GameMakers
by Joseph Kim
Latest episode
Stop Listening to Your Discord. Watch What Players Do. | Pedro…
Stop Listening to Your Discord. Watch What Players Do. | Pedro…
About this podcast
The GameMakers podcast publishes current, entertaining, and in-depth discussions on F2P game development. Topics that we cover include the business of games, F2P monetization, liveops, game design, game development processes, team structure, and more.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 191 episodes
- Stop Listening to Your Discord. Watch What Players Do. | Pedro Esparza, Bisect Hosting · 54 minPedro Esparza, Head of Growth at Bisect Hosting, has spent about 20 years on the business side of game servers (MC Pro Hosting, Tebex, Overwolf). We dig into his community…
- Game PR in the Age of AI: What Actually Works? · 51 minAsk ChatGPT for the best mobile puzzle game and it does not say Candy Crush. It says Monument Valley, a game from 2014 that is not on any top grossing chart.Kalie Moore has spent…
- Steve Ganem (Unity VP of Product): Why Unity Made D2C Payments Free — and What It's Really After · 43 minUnity just made direct-to-consumer payments free for every developer on its IAP SDK. No take rate, no fees. So what's the catch? I sat down with Steve Ganem, VP of Product at…
- Own Your Players, Don't Rent Them — D2C, Creator Codes & the Shadow Server Economy | Liam Wiltshire, GM of Tebex · 1 h 57 minEpic spent five years and over $100M breaking the platforms' 30% tax — then cut V-Bucks by 20% to "pay the bills." If the company that won the fee war still gets squeezed, what…
- The Last 20% Is Worth $100 Million · 1 h 10 minAI is making it cheaper to build games. It's doing nothing for the cost of building the right game. That distinction is about to crush more studios than any technology shift in…
- ThiGaming Trends for 2026 — And the One Nobody Wants to Talk AboutRT · 16 minLast month, I sat on a panel about where the gaming industry is headed. The conversation was good — but there was one thing I didn't say out loud. In this episode, I break down…
- AppLovin Bull vs. Bear Case: What Operators Know That Investors Don't · 1 h 51 minAppLovin just crossed $250 billion in market cap. Stock up 127% YTD. EBITDA margins at 82%. Is this the beginning—or the top? We assembled the most qualified panel possible to…
- Your validation passed. Your players hated it. Here’s why. | MAG #10 · 28 minMost game studios either skip validation entirely or waste hundreds of thousands on academic testing that doesn't move the needle. Both approaches kill products. In this episode…
- Your Analytics Stack Is Killing Your Studio (The New Meta: PostHog FTW) · 46 minMost game studios waste weeks of runway on the wrong analytics decision—here's how to avoid that mistake. Traditional analytics SDK vendors like Amplitude, Mixpanel, and Braze…
- Why Game Studio Failures Are Structure Problems, Not Talent Problems | Chris Casanova (Microsoft, Mojang, Relic, Hypixel) · 55 minMost game studios think they have a talent problem. They don't. They have a structure problem. Chris Casanova spent 15+ years as a producer across Microsoft Xbox, Mojang…
- The Battlefield 6 Redemption, What UCLA Football Teaches About Leadership, & Structuring Teams to Win | MAG #7 · 59 minWestern AAA development is not dead. Battlefield 6's 7 million unit launch proves it. This episode deconstructs how EA and Vince Zampella reversed the "disaster" of Battlefield…
- Inside the $55B EA-Saudi Deal: Why It's Not a Typical LBO (with Chris Petrovic & Matthew Kanterman) · 60 minSaudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund just closed the largest gaming acquisition in history—$55 billion for Electronic Arts. But this isn't the typical private equity playbook…
- The Ad Monetization Playbook: Fixing Leaky Revenue, Boosting CPMs, and Scaling Your Team with Kelly Kang · 1 h 8 minWhy is your ad revenue flat even when your game's traffic is growing? Margins are getting squeezed by hidden fees, and old strategies of yelling at partners no longer move the…
- MAG: Inside EA’s $55B LBO, Lessons from Grow A Garden, and the Intent→Action Gap ("Alien's Eye View") · 57 minThis week, we're breaking down the end of an era: the historic $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts. Go inside the deal to hear the likely banker's pitch that sold EA's…
- Unlock 82% of the Global Gaming Market: The Ultimate Localization Guide · 1 h 41 minIs your game only available in English? You could be ignoring over 80% of your potential players. In this deep dive, I sit down with Alexander Murauski, CEO of localization…
- Can Delta Force Beat PUBG? Is the Take-Two Mafia a Myth & How to Fix Recruiting? | MAG #5 · 27 minOn this episode of Game Makers, we explore three critical topics: how Delta Force's mobile revenue soared past PUBG's by 75% , why the "Take-Two Mafia" thesis is a myth centered…
- Arena Breakout: Infinite Breaks Out to PC!, Destiny: End of Western IP + China Dev, Secrets and Stupid Ideas | MAG #4 · 52 minIn this episode, we explore the major headwinds facing the games industry, from publisher-developer tensions to the viability of long-standing business models. We start with a…
- MAG Monday #3: India's RMG Ban, Failure of GenAI, Amazon x Netflix Gaming+Streaming Bundle · 1 h 29 minAlpha: Clash Royale 5x Revenue, Understanding the Illegible Margin GameDev: The Problem with Product Validation Happy MAG-nificent Monday! • 3-Macro: 3 stories impacting the…
- 3-2-1 MAG #2: Dreamhaven Layoffs, Silksong Success, GamePass Worth Jack**** | Magic Tiles 3 - Piano Game, Rise of AA | On Decision Making · 1 h 3 min3. Macro Top 3 Most Significant Gaming News From Last Week: • • Dreamhaven Games Hit by Layoffs (GamesIndustry.biz): Dreamhaven, the studio founded by former Blizzard…
- 3. 2. 1. Retro #1: Netease Bails on Western Studios, IGN Restructuring, Ubisoft and King Showcase AI · 47 minTop 3 Gaming News From Last Week: • NetEase Shuts Down Another Western Studio (Game Developer): NetEase has closed T-Minus Zero Entertainment. This marks the third Western…
