Deconstructor of Fun

Xbox just got torched, and the math says new games can't win. Jen and Eric (two for TWIG this week) break down the biggest restructuring in Xbox history: 4,800 jobs cut, Asha Sharma unwinding Phil Spencer's entire studio buying spree, and King and Minecraft pulled in to report directly to her. Is this the setup for an Activision Blizzard 2.0 spin-out? Then they dig into fresh Newzoo data o...

Zoe Bell is the Executive Producer of Games at The New York Times. If you've played Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, Strands, Letter Boxed, the Mini, or the Crossword, you've played something she helped build or bring to life. NYT has nearly 13 million subscribers, which includes the game business that features some ads but no in-app purchases and no battle pass. The players run from you...

Destiny is dead, Xbox is about to make the largest layoff in gaming history, and Google Play just completely changed how it charges developers. In this episode, we break down:• Why Sony's $3.6B Bungie acquisition was doomed from the start• What Destiny's gradual player decline actually looked like on the data• Where hundreds of laid-off Bungie developers go from here• Which five Xbox studi...

In this episode of Puzzle Monthly, we trace Good Job Games' path from two clean exits to a struggling Match 3 launch, and break down why the studio that built Zen Match and sold its hypercasual portfolio for billions in downloads can't get Match Villains to monetize like Royal Match. Topics Covered: • Good Job Games' history, from hypercasual hits to Zenmatch's $100-150M exit • Won...

GTA 6 finally has a price tag, Steam Machine lands with a $1,000+, and Tencent is quietly pulling out of Japan. In this episode, we break down: ● Why GTA 6's $80/$100 pricing is good news for the industry ● What the deluxe edition actually includes (and what it's missing) ● The attach rate debate for GTA 6 on PS5 and Xbox ● Why Tencent is exiting its Japanese gaming investments ● Who's...

Andrew Bowell, CEO of Iconic, who spent 15 years at Havok and a decade at Unity, discusses the future of game development, AI integration, and the challenges of building new game engines. He shares insights on technological shifts, AI's role in creating immersive worlds, and why his company is building an engine to “craft intelligent, living worlds”. https://iconicgames.io/ 02:10— The shift to...

Roblox's Chief Safety Officer and VP of Safety Products join the podcast to answer the question every parent is asking: Is it actually safe? What's covered:● Why Roblox's safety chief uninstalled the app for his own daughter● The new Roblox Kids and Select accounts launching in June● How facial age verification works at scale, and how parents keep breaking it● AI moderating 150 million...

Microsoft is laying the groundwork to spin Xbox off, Supercell just cut 70% of Metacore's staff after burning through $180M. Meanwhile, EA just launched a real ad platform for sports games. In this episode, we break down: ● Why Xbox keeps losing its top studio leadership ● Whether Microsoft is actually preparing to spin off Xbox ● What Sharma's first 100 days reveal about her real strategy...

Gossip Harbor is beating Candy Crush, Merge Mansion is going to Supercell, and the Merge genre is at an inflection point. In this episode of Puzzle Monthly, we break down the real state of Merge games in 2026, from the history of the genre to why Gossip Harbor succeeded where others failed, and what the next Merge hit might look like. Topics Covered: ● The history of Merge — from Tripletown to Mer...

Nintendo's stock is getting hammered without a new Mario, Monopoly GO is going all-in on The Simpsons, and Liftoff is back on the public markets. Meanwhile, Xbox finally seems to be doing what it should have done years ago. In this episode, we break down:● Liftoff's IPO and the AppLovin challenge● Monopoly GO's Simpsons mega-event● How Scopely uses IP for reactivation● Apple's crac...

Two mobile games with a $500M annual run rate in just two years, with a fivefold revenue increase in the last 12 months alone. If you're building in mobile gaming or just want to understand what a genuine rocket ship looks like from the inside, this one's worth your time. Grand Games' founder Batuhan Çelebi built one of the fastest-growing mobile game studios in history. In this episod...

Two thirds of Americans now play video games every week. That is more than 212 million people, the average player is 37, and among Boomers, more women play than men. These numbers come from the ESA's 2026 Essential Facts report, the kind of audience and demographic data most companies pay a lot of money for, free to anyone. Jen Donahoe sits down with Stanley Pierre-Louis, President and CEO of...

Call of Duty is getting back to basics, Sony is pulling the plug on PC ports, and Bungie is laying off staff after Destiny 2's final update. Meanwhile, Summer Game Fest is here, and everyone has something to announce. In this episode, we break down: ●  Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4, kill blocks, DMZ is back, no last-gen SKUs ●  Why dropping PS4 and Xbox One could hurt units but help revenue ● ...

