The GameDiscoverCo Show

We talk about 2026's debuts that got played a lot by the average player on Steam, a survey into AI use at bigger game studios, Sony fighting back against the PlayStation console jailbreaks, and how often the average player actually buys games - might be less than you think! Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode: We pulled an updated list of biggest median playtime Steam games in 2026 with >100k players from GDCo Pro & besides desktop idlers taking the top spots, Slay The Spire 2 is still a monster (52 hours, ~8m players!), w/newer entries including the latest NBA 2K & EA Sports FCs, plus Forza 6 and (impressively!) Wardogs. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simoncarless_what-are-the-most-played-games-on-steam-released-share-7519043218915622912-qSUJ/ The consulting firm Vivrato have been surveying game execs about their firms’ usage of AI, noting: “94% use AI in at least one of nine production stages, but 52% rate how deeply it is built into their full production pipeline at three or lower out of 10.” (This ‘wider but shallow’ integration makes sense - there’s some posturing going on.) https://gamesbeat.com/adam-boyes-vivrato-issues-report-based-on-101-game-leaders-views-on-ai-in-gaming-exclusive/ Just as the ‘jailbreaking’ of PlayStation 5 consoles was getting concerning - someone’s even coded an interface for playing Steam games on PS5 via Linux emulation - Sony has changed it so you have to update to the latest 14.10 OS to play PS5 games online & use network features. (Yes, GTA 6 requires 14.10.) https://www.notebookcheck.net/Sony-blocks-PS5-console-jailbreak-from-PSN-requiring-firmware-update-14-10.1424308.0.html Circana’s survey of ‘normal’ U.S. video game consumers says “41% of US video game players buy at least 1 new game quarterly, compared to 36% a year ago.” But reminder - only 5% of these folks say they buy a game >once a month, and 13% around once a month. (Compared to 29% who buy less than once per year.) https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:bhqrrxt7yyfpwguioa7rwa7x/post/3mxtqzbgmjk2a Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.

We talk about the surge in AI decompilation of games and whether releasing demos early is now bad, some learnings from Forbidden Solitaire from a long-term indie game dev, the state of the Meta Quest game scene, and if Epic's vibecoded Epic Games Launcher is going to change the velocity of the PC store Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode: AI-aided decompilation of games is becoming a big subject of concern and discussion for devs: the decomps SubReddit shows a bunch of console exclusives getting unofficial PC or web ports, and Naavik did a good overview of the space. (The debate on whether this is a vibe-y slopfest or a ‘trend to watch’ continues.) https://naavik.substack.com/p/viral-game-mash-ups-what-ai-decompilation Related: one dev changing their demo plans due to decompilation/ clone worries: https://x.com/AllianceArtsEN/status/2111043223326163101 We dug Jake Birkett’s learnings after after shipping Forbidden Solitaire to 2,000+ Overwhelmingly Positive Steam reviews: “Ideas are worth a lot… [The game’s] core idea was ten times easier to market than anything else we have ever made.” Also, 500+ polish items got skipped cos “none of them would have impacted sales in any meaningful way.” - https://www.patreon.com/GreyAlien/posts/launch-is-over-171706832 We posted on LinkedIn with our update on the Meta Quest VR game charts in Sept/Oct, barely discussed nowadays. New F2P sandbox superhero game HERO x HERO is crushing it at #1, with 'chaotic social multiplayer beloved by pre-teens' F2P (Gorilla Tag, Scary Baboon, Animal Company) most of the Top 10. (The premium games in there: Beat Saber and Blade & Sorcery, btw.) - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simoncarless_we-didnt-talk-much-about-meta-quest-vr-game-share-7516606582697136130-wINw/ Epic Games is hyping its new/faster PC launcher: “We vibe coded the Epic Games Launcher to be faster than the other guy.” The blog post, claiming ‘cold start to store’ is 46% faster than Steam, is a goofy ‘we just jammed this out’ vibe, leading to Internet snark. (But also: Fortnite’s coming to Linux alongside an Easy Anti-Cheat rebuild.) https://store.epicgames.com/news/epic-games-launcher-preview Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.

