00:00:00
well everyone our Lord and savior Gabe
00:00:01
is making news again so imagine this you
00:00:03
run a free toplay game 5% of your users
00:00:06
are buying things regularly .5% of them
00:00:09
are buying even more things like of
00:00:11
course those multi hundred League of
00:00:13
Legends skins that you buy to flex on
00:00:15
those godamn purse but um there's a
00:00:18
problem right if you're running this
00:00:19
freet to-play game what about the other
00:00:22
95% of people I mean sure they can be
00:00:25
bots in your West world to make it feel
00:00:28
alive for the people are respect
00:00:29
spending money but what if you sell them
00:00:32
targeted ads and make way more money
00:00:34
loads of games do mostly of course in
00:00:36
mobile game ads are estimated to be A1
00:00:38
100 billion Market in 2025 but most of
00:00:41
the games that we play don't really do
00:00:43
that yet which is why today's story
00:00:46
actually does matter I mean you know
00:00:48
where it's going we're going to talk
00:00:49
about the steam thing turns out the
00:00:51
steam thing is not what was initially
00:00:52
reported so you know you'll get value
00:00:54
there but uh loads of pretty legit games
00:00:57
are considering ads RuneScape is one of
00:01:00
them right we we covered that and even
00:01:02
in Jag X's responses to the whole drama
00:01:04
they said they're still considering ads
00:01:06
supported stuff to go a bit bigger
00:01:08
Electronic Arts and the absolute mench
00:01:11
the Weaver of corporate sloppy
00:01:15
Andrew Wilson CEO he responded to
00:01:18
investment analysts and he said that uh
00:01:20
for ads they've got people looking into
00:01:23
it because of course he would say that
00:01:25
he's talking to analysts analysts who
00:01:27
work for firms it's all about investment
00:01:29
and what what do the investors want they
00:01:31
want the revenue to go up they want
00:01:33
profitability to go up therefore they
00:01:35
will want ads so even if Andrew Wilson
00:01:38
himself personally is actually one of us
00:01:41
in the inside doesn't really want ads
00:01:43
he's got serious Financial pressure and
00:01:46
some would even say responsibility to
00:01:48
action on those ads and it's in that
00:01:51
context that all of this reporting on
00:01:53
Steam went down right now steam is pc pc
00:01:58
is growing steam is growing with it if
00:02:00
you cannot do something on Steam you are
00:02:02
in trouble as a game that means that
00:02:05
valves policies matter to our industry
00:02:07
they matter basically because they shape
00:02:09
the possibility space and as this Amazon
00:02:12
executive noted as well even with their
00:02:15
what 250X the resources whatever you
00:02:18
can't Dethrone steam valve actually
00:02:21
matter so let's investigate what's
00:02:23
happened I've also got a truly novel
00:02:25
experience to share it's boot Dev who
00:02:26
have sponsored today's video you see
00:02:28
there you can learn the coding
00:02:30
engineering and career skills to break
00:02:32
into backend web development it's like
00:02:34
an average salary of a hundred grand
00:02:36
work from home and a lot of really sick
00:02:37
stuff but with quite the twist because
00:02:40
their founder is a massive gamer and
00:02:42
that's why boot is different it's an RPG
00:02:44
quests levels XP boss battles realtime
00:02:47
leaderboards and an active Discord
00:02:48
Community almost I guess like having
00:02:50
your programmer MMO Guild it's really
00:02:53
cool and when you're learning a new
00:02:54
skill that kind of thing matters and the
00:02:57
skills You' be learning are backend web
00:02:58
development using Python and and go
00:03:00
across a wealth of content that cover
00:03:02
the fundamentals and even deeper
00:03:04
learning topics like really getting into
00:03:06
algorithms which by the way is real fun
00:03:08
you'll build projects for your portfolio
00:03:10
and you'll Dodge two massive problems
00:03:12
one tutorial hell you know where you
00:03:14
just Bounce from place to place randomly
00:03:16
in the internet without a cohesive path
00:03:18
and two getrich quick style boot camp
00:03:21
hell because Boot is actually realistic
00:03:24
it's got the sauce you can see that
