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Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in

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Speaker 1: which we speak with some of the brightest minds working

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Speaker 1: in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety

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Speaker 1: Intelligence Platform. Lots of interesting developments in the video game

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Speaker 1: business lately, which makes the timing of this month's special

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Speaker 1: report from Variety Intelligence Platform on the state of the

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Speaker 1: industry especially good timing. On this episode, we'll talk with

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Speaker 1: the author of the report, my colleague Corey Erickson, who

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Speaker 1: will tackle all the biggest issues currently at play in

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Speaker 1: the world of video games. Stick around and we are

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Speaker 1: back with Corey Erickson, author of a new report from

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Speaker 1: Variety Intelligence Platform on the state of the industry. Corey

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Speaker 1: plenty to get to.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 1: Given there's been a lot of activity in the past

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Speaker 1: few months, I would say we'd be remiss in not

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Speaker 1: starting with some pretty earth shattering news that came in

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Speaker 1: a few weeks ago with the move of Grand Theft

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Speaker 1: Auto six. Why does this matter so much?

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Speaker 2: This matters so much because this is a game that

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Speaker 2: has essentially been in the works for over a decade,

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Speaker 2: you know, from inception to this home stretch last year

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Speaker 2: of the game's production. It comes from Rockstar, a label

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Speaker 2: to Take two Interactive and the last iteration of the game.

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Speaker 2: Grand Theft Auto five, despite being released in twenty thirteen,

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Speaker 2: is still going strong through its Grand Theft Auto Online mode.

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Speaker 2: You know, this is a game that is one of

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Speaker 2: the biggest live services. It's up there with Fortnite, Roadblocks Minecraft,

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Speaker 2: but it's also as much of a Triple A single

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Speaker 2: player experience. So this game alone encapsulates, you know, pretty

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Speaker 2: much every corner of the Triple A console market at

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Speaker 2: a time when the Triple A industry isn't doing so well.

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Speaker 2: There's been a tremendous amount of layoffs over the past

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Speaker 2: two years. Last year alone was more than fourteen thousand,

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Speaker 2: and it's get taking longer and getting a lot more

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Speaker 2: expensive to maintain, you know, a fresh pipeline of Triple

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Speaker 2: A games, while also you know, the price points of

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Speaker 2: these games are going up, you know, even further than

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Speaker 2: they have before. We know, Nintendo Switch To is coming

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Speaker 2: out in June, and you know their flagship Mario Kart

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Speaker 2: title for that has gone up to eighty dollars as

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Speaker 2: a price point, which is sort of a new normal

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Speaker 2: for the industry after going up to seventy dollars four

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Speaker 2: years ago, So all the speculation about Grand Theft out

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Speaker 2: of six, you know what it's going to cost, that

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Speaker 2: still has to be figured out, and the triple A

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Speaker 2: causal industry is sort of hinging on. You know, this

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Speaker 2: game finally coming out and you know, bringing some more

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Speaker 2: energy and hopefully investment back into that space.

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Speaker 1: So it moves out of twenty five into twenty six.

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Speaker 1: What does this mean for the business in twenty five

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Speaker 1: because you know, this was by all accounts going to

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Speaker 1: be the Titanic for a dated reference for the video

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Speaker 1: game business, or maybe Avenger is a better example. This

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Speaker 1: was going to be the biggest best seller. So what

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Speaker 1: happens to twenty twenty five in terms of results for

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Speaker 1: the business lacking this massive hit.

