizes real match um but I think it'll do very well for them I'm just looking at at Magic data and you can see that they're already scaling the uh the downloads and and revenue scaled with it and then when they at least this is according to estimates who knows but like so you say if you look at August that's like am I looking at this right as that downloads yeah so Peak downloads in in August then they actually declined for a couple months which I'm sure is intentional but Revenue actually kept climbing in those months so I guess that's a very positive side for them it's been CL climbing since April so yeah it looks like this game's ready to go it's going to be maybe one of well is one well regardless of what happens it's one of the biggest launches of the year so really I'm really interested to see how it does and I think as you said PN

like it's made quite good Revenue already for a softb and I think it's not out in the US in soft LA and that's been royal matches biggest in the territory so it's also made that much without their predecessor's biggest Market even being included yeah it's interesting yeah definitely one to watch I'm looking forward to it it'd be a good one like just to say actually yeah sorry just to say actually yeah like 20 million really like I was just blind to these numbers sometimes but 20 million in soft for that's insane actually right for like a lot of Studio I mean don't know how much money they put into it but like for a lot of Studios 20 million is is well maybe most Studios that art massive like oh we released a $2 million game we did really well acid soft yeah really good point that's said yeah and like Aron said and that's for about the key market so yeah

be very interested on the numbers for that one when it when it does have a global launch um and final one for me I feel like this year we've spoke quite a lot about Roblox on uh the podcast but every time it comes up it's you can't help obviously talk about the the big elephant in the room which is their you know child safety aspect of things and I always feel like every time there's a new Rapport or some sort of new stat on you know roblox's platform and is it safe isn't it safe Roblox are usually quite like they kind of underplay it a little bit and I'm not expecting them to come out and be like yeah our platform's not safe but they they always seem to want to play it a little bit which kind of makes it more concerning because it's like well are you you know seeing that there is an issue there um but yeah recently so this week they announc some new changes that are going to be coming in um they're updating some of their child protection meas meur es I think those changes yep I I was going to say I

didn't know if it was next month because it's December and it always still surprises me that next month is December I just can't wrap my head around that but yeah the changes are coming next month which is December um the changes are going to have impacts for those that are 13 and under so anyone from the age of 13 they won't be able to search find or play any of the unrated game experiences on the platform and some of the social hangout environments that they have players of 1 just just won't be able to use those and then any creators who obviously have created their own experiences and they don't have theirs rated yet they need to do that by December 3rd because if they have a bunch of their players are of that age demographic they won't be able to play it anymore so yeah not a lot of notice really for creators but it it is good to see Roblox doing some some significant changes like I think it does need to happen as someone that has a

very small niece who all I ever get is Roblox invitations like it is just so popular with kids like they're on this all the time and kids are just so techsavvy now as well so like I think Roblox is it is a great platform and it can be really fun for kids and it can you know have some you know really interesting stuff for their like creativity but again it is just a little bit scary sometimes with you know what you can do on there so it is good to see them making changes I do wonder is it enough like you know it's not like Roblox has only just become big it's been huge for a long time so sometimes I'm kind of like well yeah these changes make so much sense like why are they only just happening now but you know better better late than never I suppose and I think they recently did some changes that um for like on the parents side of it so you can do it if you're like a parent you can have changes on your device it's connected to a child's account so like you can essentially see

their screen time and what friends they've got but do it from your device so like that that is quite good but yeah I think it's just interesting to see them doing a little bit more to actually address it considering a lot of the time they seem to downplay it to your point yeah why didn't they do some of these sooner like users under the age of 1 won't be able to search for play a rated games experiences I mean yeah you read it and you're like I get like uh I guess sometimes these f it is a bit of fir fight in wacka to try and find the the no matter how obvious they might seem but uh I I also feel like uh I guess it's still a good thing but if kind of the timing of it feels like a bit of a response to the Hindenberg report like okay we better we better do these things um yeah which in that they didn't really address it a whole lot so it's kind of like well you obviously deep down are thinking about it said you can't help but see this and be like hm that's a

