UNBOXING: Play and Profit for the Gaming Curious
Laine Nooney, Joost van Dreunen
Joost crunches data. Laine rummages in archives. Together on UNBOXING, these two NYU professors unlock the secrets of the games business they share with their students and cover the games news for insiders and newbies alike. A weekly podcast for anyone curious about why games matter in today's economy, dropping every Friday. Logo by Moira Zhang, theeverdrift.cargo.site
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 12, 2025 • 1h 11min
Zigging with Nintendo & Scrambling with Roblox
Nintendo’s Switch 2 smashes records & why they keep winning, then Roblox under fire... again! PLUS: the $80 game debate & student survey sneak peaks for next week!
Sep 5, 2025 • 1h 14min
Back to School Pt. 1: Teaching Games in 2025
Fall syllabi with final cuts revealed, then get a behind the scenes look at the annual gameplay habits survey. PLUS: Roblox doc w/ Chris Hansen? Yep, that’s a thing.
Aug 15, 2025 • 1h 11min
UNBOXING brings you: More Game Gains and Platform Pains!
EA, Take-Two & Krafton earnings decoded. Updates on this summer’s top stories. PLUS: Find out who is throwing dildos at WNBA games and why!
Aug 8, 2025 • 54min
Roblox's Gains, Epic’s Courtroom Victory, and a Union Milestone
Roblox quarterly earnings broken down. Updates in the Epic v Google lawsuit. PLUS: Raven Software locks in a historic union contract!
Aug 1, 2025 • 1h 21min
UNBOXING’s Censorship Gone Wild Week!
Steam and Itch.io pulled thousands of NSFW games. PLUS, find out how payment processors became censors and how the UK’s Online Safety Act isn’t helping.
Jul 25, 2025 • 1h 22min
Do All Games Go to Heaven? Platforms, Power, and Preservation
UPDATE: UNBOXING is coming to you… well.. pre-recorded but hey, we're on video now! This week, your co-hosts discuss Apple's delisting of a classic and the return of Stop Killing Games campaign. PLUS: Laine talks with Phil Salvador from the Video Game History Foundation.
Jul 18, 2025 • 1h 24min
UNBOXING Goes Professor Mode With Mid-Summer Syllabi Exchange
Laine & Joost go full professor mode with a mid-summer syllabi swap. PLUS: buy now, pay later comes to gaming and Nintendo announces casting choices for live-action Zelda movie.
Jul 4, 2025 • 1h 24min
Charts, Cuts, and Change: Layoffs at Microsoft and the ESA’s Annual Report
Another round of Microsoft layoffs spark consolidation questions, then what the ESA’s Essential Facts report tells us about gaming in the US. PLUS: your hosts recap the Games for Change conference and more!
Jun 27, 2025 • 1h 13min
Union Wins, Summer Heat, and the Reorganization of Embracer
Embracer gets serious about restructuring. PLUS: Microsoft ratifies the first-ever U.S. game worker union contract and your hosts discuss new and exciting things coming out in the world of games.
Jun 20, 2025 • 1h 12min
Summer Game Mess and GameStop's Pokémon Pivot
This week, Laine and Joost wade through the glittering but sometimes shallow waters of summer games season, breaking down what the Xbox Showcase, Summer Game Fest, and Sony’s State of Play actually tell us about the future of games (spoiler: not much). They reflect on the post-E3 showcase sprawl, the flattening effect of digital-only reveals, and the quiet collapse of industry pageantry into trailer fatigue and corporate branding exercises. Then, the duo turns to GameStop’s latest mutation—into a Bitcoin-hoarding, Pokémon-peddling quasi-hedge fund. Is it a savvy reinvention or just late-stage capitalism in cosplay? They talk meme stock mayhem and the vibes-based logic of retail pivots.
