Naavik Gaming Podcast

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on November 8th. In this week’s issue, we look at Hasbro, focusing on the way the company is shifting its corporate playbook to rely heavily on Magic: The Gathering crossovers while adopting a less risky, partner-driven strategy for video game development.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/hasbros-new-playbook-more-magic-fewer-big-bets 

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AI and cloud technology are continuing to reshape not just how games are built, but what studios can afford to create and operate. Host Devin Becker is joined by Mihai Pohontu, CEO of Amber, and Andrei Muratov, Principal BD for Games at AWS, to discuss where AI is already proving useful across game development, from tooling, content pipelines, and LiveOps analytics to real-time experiences and cloud deployment. They explore why studios remain cautious about shipping AI-generated content, how teams are managing inference costs, when open models and smaller language models make sense, and what Amber learned from building Courtroom...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on November 27th. In this week’s issue, we're diving into the recent race toward prompt-based AI platforms, from Astrocade and Roblox Build to Google Playground.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/prompt-to-game-is-here-which-platforms 

Want to explore working with Naavik? Shoot us a note: https://naavik.co/contact-us/ 

Let us know what you think by sending us a note at [email protected].

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For years, AI in gaming has promised smarter NPCs, cheaper content creation, and more dynamic worlds. Yet few of these promises have translated into commercially viable player experiences. Our host, Alexandra Takei, VP at Medal & General Intuition, sits down with Brian Tanner, co-founder and CEO of Artificial Agency and former DeepMind leader, to explore the emergence of agentic gameplay and the company's approach to building intelligent, autonomous virtual players.

The conversation examines how foundation models are expanding the capabilities of traditional game AI, enabling characters to understand player intent, improvise, and collaborate in ways previously impossible. We...

Three years after raising a $31.3M Series A off a prototype shown behind closed doors at GDC, Gardens Interactive still hasn’t announced a release date. Investors just put in another $35M+ anyway. In this episode, Kalie Moore welcomes back Stephen Bell and Chris Bell, two of Gardens’ three co-founders and the team behind Journey, Sky, What Remains of Edith Finch and Blaseball, following a Series B led by Lightspeed that values the studio at $190M and brings total funding past $70M before launch. They explain what took three years, including a late switch from Unity to Unreal, how...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on October 18th. In this week’s issue, we look into Meta, exploring the company’s shift away from gaming-focused VR hardware towards AI and AR glasses, and its resurgent mobile advertising engine.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/metas-role-in-gaming-today-muse-vr-ua

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Most studios have teams, funding, and a publisher behind them. Abe Train has a laptop and a handful of contractors. In this episode, Kalie Moore sits down with Abe, founder of Trainwreck Labs, to unpack how a former head of business intelligence at HelloFresh became one of the most successful independent developers in daily browser games. Abe quit his job on the last day of 2021 with about six months of runway, and a month later Wordle took over the internet. He built Globle, a daily geography guessing game, posted it to one Reddit community, and watched it climb...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on October 11th. In this week’s issue, we check in on CD Projekt, looking at the company’s current state, ongoing projects, and how the company has shifted its way of working to drive a more successful future.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/cd-projekts-best-days-may-be-ahead 

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As cheating becomes more sophisticated, anti-cheat is increasingly shifting from detecting software to understanding player behavior. Host Devin Becker is joined by André Pimenta Ribeiro, CEO & Co-Founder of Anybrain, to discuss how behavioral anti-cheat analyzes player inputs, where it fits alongside traditional tools, and why some approaches avoid software access entirely. The conversation explores the business impact of cheating on retention and revenue, when studios should begin investing in prevention, and how even smaller teams can approach the problem. André also breaks down the growing cheat-as-a-service economy, the challenge posed by AI and hardware-assisted cheats, the risks of false po...

This episode covers Naavik’s AI x Gaming newsletter published on September 29th. In this week’s issue, we take a broader look at the entertainment landscape to map out what recent announcements from Disney, Hasbro, and miHoYo could mean for the future of gaming fandom.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/from-disney-to-mihoyo-the-road-toward 

Want to explore working with Naavik? Shoot us a note: https://naavik.co/contact-us/ 

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This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, September 27th. In this week’s issue, we take a look at how seasonal live-ops performs in 2026, analyzing a decade of Sensor Tower revenue and download data across 15 top mobile titles, alongside console and Roblox data.