coincidence that this report happened now you're like all of these changes that make so much sense you could have just maybe implemented them soon like I said I'm not saying it's not good that it's happening like it is good but there is just that level of responsibility there that like I guess they they've got to be on the ball with this stuff yeah for sure thanks for that page Aaron what have you got so starting off with an exciting one for me at least um we've got another monster hunter game on the way and um if I get to invested I'm going to have no social life left these are a big time commitment yeah so it's been announced that Capcom and 10 cent subsidiary Timmy Studio group are working on a mobile game called Monster Hunter Outlanders uh which they've said is going to be more of a traditional hunting experience akin to the console and PC games um so yeah it sounds like it's going to be a lot more like a main series title really um which is funny

timing because they've got Wilds coming out in a couple of months for not the switch sadly so I won't be able to play it at launch but hopefully on whatever Nintendo does next really um but yeah essentially this is a new you know brand new monster hunter game that's um I guess you know following the success of Monster Hunter now which is more of a spin-off that's n Antics kind of location based AR game whereas yeah this is supposed to have uh kind of the grand um you know spacious environments and ecosystems that the main series is sort of known for uh and you you'll have your character and Traverse through the world and Hunt stuff and be able to play online with friends and things so yeah presuming my phone's going to be able to run it because it looks quite impressive um yeah I I think I'll be losing quite a

few hours to this if I I get invested as a fan like kind of alluding to yeah you're going to play it but are you actually excited by a free-to-play version of a game you really enjoy foret kind of forgetting Monster Hunter now which I guess is different yeah I'm curious to see kind of what form it takes cuz if it ends being like stamina based and you can only you know hunt so many monsters a day or whatever you know we don't really know yet how it's going to be monetized that I probably wouldn't like so much because also the main series The Hunts are a lot longer and I don't know how well that would translate so yeah like a stamina system if you kind of feel obliged like you know oh my stamina's refilled I need to play right now to make the most of it but then a hunt can take like half an hour in the main series and obviously on mobile that's not usually how you know games

are designed they're usually a lot sort of shorter experiences but then if they go for that route on mobile then it's not really so much a main Series game it's a little bit closer to now which has really short months so you can get through them quickly um so I'm definitely kind of excited to see what it looks like like a fully mobile main series type game and I guess yeah particular because I don't have the right um consoles to get Wilds when that comes out because this this might help tide me over until so hopefully it comes out on the switch to or whatever does it's interesting timing like you said that they're having another mobile game coming out but then they've also got a main installment coming out like early next year with wild so like our Monster Hunter Fans hardcore enough that they're like I'm going to be playing wild and I'm going to be playing one on my mobile or like

is it good timing isn't it like I suppose it could go either way like you're so into that world that you kind of want to like double dip and play two games or you're kind of like no I've had my monster hunter fix I don't need to play it on mobile so yeah it is it is interesting timing with them and because I think because the kind of the gameplay formula is very much built around you keep hunting kind of the same monsters until you get all the materials you need to make good armor and weapons to then go and fight harder monsters and make stuff from them and kind of on and on it goes so yeah I do wonder you know even just playing now you know the hours I've put in to get good stuff to use it's like do I really want to play another mobile Monster Hunter and start from scratch and build all that up again um so yeah I'll definitely be giving it a go as long as my phone can run it but um whether whether I can realistically commit to on mobile and

then still play on the switch and you know hopefully the new one eventually that's I don't know I'll have time for anything else if I I do all that it's interesting from a fan point of view here and that like yeah obviously Premium versus free to play I guess the game is where it's I guess it's mostly just to play for China yeah well one cuz Timmy but yeah I guess when you bring a big game like this to mobile that's you're just looking at that market um feel like I don't know how however they do it they can't they can't do a mihoyo style open world games too expensive I would imagine but yeah like I feel like he could do really well but yeah to your point I I yeah the whole releasing at the same time I can't make up my mind if that's good or a bad thing I think you've s me to that's probably a bad

thing especially Japan yeah because you could argue it might get people to try out the mobile one and then they you know buy Wilds but they've kind of already got now which is sort of close enough but that's not what they're going to do it for right they're not going to as a total I imagine they're not going to do a game that's like oh we want to get people into this world so they buy the premium one it might have that impact but I don't know I'm thinking of like a this is probably the wrong example but like a Dragon Quest but for Japan for example like a Dragon Quest walk I imagine that largely engages fans of Dragon Quest I doubt anyone that wasn't a fan but sorry downloaded that I could be absolutely wrong um so if if you're releasing both at the same time for that yeah you could like you say you can only you're only going to play one propably interesting what else um yeah so next up so

