In the latest weekly news and podcast after-show (sponsored by YouGov), we discuss the future of the Saudi Arabian esports and gaming scene following the Next World Forum, GTA VI being leaked, the VALORANT Champions skin bundle generating $32 million, and so much more!
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Paul Dawalibi:a call with YouGov. Today, from the keyboard to the boardroom.
Paul Dawalibi:This is the business of esports weekly news show slash post
Paul Dawalibi:podcast live stream. I am Paul the profit that will leave you
Paul Dawalibi:I'm joined today by my friend and co host The Honorable Judge
Paul Dawalibi:Jimmy burrata, for those of you who are new here welcome. What
Paul Dawalibi:we do is we cover the most pressing gaming and esports
Paul Dawalibi:topics and news of the week. But we look at all of it through a
Paul Dawalibi:business and C suite lens, we dissect we analyze the business
Paul Dawalibi:implications of everything happening in this industry. And
Paul Dawalibi:best of all, we get to do it live with you guys. You get to
Paul Dawalibi:ask questions get in our faces. I know this is not our usual
Paul Dawalibi:time. I'm sorry for those who are tuning in. Or maybe you're
Paul Dawalibi:missing this because you want you tuned in at our usual
Paul Dawalibi:Wednesday 2:30pm Eastern slot. We had major technical issues.
Paul Dawalibi:Unfortunately, we couldn't go live at that time. So we're
Paul Dawalibi:recording this show for anyone who's here live welcome. But I
Paul Dawalibi:assume many, many, many of you are going to be watching this
Paul Dawalibi:after the fact. And again, apologies, we are not changing
Paul Dawalibi:the time of the show. It is always going to be Wednesday at
Paul Dawalibi:2:30pm Eastern time for now. But we did have technical problems
Paul Dawalibi:this week. And we apologize to all of our listeners and our
Paul Dawalibi:viewers Jimmy How you doing?
Jimmy Baratta:Good, good. Paul, we're right out of my mouth, you
Jimmy Baratta:know, sorry, to the to the guys that regularly tune in live to
Jimmy Baratta:chat with us. But for the 10s and 10s of 1000s of you don't
Jimmy Baratta:listen offline throughout the week, it's literally no
Jimmy Baratta:different. So we'll get through some great stories here. And
Jimmy Baratta:there like what, let's go.
Paul Dawalibi:i It's also just because this was such a big news
Paul Dawalibi:week, like there's so much that has happened so much drama, like
Paul Dawalibi:so much like juicy lot of juicy news for sure. For the show that
Paul Dawalibi:I felt terrible letting that go to waste.
Jimmy Baratta:I'm kind of sick of it. Honestly, Paul, like I
Jimmy Baratta:must have gotten eight different stories in my inbox about the
Jimmy Baratta:GTA six leak. And by the end of the day, I was like this is all
Jimmy Baratta:news to me. I woke up at five for some reason that morning.
Jimmy Baratta:And it was the only thing flooding my inbox and so we
Jimmy Baratta:don't need to talk about any of that stuff. It's been. That's
Jimmy Baratta:that's all the point.
Unknown:We're not going to talk about that stuff. What are we
Unknown:doing here? I don't know. How's your day? By the way, cod beta
Unknown:out? Did you try it yet?
Jimmy Baratta:I haven't played it. I've just been religiously
Jimmy Baratta:watching clips and other people's opinions of it. And the
Jimmy Baratta:third person game mode, for example, looks pretty
Jimmy Baratta:interesting. And I also liked that they limited that game
Jimmy Baratta:mode. So only you're only playing in third person mode
Jimmy Baratta:with other people playing in third person. You can't switch
Jimmy Baratta:between the two. But with other first person players,
Paul Dawalibi:it is weird. It is weird to see cod in that
Paul Dawalibi:definitely weird
Jimmy Baratta:but right like if I spend $20 on a skin I want to
Jimmy Baratta:see the skin you know that's a great argument for enabling
Jimmy Baratta:third person mode.
Paul Dawalibi:We do have article and one article this
Paul Dawalibi:week on skins which I'm going to get to and we aren't we are
Paul Dawalibi:going to talk about GTA six. Because we have to, because I
Paul Dawalibi:sort of feel vindicated by the whole thing when we had Strauss
Paul Dawalibi:Zelnick on the podcast. And it's been a long time now. It's been
Paul Dawalibi:maybe two years since he was on the show. I gave him the
Paul Dawalibi:opportunity to announce the GTA six on the podcast, I gave them
Paul Dawalibi:that chance. And had they just announced it on the podcast,
Paul Dawalibi:this leak would have been an nothing burger, right? Like it
Paul Dawalibi:would have been, it wouldn't have mattered it wouldn't even
Paul Dawalibi:have made the news because everyone would have been like,
Paul Dawalibi:well, he already announced it on business of esports. So I hate
Paul Dawalibi:to say I told you so but I kind of it's kind of one of those I
Paul Dawalibi:told you so moments, if only it announced it on the show.
