WEBVTT - Could Live Service Games Kill the Games Industry? 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.399 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey thereon 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.239 Welcome to Tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.920 an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the tech 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.560 are you? You know, it's a tough time to work 0:00:24.120 --> 0:00:27.400 in the tech industry, unless, of course, you're an executive, 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.840 in which case you probably can't hear how tough it 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:32.960 is because of the sound of huge bags of money 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.080 hitting your desk. It's drowning everything else out socept maybe 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.600 the demands of your shareholders. But if you're not some 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.720 suit who is laying waste to the ranks of your 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.680 staff in an effort to secure payouts to the folks 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.240 who hold stocks in your company plus a hefty compensation 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.080 package for yourself, times are pretty scary. Now. That's true 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.880 across multiple industries. But today I want to talk a 0:00:55.920 --> 0:01:00.960 bit about the video games sector in particular. Idea came 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:03.920 to me when I heard about Microsoft, which is a 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:08.760 three trillion dollar company, and how it was shutting down 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:13.280 several notable video game studios, which included some that are 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.520 known for a pretty wide spectrum of games. And some 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:21.560 of those games, yes, were clunkers. They performed less well 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.280 than expected in the market. Games like Redfall, which came 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.440 from R. Kane Austin. That's a notable example of a 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.360 game that was met with a fairly lukewarm reception. R 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:35.720 Kane Austin would find itself as one of the studios 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.640 that got shut down by Microsoft recently. And to be 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:43.320 fair to R. Kane Austin, my understanding is that Redfall 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.760 was a project that had a lot of shifting priorities 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.840 that were placed upon the development team. So I'm not 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.960 laying blame here. I think the Redfall was a pretty 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.400 complicated story. I'm not sure that what came out of 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.440 that project was the same thing as what people were 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:07.600 hoping for when they first started it. Anyway, those cuts 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:10.679 that Microsoft made, they also included studios that have produced 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.200 games that got a lot of recent critical acclaim. Tango 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:18.000 GameWorks is one of those studios. I mean it developed 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.120 a game called Hi Fi Rush last year, which released 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.520 to no real announcement, like it was a surprise release, 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.520 and people really clicked with that game, sometimes literally because 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.080 it's a rhythm based game. That was an unexpected pun 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.640 from me. Now, these cuts are really rough, and the 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:38.640 first thing I really want to say is that I 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.799 hope all the people who have been affected by those 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:43.320 cuts are able to land on their feet. Because it's 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:47.240 a really tough world out there for game development, particularly 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:51.160 among the big studios, which we've seen a lot of 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:56.040 big companies make some drastic cutbacks. I hope those who 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.919 perhaps have found themselves out of employment are able to 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:04.520 land a really rewarding gig soon, both professionally rewarding and 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.640 personally rewarding. But today I wanted to talk about what 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:14.079 might be behind Microsoft's strategy, at least to an extent. Now, 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:16.440 I want to preface this by saying I don't have 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.080 any special insight. It's not like I was brought into 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.640 the boardroom to talk about these things. The impressions I 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.400 get are similar to those proposed by other outside observers, 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.200 so I'm not also saying that I have a unique 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.880 perspective on this. By far is not unique. If you 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.120 do a search online, you will find countless articles and 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.440 videos of people giving their take on what's going on 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:46.000 in the industry. But by looking at Microsoft's recent moves, 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.240 I think I can make some general guesses. So, for 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.240 one thing, after many months of trying to close a 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.240 truly massive deal, while regulators around the world were raising 0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:01.440 concerns about it. Microsoft finally acquired another enormous game studio 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.960 called Activision Blizzard, and that was for sixty eight point 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:09.240 seven billion with a B dollars. Now, it's not unusual 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.440 to see layoffs in the wake of a large acquisition 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.479 or merger because typically you do have overlap between the 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.839 two entities, right, and you say, well, why do we 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:27.840 want these these roles duplicated. That's bloat, that's unnecessary. So 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.920 we do need to make some hard choices in order 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.960 to run an efficient operation. That stinks for the people 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.280 who are affected. But from a business perspective, you can 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:42.400 understand that that there's no need to employ twice as 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.320 many people that are needed to do a specific task. However, 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:50.080 these studios that Microsoft just recently shut down were their 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:54.440 own individual organizations. They were not part of some heterogeneous whole. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:59.600 It's not like Microsoft has one truly enormous room just 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.560 filled with video game developers who are all working on stuff. 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:08.599 These are largely separate and semi autonomous game studios. They 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.000 just have Microsoft as sort of their parent company umbrella. 