00:03:26
through their UI their Vibes how they've
00:03:28
structured everything and they're just
00:03:30
playing better than the rest and you can
00:03:31
find that out for yourself with 25% off
00:03:33
your first purchase at boot. bnews it's
00:03:37
no risk you can browse their content do
00:03:39
demos and a lot more for free and when
00:03:40
you do buy it's a 30-day money back
00:03:42
guarantee so steam has essentially
00:03:44
reorganized their backend documentation
00:03:46
they've taken advertisement rules and
00:03:48
they have moved them into their own
00:03:49
section and just given them a more
00:03:51
prominent position and contrary to loads
00:03:54
of headlines this is not a new policy
00:03:57
and it is not valve outright Banning
00:03:59
adver vertisements though you could say
00:04:02
that because these rules are now being
00:04:03
displayed more prominently maybe that
00:04:05
indicates valve are going to be more
00:04:07
willing to actually enforce them now the
00:04:09
guidelines themselves are crystal clear
00:04:11
but of course uh there's the specific
00:04:13
wording there is then the spirit of a
00:04:15
policy and then there's what actually
00:04:17
happens now the guidelines are no gating
00:04:19
gameplay behind ad walls no rewarding
00:04:22
players for watching advertisements and
00:04:23
no abusing steam platform features like
00:04:26
bundles or store Page shoutouts to make
00:04:29
money as an example imagine I'm a
00:04:31
developer I've got a decently successful
00:04:33
game some other publisher wants you know
00:04:35
a stronger launch for their game I say
00:04:37
to them hey I'll give you 10 grand and
00:04:39
I'll also you know I'll give you a shout
00:04:40
out on our steam page valve don't want
00:04:42
people doing that which obviously does
00:04:44
make sense that would be you
00:04:46
circumventing steam's Discovery
00:04:47
algorithm and selling space on your
00:04:50
steam page which basically would be you
00:04:52
selling at inventory on their storefront
00:04:55
while cutting them out of the deal which
00:04:57
uh you know not really the D thing
00:05:00
now the documentation suggests that
00:05:01
developers you know if they don't want
00:05:03
to do ads that they either use steams
00:05:04
built-in monetization options or just
00:05:07
you know go and do DLC now this is good
00:05:09
Obviously good nobody wants an app store
00:05:11
hellscape where you watch an advert to
00:05:13
continue your vampire survivors run that
00:05:15
would suck it actually makes the design
00:05:17
of games worse and it sets up loads of
00:05:19
awful awful incentives and it only flies
00:05:22
in Mobile because people are not only
00:05:25
used to that model they're also
00:05:27
literally trained to not buy premium
00:05:29
apps which means that if you want to be
00:05:30
viable well if you can't beat him join
00:05:32
him even if it is a game like vampire
00:05:35
survivors which can let you watch an ad
00:05:37
to continue now for today's story we got
00:05:39
to handle the specifics because as I
00:05:40
alluded to steam simply moved
00:05:42
documentation this is people noticing a
00:05:44
documentation move not really a breaking
00:05:46
news story unless valve actually does
00:05:49
start to enforce things and as we're
00:05:51
going to get into H there's some things
00:05:54
that really really do stretch credulity
00:05:57
and that's because it's not a band
00:05:59
against all form terms of advertising
00:06:00
it's a policy about what type of
00:06:02
advertising is okay because make no
00:06:05
mistake steam does have approved
00:06:08
advertising and now we're going to talk
00:06:10
about it we're going to talk about how
00:06:12
companies may be bending the spirit of
00:06:15
the law steam's actual stance and
00:06:16
advertising is far more permissive than
00:06:18
most people know and it's in three
00:06:20
distinct areas right and this defines
00:06:22
what you will see in Steam so let's
00:06:23
break down each of them first on the
00:06:25
storefront steam does allow for cross
00:06:28
promotions and bundle without Monetary
00:06:31
Exchange so you cannot basically sell
00:06:34
advertising on your store page but you
00:06:37
can do a deal with another publisher
