Player Driven Live: Call of Duty Losses, Cloud Gaming's Latency War, and the Lego Pokemon Craze
Player Driven Live: Call of Duty Losses, Cloud Gaming's Latency War, and the Lego Pokemon Craze
Live
•
January 15, 2026
•
Greg Posner
Player Driven Live: Call of Duty Losses, Cloud Gaming's Latency War, and the Lego Pokemon Craze
Live
•
January 15, 2026
Player Driven Live: Call of Duty Losses, Cloud Gaming's Latency War, and the Lego Pokemon Craze
In our latest live session of Player Driven, hosts Colan and Greg break down the volatile state of AAA gaming, the "negative flywheel" hitting Microsoft, and why middle-aged collectors are fueling a 24-hour sell-out of $650 Lego sets.
The "Negative Flywheel": Call of Duty and Microsoft’s Profit Problem
The conversation kicked off with a sobering look at the financial health of the industry's biggest giants. Reports suggest Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 may have resulted in a $300 million loss for Microsoft. While it remains one of the biggest attention-share games of 2024, its performance compared to previous installments raises a critical question: if a massive hit loses hundreds of millions, what does that mean for the underperformers?
Colan describes this as the beginning of a negative flywheel:
The Tailspin: Significant underperformance leads to immediate pressure to cut costs.
Layoff Cycles: Despite refuting rumors, the pressure to maintain margins in the face of massive development costs often leads back to the gaming department's chopping block.
Asset Discounts: The hosts noted that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard might have been driven by a "discounted" price precisely because of the underlying issues being revealed in current court proceedings.
Cloud Gaming vs. The Speed of Light
Is the PC dead? Jeff Bezos thinks so, suggesting we will soon only own devices that connect to a cloud-based PC. While the hosts agree the technology is inevitable, they identified the "insurmountable" hurdle: Latency.
The Speed of Light Problem: For single-player JRPGs, minor latency is unnoticeable. However, for competitive titles like Counter-Strike or Call of Duty, being off by even a fraction of a second is the difference between winning and losing.
The Infrastructure Gap: To truly solve latency, data centers must be geographically close enough to every gamer to allow for local matchmaking within the same region.
Anti-Appliance Future: While Greg admits he'd love to reclaim his shelf space from "boxes in the living room," the industry is still years away from a hardware-free reality.
The Rise of the "Whale" Collector: Lego x Pokemon
The session took a lighter (but equally expensive) turn into the world of Lego Pokemon. The newly launched 18+ adult line, featuring iconic Kanto starters like Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise, sold out in just 24 hours.
Middle-Aged Nostalgia: The marketing for these sets targets "middle-aged dudes" who grew up with the 30-year-old franchise and now have the disposable income to spend $650 on a single set.
A Two-Tiered Industry: Colin suggests we are seeing a split in gaming audiences. Younger generations are gravitating toward free-to-play or cheaper experiences, while "whales" (Millennials and Gen Xers) are being served premium, high-priced nostalgia-driven content.
The "Five-Headed Beast" of IP: Pokemon's dominance (surpassing even Mickey Mouse in retail sales) is attributed to its mastery of five pillars: console games, mobile, TCG, merchandising, and transmedia (Netflix/Anime).
Where to Find More
Colan Neese: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colanneese/
Greg Posner: playerdriven.io or join the community in the
Player Driven Discord: https://discord.gg/sCjPRX9z
Player Driven Live: Call of Duty Losses, Cloud Gaming's Latency War, and the Lego Pokemon Craze
In our latest live session of Player Driven, hosts Colan and Greg break down the volatile state of AAA gaming, the "negative flywheel" hitting Microsoft, and why middle-aged collectors are fueling a 24-hour sell-out of $650 Lego sets.
The "Negative Flywheel": Call of Duty and Microsoft’s Profit Problem
The conversation kicked off with a sobering look at the financial health of the industry's biggest giants. Reports suggest Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 may have resulted in a $300 million loss for Microsoft. While it remains one of the biggest attention-share games of 2024, its performance compared to previous installments raises a critical question: if a massive hit loses hundreds of millions, what does that mean for the underperformers?
Colan describes this as the beginning of a negative flywheel:
The Tailspin: Significant underperformance leads to immediate pressure to cut costs.
Layoff Cycles: Despite refuting rumors, the pressure to maintain margins in the face of massive development costs often leads back to the gaming department's chopping block.
Asset Discounts: The hosts noted that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard might have been driven by a "discounted" price precisely because of the underlying issues being revealed in current court proceedings.
