WEBVTT

00:00.000 --> 00:02.280
What's up everybody, Damon
here on in today's gaming news

00:02.420 --> 00:10.900
A former PlayStation exec thinks he knows how to grow the console industry. GTA is
probably trapped in the USA, and CD Projekt sells good old games to a familiar face

00:11.000 --> 00:24.980
This is your Daily Fix. The console
audience is not growing. We know this

00:25.220 --> 00:29.960
The best-selling console of all time is the
PlayStation 2. No console since has matched its numbers

00:29.960 --> 00:38.980
So how will console manufacturers break through that barrier? By learning a crucial
lesson from the videotape format war one former PlayStation executive has suggested

00:39.340 --> 00:44.060
Speaking on the Pause for Thought and Naomi Kyle YouTube
channel, which features a former host of this very show

00:44.540 --> 00:52.640
Sean Layden, former boss of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, said the console
video game market has hit a limit and significant change is needed to expand beyond it

00:53.320 --> 01:01.680
We talk about gaming as being this $250 billion industry, which
it is, and have hundreds of millions of users, which it does

01:01.680 --> 01:06.740
But of course, that includes, if you're playing Wordle, you're a
gamer. If you're playing Candy Crush, you're a gamer in that number

01:06.740 --> 01:21.530
But the number of discrete consoles sold over any particular generation caps out about 250 million If you line up all the
PS1s Sega Saturns and N64s and you go by generations we need to crack that cap that barrier To fact check him a bit here

01:21.690 --> 01:26.530
the PS1, Sega Saturn, N64 generation
only had about 144 million consoles sold

01:26.790 --> 01:30.890
But point taken. Layton said the video game industry
should study the past as it looks to the future

01:30.890 --> 01:35.190
In particular, Betamax is lost to
VHS in the videotape format war

01:35.870 --> 01:44.410
The videotape format war was a late 1970s, early 80s battle between Sony's
Betamax and JVC's VHS for dominance in home video, with VHS ultimately

01:44.410 --> 01:48.730
winning due to longer recording times, broader
licensing with more manufacturers, and key

01:48.730 --> 01:53.150
partnerships with movie studios. Those partnerships
made movies available for rental and purchase on

01:53.150 --> 02:04.590
VHS more readily, despite Betamax often having slightly better initial quality. Layton
said Betamax lost to VHS for one reason only, that VHS licensed its format across many

02:04.590 --> 02:09.330
different manufacturers. Sony held the unique
Betamax patent trademark and everything. It never

02:09.330 --> 02:14.110
went wide like VHS. Later on, Sony and the
Philips created the compact disc consortium

02:14.490 --> 02:18.690
They created the patent and then they licensed it
out to all the other manufacturers. Same thing

02:18.690 --> 02:23.070
happened with DVD. Same thing happened with
Blu-ray. They said that we'll compete on the device

02:23.550 --> 02:37.261
This Lainey said is exactly what the video game industry should do create a gaming format consortium of sorts He saying there should just
be one gaming format that would work on any console exactly the way other media works You can play any Blu in any Blu player for example

02:37.641 --> 02:41.421
That's how you get to the ubiquity of the
toaster. But right now, I think we're trapped

02:41.421 --> 02:47.141
in this containment field, Layden said. Following Layden's thought
here, though, it would require Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo

02:47.141 --> 02:51.941
to come together to agree upon a singular gaming
format that means all video games play on all consoles

02:52.281 --> 02:56.781
Not only that, but any company would then be able
to try its hand at making a PlayStation or an Xbox

02:56.781 --> 03:01.221
and compete with the first-party console
manufacturers in the market. And Layden might be right

03:01.401 --> 03:06.241
This might be the only way to grow the console audience.
I also think it is extremely unlikely to happen

03:06.441 --> 03:12.561
especially for Nintendo. Xbox's audience is shrinking,
Sony's is stagnant, but Nintendo's has been growing recently

03:12.841 --> 03:17.701
The Switch was its most popular console ever.
Nintendo is the one platform that has seen growth

03:17.701 --> 03:22.021
over the last two decades. For now, Nintendo
and Sony seem fine with keeping the status quo

03:22.181 --> 03:27.341
while Microsoft, out of necessity, seems willing
to experiment. Everything is an Xbox, they say

03:27.341 --> 03:31.881
We'll see how much it can shake things up as
we move into the next generation of consoles

03:33.021 --> 03:37.141
Moving on, for years, Grand Theft Auto fans have
wondered whether Rockstar might take the franchise

03:37.141 --> 03:51.331
out of its traditional American setting into cities and other countries But according to one former developer that never going to happen and fans just
need to accept it In an interview with Games Hub former Rockstar Games technical director Obe Vermeer who worked at the company from 1995 to 2009

03:51.751 --> 03:56.051
said there were ideas about post-Liberty
City, San Andreas, and Vice City GTA games

03:56.051 --> 04:02.271
set in Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, and Istanbul. But
it was GTA Tokyo that almost actually happened

04:02.591 --> 04:09.651
According to Vermeer, who left Rockstar just after finishing GTA 4, another
studio in Japan was going to take Rockstar's code and develop GTA Tokyo

04:10.031 --> 04:18.191
He didn't say which studio. But then it didn't happen in the end, he said. Why? It sounds like
Rockstar came to the realization that American cities are the natural and best setting for GTA

04:18.511 --> 04:23.491
and given it takes so long to release new games in
the series, going international is too big of a risk

04:23.731 --> 04:27.951
He said, People love having these wild ideas, but
then when you've got billions of dollars riding on it

04:28.111 --> 04:33.631
it's too easy to go, let's do what we know again. And
also, America is basically the epicenter of Western culture

04:33.811 --> 04:39.651
so everybody knows the cities, even people who haven't been there. If
games still took a year to make, then yeah, sure, you can have a little fun

04:39.651 --> 04:45.031
but you're not going to get that when there's a GTA every
12 years. You're not going to set it in a new location

04:45.291 --> 04:50.831
You don't really need to either because the technology changes so
much. Nobody is going to say that they're not going to play GTA 6

04:50.831 --> 04:54.871
because they've already played Vice City. That
doesn't make sense. It's completely different

04:55.251 --> 04:59.911
I'm afraid we're stuck in this loop of about
five American cities. Let's just get used to it