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.560 So one possible reason for these shutdowns is that Microsoft 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.840 just needed to make some cutbacks to decrease the impact 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:24.640 of this incredibly large transaction they made to acquire Activision Blizzard, 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:26.680 and so like they like, well, we bought it, we 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:29.719 got what we said we wanted, but now we need 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.960 to cut back so that it doesn't have as large 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.240 an impact on our balance sheet at the end of 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:39.760 the year. I'm guessing another reason is that Microsoft is 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.600 pushing toward a game model that has become increasingly popular 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:47.760 because of its ability to continue to generate revenue after 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.720 a game is released, and that's the games as a 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:56.600 service approach, and more specifically live service games, which you 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:01.479 could argue is like a subcategory of games as a service. Now, 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.440 the as a service model is one that's really taken 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.680 hold of tech in general, not just the games industry, 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:13.960 and that has both good and bad consequences as a result. 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.440 I am not going to make a blanket statement and 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.800 say that all games as a service or live service 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.320 games are bad. I don't feel that way, but I 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.080 will say that a lot of the elements of games 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.960 as a service have had a disruptive and from at 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:32.440 least some points of view, harmful impact on the industry. 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.600 As a whole. Now as a service model has been 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.240 used for lots of stuff. You have security as a service, 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:43.760 computing as a service, storage as a service. The list 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.080 goes on and on, and essentially all of these boil 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:51.320 down to a provider company offering certain services over the 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.640 Internet so that the customer doesn't have to run stuff 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.360 on their own hardware, so instead the customer uses their 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:02.800 hardware to access this online service over the Internet. That 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:06.760 can be a huge help if you are launching a 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.880 startup and it's an Internet based business, using some as 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:15.160 a service stuff can really help you meet customer and 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.360 partner expectations. But you don't have to take on the 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:21.600 expense and effort of building everything from scratch on your 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:26.160 own premises, so there is a benefit to this approach. 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.640 With games, things can be a little bit different. Games 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:32.960 as a service or live service games are ones that 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:37.600 have a long tail revenue opportunity. The game itself might 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.960 cost money upfront, or it could be a free to 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.640 play title where gamers don't have to spend any money 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.040 to access the game initially. A lot of mobile games 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.160 fall into this category, where downloading the game is free, 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.800 but players are given incentives to spend money on the 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.880 game in return for some sort of in game benefit 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.960 or cosmetic option. Often those games could also be supported 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.080 by advertising. That's pretty typical in a lot of these 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:07.040 games where ads will pop up. We've also heard recently 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.920 that some Triple A studios have been talking about putting 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:14.160 ads into games, and that again is not a new thing. 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.800 It's happened in the past, often to disastrous results because 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.880 generally speaking, gamers are not a big fan of that. 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.600 But we're hearing Triple A studios talk about that again 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.800 as a way to continually generate revenue off of a sale, 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:36.120 So again it's another potential revenue changing strategy for games. 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:40.360 For some games, players actually see a benefit in this 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.520 arrangement in that the developer will occasionally release new content 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.400 and expand the game itself in some way. So there's 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:52.880 an incentive to be part of this long tail revenue 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:57.280 generation system because the game continues to generate value and 0:08:57.320 --> 0:09:01.160 you're not just playing the same thing perpetual. The method 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.120 of extending revenue generation does vary. It could be a 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:08.280 subscription service. It might be pay for content where you've 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:12.320 got pay walls that block certain types of content and 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:16.880 you can't access it until you have paid. There are 0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:21.080 even games that kind of get the derisive label of 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:25.360 pay to win. Generally speaking, that particular strategy, it's not 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:27.679 looked upon favorably by most of the people in the 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.960 gaming audience. Pay to win essentially just means that you 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.280 get access to things in the game that give you 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.840 an advantage over other players, and it's typically something that 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:42.120 you would hear about in player versus player type games. 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.600 You know you're going up against other humans and you 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:50.600 have paid for advantages that can help offset any imbalance 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.200 and skill you might have against other players. Generally speaking, 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.119 people hate that, but there are a lot of different options. 