Claim OwnershipThe Business of Video Games Podcast
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Welcome to the Business of Video Games Podcast. A podcast where we try to shed a bit of light on the inner workings of the games industry. We give you the why, how, who and what the hell?! on business decisions, publishing calls, steps and missteps that go on behind the scenes.
Basically - the inside view on how and why things are ACTUALLY done the way they are. Not just guesswork on 4Chan.
The podcast is hosted by Daniel Goldberg (former Chief Marketing officer at Paradox Interactive) and Shams Jorjani (former Chief Business Development Officer at Paradox Interactive).
In every episode, we invite a guest from the industry to unpack an interesting decision or event, share their learnings and wisdoms, or just explain why all of us armchair experts got things wrong (or right!) again.
We previously hosted and ran the Paradox Interactive Podcast for some 4 years - you can find those episodes on most podcast platforms of note.
Basically - the inside view on how and why things are ACTUALLY done the way they are. Not just guesswork on 4Chan.
The podcast is hosted by Daniel Goldberg (former Chief Marketing officer at Paradox Interactive) and Shams Jorjani (former Chief Business Development Officer at Paradox Interactive).
In every episode, we invite a guest from the industry to unpack an interesting decision or event, share their learnings and wisdoms, or just explain why all of us armchair experts got things wrong (or right!) again.
We previously hosted and ran the Paradox Interactive Podcast for some 4 years - you can find those episodes on most podcast platforms of note.
37 Episodes
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How is the Swedish Games Industry doing? We catch up with Johanna Nylander Head of Analysis at the Swedish Games industry (the Swedish industry trade organization) and talk about the recent report about the state of the Swedish games industry. What do we have in the water that makes Swedes good at making games? Because it sure ain't tax breaks.
In this episode we delve into the topic of strategy publisher Hooded Horse's portfolio - we've visited again by their CEO Tim Bender - but also their Director of Marketing Abhishek Chaudhry. Listen in on how they pick new games to sign, how they manage their games portfolio and give us a few handy tips for what they look for in a pitch and build.
For an overview of the Hooded Horse portfolio visit: https://hoodedhorse.com/games/
In the second episode of this season we sit down with Tim Bender - the CEO of one the fastest growing new publishers on the planet - Hooded Horse. What is a Hooded Horse and how come they are succeeding when others are having a tough time?
This is the first episode with Hooded Horse this season - we'll be returning as a home base throughout the season and really dig into their business.
Welcome back to a new season of the Business of Video Games podcast! In this episode we recap the state of the industry, talk about what's new for this season and talk about a little thing called marketing momentum - which Baldur's Gate 3 seems to have in spades.
We invited Tanya Short back to the podcast to unpack how the Dwarf Fortress release actually fared. If you didn't catch episode 6 please give that a listen first to get insights into Kitfox's strategy heading into one of indie gaming's biggest releases.
We return yet again to our home base this season - Indie publisher Hooded Horse. They recently release Manor Lords and it was a roaring success selling over 2M copies in less than 3 weeks. We talk to their CEO Tim Bender and Chief Marketing Officer Abhishek Chaudhry to understand what went right, wrong and what the team would do differently.
Find Manor Lords here https://store.steampowered.com/app/1363080/Manor_Lords/
And follow Hooded Horse here: https://x.com/HoodedHorseInc
Times are grim in the games industry - at least they are if you're running a business looking for money. But there's light at the end of the tunnel! We think. The trick is just to survive until Gandalf comes riding back with backup. To discuss how to survive until 2025 when things might look better we invited Robert Bäckström - ex Fatshark, Raw Fury and much more to talk about survival strategies for game developers.
Visit Aurora Punks here: https://www.aurorapunks.com/
And Robert here: https://twitter.com/aurora_punker
We're back with another episode in the series where we explore the book - "Up, Down, Up - Why some game companies succeed while others fail" written by Kim Nordström. This time we talk about the growth phase of the companies journey. We delve into what characterizes this phase and how the focus of companies change during this phase. We talk about crazy concepts such as "Culture transfer rate" and other tricks of the dark arts.
You can find more info on it here: https://updownupbook.com/
In this episode we had a chat with Astrid Refstrup - CEO of Tripletopping and now in charge of Developer Relation & Business Development at the games fund WINGS who invest in gender marginalized teams. Astrid shares war stories and we talk about WINGS modus operandi. We try to figure out how one balances business excellence with idealistic goals.
