Deconstructor of Fun

Leisure EN ↓ 801 episodes

Deconstructor of Fun podcast is created by games professionals for games professionals. We explore the business side of the games industry with the goal of bringing listeners content that is relevant, insightful, and entertaining on a weekly basis. Hosts:Michail Katkoff www.linkedin.com/in/michailkatkoff/Eric Kress www.linkedin.com/in/erickress/Phillip Black www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-black-economist/Jen Donahoe www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferdonahoe

Author

Deconstructor of Fun

Episodes

TWIG #58: $40M Raise for N3twork - Should We Be Worried? and Tencent's Timi Studio Expanding West - Not A Level Playing Field! 26.11.2019 27:40

Namaste everyone and welcome to TWIG #58! Today we have just myself Joe Kim and Eric Kress. Miska and Adam are out for the rest of the year. The full news we discuss is as follows: #1. N3twork raises $40 million for platform to help mobile games gain traction #2. How a Chinese Developer at Tencent Is Shaping the Future of Gaming #3. Has the hypercasual game genre peaked? #4. We review some of the...

TWIG #57: Ninja/Shroud No Impact on Twitch, Epic Games Launcher, & Stadia Flop City 19.11.2019 46:42

Welcome to TWIG #57. Today we have your usual hosts Joe Kim, Eric Kress, and Adam Telfer (Miska's out for the rest of the year). We do have a guest host Alex Collins though: a software engineer at Jam City and DOF blog contributor. The full news we discuss is as follows: #1. Mixer + Shroud + Ninja #2. Everything Announced at X019’s Inside Xbox Conference #3. Fortnite’s Android installer is now a l...

TWIG #56: DECA Games Buys 4 Games from GREE and Super Evil Megacorp Hands Vainglory to Rogue Games 14.11.2019 54:07

Welcome to TWIG #56 everybody. This week we focus on live ops companies like DECA and now Rogue Games who will live operate Vainglory for Super Evil Megacorp. Today we have your usual hosts Joe Kim, Eric Kress, and Adam Telfer (Miska's out today). Joining us however is Ken Go CEO of DECA who will talk about DECA's business and the business of live ops specialists. The full news we discuss is as fo...

TWIG #55: Scopely Raises $200M and Zynga Has Record Blow-out Quarter! 04.11.2019 1:03:20

Welcome to TWIG #55 everybody.  This week we get a bit of a battle between Eric and Miska over Zynga growth prospects so stay tuned for that! This week we cover: #1. EA games are coming back to Steam #2. Mobile game firm Scopely raises $200 million #3. One Million players now subscribe to PlayStation Now #4. Zynga posts record-setting revenues, net bookings in Q3 Hit us up on Twitter with any...

Apple Arcade: Service Analysis and Future Prospects 31.10.2019 50:00

Apple Arcade launched on September 19 earlier this year and has been praised by many in the media and significantly backed by Apple. Having said that: #1. What are the future prospects for this service? #2. Who is the audience? #3. What are key strengths/weaknesses of the service? #4. Finally, how well do we think Apple Arcade will do in the long-term? Find out in our discussion today with m...

TWIG #54: Ghost Recon Breakpoint's Spectacular Bomb and Google Stadia Update! 28.10.2019 41:21

Welcome to TWIG 54! This week we cover: #1. Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s spectacular bomb blows up Ubisoft’s plans for 2019 #2. Google is making a "spectrum of bets" on Stadia content #3. Fallout 76 Now Has a $100-a-year subscription service, Fallout 1st #4. Why have hyper-casual games replaced gacha in Japan? Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1, @ekress, @adamwtelfer, @m_katkoff Let us know which news topi...

TWIG #53: Challenging Riot's Paul Bellezza on Riot's Massive New Game Slate Announcement! 24.10.2019 1:20:01

Welcome to TWIG 53. This week we cover: #1. Everything Riot announced for League of Legends’ 10th anniversary #2. The 4 Features that matter on PS5 - and 5 that don’t #3. Call of Duty is the biggest mobile game launch ever, with 100 million downloads #4. CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE POST-LAUNCH APPROACH TO NEW CONTENT We are joined by Paul Bellezza who actually works on Project A at Riot Games!&nb...

