Deconstructor of Fun

Stillfront Group has been on a tear acquiring a number of marquee game studios. With the acquisition of Storm8, they have now grown their global gaming network to 13 total studios. Even further, the Swedish publicly listed company's stock has almost tripled in the past year.   Stillfront acquired Storm8 for $300M on January 21, 2020.   Who is Stillfront?  What is their overall strategy?  What was the mergers & acquisition process like in the Storm8 deal?  How did they think through their deal structure?  What's the future strategy and what's in store for both Storm8 and Stillfront in the future?   Find out in our conversation with Stillfront Group's Group COO Alexis Bonte. Hosts: Joseph Kim (@jokim1, insta/Twitter) Eric Kress (@ekress, Twitter) Guest: Alexis Bonte (@alexisbonte, Twitter)

Welcome to TWIG 72! This week we cover: #1. GDC 2020 has been canceled #2. State of Word Games: Rising Revenue, Emerging Markets #3. EPIC Questions SuperData on Fortnite Figures #4. Roblox raises $150M Series G, led by Andreessen Horowitz, now valued at $4B Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff

Welcome to TWIG 71! This week we cover: #1. Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 2 is live: Everything you need to know #2. What the Facebook View-Through Attribution changes #3. Bethesda follows Activision in pulling games from Nvidia’s GeForce Now #4. Call of Duty to launch free ‘Warzone’ battle royale Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff

Welcome to TWIG 70! This week we cover: #1. Unity Technologies Targeting 2020 IPO: Sources #2. MY TAKE ON SUPERCELL IN 2019 AS WE ENTER OUR SECOND DECADE #3. Tim Sweeney at DICE #4. Rovio profits tumble as Hatch continues draining resources Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff LINKS: IronSource Developer Day at GDC 2020 Making hit new games: The concept big studios are missing

The #1 mobile game development platform is getting a huge upgrade.  Find out about the 3 HUGE changes that Unity will be introducing that are all potential game changers.  In particular, we cover:  #1. The DOTS Architecture  #2. Scriptable Rendering Pipeline  #3. Multiplayer Netcode   What are the key implications all mobile PMs and executives need to know? Will these changes enable Unity to finally take share from Unreal in the console space?  What is the impact to performance? What else should we be aware of? Host: Joe Kim, @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta) Guest: Arvind Neelakantan: Head of Technology for India of Unity Technologies You can also see this as a YouTube video on the GameMakers YouTube channel: HERE!

How should video games and video game developers address kids safety?   Today we speak to Laura Higgens the Head of Digital Civility at Roblox to discuss how Roblox deals with kids safety.   In particular, we will focus on issues such as:   #1. Current legal environment and requirements for game makers? #2. Policies for kids safety - what are options or alternatives?  #3. How to weigh corporate and monetary objectives with user privacy and safety concerns? To see the video version of this go to GameMakers YouTube channel: HERE Any feedback feel free to ping me @jokim1 on Twitter or Insta.

Welcome to our new mobile gaming markets series. In this series, we will talk to experts about different countries and geographies in the world.  We will get an overview of the specific market - Japan in this case - and key games, publishers, and platforms for the market.  Further we'll talk about the specifics of each market and what it takes to be successful. Hosts: Joseph Kim, @jokim1 (Insta, Twitter) Josh Burns, Founder @DigitalDevConnect Guest: Dr. Serkan Toto, @serkantoto (Twitter) You can also check out the video interview on the GameMakers YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/54neMInFMAA

Welcome to TWIG 69! This week we cover: #1. Elodie Games raises $5 million for crossplay co-op games #2. Phil Spencer: "We see Amazon and Google as the main competitors" #3. Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser leaving the company #4. Ubisoft’s Uplay revenue is up 73% compared to last year #5. Call of Duty Players Spend More In-Game After Season Pass and Loot Boxes Removed Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer

Welcome to TWIG 68! We've got the full crew today coming at you with a bunch of exciting news. Specifically: #1. ByteDance Takes Aim at Tencent's Core Gaming Business #2. Sensor Tower: Nintendo mobile games have earned $1 billion #3. Sea’s Garena acquires Dauntless game maker Phoenix Labs #4. EA Made Almost $1 Billion From Microtransactions Last Quarter #5. Ubisoft Acquires Mobile Game Studio Kolibri Games Also, you should definitely check out the interview we did with Kolibri's CEO Daniel Stammler on GameMaker's Youtube as well as our Deconstructor of Fun podcast episode as well. Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff Please leave us a rating! Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

AppAnnie released their State of Mobile 2020 Report. In this podcast, we speak to AppAnnie to go over key takeaways from the report especially for mobile game developers. In particular: #1. High level overview of the main health of the mobile economy and or the mobile gaming sector #2. Key trends related to usage and monetization of mobile games and geo/country   #3. A look at some of the top games from 2019 Host: Joe Kim: @jokim1 Insta, Twitter  And we have special guests: Amir Ghodrati, Director, Market Insights AppAnnie Lexi Sydow, Data Analytics, Market Insights AppAnnie