Pachter Factor Questions November/December 2017

Hello Michael I have went through all of the siftds Pachter Factors, and i have not found a single question about how to get into the Stock market specifically the Gaming side of it.(there is one question but you kind of trail off and dont answer it <3) Can you please Show us the path, is there any book we can read? any college courses we can take? any online Courses? are there specific websites we can go,to get detailed information on what a certain companies new announcement is? I only ask because you once answered this question in detail back in patch-attack, years ago, but i cant find that specific episode. and i have been searching the internet for days. Thank You.

Hey Michael, With the recent uproar about microtransactions, is there actually an agency that consumers can raise their concerns about this with? I would have assumed it would be the ESRB, however they have already stated loot boxes are not something they consider gambling. This is a pretty shocking recommendation, considering the best social analysts have worked on making these lootboxes as similar to slot machines as possible, with added issue of the amazing ease of access that slot machines don't enjoy. The gambling industry is trying to regulate in shop slot machines, so it's pretty disgusting that the this isn't being taken just as seriously. I fully believe that consumers should vote with their wallets to shape how publishers behave, but it is reasonable to expect a regulatory body to have to step in on certain predatory practices. Have a good holiday and thanks for reading. Wesley

Wesley

Hey Pach, with all of the studio closures going on lately (Visceral, Runic, and more earlier), it got me wondering, when a publisher goes under and dissolves, who gets the money when you purchase a game published by them when the assets weren't bought by another publisher (Deep Silver buying Saints Row from THQ)?

Joseph La Russa

Hi Pach, I’m curious to know, given the valuation of the western games industry has tripled to near $90 billion, how much of that valuation is based around growth of the consumer base (i.e. attracting new consumers to buy games), and how much of that is based around the consumer base spending money on microtransactions/loot-boxes? Is this genuine market growth, or is it artificial inflation? -Voxx91

I think it's very late in the day. Don Mattrick and his faith in Kinect was the single worst "biggest" decision that the industry made that Matthew was asking above.

benjameshodges

Would you want to see it happening?

benjameshodges

Hardcore gamers are just another demographic. Executives don't care what they have to say.

benjameshodges

Hey Pach, Microsoft/Phil Spencer recently announced they are looking to form more in house studios. whats your take on that? And do you reckon its a little late Xbox one x has launched and considering it takes years to form studios and create exclusive software. I mean nothing will be out for the Xbox One/X

Hey Pach, I'm wondering what you think about Nintendo planning to make 25 million to 30 million Switch consoles next year according to the Wall Street Journal. If the Switch does these numbers could it catch up to the Xbox One by end of 2019 fiscal year?

Hey Pach, could you speculate on why Nintendo isn't releasing a Left Joy-Con with a traditional d-pad? It seems like a huge oversight and missed opportunity for making a nice chunk of extra money. Surely a lot of people would want to have a proper d-pad to play their Switch games while they're on the go.

Simon Wallace

Dear Pach. With FIFA 18 sales on Switch only accounting for 3% of total sales do you see EA’s support continuing to other titles. What impact might this have for other publishers who have pledged software support for the Switch. Would publishers balance FIFA sales against the stronger selling Mario + Rabbids or does this suggest you need Nintendo IP to sell Nintendo software?

Hey Pach. Croteam, who developed the Serious Sam games, sold 5000 copies of the new VR version of The Talos Principle. Many gamers were angry that they charged again for a 3 year old game but Croteam has since said it's not economically viable considering the additional development required. If the base game sold 900,000 copies, is 5000 copies about the sales numbers you'd expect for a VR re-release or is the demand just low?

benjameshodges

Hi Pach! Zero Punctuation‘s Yahtzee once proposed a world where consoles are like DVD players: Everything is cross compatible, no exclusives, all backwards compatible. Do you see something like that ever happening? And why did it happen for video?

Volker Bach

Hello Mr.Pachter Do you agree with the notion that games could/should stay copyrighted forever, or do you think at some point in the future (maybe a far future) the oldest ones should eventually become of public domain?

Hi Pachter! I'm curious what you think EA offered Disney for the exclusive rights to the Star Wars IP? Isn't it a bad deal for Disney, as they are now stuck waiting on EA to produce games, instead of being able to shop the IP around to different publishes so they can invest in a wider range of games and genre niches? Considering the expensive loss of Visceral and its Ragtag project, how likely is EA's exclusivity of Star Wars to continue?

SubSamJam

Hi Pach, Imagine a room filled with 'hardcore gamers,' game company executives, and the company's shareholders. Gamers and shareholders ardently argue about whether to continue to fund or cancel a game that could potentially advance gaming as an art form, but would be expensive to complete and sales projections are not impressive. Not knowing what to do next, company executives decide to hire you as a mediator. How would you handle the mediation between the so-called 'hardcore gamers' and the company's shareholders? In other words, how would you make them see each other's perspective? Thank you. Bonus question: How long until we see an open-world Santa Claus simulator where instead of delivering presents, he delivers loot crates?

Roberto Zayas

With Black Friday ads now for this year- seems like the Xbox One and PS4 will be $199.99 basically everywhere. How are Black Friday deals created with the vendors? Is the price determined by the retailer or the publishers and how does the retailer and/or publishers make money for those all these discounts?

Colton Berry

Mario + Rabbids is published and developed by Ubisoft. How does Nintendo get money out of this? Is it a one time licensing agreement or royalty per game?

Colton Berry

Remember we have a thread that tracks all questions already asked in SIFTD's Free forum, everyone!

Hey Pachter! (Soarfear here) When holiday sales like Black Friday happen, and consoles get bundled and discounted, who is taking the loss on the price, Microsoft/Sony, the retailers or do the chip makers take some of the loses?

Aaron Grimshaw

If you had to guess what percentage of shareholders of publicly traded video game companies regularly play these companies' games themselves, what would your estimate be?

Well now you're going to make us all wonder how much money you made...

I made a bunch of money a few years ago by buying Take Two stock after GTA IV's announcement and then selling the stock when the incredible day one sales numbers were announced for GTA IV which pushed the stock up almost 75% over what I paid. Are these kinds of gains still possible to be had in the market or have traders wised up to the huge day one sales announcements for major franchises?

Nick Kearney

What is the single worst decision you've ever seen made by a major entity in the video game industry since you began covering it? What is the single best decision?

How big is the set up there? Is there a lot of room or is poor Shane squished up against the wall?

From a finance-industry perspective, what is the most interesting story in the current video game industry? The ownership future of Take-Two? The possible hostile takeover of Ubisoft? Sale of the Xbox division?

Are extra content offerings in AAA games (particularly expansions) a straight up profit deal, or are they something more akin to a subsidy, like a Netflix/HBO original series, where added brand cache offsets some or all the costs?