Jimmy Baratta:For anyone else with a marketing campaign. You
Jimmy Baratta:know, we are always always happy to work with you and rarely
Jimmy Baratta:wrong over here.
Paul Dawalibi:Let's talk about what's on the podcast this week,
Paul Dawalibi:which if you're watching if you're here live, you've
Paul Dawalibi:probably already seen the podcast episode this week. It's
Paul Dawalibi:already out and it was my interview at next World Forum
Paul Dawalibi:with His Royal Highness Prince Faisal, who is the president of
Paul Dawalibi:the Saudi Esports Federation and it was a really fun interview
Paul Dawalibi:that I did with him on his view of like Saudi Arabia and esports
Paul Dawalibi:in Saudi and all those kinds of good things. But I figured as a
Paul Dawalibi:consequence, we should start with let's start with something
Paul Dawalibi:relevant or related in the news, which is this week, it was
Paul Dawalibi:supposed to in fact, it was supposed to be announced that
Paul Dawalibi:next World Forum, it got delayed, but Saudi basically
Paul Dawalibi:announced their giant sort of country's vision or plan for
Paul Dawalibi:gaming and esports in the region. And basically, that's it
Paul Dawalibi:okay, this came directly from the crown prince from NBS
Paul Dawalibi:announced the plan to develop the country's gaming and esports
Paul Dawalibi:industry, it says aiming to create 39,000 jobs and boost GDP
Paul Dawalibi:by 13. Point 3 billion by 2030. So they're calling this the
Paul Dawalibi:national gaming and esports strategy. I'm not going to open
Paul Dawalibi:the PDF there's like a PDF attached to it that sort of
Paul Dawalibi:outline the strategy. I will say in this may be totally
Paul Dawalibi:coincidence, a lot of stuff borrowed by seemingly borrowed
Paul Dawalibi:from my own work for them may be a total coincidence. That's the
Paul Dawalibi:highest form of flattery, Paul, imitation is the highest form of
Paul Dawalibi:flattery, I am flattered by the level of imitation, both of this
Paul Dawalibi:show and the many of the ideas, I brought the kingdom anyway. So
Paul Dawalibi:20 government entities are going to be involved here 86 new
Paul Dawalibi:initiatives, which is a lot. And what they're saying is one of
Paul Dawalibi:the targets they've said is they want studios in the kingdom to
Paul Dawalibi:produce more than 30 games by 2030. And in fact, it says plans
Paul Dawalibi:to develop 30 competitive games by 2030. This is a an additional
Paul Dawalibi:article that I brought up just because it supports the other
Paul Dawalibi:one. So they want to have 30 competitive games essentially
Paul Dawalibi:developed in the country by 2030, which is eight years from
Paul Dawalibi:now, not even seven, seven years seven and change. That's a lot.
Paul Dawalibi:And they talk about how there'll be different areas of focus,
Paul Dawalibi:including tech hardware development, game production,
Paul Dawalibi:esports, competition, infrastructure, regulations,
Paul Dawalibi:education, talent, acquisition, financing, etc. So very
Paul Dawalibi:ambitious plan. Very cool to see this at a national level. I'm
Paul Dawalibi:curious Jimmy a what you thought in the news and be maybe
Paul Dawalibi:specifically this this one secondary article I brought up,
Paul Dawalibi:which is the 30 competitive games? What'd you think of that?
Jimmy Baratta:Yeah, you know, this is a loaded, loaded
Jimmy Baratta:question and topic here. And one of the great you referenced your
Jimmy Baratta:interview with with Prince Faisal. And one of the great
Jimmy Baratta:excerpts, I think, and I can't remember if we got that recorded
Jimmy Baratta:or not, where he had mentioned wanting to increase their GDP by
Jimmy Baratta:gaming by that amount in the interview, and then the
Jimmy Baratta:announcement came thereafter. So we kind of got a sneak peek
Jimmy Baratta:there, I think, into just how seriously they're thinking about
Jimmy Baratta:gaming, but also metrics, right, like measurable intel on what
Jimmy Baratta:they're doing to reach those goals, right 30 competitive
Jimmy Baratta:titles or increasing, you know, X many events over the course of
Jimmy Baratta:the year, and the spend that they were planning to do also
Jimmy Baratta:over the next 10 years that we've been hinting at at the
Jimmy Baratta:show, just because of our relationship and work in the
Jimmy Baratta:region. You know, I think it's absolutely necessary that if you
Jimmy Baratta:want to be a big player in the gaming space, no pun intended
Jimmy Baratta:there. But if you want to be a mega, if you want to have a seat
Jimmy Baratta:at that table, it's not enough to host events, it's not enough
Jimmy Baratta:to have people that play games and that compete at the highest
Jimmy Baratta:level, you need to be part of the creation, right part of the
Jimmy Baratta:process. Because we know from working in this industry for a
Jimmy Baratta:number of years now, for the last, you know, for however
Jimmy Baratta:long, any of us have been working here that all of these
Jimmy Baratta:things are different mechanisms and vehicles for attention and
Jimmy Baratta:revenue. But it all ties back to the underlying game. And if you
Jimmy Baratta:don't have a fun game, if you don't have a captivating
Jimmy Baratta:audience, if you don't have unique IP, then you're missing
Jimmy Baratta:the most important part of that puzzle. So I think if they're
Jimmy Baratta:going to develop 30 games by 2030 Wow, I mean, it's a lot to
Jimmy Baratta:chew right, I think one or two
Paul Dawalibi:like let's put this in context, right? Yeah.
