This week, Rebekah, Matt, Brendan and James dive deeper into Rebekah's recent investigation into GlobalStep. For those who haven't read the full article yet, we explore some of the accusations the UK-based QA company -- formerly known as Testology -- faces. Claims include the "culling" and "ghosting" of staff, incorrect pay, and a stifling culture built on fear and zero-hour contracts. We discuss the full findings of the investigation, as well as how such a culture has been sustained, and what o...
Jul 21, 2020•44 min
We have a double episode of the GamesIndustry.biz Podcast today, following developments over the weekend at Ubisoft as the publisher attempts to reign in its abuse problems. James. Matt and Haydn take a deep dive into the situation at Ubisoft, after several high-level staffers departed the company amid mounting abuse allegations. CEO Yves Guillemot, previously lauded for steering Ubisoft away from a hostile takeover by Vivendi, now finds himself heading a company which faces one of the largest a...
Jul 13, 2020•1 hr 17 min
Matt, Brendan, Chris and James gather around their respective mics to discuss the biggest industry stories of the past week. Once again, we've refrained from commenting on the ongoing stories of abuse and harassment as we don't feel the podcast is the right forum for this discussion. But you can find our in-depth coverage through the links below. Ubisoft's Maxime Béland resigns amid abuse allegations Nintendo condemns abuse as allegations spread across Smash Bros. community Evo CEO dismissed, ev...
Jul 06, 2020•41 min
Matt, Brendan, Marie and Chris are on hand to discuss the biggest games industry topics of the week. The most prominent subject has been the latest wave of allegations concerning abuse, bullying and harassment that have emerged across the industry. As the podcast is not the best forum for such a discussion, we instead direct you to our detailed coverage on the site: Industry's abuse problem brought into focus by latest wave of allegations Abuse in the industry isn't down to a few "bad apples" | ...
Jun 29, 2020•55 min
This week on the podcast, Rebekah, Matt and Brendan are joined by new regular guest Mike Williams, of former GamesIndustry.biz and current USGamer fame. In lieu of an formal E3 event this year, Electronic Arts went ahead with its own branded online presser, EA Play. Depending on who you ask, the show was either an exciting glimpse into what the publisher has to offer in the coming years, or a lacklustre display will little of note. But the publisher, which has long held onto dreams of its own hi...
Jun 23, 2020•59 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team share their initial thoughts on Sony's long-awaited reveal of the PlayStation 5. Recorded mere minutes after this week's showcase ended, we share our first impressions on the line-up, the overall presentation, and (of course) the final design of Sony's next-generation console. Along the way, we discuss the diversity of the games' protagonists, question Sony's growth strategy for the next generation, and weigh up how the showcase stands compared to both Microsoft's prev...
Jun 12, 2020•56 min
As you'll hear, there is no regular podcast this week. In light of the ongoing protests against racial injustice and police brutality, we recognise that our team is currently not diverse enough to contribute significantly to the discussions. Instead, we're using this week to recommend other podcasts that have already commented on the deeper issues at hand, and that you might find worth listening to on an ongoing basis. Please give a listen to: Spawn On Me: A Lesson In Blackness by Khalief Adams,...
Jun 08, 2020•2 min
Matt, Brendan and James discuss the biggest stories of the past week, starting with speculation about the potential release window for GTA 6. Rumours circulated that a spike in marketing commitments found within Take-Two's financial documentation placed the launch of GTA 6 around 2024 -- but Brendan's ready to shatter that hope. Elaborating on his piece from last week, our North American editor explains why it's far more likely the that surge in marketing spend is more likely to coincide with a ...
Jun 01, 2020•48 min
Matt, James, Marie and Chris are on this week's podcast to discuss the biggest stories of the past week. We start with comments from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who suggests tech and digital industries (including video games) are unlikely to adopt remote working on a permanent basis as the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. On a similar note, we discuss commnets from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick on how lockdown measures have accelerated the trends towards digital distribution, and how g...
May 26, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Matt, Rebekah, Chris and James gather around their mics to discuss the biggest stories of the past week - primarily Epic Games. The company debuted the first footage of Unreal Engine 5 with a technical demo that also gave us the first glimpse of gameplay on the Playstation 5. Around this unveiling was also the news that the revenue limit at which Epic will claim royalties from Unreal-powered games has been raised to $1 million, and plans for the Epic Online Services SDK, which will enable other ...
