The Power of Gaming Together in a Lonely World | Laura Miele | TED

20,584 views ・ 2025-05-05

TED


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00:03
I am so excited to be here to talk about gaming.
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There has been so many changes in this industry
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since I first started at Electronic Arts almost 30 years ago.
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I was very young, by the way, back then.
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Now if you look at these comparisons here,
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our characters looked more like 8-bit Laura, OK?
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Today, they look more like 8K Laura.
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And I must say, I kind of wish I looked more like 8K Laura.
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But that's not the point I'm trying to make here right now.
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The point really is,
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is that graphic fidelity is one of the most visible revolutions in games,
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but there have been so many others.
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Games have become social connection hubs,
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and games are now synonymous with pop culture.
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I mean, take "Star Wars" as an example.
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They have completely evolved their narrative universe
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based on over 10 games.
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TV adaptations like "The Last of Us"
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are winning Emmys for HBO.
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And our own awards show,
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The Game Awards,
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had over 120 million viewers last year.
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Now for some context,
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if you take the Grammys,
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the Oscars and the Emmys, times three,
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it doesn't add up to how many viewers we have in the Game Awards.
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That's incredible.
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(Applause)
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Thank you, yes, good for gaming.
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And this is good news for gaming.
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But I'm here to tell you, I think it's even better news for humanity.
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In a world where there's artificial intelligence,
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artificial interactions,
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having human connection is going to be more important than ever.
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And gaming is the perfect medium to connect us.
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AI and games have been synonymous with each other from the beginning.
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Remember those little ghosts in "Pac-Man?"
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Little pixelated opponents in "Madden?"
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Those may not seem very intelligent today, but that was our start.
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And today, AI, particularly generative AI,
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is going to be an exponential accelerator for making games,
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for how players interact with games
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and how they personalize and create their own experiences.
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But AI is not the only thing driving change in the gaming industry
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and in society in general.
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Social media has transformed our lives.
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I mean, think about it.
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Hundreds of millions of interactions and transactions daily.
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Millions of followers, social platforms.
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You would think we are more connected than we've ever been,
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but that's not the case.
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I mean, left to our own devices,
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well, we have been left to our own devices.
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And there's emerging evidence to say that there's a trend happening
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that the surgeon general is calling an “epidemic of loneliness.”
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The data says that people are having a hard time
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making and keeping friends, more than ever.
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I mean, this is scary stuff.
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We all know that belonging to a community
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and having a sense of belonging to each other
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is critical to our mental well-being.
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But don't worry,
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I'm here to tell you that games are going to save us.
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Games bring people together.
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That's what I love about them.
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They're creative, they're fun.
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I mean, take a look at this video here of this incredibly fun gameplay.
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People are creating together, sharing,
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expressing themselves, collaborating.
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This is what gaming can do.
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Games have always been my choice of media.
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Now I love a great movie and reality TV as much as the next person,
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but nothing lights up your brain
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like a great game and interactive entertainment.
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I mean, even the World Health Organization,
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after years of skepticism about gaming,
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has come out to espouse the benefits of gaming.
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This was a massive turning point in public perception.
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It also spawned a lot of research around the benefits of gaming,
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including the power of play in 2023,
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where they surveyed 13,000 respondents
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in 12 countries
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to validate what many of us know,
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that gaming helps with critical skills,
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critical thinking, judgment, collaboration.
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But what I found most interesting
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was that 55 percent of the respondents
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said they play games to not feel alone or isolated.
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And I get it.
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I play games to not feel alone.
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And some of the happiest moments of my life
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I was in isolation.
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About 20 years ago,
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my husband and I welcomed twins.
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Oh, thank you, I know, they were so cute.
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That was 20 years ago.
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(Laughter)
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They don't look like that anymore.
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But we were so excited
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and so happy about this.
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But we were homebound for the first time in our lives.
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We quickly realized that the best way for social connection
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with our friends and family
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and, dare I say, even each other, was through gaming.
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We quickly joined a family guild,
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and we played "World of Warcraft"
