Naavik Gaming Podcast

How do you build a dedicated Roblox studio? The answer: “hire your customer” according to the Co-Founders of Tiny Comet Emily Tierney and Anca Agapi . Your host, Alexandra Takei , Director at Ruckus Games , alongside the Tiny Comet team discusses building and running a studio where the average employee is under twenty years old, acquiring users on a platform that has 40M games and a notorious algo...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad delves into the fresh UK sales numbers, highlighting top hits like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Spider-Man 2. Then we discuss why YTD video game spend in the US is actually down compared to last year (when accounting for inflation) despite it being a notable year of great hits. We pair that discussion with insights from the latest Drake Star and Konvoy Q3 repor...

Together with Gamesight, one of our Open Gaming Research Initiative partners, we’re exploring various go-to-market (GTM) strategies and insights, specifically for PC games. Currently, there is a growing curiosity surrounding the topic, particularly as observed in the development of new mobile games designed for cross-platform compatibility and the introduction of PC versions of existing mobile gam...

Welcome to part two in our series covering all things Savvy Games Group . In this episode Aaron Bush chats with Javier Ferreira , the co-CEO of Scopely , which was acquired by Savvy earlier this year for $4.9 billion – the sixth largest gaming acquisition of all time. Scopely is now the #2 largest North American mobile games company (as measured by global IAPs), and it serves over 100 million play...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad kicks off by discussing what to make of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's pay no longer being driven by Xbox Game Pass growth targets. We then navigate the waters of FaZe Clan's acquisition by Gamesquare for a largely deflated $17M, especially in the wake of its previous SPAC and esports as a struggling industry. Pivoting to streaming giant Netflix, we dissect its...

As "metaverses" gain in prominence, and more and more gameplay happens inside these digital worlds, brands, advertisers, and IP owners are naturally going to want to be there. Wherever there is consumer attention and engagement, there will always be brands wanting to get in front of these engaged audiences.  But how should brands, which typically know nothing about gaming, engage with consumers in...

Hybridcasual is a buzzword of late, but what exactly does it mean, and where is it going? As hypercasual continues declining, many games teams are experimenting with either converting their existing hypercasual games to hybridcasual (by adding more casual features) or are building hybridcasual games from the ground up. It’s a rapidly shifting environment with many moving pieces. To help make sense...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad delves into Microsoft's completed acquisition of Activision Blizzard and speculates on the future landscape of gaming acquisitions. We then touch upon the continued trend of layoffs, this time spotlighting Frontier, and discuss when the tide may shift the other way. Lastly, as the holiday season approaches, we share our predictions on which games are likely to...

In 2022, ESL Gaming and FACEIT merged to create one of esports’ most important companies: ESL FACEIT Group (EFG). This operating group, fully owned by Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group, manages esports tournaments (via ESL), gaming festivals (via Dreamhack), a platform for superior PvP play (via FACEIT), and gaming audience management tools (via Vindex, acquired this year). In this episode, we chat...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad kicks things off by discussing the resignation of Unity's CEO John Riccitiello and the introduction of the company's new interim CEO. We then delve into the latest on our favorite Swedish aggregators, including Embracer's ongoing setbacks and MTG's acquisition of Warhammer Tacticus developer, Snowprint Studios. Next, we explore the strategy behind Diablo IV ann...

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 the “Data Corner”. Today’s episode is Part 2 of Driving ROI with Data Analysis. It’s a broad topic that many understand has a lot of value, but not so many know how to engineer it in their gaming studios. In Part 1 , we talked about how game...

On September 13th, Zynga minted its first NFT collection, the Oras, and announced its entry into the Web3 gaming space with Sugartown. There have not been many large, established developers who have taken the plunge into the Web3 waters, especially in the Western markets, and those that have tried to incorporate NFTs or other Web3 elements into their existing games (looking at you, Ubisoft and Gho...

