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PODCAST

Deconstructor of Fun

Deconstructor of Fun

Deconstructor of Fun podcast is created by games professionals for games professionals. We explore the business side of the games industry with the goal of bringing listeners content that is relevant, insightful, and entertaining on a weekly basis. Hosts: Michail Katkoff www.linkedin.com/in/michailkatkoff/ Eric Kress www.linkedin.com/in/erickress/ Phillip Black www.linkedin.com/in/phillip-black-economist/ Jen Donahoe www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferdonahoe

leisure video games

All Episodes

01:13:42

345. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of UA Financing

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/26

Everyone's telling you cohort financing is free money to scale. It's not, and the contract fine print is where that story falls apart.Josh Chandley (President & COO, Wildcard Games) sits down with Phil Mohr (CEO & Co-founder, Metica) and Martin Macmillan (Founder, Pollen Capital) to break down what cohort financing actually costs, who really takes the risk, and how founders keep getting burned by deals they don't fully understand. Martin lent almost $1B through Pollen VC with zero credit

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00:43:46

344. The Truth About Taking Over A Company

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/24

In March 2025, Jon Bellamy became CEO of Jagex and Alexis Bonte became CEO of Stillfront. Both inherited companies with legacy, scale, and a long list of things that needed to go. This episode is about what actually happens in a games industry CEO's first 100 days.Timestamps00:00 - The first 100 days05:24 - Knowing the company09:15 - Cultural shift15:16 - Choosing focus19:33 - Public versus private24:52 - Board communication30:44 - Evaluating leaders36:15 - Head coach mode39:17 - Three success

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01:07:29

TWIG #397: Roblox Under Fire, Apple’s EU App Store...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/20

Crew breaks down another packed week in games. Roblox faces mounting pressure over child safety as Congress launches an investigation, Apple rewrites its EU App Store economics while Germany forces changes to ATT, and Netflix Games keeps shrinking with two more studio closures. Meanwhile, Webtoon makes a $100 million bet on gaming, Devolver Digital heads for the exits after a brutal public-market run, and Mishka goes deep on Voodoo’s latest hybrid-casual hit. Topics Covered:• Roblox’s congressional

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00:44:18

343. WEBTOON Is Bigger Than Monopoly Go: Inside a New...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/20

Jen sits down with WEBTOON and Square Enix to break down a channel that reaches mobile, PC, and console at once.UA is saturated and everyone is hunting for new reach. WEBTOON has 160 million MAU, about 90% under 34, and roughly 69% of its readers play games across all three platforms. Christine Yu (WEBTOON) and Melanie Gordon (Square Enix) walk through how the Visions of Mana and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined campaigns actually came together, what the branded epilogue format is, how long these collabs

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01:40:53

342. The Man Behind Most Gaming Deals | Affan Butt,...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/17

Affan Butt has advised on 110+ gaming M&A deals worth $40 billion. He breaks down how game studios actually get sold, what acquirers pay for, and why earnouts wreck founders. We go through a studio acquisition from the founder's side of the table. How M&A processes really start, what due diligence looks like, why inbound corp dev interest is not validation, how bidding wars backfire, and the way earnout structures quietly turn against the people who signed them.0:00 Loom Games sale to

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01:10:12

TWIG #396: AppLovin's Q2, Unity's Supersonic Fire...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/13

Crew breaks down a packed week in mobile and games. AppLovin's stock craters despite the SEC closing its inquiry with no action, Unity sells Supersonic to Tripledot for a shockingly low $40 million, and Take-Two's GTA VI presales are on fire even as its mobile business slows. Topics Covered:• AppLovin's Q2 earnings and stock drop despite growth• Unity's Vector model closing the gap with AppLovin• Unity selling Supersonic to Tripledot for $40M• Take-Two's Q2 earnings, Zynga

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01:08:46

341. Why the Best Founders Are Neither American nor...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/10

Emmanuel De Maistre didn’t build Scenario by choosing between Silicon Valley ambition and European pragmatism. He learned to use both.In this conversation, the Scenario founder breaks down what years of building in the US taught him about ambition, failure, and venture-scale thinking, and why European founders often bring the grounding that Silicon Valley lacks. We also get into what AI adoption actually looks like inside top game studios, why buying tools rarely translates into real usage, what

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01:07:15

TWIG #395: Xbox Prices Explode, Roblox's Worst Day...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/06

Xbox prices in Europe jumped as much as 50%, and the console math now writes itself.The crew digs into a rough week for hardware and a strange one for puzzle. PS5 is suddenly the obvious pick while a global RAM crunch threatens the entire next console cycle. Capcom is printing money off seven-year-old games. Roblox got its stock cut 30% after guiding bookings down, and the fight over its algorithm change turns into a bigger argument about platform health versus shareholder duty. Then Phil and Kress

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00:32:21

340. The $12B+ Mobile Ad Market: Sensor Tower's...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/08/03

After years of saying not yet, Sensor Tower finally estimated mobile ad revenue, and the number is $12 billion for 2025.Josh Chandley and Sensor Tower's lead gaming insights analyst Sam walk through how the estimates were built and why $12 billion is a conservative floor. We get into why puzzle pulls more than half of all gaming ad revenue, how AppLovin keeps eating share while smaller networks shrink, the non-gaming advertisers like Temu, Shein, and finance apps flooding into gaming inventory,

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00:53:33

TWIG #394: Playtika's Solitaire Meltdown, the...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/31