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Speaker 2: Well, the immediate upside is, you know, the sheer reality

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Speaker 2: that now some publishers can breathe a bit easy and

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Speaker 2: schedule games for the fall that was you know, the

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Speaker 2: expected timeline for GTA six. So with that gone now

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Speaker 2: it does get a little bit easier to schedule what

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Speaker 2: you know there is to schedule. But from a wider

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Speaker 2: market standpoint, you know, this was a game that was

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Speaker 2: expected to bring in like two to three billion within

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Speaker 2: its launch yer, and that's now two to three billion,

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Speaker 2: you know, off analyst expectations for how well you know,

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Speaker 2: the global video game industry and especially consoles would do

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Speaker 2: this year. They're still switched To of course, and Take

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Speaker 2: two have four titles planned to launch on switch To,

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Speaker 2: which you know is showing some more third party expansion

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Speaker 2: into that side of the console industry. But all in all,

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Speaker 2: you know, this is going to be yet another year

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Speaker 2: where hopes of you know, a Triple A comeback are

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Speaker 2: being lessened slightly in light of the fact that GTA

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Speaker 2: six is you know, now another year away. It's such

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Speaker 2: a big title too, that it was undoubtedly going to

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Speaker 2: help sell you know, xboxes and PS fives, especially the

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Speaker 2: PS five Pro. You know, if there's one game that

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Speaker 2: was going to be a use case for expensing that

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Speaker 2: much on you know, a newer PS five model, it

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Speaker 2: would have been GTA six. So without a year away,

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Speaker 2: it's going to be a bit harder to sell you know,

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Speaker 2: the more high end consoles.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of which, the other big shoe to drop, although

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Speaker 1: this dropped as expected, was switched To did come out

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Speaker 1: this year, the going to come out sorry, and so

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Speaker 1: in terms of the the emergence of that product, talk

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Speaker 1: about why that is such a big deal.

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Speaker 2: That's a big deal because the Switch in and of

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Speaker 2: itself was such, you know, a significant redefining moment for

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Speaker 2: a Nintendo after they hit a snag with the WU

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Speaker 2: in the wake of the Nintendo We success in the

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Speaker 2: two thousands, so Switch launched in twenty seventeen really helps

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Speaker 2: them get back on track. It's both a home and

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Speaker 2: handheld console, so they were able to sort of tackle too,

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Speaker 2: aspects of the market that they've always been pretty strong in.

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Speaker 2: And since then it's you know, been a top selling console.

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Speaker 2: I believe it's the number three overall in lifetime sales.

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Speaker 2: So even though you know, eight years in the life

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Speaker 2: cycle is winding down in favor of the Switch to model,

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Speaker 2: it's ending on a pretty high note. Because it was

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Speaker 2: also at a cheaper price point, the Switch was able

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Speaker 2: to become sort of, you know, a companion console to

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Speaker 2: PS five and Xbox owners, so it was able to

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Speaker 2: sort of evade the very tight comp petition between those

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Speaker 2: two brands by sort of releasing midway through their last

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Speaker 2: console cycles, as you know, an alternative, easier to afford option.

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Speaker 2: That however, the Switch to is going to sell for

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Speaker 2: four fifty, which was a little bit of a point

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Speaker 2: of controversy. People weren't sure if that was in light

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Speaker 2: of you know, this complicated tariff situation with the current

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Speaker 2: presidential administration, and you know, obviously Mario Kart going up

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Speaker 2: to eighty dollars. This is going to be a more

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Speaker 2: expensive life cycle for the switch To. So we'll see

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Speaker 2: if they can really power through that and maintain the

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Speaker 2: strength they built on the switch.

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Speaker 1: It was interesting to see the name of the switch

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Speaker 1: emerging in all the coverage of the Trump administration tariffs

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Speaker 1: in the video game industry in general being impacted by

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Speaker 1: the tariffs. So walk us through what the impact is

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Speaker 1: for switch To and the industry at large.

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Speaker 2: The impact is, you know the fact that many most

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Speaker 2: of these consoles, you know, they are put together as

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Speaker 2: in places like Taiwan. You know, they all depend on

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Speaker 2: semi conductor chips, which was able to power through you know,

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Speaker 2: a year's long shortage in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic.

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Speaker 2: So you know, to get back on track with semiconductors.