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AI is making game creation more accessible, but building reliable games that can reach players across multiple platforms requires more than simply prompting an LLM. Host Devin Becker welcomes Robby Yung, CEO of The Sandbox, to discuss Sandbox Studio and its approach to AI-assisted UGC development. Robby explains what the team learned from the original Game Maker, where Studio draws the line between structured creation and “vibe coding,” and how AI can combine code, assets, systems, and accumulated development knowledge without turning game creation into an unpredictable black box. The conversation also explores The Sandbox’s shift toward letting creato...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, September 20th. In this week’s issue, we dig into the data and assess to what extent external IP drives a video game’s success.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/the-real-value-of-licensed-ip 

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Let us know what you think by sending us a note at [email protected].

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Gaming financing hit a 12-month high in Q2 2026, with over $2.5B raised across fewer than 100 rounds. In this episode, recorded in person at Gamescom, Kalie Moore sits down with Michael Metzger, Managing Partner at Drake Star Partners, to work out what that actually signals. Michael leads Drake Star's gaming and digital media practice and is behind the quarterly report the industry reads to track where capital is moving. He starts with the question everyone is circling: is this an AI bubble? His answer is that the money reflects a massive opportunity, that some of the companies raising today will...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, September 13th. In this week’s issue, explore the recent increase in notable indie game developers launching their own publishing businesses.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/the-new-money-behind-indie-games 

Want to explore working with Naavik? Shoot us a note: https://naavik.co/contact-us/ 

Let us know what you think by sending us a note at [email protected].

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AI is rapidly changing user acquisition (UA), not just by speeding up creative production but by expanding how campaigns themselves can be managed. Host Devin Becker is joined by Amit Carmi, co-founder and CEO of Sett, to explore how AI is being used to combat creative fatigue, generate video and playable ads, and increasingly automate parts of the UA workflow. Amit breaks down where AI creative works well today and where it still falls short. The conversation also tackles the risks of increasingly homogenous or misleading ads, how platform-owned AI tools from Meta, Google, and AppLovin affect third-party providers...

Live from Gamescom at the Xsolla Clubhouse in Cologne, Alexandra Takei, VP of Platform Revenue & Gaming at Medal and General Intuition, sits down with Ben Kvalo, Founder and CEO of Midwest Games, to unpack what she calls "new age publishing." With traditional deals no longer the only game in town, Ben explains why he built Midwest Games to run two publishing models under one roof: a classic invest-and-revenue-share arm, and "Shadow Publishing," a for-hire services model that lets developers keep their IP and revenue entirely.

Drawing on his background at 2K, Blizzard, and Netflix, Ben...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, August 30th. In this week’s issue, we explore the present and future of kids games through the lens of Netflix launching Netflix Playground and Haveli acquiring Budge Studios.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/the-future-of-kids-games 

Learn more about Appcharge: https://www.appcharge.com/?utm_source=naavik  

Want to explore working with Naavik? Shoot us a note: https://naavik.co/contact-us/ 

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Game server hosting is the layer nobody thinks about until it breaks. In this episode, Kalie Moore sits down with Max Podkidkin, Co-Founder and CEO of BisectHosting, to unpack how a Minecraft server that went dark for three days turned into a 15-year infrastructure business serving hundreds of thousands of customers across more than 140 countries. Max put the first hardware on a credit card, recruited a co-founder he met in his own Minecraft community, and built the company to nearly 100 employees without ever raising outside capital. They get into what those early years actually looked like, including hiding a...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, August 23rd. In this week’s issue, we share our latest podcast episode and tackle how and why the mobile games industry keeps converging on best practices across genres — and what that means for the future.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://naavik.substack.com/p/the-great-mobile-convergence 

