The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast

James Batchelor and Christopher Dring discuss a busy week in the ongoing saga that is Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Following the denial of the FTC's preliminary injunction, the denial of its request for an extension to the temporary restraining order, and the denial of its appeal, there is seemingly nothing to stop Microsoft completing the deal in the US before its dead...

The latest episode of Playable Futures features a conversation with Deborah Mensah-Bonsu, who is the founder of dmb crew. Her flagship initiative is Games for Good, which focuses on helping studios and the wider industry harness games for social impact. Will and Deborah discuss the opportunity presented by the proliferation of games on mobile to unlock societal and behavioural change for good. “Pe...

The GamesIndustry.biz Microcast is back. In today's episode, James Batchelor and Chris Dring reflect on the revelations so far from the court hearing between the Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft over the latter's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard. As you can tell from our ongoing roundup, it's hard to gauge whether any progress is actually being made here but there are certainly so...

The GamesIndustry.biz team gather around their mics to reflect on this year's cavalcade of video game showcases. We've already shared our favourite indie titles from the likes of Summer Game Fest, Xbox Games Showcase, Day of the Devs, Wholesome Direct and more, while Chris Dring reviewed his experience of the first physical Summer Game Fest event. Now we discuss the overall line-up of the week-and...

Shawne Benson, Global Head of Third Party Portfolio & Acquisitions at Sony Interactive Entertainment and Laila Shabirm, Founder & CEO of Girls Make Games speak to Will Freeman for the latest instalment of our Playable Futures Series. Our eighth outing sees us tackling what continues to be a prominent talking point within the industry - women in games. For a sector often associated with toxic stere...

James and Brendan discuss two of the biggest stories of the day in our latest GamesIndustry.biz Microcast. We start by wrapping up our coverage of the major summer games showcases, discussing the line-up at yesterday's Ubisoft Forward. The conversation touches on everything from the narrative dilemmas of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora to the more-than-a-little awkward introduction of Netflix animate...

Continuing our breakdown of the biggest summer games showcases, James and Marie reflect on the line-up Microsoft showed off at last night's Xbox Games Showcase. Headlined by the likes of Fable and Star Wars: Outlaws, with a good old fashioned hardware reveal and a lot more information on the upcoming Starfield, the showcase gave a great insight into what Microsoft's first-party studios are working...

The GamesIndustry.biz microcast returns as we discuss the biggest announcements from this year's Summer Game Fest: Kickoff Live. James and Marie share their thoughts on the most promising games, as well as the tone and quality of the overall line-up. And, inevitably, the conversation shifts towards the usual 'do we need E3/Not-E3?' discourse. If you missed this year's Summer Game Fest, be sure to...

The GamesIndustry.biz team gathers around their mics to discuss the biggest stories in the business of video games. This week, we dive deeper into the potential for cloud gaming - a technology the UK competition regulator believes will become so big that it's using this as ground to block the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Following our recent conversation with analysts on the true...

Chris and James offer a bite-sized breakdown of yesterday's PlayStation Showcase, from the new hardware revealed to the glimpses at Sony's future first-party line-up. As well as rounding up some of the highlights, the discussion dives a little deeper into the potential audience and use cases for the Project Q handheld streaming device, Remedy's decision to release Alan Wake 2 as a digital-only tit...

GamesIndustry.biz's Chris Dring and James Batchelor deliver another short, sharp analysis of the biggest stories happening across the business of video games. Today's microcast covers: Take-Two's latest financial results Ubisoft's latest financial results Strauss Zelnick: Key companies took E3 for granted Next week's PlayStation Showcase As always, any feedback on this new show format would be app...

Welcome to the new GamesIndustry.biz Microcast. In addition to our full-length, in-depth discussions of key topics from across the industry, we are also experimenting with a new short-form format in which we analyse the biggest stories as they break. Today's episode covers the European Commission's approval of Microsoft's proposed Activision Blizzard acquisition, the record-breaking UK launch sale...

