The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast

The GamesIndustry.biz team offer their thoughts on last week's Xbox Series X showcase. Recorded in the immediate aftermath of the presentation -- technically during some of the post-show interviews -- we offer our immediate reactions to the first glimpses of next-generation gameplay we saw. 'Glimpses' being the most appropriate word. Both Xbox and Ubisoft have since admitted it may have oversold h...

Matt, Rebekah, Chris and James discuss the biggest news of the past week. We begin by unpacking Xbox boss Phil Spencer's comments in a recent interview, in which he talked about how Microsoft was taking care to ensure it was "not exploiting" the COVID-19 pandemic and the "big flood" of new users it has brought to gaming. Then, after a tangent about streaming services and the bizarre communications...

Taking a break from our usual weekly news discussion, the GamesIndustry.biz team carefully place their crystal balls next to their microphones for an unusual E3 predictions podcast. E3 is, of course, cancelled this year and the ongoing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in delays for several high-profile games -- and that's not counting all the unannounced ones lurking behind...

Rebekah, Matt, Chris and Marie gather around their mics to discuss the biggest issues of the past week. Firstly, we discuss the recent Kotaku report on Rockstar's attempts to change its internal crunch culture, with the prominent suggestion that the next Grand Theft Auto may be of a more moderate size but then expanded post-launch. Then we reflect on the mixed initiatives the games industry has la...

In this special edition of the podcast, the GamesIndustry.biz team shares our own experience of remote working. With so many countries around the world in varying stages of lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, almost the entire industry has shifted to a work-from-home model that is a far cry from the way it usually operates. We've already run a series of articles offering advice on how to a...

Matt, Brendan, Rebekah, Chris and James gather to discuss the latest news from the games industry - this week, focusing on the three platform holders. First up, we discuss the delay to The Last Of Us: Part II and the various factors that would have influenced this. Sony will be contending not just with the distribution logistics of a disrupted world, but also the challenging of marketing a game ab...

A bit of an unusual episode this week, taken from a livestreamed AMA-style session on YouTube. With EGX Rezzed postponed due to the spread of COVID-19, GamesIndustry.biz and a number of our sister brands ran a three-day online conference, Rezzed Digital. One of the sessions we hosted was a live edition of the podcast, where audience members were invited to ask us questions about the state of the g...

Rebekah, Matt, Brendan, Chris and Marie are all on hand this week to discuss the biggest news and events in the video games industry. We kick off with reflection on the recent reveals for the technical specifications of Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Rather than getting caught up in the discussion of which machine is more powerful -- and whether that makes it 'better' than its rival -- we take a...

James, Chris, Rebekah and Brendan join this week's podcast to discuss the biggest news from the games industry over the past seven days. Naturally, we start with the cancellation of E3 -- making 2020 the first time in 25 years the games industry has not descended on California in the summer. The team debates the impact this might have on the industry -- versus the loss of GDC, for example -- and h...

James, Brendan, Marie and Haydn gather around their respective mics to discuss the biggest games industry news of the week. The main topic is once again the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the consequences for games businesses around the globe. Another wave of events have been cancelled -- including one that pushes the event horizon beyond E3 -- and we have even seen the first hardware...

In an absolutely packed episode, the team discusses the biggest stories of the week -- starting, of course, with the postponement of GDC 2020. Matt, Chris and James talk about the fallout of the event's cancellation, the tough decisions that would have been made behind the scenes, and how the organisers' optimistic plan for a summer event might manifest. We also delve into the impact the event's c...

Matthew, Brendan, Rebekah and James discuss the latest headlines, predominantly focusing on the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. With Sony and Facebook -- and, since recording, Kojima Productions -- withdrawing from GDC 2020 and the cancellation of Mobile World Congress, the consequences for the event space are perhaps the most obviously felt. But there are also continuing reports of delay...

This week Haydn, Matt, Brendan, Chris, and Marie gather around the old GamesIndustry.biz Podcast campfire to discuss the keynote speech Tim Sweeney offered up at DICE recently.  Although mainly focused on things like open platforms, the Epic Games CEO took a confusing and ill-advised detour into the world of politics and games.  Crammed into the final few minutes of a half-hour speech, Sweeny made...