00:06:39
another developer to bundle your games
00:06:42
together right and this is very very
00:06:44
very commonly done as an example let's
00:06:47
just say uh there's a game like frost
00:06:48
Punk now let's say you have a game that
00:06:50
would appeal to a lot of frost Punk
00:06:52
players maybe there's a good
00:06:53
relationship between your Publishers so
00:06:55
in that case maybe there would be a
00:06:57
joint deal people would be able to pick
00:06:59
up for punk as a part of a bundle that
00:07:00
would also include your game and that
00:07:02
would be a win-win for both developers
00:07:04
but the important bit is the financial
00:07:06
upside on both sides is through steam's
00:07:09
Pipeline and not via a sale that cuts
00:07:13
steam out of the process which by the
00:07:15
way I mean that almost sounds like it's
00:07:16
valve trying to I don't know do skull
00:07:18
duggery no that's completely completely
00:07:21
reasonable and fair from valve's part
00:07:23
and obviously where paid advertising is
00:07:24
totally okay is uh when it's outside of
00:07:26
steam obviously valve would be mad to
00:07:28
say no to external traffic that's off
00:07:30
steam but what about on Steam inside
00:07:33
games steam's position on in-game
00:07:36
Advertising essentially boils down to
00:07:38
make it feel part of the game don't make
00:07:41
it be interruptive their policies
00:07:43
explicitly permit real Brands and real
00:07:46
products in games and their examples are
00:07:48
things like sponsors in racing and
00:07:49
Sports Games characters wearing real
00:07:51
Brands and skating games which totally
00:07:53
makes sense but the policy as written
00:07:56
actually does need permission from the
00:07:58
brands right and that's uh that's kind
00:08:00
of neat it's not just about ads it's
00:08:01
about Brands being there and that's
00:08:03
obviously I think a smart way for valve
00:08:05
to protect themselves against say an
00:08:08
angry brand seeing themselves in a
00:08:10
controversial game cuz look steam's not
00:08:12
going to check and a developer is
00:08:13
probably not going to ask for permission
00:08:15
but the point basically is valve has the
00:08:16
bit of paper that they can point to
00:08:18
saying well um the developer tactically
00:08:21
said that they did have permission they
00:08:22
broke our rule but where it gets more
00:08:24
I'm going to say spiritually gray
00:08:26
because you know games are art is inter
00:08:29
great at advertising in other sorts of
00:08:31
games being a sports game is fine but
00:08:33
this policy does mean as an example that
00:08:35
the Final Fantasy 15 cup noodle brand
00:08:37
promotion which involved a an in-game
00:08:39
cup noodle Quest that that's completely
00:08:42
fine now what would not be fine perv
00:08:44
vales rules is an unskippable cup noodle
00:08:47
advert in Final Fantasy 15 say that
00:08:50
would be needed to unlock that Quest or
00:08:53
would be as you load from one zone to
00:08:55
another that's kind of the point here
00:08:57
gray areas can be found and today I have
00:09:01
got clear and direct examples of big
00:09:04
games that get away with breaking the
00:09:07
spirit of the policy because here's the
00:09:09
thing what is the difference between an
00:09:11
unskippable ad and A Game's camera
00:09:14
looking at something that is a paid
00:09:16
brand placement for an extended period
00:09:18
of time what is the difference I'm not
00:09:20
really sure what we're seeing is that
00:09:22
full games are testing what they can get
00:09:24
away with and there are two particularly
00:09:26
interesting cases that did violate the
00:09:28
latter of vow law NBA 2K had unskippable
00:09:31
ads during TV style segments and
00:09:33
Assassin's Creed Odyssey had uh little
00:09:35
bit of a whoopsy with a full screen
00:09:38
store promotion appearing mid gameplay
00:09:40
where technically to continue gameplay
00:09:42
you need to move past that ad now these
00:09:45
were in both cases clear mistakes of
00:09:47
things firing off when they weren't
00:09:48
supposed to I will be charitable but
00:09:52
certainly there's going to be a lot of
00:09:53
people who will think were they just
00:09:55
trying to nudge the Overton window a
