David Rosenthal: belief

Transcript context

…That we're being reductionist on how bad mobile games are, and we're not talking about any of the good ones. Totally. Back to what I was just saying, on the jobs to be done framework, I think a lot of people that are playing those games, that game is accomplishing a job to be done for them. Absolutely. But what this really makes me think and makes me a little bit sad for is how badly Apple failed the consumer in gaming on iOS. There is an alternative history, where iOS and iPad OS is a Nintendo-like gaming platform, and game design and the art of gaming is flourishing there. I will be so compelling as a consumer that my phone that I have with me all the time also has these beautiful game experiences. That is just so not the case. The ethos of what these devices were supposed to be and Steve Jobs as Apple is very Nintendo-like. When you think about the App Store, App Store review, and we don't need fart apps, when you have an enormous pile of money on the scale, it's pretty hard to let your values outweigh it. I think that happened to Apple. I think they all looked at it. I'm not saying Steve Jobs would have been any different. Steve probably would have let the same thing happen. The whole thing was set in motion while he was there. But I don't think anyone had any idea how much money well-driven casino mechanic–type games, loot box games, Candy Crush type games, those could make. If you could go back a priori and say, Apple, you can have a much more closed down App Store that looks a lot more like Nintendo Switch online or you can have what it is today, I think maybe they wish they could have gone the Nintendo route. But being the most valuable company in the world and the most profitable company the world's ever seen, is also pretty attractive.…

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