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Speaker 2: Only for this to happen is certainly no help. That said,

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Speaker 2: you know, switched To their sticking with the four to

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Speaker 2: fifty price point. There was a little bit of concern

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Speaker 2: when they backed away from immediate pre orders that they

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Speaker 2: might raise it even higher, but they stuck to the

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Speaker 2: price they announced, and we'll see, you know, how consistently

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Speaker 2: they priced new games at eighty dollars like they are

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Speaker 2: with this Mario Kart World launch title. What's been a

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Speaker 2: more i think distressing impact for gamers in the industry

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Speaker 2: alike is the fact that Xbox actually raised the price

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Speaker 2: of its consoles in the wake of this tariff situation,

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Speaker 2: which is pretty unprecedented, especially when you look at how

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Speaker 2: Xbox Series and PlayStation five launched in twenty twenty, so

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Speaker 2: that's four or five years into their life cycles. That

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Speaker 2: one brand is actually making its systems more expensive. So

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Speaker 2: that paints a pretty clear picture of how, you know,

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Speaker 2: dependent some of these companies are for overseas production of

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Speaker 2: their systems. Lots of gaming accessories too, are made overseas,

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Speaker 2: so that's another aspect of the market that it's likely

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Speaker 2: to be affected by tariffs.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, you know, there used to be

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Speaker 1: it felt to me more buzz around the notion of

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Speaker 1: cloud based gaming, So could we potentially be moving into

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Speaker 1: an era where that becomes more viable.

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Speaker 2: It's certainly something to pay attention to. You know, does

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Speaker 2: this become a bood for cloud gaming. It's hard to say,

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Speaker 2: just because there's still no definitive clear leader there. I mean,

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Speaker 2: Amazon has its Luna product, but that's not a product

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Speaker 2: they've ever pursued all that aggressively. Some a lot of

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Speaker 2: the online games they develop, you know, they released to

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Speaker 2: Steam for instance, instead of you know, making anything exclusive

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Speaker 2: to Luna. Obviously, Google Stadia was around for a few years,

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Speaker 2: but that winded down in twenty twenty two. If there's

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Speaker 2: one company I am very curious to see, you know,

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Speaker 2: how their own gaming operation does in light of all this,

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Speaker 2: in light of things getting you know, more expensive elsewhere,

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Speaker 2: it would be Netflix, just because that is a company

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Speaker 2: with three hundred million built in subscribers. If you know,

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Speaker 2: one in six Netflix subscribers engages with their games at all,

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Speaker 2: that's as many subscribers as PlayStation plus as for instance.

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Speaker 2: So you know, they're company that I think is well

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Speaker 2: positioned to potentially see a boost in the cloud side

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Speaker 2: of gaming as they work on you know, further integrating

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Speaker 2: gaming into you know, their web apps, just as much

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Speaker 2: as you know, their mobile apps.

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Speaker 1: And yet I feel like from what I've heard about

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Speaker 1: Netflix to date in the gaming business, it's been kind

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Speaker 1: of a mixed bag changes of leadership, perhaps pivots, and

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Speaker 1: strategic direction. How would you grade what you've seen so far?

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Speaker 2: I've seen so far as Netflix still has a lot

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Speaker 2: to prove. They got into games in twenty twenty one,

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Speaker 2: first through you know, their mobile games app. They've managed

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Speaker 2: to integrate those games a little bit better into you know,

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Speaker 2: the core Netflix app, so it's not all dependent on

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Speaker 2: you know, switching apps on your phone. And they're they're

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Speaker 2: sticking to a strategy where game releases are tied pretty

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Speaker 2: tightly to their movie and TV releases. For instance, this

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Speaker 2: new Black Mirror season, they made a game called Thronglets,

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Speaker 2: which is sort of, you know, an offshoot of one

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Speaker 2: episode that in and of itself, was a bit of

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Speaker 2: a sequel to the Bandersnatch interactive experience they did some

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Speaker 2: years ago. So they're they're keeping strong there. They haven't