Paul Dawalibi:What What will a blizzard plus a riot plus a CD Project three of
Paul Dawalibi:the biggest studios in the world? Like what will they
Paul Dawalibi:combined? Oh, throw in take two there. What will three of them
Paul Dawalibi:combined put out in terms of games over the next seven and a
Paul Dawalibi:half years? Probably not nowhere near 30 games,
Jimmy Baratta:and that's three or four studios combined? Right?
Jimmy Baratta:I remember when Riot announced valorant which was then project
Jimmy Baratta:a that was one of maybe 10 titles, I think that they said
Jimmy Baratta:that they were releasing over the next 10 years. And we still
Jimmy Baratta:haven't seen you know, half of those. So it's ambitious for
Jimmy Baratta:sure. But I would say based off my knowledge of the region and
Jimmy Baratta:the companies and people there they backup their talk right? I
Jimmy Baratta:don't know if these titles are going to be AAA, best quality,
Jimmy Baratta:lots of fun, you know, these are expensive things and there's no
Jimmy Baratta:shortage of money there. But there is a shortage of talent.
Jimmy Baratta:You know, we see it everywhere. And that was part that was the
Jimmy Baratta:most compelling part to me about the Bungie acquisition from Sony
Jimmy Baratta:was a billion dollars of that went to keeping the talent
Jimmy Baratta:happy. You can spend a lot in a lot of areas but the talent is a
Jimmy Baratta:is a highly competitive thing. And it's a very difficult thing.
Jimmy Baratta:I think. Not everyone like you Paul will was willing to move
Jimmy Baratta:their lives to halfway across the world no matter where in the
Jimmy Baratta:world that is Middle East, South America anywhere. That's a big
Jimmy Baratta:endeavor. So you know I had a great time there, I thought I
Jimmy Baratta:think that region is looking about gaming in the right lens
Jimmy Baratta:and has the right plan for it. But it's going to be a
Jimmy Baratta:challenge, I think, to recruit talent to the kingdom to build
Jimmy Baratta:these games. I think if they were to make one hit, however,
Jimmy Baratta:or two hits in the next 510 years that they've created, that
Jimmy Baratta:would be a mega success story. So you know, hope they get 30.
Jimmy Baratta:But I think I don't think you need to shoot that high to have
Jimmy Baratta:a win here.
Paul Dawalibi:Yeah, it's interesting, right? Like,
Paul Dawalibi:obviously, a lot of the ideas outlined in this strategy are
Paul Dawalibi:very familiar to me. You're really familiar. And so I, you
Paul Dawalibi:know, I believe in the strategy, I buy the strategy, I also
Paul Dawalibi:think, no question, they have commitment, they have vision,
Paul Dawalibi:right? They have the resources, all the big boxes usually need
Paul Dawalibi:to check to see something like this come to life. They've
Paul Dawalibi:checked those boxes. And if you look at the success of gamers,
Paul Dawalibi:eight, which was their eight week, like big festival in
Paul Dawalibi:Riyadh, I think they've proven that they can serve the local
Paul Dawalibi:market, no question, right? Like they can put on gaming
Paul Dawalibi:activations events, they can get the local population talking
Paul Dawalibi:about gaming, thinking about gaming going to a gaming thing.
Paul Dawalibi:And I think gamers eight has proved that at least they can
Paul Dawalibi:execute locally, right, and that it works there. I think the big
Paul Dawalibi:remaining question mark, for me, and I think you pointed to it
Paul Dawalibi:is, is there the talent there to build this grand vision, no
Paul Dawalibi:matter where in the world? This was, that's going to be hard,
Paul Dawalibi:right? If you were in China, I would say, Well, where are you
Paul Dawalibi:going to get all the people to, you know, to build this thing.