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.959 But the idea itself is not new at all. It's 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.760 almost as old as video games themselves are. In fact, 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:07.880 you could argue that the arcade machine model, which predates 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.760 the home video game, that kind of falls in line 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:15.199 with games as a service. Right, whether you're traditional arcade machine, 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.360 you pay to play, and when your play session is 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:22.120 over because you know, a ghost gobbled your pacmand three times, 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:24.920 or you missed one too many centipedes or whatever, you 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.480 got to cough up another quarter, or you got to 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:31.839 move along. But while that model would work for companies 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.760 that made arcade cabinets, or, to be more accurate, it 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.120 actually worked for arcade owners who would typically purchase an 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.400 arcade cabinet and then use that cabinet to generate revenue, 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.280 with the obvious goal meaning being that you know, you 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:48.200 make more in quarters than you paid for the machine, 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:50.440 and it would just take a certain amount of time. 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:54.480 While that same model would prove a little more elusive 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.560 for the home market. Initially, the way the home video 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:02.360 game market would work is that a video game development 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.960 company would create a game and then either it would 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.400 publish that game, or it would work with a third 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.360 party publisher to do so, to actually manufacture the game 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.240 and package it and market it and ship it to 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.280 retailers and then hope that the game sells really well. 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.120 I'm not going to dive further into that business model. 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:24.640 There is more to it than that. It's a little 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.800 more complicated, but that's the basic idea. But the important 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.520 thing with that business model is that we're really just 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:36.040 talking about individual transactions. Right. That happened one time someone 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:38.959 a customer comes up and buys a copy of the game, 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:43.040 and that sale is the one and only transaction between 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:47.480 the gamer and the retailer and represents the one purchase 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:51.200 that matters to the video game developer. Now, that gamer 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:54.600 might later choose to give their copy of the game 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:57.920 away to somebody, or to sell it, you know, used 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.400 to someone else, or to trade it into a retailer 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.199 for credit, and the credit would just be a you know, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:09.160 a percentage of what the original value of the game 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.079 used to be, and then the retailer would go around 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:12.840 and sell it for more than that because that's how 0:12:12.880 --> 0:12:15.400 you make money as a retailer, But the video game 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.600 developer and publisher wouldn't see any of that money in 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:23.480 those transactions, right. The aftermarket leaves those companies out, so 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:27.120 they only get a slice when it's a sale of 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:31.199 a new copy of their game to someone. And eliminating 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:34.600 the aftermarket was really something that was pretty enticing to 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.520 video game companies from the get go. Like it's largely 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.880 been done now because digital distribution is largely the way 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.880 that games are distributed these days. There aren't that many 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.680 versions of games where you're going out and buying a 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.800 physical copy anymore. Heck, a lot of computer systems don't 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:58.760 even have optical drives, so there's like no physical medium 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.920 you would purchase in order to play on your PC. 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.160 There are exceptions, obviously, there are games where you can 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:09.480 still buy on cartridge based systems and such, but largely 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.600 we're talking about digital downloads these days. That has really 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:18.880 cut into the aftermarket, but that's fairly recent. Way back 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.120 in the early eighties, there were already efforts to figure 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:25.560 out ways to kind of eliminate the aftermarket, because it 0:13:25.679 --> 0:13:28.400 sure would be better for these companies if they could 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.520 convince folks to only buy new copies of the game 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.560 instead of going and purchasing a used copy at like 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.720 a flea market or a retailer or something. And it 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.680 would take some time to essentially achieve that goal, but 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:46.720 there were some early attempts. One of those had its 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:51.640 birth way back in the late nineteen seventies, although it 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:54.800 would not debut until the nineteen eighties, and it would 0:13:54.840 --> 0:13:59.640 involve a home video game console called the in television. 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.040 I'll talk more about that, but first let's take a 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:15.360 quick break to thank our sponsors. Before the break, I 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:19.560 mentioned the Intellivision, a home game console. I actually had 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.520 an intelevision, although the one I had I inherited from 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:25.920 a cousin who had just sort of, you know, was 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:27.960 going off to college and had given it up. So 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.360 my Intellivision was not a brand new one. It was 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:36.040 already an obsolete console at that point. But I did 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.800 have probably a couple dozen games, as I recall, although 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.320 the intelevision controller was like almost like a remote control, 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.000 and you would have overlays you could slip into it 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.600 that matched the games that you played. I remember distinctly 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:53.720 that I had overlays for cartridges I did not own, 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:56.760 and vice versa. I had cartridges where there was no overlay, 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:58.920 and I would have to use trial and error to 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.640 figure out what the the different buttons did in that 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:06.600 particular game. Anyway, the Intellvision was a cartridge based game system, 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.440 so you would typically go to your local toy store 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.320 or electronics store whatever you and you go and purchase 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:16.120 a new game. Now, back then cartridges cost about thirty dollars, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.000 but that's in nineteen eighty dollars, so if we adjust 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.080 for inflation, that's around one hundred and fifteen bucks today. 