My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

Yesterday came the news that EA plans to close BioWare , the Edmonton studio behind Baldur’s Gate , Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic , Mass Effect and Dragon Age . I thought it was a good moment to revisit my conversation with Dr Greg Zeschuk , one of BioWare’s co-founders. We talk about the games that shaped him, and the long, remarkable journey of a studio that defined computer and console...

Daryl Baxter is a British writer and podcaster from Lincoln whose work has ranged across games, technology, and the history of the medium. He has written for outlets including WIRED , TechRadar , Den of Geek , and the Radio Times , and now publishes Springboard , a free newsletter about gaming, technology, and mental health that deliberately avoids chasing SEO or relying on AI. Growing up with ser...

Will de Renzy-Martin is a British actor and voice performer whose career has increasingly become intertwined with video games. As a child, he was fascinated by storytelling and by watching his older brothers play Ocarina of Time, but initially followed a rather different path, reading Computing at Imperial College London . Before long, however, he changed direction, training as an actor at the Gui...

My guest today is an Irish writer, producer, and multimedia creator whose work spans journalism, video games, language, and digital culture. Born in Vietnam, she was adopted at three days old by a primary school teacher from County Kerry, and brought to Ireland at six weeks of age. Irish became one of her spoken languages, and it would go on to shape both her education and her career: she later st...

Paolo Pedercini is an Italian game designer, artist, educator, and activist whose work has spent more than two decades challenging assumptions about what video games are for, and what they are allowed to say. In 2003, he founded Molleindustria as a project dedicated to the "reappropriation of video games and the radicalisation of popular culture." Since then, he has created a remarkable...

My guest today is an American game producer and studio leader whose career has been shaped by a deep love of competitive shooters and more than two decades spent building some of the genre’s major titles. She began at Treyarch , where she worked as a senior producer on Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops II , before joining Riot Games in 2015. There, she first helped lead League of Legends ’ cos...

In this special correspondence edition, Simon reads out your letters and answers your questions. Is there a cut-off point for working in games journalism? Which video game does Simon think should surely have been picked by now but hasn't? Who decides how long guests talk about their game choices? How does Simon actually make the show — from bookings to post-production to those musical stingers? Wh...

Chris Cantrill is a British comedian, writer, and actor from West Yorkshire whose work combines rapid-fire jokes with an off-kilter view of everyday life. He first came to prominence as one half of the acclaimed sketch duo T he Delightful Sausage , alongside Amy Gledhill , earning Edinburgh Comedy Award nominations for Best Show in both 2019 and 2022. As a solo performer, he added anothe...

My guest today is an Irish writer, poet, critic, and podcaster. Born and raised in Dublin, she began writing seriously as a teenager, studied English, Media and Cultural Studies at IADT , and later completed a Master’s in Creative Writing at NUI Galway . Her early work included the poetry collection Follies and Not Lost , a book of essays about emigration written after she moved to San Francisco i...

Mike Diver is a British journalist, editor, and author whose career has moved fluidly between music criticism and video games writing, always with an eye for subculture, history, and stories beyond the mainstream. He began at the music website Drowned in Sound , where he rose to become content editor, before going on to work with Clash and contribute to publications including Kerrang! and Rock Sou...

Soren Johnson is an American programmer and game designer whose work has helped shape the modern strategy genre. After earning a master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University , he joined Firaxis Games , where he worked as both a programmer and designer on Civilization III before going on to lead the design of Civilization IV , one of the most celebrated strategy games yet made. Over...

My guest today is a Jamaican game developer and studio founder. Based in Kingston, he is the founder of  Spritewrench Studios , a narrative-focused micro studio he built after realising, in his final year at university, that he did not need to leave Jamaica or join a hundred-person team to make games of his own. Inspired by that possibility, he began creating small projects, taking part...

Amelia Tait is a British journalist and author whose work has made her one of the sharpest observers of modern life online and off. As a freelance writer, she has built a reputation for following the strange, revealing currents of contemporary culture — writing about the internet, and remarkable people for publications including The New Yorker , The Guardian , Wired , and the New York Times . Her...

