Player Driven

What happens inside a studio when a game explodes past every projection on launch day? Jeremy Fielding, Community Manager and Narrative Coordinator at Stunlock Studios, was there when V Rising hit 150,000 concurrent Steam players — and he walked us through all of it: the chaos, the 60-hour weeks, the improvised official servers, and the feedback systems they built on the fly. Joined by Steve McLeo...

Episode Description (the version that goes in podcast players) New York City has tripled gaming industry jobs since 2008. The average wage is now 14% above the citywide average. Over half of NYC's game studios are indie teams of five or fewer. And almost nobody outside the city knows it. In this episode of Player Driven, Greg Posner sits down with Alia Jones-Harvey, Associate Commissioner of...

What does it really take for a two-person indie team to turn an after-hours idea into a real shipped game? In this episode of Player Driven, Greg sits down with Max Mraz of Moth Atlas to talk about the long road behind Tombwater, a handcrafted horror western action game built over four years while balancing full-time jobs. What started as a small experiment quickly became something much bigger, fo...

For years, mobile gaming operated under one unspoken rule: give up ~30% of your revenue to platform holders like Apple and Google. That model is starting to break. In this episode of Player Driven, Greg sits down with Gil Tov-ly, CMO of Appcharge, to unpack one of the biggest structural shifts happening in gaming right now: the move toward direct-to-consumer (DTC). Gil brings a unique perspective,...

Player Driven Live — April 9, 2026 The Q2 release window wars, Nintendo's dual-platform strategy, and whether the gaming industry actually understands its own audience. Hosted by Greg Posner & Colan Neese | ~57 min 🎬 THE MARIO MOVIE (00:00) The Mario Movie: A Kids' Film That Actually Works (And Why Critics Miss the Point) Greg and Colan return from spring break having both seen The...

This week’s episode takes a different angle. What started as a conversation about Epic, Disney, and the state of the market quickly turned into something bigger… a discussion about systems. From live service games to theme parks to parenting, the same core question shows up everywhere: What behaviors are your systems actually driving? We break down:  Why Fortnite’s evolution is less about content...

This week, we’re bringing back one of the most interesting conversations we’ve had on Player Driven. Andrew Wagner didn’t learn economics in a classroom first. He learned it inside a game. Before managing investment portfolios, Andrew was running a guild in an MMO, experimenting with supply, demand, reputation, and player behavior in real time. What started as “just playing the game” turned into a...

Guests:   Karin Johnson: Co-founder of Magic Potion Games (Veteran of Club Penguin and Fortnite ) Hege Tokerud: CEO/Founder of Aiba (Cybersecurity and AI moderation specialist)  Episode Summary In this strategic primer for GDC 2026, we sit down with industry veterans to discuss why community is no longer just a marketing checklist—it’s the new competitive advantage. From the "social-first&quo...

Episode Overview In this episode, Greg sits down with Renee Gittins — studio founder of Stumbling Cat, former IGDA Executive Director, ex-General Manager of Phoenix Labs Vancouver, Forbes 30 Under 30 for Games, Reddit legend, and now a debut author. Renee unpacks her wildly non-linear path into the games industry, the lessons she learned shipping her indie game Potions: A Curious Tale , and her ha...

Episode Summary: While the team is away at GDC in San Francisco, we’re bringing you a deep-dive encore of one of our most provocative conversations. Greg and Colan sit down to dissect the mounting pressure from the U.S. government on Tencent to divest its massive stakes in Riot Games, Supercell, and Epic Games. We explore the reality of data privacy in the modern age, the "cultural war"...

In this episode of Player Driven, host Greg welcomes back industry veteran Sharon Fisher to discuss the rapidly evolving landscape of content moderation. From her early days building moderation at Club Penguin to her current work with AI-driven platforms like Checkstep, Sharon shares her unique perspective as both a trust and safety expert and a concerned parent. Key Discussion Points The Evolutio...

Episode Summary Why do we play the video games that we play? Is interest in the strategy game genre truly waning globally over time? Greg and Lewis sit down with gaming psychology pioneer and Quantic Foundry co-founder Nick Yee to answer these and many other questions. From dissecting the Proteus effect to comparing and contrasting the psychological motivations that drive GTA Online, Fortnite, and...