00:09:56
little bit more to get like more in-game
00:09:58
advertising things okay I mean in the
00:10:00
case of NBA 2K from take to interactive
00:10:02
I bloody well think so anyway that NBA
00:10:05
story happened in 2020 which was the
00:10:07
same year that steam introduced this ad
00:10:09
policy that being said we cannot
00:10:12
establish a causal link between those
00:10:14
events though it does raise a bit of an
00:10:15
eyebrow more importantly though is that
00:10:18
both games are now on Steam living
00:10:20
happily today with their forms of uh you
00:10:23
know promoting their own things in game
00:10:24
and it does show us where the line is
00:10:26
that things have to be diagetic and
00:10:28
skippable but to find in a rather narrow
00:10:30
and mechanical way if they're
00:10:31
technically not disruptive even if you
00:10:34
of course find them to be an immersion
00:10:36
breaking disruption it's fine now these
00:10:38
are just the tip of the iceberg and
00:10:40
oddly enough we've got hideo kajima to
00:10:43
thank for this fun thing what you're
00:10:45
looking at is of course a lingering shot
00:10:48
of Monster Energy cans in death
00:10:50
stranding and hey I do like some Boomer
00:10:53
juice a we monster Ultra very good to
00:10:55
get you going in the morning but does
00:10:58
the camera lingering on a shot of paid
00:11:01
product placement constitute an
00:11:03
unskippable ad right I mean imagine I
00:11:06
just I happen to have a Doctor Pepper
00:11:07
here okay not paid by Dr Pepper now
00:11:10
imagine that to continue watching this
00:11:12
video I just held this Dr Pepper up in
00:11:14
front of my face for like 30 seconds and
00:11:17
that I had received money for for this
00:11:19
right that would be a bit of an
00:11:22
unskippable ad right I mean yes you
00:11:24
could fast forward but I think you get
00:11:26
my point that would be weird that
00:11:28
wouldn't be paid product placement like
00:11:30
let's just say imagine I'm one of those
00:11:32
guys who does a podcast and has an
00:11:33
energy drink and my energy drink is
00:11:34
sitting
00:11:35
here that would be different right and
00:11:37
that's kind of troublesome and death
00:11:39
stranding because there's actually way
00:11:41
more product placement in it as well
00:11:43
like sunglasses clothes and a Norman
00:11:45
Reedus TV show like not a little in
00:11:48
Universe um Sam Bridges thing no a uh a
00:11:52
literal TV show that Norman Reus the
00:11:55
dude was in by AMC sort of promoted in
00:11:58
death St ing now I'm not doing this to
00:12:00
bash kajima like dude Cooks up some real
00:12:02
wacky cool I'm totally down for
00:12:04
that but the point is we should think
00:12:06
about this and yes Mr Kima could totally
00:12:10
get away with it because well he's he's
00:12:12
kind of got that following right and uh
00:12:14
if he does the Monster Energy promo it
00:12:16
feels a little different to say Andrew
00:12:18
Wilson of Electronic Arts if he was to
00:12:20
do similar and we were to see what I
00:12:23
think is the next stage of in-game
00:12:26
monetization so make no mistake games
00:12:29
will want to implement everything that
00:12:31
they can you've just seen with product
00:12:34
placement a gray area that can feel like
00:12:37
an unskippable ad and certainly an
00:12:39
immersion breaking ad that is totally
00:12:41
okay and normal in a full-priced paid
00:12:43
game more is going to happen let's go
00:12:46
back to Andrew Wilson and EA to avoid
00:12:48
being caught in the midwit Trap of only
00:12:50
reacting to headlines we should first
00:12:52
think about the first principles here
00:12:54
advertising is one of the cheapest ways
00:12:56
that a developer can make more money
00:12:58
video games take years to make content
00:13:01
DLC takes whole teams so do Cosmetics of
00:13:05
course we've generally seen less and
00:13:07
less full dlc's more and more Cosmetics
00:13:09
because of uh money right the cost of
00:13:12
Revenue now 500 gems or a revive in
00:13:17
return for 13c advertisement that costs
00:13:19
just about nothing to implement and it
00:13:22
is surface to the player right at their
00:13:25
pain point right when they want that
00:13:27
revive or those 500 100 gems steam
00:13:30