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.400 So just in case you thought video games are too 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.640 expensive these days, you know, some Triple A titles start 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.400 off at seventy dollars a pop. And then go up 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:33.480 from there if you want a special edition. Just know 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:37.800 that video games have always been expensive, it's just that 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.280 a dollar doesn't go as far as it used to anyway. 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.320 The folks that in television came up with a pretty 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.760 clever idea. Why not create an add on in which 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:53.120 players could subscribe to an ongoing service provided by a 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:57.800 local cable TV company so the players could end up 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:02.080 accessing encoded games in television would encode the games using 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:06.520 the FM band frequencies and send those frequencies over cable 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.520 lines because the frequencies wouldn't interfere with all the other 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.480 stuff that was traveling over cable. The players would be 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.400 able to connect their intelevision systems up to their cable 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:19.640 service using a special adapter. The plug right into the 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.240 cartridge slot of the Intellvision, so it was like it 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.360 was an oversized game cartridge with wire that could attach 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:31.040 to your cable and to access a game using the service, 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.280 the player would turn their television to a particular channel. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.600 This would only be available in around a dozen cities 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.640 in the United States, but they could choose from different 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.520 video game titles that would switch out each month, So 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.360 typically there was somewhere between fifteen and twenty games on 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:53.600 this I saw different versions of that depending on the source, 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.240 and I didn't have access to this when I had 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.520 in television, so I don't really have direct experience with it. 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.440 The idea was that you could choose a game available 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.960 on this service and it would tell the terminal to 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.760 accept the game code the next time the cable channel 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:16.360 transmitted that specific game, so the channel was constantly transmitting code, 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:19.960 your terminal just didn't pick it up because the terminal 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.600 was only waiting for a specific signal based upon whichever 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.480 game you wanted to play. And once that transmission started, 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:28.080 the terminal would say all right and would download that 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:33.359 code into memory on the adapter, and that's where it 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.000 would live. And it was just in memory, volatile memory, 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:40.240 so once it shut off or once you wanted to 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.280 play a different game, that information would get whited. So 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.879 you wouldn't have access to this title forever, just for 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.440 however long your play session was going. Really so instead 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.520 of going out and buying a copy of the game 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.959 and in television, owner could subscribe to the service and 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.120 pay a monthly fee and then play games that way 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.280 and again. Because the games were just stored in memory, 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.159 they weren't permanently part of the player's library. In television 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.320 called this technology the play cable. Now, this was really 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.520 forward thinking, but you could argue it was two forward 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:15.840 thinking and it was ahead of its time. Now. According 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:19.680 to Stuart Schlay of CED magazine, way back in two 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.240 thousand and five, in television was only able to secure 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:28.160 about three percent of all households that could access this service. 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.399 So while the Intellivision had a decent install base for 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.240 the time, like more than two million units were sold 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.240 by nineteen eighty two, for example, only around six hundred 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.919 and fifty thousand of those even would have access to 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.119 the play cable service. And then of those six hundred 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.840 and fifty thousand, not that many people took the plunge 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.399 to pay four dollars ninety five cents per month to 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.280 actually use it. Now, there were some problems with the 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.280 business model from the get go, because gamers weren't the 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.240 only folks who had to cough up a decent amount 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.240 of money to be part of play cable. Right, you 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.000 had to buy the adapter, and then you had to 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.359 pay a subscription to the service. But the cable television 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.240 providers also had to pay in order to be able 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.479 to use this service. They would have to purchase a 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:18.639 really expensive computer to run the transmission side of this 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.479 service because it wasn't provided by Intellvision, So the cable 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.960 companies would have to pay like twelve grand for these 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:31.480 really expensive and particular computer systems. By nineteen eighty four, 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:36.040 in television had decided to unplug the play cable because 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.000 it just hadn't caught on plus in nineteen eighty four. 