James Trickey is a British comedian whose work blends sharp writing, physical comedy, and, in his new show, one of the more extraordinary Edinburgh Fringe stories in recent memory. By day he works as an accountant; by night he has been building a reputation as one of the most promising young voices on the live circuit, with appearances across the UK, a Chortle Student Comedy Award nomination, and...

Pierce Brown is an American novelist whose work has made him one of the defining voices in modern science fiction. After a restless childhood that saw his family move repeatedly and left him passing through more than ten schools, he began writing in earnest just after high school. After years of rejection, he found his breakthrough with Red Rising , the first instalment in an epic saga t...

John Robertson is an Australian comedian, writer, and performer who has carved out a singular space between stand-up, theatre, and video games. Beginning his career on the UK and international comedy circuit, he became known for his high-energy, unpredictable style—before creating The Dark Room , a live-action text adventure where audiences shout commands, face absurd deaths, and attempt...

Andreas Thorstensson is a Swedish entrepreneur, former professional gamer, and studio founder whose career has moved from the early days of esports to the challenge of rebuilding one of the world’s biggest sports genres from the ground up. Born in Stockholm, he began programming as a child and later emerged in competitive  Counter-Strike  under the name ‘bds’, becoming world champio...

Abigoliah Schamaun is an American comedian, writer, actor, and podcaster whose open-hearted style has made her one of the most distinctive voices on the UK stand-up circuit. After cutting her teeth in the clubs of New York, she moved to Britain and there steadily built a reputation as a charismatic performer, becoming a popular headliner on the live comedy scene. Alongside her stand-up, she has ap...

Luke Whittaker is a British game designer and creative director. With a background in animation and games design, he co-founded the BAFTA-winning indie studio State of Play in 2008, helping establish a reputation for meticulous, hands-on craft and playful experimentation. He was the creator and lead designer of  Lumino City , the puzzle adventure built entirely from hand-made paper and card m...

Rob Dubbin is a comedy writer and game designer whose work spans late-night television, journalism, and interactive storytelling. After studying History and Literature at Harvard University , he began his career in comedy, becoming an Emmy-winning writer on The Colbert Report and later The Late Show with Stephen Colbert . Away from television, his writing has appeared in publications including The...

George Osborn is a journalist, strategist, and analyst whose work explores the increasingly fraught intersection of video games, business, and politics. He has worked as a reporter, consultant, and as Head of Campaigns and Communications at Ukie , the UK trade body for games, developing a rare vantage point on how the medium shapes, and is shaped by, power. He is also the founder of Half-Space Con...

Gabríel Ólafs is an Icelandic pianist, composer, and producer whose work blends classical tradition with fantasy and a strikingly modern sense of atmosphere. Born in Reykjavík in 1998, he began playing piano at the age of five, receiving both classical and jazz training before emerging as a recording artist while still a teenager. His debut album, Absent Minded , was released in 2019, and his subs...

Elise Kova is a fantasy novelist whose rise from online serial writer to international bestseller has made her one of the defining voices in modern fantasy. She began writing young, producing her first novella in sixth grade, and later returned to storytelling in earnest when she started Air Awakens in 2012 as a hobby, posting chapters online and building an early community of devoted readers. Aft...

Brendan Greene is a game designer whose work reshaped the landscape of competitive multiplayer video games. Raised on a barracks in County Kildare, he grew up in an army family with little more than an Atari 2600 for company. He studied Fine Art in college, taught himself web design, and spent years freelancing — even moving to Brazil — before rediscovering...

Stephen Totilo is an American journalist whose career has helped redefine how video games are reported and understood. After studying at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism , he became MTV News ’ first dedicated video game reporter in 2005, bringing serious coverage of the medium to a mainstream audience. Four years later he joined Kotaku , where he rose to become editor-in-chief and spe...