How to Transform Company Culture | Riot 1 Year Later with Angela Roseboro, Chief Diversity Officer @ Riot 19.10.2019 1:03:13

Riot Games got hit with a tsunami in the form of the infamous Kotaku article Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games . The article was followed by several people writing publicly about their own experience with the company that underlined the same story and signalled a clear message - Riot’s culture needed healing. The person who took the ownership for leading the healing process was Angela Ros...

TWIG #52: Deconstructing Blizzard President's Interview 14.10.2019 50:30

Welcome to TWIG 52. 1 Year of TWIGS! This week we cover: #1. Fortnite US July revenues down 52% year-over-year #2. App revenue climbs 23% year-over-year to $21.9B in Q3 #3. Blizzard's President On Making Sure Nothing Changes #4. Playable Worlds has a different mindset on engagement Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1, @ekress, @adamwtelfer, @m_katkoff Let us know which news topics you want us to talk ab...

TWIG #51: Future of Mobile Growth Teams, UA Mobile Bust, and Call of Duty Mobile! 07.10.2019 1:03:13

Today we are joined by guest host Eric Seufert who writes the really great marketing & UA focused blog: https://mobiledevmemo.com/ Also check out Eric's F2P Marketing/UA site: https://quantmar.com/ This week we cover: #1. The future of mobile growth teams #2, Acquisition and conversion costs threaten a mobile bust | Opinion #3. Call of Duty: Mobile is live after a troubled launch #4. Transpare...

TWIG #50: PUBG Mobile, Mario Kart Tour, and Call of Duty Oh My! 02.10.2019 57:55

In this week's TWIG we are joined by Damian Kim who is Director, Head of Gaming China for Facebook. The topics we cover today include: #1. PUBG becomes first mobile battle royale to surpass $1bn revenue #2. Expectations are ‘sky high’ for Nintendo’s latest Mario mobile game, analyst says #3. Mario Kart Tour’s $4.99 monthly subscription fee is out of touch with reality #4. Call of Duty: Modern Warf...

TWIG #49: Subscriptions The New Weapon in Game Monetization and NBCUniversal Shuts Down Game Publishing 23.09.2019 1:11:55

Today we are joined by guest host Lloyd Melnick who is EVP Casino at VGW and writes the fantastic blog The Business of Social Games and Casino . This week we cover: Subscriptions: The new weapon in the game monetization arsenal Rockstar Games Is The Latest Company To Put Out Its Own PC Game Launcher Zynga Climbs on 'Best Idea in Video Games' Nod from Stephens Google says 'Play Pass' subscription s...

#15 How to Prepare for Your Next Job | Protecting Yourself as an Employee 19.09.2019 1:03:17

Today we’re going to be talking about a little bit of a sensitive topic which is what you as an employee can and should do to protect yourself against companies that are facing layoffs or some form of restructuring. Also, how should you deal with work situations that you may not be happy with and how and when should you best optimize leaving your company if you are unhappy. We all know the video g...

TWIG #48: The Glory Days of Social Casino Are Over! 17.09.2019 38:30

In this latest TWIG episode we discuss: #1. T HINKING ABOUT DAILY ACTIVE USERS (AND THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS METRIC) , from AlexandreMacmillan.com #2. A Learning Journey: Announcing EA’s Cloud Gaming Technical Trial , from Medium #3. How Zynga looks for the right game companies to acquire , from VentureBeat #4. Disney reportedly planning sale of gaming division FoxNext , from Gamesindustry.biz #5....

TWIG #47: League of Legends Mobile Game and Telltale's Controversial Revival 17.09.2019 50:04

In this week's TWIG we discuss: The RetroBeat: World of Warcraft: Classic shows what MMOs have lost New Leaked Screenshots And Videos For League Of Legends Mobile Game Telltale Games employees speak out about the studio’s controversial revival AppLovin Announces Strategic Investment in Belka Games , Creator of Clockmaker and Funky Bay Sensor Tower: Pokémon Masters makes $26 million in first week H...

TWIG #46: Supercell Soft Launches New Game Rush Wars (and more Archero!) 05.09.2019 59:41

In this week's TWIG we discuss: How Archero Shot to the Top, and How You Can Do Better (Deconstructor of Fun) Supercell’s new mobile strategy game Rush Wars soft-launches in Canada, New Zealand and Australia (PocketGamer.biz) Pokemon Masters launches globally on iOS and Android (PocketGamer.biz) Playtika acquires Best Fiends mobile game publisher Seriously (VentureBeat) Welcome to guest host Kenny...

