Yeah, Microsoft Xbox specifically is facing some issues and I wouldn't be shocked like, I don't know, this is speculation, but like, I would not be shocked if some of the folks who run the team there kind of wish the rise, fall, and future of Blizzard Entertainment.

He's also a reporter for Bloomberg.

Shrier joined me for a conversation about his book, The History of Blizzard,

and the current state of the video game industry.

I enjoyed the book and the conversation. I hope you do too. Oh, A major part of your story in the book is just how difficult it is to make a really good video game.

And it seems like there's two things sort of colliding in the industry right now, where

it's almost never been easier to make a basic video game.

I think Mike Moreheim in a conversation you had with him a few weeks ago said

15,000 new games were released on steam last year and yet it's almost been never never been more difficult to make a blockbuster video game

where it's taken more than 10 years to make Grand Theft Auto 6. What's happening? Why is it so difficult to make big video games these days?

I think those those kind of those two points are in conversation with one another

because I think that the blockbuster games the games that are expecting

to sell millions of copies at $70 a pop and are hoping to reach massive audiences

those are now competing with more games than ever before.

Not to mention the kind of the third part of this equation and an important one is that

a lot of games that have been released over the last decade or so

are so-called games as a service or as I like to call them forever games.

Games like Fortnite where you don't just buy it and play it through and then put it down. You buy it and you keep playing it for years and years and years. So you kind of you combine all these factors and you have these game companies that are really trying to stand out, trying to make

their games unique, trying to make their games feel different than competitors or at

least look better than competitors. And that's really tough and it's really tough to

stand out in this marketplace and so a lot of people are struggling with that. I

think the the kind of the graphical fidelity arms race is really one of the biggest factors and one of the

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