Nintendo um had a recent kind a financial results briefing with investors after the first half of their fiscal year has concluded um and they just had some kind of interesting comments I think both in terms of their own design philosophy and Loosely commenting on the The Wider industry in a roundabout way so Mario creator shagaru mamoto in this kind of call with the investors he was asked basically what Nintendo's doing to um kind of get through Rising development costs being seen across the industry and he basically said that yes costs are going up every year but that's been qu in some ways inevitable and that basically for Nintendo making good games is more important than how much it costs to make them which I think is quite a kind of a big

statement to make to your investors um and yeah you said that um basically Nintendo will continue to like refine its games until there something that you know fans are going to be happy with and of regardless of the cost and some games cost less some games cost more depends on the project also it's important to make something which has not existed in the past so you know a new thing for fans which kind of lines up with um although he's not an employee of Nintendo we talked a couple of months ago about um Smash Bros Creator Sakurai uh who basically said don't worry too much about market research because if you want to make something big then you know if the market research says it's big then someone's already done it essentially so try and do something original which I I quite like that Philosophy

from a big company I suppose there's an argument as to whether every Nintendo game is original or not it's kind of cool that they at least have that vision for each object I feel like Nintendo's in a very unique position to to be able to do kind of whatever it wants because it's so good uh I doubt I don't know how they do it so but like I doubt anything costs I could be wrong you know like 300 million to make a Spiderman that they're not doing that right I presum maybe yeah other than that I don't know although that tears of the kingdom was going to be an expansion they expanded that they're just amazing the the only uh thing I wanted to say hearing all of it it just reminded me of when the Wii U came out remember that and um which is the worst new console experience I've ever had but anyway I uh I don't think there were many games at the time I'm pretty sure it was Wii U and they were saying like actually they struggled with the move to

HD um and they didn't realize and it is a development cost thing uh they didn't realize how long it would take to make these games and so they got delayed so I guess that's the only uh it was it's an interesting question for them to ask and then to answer sorry for someone to ask and for them to answer uh because like they can say what they like like it is more important that the game's good right it doesn't matter the money sure but TimeWise you have to keep releasing games and they don't get much help well I mean this which is great but they don't get much help from top third party Publishers especially when they keep creating these unique consoles which require either special ports or it's just not possible with the high powerered Playstation Xbox Hardware so um not sure not not entir sure what I'm trying to say but yeah it is just like you okay you can say about cost but it's time that maybe is the issue I'm sure

they it covered but yeah they do um delay you know the surprising number of their big games so I guess that kind of yeah does does suggest they're happy to take that hit if it a better game later I mean switch just sold loads Hardware so I was going to say like do consumers think the same I guess they do I guess they don't mind so much until the um the price of the game starts going up alongside the cost yeah I mean well I mean Nintendo games though were I feel like they're historically like premium Priced Right yeah they don't really do discounts yeah the price of like if you want Mario now Mario Odyssey sorry when it released if you want Mario Odyssey you think oh I'll just wait free bus get off price you're lucky if you get it half price like five years later um already put my British accent there that's good um anyway I'll stop

rambling on that but uh what else have you got yes the last one from me is um to do with web shops so uh this webshop platform called neon has raised 14 million to expand to expand its platform and team hoping to take advantage of the current director consumer Trend um so it's got the funding from Thrive Capital Renegade Partners a16z speedrun uh Max Levin's sci-fi VC and ribit capital so this was reported by games be yeah so essentially they offer kind a web shop related Services I think there's like integration with existing web shops or they can kind of provide their own to developers um and we covered recently on the site that um 72% of the 20 top gracing mobile games use a web shop now and obviously I think yeah