Banning that is absolutely a good thing
00:13:33
but advertising within games is still
00:13:36
fine because there is a difference
00:13:38
between the word of the law and the
00:13:40
spirit of the law be it politics be it
00:13:43
games we should think about that now
00:13:45
Andrew Wilson of Electronic Arts was
00:13:48
mentioned in the intro of today's video
00:13:49
and I did that for a reason now the man
00:13:51
has got a knack for corporate speak I
00:13:53
mean he he actually called future game
00:13:55
content this is a quote future
00:13:57
Innovation creativity I don't know about
00:13:59
you my fellow Gamers I do like uh to
00:14:01
consume some future Innovation
00:14:03
creativity anyway anyway he talked about
00:14:05
the need to do advertisements
00:14:06
thoughtfully in their big titles and I
00:14:09
think that's obviously him giving a wink
00:14:10
to everyone saying I know that if we
00:14:12
this up you'd be very angry but it
00:14:14
is quite funny because he says that over
00:14:16
history right they have had to be quote
00:14:19
very very thoughtful about advertising
00:14:21
in the context of our play experiences
00:14:24
which is great but his very next line
00:14:27
opens with the word but Wilson then
00:14:29
emphasizes the billions of hours that
00:14:32
are spent on electronic arts' games and
00:14:34
he says that they expect advertising to
00:14:36
be a meaningful growth driver for them
00:14:39
and that they do have people working on
00:14:40
it and if you're wondering then what
00:14:42
does that mean does that mean
00:14:43
unskippable ads well I would say there's
00:14:45
a real good example actually and it's on
00:14:48
Discord which we all use right you'll
00:14:51
see those sponsored quests that appear
00:14:53
at the bottom of your sidebar you'll do
00:14:55
some sort of optional ad thing and
00:14:57
you'll get a Cosmetic in return and you
00:14:59
see this is all about psychology it's
00:15:00
all about framing Choice architecture
00:15:02
that kind of thing Discord does ads in a
00:15:05
way that is designed to not feel like an
00:15:07
ad or is at least designed to feel a
00:15:09
little bit more like a game because it's
00:15:11
Discord it's for gamers if you're going
00:15:12
to do an ad make it feel like it's a
00:15:14
Discord ad an effort is went in people
00:15:16
will then accept it more obviously
00:15:18
though Discord is free so it's more than
00:15:20
okay for them to do that but a AAA doing
00:15:22
that kind of thing would be awful and I
00:15:24
think it will happen Sony giving me a
00:15:26
free skin for linking my account is kind
00:15:29
of perfectly fine and yeah we've got
00:15:31
things in the past like double XP
00:15:33
coupons from your junk food right buy
00:15:35
your Totino pizz roll Gamers live up to
00:15:38
The Stereotype and that's something that
00:15:39
goes from the outside world into the
00:15:41
video game world but what about it going
00:15:44
the other way round where you maybe have
00:15:47
an incentivized ingame store link that
00:15:50
takes you to a store Page to purchase
00:15:52
something bu an at and then if it
00:15:55
validates your purchase you get a reward
00:15:57
in the game so so be it that or an
00:15:59
encroachment of paid product placement
00:16:01
obviously in a way that goes Way Beyond
00:16:03
a brand collab we're going to see more
00:16:05
of this but to understand how and who
00:16:08
benefits we got to think about valve and
00:16:10
if they would ever get a cut because at
00:16:12
the end of the day what will Define
00:16:13
their store policy is what they will
00:16:16
benefit from so steam the consumer thing
00:16:18
that we use and Steam Works the set of
00:16:19
developer tools have many things but
00:16:22
they don't have an ad platform right
00:16:24
they don't have an ad platform and when
00:16:25
we see brand promotions those are often
00:16:28
very spoke deals B2B right but let's run
00:16:33
the clock forward and have a bit of an
00:16:35
understanding of things so I want you to
00:16:37
consider this major game players partner
00:16:39
with or develop their own advertisement
00:16:41
networks that then lets Brands purchase
00:16:45
ad inventory across their video games
00:16:47
just like those Brands already do on