How red is the ocean of shooters and is there room for innovation in what most consider a wildly competitive and oversaturated space? Roby John , CEO and Co-Founder at Supergaming (a studio building an indo-futurism mobile battle royale called Indus, check out their beta here ) and Nikolaj Nyholm , CEO and Co-Founder at Scattershot (a studio building a competitive PvP battle royale shooter called...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad starts with covering the successful mobile launch of Monster Hunter Now , giving Niantic another win in location-based gaming. Then we touch on Luda's recent $7M funding for its AI training sim, spotlighting real-time reinforcement training and UGC elements. That's followed up with a conversation around Activision/Blizzard's decision to shut down and revamp the...

We’ve all played match 3 games, but the genre itself has seen limited innovation in recent years. However, Candivore and its hit game Match Masters – which features PvP and new monetization mechanics – are changing the narrative.  In this episode, we talk to Candivore ’s co-founder and CEO Gal Goldstein about the multi-year journey in developing Match Masters, scaling up its success, and raising m...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad starts off by reflecting on Unity’s business model changes and Jim Ryan’s retirement after a strong 30 year run at PlayStation. Then we discuss comments from both Xbox’s Phil Spencer and Capcom’s Haruhiro Tsujimoto that put into question AAA games’ pricing and the evolving role of publishers. We also touch on the breaking news of Epic Games’ major layoffs and d...

Amitt Mahajan, co-creator of cultural icon and Internet treasure Farmville, has been working at the intersection of gaming and technology for his entire career. Now, Amitt has set his sights on web3, and more specifically, building true fully on-chain “forever games” and the technical tools to power them, in order to facilitate autonomous worlds, ensure game longevity, and create a more immersive...

India’s gaming market is well known for its betting and gambling companies, including unicorns like Dream11 and Mobile Premier League, but what does the next decade of gaming behavior in India look like? Salone Sehgal , founder and GP of Lumikai , one of India’s first dedicated games and interactive media funds, and Abhaas Shah , co-founder of Studio Sirah , join us to talk about the size of India...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad shares some personal updates including a recap of Korea Blockchain Week, streetball with Fat Joe, and two new Naavik deep dives. Then we cover the latest in Unity's evolving monetization saga, including why the company got itself into this situation in the first place and why it’s (perhaps partially) backpedaling on its monetization policy announcements. We als...

Together with Dive , one of Naavik's Open Gaming Research Initiative partners, we’re exploring the topic of data and games through a limited podcast series called the “Data Corner”. Today’s episode is about “Driving ROI with Data Analysis” — a broad topic that everyone understands is valuable but most don't know how to effectively engineer into their game studios. After all, ROI from data analysis...

User generated content is a multi-decade wave that continues to grow and transform the games industry. One company pioneering this future is Overwolf , which is creating an all-in-one platform for creating, sharing, and monetizing in-game apps, mods, and game servers. As is laid out in the episode, Overwolf is looking to help creators earn billions of dollars over time by essentially enabling all...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad discusses a wide range of fun topics. We start by digging into the potential sales of Jagex and Gearbox, YouTube’s new Playables feature for instant gaming, and Story Protocol's $54M raise for its unique web3 take on IP. Then we dive into the week's main headline: Unity’s major installs-based monetization addition, which is sparking a major backlash from game d...

In 2011, Sean Ryan was hired to build out Facebook’s nascent gaming business just as Zynga and other social gaming start-ups were gaining traction on the platform. A decade later, Sean’s responsibilities eventually encompassed numerous other initiatives, including Facebook’s forays into blockchain. In this episode, Sean explains why he felt compelled to leave Facebook to start his own web3 gaming...

“Show me how you play, and then I’ll tell you who you are”, says Joe Schaeppi , CEO and Co-Founder of AI powered studio Solsten . Today, Joe, Alex, and Kishen Patel , the author of “The Infinite Power of Play” in collaboration with our partners at Lightspeed, talk about the use cases of AI in games (#1: Cost and Time Reduction, #2: New Genres of AI Powered Games), what it means to understand not o...

In this week's Roundtable, the squad highlights data.ai’s new 2023 Gaming Spotlight Report (link below) and adds more details around PlayStation’s decision to raise subscription prices. Then we cover Starfield’s launch, including its impact on Game Pass and the viability of its windowing strategy, followed by discussion on how the writers and actors strike could impact the games industry. Lastly,...