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PODCAST

Naavik Gaming Podcast

The Naavik Gaming Podcast is a business-focused exploration of the companies, trends, strategies and leaders that are defining the future of games. To learn more and see other great content visit www.naavik.co.

business video games

All Episodes

65:00

How Studio Culture Fuels an Exit (with Seth Sivak)

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/10/18

What is culture, and why does it matter? Seth Sivak, the founder and ex-CEO of Proletariat, a studio most known for its title Spellbreak, joins our host, Alexandra Takei, Director at Ruckus Games, to discuss the importance of organizational culture in the gaming industry. Proletariat was founded in 2012 by Seth and four other co-founders and went through various era of growth: scaling up to 80 people in person, 130 people remote during the pandemic, everyone brought back in person again,

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52:17

Metagame Mastery: Growing Games Beyond Core Loops

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/10/15

With metagames becoming a key component of player engagement and monetization, it’s more important than ever to get them right. Host Devin Becker welcomes Christopher Molozian, CEO of Heroic Labs, to discuss the evolving landscape of metagame systems and the technology that powers them. Christopher explains how Heroic Labs' platform integrates seamlessly into games, enabling developers to enhance live operations with scalable metagame features. The conversation also explores how metagame

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55:40

Launching an AI + UGC Startup

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/10/08

When designing content creation tools for the masses, most platforms have to make trade-offs across accessibility, ease of use, capability, and power of the toolsets. However, AI has the potential to provide the best of both worlds. For instance, co-pilot technology empowers non-technical creators to write code, and 3D gen-AI enables entire environments to be created from simple command line prompts. We’re seeing a number of companies emerge that are taking advantage of AI in order to

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63:30

EA’s Game Plan: Launches, AI, & the Strategic Approach

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/10/04

“AAA is not in crisis; it is in a moment of change.” In this episode, Kate Kellogg, the COO of EA Studios, joins our host, Alexandra Takei, Director at Ruckus Games, to discuss game launches, EA's strategic approach, and how EA staffs and organizes itself to win. We discuss the challenge of aligning development resources with performance expectations and delve into EA's strategic pillars of Play, Watch, Create, and Connect. We explore why this strategy is not only well-suited for the

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62:13

Telegram: The Next Great Gaming Platform?

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/10/01

It's no secret that distribution across all major gaming platforms is virtually inaccessible to all but the most deep-pocketed developers. The go-go days of being able to bootstrap a studio or raise a modest amount of funding to grow and scale a title are long gone, and there have been very few emerging platforms that show outsized promise. But is that about to change? Telegram games have exploded onto the scene over the past few months. Top titles like Hamster Kombat, with deceptively

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52:42

Game Tech: The Hidden Force Behind Gaming’s...

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/09/27

In recent years, there’s been considerable discourse about the game industry’s challenges. However, according to today's guest, Jiten Dajee, one core element has been missing from the conversation: the root technical causes underlying many of today’s business woes. After all, game tech shapes the way games are developed and managed, which in turn drives business outcomes.Jiten, General Partner at Rendered VC, joins host Aaron Bush to discuss how the state of game tech is holding developers

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57:28

Dream Sports and the Future of Cricket

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/09/20

If you are into fantasy sports, Dream 11 is a household name. Boasting over 220M active users, it is one of the most popular fantasy sports platforms in the world. But what you might not know is that Dream 11 is just one part of the Dream Sports Group, which aspires to be a full 360 sports experience beyond fantasy (including merchandise, travel, streaming, live experiences, and, of course, video games).Rohit Gupta, Founder and CEO of Dream Games Studios, joins our host, Alexandra Takei,

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65:16

How to Bring Brands to Roblox

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/09/13

Over the last few years, brands have increasingly gravitated to platforms like Roblox as a way to reach younger audiences. In 2023 alone, we saw 240 brand activations on Roblox, which doubled from the year prior. In terms of revenue, this contributed to over $80 million in brand spend, which equates to roughly 10% of Roblox's developer earnings for 2023.From the brand perspective, results can vary greatly depending on the execution. As advertisers, the cost per play session in a branded

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65:14

Sony, Microsoft, Valve, and Roblox: Who Will Be...

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/09/06

The gaming industry is currently facing an identity crisis, with widespread layoffs, escalating budgets, and a flood of new games hitting the market. In light of these macro trends, game studios and platforms need to find ways to leverage their existing strengths or develop new strategies for long-term success.Ben Feder, Managing Partner at Tirta and former CEO of Take-Two, and Ken Wee, former CSO of Activision Blizzard King, join host Alexandra Takei, Director at Ruckus Games, to delve

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62:15

Building a Creator-Focused 3D Engine with Hiber

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/09/03

UGC is hot, hot, hot right now. Roblox is on track to pay out half a billion USD to creators - annually - and never has it been more possible for young, individual creators to make a meaningful living as “game developers.” But is Roblox the only place for such creators? HiberWorld, a platform that's empowering anyone to build and share their own 3D worlds, is trying to change that by making making it as easy possible for anyone, at any age, and anywhere in the world to build their own

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63:24

Emergency Pod: SEC vs OpenSea

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/08/31

On August 28th, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a Wells Notice to OpenSea, notifying the largest NFT marketplace that it is under investigation for operating as an unlicensed exchange, labeling the NFTs traded on the platform as securities. Founder & CEO of OpenSea, Devin Finzer, posted that “[t]his is a move into uncharted territory. By targeting NFTs, the SEC would stifle innovation on an even broader scale: hundreds of thousands of online artists and creatives are at

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52:20

Monopoly Go! and Baldur’s Gate III: The Hasbro...