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Speaker 2: been able to evade the situation with layoffs and studio

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Speaker 2: closures that you've seen through the more traditional side of

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Speaker 2: the industry. They did, you know, have a Triple A

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Speaker 2: team working on a multiplayer shooter, and that you know,

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Speaker 2: was sort of canceled and leadership shuffled around in light

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Speaker 2: of you know, wanting to not spend too much money

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Speaker 2: on a gaming experience they weren't even sure was going

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Speaker 2: to matter to the core subscriber base. They've indicated an

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Speaker 2: interest more so and really you know, interactive experiences that

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Speaker 2: are also very accessible for Netflix subscribers. They outline sort

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Speaker 2: of their vision at GDC in March, and they seem

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Speaker 2: really interested in trying to find, you know, new ways

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Speaker 2: to engage you know, groups of people sometimes even like

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Speaker 2: in the same physical space, you know, all playing a

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Speaker 2: game on their phones together. So they're looking more to

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Speaker 2: innovate on that front, so that way they're not sort

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Speaker 2: of falling into the trap of spending so much on

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Speaker 2: TRIPAA titles that take years to make.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna take a quick break, but we'll be back

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Speaker 1: right more with Corey Erickson on the state of the

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Speaker 1: video game industry, and we are back with a discussion

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Speaker 1: on all things video games with variety intelligence platforms. Corey Ericsson,

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Speaker 1: he's the analyst to pend the latest I believe the

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Speaker 1: third or is it fourth edition of this video game

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Speaker 1: Industry report.

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Speaker 2: I believe this is the third.

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Speaker 1: Okay, well, make sure to check it out. And the

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Speaker 1: big focus this year, probably a little different from what

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Speaker 1: we did in previous years, was really looking at the

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Speaker 1: intellectual property impact the video game business, which also this

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Speaker 1: report was so well timed because it was on the

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Speaker 1: heels of the very successful release of a Minecraft movie.

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Speaker 1: Put the performance of that movie, which last I checked,

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Speaker 1: I don't we up to a billion yet? It seemed

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Speaker 1: like it was at nine hundred million most weeks ago. There.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's still got a bit of a ways to go. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: so it's a nine to eleven million worldwide, so hopefully

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Speaker 2: it can get to a billion. But if it does,

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Speaker 2: you know, that's still Oppenheimer numbers for video game IP

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Speaker 2: and so far the only video game IP that has

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Speaker 2: on over a billion is the Super Mario Bro This

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Speaker 2: movie in twenty twenty three, which has a sequel out

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Speaker 2: next year. So we're seeing a pattern, I think, or

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Speaker 2: a pattern is starting to emerge that the games most

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Speaker 2: likely to perform that strongly at the box office are

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Speaker 2: also you know, the few games that have sold hundreds

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Speaker 2: of millions of units, you know, across their lifetime because

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Speaker 2: that belongs to i'd say a pretty small club. We

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Speaker 2: can pull up the numbers here, but you know, if

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Speaker 2: you actually look at what are by far the biggest

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Speaker 2: gaming properties by overall lifetime sales, Mario is at the top.

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Speaker 2: It's sold abound nine hundred million units to day through

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Speaker 2: you know, decades of releases at this point, and Minecraft

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Speaker 2: is you know, more around the three hundred million number.

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Speaker 2: Grand Theft Auto is also a very high performer in

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Speaker 2: that regard, and there's never been any kind of Grand

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Speaker 2: Theft Auto adaptation to date. So if there's going to

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Speaker 2: be any kind of ramifications of a Minecraft movie doing

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Speaker 2: so well, it is going to be studios obviously, you know,

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Speaker 2: salivating for the chance to take some ip, whether it's

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Speaker 2: Grand Theft Auto, whether it's called Duty or even Fortnite

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Speaker 2: in roadblocks and try to figure out a way to

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Speaker 2: do movies around those if it means, you know, they