is quite clear just from playing mobile games that more and more do seem to be going for the web shop route these days so it makes sense for a company to kind of offer that as a service and yeah get investment to expand that so yeah like web shops just the big yeah the biggest trade of the year and uh that's only that's not going to change into next year we'll probably see a lot more of these es going into those um really interesting time for Publishers in general um but yeah it's not going to get any okay it will get a bit easier I guess next year for Publishers to do this but it's not going to get completely smooth for media here all right thanks for that AR we we're going to swiftly move on to the week in views section where we go a bit section we go a bit something things really weird today uh where we go maybe it's the C that's in the anyway this is

the section where we go a bit more into depth and give some opinions on the week's news so Paige you've got something for us yeah I've got some Microsoft Xbox stuff so Phil Spencer he's you know he's spoke about a few bits and Bobs so I just wanted to highlight a couple of them one of which being the big thing of they're talking about more acquisitions they he did kind of say you know like there's nothing imminently happening and there won't be anything for a little while which makes sense like the act and you know blizzard deal really doesn't feel that long ago so I would kind of be shocked if they were really looking at something right now but even just the mention of it you know they've said that you know they they are always open to looking at stuff like that he sort of mentioned about you know maybe expanding so they could have more of a you a bit more diversity in terms of like their Geographic locations and stuff so maybe something in like the Asian market but

that could also mean something focused on mobile which I feel like you know would make sense of them I know obviously there's King which they've got now but yeah I feel like something mobile would make sense but realistically I just don't know if we're going to see anything like that from them anytime soon but then again judging from earlier at this podcast who knows because there has just been so much going on so maybe it's not close but but still closer than maybe we would assume that it is um so yeah just interesting that they would even mention that right now uh he also spoke about the Xbox mobile Marketplace which was supposed to launch back in July I think we've spoke about it a few times on the podcast and we were kind of like well it's been very quiet so I suppose that's not happening and yeah that that's been delayed whilst they sort of tweak some things and get it to run how they want I am intrigued to see how that's going to work out when it does launch um obviously it's not

where they want it to be so there's no sort of sign when that's going to happen now I feel like this year is quite swiftly drawing to an end so do they wait until next year for that now possibly and they also spoke about um like an Xbox handheld device which I think philm has been at least teasing and dabbling with this idea for a while like he's always been very vocal about liking the steam deck and the Ally and all these other devices that come out so it's like okay so when are you doing yours and he has said that they are they've got like one in a prototype phase but again it's something that's probably a good few years off and he kind of said as much it's not something that's going to happen right away but again all of these things I just thought it was interesting that it's like oh you know Acquisitions and we're building this and we're doing these things I know obviously they're only going to talk about all the positive stuff but at the same time time it's kind of you know it it's been a weird time for them with

layoffs and you know they've had Studios that have done really well for them but then they've closed those Studios so yeah just I think it's been a bit of a strange time for them so yeah all these kind of forward thinking things I guess they're trying to give people some faith in that you know yeah maybe some things haven't gone our way but there are good things on the horizon but yeah I just thought it was a lot of things to round up that's a lot of yes far into the Future these things will be happening my take is uh they're not I don't think how do I do this they aren't going to do this um I think he's just forced almost for some reason to vaguely say something and then not and not rule it out so I guess you can't say like we're never buying a mobile studio so he but he doesn't he does really say they're going to do it I don't kind of hints but they're

just not going to do that it doesn't make any sense yeah they've got to sort out what they're doing with King and it doesn't make any sense that they' buy another mobile company it doesn't make any sense at all to me um if they did buy say they bought a smaller company uh they'd just close it guaranteed within a few years they just close it like PlayStation did with Savage games SL neon Koy like it just it I to me it doesn't make sense the interesting thing was talking about Asia um but I don't think you can buy a Japanese company unless the rules have changed if you're not in Japan I think that would be really tremendously challenging and then surely surely you can't an American company can't go in and buy a Chinese company so we can rule that out I I feel like what he's really getting at um is that and he does say but like I think the whole thing would be that they're going to partner more closely with

