GameMakers

If you were going to start a new games studio, how would you design the organization, the work environment, and work culture and values for the company? We speak with the co-founders of Gardens, who are building a shared fantasy adventure game from a veteran team that has worked on games such as Journey, Spider-Man, Skyrim, and many others. Gardens has recently announced an over $30M series A roun...

There's a lot of context behind Unity's recent run-time fees and the big changes they rolled out on pricing. Find out more about Unity's business, issues & problems, and future outlook. OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 0:52 High-level overview of Unity’s business: 1. Create and 2. Grow 5:40 Financials overview: Create vs. Grow, revenue growth, impact from Ironsource 12:04 The new world requires...

Epic's Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) potentially presents a huge new platform rivaling Roblox. Why are some of the most experienced developers in the world like Alex Seropian (founder of Bungie and Industrial Toys/EA) and Pete Hawley (100 Thieves) so excited by UEFN? What does a former Roblox developer, Arthur Trusov, think about the platform especially in comparison to Roblox? Find out no...

IDFA deprecation and the end of fingerprinting *in theory* would end targeting and the ability to do user acquisition as well as in the past. What is the current state of the market and what will the impact of new changes - meaning the end of fingerprinting - have on mobile game companies? We talk to Matej Lancaric, mobile user acquisition specialist and podcast host on 2 and a half gamers for his...

The Pixel bros are joined by Eric Kress from the Deconstructor of Fun podcast to talk everything Take-Two Interactive! OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 2:45 Take-Two Fundamentals 6:25 The $5.5B to $8B guidance in bookings 7:12 What could be driving $8B in bookings 10:30 Comparing King acquisition vs. Zynga 13:07 Rockstar and 2K Overview 15:38 Kress’ take on T2 business 20:57 Zynga Overview 23:15 Eric: Why Zyng...

Mukul Deora is a modern-day Renaissance man. He has found success in business, music, movies (as the producer for The White Tiger), and today he's tackling tech entrepreneurship in social media. The White Tiger movie encapsulates many of my personal beliefs and aspirations of what people are capable of if they change their mindset and are given the opportunity. In this discussion with Mukul, w...

OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 1:13 3x3 format explanation 2:40 To JK: How to balance work and family between SF and Bangalore? 11:00 How do you evaluate sacrifice to the potential gain? 15:06 To Mishka: Thoughts on entrepreneurial journey. Biggest highlight and lowlight? 30:00 To JK: What has been the hardest part of your journey? What did you not expect? 43:55 To Mishka: What has been your biggest lesson l...

How do hit games use persona analysis to optimize feature design, do product validation, live ops, etc. Josh Rivers used data-oriented persona analysis while working on Eve Online at CCP. Nick Reinhart used persona analysis on Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes. Even if you prefer other methodologies, the persona analysis using the data-oriented approach by Josh and Nick should at least be understood by F...

Does a gaming smartphone make sense? Can a gaming publisher or other company launch a successful phone that competes with iPhone or Android phones? What do you think? OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 2:30 Existing gaming smartphones 3:01 Argument for a Nintendo smartphone 9:15 Argument for a Tesla smartphone 👇 EPISODE LINKS: - Pixels & Profits Play List: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQNQpqdo6_6E...

Welcome, everyone; this week, we are doing a new format called What If? We want to speculate on several scenarios and evaluate the pros and cons and potential strategic and financial implications based on these hypothetical scenarios. In this episode, we discuss the potential and hypothesize the impact of an Xbox console business carve-out from Microsoft We recorded this episode in 3 parts: #1. Xb...

I spoke with Brewed Games, an 8-person indie PC game dev studio based in Bangalore, India, making a souls-like action RPG game. We cover their origin story, challenges, and future opportunity. Check it out! 👇 EPISODE LINKS: - Brewed Games: https://www.brewedgames.com/

Feedback and performance evaluation for employees is one of a company's most challenging, political, and sensitive topics. However, without this practice done well, it will be tough to hold performance standards or see improvement in a team or company. I would argue that if you are not doing this well, your team/company is doomed over the long term. I discuss with industry experts and ex-Riot...