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Speaker 2: could potentially bring out that big of an audience. Because

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Speaker 2: with the Minecraft movie, the reviews were not great. Track

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Speaker 2: tracking wasn't was also you know, below the expectations were

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Speaker 2: below what the performance actually ended up being, you know,

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Speaker 2: in the week's leading up to the release. So this

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Speaker 2: was really a case where the IP just completely was

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Speaker 2: its own thing and the filmmakers were able to sort

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Speaker 2: of make a film that was more of a tribute

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Speaker 2: to the IP than you know trying to do you know,

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Speaker 2: the Last of Us effect and create like a very

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Speaker 2: tight story driven experience around it. So it'll be interesting

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Speaker 2: to see how other studios, if they can get the

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Speaker 2: gaming companies to work with them in the first place,

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Speaker 2: are going to tackle sort of you know, the remaining

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Speaker 2: few that have yet to crossover.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and in terms of what is to still come

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Speaker 1: on the heels of Minecraft movie, in this report, you

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Speaker 1: pinpoint some of the projects that are worth noting. So

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Speaker 1: what's going to be on your radar in terms of

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Speaker 1: the next big IP adaptations.

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Speaker 2: Well, right now, the second season of the Last of

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Speaker 2: Us is currently airing. It's got a couple of episodes left,

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Speaker 2: a shorter season this time than season one, and twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three, HBO downgraded it from nine episodes to seven episodes,

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Speaker 2: which is you know, in line with other top shows

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Speaker 2: on HBO and Max. A similar thing happened with House

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Speaker 2: at the Dragon, So on the show's side, there is

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Speaker 2: you know a cost effect that they have to take

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Speaker 2: into account that I think is you know, going to

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Speaker 2: make it difficult for these adaptations to have big episode orders.

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Speaker 2: I believe Peacock's Twisted Metal, which also has a second

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Speaker 2: season due later this summer, that that is somewhere between

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Speaker 2: like ten to twelve episodes, although they're they're they're they're

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Speaker 2: shorter episodes, but that's a PlayStation ip that actually hasn't

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Speaker 2: been seen for some time on the gaming side, So

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Speaker 2: the fact that they've you know, been able to sustain

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Speaker 2: enough interest in that on a service like Peacock to

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Speaker 2: justify a second season, I think does speak to, you know,

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Speaker 2: the strength of some games that have been around for

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Speaker 2: a while, you know, still having some audience that can

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Speaker 2: be attracted to them. Going a bit further, Uh, it's

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Speaker 2: going to get busy on the film side again. In

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Speaker 2: Q four there's a sequels to Mortal Kombat and Five

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Speaker 2: Nights at Freddy's Mortal Kombat two should be interesting because

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Speaker 2: that was actually one of the films from Warner Brothers

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Speaker 2: that was helping to bring people back to theaters in

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Speaker 2: the first half of twenty twenty one. So if you

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Speaker 2: look at, you know, the global box office for that

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Speaker 2: it doesn't seem that impressive, but that was at a

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Speaker 2: time when you know, theaters were still down, they were

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Speaker 2: blocking off you know, every other row, So that film

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Speaker 2: did have enough interest and it's good to see how

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Speaker 2: a sequel is now going to do in a much

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Speaker 2: healthier film climate. But of course Five Nights at Freddy's,

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Speaker 2: as we know, was a big deal in December twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three. You know, that made a little bit under

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Speaker 2: three hundred million, but off a typical, you know, modest

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Speaker 2: Blumhouse budget, so a very profitable film, uh with a

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Speaker 2: really young fan based behind it too. And this time

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Speaker 2: the sequel is going to be exclusive to theaters. It's

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Speaker 2: not going to do the day and day with Peacock

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Speaker 2: like the first one did, which is, you know, another

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Speaker 2: testament to how well that film did in theaters that

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Speaker 2: you could also watch it at home at Peacock for

