Naavik Gaming Podcast

It is known that the gaming scene in CIS has political, legal, and regulatory challenges that make it hard to develop games or deploy investments into the region. But if you do it right, my guests, Maria Kochmola , Managing Partner at The Games Fund, and Arseny Lebedev , CEO and Co-Founder at Original Games, think it’s worth it. Today they both sit down with your host, Alexandra Takei , Director a...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad dives into the booming success of Palworld, a game that's been dubbed "Pokemon with guns," and explores why it's capturing everyone's curiosity. We then shift gears to discuss Riot's recent pullback (layoffs and game pivots) and what this could mean for other projects in the works. The conversation then heats up as we dissect Newzoo's 2024 market predictions, s...

Immutable is one of the leaders in the web3 gaming space, as well as one of Australia’s fastest-growing companies. The business has raised AUD$400 million dollars and was most recently valued at AUD$3.5 billion (about US$2.5 billion). The company was founded by brothers Robbie and James Ferguson in 2018 when it was called Fuel Games, and they developed and published the blockchain trading card gam...

Venture markets – within and beyond gaming – soared in 2020-2021 and fell back to earth over the past couple of years, but what should we expect in 2024? And what may change about gaming VC longer-term? To answer these questions and more, host Aaron Bush is joined by Moritz Baier-Lentz , Partner and Head of Gaming at Lightspeed. Moritz shares his thoughts on the state of venture capital, lessons l...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad begins by discussing Stumble Guys' move to Xbox, which will now compete head-to-head with Fall Guys. We then shift gears to Valve's new initiative, testing an invite-only system that empowers developers to schedule their own daily deals, alongside a reverse in policy that now allows AI-utilizing games (given certain assurances). We also dive into the reconcilia...

In this week's Roundtable, we explore the gaming highlights from the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show and joke about what trends are peaking in ridiculous ways (AI-powered egg cartons, anyone?). We then dive into a couple strategy changes being discussed by leading subscription businesses: first, how Netflix is reportedly rethinking ways to monetize games, and, second, what Xbox (with Game Pass) may...

Trading Card Games (TCGs) have always been a natural fit for Web3. Their real-world analog cousins are inherently collectible, generally have a notion of rarity, and have a thriving secondary market. For instance, the infamous Black Lotus card from Magic: The Gathering earlier in 2023 broke its own sales record at $540,000, and there is a long history of high-value cards changing hands.  So it is...

Owen Mahoney , CEO of Nexon, is back for another phenomenal conversation – this time on the heels of the announcement that Owen is soon stepping down from the CEO role after a decade of market-beating performance. He and host, Aaron Bush , discuss Owen’s legacy at Nexon, what he wished he knew about being CEO when he started, what goes into great succession planning, and more about Nexon’s next CE...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad kicks off with a deep dive into the Game Awards' staggering 118 million viewers, surpassing even the Super Bowl, and what this means for gaming's place in mainstream culture. We then shift gears to a recent Omdia report revealing VR's struggles, debating why it's floundering and what could turn it around by 2026. The conversation turns to China's proposed new r...

In this week's Roundtable, we follow up on the previous episode with this week’s Epic Games Store policy shift, highlighting the decision to create an Adults Only exception for web3 games, notably reinstating titles like Gods Unchained. The conversation then pivots to our final episode of the year celebration, packed with bold predictions and in-depth discussions for 2024. We delve into the evolvi...

Together with Dive , one of our Open Gaming Research Initiative partners, we’re exploring the topic of data and games through a limited podcast series called “Data Corner.” This episode is the final segment of this mini-series, so we decided to focus it on a fascinating future-facing topic — AI Analytics. According to Gartner’s Analytics Ascendancy Model , there are four types of analytics that sh...

Real, living pets have a fundamental problem - they have a limited lifespan and they die. Digital pets aren’t immortal either. Over 80 million Tamagotchis have been sold since their debut in 1996 - and how many of them are still around today? But what if your pets really could live forever, at least in the digital realm? With blockchain technology that’s a reality, and to discuss how, your host, N...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad dives into the successful collaboration between LEGO and Fortnite, discussing how LEGO's first successful Minecraft-like venture could potentially broaden both companies’ audiences. We then shift gears to Epic's recent legal triumph over Google, analyzing the stark differences from its Apple lawsuit and pondering the implications for the future of mobile gaming...