We speak to Serkan Toto to get his take on the top Japanese and Korean game companies. Serkan is considered by many to be the foremost expert on the Japanese video games space. Check out more from Serkan: - https://www.serkantoto.com/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/serkantoto OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 1:25 Key Asian gaming trends, including crypto 4:45 Serkan’s take on the console wars 8:18 Matthew’s ta...

From Wargaming, Anton Kolkovskiy founded Bulberry Studio to build mid-core F2P mobile games. As war broke out between Russia and Ukraine, Anton was unable to raise a follow-on round of funding and eventually shut down the studio he had spent so much time, energy, and effort into. What were the lessons he learned from the start to launch to attempting to save the company? What would he do different...

Everyone's saying mobile is dead. Then how do you explain these 5 blow-out mobile game launches over the past year? Lol. Matej Lancaric from 2.5 Gamers and I reviewed the data, launch strategies, and more for each of these Top 5 mobile game launches over the past year. OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 6:30 Honkai Star Rail 14:49 Monopoly Go 27:00 Survivor!.io 36:03 Marvel Snap 45:48 Frozen City 52:09 JK +...

The market dynamics, strategy, and future outlook of console gaming: Sony vs. Microsoft vs. Nintendo. Microsoft is all in on Game Pass. Is this the last generation of Xbox? OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 0:56 Impact of PC gaming to console gaming market 4:51 Why Microsoft's console business is in danger 6:26 Microsoft may not care about Xbox and hardware, Starfield will be a good test 7:43 Microsoft = Ga...

Excerpt from GameMakers full interview: Pixels & Profits #2. Watch the full discussion here: https://youtu.be/fi0RCUiCnfE SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

The Pixel & Profit bros discuss the long history of the console market and the primary players in the market today: Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. We trace back the history from the 6th generation to today and talk "profits." Meaning the key games and market history and dynamics thus far and outlook into the future. OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro 1:05 Console market overview: Sony, Nintendo, an...

Taken From: Mobile Growth: IDFA Deprecation Scapegoat or Reality? Podcast YouTube

Excerpt from GameMakers full interview: Pixels & Profits #1. Watch the full discussion here: https://youtu.be/2G539NGHfVI SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ 😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! — • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1 • TWITTER → @jokim1 • LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ — POPULAR CONTENT — 🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney https://youtu.be/h6Cl...

Excerpt from GameMakers full interview: Pixels & Profits #1. Watch the full discussion here:    • Where is the Game...   SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ 😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! — • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1 • TWITTER → @jokim1 • LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ — POPULAR CONTENT — 🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney    • Economy of the Me...

Excerpt from GameMakers full interview: Pixels & Profits #1. Watch the full discussion here: https://youtu.be/2G539NGHfVI SUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS: - Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/ 😃 —CONNECT WITH ME! — • MY INSTAGRAM → @jokim1 • TWITTER → @jokim1 • LINKEDIN → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jokim/ — POPULAR CONTENT — 🤑 Economy of the Metaverse with Tim Sweeney https://youtu.be/h6Cl...

Like the rest of the world, the games industry has undergone many changes! The impact of the end of ZIRP, global macro trends, and the end of the age of excess leads to many changes. We discuss where we are today, the M&A outlook, and the outlook for major public game companies. M&A discussion - Scopely/Savvy - Rovio/SEGA - Activision/Microsoft Public Companies: - AI + @NVIDIA (NVDA) - Emb...

Let's be real. Everyone is blaming IDFA! Listen to the top 3 reasons why any game failed over the past 6 months; it's always IDFA. How real is this? There is a narrative today that IDFA deprecation has destroyed mobile marketing growth and made new game launches dramatically more difficult to even impossible. The counter-narrative more often whispered in private conversations, is that the...

Sarah Thomson is a long-time games industry veteran, having had an extremely successful career in business development at companies like IUGO, Gree, Sony (PlayStation), Google, and most recently at Bad Robot Games. We discuss her experience and thoughts on female diversity in the gaming industry. Get ready for a real discussion where we try to address topics more meaningfully. OUTLINE: 0:00 Intro...