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/08/20

Hasbro is known for iconic properties like Dungeons and Dragons and Monopoly, but is sometimes overlooked as the licensor of incredible video game successes such as Baldur's Gate III and Monopoly Go!In the last 12 months, Hasbro's licensed games have generated a staggering $3.25 billion, making it the largest entertainment IP licensor in video games, and almost doubling the revenue of the next largest licensor, Disney, which includes powerhouse franchises like Marvel and Star Wars.David

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66:49

Building the Next Game-as-a-Platform

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/08/16

Today, we explore what it takes to build the next big video game franchise powered by user-generated games. It's a daunting task as Epic Games paid roughly $320 million to creators in the past year in order to incentivize creators to build new experiences on its platform. That's enough money to develop and market a new AAA franchise every year. However, that hasn't discouraged start-up studios like Build a Rocket Boy and OCP from diving headfirst into the space. Build a Rocket Boy recently

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53:54

Animoca Brands and the Motorverse

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/08/13

Animoca has been an unwavering web3 cheerleader since day one, with a stated goal of leveraging blockchain technologies to “deliver digital property rights to consumers around the world and to help to establish the open metaverse.” The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of both original and licensed IP, and has its finger in about as many web3 pies as anyone on the planet, through its over 450 investments in some big names like Yuga Labs, Axie Infinity, Consensys, Magic Eden,

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60:21

Web3 Innovation with Mirai Labs

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/08/02

One of the biggest web3 hits of 2022, the horse racing game Pegaxy, generated over $200 million in sales, second only to Axie Infinity during that period. After building heads down during the crypto bear market through the end of the 2023, the company behind Pegaxy, Mirai Labs, is ready to ride again, now with its second game, Petopia, a top-down roguelite shooter. With its fresh and innovative take on guilds, fractional ownership of teams, and passive income, Petopia is looking to

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59:25

The State of Adaptive Gaming

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/07/26

There are 3B gamers in the world, and many of those players have disabilities. Often called “accessibility” or “adaptive gaming”, this is one of the most important topics (and markets) in the gaming industry. From mobility, visual, and hearing impairments to cognitive and speech impairments, the industry has begun making strides in addressing how we can enable as many people as possible to access gaming experiences, plus interpret and perceive the content as intended. Alexander Dunn,

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53:15

The Past, Present, & Future of KidTech

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/07/19

Online safety for kids has only become more important over time, and it's become a thorny compliance topic for games teams to wrestle with. Fortunately, talented entrepreneurs are creating solutions that make it easier for games teams (and beyond) to tackle these challenges. To help explore this nuanced topic, host Aaron Bush is joined by Kieran Donovan, co-founder and CEO of k-ID (which recently raised a $45M Series A, led by Lightspeed and a16z), as well as Dylan Collins, serial

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67:44

The Next Era of Voice Games

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/07/12

Voice games have had a quiet history compared to mobile, console, and the PC gaming arena. However, Lightspeed and Microsoft’s M12 Ventures see Volley Games as a leader and game changer in the space, co-leading a $55M Series C on the backs of solid MAU and ARR. Our host, Alexandra Takei, Director at Ruckus Games, speaks with Max Child, CEO and Co-Founder of Volley, about the history of voice games, the current market, and the AI inflection point that enables experiences that were once

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51:42

Inside Voodoo’s #1 Hit: The Story of Mob Control’s...

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/07/09

Mobile gaming is a tough business, but Voodoo has been able to evolve with the times. After years of pioneering hypercasual, the company has more recently set its sights on making casual mobile games with deeper metas and monetization tactics. This pivot sparked major changes across the organization, but it’s already led to major hits – the largest of which is Mob Control, which surpassed the $200M revenue barrier and is still climbing.In order to learn the full story of Mob Control, host

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63:41

Building a Thriving Casual Word Games Business in a...

Naavik Gaming Podcast ·

2024/07/05

Casual word games is a tough, tough category to compete in on mobile. Not only is it a very crowded red ocean, but casual games are notoriously hard to monetize effectively through IAPs, making user acquisition even more difficult than it already is in the post-IDFA world. That said, Funcraft is making it work in their favor, building a thriving, growing business with an expanding portfolio of games and with the ability to spend profitably, at scale, on user acquisition. With a small team

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407 results

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