Haydn, Brendan and Chris discuss the biggest stories of the past week, starting with Microsoft's bold claims as to who its biggest competitors are. Phil Spencer recently claimed Xbox's future will see it stand up against the likes of Amazon and Google, rather than its historical rival PlayStation. We unpack this statement, and take a closer look at Microsoft's position in the wider tech and games...

As we barrel through yet another financial season, Rebekah, Brendan, and Chris ask the all important question: do numbers matter? With Microsoft posting a 21% decline in game revenue while celebrating an increase in subscriptions, the traditional metrics for success aren’t as straightforward as they used to be.  Nintendo’s success last year comes with fewer caveats, however, hitting or exceeding a...

James, Marie and Haydn are on hand to discuss the biggest topics of the past week, including crunch, class-action lawsuits and coins tossed to Witchers. The big topic of the week is Doom Eternal executive producer Marty Stratton's comments that the team "crunched pretty hard" for most of 2019 and, despite the four-month delay, continued to do so in the run-up to the game's completion.  We once aga...

Matt, Marie and James discuss the biggest topics of the week, starting with Microsoft's plans for Xbox Series X. The platform holder recently revealed that the next-generation console will have no exclusive titles to begin with, instead allowing games to play across both Series X and the Xbox One family of devices. While this inevitably raised questions as to how the platform holder hopes to shift...

Rebekah, Chris and Brendan come together for a special edition of the podcast, discussing this week's biggest news: Sony will not be attending E3 for the second year in a row. While the platform holder has other plans to get the PlayStation 5 in front of the masses ahead of its launch this Christmas, including attendance at "hundreds" of other consumers events throughout the year, we ponder some o...

Matt, Chris, Rebekah and James gather round their mics to discuss the biggest stories of the past week. First up, we discuss the revived conversation around Battlestate Games' Escape From Tarkov and the developer's various excuses for the lack of playable women in the game. Six years on from the Assassin's Creed Unity debacle, we explore whether reasoning such as the "huge amount of work needed wi...

Brendan, Rebekah, Chris and James kick off the year with a roundtable discussing our hopes, predictions, expectations and utter pipe dreams for the year ahead. Following our roundup of analyst predictions for 2020, we offer our own thoughts on what might be the biggest topics and trends of the year -- almost inevitably centring around the arrival of new consoles next Christmas. We also touch on wh...

For our final podcast of the year, the entire editorial team gathers around their microphones to discuss our favourite games of the year. The selection varies greatly from first-party franchise extensions and AA blockbusters to Switch ports of classic RPGs and innovative indie games. (And some members of the team may have shoehorned in namedrops for multiple other picks as well). Download now and...

It’s time for the GamesIndustry.biz Podcast, and this week James, Brendan, and Rebakah are on hand to discuss all the big news while still leaving plenty of room to reminisce about the GameCube.  The industry is once again overflowing with complaints regarding toxic work environments, after former Razer employees accused CEO Min-Liang Tan of abusive behaviour.  These allegations were joined by two...

The industry may grind to a halt during Thanksgiving week, but there’s still plenty going as we take a look at unconscious bias, diversity, and the perceived failings of virtual reality.   Following last week's articles by Rebekah (Brass Lion Entertainment and the critical business of diversity) and Haydn (Overcoming unconscious bias in the games industry), we discuss both the barriers and benefit...

In this week’s bumper pack episode, Rebekah, Matt, and Haydn discuss the troubled Google Stadia launch, Half-Life: Alyx, and Pokémon.  Google made big promises with the Stadia, and now it’s here the response has been notably muted. Plagued by fidelity and performance issues, the Stadia is struggling to fulfill its potential. As it stands, Stadia is widely considered the best game streaming platfor...

A short but special episode in which James and Chris discuss the biggest announcements from Microsoft's event in London this week. Recorded on the show floor itself, this discussion actually took place a few hours ahead of the reveals, but thanks to handy pre-brief notes we were able to weigh up the highlights. Highlights included new IP from Rare and Obsidian, as well as a partnership and ambitio...