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Speaker 2: free basically if you were a subscriber, and it still

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Speaker 2: brought lots of people out to theaters. So it's good

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Speaker 2: to see if these franchises can actually sustain themselves as

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Speaker 2: other film franchises have, because you know, if you look

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Speaker 2: at the macroview of you know, film franchises with billion

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Speaker 2: dollar films to count. There's still no gaming IP there.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: The closest shot would be Mario next year. If that

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Speaker 2: film does as well as the first one, then that'll

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Speaker 2: be the first gaming IP to account more than one

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Speaker 2: billion dollar success at the box office. But otherwise there's

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Speaker 2: still a pretty long road to go there.

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Speaker 1: And that movie is dated for April third, twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 1: next year. Also, I see Resident Evil, which you mentioned

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Speaker 1: September eighteenth, twenty twenty six, and yeah, as you cite it, also,

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Speaker 1: you know, still more to come in twenty twenty seven.

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Speaker 1: I just wonder though, whether the momentum we're seeing in

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Speaker 1: terms of this genre and its heat could one day

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Speaker 1: we mirror the arc of the superhero movies in the

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Speaker 1: sense that running so strong for so long, and yet

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Speaker 1: you could argue, as many have that by sort of

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Speaker 1: over exhausting just the sheer volume of content from that genre,

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Speaker 1: you kind of kill the golden goose.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think the industry is viewing gaming IP as

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Speaker 2: supplemental to you know, the core IP at any given studio,

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Speaker 2: because they haven't given up on superhero movies at all.

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Speaker 2: You know, this is this year, We've got three MCU

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Speaker 2: movies instead of just one last year, and next year

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Speaker 2: an actual Avengers branded film will be back, so that

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Speaker 2: train hasn't stopped by any means. However, the studio is

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Speaker 2: recognized they can't solely depend on Superhero IP anymore. There

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Speaker 2: have been enough failures over the past few years to

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Speaker 2: really drive that point home, especially with some of those

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Speaker 2: movies getting really expensive. So gaming IP is a way

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Speaker 2: to I think, supplement the slates in a way that

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Speaker 2: you know isn't going to go super over budget, but

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Speaker 2: is also going to have some built in fan interest.

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Speaker 2: Resident Evil, which you mentioned that in twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 2: is particularly interesting because that's the second attempt to reboot

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Speaker 2: Sony's film series Resident Evil. They had six modestly successful

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Speaker 2: films with Miya Jovovich from you know, the two thousands

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Speaker 2: to the twenty tens, but then an attempt to reboot

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Speaker 2: it with this Welcome to Raccoon City film in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty one, which is supposed to be you know, a

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Speaker 2: closer out oftion to the first two games, that didn't

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Speaker 2: really get off the ground at all. So now they're

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Speaker 2: rebooting it once again, but going with a sort of

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Speaker 2: newer director Zach Kreiger, who has some hype on the

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Speaker 2: horror side with twenty twenty two S Barbarian, which was,

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Speaker 2: you know, a pretty modest summer success for twentieth century

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Speaker 2: at the time. So he is the kind of director

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Speaker 2: where you're seeing studio shifter attitudes where they're not just

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Speaker 2: assuming an IP is going to work on its own,

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Speaker 2: they're actually really looking out at the talent pool in

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Speaker 2: Hollywood and being like this director has a very similar

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Speaker 2: approach to why people like this game, we should find

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Speaker 2: a way to you know, bring these together here. And

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Speaker 2: he also has a horror film called Weapons Out the

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Speaker 2: Summer for Warner Brothers, so if that film does well,

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Speaker 2: that'll even you know, better boost Resident Evil's chances of

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Speaker 2: success for Sony next year. It's also worth mentioning too,

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Speaker 2: that the second season of Fallout is actually returning as

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Speaker 2: soon as this December. Everyone was expecting that more for

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six, just because you know, that's a hefty

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Speaker 2: budgeted show, has to spend a lot of time and

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Speaker 2: post it's a post apocalyptic environment. But Amazon recently announced

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Speaker 2: that that would be going in December instead, so you

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Speaker 2: can see even Amazon, which you could argue is in

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Speaker 2: a position to take its sweet time with all of

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Speaker 2: its shows because it's Amazon. They saw how well Fallout

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Speaker 2: did last year and said, you know, we got to

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Speaker 2: get this out asap.

