Throughout E3, we'll be running several video podcasts collecting our thoughts on the big announcements - and we'll be joined by some surprise industry guests to get their take, too. For this first edition, Chris, James and Danielle discuss the first wave of news from Summer Games Fest Kickoff Live and the Battlefield 2042 reveal, as well as our expectations and hopes for the week ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 11, 2021•42 min
The GamesIndustry.biz editorial team gather around their mics to discuss the oncoming storm that is E3 2021. This year's show will be, to say the least, unusual. In the absence of a physical event, the ESA has endeavoured to get as many of the usual publishers and platform holders on board as it can. Some of the outliers -- such as Ubisoft -- are hosting their own digital events independently of E3, but still running them within the usual window in order to capitalise on the interest around vide...
Jun 07, 2021•59 min
For the past few weeks, we've be delivering audio versions of some of the best sessions from our recent GI Live: Online event. In our final week, our head of games B2B Chris Dring speaks to Peter Moore, currently heading up Sports & Live Entertainment at Unity and serving on the board of directors at sports-centric mobile publisher Nifty Games. Moore is, of course, best known for his tenures at Xbox and Electronic Arts. Having now returned to games after a stint as CEO of Liverpool FC, he di...
Jun 03, 2021•37 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team discusses the high-profile anti-trust case between Epic Games and Apple, joined by special guest Thomas Buscaglia of law firm The Game Attorney. Buscaglia -- who has previously contributed to our weekly 'in review' roundups of the trial -- gives us insight into some of more interesting aspects of the court proceedings and the arguments both sides makes. The conversation covers the long wait for a ruling and why that ruling will be far from final, the impact this case w...
May 31, 2021•44 min
The GamesIndustry.biz editorial team discuss the biggest news of the past week – including the future of Warner Bros' games studios, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick's skepticism about the metaverse, Embracer's plans for even more acquisitions, and the return of TimeSplitters. With AT&T forming a joint venture with Discovery, it's been reported that not all of the Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment development teams will be moved over to the new company. We discuss what this means for the pub...
May 24, 2021•51 min
For the next few weeks, we'll be delivering audio versions of some of the best sessions from our recent GI Live: Online event. This week, our head of games B2B Chris Dring speaks to Jon M. Gibson, founder of specialist merchandise provider Iam8bit. The interview explores the company's origins, some of its biggest successes in bringing collectors' items and even special boxed editions to indie games, and what motivates fans to invest in everything from vinyl soundtracks to art prints. You can als...
May 21, 2021•53 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team discusses the biggest stories of the past week -- and lays out some simple demands for PlayStation's future. First up, we discuss Ubisoft's revelation that it will be investing more in high-quality free-to-play experiences based on its biggest brands. We touch on whether this is likely to become the norm for AAA publishers (if it isn't already) and whether free-to-play games might cannibalise their full price counterparts (hint: it's unlikely). After that, we ponder th...
May 17, 2021•50 min
For the next few weeks, we'll be delivering audio versions of some of the best sessions from our recent GI Live: Online event. This week, our head of games B2B Chris Dring speaks Tomas Sakalauskas from No Brakes Games and Curve's VP of Franchise Publishing Gary Rowe about the smash hit indie title Human Fall Flat. The discussion explores why the physics-based platformer has such broad appeal, how it reached sales levels rarely achieved by indie games, why the developers continue to produce new c...
May 14, 2021•37 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team discuss the biggest stories of the week -- which, of course, means Epic's ongoing antitrust trial against Apple. We reflect on the first week's events and relevations, and share our thoughts on which side has the stronger argument. We also discuss the potential ramifications for the rest of the industry, and the impact it is already having on other major games firms. For example, Sony's crossplay strategy was called into question when Epic revealed it agreed to pay an ...
May 12, 2021•55 min
For the next few weeks, we'll be delivering audio versions of some of the best sessions from our recent GI Live: Online event. This week, our head of games B2B Chris Dring speaks to IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak about the rollercoaster journey the Hitman studio has been on for the past few years. The conversation covers everything from IO's split with former publisher and parent Square Enix, through the risky period of supporting Hitman 2016 alone, charting the rise of the World of Assassinatio...
