🔥🔥🔥 GameOver: Unity China's new game engine, Tariffs are bad for games, and PMs useless with AI

Data: Horror Games Trending, WTF: Llama 4 drop + Waiting for engineering

Joseph Kim

Apr 18, 2025

I seem to disagree with many of the hot takes recently, lol.

This week’s hot takes:

Unity’s Move: A Game of Thrones in the Tech World
Tariffs: The Hidden Boss Battle for Gamers
The AI-Generated PM: Now 50% More Productive and 100% Less Annoying

👇👇👇

1. Unity’s Move: A Game of Thrones in the Tech World

Unity pulling Unity 6 from China isn’t just a “business decision.” It’s a geopolitical episode wrapped in a software update. You don’t yank your flagship engine from one of the biggest gaming markets on Earth and spin up a “Tuanjie Engine” overnight unless you’re getting squeezed hard.
Sure, Unity says this has nothing to do with U.S.-China tech tensions. And I say I only play Skyrim for the story. This is clearly politically driven. Devs in China get a “local solution” with fewer features and a watermark they’ll have to pay to remove. Global Unity users get to watch from the sidelines, wondering when it’s their turn to get firewalled.
But here’s the kicker—this move sets a precedent. Today it’s China. Tomorrow it could be India, the EU, or the Middle East.

2. Tariffs: The Hidden Boss Battle for Gamers

So the PS5 is getting a 25% price hike, and everyone’s acting surprised. Let’s be clear: this isn’t just inflation or parts shortages—it’s economic warfare dressed in trade policy. With Trump’s proposed tariffs on game consoles potentially soaring up to 145%, the average gamer just got caught in a geopolitical crossfire they never asked for.
And don’t let anyone tell you this is “temporary.” Hardware manufacturers don’t absorb tariffs—they pass them on. If tariffs go through, you’re not just paying $80 for a game, you’re staring down $650 consoles, $90 controllers, and a whole lot of ragebait content from YouTubers shouting “Greedy Sony!” while the real culprit wears a flag pin and calls it “America First.”

3. The AI-Generated PM: Now 50% More Productive and 100% Less Annoying

Imagine a product manager that doesn’t talk in LinkedIn-speak. Doesn’t waste your time with the pre-meeting to the meeting that will then leads to yet another meeting. Doesn’t write 50 docs that no one reads. Now imagine that PM works 24/7, never forgets a metric, and actually ships. Congrats—you just imagined AI.
AI is already doing what most mid-level PMs pretend to do. It can roadmap faster than you can say “day-7 retention.” It optimizes pricing tiers without a 90-slide deck. It writes onboarding flows, analyzes drop-off points, tests five variations, and will soon be able to roll out the best one—while your “senior PM” is still aligning stakeholders on Jira ticket priorities.
And the kicker? It never once says, “Let’s circle back.”
PMs like to pretend they’re the glue holding everything together. But more often than not, they’re the duct tape slowing things down.
It’s not that PMs were never valuable. It’s that the tools have evolved, and PMs haven’t.
Let the AI cook.

JK Note: Lol. I gotta say I disagree with this one.

* Pseudonyms in italics, no underline.

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Top 5 Gaming News

Why 2025 Is the Game Industry’s Most Transformative Year (Reinout te Brake): The game industry is undergoing dramatic change in 2025, marked by the launch of record-breaking films, next-gen hardware, and a global labor standoff over AI. The global market is forecasted to reach $490 billion by 2033, driven by mobile growth, cloud gaming, and AI personalization.
AppLovin Cuts 97 More Jobs Amid Restructuring (GamesIndustry.biz): AppLovin announced another round of layoffs, cutting 97 jobs including the CEO of subsidiary studio Machine Zone, as part of ongoing restructuring efforts to improve profitability.
Amazon Games Highlights Q1 Activities and Future Plans (Amazon Games): Amazon Games reflects on its participation in major industry events like the D.I.C.E. Summit and GDC and outlines its strategic initiatives for the coming months.
Dwarf Fortress Surpasses 1 Million Sales on Steam (Game Developer): The classic simulation game Dwarf Fortress has achieved over 1 million sales on Steam, marking a significant milestone for its developers.
My.Games' War Robots Reaches $1 Billion Milestone (PocketGamer.biz): Executive producer Boris Burangulov explains how their 2014-launched mobile shooter evolved into a cross-platform franchise with 300 million installs by balancing creative gameplay with data-driven operations.

Top 5 AI x Gaming News

Microsoft and Sony Push AI in Gaming Amid Industry Layoffs (CCN): Microsoft and Sony are developing advanced AI tools—like language model-powered NPCs and automated environment generation—to streamline game creation, though this automation is contributing to ongoing layoffs across both major and indie studios.
AI Integration Spurs New Business Models and Investment (PR Newswire): As AI becomes central to game development, studios and investors are shifting strategies, with proprietary AI content and tools driving new revenue streams and competitive advantages across the industry.
Konvoy Q1 2025 Report: AI’s Early Impact on Game Development (Konvoy): Konvoy’s latest industry report highlights how tools like Microsoft’s MUSE and NVIDIA’s ACE are driving generative AI adoption in development, with venture funding in gaming rising 35% quarter-over-quarter as studios prioritize AI-driven innovation.
Tencent Unveils AI FPS Companion for Arena Breakout (BBC News, YouTube): Tencent’s new AI in-game assistant, “Backle,” debuts in Arena Breakout, allowing players to issue complex spoken commands and interact naturally, with plans to expand this technology to open-world RPGs in the future.
Operative Games Puts Real Writers at the Heart of AI Storytelling (Variety): Operative Games is launching a new venture that uses generative AI to create lifelike characters and interactive narratives, but emphasizes collaboration with professional writers and actors to ensure emotional depth and authentic storytelling.

Looking at Top Trending over the past month, surprisingly we find two horror games.

Meme Bots: Obunga Chase Rooms, now nearing 10M lifetime installs after the recent relaunch 🚀

In the game, players run through maze-like maps, chased by meme-inspired characters like Obunga, Sanic, and Tralalero Tralala 🦈👟

R.E.P.O. Mobile - REPO ONLINE is an online co-op horror game where up to six players extract valuable, physics-based objects from terrifying environments.

The game emphasizes teamwork, careful handling of loot, and survival against various creative threats as players strive to meet the demands of their mysterious boss.