x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

The Business of Games

The Business of Games: A podcast for developers, publishers, and executives navigating the ever-changing game industry.From monetization models to player behavior, from platform shifts to emerging markets, The Business of Games is your guide to all the things transforming how games are built, marketed, and scaled.Hosted by Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine, each episode blends strategic insight, cinematic storytelling, and candid conversations with the people driving the business of play. You’ll hear

business video games

All Episodes

7:26

AAA mindset, indie budget: Adam Krause and TJ...

The Business of Games ·

2026/04/24

Welcome to Coffee.Press.Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits down with Adam Krause and TJ Consunji, Managing Partners and Co-Founders of Miniboss Solutions —...

en-us

7:48

From gas stations to game studios: Rob Carroll on...

The Business of Games ·

2026/04/24

Welcome to Coffee.Press.Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits down with Rob Carroll, CEO and co-founder of Roll Craft — a studio on a mission to bring back the text...

en-us

9:22

From Neopets to the Elite Four: Jenny Xu on building...

The Business of Games ·

2026/04/24

Welcome to Coffee.Press.Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against our Xsolla host and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this episode, host Ed Lin sits down with Jenny Xu, CEO and founder of Talofa Games — a San Francisco-based studio making mobile...

en-us

44:05

Identity, inventory, and income: Arron Goolsbey on...

The Business of Games ·

2026/04/17

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Direct-to-consumer is easy to talk about in terms of web shops, payment rails, and platform fees. It's harder to talk about what's actually underneath it — the identity layer, the data architecture, the economic models, and the distribution infrastructure that either make the player relationship durable or leave it fragile. In this extended cut, host Lia Ballentine sits back down with Arron Goolsbey, Chief Operating Officer at Mythi...

en-us

38:31

True ownership, transferable assets: Jan Roessner on...

The Business of Games ·

2026/04/15

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Direct-to-consumer strategies are usually measured by what they remove — platform fees, intermediaries, friction at checkout. But what happens when the asset itself becomes the channel? In this extended cut, host Lia Ballentine sits down with Jan Roessner, CEO and co-founder of One Earth Rising, to explore a new layer of the developer-player relationship: one built not on storefronts, but on ownership that travels with the player ac...

en-us

36:58

Direct-to-consumer: building the infrastructure that...

The Business of Games ·

2026/04/10

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine go a layer deeper into direct-to-consumer — past the strategy, past the economics, and into the infrastructure that determines whether a studio's direct-to-player ambitions actually hold up at scale. Most direct-to-consumer conversations start with intent and end with outcomes. But between the two sits a layer most studios underestimate: the technology stack. Identity systems, p...

en-us

4:45

From comics to controllers: Bronson Lingamfelter on...

The Business of Games ·

2026/04/03

Welcome to Coffee.Press.Play., brought to you by The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Recorded live at GDC 2026 inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, this series puts a twist on the traditional interview format: guests play a round of a classic video game against host Chris Hewish and the outcome determines whether they face an easy question or a hard one. In this first episode, Bronson Lingamfelter, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of One Earth Rising, takes on Chris in a quick bat...

en-us

2:13

Live from GDC: Coffee, conversations, and the...

The Business of Games ·

2026/03/27

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla. GDC 2026 brought us something a little different. At Coffee.Press.Play., hosts Chris Hewish and Ed Lin sat down with past guests, friends of the podcast, and new voices from across the industry — all in one place. This short clip captures the energy of those conversations: candid, wide-ranging, and full of the kind of insight you only get when the right people are in the same room. A huge thank you to our guests: Alex Reed, A...

en-us

17:32

The executive summary: what GDC 2026 revealed about...

The Business of Games ·

2026/03/20

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla. Every March, the games industry makes its pilgrimage to San Francisco. GDC isn't a fan show. It's where developers, executives, investors, and platform teams talk to each other about what's actually happening in the business of games. In this episode, Lia Ballentine flips the script. Xsolla President, Chris Hewish, freshly back from GDC 2026, takes the guest seat to share what he heard on the show floor, inside the Xsolla Clu...

en-us

38:06

Authenticity at scale: Mac Marshall on what...

The Business of Games ·

2026/03/13

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla. Direct-to-consumer is often framed as a distribution or monetization decision. But for someone who has spent more than two decades building brand voice and managing player relationships, the more important shift is cultural, and it starts with whether a studio is actually willing to listen. In this extended cut, host Lia Ballentine sits down with Mac Marshall, a veteran marketing and communications leader whose career spans A...

en-us

45:32

Curation, control, and connection: David Pava on the...

The Business of Games ·

2026/03/13

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla. Marketing a game used to end at launch. In this extended cut, host Chris Hewish sits down with David Pava, Senior Director of Marketing for World of Tanks Modern Armor at Wargaming, to explore what happens when studios stop thinking in campaigns and start thinking in relationships. David brings a career path unlike most, from webmaster for World Championship Wrestling in the early days of the internet to marketing console gam...

en-us

31:25

From campaigns to trust: what direct-to-consumer...

