Before the start of My Perfect Console's fourth season, we revisit a classic early episode with comedian, writer and podcaster, Heather Anne Campbell. My guest today is an Emmy-nominated writer, sketch comedian, voice actor and performer. As a teenager she studied improv comedy at the famous ImprovOlympic studio in her home city of Chicago, training that prepared her for when she later starred on Whose Line Is It Anyway and the sketch comedy show Key and Peele. She has worked on the writing staf...
Jan 20, 2026•1 hr 6 min
Please enjoy this collection of some of our favourite clips from My Perfect Console episodes released in 2025. Featuring: Tonda Ros, Kat Abugazaleh, Nathan Brown, Adanna Nedd, Joel Morris, Basia Bulat, Andy Davidson, Bennett Foddy, Rami Ismail, Brian Gibson, Greg Jenner, Chris Plante, Tomm Hulett, Harvey Smith, Mark Cerny, Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Lorien Testard, and Alexander O. Smith. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Ac...
Jan 13, 2026•58 min
Please enjoy this collection of some of our favourite clips from My Perfect Console episodes released in 2025. Featuring: Tonda Ros, Kat Abugazaleh, Nathan Brown, Adanna Nedd, Joel Morris, Basia Bulat, Andy Davidson, Bennett Foddy, Rami Ismail, Brian Gibson, Greg Jenner, Chris Plante, Tomm Hulett, Harvey Smith, Mark Cerny, Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Lorien Testard, and Alexander O. Smith. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Ac...
Jan 06, 2026•1 hr 1 min
A special episode with the winner of the My Perfect Console of the Year award, crowning the most popular console designed by a guest on the show this year, as voted by the listeners to the show. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole Take the Acast listener survey to help shape the show: My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin Survey 2025 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 29, 2025•19 min
The year is winding down, inboxes are quietening (lol), time is about to lose all meaning, and the year’s great cultural arguments are finally ready to be settled. Perfect timing, then, for My Perfect Console: Game of the Year 2025 . In this special episode, host Simon Parkin is joined by comedian Glenn Moore to build two consoles that capture what this year felt like to play. Expect games obsessed with truth and lies, long walks through beautiful ruin, and at least one adventure that asks what ...
Dec 23, 2025•1 hr 48 min
Harvey Smith is a game designer and writer whose work has helped shape some of the most atmospheric and influential games of the last two decades. After serving in the U.S. Air Force he began his career in video games as a tester on the formative System Shock . Then he joined Ion Storm worked as lead designer on Deus Ex , one of the most influential immersive sims of the era. In 2008 he became a partner at Arkane Studios , where he co-directed the acclaimed Dishonored series and, most recently, ...
Dec 16, 2025•2 hr 2 min•Ep. 144
Alex Seropian is a pioneering American video game developer whose work helped shape some of the most iconic series in the medium. After studying mathematics at the University of Chicago , he co-founded Bungie in 1991, first developing Operation Desert Storm then titles such as Pathways Into Darkness , Marathon , and Myth . In 2001, he and his team released Halo: Combat Evolved , a landmark first-person shooter that not only revolutionised console gaming but also established Microsoft’s Xbox as a...
Dec 09, 2025•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 143
Mark Cerny is an American programmer, and game designer whose career has shaped not only how we play, but the systems we play on. A San Francisco native, he dropped out of UC Berkeley at 17 after receiving an invitation to join Atari . At 18 he designed the arcade hit Marble Madness . He then moved to Japan to work with Sega , for whom he founded the Sega Technical Institute , developers of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 . Then played a key role in landmark titles such as Crash Bandicoot , Jak and Daxter ...
Dec 02, 2025•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 142
Brandon Adler is an American game director and producer whose career has been defined by his work on some of Obsidian Entertainment ’s most acclaimed role-playing games. After serving in Iraq with the U.S. Air Force , my guest studied Game Art & Design at The Art Institute of California . He joined Obsidian as a tester for Neverwinter Nights 2 before working his way up through various disciplines on games such as South Park: The Stick of Truth , Fallout: New Vegas , and Pillars of Eternity ....
Nov 25, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 141
In this special correspondence edition, Simon reads out your letters and answers your questions. Why are guests so often caught out when asked to name their console? What is the best moment in a video game? What might a My Perfect Console game jam look like? And can Simon settle a dispute between a father and his kids in the car?All this and much more. And congratulations to letter-writer Spencer Tennant, who wins a signed copy of Blood Echoes. Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a...
