Deconstructor of Fun

Two kids. Zero filter. All the takes. Rocky and Mickey are back for Twig Jr., and they didn't hold back. From aging out of Roblox to explaining brain rot to calling out in-game money grabs, this is how Gen Alpha actually thinks about games. Topics Covered: ● Roblox's highs and lows and what's actually gone downhill ● Friend Slop and how it's replacing traditional multiplayer ● Brai...

The mobile gaming ecosystem is shifting fast this month. We break down the shocking deplatforming of Freecash, a $500M+ rewarded ad network, and what it signals for the future of user acquisition. Then we dive into Unity’s major strategic pivot: shutting down ironSource and going all-in on Vector. Is Vector actually working, or just great marketing? Topics Covered: ● Freecash ban: what happened an...

We sit down with Joakim Achren, serial entrepreneur, former GP at F4 Fund, and now AI-first founder, to talk about why he walked away from venture capital and what he's building next. Topics Covered:● The founder-turned-VC trap: why it sounds like a natural progression but has a flaw nobody warns you about ● Micro-fund economics: a $10M fund pays you less than a startup salary, and you spend h...

A lot happened this week in games. Kids are outsmarting Roblox's age verification, Xbox is cracking under its own pricing, and Pokémon is running laps around everyone else's marketing. Topics Covered: ● Roblox age tiers: Three new segments, parental controls, and why lawsuits from 8 states still aren't the biggest threat● AAA dominance debate: Is the top 20 really losing ground, or is Newzoo misle...

We sit down with Ben Porter, Director of Consulting at Newzoo, to go through their 80-page 2026 PC & Console report page by page. Topics Covered: ● Newzoo calls it an Inflection Point but we call it winner-takes-more on a flat engagement base● Roblox is the #1 most played franchise on PC & Console with 50%+ playtime growth YoY but is it even a game?● The Roblox generation actively avoids A...

This week, we go two-on-two for a lighter, looser TWIG, but there’s nothing light about the topics. We break down the biggest shifts across film, platforms, AI, and where attention is really going. Topics Covered:● Don’t ever put Mario in the corner; he crushed it at the Box Office● Aream and Investgame report ● Take Two takes an Axe to its AI team and lets them go in advance of GTA6● Monopoly Go...

What to do, what to do about Marathon? The crew considers radical shock therapy with surprising answers and solutions. Deadlock pushes systems design to its logical extreme in a few shooters that are just starting to play with, but does it actually have an audience? Take bets now. We discuss:● Deadlock’s systems-first design philosophy◦ Layered stat architecture across weapon, vitality, and spirit...

Roblox has over 150 million daily active users, a million concurrent hits, and some of the fastest game iteration cycles in the industry. So why do so many Roblox games still fail to become real businesses? We sit down with Nick Tornow, SVP of Engine and Creator Engineering at Roblox, and Zach Letter, CEO of WonderWorks, to unpack how discovery really works on the platform, why small teams are out...

The industry isn’t slowing down. This week, we break down the biggest shifts across games. Topics Covered: ●  Disney and Epic:  Why the speculation is picking up and what a bigger Disney move into games could look like ●  Unity’s latest shift:  A strong earnings beat, the shutdown of Ironsource, and the sale of Supersonic ●  Studio closures and shutdowns:  What the latest cuts across VR, live serv...

The games industry is hitting another inflection point, and the "old rules" of growth are being rewritten. This week, we’re unpacking: ● Google’s "Level Up" Program: Is it actually a win for devs, or just more platform gatekeeping? We look at Sidekick and the new UA economics. ● The Epic Pivot: Layoffs, the UEFN "platform" gamble, and what the future of Fortnite actua...

The mobile ecosystem is experiencing some massive shifts this month. We dive into the real implications of Unity Vector's new D28 campaign, break down what Google’s recent fee cut actually means for your studio's growth trajectory, and unpack the wild news of AppLovin stepping out of the ad-network shadows to build its very own social network. Topics Covered:● Unity Vector's D28 campai...

It's been 2030 days since Google pulled Fortnite, and the Epic vs. Google settlement is finally here. We sit down with AppCharge CMO Gil Tovly to read the fine print of Google’s new 15% fee, unpack the mandatory AI sidekicks in the "Level Up" program, and figure out if this is actually a win for developers going direct-to-consumer. Questions we answer in this episode: ● What is the r...