You can find Wings and their application process here:
Wings:
https://wingsfund.me/
https://wingsfund.me/apply/
And Astrid can be reached here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/astrid-mie-refstrup-344969136/
https://twitter.com/Astridmrefstrup
We're back with another episode in the series where we explore the book - "Up, Down, Up - Why some game companies succeed while others fail" written by Kim Nordström. This time we talk about the startup phase of the companies journey. Kim shares insights and takeaways from other companies that mastered and flubbed this critical phase.
You can find more info on it here: https://updownupbook.com/
In this extra long interview I had the privilege of talking to the illustrious leader of Finji - makers of Canabalt, Overland, Tunic and many more fun games. We delve into the details and get a good understanding of why Finji - being an artist centric developer - has managed to also build and grow as a business successfully over the years.
Finji makes some truly magical games - which you can find here: https://finji.co/
Rebekah can be found here: https://twitter.com/BexSaltsman
We return yet again to Hooded Horse for a Q&A episode - but almost immediately things go off the rails. The idea was to pepper the CEO of Hooded Horse Tim Bender with dozens of questions from the community - but instead we barely got past the 3rd question thanks to Tim's insightful answers and ensuing discussion. Take out your notepads for this one kids.
Send us more questions to attack Tim with in the future.
Visit https://hoodedhorse.com/
and find their games here: https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/HoodedHorse
How do you make the most out of a trip to the annual Game Developers Conference if you're starting out in the industry or generally want to up your game? In this episode we invited Fernando Rizo back to the show to talk about how to get the most out of a GDC (Game Developers Conference) show attendance. If you're Phil Spencer this episode isn't for you - but you might still enjoy it Phil.
GDC is one of the business development highlights of the year and it's hard to navigate if you haven't been there before - we demystify the whole process and save you a buck or two.
Visit Caboodle here https://www.caboodle.games/
Fernando can be pestered on twitter: https://twitter.com/choomsky
This is the first episode of a multipart series where we talk to Kim Nordström, alumni of Sony, King, Paradox Interactive and other companies who's written an exciting book called Up, Down, Up - The Journey of a Successful Game Company.
It's a must read for anyone interested in the business side of things in the industry. So no surprise then that we will cover the book over a number of episodes this season.
Kim has gone through the herculean effort of interviewing hundreds of business leaders in the games industry to understand why some game companies succeed while others fail.
You can find more info on it here: https://updownupbook.com/
We return to the scene of (my) crime by having Sebastian Forsström from Paradox Interactive come visit us to talk about their newest publishing label Paradox Arc. Why does it exist, how is it different from the rest of the company and how do they operate? And we get to the heart of the matter - how does a big company innovate?
Visit Paradox Arc here: https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/our-games/paradox-arc
and bother Sebastian here: https://twitter.com/SebastianFo
Crowdfunding first made a huge impact on the business side of our industry about a decade ago. There was even talk of it rendering publishers irrelevant. Things didn't play out exactly that way. Well, they did for Chris Roberts and Star Citizen - but not for the rest of us. We decided catch up with the eminent expert in the field - Anya Combs and learn how Crowdfunding is doing today as an option for games companies.
If you want to get hold of Anya here's her contact info. Don't miss the spotify links! She's a mean sax player!
Anya Combs, anya.combs@gmail.com
Twitter: @anyayna
Everything else: @anyacombsherhair
Social Media Links
Spotify:
Funkrust Brass Band
Barbicide
The first episode of 2024 is about Hooded Horse marketing apparatus and how they make sure their games get visibility in a marketplace where 40 other games are released every day. Joined as always by Hooded Horse's own CEO Tim Bender and Director of Marketing Abhishek Chaudhry.
This episode features a conversation with none other than Larry Kuperman! Larry runs biz dev over at Nightdive Studios. They've been banging out cool remaster/remake after remaster/remake (mouthful). We dig into this particular nostalgic slice of the industry and try to understand this old/new part of the business.
Check out Nightdives games here: https://www.nightdivestudios.com/ and Larry can be found on social media!
We return again to Hooded Horse (our home base for this season) and a favorite topic on the podcast - The timeless art of Negotiation! What's Hooded Horse's approach, what to do? What not to do? Tim Bender dispenses with some some tricks of the trade and it makes us a bit smarter. Hopefully.
Here's a link to the infographic mentioned in the episode: https://imgur.com/x5D02Be
Esports! that's right - e-sports??! It was the hottest thing on the planet 10 years ago - but where is it at today? We invited Andjela Kusmuk from TheAlliance.GG to talk about the team and where this competitive part of the industry is at today.
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