The Business of Games ·

2026/03/06

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine explore one of the most consequential shifts in modern game marketing: what happens when studios stop renting attention and start owning the relationship. Direct-to-consumer strategies are often framed around economics: margins, platform fees, and monetization control. But the deeper change shows up somewhere else entirely. When studios own player identity, communication, and da...

en-us

14:30

Direct to player: the five principles reshaping the...

The Business of Games ·

2026/02/27

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine lay the foundation for a special series this season on direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategies in games. Chris unpacks the difference between DTC as a commercial motion and his concept of "Direct to Player" — a structural operating model that goes beyond the transaction and shifts the organizing principle of a game business from platform-centric to player-centric. Chris intro...

en-us

31:41

Retail, rewired: gift cards, payments, and the...

The Business of Games ·

2026/01/30

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. Game commerce isn’t just about platforms and storefronts. It’s about who can actually pay. In this episode, Lia Ballentine speaks with Michael Jedrzejczak, Program Manager and Gift Card Consultant at Xsolla, about how payment methods, gift cards, and retail access continue to shape who can buy and play games. Michael brings over 15 years of experience building and scaling game commerce, from early digital key stores to large-scale g...

en-us

49:10

Discoverability is the new retail: how games get...

The Business of Games ·

2026/01/23

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. In this episode, Lia Ballentine talks with Adam Krause and TJ Consunji, Managing Partners and Co-Founders of Miniboss Solutions, about how game retail actually works today and why being discoverable now matters more than ever. Game retail is no longer about shelves, launch days, or a single sales spike. With more than 20,000 games released each year, the challenge is getting noticed and staying visible. Algorithms, storefront placem...

en-us

15:23

Retail in games: from holiday peaks to always-on...

The Business of Games ·

2026/01/16

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla. In this episode, Lia Ballentine is joined by special co-host Lauren Baca, Global VP of Marketing at Xsolla Ads, to explore how retail strategy in games has fundamentally changed and what the most recent holiday season reveals about where the industry is headed next. For decades, the holidays were the defining moment in game retail. Physical shelves, launch windows, and a single make-or-break sales peak shaped how studios planned the...

en-us

1:52

Welcome to Season 2 of The Business of Games Podcast

The Business of Games ·

2026/01/09

The business of games is evolving, and in Season 2, we’ll explore what’s driving the industry forward. We’ll dive into the shifts reshaping how games are built, launched, and scaled as the industry moves through 2026 and beyond. From AI and direct-to-consumer strategies to the human decisions behind development, this season cuts through the noise to focus on what matters. Featuring insights from developers, technologists, and industry leaders across the ecosystem, Season 2 offers a clear vi...

en-us

30:40

From platforms to players: 2025 reflections, 2026...

The Business of Games ·

2025/12/19

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine close out the year with a special look back at 2025 and a forward look at the trends that will define 2026. Instead of a single topic, this one pulls together voices from across the games ecosystem, from studios to platforms to service partners: Arron Goolsbey (COO, Mythical Games)David Kim (Publishing & Marketing Leader, Web3 Advisor)Jenny Xu (Founder & CEO, Talo...

en-us

16:33

Web3 & Games Part 3: Building What Comes Next

The Business of Games ·

2025/12/05

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla. In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine close out our three-part series on Web3 in games. Part 1 explored the promise. Part 2 confronted the chaos. Now, in Part 3, we look ahead and ask what happens if the industry finally gets Web3 right. Joining us are Brian Murphy, Head of Gaming and GTM at AppsFlyer, and Arron Goolsbey, COO at Mythical Games, who are two leaders shaping Web3’s second act. Together, they unp...

en-us

30:07

Building the open garden: Web3 insights from Mythical...

The Business of Games ·

2025/11/28

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla. In this Extended Cut, host Lia Ballentine talks with Arron Goolsbey, Chief Operating Officer at Mythical Games, about how the next generation of Web3 games is moving beyond labels to focus on fun, fairness, and lasting player value. A 25-year veteran of the industry, Arron has led global publishing and technology efforts at Activision Blizzard, Meta, and Hasbro. Now at Mythical, he’s helping bridge traditional game developmen...

en-us

42 results

Similar Podcasts

TaxTalent.com The Golden Rule Podcast

Adam Golden

TaxTalent.com Podcast

Tony Santiago

Handelsblatt Crime - spannende Streitfälle der deutschen Wirtschaft

Ina Karabasz, Solveig Gode, Sönke Iwersen

Deffner und Zschäpitz – Der Wirtschafts-Talk von WELT

WELT

Black Box - La scatola nera della finanza

Guido Brera e Gian Luca Comandini -...