Paul Dawalibi:So I think that's definitely a challenge. And I think it's even
Paul Dawalibi:more subtle than that. It's you need a lot of people at the top
Paul Dawalibi:who understand gaming at a very subtle level, have played the
Paul Dawalibi:games the last 20 years of their lives, know what's going on know
Paul Dawalibi:what people want, know what gamers want, speak their
Paul Dawalibi:language, but also understand the business side of it. And if
Paul Dawalibi:I think of how many people there are like that in the world, I
Paul Dawalibi:can probably count on two hands. You know, if there's 10 people
Paul Dawalibi:in the world who fill that bucket, you basically have a
Paul Dawalibi:vision here where you probably need to get 50% of those people
Paul Dawalibi:to go to Saudi Arabia, maybe Money solves that problem. I
Paul Dawalibi:don't know if money solves that problem. It is a challenge. No
Paul Dawalibi:question.
Jimmy Baratta:I would say more likely than not, that might be
Jimmy Baratta:one of the few problems in this scenario that money can't solve.
Jimmy Baratta:Because when you're talking about expertise at that level,
Jimmy Baratta:that's the Tiger Woods live story all over again, where the
Jimmy Baratta:money doesn't change his legacy, or what it's worth to him.
Jimmy Baratta:Right? There has to be something more to it. It has to be
Paul Dawalibi:true. But they got the five out of 10, who are
Paul Dawalibi:willing to come for the budget? They did. Absolutely. And so
Paul Dawalibi:you'll need five out of the 10. Right. Like there's like I said,
Paul Dawalibi:there's probably 10 People at the very top who can who can
Paul Dawalibi:execute on a vision this big,
Jimmy Baratta:I'd say we've got eight out of 10 on that front.
Paul Dawalibi:And then And then the question becomes, you know,
Paul Dawalibi:if they're coming just for the bag, are they there for a year,
Paul Dawalibi:two years? Or do they see this through for the next 10 years?
Paul Dawalibi:And do they truly care about building out what is a grand
Paul Dawalibi:vision, that's always sort of the problem when the law is the
Paul Dawalibi:bag and only the bag. But again, like when you have virtually
Paul Dawalibi:unlimited resources, and this grand division, it's hard to bet
Paul Dawalibi:against. And I wouldn't be betting against obviously, I'm
Paul Dawalibi:not I moved here, right. Like, I'm clearly on the side of
Paul Dawalibi:betting that this thing comes to fruition. I just think it'll be
Paul Dawalibi:interesting to see if they avoid what are clearly some speed
Paul Dawalibi:bumps ahead. That's an ambitious plan with very aggressive
Paul Dawalibi:timelines, which I love. But there are speed bumps that that
Paul Dawalibi:maybe or maybe they're not aware of. And so it'll be interesting
Paul Dawalibi:to see how they navigate that and holodeck being here will for
Paul Dawalibi:sure be a part of this. So obviously will be interesting to
Paul Dawalibi:be a part of it. But I love I love I think more countries
Paul Dawalibi:should be doing this. Let's put it that way. I think it's silly
Paul Dawalibi:that that you have major economies like the US even go
Paul Dawalibi:right to sort of what should be the most obvious like, where's
Paul Dawalibi:the national strategy around gaming? Like, where is that
Paul Dawalibi:vision building to say, we want to make this a, you know, $2
Paul Dawalibi:trillion industry by 2030. The US could absolutely do that. If
Paul Dawalibi:there was actual conviction around it and actual leadership
Paul Dawalibi:around it, and there just isn't. So you have to appreciate what
Paul Dawalibi:Saudi Arabia and MBS I mean, there's no lack of vision there.
Paul Dawalibi:And no lack of big thinking to me. I don't know if you had any
Paul Dawalibi:other thoughts before we move on here.
Jimmy Baratta:We got it. We got to get him out of stores to get
Jimmy Baratta:through and I and I know we're people fans already know, We're
Jimmy Baratta:fans of that region, so to speak. So let's keep it rolling.
Paul Dawalibi:Let's talk about you mentioned this one. This one
Paul Dawalibi:was an interesting one, because the number just jumped out at me
Paul Dawalibi:but we were talking about skins and cod and here. The headline
Paul Dawalibi:valorant champions bundle raises over 32 million in revenue. So
Paul Dawalibi:valorant They had a bundle where they were selling skins
Paul Dawalibi:obviously. And as part of this, they introduced a limited time
Paul Dawalibi:champions bundle comprised for five different skins connected
Paul Dawalibi:to their champion, the champions finals, obviously, which were
Paul Dawalibi:happening in Turkey and 50% of the net proceeds were going to
Paul Dawalibi:go direct bleep two teams participating in this
Paul Dawalibi:championship. And some of these items were never going to go
Paul Dawalibi:back into the store. They sold $32 million worth of this bundle
Paul Dawalibi:with 16 million going to the teams I thought it was a cool
Paul Dawalibi:story because this is like dough does yearly you know
Paul Dawalibi:international whatever that whatever they call it that they
Paul Dawalibi:sell the Compendium or you know that they raise 10 zillion
Paul Dawalibi:dollars for every year for the the for TI, are you surprised
Paul Dawalibi:that the number here Jimmy 32 million on one bundle?