Most studios still treat influencer marketing as an experiment. Match Masters, a top 150 grossing game globally, has run it as a permanent growth pillar for 8 years. Jen Donahoe sits down with Candivore's Aviv Vidro and consultant Marion Balinoff to break down the playbook behind one of mobile gaming's most disciplined influencer programs. Studios that treat influencer as a permanent pillar see co...

Griffin just handed $100M to indie developers, Lilith is back with a pachinko creature collector that's turning heads, and Toon Blast hired Gus Fring for reasons that actually make sense. In this episode, we break down: ● Griffin Gaming Partners' $100M indie fund and why project financing beats VC math for games ● Why the tourists are gon,e and the OG gaming VCs are back ● Embracer's e...

The gaming industry has seen 24,000+ layoffs in 2024–2025 alone, and a wave of new consultants has followed. But how many of them actually chose this path? Michail Katkoff sits down with John Wright to unpack the raw, honest reality of gaming consulting: the anxiety, the income rollercoaster, the identity crisis, and the strategies that actually work. In this episode, we break down: ● Why 70% of g...

Turkey's game industry is overheating, Xbox just hired a chief strategy officer that has the panel in meltdown mode, and Roblox is betting big on a HD pivot that could blow up in their face. In this episode, we break down: ● Why Turkey is dominating the gaming landscape and what's fueling its growth ● The talent shortage threatening Turkey's gaming boom ● Why West Coast game developmen...

Marathon’s player numbers are collapsing, Apex Legends is surging again, and rumors suggest Disney may be entering the extraction shooter genre. In this episode, we break down:● Why Marathon’s retention and onboarding may be fundamentally broken● Whether Bungie can still save Marathon● How Arc Raiders became the first mainstream extraction shooter hit● Why extraction shooters still struggle with a...

John Wright and Vincent join Josh Chandley for the monthly deep-dive into what's actually moving the needle in mobile user acquisition. Questions we answer in this episode:● Is Sensor Tower now a monopoly, and should you be worried about pricing?● Why did Google reinstate Freecash but Apple still won't?● Is there one person at Apple secretly controlling which apps live and die?● Is Misplay...

Supercell enters the toy business, Playtika fully embraces casual games, and Turkey’s puzzle game machine keeps printing hits and billion-dollar studios. In this episode of TWIG, Jen is joined by Adam, Phill, and LT to break down the biggest stories in mobile games, from Grand Games’ massive $70M raise to the deeper economics behind hybrid casual, DTC monetization, and why puzzle games are evolvin...

Why are gaming VCs shifting capital to consumer apps? In this episode, Henric Suuronen and Harri Manninen, founding partners of Play Ventures, one of gaming's top venture funds with $500 million under management and over 100 portfolio companies, break down how they evaluate founders, why they require a two-year vesting cliff, and what co-founder conflict really looks like from the investor sid...

Supercell absorbs Merge Mansion, Xbox fires its veterans and hires from Instacart, and the math behind gaming's VC collapse finally gets laid out in full. In this episode of TWIG, Mishka is joined by Josh Chandley, John Wright, and Ethan Levy to break down the biggest moves in games this week, from Finland's most beloved merge studio quietly running out of road to why gaming VC funding has...

Xbox doubles down on a DAU strategy with no real plan to get there. Ubisoft keeps cleaning house while its franchises collect dust. And the most doom-and-gloom post ever written about the games industry lands on LinkedIn, and it's hard to argue with. Topics Covered: ● Xbox's public memo: Rebranding back to Xbox, shifting to DAU as a north star ● UK games subsidies: £28.5 million, three fun...

Match-3 is harder than ever to win, clones are getting taken down, and Royal Kingdom is scaling toward the top of the puzzle market. In this episode of Puzzle Monthly, we break down the real state of puzzle games in 2026, from Turkish startup funding to Supercell’s latest attempt, Pixel Flow clone drama, and whether Royal Kingdom can actually challenge Candy Crush. Topics Covered:● Turkish puzzle...

Game Pass just got cheaper, China is rewriting the mobile market, and Ubisoft ships one of the most polished mobile games in years. Topics Covered: ● Xbox drops Game Pass Ultimate by 23% and pulls Call of Duty from day one, but none of it actually fixes what's broken ● Chinese, Hong Kong, and Singapore publishers now own 30% of Western mobile revenue, up from 16% in 2019 ● Pokémon Go surged 52% in...