May 07, 2021•51 min
The GamesIndustry.biz editorial team discuss the biggest stories of the past week, starting with the inevitable discourse around Returnal and difficulty in AAA games. The PlayStation 5 exclusive released to critical acclaim last Friday, but while it's designed to be a challenging experience, it has prompted a discussion as to whether intentionally challenging gameplay is viable at the level of $70 AAA releases. We share our thoughts on the alternatives to punishing difficulty, the importance of ...
May 05, 2021•57 min
For the next few weeks, we'll be delivering audio versions of some of the best sessions from our recent GI Live: Online event. This week, our head of games B2B Chris Dring speaks to Guha Bala, co-founder of Vicarious Visions and Velan Studios, the team behind Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit and the upcoming dodgeball multiplayer outing Knockout City. The episode explores Bala's career and journey from indie developer to AAA and back again, as well as his advice on finding the magic in your game co...
Apr 30, 2021•42 min
The entire GamesIndustry.biz team is on hand to discuss the biggest stories of the past week. We start with unpacking the discourse and the original comments around an interview with Days Gone director Jon Garvin, in which he stated that those wanting a sequel should have bought the game at full price when it launched. We discuss the many ways the industry has changed and why most titles are no longer reliant on strong early sales, as well as the disparity between demand for a sequel and whether...
Apr 27, 2021•1 hr 6 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team discusses the biggest stories of the past week. First up, we take a look at reports that the Epic Games Store is losing hundreds of millions of dollars in its efforts to rival Steam, where that data comes from, Tim Sweeney's cheerful response and why he might be right. Then, we discuss comments by Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa about how the platform holder may focus more on original IP, and how rarely the company has produced new properties in recent generations...
Apr 19, 2021•53 min
The Five Games Of is a special series of The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast that explores the evolution of the video games business through the career of prominent developers, executives and more. This time, we explore five games from the career of Brenda Romero, one of longest-running developers in the industry. With a career spanning almost 40 years, we look at how Brenda found her start working on the Wizardy RPG series at the age of 15 and followed its evolution as the games industry matured arou...
Apr 13, 2021•1 hr 32 min
This special series of The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast talks to developers about the titles that influenced their careers. This time, our guest is Jean Leggett -- CEO of One More Story Games, leadership and career coach, and host of the Games, Grit & Graditude: Real Talk podcast. Leggett discusses the impact of the Tex Murphy adventure games on her career, her studio, and even her company's game engine, as well as the importance of story and dark humour in taking games forward as a medium. Gam...
Mar 30, 2021•38 min
The GamesIndustry.biz editorial team discuss the biggest stories of the past week from across the business of video games. This week, Matt, Brendan, Marie and James elaborate on our recent stance concerning stories about blockchain and non-fungible tokens, and why GamesIndustry.biz will be more cautious about covering this going forward. We discuss the potential benefits and the many, many downsides of this technology as it currently stands. We also reflect of Techland's decision to include abus...
Mar 23, 2021•58 min
The GamesIndustry.biz editorial team discusses the biggest stories of the past week. This week, we start with the recent wave of new indie publishers emerging, including new publishing arms for Sumo Group, Playtonic Games and Fundamentally Games. We talk about the challenges new publishers face, whether the market is becoming overserved, and whether publishers need a distinct identity or speciality to succeed. Then we expand on our recent 10 Years Ago This Month column, looking back at a period ...
Mar 16, 2021•58 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team discuss the biggest stories from the past week in the business of video games. This week, we start with EA's response to a FIFA Ultimate Team player that racially abused ex-footballer Ian Wright, blaming his in-game counterpart for losing a match. The player has been issued a lifetime ban, a response Wright commended. We also explore Twitch's first transparency report and dive deeper into the missing numbers in order to illustrate the disparity between how the streamin...
Mar 09, 2021•54 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team discusses the biggest stories of the past week, starting with news of Sony revitalising PlayStation VR. With a new headset now in development for PlayStation 5, we reflect on Sony's impact on the wider virtual reality landscape and its strategy with the original PlayStation VR over the past four years. We also debate the importance of software and whether Sony's first-party offering can provide any system-selling experiences -- especially as the platform holder continu...
Mar 02, 2021•54 min
The GamesIndustry.biz editorial team discusses the most controversial game announcement of the year so far and weigh up whether developers can handle a topic as sensitive as war. Following our interview with the company behind upcoming shooter Six Days In Fallujah, we explore the reaction to the game's existence -- both in 2021 and back in 2009 when the title was dropped by its publisher -- and the mistakes it already seems to be making. We also discuss whether Victura's stated intention is appr...