Chinese developers and Publishers to make games like they've already done with ag of Empires I think that might be mentioned there but like they've already done that and then I just think we'll see more Partnerships with tens and n e for their IP to come to mobile maybe I know that's you know that's not even their strategy their strategy is Game Pass but I guess if they want to do something in China and they have and they see other opportunities in Mobile that's think the only things that they're going to do I think they'll leave I like I think that's the way for them I CU with King like it's an amazing company to get obviously candy cr Saga has been around for years they have some other games that you know they do well Cy cross Saga does well Farm Hero Saga definitely not on their level but it you know it consistently makes a lot of money um but King can't translate any of their IP into games so the only way they can do it is through Partnerships and and I don't I don't think they're going to do any Acquisitions it's all going be Partnerships and then it would just have

to see maybe there'll be some sort of strategic partnership official um the only other question from that for me would be like oh or Microsoft okay with the large fees that 10 cent and netes trying to get these days which I guess for major of Empires the answer is yes they're fine with that it's my random take it's a strange one like I'm I'm not a professional businesswoman so maybe I don't have the right mindset for it but like I just find it odd when it's kind of like even just talking about it even if he is kind of saying Oh it' Be years away or it's kind of just something he's saying and it's not really going to happen like talking about Acquisitions and stuff it's like well you you've closed Studios down that were doing well for you and in my head I'm like could you've not just invested in what you did have than closing it and then talking about this like I don't know it must like for those Studios it must really feel like a bit of a kick in the face to have it closed down and oh yeah we would love to do more with these people or maybe think of acquiring these people

and it's like well could you have just invested in us who had made a great game for you and it's and it's not really amounted to anything so yeah I always think these kinds of discussions of what's to come in the future are interesting but I think when you've had a bit of a a rocky year it can sometimes come across a little bit I don't know doesn't always sit right I get why again I get why like this whole conversation ends up taking place gets asked the question gives has to give fake answers for some reason but I kind of wish that he would they just be honest we're not interested in moar and then and then during the whole acquisition they kept like can I say yeah they kept effectively lying and saying oh no the big reason is for mobile it's it's nothing to do with it you wanted Call of Duty you wanted to give the finger to PlayStation and say we've got Call of Duty now your your biggest game yeah I I just the whole thing of Microsoft and b ball is it's it's stupid I think like

you said that is kind of partly it which is really weird it's they asked a question and he kind of feels like well I've just got to give an answer even if it's not something we're doing or actually thinking about I can't just be like no we're just not really looking at that right now that's a fine answer just say that doesn't mean you're never going to but that's fine yeah but yeah there just has to be these answers every time even if they're not that's probably if in the background poking him like but you can't say one maybe there's yeah maybe there's like a public it's like a public company reason maybe and also we're we may be launching this Xbox Marketplace that kind of is massively delayed and only ever gets announced on social media and uh press and on a panel on stage like we because you know if we say we're not doing mobile no one's going to want to be on our store maybe it's just the whole thing's ridic sorry I did R do weeked views no it's fine that's that's

pretty much it I think we covered the basis think we got it Aaron take it take us out of this you've got something maybe more pleasant yes okay I'll um I'll save us with a bit more Monster hunted P um you're welcome so um yeah Monster Hunter now a couple of weeks ago um they had an event called of global which uh a bit sort of copying the Pokémon go model they had an event in Japan last month um which was in person and you could buy tickets and go to shabuya um and then essentially yeah a couple of weekends ago they held a digital version of the event for all the players around the world who couldn't go to shabuya and I guess it's a way for the Niantic to make the most of what they developed for the the iners event and then monetize it again with