Jimmy Baratta:Yeah, no, I'm surprised that a lot of this
Jimmy Baratta:honestly 32 millions a lot, especially for a digital digital
Jimmy Baratta:good, right, where there's a false sense of scarcity because
Jimmy Baratta:they just decided to limit when it would be available. And and
Jimmy Baratta:when you could buy it just congrats to congrats to that
Jimmy Baratta:team, honestly, that created that the skins are awesome. I
Jimmy Baratta:think I've always liked the valorant skins. I do have a
Jimmy Baratta:little bit of beef with with my friends over at valorant.
Jimmy Baratta:Because I remember purchasing some skins in the beta that
Jimmy Baratta:didn't transfer over when the game was released. And I was
Jimmy Baratta:like, so I'm out 10 or 20 bucks or whatever. And you guys know
Jimmy Baratta:who you are. And I take Venmo and PayPal. But But no, these
Jimmy Baratta:skins are really cool. I think they look awesome. It's a ton of
Jimmy Baratta:money. To me, the headliner of the story is the teams are
Jimmy Baratta:taking 50% of that, like what a generous split, what a massive
Jimmy Baratta:win for anyone that that got out partake in that rev share.
Jimmy Baratta:Because I mean, they're going to do this every year, they're
Jimmy Baratta:going to do this five, six times a year now. But this is
Paul Dawalibi:not new again to like Dota. And ti they do this
Paul Dawalibi:exact thing. And this is how the prize pool for TI is so big
Paul Dawalibi:because they sell this bundle ahead of time. It's exactly the
Paul Dawalibi:same model. And I'm not even sure I think it's also a 5050
Paul Dawalibi:split for Dota. It may be even more than 5050. To be honest,
Paul Dawalibi:like it's not new. I was just I think I continue to be surprised
Paul Dawalibi:at the engagement with valorant. Because anecdotally it feels
Paul Dawalibi:like the game sort of went away, at least from a player
Paul Dawalibi:perspective not went away. That's that's maybe too harsh.
Paul Dawalibi:But it's like, anecdotally, the game doesn't feel nearly as
Paul Dawalibi:hyped as the numbers suggest. Does that make sense?
Jimmy Baratta:Yeah, I mean, there's, it's been a kind of a
Jimmy Baratta:down year in gaming in terms of new releases. And a lot of the
Jimmy Baratta:hype is really more around the content creators these days and
Jimmy Baratta:less around the esports orgs. And the players, there's been a
Jimmy Baratta:massive shift, right towards content creation. So I see what
Jimmy Baratta:you're saying there in terms of just certain games that don't
Jimmy Baratta:have a lot of hype at the moment. I think that valorant
Jimmy Baratta:has been chugging along in a steady pace, where we've had a
Jimmy Baratta:lot of different headlines over the launch of the of the league
Jimmy Baratta:and the different structures for which they were accepting
Jimmy Baratta:applications and how that would look internationally as well as
Jimmy Baratta:domestically. So I mean, they've been in the headlines, we've
Jimmy Baratta:been talking about them. But I agree with you that the
Jimmy Baratta:excitement over one thing or another has not felt the same.
Jimmy Baratta:You know, at least for me this year with all the games.
Jimmy Baratta:Honestly, I haven't really felt super excited about gaming since
Jimmy Baratta:like season three of fortnight. So maybe I'm just, you know, an
Jimmy Baratta:old man yelling at clouds at this point. But
Paul Dawalibi:this, this validates the whole converse,
Paul Dawalibi:things I've been saying. But also what Arnold from Genji
Paul Dawalibi:said, right, which is this is a fart like selling digital goods
Paul Dawalibi:like this seems to be a way better way of funneling revenue
Paul Dawalibi:and profits to teams who participate in these leagues and
Paul Dawalibi:making the whole the whole ecosystem more sustainable.
Jimmy Baratta:It's the only way that makes it worth it for the
Jimmy Baratta:teams. Right. And we know that a lot of the teams that we've had
Jimmy Baratta:on the show have been saying that I know, well, I don't want
Jimmy Baratta:to talk too much internally about X set. But you know, the
Jimmy Baratta:teams are looking for or looking to work with the publishers. And
Jimmy Baratta:the teams have a lot of leverage here, I think. And again, kudos
Jimmy Baratta:to the ones that are making it happen that are keeping the
Jimmy Baratta:teams happy. It's a rinse and repeat. You know, this is easy
Jimmy Baratta:to monetize thing. And it's an it's one of those things like
Jimmy Baratta:you said that can drive excitement around the game,
Jimmy Baratta:right? It was one of the one of the first ones that we covered
Jimmy Baratta:almost a year ago that said, Hey, we know that EA Sports
Jimmy Baratta:Business is not necessarily doing all that great. We're
Jimmy Baratta:redirecting that towards skins. And in game transactions. That's
Jimmy Baratta:kind of the point here. So the fact that they're getting teams
Jimmy Baratta:get a cut of that, that keeps everyone alive, that keeps
Jimmy Baratta:everything running smoothly. I didn't know Dota was 50%. Also,
Jimmy Baratta:Paul, that seemed like a lot to me. But either way is a lot.