00:16:50
Facebook and YouTube right that is how
00:16:53
the majority of the advertising business
00:16:55
goes these days now if that happens in a
00:16:59
game valve would not see any money from
00:17:01
that so imagine you have your Discord
00:17:04
style quests but it's something that you
00:17:06
get an XP boost for in a new Call of
00:17:09
Duty game right where maybe in the Call
00:17:11
of Duty store every single day there's a
00:17:13
brand partner Quest you can click in
00:17:15
that brand partner Quest and maybe the
00:17:17
case is those are distributed to players
00:17:20
based on your own player profile right
00:17:22
because it would be targeted advertising
00:17:24
which they could obviously do you have a
00:17:25
Call of Duty account they know lots
00:17:27
about you they know where you're from
00:17:28
where you're playing etc etc that would
00:17:30
be absolutely humongous business and
00:17:33
trust me I know how this business Works
00:17:35
given you know YouTube as a whole thing
00:17:38
now in a world where Steamworks ads
00:17:40
exists well that is something that valve
00:17:43
could build and the developers could use
00:17:45
that would make everybody a lot a lot of
00:17:48
money just like say you've got Unity the
00:17:51
game engine and for a very long time
00:17:53
Unity the game engine that would be used
00:17:55
to make video games that you or I would
00:17:57
really enjoy playing was kind of losing
00:17:59
money in all of that and what they were
00:18:01
making money on was mobile games that
00:18:03
were using the unity ad Network
00:18:06
obviously that led to quite a few messy
00:18:08
incentives and uh well at the very least
00:18:11
a lot of videos for us but to the big
00:18:12
players this is an opportunity for
00:18:14
transformational growth in a recent
00:18:16
video where we discussed the rumors of
00:18:18
GTA the new one costing $100 one of the
00:18:21
things that we found in the research
00:18:23
process was that consumer spending on
00:18:25
like premium console games was actually
00:18:27
in real term flat now obviously we're
00:18:31
buying lots of other things but if you
00:18:33
buy another thing that's not a video
00:18:35
game the video games industry doesn't
00:18:37
benefit from that if however you are
00:18:40
putting your time and your attention
00:18:41
into a video game and then you are
00:18:43
watching advertisements be that for a
00:18:46
new wallet a new phone whatever it may
00:18:47
be that you might want well now the
00:18:50
games industry can benefit from that and
00:18:53
they will try everything that they can
00:18:55
remember the moneymaking schemes like
00:18:57
the nft games right it wasn't just some
00:19:00
weird web 3 Crypt Bros doing that there
00:19:03
was a lot of them but it was also EA
00:19:06
they talked to investors about oh we're
00:19:08
investigating this we're taking it very
00:19:09
seriously Ubisoft did as well Ubisoft
00:19:11
got further than most Square Enix had
00:19:14
quite a few lcow moments with their nfts
00:19:17
now some of that is because of investor
00:19:20
pressure what investors would want
00:19:21
whenever Andrew Wilson says we're very
00:19:23
thoughtful but it's a lot of money we
00:19:26
got people looking into it he is saying
00:19:28
that because because that's what
00:19:29
investors will want to hear there is
00:19:30
pressure to make that work from the
00:19:31
investors just as there is pressure to
00:19:33
make AI work and of course pressure in
00:19:35
the past to make the nfts work of course
00:19:37
for valve though that would be a bit of
00:19:39
a problem and valve did indeed block the
00:19:41
nft games that's because number one I
00:19:44
think they were smart they knew that was
00:19:46
not going to go down well and valve
00:19:48
doing that was absolutely a consumer
00:19:51
good now in one way you could say it's
00:19:53
anti-competitive because a storefront
00:19:55
basically helped murder the adoption of
00:19:58
a really bad Trend and you could say
00:20:00
that in the most free version of a
00:20:01
market the nft games would happen and
00:20:03
they would just fail because we all
00:20:05
thought they were lame but still we we
00:20:08
ended up not going through that because