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Between 2018 and 2024, the turnover of Portuguese games companies went from around 5 million to nearly 100 million. In this episode, Kalie Moore sits down with Jefferson Valadares, Co-Founder and CEO of partNerd and President of the Portuguese Association of Game Development Companies, to unpack whether a country long known for exporting its best talent can become a home for original IP. Jefferson has seen the industry from nearly every seat, as Studio GM at EA, Executive Producer at BioWare, Head of Mobile at Bandai Namco, and a board member at Rovio before its sale to Sega. They explore what the AAA...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, August 16th. In this week’s issue, we examine Roblox, which lost nearly a third of its value after it reported Q2 2026 results. We explore what the latest numbers might mean for the present and future of the company.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/robloxs-expensive-year-of-good-intentions

Meet with Naavik at Gamescom: https://naavik.typeform.com/to/qE3Yw6pa?typeform-source=www.dropbox.com 

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This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, August 9th. In this week’s issue, we discuss the rising “friendslop" phenomenon, why it’s somewhat disrupting established live-ops practices, and whether it is sustainable long-term.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/friendslop-disrupting-the-live-ops-status-quo

Meet with Naavik at Gamescom: https://naavik.typeform.com/to/qE3Yw6pa?typeform-source=www.dropbox.com 

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This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, August 2nd. In this week’s issue, we discuss the decline of platform-led gaming in China through the lens of Alibaba’s likely sale of Lingxi Games, the studio behind Three Kingdoms Tactics.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/the-structural-failure-of-platform-led-gaming-in-china

Meet with Naavik at Gamescom: https://naavik.typeform.com/to/qE3Yw6pa?typeform-source=www.dropbox.com 

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As studios contend with layoffs, hiring freezes, longer development cycles, and a growing supply of experienced talent outside traditional roles, fractional work is emerging as a potential middle ground between full-time hiring and conventional consulting. Host Devin Becker is joined by Aaron Bush, co-founder and Managing Partner of Naavik, to discuss why the company expanded from research and advisory into fractional talent, what meaningfully separates fractional leadership from contracting or staff augmentation, and how these engagements work in practice. 

They examine which roles fit the model, why senior talent dominates the supply pool, how studios retain knowledge a...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, July 26th. In this week’s issue, we examine how a new generation of creators and internet-native IP — sometimes memes or worlds that no one owns — are starting to take the entertainment world by storm in new ways.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/how-online-fandom-is-rewriting-the-ip-playbook

Check out Naavik’s fractional talent network: https://naavik.co/fractional-talent/ 

Meet with Naavik at Gamescom: https://naavik.ty...

Fourteen years after launch, Subway Surfers is still one of the biggest games in the world. In this episode, Kalie Moore sits down with Mathias Gredal Nørvig, CEO of SYBO, to unpack how a mobile game launched in 2012 continues to attract between 100 and 150 million monthly players while nearly every other hit from its era has faded away. They explore the philosophy behind Subway Surfers' iconic World Tour live operations, why empowering artists and designers has kept the game feeling fresh for more than a decade, how community ideas have directly shaped new characters and game modes, and why c...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, July 19th. In this week’s issue, we shine a light on the memo that undid 10 years of Xbox strategy, focusing on what CEO Asha Sharma is actually trying to achieve. 

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/the-memo-that-undid-ten-years-of-xbox-strategy

Meet with Naavik at Gamescom: https://naavik.typeform.com/to/qE3Yw6pa?typeform-source=www.dropbox.com 

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Direct-to-consumer (DTC) is moving from an experimental monetization channel toward a more established part of game publishing, but adoption remains uneven. Host Devin Becker is joined by David Stelzer, CSO of Appcharge, to discuss findings from the company’s recent report and what they reveal about the current state of DTC. They examine why more than half of studios are still making few meaningful changes, what separates the small group of innovators pulling ahead, and where developers continue to misunderstand web stores, player behavior, and the operational demands of running DTC effectively. The conversation also looks ahead to dedicated DT...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, July 12th. In today’s issue, we evaluate the memory boom’s effect on the present and future of gaming hardware.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/the-ai-boom-is-repricing-gaming-hardware-and-rewiring-the-console-business

Meet with Naavik at Gamescom: https://naavik.typeform.com/to/qE3Yw6pa?typeform-source=www.dropbox.com 

India’s State of Play report: https://mixiglobalinv.com/report/upload/indias-state-of-play-260708.pdf 

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Mobile has spent the last decade perfecting paid acquisition, and often, paid UA comprises 99% of a mobile game’s marketing budget. PC and console gaming generate tens of billions of dollars in revenue, yet most studios have never tried performance marketing once. PC and console have always played in the field of brand, festivals, press, influencers, and content creators due to a variety of reasons that we unpack in this episode. 