Jimmy Baratta:Like I said, as long as the teams are happy, you're gonna
Jimmy Baratta:have a thriving ecosystem because if you don't have anyone
Jimmy Baratta:competing, then you just kind of have a fun game, which is a
Jimmy Baratta:necessary component but I think you're leaving a lot on the
Jimmy Baratta:table without without the second part of that. Well,
Paul Dawalibi:you mentioned hype, Jimmy so I think it's
Paul Dawalibi:important that we get to the max hype story or maybe the most
Paul Dawalibi:hyped game of all time story this week and that we have to
Paul Dawalibi:talk about the leak here. We're getting into the juicy stuff. We
Paul Dawalibi:have leak stuff we have drama stuff coming the leak here. GTA
Paul Dawalibi:six in the news and the headline 90 videos of rockstars
Paul Dawalibi:unreleased Grand Theft Auto six games surface online in massive
Paul Dawalibi:leak so more than 90 gameplay video Those of GTA six were
Paul Dawalibi:leaked, Rockstar confirmed the leak is real. And the user
Paul Dawalibi:claiming responsibility says they could leak more data soon.
Paul Dawalibi:So there were actual gameplay clips that were posted online.
Paul Dawalibi:Source code was posted assets, test builds, etc. And the hacker
Paul Dawalibi:reportedly also took credit for a cyber attack on Uber.
Jimmy Baratta:Oh, did that. Did the hacker take credit for that?
Jimmy Baratta:I thought Uber had suspected him of being the same hacker. I
Jimmy Baratta:didn't realize that I knew that there was a common thread there.
Jimmy Baratta:Interesting.
Paul Dawalibi:Supposedly, the hacker even wrote that they're
Paul Dawalibi:looking to negotiate a deal.
Jimmy Baratta:I saw that That's so dumb. So blackmail,
Paul Dawalibi:they want to pay the Hey, I guess. So the leaks
Paul Dawalibi:real? I don't need to play it here or anything like that. I'm
Paul Dawalibi:sure everyone has seen sort of the leaked videos or leaked
Paul Dawalibi:footage by now. But what do you make of this, Jimmy? And how
Paul Dawalibi:much do you think from a business perspective? This hurts
Paul Dawalibi:the game or helps the game? Like, where are you on this one?
Jimmy Baratta:You know, I think there are instances where this
Jimmy Baratta:is wrong. But in general, I think there's no such thing as
Jimmy Baratta:bad press. I think we were already excited for GTA six,
Jimmy Baratta:everyone already knew it was in development. The Sneak Peek This
Jimmy Baratta:is, I mean, if you measure the amount of impressions that all
Jimmy Baratta:these stories are getting that all of Grand Theft Auto
Jimmy Baratta:community is kind of receiving from from the result of this,
Jimmy Baratta:it's control of your brand image versus just you know, pleasing
Jimmy Baratta:the fans. And I think everyone's happy to know one that it's in
Jimmy Baratta:development confirmed because again, they also Rockstar also
Jimmy Baratta:said, hey, yeah, that's ours. Right. So that's nice to know.
Jimmy Baratta:But to if you actually watch the video looks great. You know, and
Jimmy Baratta:I don't know how early this development is, but it already
Jimmy Baratta:it already looks great. So I'm sure there's a lot of polish to
Jimmy Baratta:be done. There's a lot of story writing to be done a lot of
Jimmy Baratta:quests and testing that needs to be done. But just visually, and
Jimmy Baratta:aesthetically, the few little things that I watched, all
Jimmy Baratta:looked phenomenal. So I think this is a win. You know, this is
Jimmy Baratta:confirmation of the sequel to one of the most popular games
Jimmy Baratta:over the last 10 years and again, dominated the news this
Jimmy Baratta:week. So okay, so
Paul Dawalibi:put put your lawyer hat on, right? They catch
Paul Dawalibi:the guy who did the hack. Now Rockstar wants to go after the
Paul Dawalibi:hacker and wants to claim damages are their damages here?
Paul Dawalibi:Because to your point, it's like, well, this is good
Paul Dawalibi:publicity. The game didn't look that bad. It's like free
Paul Dawalibi:marketing. Can they claim any damages here?