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Speaker 1: Another Franchi I said, maybe isn't necessarily readily associated with gaming,

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Speaker 1: Harry Potter. How has gaming played a role in rejuvenating

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Speaker 1: interest in that?

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Speaker 2: That comes down to twenty twenty three's Hogwarts Legacy. That

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Speaker 2: was a game that was in development for Warner Brothers

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Speaker 2: for a pretty long time from a studio that actually

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Speaker 2: used to be owned by Disney until you know, Disney,

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Speaker 2: through Bob Buyger's leadership at the time, sort of divested

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Speaker 2: all of its video gaming operations because there just wasn't

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Speaker 2: enough interest within the company in that space. So that

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Speaker 2: studio Avalanche, they went over to Warner Brothers and it

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Speaker 2: took them a while, but they got, you know, an

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Speaker 2: open worlds Harry Potter game out the door, well received,

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Speaker 2: did tremendously well in the sales front. I think over

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Speaker 2: twenty million in sales, So the sales were so big

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Speaker 2: that they actually basically won the year in terms of

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Speaker 2: you know, the number one best selling game on consoles NBC.

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Speaker 2: That's a space that is reserved for Call of Duty's

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Speaker 2: annular releases pretty much every single year since two thousand

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Speaker 2: and nine. The only publisher that's ever broken that streak

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Speaker 2: is rock Star with Grand thea thout of five and

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Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, a red Dead redemption two and twenty eighteen.

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Speaker 2: So for Licensed Ipe to work its way in there

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Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three and sort of you know, one

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Speaker 2: up one of the most you know, powerful performing gaming

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Speaker 2: brands was pretty significant for Harry Potter, especially a year

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Speaker 2: after Warner Brothers had decided to wind down the Fantastic

417
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Speaker 2: Beasts prequels. They had the third one go in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two. It did not meet their expectations, and they

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Speaker 2: essentially scrapped two more sequels. So for Hogwarts Legacy to

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Speaker 2: do as well as it did, it, you know, it

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Speaker 2: was likely what gave Warner Brothers the confidence to very

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Speaker 2: quickly after finally greenlight this idea for Harry Potter show

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Speaker 2: that is now going to air on HBO. That's a

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Speaker 2: planned seven season show, you know, sort of treating the

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Speaker 2: source material as you know, one season per book. So

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Speaker 2: they're going you know, they've already announced casting for that,

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Speaker 2: but it is essentially a full TV remake of the

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Speaker 2: Harry Potter films and books. So clearly you can see

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Speaker 2: how gaming does inform that. But again, you know, it's

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Speaker 2: a little bit of a mixed bag because a year

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Speaker 2: after Hogwarts Legacy, Warner Brothers put out Suicide Squad Killed

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Speaker 2: the Justice League, which did not do well, resulted in

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Speaker 2: about two hundred million in a two hundred million loss

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Speaker 2: on their side, and since then they've you know, closed

435
00:23:47,680 --> 00:23:50,760
Speaker 2: a few studios at Warner Brothers, and the confidence Hogwarts

436
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,320
Speaker 2: Legacy had built with you know, a figure like David's

437
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 2: Osla for instance, no one's really sure if that's much

438
00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:00,439
Speaker 2: there or anymore going forward. So, you know, as helpful

439
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:04,679
Speaker 2: as video games can be to you know, an overall

440
00:24:04,680 --> 00:24:08,399
Speaker 2: IP situation, it's still a very complex industry, especially for

441
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:10,679
Speaker 2: the Hollywood side of things, where cost cutting is so

442
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:11,760
Speaker 2: top of mind right now.