The Deconstructor of Fun crew is back from San Francisco, recovering from a whirlwind GDC week to break down the massive shifts hitting the industry. No prep, no scripts. Just the real conversation on whether the "lowest attendance since 2011" is a sign of a dying conference or just a more efficient executive retreat. Questions we answer in this episode:● What is the "one word"...

The full Deconstructor of Fun crew, all six of us, recorded live and on-site in San Francisco at the end of GDC week. No prep, no scripts. Just the real conversations from a week of side events, back channels, and late nights. Questions we answer in this episode: What's the one word that captures the mood of GDC 2025? Is GDC still relevant? What's the wildest rumor that we heard? Why is ev...

Extraction shooters are finally confronting their identity crisis. Is Marathon the answer, or just another branch of the same lineage? Phil, Sides, and Anjos break down a pivotal moment for shooters: Highguard’s collapse, Marathon’s high-stakes launch, and Overwatch’s unexpected resurgence. The debate rage on: are we watching the evolution of battle royale into something more persistent, or just a...

Sam Aune from Sensor Tower breaks down the State of Gaming 2026 - from Battlefield 6 proving premium is far from dead, to why free-to-play is getting harder to break into, and how social indie games are driving viral success. In this episode, we go deep on mobile’s slowdown, strategy games dominating revenue, and how Chinese publishers are out-executing the West across both midcore and casual. CHA...

We talk about how Pixel Flow scaled so quickly, why its core design works for monetization, and how games like Hexa Sort and Magic Sort helped push the sort puzzle genre forward. The discussion also covers UA, the wave of Pixel Flow-style clones appearing in the market, and whether hybrid-casual puzzle design is starting to influence traditional puzzle studios. We also touch on what kinds of mecha...

We discuss Turkey’s new government subsidies for game developers and why the country may become one of the most attractive places to build a studio, the uncertain future of WB Games following major media consolidation, and Discord delaying its global age-verification rollout after backlash and regulatory pressure. We also discuss the Misfits seed round from an ex-Supercell/King team, a correction...

Guy Meiboom, Meta’s US EMEA Gaming Director, breaks down what actually happened to gaming performance after ATT and why Meta had to rebuild its gaming org from the ground up. From creative velocity and algorithmic reach to geo lift testing and UA funding, this episode focuses on execution. Not theory. Not slides. The uncomfortable middle between marketing, product, and capital allocation. If you’r...

Xbox is at a strategic inflection point. The question now is why, how, and what comes next. We break down the massive Xbox leadership shakeup, what it reveals about Microsoft’s real strategy, sharp critiques of the new CEO, and exactly what the brand must do to survive. Fresh off a hockey loss and curling cheating allegations, Adam returns to the podcast with a lot to answer for. We unpack PlaySta...

Dead as Disco went from 50,000 Steam wishlists to over 400,000 in less than a month, with over a million unique demo players and a 98% Overwhelmingly Positive rating. They are currently at 750k+ Wishlists today. Host Jen Donahoe sits down with Eden Chen, founder of Pragma and the FirstLook player relationship platform, and Adam Gershowitz, COO of Brain Jar Games, to break down exactly how they did...

Meta’s apparent comeback runs headfirst into shifting UA economics, rising creative costs, and new pressure from platforms like Reddit, forcing marketers to rethink what “working” actually means. We unpack whether Meta is truly back or just delivering short-term dopamine, why in-app ads could reshape ad-monetized LTV, and how CPMs, payback windows, and creative volume are redefining the hyper-casu...

We recap the Clash Royale creator controversy and CEO apology, dig into what’s broken with evolutions, heroes, and pay-to-win, and debate whether streamers can actually drive a comeback. We also cover Savvy’s rumored MoonTon deal, Blizzard’s updates across Overwatch, Diablo, and WoW, the slowdown in mobile games, the frozen state of M&A, and a reality check on AI in games - from hype to hard l...

User-generated content (UGC) isn’t “make anything.” It’s “make something that someone cares about.” In this Deconstructor of Fun conversation, Julia Polatovska, founder of Dorian, a creator platform for mostly women + Gen Z, goes past the pitch and into the operator questions. Who creates, who wins, what monetizes, and what breaks at scale when you're building a UGC platform. Connect with Julia: w...

Supercell’s annual CEO blog post reads equal parts culture memo and a recruiting pitch. We break down what is behind the PR spin before zooming into Clash Royale’s Lil Wayne halftime show as a case study in where “brand” ends and product-led fandom begins. From there, we triangulate the broader market: Newzoo’s year-end PC/console recap as a reminder that attention is consolidating, not expanding;...