Jimmy Baratta:Yeah, I mean, incredibly, incredibly hard to
Jimmy Baratta:monetize. Even if this were a business 1/100 The size, right,
Jimmy Baratta:and a game that won 100 The amount of people went 1000s, the
Jimmy Baratta:amount of people played, even if this were a lot smaller, I'm
Jimmy Baratta:saying in terms of the scope of damage, the scope of money to be
Jimmy Baratta:made, it's always a very hard thing to prove in a court of law
Jimmy Baratta:when you have speculation like this. That's why I'm saying that
Jimmy Baratta:the damage here is more brand. It's more brand facing it's like
Jimmy Baratta:what are they going to say that they sold X many fewer units,
Jimmy Baratta:because people knew about the game. So they were less excited
Jimmy Baratta:about it. All the evidence points to the contrary, that
Jimmy Baratta:this is increasing the height because people are seeing what
Jimmy Baratta:outbreak the game is realistically. And you and I
Jimmy Baratta:have this talk all the time. The difference between justice I
Jimmy Baratta:think and business are kind of confused. And I don't think this
Jimmy Baratta:ever even sees a courtroom. I mean, even if they caught the
Jimmy Baratta:guy, I don't think it ever sees a courtroom, he'd get penalized
Jimmy Baratta:for criminally before anything civilly were to take place. And
Jimmy Baratta:he's not going to have the assets to cover any any type of
Jimmy Baratta:civil suit anyways.
Paul Dawalibi:So if you're the head at Rockstar, you don't fall
Paul Dawalibi:for the blackmail attempt. either. You don't care if he
Paul Dawalibi:releases more footage or more source code or
Jimmy Baratta:No, I think you double down on your, on your on
Jimmy Baratta:your security. I think you work with the FBI to try and bring
Jimmy Baratta:this guy to justice. And then you let the criminal court do
Jimmy Baratta:its thing. But you don't need to squeeze out pennies from someone
Jimmy Baratta:that doesn't have it, you got all you would have made in free
Jimmy Baratta:press here. Interesting. I think they do want to I think they do
Jimmy Baratta:want to send a message for future future hackers and future
Jimmy Baratta:breaches of this nature, whether internal or external, where they
Jimmy Baratta:don't want this type of leak. So that's why you do comply with
Jimmy Baratta:authorities and you do whatever you can public facing to show
Jimmy Baratta:that this is a serious issue that you're not letting it slide
Jimmy Baratta:to try to act in that way as a deterrent. But it's really only
Jimmy Baratta:for that sake, I think I don't think there's any tangible or or
Jimmy Baratta:takeaway for other than that.
Paul Dawalibi:I mean, Jimmy, do you think that there's a
Paul Dawalibi:conclusion here, which says maybe Dr. disrespects sort of
Paul Dawalibi:method of producing games and doing marketing around games is
Paul Dawalibi:the way to go. So it avoids this because it sort of feels like
Paul Dawalibi:when you have a game any triple A game that's in development for
Paul Dawalibi:years call it write more than two or three years, it sort of
Paul Dawalibi:feels like it's an inevitable that at some point, something
Paul Dawalibi:will leak like you just can't control that tightly, hundreds
Paul Dawalibi:of developers and all kinds of, you know, assets and programmers
Paul Dawalibi:and code and right like at some point things will leak when you
Paul Dawalibi:have that big of an operation over that many years. So is the
Paul Dawalibi:conclusion then from a business standpoint that everyone should
Paul Dawalibi:just open the kimono Rockstar should never have been this
Paul Dawalibi:closed lipped about GTA they should have been talking Think
Paul Dawalibi:about it for the last two years, they should have been showing
Paul Dawalibi:all the milestones and updates and artwork and right like leak
Paul Dawalibi:it themselves and control the narrative and build hype over
Paul Dawalibi:two or three years rather than what they did, which was say
Paul Dawalibi:absolutely nothing. Literally absolutely nothing with the
Paul Dawalibi:understanding that maybe these leaks are now inevitable.
Jimmy Baratta:That's a tough one. Right? And I think it's a
Jimmy Baratta:case by case thing. Also, I think if you're constantly
Jimmy Baratta:communicating and showing off and showing what you're working
Jimmy Baratta:on, but maybe pushing date, you know, then you might have to
Jimmy Baratta:push production dates, or you have to answer more questions.