Together with Nexus , one of our Open Gaming Research Initiative partners, today we’re diving into the topic of content creator programs. Content creator programs are designed to incentivize and reward the creators in one’s community for driving attention towards a game. It isn’t the newest of growth strategies, but it's become increasingly popular in recent years. Companies like Ubisoft, Scopely,...

Serial entrepreneurs that always win are a rare breed worth learning from, and we’re hosting one of those special people today as our guest. Dylan Collins is currently an investor but was the founder and CEO of DemonWare, Jolt, and SuperAwesome, which sold to Activision Blizzard, GameStop, and Epic Games, respectively. In this conversation, we explore a few of Dylan’s lessons learned from running...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad dives into the unexpected early leak and subsequent official release of the GTA VI trailer, which has taken the internet by storm. We then shift gears to discuss the burgeoning success of hybridcasual games, which surpassed $2B in revenue in 2023, and how Voodoo's bold claim of "hypercasual is dead" is playing out in the market. The conversation heats up as we...

UEFN is gunning to be the next major Roblox competitor, but just how competitive is it? Today, your host, Alexandra Takei , Director at Ruckus Games , sits down with the founder of Bungie, Alex Seropian , now the current CEO of Look North World, and Amy Wu , the partner heading up the games and consumer practice at Menlo Ventures. Fortnite Creative 2.0 has drawn in a lot of committed creators: Sno...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad unpacks ByteDance's decision to wind down its gaming arm, Nuverse, and divest popular titles like Marvel Snap. The conversation then pivots to the legal drama at Neon Machine, where the directors of Shrapnel are suing its controlling shareholder in a contentious battle for control over the web3 FPS developer. We also highlight a recent study on League of Legend...

Welcome to the third and final part in our series covering all things Savvy Games Group , the Saudi-backed gaming giant in the making. In this episode, Aaron Bush sits down with Brian Ward , the CEO of Savvy Games Group, to discuss the company’s ambitions, including its goal of becoming the world’s largest gaming company and its plans to turn Saudi Arabia into a more prominent gaming hub. We also...

In this week's Roundtable, we welcome Taylor Hurst from Konvoy Ventures, bringing a fresh investment perspective to our discussions. We kick off by dissecting the startling 68% YoY decrease in games VC funding reported by PitchBook for Q3, pondering the implications and where the funding might be redirected. The conversation then shifts to Epic Games' intensified focus on child safety in Fortnite,...

Game7, a community formed to accelerate the adoption of Web3 gaming, recognized that there had to date not been a comprehensive overview of the entire Web3 ecosystem, and decided to do something about. On November 13th, they released the very first truly comprehensive study that covers the past 6 years of Web3 gaming, using objective and neutral primary research methods. The report captured and ex...

Neil Long used to be responsible for app rankings on the Apple iOS Store before founding Mobilegamer.biz , a site aimed at increasing mobile games coverage. Jason Schreier is a long-standing games journalist with a career spanning Wired, Kotaku, and now Bloomberg News; he's famous for exposing industry crunch, lobbying on behalf of the developer, and depending on who you ask, exposing unofficially...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad tackles the contentious release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, scrutinizing Activision's bold pricing strategy for what many see as DLC-sized content. We then shift gears to the evolving stances of various companies regarding live service games, including noting where we are in the trend's hype cycle. The conversation pivots to Valve's unveiling of the Stea...

Together with Windwalk , one of our Open Gaming Research Initiative partners, we’re diving into the topic of community building within game building. The reason for talking about all things community is simple: not only has community building always been important, but it has never been more important, especially when thinking about where the industry is moving from a discoverability, distribution...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad unpacks Bungie's recent layoffs and the implications for Destiny 2 and Marathon’s future. We then shift gears to Azur Games' acquisition of Good Job Games' entire portfolio, sparking an exploration of the merits of portfolio vs. talent acquisition strategies in the gaming industry. Next, the announcement of a Legend of Zelda movie sparks a discussion comparing...