00:20:09
valve was the 500 ton gorilla and it
00:20:11
said no we're not doing that and it was
00:20:13
good for us but there is another reason
00:20:15
they wouldn't be making any money from
00:20:16
that right it would be circumventing
00:20:18
steam's current monetization features
00:20:21
they would far rather have a system like
00:20:23
say rust where you've got an in-game
00:20:25
player Marketplace and it's using steam
00:20:28
I mean about csgo knives some of those
00:20:30
knives are just really boring
00:20:32
Commodities but some knives wow they
00:20:35
generate in a way that can look very
00:20:37
unique one would almost say actually
00:20:40
unique who who who really knows about
00:20:42
the fungibility but effectively in nft
00:20:44
and uh you can see those having massive
00:20:47
trading volume in terms of quantity and
00:20:49
revenue on their Marketplace and to be
00:20:52
clear I am not saying this to say that
00:20:53
valve is evil and is pursuing money no
00:20:56
it's a goddamn business of course it's
00:20:58
doing that right that's fine and the
00:21:00
best way for me and you and valve to be
00:21:04
happy is actually for our incentives to
00:21:06
be aligned if valve's profit motive is
00:21:09
aligned with our desire for good video
00:21:12
games then it's going to be happy and
00:21:14
sustainable and because valve is a
00:21:15
platform and a storefront that captures
00:21:17
broad market growth they're going to
00:21:20
care about the biggest of the big
00:21:21
picture and that means the developers
00:21:24
putting in mobile game unskippable ads
00:21:27
that would be bad for the state a Val's
00:21:29
overall Market they would stand to lose
00:21:31
it would be bad for us we don't want
00:21:32
that in our games that would be bad for
00:21:34
valve and it would be generating money
00:21:36
in val platform without giving valve a
00:21:38
cut which would be bad and that would
00:21:40
mean that our incentives would not be
00:21:42
aligned that means my incentives your
00:21:44
incentives Valves and the developer
00:21:46
Publishers and so in this case the
00:21:48
alignment of incentives is good but if
00:21:50
valve ever decides to do a valve ad
00:21:55
Network like say Google AdWords then the
00:21:58
incentives would be different I hope and
00:22:00
I do actually believe that valve just
00:22:03
does not have an interest in going in
00:22:04
that direction what I will say is watch
00:22:06
out doubling down on premium be that
00:22:09
premium you know gacha
00:22:11
Cosmetics as Riot are doing is happening
00:22:14
right now okay that's pressing up the
00:22:17
really premium stuff but there's all the
00:22:18
gains at the bottom right all the gains
00:22:21
that will come from ads that will come
00:22:22
from Paid product placement we have seen
00:22:25
in AAA games that actually unit
00:22:27
economics are becoming a real problem
00:22:30
and these games that are expensive to
00:22:32
make are struggling struggling to earn
00:22:36
back money and to be worth the squeeze
00:22:39
and that means they're going to find
00:22:41
every bit of lwh hanging fruit that they
00:22:44
can to drisk what valve Bann 5 years ago
00:22:47
is good that they have now made that
00:22:49
more prominent in the documentation is
00:22:51
good because it does suggest they're
00:22:53
more willing to enforce it and that
00:22:54
means today's story is a win but as I
00:22:55
laid out we should be vigilant we should
00:22:57
think and we should all try to think in
00:22:59
terms of those first principles what are
00:23:01
the basic economics and what are the
00:23:02
incentives of the individual decision
00:23:05
makers be that the corporate entities or
00:23:07
even just the people at the top like Mr
00:23:09
Wilson who has got to say things that
00:23:13
investors will like and investors like
00:23:15
ads and if you'll excuse the joke
00:23:17
YouTube actually wants to show you a few
00:23:19
more they've currently got snipers
00:23:21
pointed at me so I literally have to say
00:23:23
you should watch this video about
00:23:24
OverWatch 2 next so that they can show
00:23:26
you ads but also it's actually really
00:23:27
interesting video and I don't want
00:23:29
YouTube snipers to Gap me so please help