Jimmy Baratta:You get a cyberpunk kind of situation all over again, where
Jimmy Baratta:maybe doesn't live up to expectations or it gets delayed
Jimmy Baratta:and delayed because you're talking about it for so long. On
Jimmy Baratta:the other end of that spectrum, if you are tight lipped and
Jimmy Baratta:successful with it, you get the next baby Yoda right that no one
Jimmy Baratta:knew about that grow goo was so huge with the Mandalorian it was
Jimmy Baratta:the best kept secret. So there are big wins, I think when you
Jimmy Baratta:can do it successfully. And there are big failures when
Jimmy Baratta:you're overly communicative. I can't tell you which is the
Jimmy Baratta:right path and which is the wrong one. All I can say is with
Jimmy Baratta:regard to GTA six. This leak I think helped them if they were
Jimmy Baratta:talking a lot about it that it was in production. Even if we
Jimmy Baratta:hadn't seen gameplay it just wouldn't have gotten the hype
Jimmy Baratta:that this I do know in music leaks happen all the time
Jimmy Baratta:purposefully or not to generate hype around albums and to
Jimmy Baratta:generate beef right between rival labels and rappers and
Jimmy Baratta:musicians. But I think it's kind of a case by case basis. I don't
Jimmy Baratta:know if there's a blanket rule here or not,
Paul Dawalibi:Jimmy I'm surprised you didn't go I
Paul Dawalibi:thought you were gonna take that thought one step further. By the
Paul Dawalibi:way, super is in here. Hey super, who does a lot of our
Paul Dawalibi:short form content. So if you follow us on Tik Tok, the man
Paul Dawalibi:with the orange hat and the mustache gaming superstar in his
Paul Dawalibi:own right, no, with the tinfoil hat theory. Do you think
Paul Dawalibi:Rockstar made all of this up? Right? There's like this very,
Paul Dawalibi:this very cynical meme that says, maybe this is just like
Paul Dawalibi:Kim Kardashian sex tape leak, right? Like this is really this
Paul Dawalibi:was not an accident. This leak was planned. So little
Jimmy Baratta:different. A little different, Paul right.
Jimmy Baratta:Because they're talking about hackers and getting the FBI
Jimmy Baratta:involved. And and also claiming that Uber hack is well,
Paul Dawalibi:you do now can name the same thing right that
Paul Dawalibi:they were gonna get the FBI involved.
Jimmy Baratta:You were bordering on that Jessie small
Jimmy Baratta:at issue where I was that guy from or with the alleged hate
Jimmy Baratta:crime when he had hired that guy to do it to himself or
Unknown:I might be I mean, this would be kind of a genius,
Unknown:right?
Jimmy Baratta:That just rubs me the wrong way. It's so
Jimmy Baratta:unethical.
Paul Dawalibi:But kind of genius marketing. A leaked clip
Paul Dawalibi:gets people you know, it's titillating. It's exciting
Paul Dawalibi:right? Oh my god. I'm seeing something right. Yeah, yeah.
Paul Dawalibi:Versus just dropping like a video of gameplay footage. Yeah,
Paul Dawalibi:for sure. We get a lot of attention but nowhere near the
Paul Dawalibi:amount this got you hate this idea.
Jimmy Baratta:I don't like forcing those situations. They
Jimmy Baratta:just seem they just rubs me the wrong way. Honestly, I
Jimmy Baratta:understand how clever that can be and how you can use that to
Jimmy Baratta:your benefit. I understand that leaks like you said there they
Jimmy Baratta:have that a lot more to them. But I that's nothing that I
Jimmy Baratta:would recommend in any boardrooms that I'd be a part
Jimmy Baratta:of.
Paul Dawalibi:I think there's a 50% chance that they leaked this
Paul Dawalibi:on that this is all manufactured. That's that's
Paul Dawalibi:where I'm at on this, but maybe I'm wrong. It just seems to Burt
Paul Dawalibi:like he's like asking for money's that guy who hacked Uber
Paul Dawalibi:like I don't know just feels feels like someone scripted this
Paul Dawalibi:a little bit. Anyways, I don't know if you had any other
Paul Dawalibi:thoughts on that. That basically gets us to the end of this
Paul Dawalibi:week's show. Jimmy and I know it was a bit of a It was obviously
Paul Dawalibi:a quieter one. Because it's not our usual day in time. I will
Paul Dawalibi:say if you're watching this or listening to this after the fact
Paul Dawalibi:we will be back next week at our usual date and time, Wednesdays
Paul Dawalibi:2:30pm. Eastern time. Just a reminder, guys, make sure to go
Paul Dawalibi:follow us everywhere on YouTube on Instagram on tick tock on
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Paul Dawalibi:to go do that. Don't miss the podcast episode this week with
Paul Dawalibi:His Royal Highness, Prince Faisal from the Saudi esports
Paul Dawalibi:Federation. It was a fun interview. We're going to put
Paul Dawalibi:out more of these interviews. I did a half dozen of them at the
Paul Dawalibi:next World Forum in Saudi Arabia with all kinds of people. So
Paul Dawalibi:look forward to more of those coming out built we're just
Paul Dawalibi:going to put out more episodes than usual guys in the podcast.
Paul Dawalibi:So stay tuned for those. Jimmy Thank you. As always, thank you,
Paul Dawalibi:everyone who was here live and don't forget the most important
Paul Dawalibi:thing guys, the future is fun. We'll see you next week.