Deconstructor of Fun

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.

Against the backdrop of a crypto winter that has many a team re-evaluating their go-to-market plan, Illuvium pressed ahead with their land NFT sale, taking in over $72m in a well-organized, well run, low-gas fee land sale. In today’s episode, we go deep inside Illuvium with System and Economy Designer Khalid Alroumi. In this wide-ranging talk, we get an inside look at Illuvium and the many challenges the team faces as it works to forge a long-term sustainable, multi-game, token-based economy that balances the needs of multi different player types. This was an eye-opening conversation about what it is like working as an economy designer in this new frontier of architecting ownership-based digital economies. This interview is hosted by Ethan Levy, Executive Producer of Legendary: Heroes Unchained at N3TWORK, and Anton Backman, Principal at Play Ventures.

This was a BIG week for console and PC games. We talk about Diablo 4, Modern Warfare 2, Overwatch 2, Stormgate... We got our first take on all of them. We also discuss Summer Game Fest, Saudi Arabia's $1B investment into Embracer, and how to optimally spend a massive stack of cash in Diablo Immortal. As always, we kick off the episode with corrections. Keep the (anonymous) feedback coming and we'll keep correcting ourselves. Links: Questions and Feedback Sponsors: Google, ironSource, Xsolla, Recur Hosts: Eric Kress, Adam Telfer and Eric Seufert 

A couple of months ago we covered BANDAI NAMCO’s new studio in Barcelona assessing their 4-day work weeks, lack of hierarchy, and deadlines (you can read our analysis here). We concluded that it all sounded almost too good to succeed. Well, Massimo Caporale, who heads mobile publishing at the BANDAI NAMCO Mobile, heard our analysis and wanted to come on the podcast to elaborate more and share what they've learned thus far from building what many call the Supercell under the Barcelona sun. Kudos to Massimo for being open and taking the time to address our initial analysis.  Host and Guest: Mishka Katkoff & Massimo Caporale Links: Careers at BANDAI NAMCO Mobile Questions and Feedback Sponsors: ironSource, Xsolla, Recur

Adam does a light dive on Diabo Immortal after playing it intensively since launch. Eric Kress breaks down the decline of the mobile games market by looking at the performance of top genres and titles. Eric Seufert analyzes Apple's update to SKAd Network. The crew also talks E3, Pokemon Go passing $6 billion in lifetime revenue, and Summer Game Fest with Geoff Keighlye.  Links: Questions and Feedback Sponsors: Google, ironSource, Xsolla, Recur Hosts: Eric Kress, Adam Telfer, Eric Seufert and Laura Taranto

Though veteran game designer spacedog chooses to remain anonymous, trust us, you've played some of the hit free-to-play games she has contributed to. As one of the developers behind the upcoming blockchain game Void Runners, spacedog recently authored the whitepaper for the game and iterated on it in public with her discord community.  In this interview, we discuss Void Runners, the considerations behind writing a whitepaper for your game, and what it's like to work on your game’s design in public. This interview is hosted by Ethan Levy, who currently serves as Executive Producer of Legendary: Heroes Unchained at N3TWORK.