Naavik Gaming Podcast

Brian Ward, CEO of Savvy Games Group, discusses the company's ambitions, including becoming the world's largest gaming company and turning Saudi Arabia into a prominent gaming hub. They also talk about investment decisions, managing a decentralized culture, working with the Saudi government, and the future of gaming. Exciting topics include Savvy's core subsidiaries, ambitions and strategies in the esports industry, and the future of the games industry as a whole.

This week's podcast features Taylor Hurst from Konvoy Ventures discussing the decrease in games VC funding, Epic Games' focus on child safety in Fortnite, the recent drama in OpenAI, the challenges of live operations in gaming, and the layoffs at Embracer Group.

Game7, a community formed to accelerate the adoption of Web3 gaming, released the first comprehensive study of the Web3 gaming ecosystem. The report covers data from nearly 2,000 Web3 games, over 1,000 funding rounds, and almost 200 blockchain ecosystems. The podcast discusses the global player base and funding trends, country and company involvement in Web3, challenges and opportunities of Web3 game distribution, the evolving landscape of Web3 games, trends and predictions in Web3 game development, and the growth and future of Web3.

Listen to a lively discussion on gaming journalism with guests Jason Schreier and Neil Long. They delve into the role of journalism in games, the impact of their reporting, and whether gaming journalism can survive as a business. Topics include career experiences, gathering and verifying information, the evolution of the App Store, and notable stories in gaming journalism.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's controversial release and pricing strategy, the evolution of live service games, Valve's Steam Deck OLED and the resurgence of handhelds, Roblox's recent earnings release and challenges, Blizzard shuttering Overwatch League and the future of esports leagues, Ubisoft's new skin marketplace for Rainbow Six: Siege.

The podcast explores the importance of community building in game development, discussing topics such as leveraging community for game building, building a community and go-to-market approach, community engagement in Web 3, setting clear goals for community building, the future of community management and games, and exploring successful community growth strategies through game case studies.

Discussion on Bungie's layoffs and the future of Destiny 2. Comparison between live-action Zelda movie and CG-animated Mario movie. Analysis of Epic's lawsuit against Google and the success of Fortnite's OG celebration season. Dissection of EA Sports' success with FC 24 outperforming FIFA 23.

"Naavik Gaming Podcast" welcomes Emily Tierney and Anca Agapi, Co-Founders of Tiny Comet, to discuss building a dedicated Roblox studio, acquiring users on the platform, and their mission to create "learnified" experiences. They tackle the pandemic's impact on education, the challenges of the Roblox algorithm, and the importance of immersive RPG games for learning history. The podcast also explores their unique development cycle, collaboration process, and lessons learned from gaming.

The podcast discusses the decline in gaming spend in the US despite successful games, funding trends in the industry, the impact of AI on gaming, and the beginning of earnings season with analysis on Xbox and Ubisoft's numbers.

Together with Gamesight, one of our Open Gaming Research Initiative partners, we’re exploring various go-to-market (GTM) strategies and insights, specifically for PC games.Currently, there is a growing curiosity surrounding the topic, particularly as observed in the development of new mobile games designed for cross-platform compatibility and the introduction of PC versions of existing mobile games. For example, Supercell recently released PC versions of Clash of Clans and Clash Royale. In short, the need to understand how the PC platform behaves from a go-to-market perspective is becoming increasingly important for developers across gaming verticals.To discuss all this and more, we’re joined by Adam Lieb, CEO of Gamesight, and your host, Abhimanyu Kumar, Co-founder of Naavik.We’d also like to thank Pragma for making this episode possible! Pragma is a Backend Game Engine that powers services like accounts, matchmaking and player data for the world’s most ambitious live service games. To learn more, head to https://pragma.gg/ We hope you enjoy the conversation, and do send us your thoughts, feedback and questions on podcast@naavik.co. And as always, you can help others find us by leaving a rating or review!Watch the episode: YouTube videoRead more: Naavik DigestLearn more: Naavik’s Open Gaming Research InitiativeWork with us: Naavik ConsultingFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Gabe.