Feb 23, 2021•1 hr 2 min
The GamesIndustry.biz team takes a deeper look at one of the biggest stories of the past week -- namely, Warner Bros securing a patent for Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system. For this episode, we're joined by Kostya Lobov of law firm Harbottle & Lewis to look at the intricacies of patents and the implications for any other developers hoping to build games around a similar mechanic to the Nemesis system. In case you missed the news, it was revealed last week that Warner Bros has finally secure...
Feb 15, 2021•58 min
On our latest podcast, Matt, Brendan and James discuss two of the biggest games industry stories of the past two weeks. First up, we discuss Embracer Group's acquisition of Gearbox Software -- a deal potentially worth close to $1.4 billion, but with some very notable caveats. We use this as a jumping off point to explore Embracer's overall mergers and acquisitions strategy, and ponder the wider trends in the M&A space -- something further analysed in this article by GameDiscoverCo's Simon Ca...
Feb 08, 2021•57 min
The GamesIndustry.biz editorial team looks optimistically forward and starts to ponder the future of video games when the COVID-19 pandemic eventually comes to an end. Following on an editorial by our Head of B2B Chris Dring, James, Brendan, Marie and Chris discuss the implications of 2020's rapid growth in terms of new customers, and the perhaps inevitable industry contraction when those consumers drop their newfound hobby as life returns to normal (or at least closer to it). We talk about the ...
Feb 02, 2021•53 min
The Five Games Of is a special series of The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast that explores the evolution of the video games business through the career of prominent developers, executives and more. This time, we explore five games from the career of Jesper Kyd, one of the industry's most prolific composers. We talk to Kyd about his start in the industry, working with a group of friends that went on to found a fairly well-known Danish studio, before looking at some of the biggest games he worked on. Na...
Jan 28, 2021•1 hr 17 min
On this week's podcast, the GamesIndustry.biz editorial team takes a look at some of the biggest challenges facing indie developers. Our discussion begins with the recent reveal of Moonrise Fund, which focuses on financing teams working on gameplay that hasn't been seen before. We recently spoke to the fund's creator Evva Karr about their ambitions for the project. We then talk about the gaps in funding and even gaps in knowledge that form barriers to experimental games developers from bringing ...
Jan 25, 2021•57 min
This week, GamesIndustry.biz team members Matt, Rebekah and James are joined by PCMag's Mike Williams to discuss the biggest news of the past week. Following a slew of LucasFilm Games announcements -- including the revival of the brand, Bethesda's Indiana Jones game, and Ubisoft's open-world Star Wars project -- we discuss licensed games. It wasn't so long ago that licensed games were often hastily-developed merchandise created to tie in with a film release or ensure a publisher got the most out...
Jan 18, 2021•50 min
In our first weekly episode of 2021, the GamesIndustry.biz team discuss the biggest news of the past week – and slightly further back. Matt, Brendan, Rebekah, James and Chris unpack the implications and build-up to Nintendo's acquisition of Next Level Games, the team behind Switch hit Luigi's Mansion 3. And in the first instalment of a new monthly discussion, we expand on the most recent 10 Years Ago column to look at how things have changed in the past decade. This month, we look at the rise an...
Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 4 min
In this special sponsored GamesIndustry.biz podcast, we speak with Facebook Audience Network’s Imran Khan to discuss mobile game monetisation methods and in-game advertising. This week’s podcast discusses all forms of monetisation and provides ideas and guidance on how to maximise revenue for game developers. Khan will reveal why the games industry needs to look beyond in-app purchases as the de facto monetisation model for mobile games. You can find more information on ad monetisation and how a...
Jan 11, 2021•24 min
This special series of The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast talks to developers about the titles that influenced their careers. This time, we have Xalavier Nelson Jr., the creator of An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs as well as an award-nominated narrative mind behind Hypnospace Outlaw, Reigns: Beyond, Skatebird, and more. Nelson Jr. is here to chat about The Evil Within 2, specifically its modular design. He describes the game as a "puzzle box" where pushing and prodding one element can impa...
Jan 07, 2021•42 min