We talk the different structure and the amount of games currently lined up for October's Steam Next Fest, how making 'regular' trailers vs. short-form video influencer output differs, whether Xbox is going to be making Minecraft more commercially minded in the medium term, and how video games need to compete in the 'attention economy' with the inexorable rise of gambling.Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode:Steam’s upcoming Next Fest (starting Oct. 19th) has its dev-only preview live. And reports say there’s a new interactive genre picker (using 2x ‘lead categories’ the dev picks) to help players choose, early on. (Also: currently >8,000 demos (!) queued for the fest - though that number will come down, as some games drop out late…) Veteran trailer maker Derek Lieu asks a key Q on YouTube: “Are game trailers ‘old news’ when one viral short [video] can make a game blow up?” (He looks at aspects of shorts (captions, voiceover) that differ from “a 60-90 second video crafted to sum up the game's experience/vibe”, and notes that most short-makers recut… the trailer!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_J8mTO3wZY More evidence Minecraft’s getting sharpened platform power? Tubefilter spotted a job ad which has a successful applicant “defending against competing platforms (Roblox, Fortnite/UEFN, Unity, Fab) through better developer experience, tooling, and enablement at portfolio scale.” (That doesn’t sound like cozy oldskool Mojang.) https://www.tubefilter.com/2026/09/30/microsoft-mojang-hiring-minecraft-creator-experiences/ (Minecraft also got a new head who was an ex-chief product officer at Reddit.) We’ve talked about video games getting more randomized rewards & divergent ‘runs’. And while games don’t come up in this NYT piece about ‘how everything became gambling’, the article underscores the fact that the attention economy is just getting ‘grabbier’. And games have to compete with gambling for eyeballs - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/04/magazine/gambling-prediction-markets-statistics.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GVE.SGsc.ybkSCbW6jYgK&smid=url-shareAlso discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.

We talk about the most generic names for games on Steam and whether it really matters what your game is called, a PvE mode in extraction shooter standout ARC Raiders, a lawsuit in Roblox exposing the (lack of) contracts behind many Roblox successes, and the question of Xbox/PS platform split on GTA VI getting spicy…Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode:Games as a platform news: ARC Raiders is testing a PvE mode and has some super interesting research on increasing co-op fans (37% and rising) in their player cohort - "There are clear friction points, with friendly players often attempting to avoid PvP entirely, and we hear frustration from certain groups of players around ratting and camping."  https://arcraiders.com/news/pve-toggle-beta-testPC Gamer’s piece on why so many games have weirdly similar (and forgettable) names has a great Hannah Flynn quote - “suddenly everything's called Rise of the Bonelord: Origins of Dust” and also includes my 2c: “naming isn't that important, since most people buy a game based on video footage… or a recommendation.” https://www.pcgamer.com/games/why-so-many-steam-games-have-weirdly-similar-and-forgettable-names/Roblox has a lot of teens suddenly making a lot of money with UGC, and therefore a lot of lawsuits with much messiness, such as this Tower Defense Sim one profiled by Aftermath: payroll using Robux, and $35 million in damages demanded from a ‘high school computer science project’ now making megabucks: https://aftermath.site/tower-defense-simulator-roblox-lawsuit/The platform split on GTA VI got spicy, with Xbox’s chief strategy officer Matthew Ball pushing back on The Verge’s Tom Warren over alleged poor pre-orders: “The title is breaking records for Xbox… our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market..” (We don’t find out what that share is, though… Xbox at 25-30%, with PS5 at ~75%, do people think?) - https://x.com/ballmatthew/status/2103210685920424384Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.

We talk about the next part of the Xbox re-org, how a media smart guy says 'the relationship between time and value is breaking down' in media, the rise of Steam demos whose saves transfer to the full game, and Meta's announcements of a revamped, AI-centric Horizon game creator and the latest iteration of Meta's VR plans.Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode:The next part of the Xbox re-org just hit, with more layoffs (250+) at Halo Studios & across Xbox, and Activision now running Rare & a new Halo title that’s more CoD tech-adjacent. Bethesda’s now in charge of Obsidian, and Ninja Theory’s spinoff is not going well (so possible layoffs.) It’s largely logical, but it's a lot: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/09/22/continuing-our-reset/Trend-analyzing media smart guy Doug Shapiro posted something (semi-paywalled) about how “the relationship between time and value is breaking down” in media. A must-read & made us think of ‘incremental games’ on Steam which are a) inexpensive and b) compressed in a lot of ways, gameplay-wise. (It cites a BCG estimate that $0.70/hr was the average video game spend in 2025, inc. mobile.) - https://dougshapiro.substack.com/p/time-isnt-moneyAn emerging trend? Demos where save data transfers to the full game! Firms like Square Enix (and just now Konami with Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse) have been pushing this, Graveyard Keeper 2’s exceptionally good Steam demo perf (~30k CCU) also: “Start playing the free demo now, then carry your progress into the full game.” https://www.konami.com/games/castlevania/belmonts_curse/us/en-us/demoTwo Meta announcements: Also in Meta’s presentations: fascinating that the pivot on the Horizon virtual world/UGC creator is multi-platform and AI-first, with tools to “turn any idea into a complete 2D or 3D mobile game.. with progression systems, balanced difficulty, art direction, multiplayer, and more.” (And easy publish to Facebook & Instagram?) https://developers.meta.com/blog/meta-connect-recap-horizon-create-and-horizon-studio/ And also: Janko Roettgers sums up Met'as new $1,300 VR Glasses as “the company’s biggest bet on TV-like entertainment to date”, as some games like ‘no controllers needed’ Beat Saber got showcased: https://www.lowpass.cc/p/meta-vr-glasses-tv-replacement-3d-entertainment-content + https://www.uploadvr.com/new-games-announced-for-meta-vr-glasses/Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.