May 18, 2020•54 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team offer their thoughts on last week's Xbox Series X showcase. Recorded in the immediate aftermath of the presentation -- technically during some of the post-show interviews -- we offer our immediate reactions to the first glimpses of next-generation gameplay we saw. 'Glimpses' being the most appropriate word. Both Xbox and Ubisoft have since admitted it may have oversold how much insight into upcoming Series X titles the special episode of Inside Xbox would offer. During...
May 11, 2020•54 min
Matt, Rebekah, Chris and James discuss the biggest news of the past week. We begin by unpacking Xbox boss Phil Spencer's comments in a recent interview, in which he talked about how Microsoft was taking care to ensure it was "not exploiting" the COVID-19 pandemic and the "big flood" of new users it has brought to gaming. Then, after a tangent about streaming services and the bizarre communications around the launch of Stadia's free version, we reflect on the ongoing success of Xbox Game Pass, wh...
May 04, 2020•1 hr 3 min
Taking a break from our usual weekly news discussion, the GamesIndustry.biz team carefully place their crystal balls next to their microphones for an unusual E3 predictions podcast. E3 is, of course, cancelled this year and the ongoing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in delays for several high-profile games -- and that's not counting all the unannounced ones lurking behind the scenes. Rumours suggest that game reveals and other news lined up for E3 will be spread out acro...
Apr 27, 2020•1 hr 11 min
Rebekah, Matt, Chris and Marie gather around their mics to discuss the biggest issues of the past week. Firstly, we discuss the recent Kotaku report on Rockstar's attempts to change its internal crunch culture, with the prominent suggestion that the next Grand Theft Auto may be of a more moderate size but then expanded post-launch. Then we reflect on the mixed initiatives the games industry has launched to help raise money towards COVID-19 relief efforts. We reiterate some of the points Chris ma...
Apr 20, 2020•1 hr 1 min
In this special edition of the podcast, the GamesIndustry.biz team shares our own experience of remote working. With so many countries around the world in varying stages of lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, almost the entire industry has shifted to a work-from-home model that is a far cry from the way it usually operates. We've already run a series of articles offering advice on how to adjust to this -- which you can read through the links below -- but we wanted to contribute in our ow...
Apr 09, 2020•54 min
Matt, Brendan, Rebekah, Chris and James gather to discuss the latest news from the games industry - this week, focusing on the three platform holders. First up, we discuss the delay to The Last Of Us: Part II and the various factors that would have influenced this. Sony will be contending not just with the distribution logistics of a disrupted world, but also the challenging of marketing a game about living in the aftermath of a devastating virus. Next, we unpack Phil Spencer's comments about ho...
Apr 06, 2020•46 min
A bit of an unusual episode this week, taken from a livestreamed AMA-style session on YouTube. With EGX Rezzed postponed due to the spread of COVID-19, GamesIndustry.biz and a number of our sister brands ran a three-day online conference, Rezzed Digital. One of the sessions we hosted was a live edition of the podcast, where audience members were invited to ask us questions about the state of the games business in 2020 and beyond -- now presented in audio form. The discussion covered the impact o...
Mar 30, 2020•50 min
Rebekah, Matt, Brendan, Chris and Marie are all on hand this week to discuss the biggest news and events in the video games industry. We kick off with reflection on the recent reveals for the technical specifications of Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Rather than getting caught up in the discussion of which machine is more powerful -- and whether that makes it 'better' than its rival -- we take a look at how they were revealed. Microsoft opted for a full breakdown via a third party, GamesIndust...
Mar 23, 2020•58 min
James, Chris, Rebekah and Brendan join this week's podcast to discuss the biggest news from the games industry over the past seven days. Naturally, we start with the cancellation of E3 -- making 2020 the first time in 25 years the games industry has not descended on California in the summer. The team debates the impact this might have on the industry -- versus the loss of GDC, for example -- and how the cancellation may give the Entertainment Software Association the time to understand what the ...
Mar 17, 2020•56 min
James, Brendan, Marie and Haydn gather around their respective mics to discuss the biggest games industry news of the week. The main topic is once again the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the consequences for games businesses around the globe. Another wave of events have been cancelled -- including one that pushes the event horizon beyond E3 -- and we have even seen the first hardware delay attributed to disrupted manufacturing. We debate whether E3 2020 will survive the turmoil and ...