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for the first several years of our kids' lives.
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Now I love most games, and I do, I love to play games.
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But nothing beats playing together.
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And people who play games together play for longer.
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Studies also show that people who play games
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and collaborate in games are actually more collaborative
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and more cooperative outside of games.
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That's pretty remarkable.
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Now when I first started in the industry,
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I started a company called Westwood Studios.
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And I was responsible for our online community.
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And we had -- this is back in 1996.
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We had -- wait for it --
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one million players in our community, which was huge back then.
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It was huge.
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I thought we were really hot stuff.
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Fast forward to today,
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we have 700 million players in the network at EA.
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That's more than double the population of the US.
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Incredible number.
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But the magic number isn't actually 700 million.
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The magic comes when you play with three to five other people.
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And we call this your atomic network.
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And it's no accident that the atomic number is actually three to five.
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There's a really interesting study that Colorado State University did
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with 6,000 respondents about loneliness.
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And what we know is that people, on average,
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for history, and now, today,
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people on average have about four to five friends always.
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But today, the difference is people feel far less connected
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than they ever have,
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and they're longing for connection and to do things together.
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Now another dimension of gaming that I love
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is that you can get to know each other playing games.
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Your personality and your skills are on full display when you play a game.
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Now let’s face it, most of us are not going to make it
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as a Navy SEAL in the real world,
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but that’s why games are so much fun.
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You can roleplay this, right?
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So imagine, if you will, your squad is dropped into a remote location,
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you're fighting for survival,
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you're strategizing on the fly,
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all while the clock ticks away.
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Another good use of gaming could be compatibility test.
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Now would I have married my husband
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if he wasn't such an upstanding guild member of "World of Warcraft"?
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(Laughter)
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We'll never know.
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And he doesn't know I included that photo.
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So, sorry, honey, hello.
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(Laughter)
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Now you may be in an atomic network now,
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or you may be looking for one.
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There are billions of gamers out there playing games.
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You can join "Fortnite," "Minecraft," "The Sims," "FC."
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The list is long.
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And sure, you might get chirped in the chat,
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but you also might meet the love of your life.
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So many people are ready to play.
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They're ready to enter epic worlds, epic adventures,
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meet amazing people.
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I really believe
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that games are the superior social platform of the future.
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They’re immersive, active, engaging and overwhelmingly fun.
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So yes, social media, technology, particularly AI,
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are going to drastically change our future
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and particularly the relationships that we have with each other.
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So being intentional
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and maintaining human connection
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through games
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is an amazing path through.
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So this is a call to arms.
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Stop scrolling,
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pick up your game controller,
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jump into an epic world,
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live an amazing story
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and go on an exciting adventure
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with three to five of your closest friends.
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It could just unite us all.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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Manoush Zomorodi: I have a question, come over here.
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Talk to me about the hardware.
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Where do you see that progressing?
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I mean, we see people putting things on their heads.
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Are they going to be put, I don't know, chips, brains.
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Talk us through what you see.
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Laura Miele: Chips and brains, toasters, refrigerators,
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you can game everywhere.
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There's already a broad spectrum of accessibility to game
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and interactive experiences today,
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and that's only going to expand significantly as time goes on.
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And what I love about gaming is how vast that spectrum actually is.
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And I think the future will still -- you can still pick up your mobile device,
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play word puzzles with friends
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to, fast forward, put on, to your point, goggles, glasses,
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and you know, you saw the Navy SEAL footage
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from the game called "Battlefield."
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You will feel like you are actually in that landscape and in those worlds,
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it will be super immersive and super connected,
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which I think is only going to continue to help us feel
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like we can connect on a human level.
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So I'm really excited and optimistic about it.
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MZ: OK, looking forward to that.
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Laura, thank you so much.
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LM: Thanks, Manoush.
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(Applause)
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