# Platform owners may avoid bundling games to protect revenue

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/platform-owners-may-avoid-bundling-games-to-protect-revenue/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Palmer Luckey](https://realalpha.app/builders/palmer-luckey/) · Founder, Anduril · Co-founded Anduril, which builds autonomous defense systems, and designed the Oculus Rift that revived VR.
- Host: [John Coogan](https://realalpha.app/people/john-coogan/) · Co-host, TBPN · Co-founded Soylent and Lucy; OpenAI bought his show TBPN in April 2026.
- Host: [Jordi Hays](https://realalpha.app/people/jordi-hays/) · Co-host, TBPN · Founded Branded Native; co-founded fintech Capital, which Rho bought.
- Show: TBPN
- Episode: [🔴 Palmer, Armstrong, Chesky LIVE](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/), Oct 21, 2025
- Moment: 1:24:51 to 1:28:18 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/platform-owners-may-avoid-bundling-games-to-protect-revenue/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5091

## Quote

> “if we have a bundled title, then that gets rid of the **revenue opportunity** to have another company pay us to be the bundled title.”
> — [Palmer Luckey](https://realalpha.app/builders/palmer-luckey/) at [1:26:06](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5166) · TBPN

## Takeaways

1. A bundled game can displace a paid placement deal.
2. Platform owners worry a free game will take sales from developers.
3. An empty device can encourage day-one payment setup.

## About this segment

Palmer Luckey explains why a console maker may skip a free bundled game: it can displace paid placement and upset developers. Leaving the device empty may also prompt first-time buyers to enter payment details.

From “🔴 Palmer, Armstrong, Chesky LIVE”, Oct 21, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/)

## Transcript

From the transcript TBPN publishes with the episode.

[1:25:03](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5103) And it just says golden eye. And it's just, like, amazing. And I was saying that, like, that that seems like an own goal. It seems like modern video game designers should at least know that you will see lower churn if you preinstall one great game. And when the first time they unbox it on Christmas, you turn it on and it's Beat Saber or whatever the whatever the piece of software or or hardware that you're selling, like, have it come with something great.

[1:25:25](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5125) Like, why don't people do that? Are they just stupid, or is it, like, something more complex?

[1:25:29](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5129) This is it is complex. I mean so you gotta remember, like, so first of all, there's a lot of people in the games industry who didn't necessarily get into it purely because they wanna build great games or necessarily Starbucks and not Mountain Dew. Yep. You've heard my quote. Right? And then you have a lot of these people who it's it's a lily pad. It's a way to make a check, or it's a way to affect affect social change in the world through some larger company's budget.

[1:25:55](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5155) And so that's that that that that that is part of the problem, but you're also at odds often. So, like, you just talked about this specific idea of having a bundled title. So I've been on the other side of the negotiating table inside of, you know, inside of Yeah. Meta, formerly Facebook Yep. And, you know, formerly Oculus. What's gonna happen is you're gonna say, hey. This is gonna be a great experience. And then you have someone who says, but if we have a bundled title, then that gets rid of the revenue opportunity to have another company pay us to be the bundled title. And also, they're our our developers are gonna be really upset because we're gonna be competing with them. And so, for example, your holiday day one installs, they're mostly going to be of this new game.

[1:26:31](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5191) People are gonna be less likely to do day one buys of all of these other games if there's a game that you can already play. Yeah. You say, well, well, what should we we have to have something preinstalled. And then you have these conversations. Well, it can't be a full game. It needs to be thing that shows off the hardware. Can be like a fun little bite experience, but we then need to have people go into it.

[1:26:48](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5208) And then here's another thing. They say, if you have literally nothing, that means they have to download something. And the the time where there's going to be the most impetus for them to put in their payment details is gonna be that day one. So you don't wanna do anything that degrades your get the payment details because the moment you get their payment details, every purchase after that is an easy click. It's an easy dopamine hit.

[1:27:08](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5228) You don't have to go through all of the pain. Yep. And so it's one of those things where you have all of these inter variant money driven things, and you have the platform holders so tightly intertwined with much of the content. This is the problem when the hardware owners end up owning all of these studios. And Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is probably me getting a little too business political. Sure. In the early days of Oculus, we were very clear with developers to our business relations. We are not Nintendo. We are not gonna compete with you and basically destroy your sales by preferentially treating our own developers better, our own studios.

[1:27:43](https://realalpha.app/v/iiMPY8T8sNg/?t=5263) So we made things, but we really said we our goal is to enable second and third party titles, to fund lots of other people, and we funded dozens of developers. As you become Nintendo, you make it harder for those third parties to exist. And the first party has their own goals that are not necessarily aligned with what you're talking about, which is turn on the game and play it and have a good time. They have they have they have other plans for you.