Nov 21, 2025•29 min
My guest today is a British game designer whose ingenuity and persistence turned a bedroom project into one of the most iconic multiplayer series in video games. In 1991, he took the characters from the popular Amiga game Lemmings and placed them in a game of his own, a simulation of artillery fire. At school, the game proved popular among his friends, so he worked on it further, replacing the Lemmings with worms, and calling it Total Wormage . The teenager’s project quickly captured the attenti...
Nov 18, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 140
Shuhei Yoshida is former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios , and one of the most beloved figures in the video games industry. After graduating from Kyoto University with a degree in economics, he joined Sony in 1986 to coordinate the company’s PC business. Then, as one of the early members of the PlayStation project, he helped oversee the development of landmark titles across multiple generations, including Gran Truismo , Legend of Dragoon , and Ico , championing vide...
Nov 11, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 139
Danny Abbasi is a musician best known as the drummer for Miniseries , the genre-blurring band whose dreamy, cinematic soundscapes have been turning heads in the indie music scene. After graduating from the University of Glasgow with a degree in English Literature, he moved to China where he worked as a professional musician. In 2023, having returned to the UK, he joined Miniseries, the band co-founded by Angie Gannon from The Magic Numbers . The band’s debut album, Pilot , is out this week. With...
Nov 04, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 138
Rami is a developer, speaker, and global ambassador for indie games. As the co-founder of Vlambeer, he helped create a string of critically acclaimed titles—including Super Crate Box , Ridiculous Fishing , Luftrausers , and Nuclear Throne —that helped define a new era of independent game development. Beyond his work on games, he’s become one of the most visible and influential voices in the industry, advocating for accessibility, diversity, and support for developers around the world. Through hi...
Oct 28, 2025•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 137
Lorien Testard is a French musician and composer. He started his career as a guitar teacher, composing instrumental tracks for imaginary video games in his spare time. He began to upload them to his Soundcloud, and soon had a collection of more than fifty pieces online. His life changed when he shared one of the tracks in an indie game forum. A video game director saw the post and invited my guest to craft the entire eight-hour score for his game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 . The resulting soun...
Oct 21, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 136
Chris Plante is a journalist, editor, and one of the sharpest voices working in video game media. After studying at New York University , he worked as freelance writer for outlets including The Guardian , Vulture , and Edge before, in 2012, co-founding Polygon , a website blending coverage of pop culture, longform storytelling, and thoughtful games criticism. Alongside his journalism, he co-wrote the story for the hit podcast series, Limetown , later adapted into a TV series starring Stanley Tuc...
Oct 14, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 135
Claire L. Evans. is an American musician, writer, and artist whose career has spanned music, technology, and cultural criticism. Best known as the co-founder and lead singer of the indie pop group YACHT, she has helped steer the group into bold experiments at the intersection of sound, performance, and digital art. She’s also the author of Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet , a widely acclaimed history that re-centres the pioneering women whose work shaped our digita...
Oct 07, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 134
Alexander O. Smith is a translator, writer, and creative producer whose work has brought some of Japan’s most acclaimed stories to audiences around the world. After graduating from Harvard University with a degree in classical Japanese Literature, he went on to become one of the most respected voices in literary and video game translation. He is best known for his celebrated work on Final Fantasy XII , Vagrant Story , and the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series, as well as his translations of Ja...
Sep 29, 2025•1 hr 34 min•Ep. 133
Charlie Rosen is a Grammy award-winning musician, composer, and arranger whose work sits at the intersection of jazz, pop, and video game nostalgia. As the founder and leader of The 8-bit Big Band , a 35-piece jazz-pops orchestra, he had transformed classic video game soundtracks into virtuosic symphonic showstoppers. Under his direction, the ensemble has reimagined themes from Super Mario Bros. , The Legend of Zelda , and Sonic the Hedgehog , with flair—earning critical acclaim, viral attention...
Sep 23, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 132
Andy Robertson is a veteran journalist, editor, and entrepreneur who has spent his career exploring how video games can bring people together. After graduating from Brunel University with a degree in Computer Science, he worked as a freelance games critic for the BBC before launching Family Gamer TV , a YouTube channel designed to help parents and caregivers confidently navigate the increasingly complex world of games. An advocate of games in diverse spaces, including the TEDx and Greenbelt fest...