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:43.440 That's obviously after the video game crash of nineteen eighty three, 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:46.520 the home video game market in the United States was 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:48.359 in ruins. In other parts of the world it was 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.080 a different story, but the entire market crashed for the 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.399 US in nineteen eighty three. It's what would create the 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.679 opportunity for Nintendo to kind of resurrect that market. But 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.639 for all a good year, it was desolation in the 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:06.959 home video game space. Computers were kind of taking up 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.760 some of the gaps. Yeah, it was grim. In television, 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:14.000 games had been getting more complex, and that was also 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:17.000 part of the problem because the play cable system could 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:21.000 only support transfers of up to six kilobytes. So as 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.440 games were getting more sophisticated, the play cable couldn't keep up. 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:28.760 It physically was limited to six kilobytes of data for 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.960 these transfers, so if a game required more than that, 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:34.800 it would not be eligible for play cable. It just 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.200 wouldn't work. So, no matter what, the play cable had 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:42.200 probably a pretty limited lifespan. Even if the video game 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.800 market had not crashed in nineteen eighty three, it's unlikely 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.240 that in television would have kept it going that it 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:51.000 would have remained relevant, So it went could put unless 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.920 you think in television was the only example of an 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.800 early go at the games as a service model. Allow 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.359 me to tell you about the Atari game lie Line 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:04.639 from a company called Control Video Corporation. So this wasn't 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:09.760 from Atari itself, but from this CVC company, which interestingly 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:14.800 was founded by a guy named Bill von Meister, so 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:19.480 Bill the Mister. He he also co founded one of 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:23.119 the earliest online services called the Source, so really really 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:26.960 forward thinking dude. Similar to the play cable, GameLine was 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.600 a product and a service that would let Atari twenty 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:32.920 six hundred owners connect their console, by this time using 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:36.160 their phone line with an adapter that would plug into 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:39.320 the cartridge slot of your Attari twenty six hundred and 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:41.560 so it was similar to the play cable, but play 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.399 cable obviously connected to cable. Game Line connected to a 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:49.360 phone line, and so gamelines transmissions were over the telephone 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.880 system instead of cable TV frequencies. Now. According to Dan 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:57.200 Skelton in the Atari Compendium, this adapter cost forty nine 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.720 dollars and ninety five cents, and that included a year 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:05.120 of service. I'm not sure how much service was after that, 0:22:05.640 --> 0:22:07.960 but that's not the only fee we'd be talking about, 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.400 because the way game line worked is that you would 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.360 get one of these adapters, you'd plug it into your 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:16.879 computer and hook it up to your phone system, and 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:19.800 when you turned it on for the first time, game 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:24.160 Line would automatically dial in to a particular phone line 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.760 and a computer system, and you would be prompted to 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:31.560 register your GameLine system and to create a personal identification 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:35.920 number or PIN, and then you would get to enter 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:39.119 whichever game you wanted by putting in a three digit 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:43.840 code that correlated to that specific game, and then that 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:49.000 game would be sent to temporarily live on the memory 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.159 of the adapter you were using. The adapter you had, 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:54.800 by the way, also required a nine volt battery to 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:57.879 remain powered because again it's volatile memory, so if it 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:01.720 loses power, then the information and is wiped from the system. 0:23:02.080 --> 0:23:05.240 So you wanted to create a pen for every person 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:07.560 in your household because, as it would turn out, the 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:11.560 service would grant a user unlimited plays on their birthday. 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:14.119 So if you made a pen for everyone and the 0:23:14.200 --> 0:23:17.920 dog in your family, you could use that specific pen 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:21.600 to log into the service on the respective person or 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:26.040 animal's birthday for unlimited plays. You know, hack the system, 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:28.639 is what I'm saying. Like the play Cable game lines 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.280 lineup would change month to month, and it would include 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:33.880 new games as well as, you know, really the most 0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:36.400 popular titles that were on the service. They also put 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.240 out a magazine that informed customers about which titles would 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.439 become available in the upcoming month. Games could be played 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:45.240 only a limited number of times before they would get 0:23:45.320 --> 0:23:48.800 wiped from memory. At that point, you could choose to 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:51.760 download the code again or access the code again, but 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:55.040 it would be for another charge, another fee, and we're 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:59.199 typically talking about one dollar per title. So for a 0:23:59.359 --> 0:24:02.560 dollar you could play titles on the service for up 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:05.760 to eight times or so before they would just disappear 0:24:06.000 --> 0:24:09.280 from your cartridge. The instruction manual for the device argued 0:24:09.320 --> 0:24:12.879 that the limit was only on game plays, not the 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:17.040 time spent while playing, which means if you're really good, 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:20.840 then you could play all night. Because it doesn't matter 0:24:20.880 --> 0:24:23.440