everyone else um so yeah that's something Pokémon go has done for quite a long time um but this is Monster Hunt and Al's first of case of doing so we took part in the event um got some got to hunt some exclusive monsters a few of them are coming to everyone soon uh so it's was kind of like Early Access if you got a ticket to to play and then you could make weapons and armor and stuff from those monsters and I guess get a bit of a head start um and it's quite powerful stuff so which I guess makes sense if you're trying to encourage people to pay to get it early they also had some like celebratory weapons you could unlock um that are only for the event so they're like paid exclusives and they were incredibly easy to upgrade and very powerful so it's a nice benefits for people who paid um and yeah it did pretty well it's

it's hard to um be totally certain how well because tickets were on sale from kind of mid October um so I looked at the at Magic data and put a piece together on the um on the website that you should take a look at so yeah sales for it probably took place you know steadily over like the 3 weeks it's also leading up to the event and then there's also the web shop to consider which had extra benefits if you bought a ticket there instead of in game but even with all that in mind day the event started revenue from the Play Store and the App Store increased by 151% over the day prior so yeah according to app magic now roasted more than 600,000 uh on the first day of the event and and then 722 th000 on the second and final day that was another 20%

Rise um so obviously not not all of that would be ticket sales but it was quite a big boost for them so clearly people were playing a lot more um yeah presumably a lot of them either had bought tickets already or bought them during the you know while the event was in progress um and it was quite levely done I think merged quite well with now's General monetization mechanics because you need to be above a certain Health threshold to play uh in like a sort of stamina system but if you are kind of skilled enough to not get hit you're never affected by it because your Health's always full if you take too many hits you have to either wait to recover or Bally use potions which you can buy you get a certain amount of free ones but generally you have to buy them so like if you're play you know you pay to participate in the event and then get hit too much it's like well you either

don't play even though you pay for the event or buy some more potions which um in some ways is a little bit harsh but that is just like how the game's built so you're just trapped basically it's like you you spent on this so either that's gone to waste or you spend a little bit more to or just don't get hit but that's hard when it's new monsters you not thought before to like figure out how not to get hit this reminds me of walking into a uh Supermarket like an Audi or a little and and where they've only got like oneway entrances and exits right so you go in there and then you're stuck you have to queue to get out it's just like do I need to buy something yeah good analogy and then you know they had bundles like potion bundles and stuff so then that's a little bit like you know so you've gone in you weren't going to buy anything but then while you're queuing up to leave you see those like a discount on your favorite chocolate bar amazing but um yeah so it was a good

good event and I suspect they'll do more because it yeah it did pretty well for them and from what I've seen online it's had you good response from players so what's better Pokemon go events or Monster Hunter now um I'd say particularly with monster hunter now still being in its infancy of events it's already Monster Hunter now I'm a bigger Pokemon fan but Monster Hunter now feels more like a game to me than Pokémon go so you think they did this better yeah I think because Pokémon go obviously the main point is catching Pokemon which you know obviously is hugely popular because the game is massive um you've got like the raiding side of things as well for battles but um I don't know I think there's more to I say hunting the same monster again and again you gradually get cooler stuff for it and you know you learn how the

combat works against each thing you make better weapons as a result you have that bigger sense of progression versus like a Pokémon go event if it's introduced some the Pokemon or whatever it's like you catch it and then you carry and walking and then there's more of them and you catch more of them and I don't know for me at least the novelty of that wears off a lot more quickly yeah interesting I'm really fascinated by your insights into Monster Hunter now every time put together a piece on that it's just fascinating to see how it compares to how Pokemon goes done within like the same company and actually the different ways that they innovate to make it hugely successful as it is so yeah really really interesting I'm I'm glad my opinions are count as insights yeah yeah I thought you're going to be like oh glad glad my opinions matter Craig yes well that as well yeah yeah just

straight for words all right thanks thanks for that Aaron um we're kind of we're kind of running on time I'm going to be really quick uh the absolute most Abridged version of pjc Jordan other than saying it was good um so it was really good the uh uh there two days at the weekend and you know the first day the tickets just kind of went insane like the couple weeks before the show and yeah I think it's up on the site I think the number was just over 2500 people were at the the event and that's about pocket gaming connects London levels and you could tell because on the first day and I'm trying to walk in there's just this massive queue and I can't actually get into our own event so uh I guess the other thing is I should have gone earlier but secondly I couldn't get in until eventually I had to just flash a pass and say can I just get in please um was was very about and