Sep 16, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 131
Lizzie Killian is the lead vocalist and guitarist of Teens in Trouble , an indie rock band known for its anthemic melodies, sharp lyrics, and emotionally charged hooks. Before taking to the stage, she started her career as a writer covering games, then moved into communications, collaborating with titans of the industry such Capcom , EA , and Riot . In 2022 she released her first E.P. with her band Teens in Trouble, which included the tracks “I’m Not Worried” and “Decomposing,” both of which hav...
Sep 09, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 130
Jonathan Jacques-Belletête is a French-Canadian creative director and artist whose work has helped shape some of the most stylish and thought-provoking contemporary video games. After graduating from Dawson College in Montreal, he worked as a commercial illustrator before joining Ubisoft as an artist on the Far Cry , Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed series. In 2007 he joined Eidos Montreal, where he helped reimagine the Deus Ex universe with the games Human Revolution and Mankind Divided , ...
Sep 02, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 129
My guest today is an American visual artist whose work is redefining how we think about mystery, architecture, and imagination in interactive storytelling. In 2013 he founded Dogubomb , a Los Angeles-based independent Film and Game Studio making music videos, films, and commercials for clients such as Magic the Gathering and Netflix . In 2016 my guest started work on a video game of his own. Having been selected for the interactive category at Tribeca last year, the game, Blue Prince , launched ...
Aug 26, 2025•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 128
Brian Gibson is a musician, artist, and game designer best known for blurring the lines between sound, movement, and chaos. As the bassist for the legendary noise-rock duo Lightning Bolt , he’s released seven studio albums and played countless ferocious, high-velocity live shows. But he’s also spent much of his life working on video games, first as an artist for the music-game developer Harmonix , which he joined in 2001, and more recently as the co-designer of Thumper —a rhythm-violence game th...
Aug 19, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 127
In this special correspondence edition, Simon reads out your letters and answers your questions. Why has The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time never made it onto a Perfect Console? Where have in-person gaming communities gone, and can they be revived? What happened to educational games after the days of Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego ? Which made-up game languages are the most memorable? And where exactly is the line between a video game and… not a video game? All this and much more. Become a M...
Aug 14, 2025•37 min
Ralph Panebianco is an Australian video game reviewer and YouTube creator known for his sharp insights, no-nonsense delivery, and deep love of the medium. His reviews have been watched more than three hundred million times, and since 2015 his channel, Skill-Up , has become one of the most popular destinations for game criticism, both in Australia and around the world. He has built a loyal following with his in-depth reviews, industry commentary, and honest takes on everything from blockbuster re...
Aug 12, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 126
Greg Jenner is a historian, author, and broadcaster who has made the past delightfully accessible to millions. Born in Kent, he studied Archaeology & History at the University of York , then mediaeval studies, before serving as historical advisor to the BBC ’s hit children’s series Horrible Histories . He has since authored several acclaimed books that combine rigorous research with witty storytelling, including Dead Famous , Ask A Historian , and You Are History . Since 2019 he has been the...
Aug 05, 2025•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 125
Nathan Brown is a writer, editor, and consultant with a deep well of experience in the video game industry. After starting his career in finance he switched to become a journalist, he spent more than a decade at the British publication Edge magazine, where he eventually rose to the role of editor. Since leaving traditional games media, he has carved out a unique space with Hit Points , a widely read industry newsletter offering sharp analysis and insider perspective on the ever-evolving world of...
Jul 29, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 124
Kat Abu is a journalist, influencer, and digital powerhouse who’s taken her sharp wit and political insight from the internet to the campaign trail. Best known for her viral videos dissecting right-wing media as a senior video producer at Media Matters for America , she built a vast following online by blending incisive commentary with biting humour. Now, she’s making a leap into politics as a candidate for Congress in Illinois , bringing her fierce advocacy, media savvy, and Gen Z energy to the...
Jul 22, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 124
Jimi Famurewa is a British-Nigerian author, broadcaster and food critic whose writing blends cultural insight, wit, and deep empathy. As the former restaurant critic for the Evening Standard , he’s become one of the most recognisable voices in British food writing, known for capturing not just what’s on the plate, but also the people, stories, and histories behind it. A regular guest judge on the BBC One series MasterChef , he was also one of the lead judges on Channel 4 ’s The Great Cookbook Ch...
Jul 15, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 122
