Deconstructor of Fun

We have a full house! Phil and Mishka are back from Gamescom reminiscing their flourishing bromance causing Kress to gag (he’s just jealous). We talk about the recently announced slate of games. Jen and Laura debate Netflix Stories. And we summarize the latest market insight report from Data.ai. Link > Helsinki VIP Happy Hour

Rina Onur, CEO of Spyke Games/co-Founder of Peak Games, shares insights on Turkish gaming companies, entering mature categories successfully, building a winning culture, and raising monster seed rounds.

The podcast discusses cozy games and the successful beta for cozy MMO Palia. They also delve into Gossip Harbor and the latest trends in the Merge game genre. Other topics include apprehension towards scary games, excitement for the game Starfield, Nintendo's potential entry into mobile gaming, and LGBTQ characters in games.

Brett Nowak, founder of insights platform Liquid & Grit joins the podcast to answer and ask three questions with Mishka Katkoff. The fellas talk about Brett’s grind from bootstrapping his company to where is today, a team of 45. They chat about Mishka’s immigrant mentality and debate about remote work. In this episode, Mishka also talks about his favorite and least favorite job from his 14-year-long games career. And of course, the two share their insights about the mobile games market and the future of the game industry as a whole.

The podcast discusses the cannibalization of Genshin Impact by Honkai, Roblox's burning business, Netflix's foray into streaming, the subscription business model for games, and the sustainability of the Venture Capital model.

The crew debates Netflix's gaming strategy, Jen's reaction to Assasin's Creed beta test rejection, praises to Baldur's Gate, the importance of community for game launches, and Nintendo's declining mobile revenue.

In this episode, Mishka Katkoff hosts a conversation with Tim Bennison, COO of Hot Head Games and a leader with over 25 years of experience in game development, creative product development, and more. They discuss the nuances of moving into work-for-hire projects, client engagement, and strategies for success for a co-development studio in a rapid games industry. Tim provides essential qualities for co-development studios as well as strategies to exceed client expectations. The two also discuss the importance of being honest, transparent, communicative, and understanding client needs. You’ll also learn why time zone alignment can be a key factor in successful co-development, and hear valuable advice regarding pitching and re-pitching projects.

Jen covers the hottest brand reveal of 2023 while Phil checks in on Tim Sweeney’s chess board. Laura designs a roadmap for Epic Games; you’ll never guess what lands first. The crew tries to match up Match Master’s $200M success and marvels Pikimin 4’s monster success. Eric and Mishka DM pictures of their vacation and promise to return soon.

Web Shops for free-to-play mobile games are a topic we bring up regularly on This Week in Games. The ability to monetize your most engaged players outside of Apple and Google's walled garden's is an invaluable tool in maximizing a successful game's potential and one the TWiG crew doesn't have enough first hand knowledge of. In the spirit of learning, Ethan is very excited to be joined by Ben Tsacoyianis and Dave Hague from Tilting Point, along with Chris Hewish from Xsolla, to educate the DoF community on how we can use web shops to help retain and bring delight to our most devoted players. Tilting Point has long been leveraging Xsolla's web shop on their hit game Star Trek Timelines, and in this interview they drop knowledge bombs on how you can use Web Shops to improve revenue, player delight and even open up new marketing paths.

With Eric and Miska cruisin’, Ethan makes a return to host an Eggy Party. Shells are broken as Phil and Ethan debate the cost of Roblox and mobile “reskins”, but it’s unclear if everything is scrambled or sunny-side up. Jen revisits the 10th anniversary of Dota 2’s battle pass while Laura spills the deets on King’s new pass. Phil does his best Eric impression for Exoprimal’s Premium Plus launch.Listen to Phil’s Tavern Talk appearance on Youtube or Spotify. >>> get the newsletter >>> join the community Thanks to our amazing partners: Heroic Labs, AppsFlyer, Xsolla, Data.ai