The crew breaks down Sensor Tower's big H1 2026 report, digs into why downloads keep falling while nobody seems to want new games, and asks whether ad revenue was ever going to save anyone. Plus a Warframe live service masterclass and the arrow craze that Kress would very much like everyone to stop talking about.Topics Covered:• Disney Solitaire cannibalizing Solitaire Grand Harvest • Where the diligence went on the SuperPlay deal and who is left • Washington State suing Playtika and Aristocrat

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00:36:52

Puzzle Monthly #5: The Secret Behind Toon Blast's...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/27

Why is Toon Blast still growing while every other Blast game is fading away?In this episode of Puzzle Monthly, we break down Toon Blast's remarkable resurgence, from its early days challenging Toy Blast to its recent revenue explosion fueled by Super Light Ball, LiveOps innovation, and relentless experimentation. We explore why Peak Games continues to outperform the entire Blast genre, and what every puzzle developer can learn from it.Topics Covered:• The evolution of Blast games: Pet Rescue

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00:58:25

TWIG #393: GTA 6's Impossible Attach Rate, Playtika's...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/23

Convoy says 85 million copies in 60 days. That means 63% of every console owner alive buys GTA 6, and the closest anyone has come without a bundle is half that.The crew digs into the Newzoo and Convoy numbers behind GTA 6 and finds projections that would require almost every active console owner on earth to buy it. Then Playtika, where a badly negotiated earn-out turned Superplay's success into a balance sheet problem big enough to put the studio on the block. Plus Unity 7's roadmap, Netflix

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00:54:35

Shooter Monthly #8: The Bungie Eulogy, Why Destiny...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/21

Bungie built the defining live shooter of the decade, then spent ten years surviving its own crises. This one plays like the eulogy.The crew runs the full ups and downs of Bungie from Myth to Marathon, with an ex-Bungie insider walking through every near-death moment, why Destiny endured far longer than anyone predicted, why it finally fell off, and whether Sony and Marathon can pull the studio back from the edge.Topics Covered:• The end of Destiny and whether Bungie is actually done• The hot take

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01:08:08

339. The Most Honest AI Adoption Story in Gaming

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/20

InnoGames didn't reach for AI to chase a trend. They reached for it because the alternative was shutting down a game people love.Thomas Lehr walks through how InnoGames kept Sunrise Village alive after the business case stopped working, taking the team from 25 people down to 3 and stabilizing a title that was slipping. This is the rare AI adoption story told with actual numbers, actual workflows, and no hiding the parts everyone else leaves out. No people pushed out, no game handed to the agents, no

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00:59:10

TWIG #392: Pokémon’s Gamble, World Cup WHAT & the...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/16

Jen, Eric, and Phil break down a week where EA torched a premium launch, Sony declared the disc dead, and Riot reminded everyone that nostalgia is still the most reliable growth lever in games. Monetization is the throughline all the way down: who actually has a lever left to pull, and how badly you can blow it up when you pull it wrong.Topics Covered:• League of Legends Classic and the nostalgia playbook• Why WoW Classic and Fortnite OG print money• Whether a Classic mode can actually monetize•

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00:30:56

338. The Mobile vs Web User Acquisition: What...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/13

AppsFlyer just took attribution off mobile and put it on the open web, and it might be the biggest unlock D2C web shops have seen yet.Josh Chandley talks with Adam Smart, Global Director of Product for Gaming at AppsFlyer, about the company's new web attribution product and its bigger bet on becoming a "Modern Marketing Cloud" spanning web, PlayStation, Xbox, and Oculus.Topics Covered:• AppsFlyer's new web attribution product• The shift from MMP to Modern Marketing Cloud• Why D2C web shops are the

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00:56:50

TWIG #391: Xbox's 4,800 Cuts, Apex Predator Playbook,...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/09

Xbox just got torched, and the math says new games can't win.Jen and Eric (two for TWIG this week) break down the biggest restructuring in Xbox history: 4,800 jobs cut, Asha Sharma unwinding Phil Spencer's entire studio buying spree, and King and Minecraft pulled in to report directly to her. Is this the setup for an Activision Blizzard 2.0 spin-out? Then they dig into fresh Newzoo data on why only 6% of the market is open to new IP, why forever games keep winning, and how growth has become

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00:50:00

337. Inside New York Times Games: Why Killing 96% of...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/06

Zoe Bell is the Executive Producer of Games at The New York Times. If you've played Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, Strands, Letter Boxed, the Mini, or the Crossword, you've played something she helped build or bring to life. NYT has nearly 13 million subscribers, which includes the game business that features some ads but no in-app purchases and no battle pass.The players run from your group chat to the Vatican. The Pope has mentioned doing the Wordle in interviews, and Carol Burnett's celebrity

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01:05:25

TWIG #390: Destiny Ends, Xbox's Biggest Layoff Ever,...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/07/03

Destiny is dead, Xbox is about to make the largest layoff in gaming history, and Google Play just completely changed how it charges developers.In this episode, we break down:• Why Sony's $3.6B Bungie acquisition was doomed from the start• What Destiny's gradual player decline actually looked like on the data• Where hundreds of laid-off Bungie developers go from here• Which five Xbox studios are being closed or sold• Why Xbox raising the Series X to $750 might be the final nail in the coffin•

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00:51:00

Puzzle Monthly #4: $60M Marketing, $65M Revenue, What...

Deconstructor of Fun ·

2026/06/29

In this episode of Puzzle Monthly, we trace Good Job Games' path from two clean exits to a struggling Match 3 launch, and break down why the studio that built Zen Match and sold its hypercasual portfolio for billions in downloads can't get Match Villains to monetize like Royal Match.Topics Covered:• Good Job Games' history, from hypercasual hits to Zenmatch's $100-150M exit• Wonder Blast and why it never escaped soft launch purgatory• Match Villains' aggressive difficulty curve

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321 results

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