Mar 09, 2020•44 min
In an absolutely packed episode, the team discusses the biggest stories of the week -- starting, of course, with the postponement of GDC 2020. Matt, Chris and James talk about the fallout of the event's cancellation, the tough decisions that would have been made behind the scenes, and how the organisers' optimistic plan for a summer event might manifest. We also delve into the impact the event's cancellation will have had on those who invested heavily in this trip, from developers and publishers...
Mar 02, 2020•1 hr 24 min
Matthew, Brendan, Rebekah and James discuss the latest headlines, predominantly focusing on the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. With Sony and Facebook -- and, since recording, Kojima Productions -- withdrawing from GDC 2020 and the cancellation of Mobile World Congress, the consequences for the event space are perhaps the most obviously felt. But there are also continuing reports of delays and disruptions to manufacturing, which could potentially see one or both next-generation consoles...
Feb 24, 2020•49 min
This week Haydn, Matt, Brendan, Chris, and Marie gather around the old GamesIndustry.biz Podcast campfire to discuss the keynote speech Tim Sweeney offered up at DICE recently. Although mainly focused on things like open platforms, the Epic Games CEO took a confusing and ill-advised detour into the world of politics and games. Crammed into the final few minutes of a half-hour speech, Sweeny made several conflicting and vague remarks, leaving the GamesIndustry.biz staff more than a little baffled...
Feb 17, 2020•1 hr
Haydn, Brendan and Chris discuss the biggest stories of the past week, starting with Microsoft's bold claims as to who its biggest competitors are. Phil Spencer recently claimed Xbox's future will see it stand up against the likes of Amazon and Google, rather than its historical rival PlayStation. We unpack this statement, and take a closer look at Microsoft's position in the wider tech and games industry, as well as ponder the crossover between the platform holders and the infrastructure they u...
Feb 10, 2020•1 hr 2 min
As we barrel through yet another financial season, Rebekah, Brendan, and Chris ask the all important question: do numbers matter? With Microsoft posting a 21% decline in game revenue while celebrating an increase in subscriptions, the traditional metrics for success aren’t as straightforward as they used to be. Nintendo’s success last year comes with fewer caveats, however, hitting or exceeding all of its targets; Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield sold over 16 million units, while Luigi’s Mansion...
Feb 03, 2020•48 min
James, Marie and Haydn are on hand to discuss the biggest topics of the past week, including crunch, class-action lawsuits and coins tossed to Witchers. The big topic of the week is Doom Eternal executive producer Marty Stratton's comments that the team "crunched pretty hard" for most of 2019 and, despite the four-month delay, continued to do so in the run-up to the game's completion. We once again discuss the potentially harmful attitudes towards crunch across the industry and potential solutio...
Jan 27, 2020•54 min
Matt, Marie and James discuss the biggest topics of the week, starting with Microsoft's plans for Xbox Series X. The platform holder recently revealed that the next-generation console will have no exclusive titles to begin with, instead allowing games to play across both Series X and the Xbox One family of devices. While this inevitably raised questions as to how the platform holder hopes to shift units without system-selling games, our contributing editor Rob Fahey observed that this is the nex...
Jan 21, 2020•46 min
Rebekah, Chris and Brendan come together for a special edition of the podcast, discussing this week's biggest news: Sony will not be attending E3 for the second year in a row. While the platform holder has other plans to get the PlayStation 5 in front of the masses ahead of its launch this Christmas, including attendance at "hundreds" of other consumers events throughout the year, we ponder some of the reasons the company has opted out of the industry's biggest annual showcase. We also discuss w...
Jan 14, 2020•40 min
Matt, Chris, Rebekah and James gather round their mics to discuss the biggest stories of the past week. First up, we discuss the revived conversation around Battlestate Games' Escape From Tarkov and the developer's various excuses for the lack of playable women in the game. Six years on from the Assassin's Creed Unity debacle, we explore whether reasoning such as the "huge amount of work needed with animations" still stand up (if they ever did). Next, we continue the conversation about the rumou...
Jan 13, 2020•49 min
Brendan, Rebekah, Chris and James kick off the year with a roundtable discussing our hopes, predictions, expectations and utter pipe dreams for the year ahead. Following our roundup of analyst predictions for 2020, we offer our own thoughts on what might be the biggest topics and trends of the year -- almost inevitably centring around the arrival of new consoles next Christmas. We also touch on what Nintendo's plans might be in a year were Sony and Microsoft will likely dominate much of the disc...
Jan 06, 2020•51 min