Alexandra Takei, VP of Platform Revenue at Medal, sits down with Jules Baculard, founder and CEO of AdZap, to unpack why PC performance marketing has lagged beh...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, July 5th. In today’s issue, we discuss the underrated, emerging intersection of creators and DTC — and why creator codes specifically are becoming an increasingly low-cost, high-reward way to drive player engagement and monetization.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/the-next-wave-of-creator-led-growth

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In this special episode of the Naavik Gaming Podcast, recorded live from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, host Kalie Moore sits down with fellow Cannes Lions Gaming Jury member Cheryl Platz, author of The Game Development Strategy Guide, and former UX leader at Riot Games, Scopely, Microsoft, and Amazon. Together, they pull back the curtain on what it was actually like judging one of the world's most prestigious creative awards programs, from the multi-stage evaluation process to the debates that shaped the final winners. They discuss the challenges of evaluating gaming campaigns across vastly different audiences, genres...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, June 28th. In today’s issue, we uncover two underrated mobile development regions that are flying under the radar — a downloads powerhouse and a small but mighty region punching above its weight. 

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/two-underrated-mobile-development-regions

Want to explore working with Naavik? Shoot us a note: https://naavik.co/contact-us/ 

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In this episode, host Kalie Moore sits down with Angela Yu, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of StoReel, to explore one of the fastest-growing entertainment categories that gaming executives should be paying attention to: AI-native microdramas. While many still think of microdramas as shortened TV shows, Angela argues they have far more in common with mobile games, relying on retention loops, emotional hooks, creator ecosystems, user acquisition economics, and increasingly interactive experiences. She shares how StoReel is building both a consumer platform for AI-generated serialized stories and a creation suite that enables creators to produce content dramatically faster and cheaper than...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, June 21st. In today’s issue, we dive deep into LEGO’s 30-year history, examining its roots, how it is quietly starting to change, and what comes next for the company in gaming. 

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/thirty-years-of-gaming-at-lego 

Want to explore working with Naavik? Shoot us a note: https://naavik.co/contact-us/ 

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This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, June 14th. In today’s issue, we discuss the current state of microdramas — a category which rapidly evolved from a niche Chinese entertainment phenomenon into one of the fastest-growing mobile content categories in the world — exploring the widening gap between audience expansion and monetization, a trend which raises important questions about the category’s long-term economics.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/the-microdrama-volume-vs-value-paradox 

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Gaming M&A is no longer just a story about strategics buying obvious hits. In this episode, Alexandra Takei, VP of Platform Revenue at Medal, sits down with Brogan Keane, Managing Partner at Double Black Capital, to unpack what actually happens when a game studio reaches the end of its company lifecycle: sale, exit, or recapitalization. The conversation breaks down who is buying game companies today, from private equity firms and Korean strategics to non-gaming entertainment companies looking for transmedia exposure. Brogan explains why PE buyers care most about profitability and risk mitigation, while strategics may pay more aggressively...

This episode covers the Naavik Digest newsletter published on Sunday, June 7th. In today’s issue, we shine a light on Embracer after the company recently announced it is splitting up again. We look back at the key strategic decisions the company has made and what they might mean for its future.

You can read the newsletter (with even more sections and visual detail) here: https://www.naavik.co/digest/embracer-splits-again 

Want to explore working with Naavik? Shoot us a note: https://naavik.co/contact-us/ 

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Keeping players playing is getting harder as player attention fragments and expectations rise, so understanding churn has become a core live-ops competency. Host Devin Becker sits down with Elad Levy, Founder & CTO of Dive, to break down how churn is defined (and when it’s actually “permanent”), the behavioral signals that players are drifting toward the exit, and the underlying causes teams can often address before it’s too late. They dig into practical interventions from in-session nudges, to win-back campaigns as well as what reacquisition can realistically accomplish. The conversation wraps with the dumbest reason players quit, the single m...