The GamesIndustry.biz team gather around their mics to discuss the biggest stories from the business of video games. This week, we discuss the recent cancellation of E3 2023, the myriad factors behind it, and what comes next for the long-running trade show. With the industry's needs changing over the years, and the rise of new ways to reach your audience, the very purpose of E3 has been the ongoin...

Episode seven of the Playable Futures podcast turns its attention to the future of game consumption, and the shift in the dynamic between user, creator and platform. The result was a wide-ranging, insightful conversation between two brilliant guests – Stephanie King, Chief Administrative and Legal Officer and Playco, and Karol Severin, Senior analyst, VP of data, and Co-Founder at MIDiA Research....

The GamesIndustry.biz team gather around their mics to discuss the biggest stories of the past week. On this episode, we begin with the report that 2023's Call of Duty release will be a follow-up to 2022's Modern Warfare 2 that originally began an expansion. It will plug the previously reported gap that could have seen this year become the first since 2005 not to see a new entry in the series, wit...

Marcia Deakin, Co-Founder of Next Gen Skills Academy, Shahneila Saeed, Head of Education at UKIE and Director of Digital Schoolhouse and Keira McGarvey, Head of People at FuturLab join Will Freeman for the latest edition of our Playable Futures Series. Episode six of the Playable Futures podcast assembles a panel of experts to tackle the challenges and opportunities of the industry’s talent pipeli...

The GamesIndustry.biz team gather around their mics to ponder the year ahead. Rather than offering predictions on what we think will happen in the business of video games this year, we share our hopes for what we want to see.  The discussion ranges from serious concerns such as the desire to see more unionisation among developers and fewer immoral monetisation practices, to more personal wishes su...

The latest of our Playable Futures series tackles the industry's foundational duo - Publisher and Developer - and looks at what the future holds for Publishing in a sector in which the rate of change is rapid and accelerating. It’s also one in which the balance between Community, Audience, Developer and Publisher has shifted irrevocably.  For Episode 5, presenter Will Freeman speaks to Jean-Paul H...

The GamesIndustry.biz team gathers around their mics and discusses their favourite games of the year. In addition, we discuss several of the honourable mentions, the titles we've delved deeply into throughout the course of 2022 but haven't quite established themselves as our favourites. You can read our full thoughts on each member of the team's on the site throughout this week. Learn more about y...

It’s a double whammy for our latest episode of the Playable Futures Podcast, with gaming communities at the centre of the discussion. For this episode, presenter Will Freeman chats to Mark Reed, Founder of Heaven Media to reflect on gaming’s relationship with marketing and the important role that communities play in shaping its landscape. He then interviews Romain de Waubert de Genlis, Studio Head...

The GamesIndustry.biz team gathers around their mics to look back at some of the biggest stories and trends of the year. Using a recent edition of This Week In Business as a jumping off point, we discuss whether 2022 was a weak year for new video games (as some folks believe) and how well the line-up compares to previous years. We also discuss the biggest trends, such as the wave of potentially in...

For the latest episode of the Playable Futures Podcast, games journalist Will Freeman is joined by representatives from three of the many independent and mid-size studios that are currently making waves in the games industry. Playtonic Games business development manager Stephanie Darrah, nDreams CEO Patrick O'Luanaigh, and Nosebleed Interactive managing director Andreas Firnigl discuss how much th...

The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast is back, as the team once again gathers around their mics to discuss the biggest stories of the week. We start with the highs and lows of the latest Pokémon launch. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are smashing series records in key territories and are the most ambitious entries to date – but it turns out that ambition comes at a price. With widespread complaints and viral...

For the second outing of the Playable Futures Podcast, games journalist Will Freeman chats with Tommy Palm, founder and CEO of Resolution Games to reflect on the future of virtual reality.  An industry veteran responsible for the enormous success of Candy Crush Saga, Palm has since shifted his focus to the world of virtual reality, courtesy of Ultimechs, Resolution’s new multiplayer VR gaming expe...

"In eight years' time, I'd like to see the video games industry being the greenest industry in the world and that the players that play games are coming to it, not just to escape, but to give back as well." The wider creative industries are increasingly looking to games for inspiration. After all, it’s probably fair to say that gaming is now bigger than the Beatles – so why wouldn’t the world of m...