#14 How Archero Shot to the Top ft. Joe Kim, Abhimanyu Kumar, Florian Ziegler, and Eva Grillova 02.09.2019 47:02

Newcomer Habby shot up out of nowhere with Archero which made over $35M in net IAP revenue over its first 3 months.  Find out how Archero was able to achieve big success and how it could have been designed even stronger in this episode's podcast. Also, check out the original Deconstructor of Fun blog post covering the game by Manyu and Eva. Many thanks to the co-hosts on this podcast. Ping us...

TWIG #45: Respawn CEO apologizes for devs & Sony Acquires Insomniac 27.08.2019 44:16

In the latest TWIG we discuss: Apple Arcade: $4.99 per month is likely for family access to 100 games Respawn CEO apologizes for devs who insulted Apex Legends fans GameStop lays off 120, 14% of total staff Sony Agrees to Acquire Spider-Man Video-Game Developer Insomniac Hit us up on Twitter (@@jokim1, @adamwtelfer, & @ekress) to let us know, which news topics you want us to talk about next or...

#13 Super Scale With No Strings Attached with Ivan Trancik 26.08.2019 1:46:11

Welcome to the final episode of our Mobile Publisher Series. In each of the episode we sat down with the CEO of top mobile publisher and discussed how they approach publishing, what is their company’s strategy, how do they work with developers and how do they see the future of publishing on mobile. In case you missed the previous episode: Mobile Publishing #1: Deconstructing Scopely's path to $1B...

TWIG #44: Tencent doubling down on Season Pass, Ninja Jumps to Mixer! 24.08.2019 1:02:23

In this episode of This Week in Games we discuss: #1. Tencent doubling down on Season Pass, #2. Ninja quickly getting 1M subs on Mixer, #3. Roblox Surpassing Minecraft with 100 MAU, #4. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, require loot box disclosure, and #5. Apex Legends Forums Furious as Devs Call Players "Ass-Hats" and "Freeloaders" Today we're joined by guest host, Josh Burns from Digital Dev Connect! H...

#12 Former Publishing CEO Spills the Beans with Klaas Kersting 18.08.2019 1:00:33

Welcome to the third episode of our Mobile Publisher Series. In each of the episode we sat down with the CEO of top mobile publisher and discussed how they approach publishing, what is their company’s strategy, how do they work with developers and how do they see the future of publishing on mobile.  In case you missed the previous episode: Mobile Publishing #1: Deconstructing Scopely's path t...

#11 Behind Tilting Point's $132M War Chest with President Samir El Agili 12.08.2019 1:13:05

Welcome to the second episode of our Mobile Publisher Series. In each of the episode we sat down with the CEO of top mobile publisher and discussed how they approach publishing, what is their company’s strategy, how do they work with developers and how do they see the future of publishing on mobile.  If you missed our last episode with Scopley’s Co-CEO Javier Ferreira, I encourage you listen...

#10 Scopely's path to $1B with Co-CEO Javier Ferreira 06.08.2019 1:22:24

Welcome to the first episode of our Mobile Publisher Series. In each of the episode we sat down with the CEO of top mobile publisher and discussed how they approach publishing, what is their company’s strategy, how do they work with developers and how do they see the future of publishing on mobile.  In this episode Scopely's Co-CEO, Javier Ferreira, dives deep into the company's product strat...

TWIG #43: EA, Ubisoft, Zynga, and Glu Earnings Recap and Outlook! 05.08.2019 53:25

This week "J Money" Kim, Eric Kress, and Jeff Cohen from Stephens break down the latest info from earnings calls from public companies EA, Ubisoft, Zynga, and Glu.  What happened? What did we learn? And what is the outlook for these companies? You can also listen to Eric gloat about his call on Glu.  We'll be doing these podcasts quarterly after every earnings period. Have feedback give...

TWIG #42: Disney Should Buy This Games Company... 30.07.2019 42:28

In this episode of This Week In Games we discuss: #1  What Video Game Company Should Disney Buy (That Isn’t Activision Blizzard)? #2  Pokémon Masters hands-on #3  Facebook migrating Instant Games away from Messenger Hit us up on Twitter (@m_katkoff, @jokim1. @adamwtelfer & @ekress) to let us know, which news topics you want us to talk about next or more in-depth. Or to just let...