The Business of Games

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits dow...

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Chris Hewish si...

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits dow...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. Few companies in gaming carry more history than Sega. But in this special episode, the conversation isn't about the past — it's about what comes next. In this extended cut, Xsolla President Chris Hewish sits down with Takaya Segawa, Sega’s Executive Vice President and Head of JA Studios 2nd Business Unit. The conversation is a...

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits dow...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Over the past few months, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine have been testing a single idea against the real world: that direct-to-consumer isn't a channel or a tactic — it's a commitment to building a business around the player relationship. In this season finale, Chris and Lia come back to where it all started — five pill...

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits dow...

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits dow...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. Direct-to-consumer monetization is usually a conversation about where players spend: web shops, platform margins, owned storefronts. But what if the more interesting question is what they spend on — and what changes when real money is actually on the line? In this extended cut, host Lia Ballentine sits down with Derek Rathbun, Co-Founde...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine get into the part of the direct-to-consumer conversation that most studios either rush past or get wrong entirely: monetization. The default framing is simple: cut out the platform, keep more margin. But the studios actually building direct-to-consumer monetization well aren't...

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla.  Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits d...

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits do...

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla.  Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits d...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. Direct-to-consumer is easy to talk about in terms of web shops, payment rails, and platform fees. It's harder to talk about what's actually underneath it — the identity layer, the data architecture, the economic models, and the distribution infrastructure that either make the player relationship durable or leave it fragile. In...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. Direct-to-consumer strategies are usually measured by what they remove — platform fees, intermediaries, friction at checkout. But what happens when the asset itself becomes the channel? In this extended cut, host Lia Ballentine sits down with Jan Roessner , CEO and co-founder of One Earth Rising , to explore a new layer of the developer...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine go a layer deeper into direct-to-consumer — past the strategy, past the economics, and into the infrastructure that determines whether a studio's direct-to-player ambitions actually hold up at scale. Most direct-to-consumer conversations start with intent and end with outcomes....

Welcome to Coffee. Press. Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against host Chris Hewish and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this first episode, Bronson Ling...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , brought to you by Xsolla. GDC 2026 brought us something a little different. At Coffee. Press. Play., hosts Chris Hewish and Ed Lin sat down with past guests, friends of the podcast, and new voices from across the industry — all in one place. This short clip captures the energy of those conversations: candid, wide-ranging, and full of the kind of insight y...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , brought to you by Xsolla. Every March, the games industry makes its pilgrimage to San Francisco. GDC isn't a fan show. It's where developers, executives, investors, and platform teams talk to each other about what's actually happening in the business of games. In this episode, Lia Ballentine flips the script. Xsolla President, Chris Hewish,...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , brought to you by Xsolla. Direct-to-consumer is often framed as a distribution or monetization decision. But for someone who has spent more than two decades building brand voice and managing player relationships, the more important shift is cultural, and it starts with whether a studio is actually willing to listen. In this extended cut, host Lia Ballenti...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , brought to you by Xsolla. Marketing a game used to end at launch. In this extended cut, host Chris Hewish sits down with David Pava, Senior Director of Marketing for World of Tanks Modern Armor at Wargaming, to explore what happens when studios stop thinking in campaigns and start thinking in relationships. David brings a career path unlike most, from web...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine explore one of the most consequential shifts in modern game marketing: what happens when studios stop renting attention and start owning the relationship. Direct-to-consumer strategies are often framed around economics: margins, platform fees, and monetization control. But the deepe...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , brought to you by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine lay the foundation for a special series this season on direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategies in games. Chris unpacks the difference between DTC as a commercial motion and his concept of "Direct to Player" — a structural operating model that goes beyond the transaction...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. Game commerce isn’t just about platforms and storefronts. It’s about who can actually pay. In this episode, Lia Ballentine speaks with Michael Jedrzejczak, Program Manager and Gift Card Consultant at Xsolla, about how payment methods, gift cards, and retail access continue to shape who can buy and play games. Michael brings over 15 year...

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast , powered by Xsolla. In this episode, Lia Ballentine talks with Adam Krause and TJ Consunji, Managing Partners and Co-Founders of Miniboss Solutions, about how game retail actually works today and why being discoverable now matters more than ever. Game retail is no longer about shelves, launch days, or a single sales spike. With more than 20,000 games relea...