Should devs change their release plans due to AI clones?

We talk about the surge in AI decompilation of games and whether releasing demos early is now bad, some learnings from Forbidden Solitaire from a long-term indie game dev, the state of the Meta Quest game scene, and if Epic's vibecoded Epic Games Launcher is going to change the velocity of the PC store

Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode:

• AI-aided decompilation of games is becoming a big subject of concern and discussion for devs: the decomps SubReddit shows a bunch of console exclusives getting unofficial PC or web ports, and Naavik did a good overview of the space. (The debate on whether this is a vibe-y slopfest or a ‘trend to watch’ continues.) https://naavik.substack.com/p/viral-game-mash-ups-what-ai-decompilation Related: one dev changing their demo plans due to decompilation/ clone worries: https://x.com/AllianceArtsEN/status/2111043223326163101

• We dug Jake Birkett’s learnings after after shipping Forbidden Solitaire to 2,000+ Overwhelmingly Positive Steam reviews: “Ideas are worth a lot… [The game’s] core idea was ten times easier to market than anything else we have ever made.” Also, 500+ polish items got skipped cos “none of them would have impacted sales in any meaningful way.” - https://www.patreon.com/GreyAlien/posts/launch-is-over-171706832

• We posted on LinkedIn with our update on the Meta Quest VR game charts in Sept/Oct, barely discussed nowadays. New F2P sandbox superhero game HERO x HERO is crushing it at #1, with 'chaotic social multiplayer beloved by pre-teens' F2P (Gorilla Tag, Scary Baboon, Animal Company) most of the Top 10. (The premium games in there: Beat Saber and Blade & Sorcery, btw.) - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simoncarless_we-didnt-talk-much-about-meta-quest-vr-game-share-7516606582697136130-wINw/

• Epic Games is hyping its new/faster PC launcher: “We vibe coded the Epic Games Launcher to be faster than the other guy.” The blog post, claiming ‘cold start to store’ is 46% faster than Steam, is a goofy ‘we just jammed this out’ vibe, leading to Internet snark. (But also: Fortnite’s coming to Linux alongside an Easy Anti-Cheat rebuild.) https://store.epicgames.com/news/epic-games-launcher-preview

Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.