443
00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:14,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you they're probably one of the best parts

444
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:17,639
Speaker 1: of the report you did was breaking down on a

445
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:21,200
Speaker 1: company by company basis, whether they're the leaders in entertainment

446
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:25,879
Speaker 1: or leaders in tech, all the different places where they play,

447
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:31,440
Speaker 1: whether it's developer, publisher, IP license or you mentioned for instance,

448
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:35,879
Speaker 1: you know, Disney's withdrawal. Is there any company, last question,

449
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,919
Speaker 1: that you think people need to keep an eye on

450
00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:42,560
Speaker 1: in terms of a Hollywood entity that is really pushing

451
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:44,320
Speaker 1: forward in the gaming space.

452
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,480
Speaker 2: Well, I would say, even though there's still technically just

453
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:50,600
Speaker 2: a licenser of their own IP, Disney is one company

454
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:54,439
Speaker 2: to pay attention to, just because given he is currently

455
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,560
Speaker 2: in his second ten you're a CEO. You know, there's

456
00:24:57,560 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 2: tons of speculation as to whether Bob Iygers you know,

457
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:05,000
Speaker 2: final sendoff from Disney will be another key acquisition, this

458
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,560
Speaker 2: time on the gaming side. Disney at the start of

459
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:10,399
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four invested one point five billion into Epic

460
00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 2: Games purely for IP driven Fortnite experiences. So that's you know,

461
00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 2: Fortnite experiences tied to Star Wars characters, Marvel characters, Pixar characters.

462
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,520
Speaker 2: So that's been going strong on Fortnite, and you know,

463
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 2: if they're obviously this is purely speculation, you know, no

464
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,919
Speaker 2: no inside intella here, but if there is you know,

465
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:35,359
Speaker 2: one acquisition that would put Disney back into gaming in

466
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,080
Speaker 2: the way it used to be more so than it

467
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,440
Speaker 2: used to be, it would be you know, Epic Games.

468
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 2: If the partnership really is going that strong, so that's

469
00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:44,640
Speaker 2: one company you'd keep an eye out for. Another would

470
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:48,480
Speaker 2: be sky Dance. Sky Dance has had its you know,

471
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:51,840
Speaker 2: interactive side for a while, but they also have a

472
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 2: new media division where they are making a few Triple

473
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,040
Speaker 2: A games through Amy Hennig, who used to run the

474
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 2: Naughty Dog studio. She's the creator Uncharted, for example. So

475
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:05,840
Speaker 2: they have some pretty high quality games on the horizon,

476
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,840
Speaker 2: I'd say, But what makes their gaming studio so interesting

477
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:11,600
Speaker 2: is the fact that, you know, the biggest guidance company

478
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:15,919
Speaker 2: is US finally getting close to you know, nearing the

479
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,719
Speaker 2: end of its process to acquire Paramount. So if that

480
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 2: deal does go through, they are going to have you know,

481
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:26,600
Speaker 2: the full store of Paramount IP to potentially figure out

482
00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 2: various kinds of games for which could help you know,

483
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 2: them grow their presence in a big way.

484
00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,879
Speaker 1: Well, this is just a taste of what is a

485
00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:40,639
Speaker 1: much deeper dive into this business in the new report

486
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,399
Speaker 1: from Variety Intelligence platform, the State of the Video Game Industry,

487
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 1: third Edition, that just came out in May, and we

488
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:51,199
Speaker 1: are glad to have had time with its author, Corey Ericson.

489
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: Thanks for taking the time out, Thank you any.

490
00:26:56,960 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review

491
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 2: at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. We love to hear

492
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 2: from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and sign

493
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,879
Speaker 2: up for the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and don't

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00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,399
Speaker 2: forget to tune in next week for another episode of

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Speaker 2: Strictly Business