Deconstructor of Fun

As you may guess from his dadtastic body, the host Ethan Levy is a big fan of Peloton’s bike and fitness platform. That’s why he literally jumped at the chance to speak with Jim Green of Peloton Interactive about the present and future of gamified fitness on the Peloton platform.  The two discuss Jim’s background in Facebook and mobile free-to-play, his transition to a Product role within a non-gaming org, the testing, launch, and reception of Peloton’s first game, the Guitar Hero-inspired Lane Break, and the future of gamified fitness for Peloton. Ethan also puts his wishes for a Vin Diesel-inspired bicep blow-out game to be designed for Peloton’s upcoming Guide product. It’s literally the only thing standing between Ethan and the fabled EA exec-approved body-mass index.  links: careers at Peloton

Ethan Levy is back to talk about the crypto Winter giving us an update from his blockchain snow castle. In addition to the latest high-school basketball news, Eric Kress analyzes Snap’s shares plunge. Mishka Katkoff discusses the pros and cons of having a transparent salary structure in a gaming company. And we discuss Netflix Games once again after receiving some insights on what the future portfolio might look like… Signup for DoF x Phoenix Games x Naavik Gamescom party in Cologne on 25th of August! >>> LINK Hosts: Erick Kress, Ethan Levy, Mishka Katkoff

The crew returns back to Unity’s merger with ironSource as Eric Seufert offers his view of the deal. There’s a conversation about the latest government ruling not to regulate loot boxes. Talk about Tesla’s new gaming initiative and Netflix’s latest batch of gaming veteran hires. We also talk about E3’s return to in-person events and what we can expect from it. Hosts: Eric Kress, Eric Seufert, Laura Taranto

UnCaged Studios is pioneering AAA-quality Web3 gaming. Co-founded by seasoned Web3 and gaming experts, the studio has over a hundred years of combined experience designing and developing high production value, immersive gaming experiences with sustainable economies. Through its own platform, Game OS, the studio’s first release is an esports franchise called MonkeyLeague. In addition, UnCaged leverages Game OS to co-develop with and support game studios by providing core technical functionality, infrastructure, and live operations services.    links:  UnCaged Studios Guests: Shahaf Bar-Geffen, Raz Friedman Host: Mishka Katkoff

With so many new games delayed the crew has their long-awaited debate on what is the optimal way of working for game studios. On-site, hybrid, or fully remote. Eric Kress whales on GameStop, which went full “crypto bro” in the middle of the crypto Winter. And gives his hyperbolic analysis of Unity’s merger with ironSource. Links: Questions and Feedback Sponsors: Google, ironSource, Xsolla, Recur Hosts: Laura Taranto, Eric Kress, Adam Telfer and Mishka Katkoff

In this episode, Laura talks about why games are being delayed and whether mobile games suffer from it as much as PC and console games. We also discuss what the metaverse is. Analyze the impact of Samsung Gaming Hub coming to Xbox. And Eric Kress does doom and gloom updates on the mobile market. Links: Questions and Feedback Sponsors: Google, ironSource, Xsolla, Recur Hosts: Laura Taranto, Eric Kress and Eric Seufert

Consolidation, IDFA, metverse, Web3 and now a recession… During just the last couple of years, we’ve seen some wild phenomena affect the games industry: First, lockdowns caused engagement spikes. Second, we saw a streak of consolidations with record-breaking deals. Third, the impact of the privacy changes started taking effect, all the while as the crypto boom turned into crypto winter... Today, the industry is influenced by some very interesting trends and headwinds: We are facing a global recession. There’s fierce competition for talent. And the costs of customer acquisition are going up. At the same time, we see the formation of walled gardens that threaten smaller companies that don't have unique content. To dive deep into the issues above, we were joined by Hemal Thaker, the Global Head of Gaming & Interactive Entertainment at Goldman Sachs, and Kartik Prabhakara, the Founding Partner of Aream, an independent investment bank providing M&A and financing advice to technology companies.

Hold on to your AirPods because we have more than a full house on this episode. There’s no more doom and gloom. Mishka and Seufert drop teasers for two upcoming parties. We analyze if Blizzard is “back”.  Talk Stumbel Guys, Fall Guys, Sybo and Clash Quest. And take the episode home by talking about the master plan behind creating standards for open metaverse interoperability. Links: Questions and Feedback Sponsors: Google, ironSource, Xsolla, Recur Hosts: Mishka Katkoff, Adam Telfer, Laura Taranto, Eric Kress and Eric Seufert

The team discusses Riot joining Microsoft’s GamePass. Talks about the $24M made by Diablo Immortal after the first two weeks. Reviews the abysmal number of downloads Netflix games has racked up to date. Dives deep into how to survive the mobile marketing winter. And with Ethan back on the podcast, covers your most essential crypto updates, as the wheels are coming off the first iteration of blockchain games.  Links: Questions and Feedback Sponsors: Google, ironSource, Xsolla, Recur Hosts: Ethan Levy, Adam Telfer, and Eric Seufert

Every successful mobile games story is different and offers something unique for the industry to learn from, and the story of SuperPlay and Dice Dreams is no different. In this episode, I had the privilege of sitting down with Noam Banon, the CMO of Superplay, to talk about how their game Dice Dreams was able to find success in the highly competitive mobile games market. I was also lucky enough to get Sumit Chandel from Google to join the conversation and provide insights on how he’s seen game developers like Superplay unlock growth with Firebase’s wide range of tools.