Episode Summary How do you break into the games industry later in your career? And once you’re in, how do you build a meaningful life and community without burning out? In this episode, Greg is joined by Amir Satvat, a Business Development leader at Tencent and the winner of the "Game Changers" award. Amir is one of the industry's most important connectors, having built a community...

On this episode of Player Driven, Lewis and Greg are joined by Joost Vervoort, Associate Professor at Utrecht University (in the Netherlands) and Science/Impact Director at Speculative Agency. We dive into the "imagination factory" of the games industry and explore how video games can move beyond simple escapism to become tools for systemic societal change and climate activism. 🎙️ Episod...

Recorded live at Pocket Gamer London , Greg sits down with Hill from Checkstep for a wide ranging conversation on trust and safety, AI powered content detection, parenting in a gaming household, and why moderation is no longer just about removing harm. Hill shares her journey from data analyst to GTM leader in trust and safety, how Checkstep is building on top of the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem...

In this episode, Greg and Colan break down the surprising success of Hytale after its departure from Riot Games, the strategic restructuring at Ubisoft, and the evolving multi-platform future of Xbox. Colan provides a deep-dive "dissertation" on the three eras of Riot Games publishing and explains why the studio may be "trapped by its own success". Key Discussion Points 1. The...

Episode Summary Is the gaming industry entering a "negative flywheel"? This week, we dive into the staggering reports of Black Ops 6 underperforming and what it means for the future of Microsoft Gaming and potential layoffs. We also tackle Jeff Bezos’ controversial take on the death of the PC and why "anti-appliance" gaming is the future—even if latency remains our biggest enem...

In this episode of Player Driven , Greg Posner sits down with Laura Norwicke Hall , Senior Player Support Specialist at Schell Games , to unpack what modern player experience really looks like when games scale. Laura shares her unconventional journey from managing communications at a zoo to building player support and trust & safety systems for games like Among Us 3D and I Expect You to Die ....

What does it actually take to build a media and events business that survives multiple platform shifts, economic cycles, and industry hype waves? In this episode of Player Driven, Greg sits down with Chris James, CEO of Steel Media and the force behind Pocket Gamer and Pocket Gamer Connects, to break down two decades of hard-earned lessons at the intersection of games, media, business, and live ev...

Episode Summary: In this special encore presentation, we revisit one of our earliest and most popular conversations. Originally recorded two years ago, Greg Posner sits down with Beau Button, the visionary CTO and Co-Founder of Atlas Reality. Beau breaks down how Atlas Reality is merging the digital and physical worlds through a "virtual real estate" metaverse that actually drives foot t...

What does ambition really look like inside modern game development? In this episode, Greg sits down with Jack Burrows to unpack how level designers think, work, and stay motivated across massive franchises and creative constraints. From AAA pipelines to indie dreams, this conversation explores how great games are built through framing, intention, and small wins, not ego or crunch culture. Jack sha...

In this episode, Greg sits down with Jim Welch, a composer turned developer turned studio founder whose creative journey spans Dragon Ball Z trailers to launching a party game in the spirit of Jackbox. We explore Jim’s path from audio to entrepreneurship, the founding of The Devhouse Agency, and why his team is now investing in original IP. From creative leadership to WebGL distribution strategy,...

This episode features host Greg and Lewis Ward discussing the true nature of virtual worlds with Wagner James Au, author of Making a Metaverse That Matters, exploring the core design, economic, and community philosophies of successful platforms. Summary The discussion defines the metaverse as a vast, immersive virtual world with five core features, including highly customizable avatars and a link...

Dive deep into the strategic mindset of level design, the shift from AAA development to indie studio entrepreneurship, and a radical new business model for creating innovative "Cocktail Games." Key Takeaways & Discussion Points The Reality of Level Design Beyond Architecture: Willem, a former level designer at Velan ( Knockout City ) and Zynga ( Star Wars Hunters ) , defines level de...

Episode Summary Forget the old ways of game development. The Roblox platform isn't a sandbox—it's a brutal, high-frequency, algorithmic battleground. In this deep dive, we break down why traditional "AAA" development strategies are being crushed by low-fidelity, quick-to-market viral hits. We analyze the metrics that Roblox’s discovery algorithm actually cares about (it’s not j...