then I guess some of the takeaways were one of the one of the interesting things I really found is just the amount of students that are really kind of getting into the space uh and the amount of investment that's going into creating courses and and developing all this Talent that's emerging in Jordan um games and Tech are a really important part of of their future and and uh kind of the the king Prince the government they really investing heavily in into the space so it it's really cool to see all all that and the excitement around it and um the other thing is just how kind of when you just look at it how diverse the industry already is I'm not I I I don't know I'm not going to say that it's say like a perfect C 50/50 like I don't do that but when you when you look around there's definitely a lot more

women then you might see uh when you're just at other events around the world again I think those things have kind of got better over the years generally at conferences but yeah you really notice it at the show and we had a few talks kind of around the topic of diversity one of them was from I forget her name but a speaker from Unreal Engine which is really fascinating but what was great at the about opportunities diversity kind of it was kind of a about the engine but uh and then but afterwards it was really cool like people asking questions about you know kind of where do they fit into the industry and was it was just a really open discussions really really it's just really good to see um the other thing we had like a few talks on Esports like that is a massive investment area broadly in the Middle East uh I think Savvy games group has bought a couple a few week sport companies they buy or sell um there's a lot of investment going into to get

Esports tournaments that's curious for me to see that because uh I thought we're in the midst of I I don't know actually are we still in the midst of an Esports winter like the when crypto crashed so did sponsorship for Esports and actually how profitable were these things as events on their own I don't know um so is interesting to see that there's so much excitement around that as a as a as as if it's like a massive massive thing I say this is someone as an Esports fan by the way I still I still play Starcraft I haven't mentioned for a like two podcasts um and the other thing just kind of on some of those other topics was I was I was a judge at the big Indie pitch we also had the Jordan games Awards H and the talent that's already there as well as the emerging talent and some of these studos are growing some are pretty big uh just games were were pretty were pretty great there was uh cat's vote was a was a fantastic game

it's coming to steam on I'm going to mess it up I'm going to give the wrong date aren't I it's the 22nd the 21st something like that it's coming out it was such a cool game so basically you just you're like you run a family of cats and then every few years I think you you have to vote in an election you know and uh of cats obviously and they'll tell you like what they're going to run for and how that will affect you know your family how you're going to feed them whatever your work uh but then it also has like a percentage of well this I don't know I think it's something like oh 70% they might be lying so you have to kind of work out like a real politician like okay you told me this you actually going to do it it was really cool and the the graphics are like it looks so cute but it's also and I mean this in the best way possible is kind of paired down in the sense that uh it does I don't they

don't do more than they need to do so the experience really benefits from that I'd just say definitely check it out um and then there were some other great games uh staria making BMS uh which looks really really great a bit of a in the blind Forest kind of feel uh to that a Saudi developer um I then the awards you obviously had like the big players Babble um mad hook chick Mania really really atristic game so just just seeing all that firsthand uh it was really fascinating and uh yeah a lot of excitement going on in the industry and you really felt that at the show that's uh not the previous events at all but I think that was the best one we've done but I haven't been for years so but yeah it was I really enjoy that right that brings us to the end of of the week in mobile games I remembered the name once again of our show

uh I'll try not to have that two-minute brain freeze ever again people don't know this yeah I for about two minutes I just forgot what our show was called to the horror of Paige and Aaron um probably wondering if they needed to call an ambulance or something um but yeah thank you for everyone for listening thank you very much for pay Tak be here thank thanks very much thanks very much Aaron yeah thanks yeah glad to talk a load of Monster Hunter this week you're spoiled for Monster hun this week really yeah we'll have to bad it on next week's show see how will you deal with it I'll see you the week after yeah good answer yeah yeah well uh well we hope the rest of you will see you next week maybe there'll be more boss Hunter if that's what you want to hear more of let us know we'll see you on the next one thanks bye