Cloud Gaming vs. The Speed of Light
Is the PC dead? Jeff Bezos thinks so, suggesting we will soon only own devices that connect to a cloud-based PC. While the hosts agree the technology is inevitable, they identified the "insurmountable" hurdle: Latency.
The Speed of Light Problem: For single-player JRPGs, minor latency is unnoticeable. However, for competitive titles like Counter-Strike or Call of Duty, being off by even a fraction of a second is the difference between winning and losing.
The Infrastructure Gap: To truly solve latency, data centers must be geographically close enough to every gamer to allow for local matchmaking within the same region.
Anti-Appliance Future: While Greg admits he'd love to reclaim his shelf space from "boxes in the living room," the industry is still years away from a hardware-free reality.
The Rise of the "Whale" Collector: Lego x Pokemon
The session took a lighter (but equally expensive) turn into the world of Lego Pokemon. The newly launched 18+ adult line, featuring iconic Kanto starters like Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise, sold out in just 24 hours.
Middle-Aged Nostalgia: The marketing for these sets targets "middle-aged dudes" who grew up with the 30-year-old franchise and now have the disposable income to spend $650 on a single set.
A Two-Tiered Industry: Colin suggests we are seeing a split in gaming audiences. Younger generations are gravitating toward free-to-play or cheaper experiences, while "whales" (Millennials and Gen Xers) are being served premium, high-priced nostalgia-driven content.
The "Five-Headed Beast" of IP: Pokemon's dominance (surpassing even Mickey Mouse in retail sales) is attributed to its mastery of five pillars: console games, mobile, TCG, merchandising, and transmedia (Netflix/Anime).
Where to Find More
Colan Neese: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colanneese/
Greg Posner: playerdriven.io or join the community in the
Player Driven Discord: https://discord.gg/sCjPRX9z
Player Driven Live: Call of Duty Losses, Cloud Gaming's Latency War, and the Lego Pokemon Craze
In our latest live session of Player Driven, hosts Colan and Greg break down the volatile state of AAA gaming, the "negative flywheel" hitting Microsoft, and why middle-aged collectors are fueling a 24-hour sell-out of $650 Lego sets.
The "Negative Flywheel": Call of Duty and Microsoft’s Profit Problem
The conversation kicked off with a sobering look at the financial health of the industry's biggest giants. Reports suggest Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 may have resulted in a $300 million loss for Microsoft. While it remains one of the biggest attention-share games of 2024, its performance compared to previous installments raises a critical question: if a massive hit loses hundreds of millions, what does that mean for the underperformers?
Colan describes this as the beginning of a negative flywheel:
The Tailspin: Significant underperformance leads to immediate pressure to cut costs.
Layoff Cycles: Despite refuting rumors, the pressure to maintain margins in the face of massive development costs often leads back to the gaming department's chopping block.
Asset Discounts: The hosts noted that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard might have been driven by a "discounted" price precisely because of the underlying issues being revealed in current court proceedings.
Cloud Gaming vs. The Speed of Light
Is the PC dead? Jeff Bezos thinks so, suggesting we will soon only own devices that connect to a cloud-based PC. While the hosts agree the technology is inevitable, they identified the "insurmountable" hurdle: Latency.
The Speed of Light Problem: For single-player JRPGs, minor latency is unnoticeable. However, for competitive titles like Counter-Strike or Call of Duty, being off by even a fraction of a second is the difference between winning and losing.
The Infrastructure Gap: To truly solve latency, data centers must be geographically close enough to every gamer to allow for local matchmaking within the same region.
Anti-Appliance Future: While Greg admits he'd love to reclaim his shelf space from "boxes in the living room," the industry is still years away from a hardware-free reality.
The Rise of the "Whale" Collector: Lego x Pokemon
The session took a lighter (but equally expensive) turn into the world of Lego Pokemon. The newly launched 18+ adult line, featuring iconic Kanto starters like Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise, sold out in just 24 hours.
Middle-Aged Nostalgia: The marketing for these sets targets "middle-aged dudes" who grew up with the 30-year-old franchise and now have the disposable income to spend $650 on a single set.
A Two-Tiered Industry: Colin suggests we are seeing a split in gaming audiences. Younger generations are gravitating toward free-to-play or cheaper experiences, while "whales" (Millennials and Gen Xers) are being served premium, high-priced nostalgia-driven content.
The "Five-Headed Beast" of IP: Pokemon's dominance (surpassing even Mickey Mouse in retail sales) is attributed to its mastery of five pillars: console games, mobile, TCG, merchandising, and transmedia (Netflix/Anime).
Where to Find More
Colan Neese: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colanneese/
Greg Posner: playerdriven.io or join the community in the
Player Driven Discord: https://discord.gg/sCjPRX9z
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