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 from top executives inside studios and strategic partners across the ecosystem who are uncovering the ideas, tactics, and trends shaping tomorrow’s opportunities.
Whether you’re launching your first game or scaling a global studio, you’ll find practical strategies, future-forward thinking, and real-world examples you can act on right away.
The Business of Games is brought to you by Xsolla, your strategic partner behind the scenes. We bring together “All the Things” to help you simplify operations, unlock new revenue, reach more players, and launch fast.
Visit xsolla.com to learn more, connect with our team, and access all the things you need to level up your business of play. Want to join the conversation? Follow and comment on our LinkedIn page at The Business of Games Podcast, where we’ll be sharing updates, highlights, and continuing the discussion. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with friends and colleagues who want to learn more about the business of games.
Episodes
46 episodes
From the Air Force to infinite worlds: Jan Roessner on stoicism, interoperability, and the future of game assets
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 cla...
From “Link” to director: Alex Reed on 25 years in games and the winding road that got him there
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 cla...
Skin in the game: Derek Rathbun on real money gameplay as the next frontier of direct-to-consumer monetization
Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla.Direct-to-consumer monetization is usually a conversation about where players spend: web shops, platform margins, owned storefronts. But what if the more interesting qu...
Earned, not extracted: how direct-to-consumer changes monetization design
Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, powered by Xsolla.In this episode, hosts Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine get into the part of the direct-to-consumer conversation that most studios either rush past or get wrong entirely...
AAA mindset, indie budget: Adam Krause and TJ Consunji on discoverability and the art of getting found
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 ...
From gas stations to game studios: Rob Carroll on community, Roll Craft, and the comeback of text-based RPGs
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...
From Neopets to the Elite Four: Jenny Xu on building games, community, and Talofa Games
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 ...
Identity, inventory, and income: Arron Goolsbey on what DTC really requires
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...
True ownership, transferable assets: Jan Roessner on the future of direct-to-consumer
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 bec...
Direct-to-consumer: building the infrastructure that makes it real
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 th...
From comics to controllers: Bronson Lingamfelter on digital ownership and the future of game discovery
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...
Live from GDC: Coffee, conversations, and the business of games
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...
The executive summary: what GDC 2026 revealed about the future of games
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 tal...
Authenticity at scale: Mac Marshall on what direct-to-consumer really means for brand and comms
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 manag...
Curation, control, and connection: David Pava on the real work of direct-to-consumer marketing
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...
From campaigns to trust: what direct-to-consumer really means for marketing
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 att...
Direct to player: the five principles reshaping the business of games
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...
Retail, rewired: gift cards, payments, and the business of access
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 Mana...
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Discoverability is the new retail: how games get found, bought, and sustained
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 to...
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Retail in games: from holiday peaks to always-on strategy
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 fundamentall...
Welcome to Season 2 of The Business of Games Podcast
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 ...
From platforms to players: 2025 reflections, 2026 predictions
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...
Web3 & Games Part 3: Building What Comes Next
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...
