00:00Well, let's discuss this more. Santosh Rao is head of research and partner at consulting firm Manhattan Venture Partners.
00:07Santosh, great for joining us on the program. So lots of strong words there from the gaming companies.
00:12Are their concerns about profits justified?
00:18Yeah, good afternoon. Well, I think right now both parties are positioning themselves.
00:24So the government, the EU is proposing. These are proposals. And this is the first, I would say, the first
00:32step that is out there.
00:35And the industry has responded by saying that it's bad. It's positioning right now.
00:41So but what's going to happen is there's going to be a lot of back and forth.
00:45There is a middle ground, but it has to work to work through it.
00:50There are ways to go around it instead of banning it or stopping it totally, because that's the way everything's
00:57consumed now.
00:58It's video games, virtual and AI and all that.
01:01So I think this is totally part of this whole ecosystem there.
01:04So you need to really tread carefully. Yes, it will affect the revenues.
01:09But in the end, you can come around it. They will absorb it.
01:12In the past, also, the industry has objected to many things, but later absorbed the new proposals here and there.
01:19So especially the loot boxes and all that, that is in some countries already, it's been adopted, self-adopted.
01:26So you don't need this broad legislation. So we're moving towards that.
01:30This is the first step. I think in the end, it'll be a compromise somewhere, but it's going to be
01:34a long time.
01:36So the rules ban things like pay to progress and loot boxes for children.
01:39Just how damaging are these things for minors?
01:43Yes, they are addictive and they are damaging and you need to protect the children.
01:47And I think that that's that's a gift. So how do you get there is something I mean, we can
01:52have more better parental controls.
01:54I mean, age to age limitations. If you can monitor that, that's been a big issue with how see kids
02:00in general.
02:01They tend to move above their age. They want to access. If you ban something, they want to access that.
02:07That's a human tendency. Tendency. So I think you need to come up with better guardrails for that.
02:12I think that's the big issue. Can we do it where you protect them, put layers, put gates around it.
02:18And parents have more control, switching, switching off things and give control to themselves or take away control from the
02:25children.
02:25So there are ways around it. I think the design has to be improved.
02:29There are ways the developers can develop systems around that.
02:32But it has to be worked through association and in collaboration with the industry.
02:38You can't just pass a blanket regulation without seeing the ground reality because there's e-commerce involved.
02:45There's livelihoods involved. So I think you need to balance everything there.
02:48Santoshara, thank you. Santoshara, head of research at Manhattan Venture Partners.
02:52And it's just proposal stage at the moment. So this is likely to continue. Back to you, Sally.
02:56Thanks.
