How Games Make Money

Adam Lieb sits down with me to talk about GameSight, which is a performance marketing company for the rest of us. While performance marketing has dominated mobile gaming, it’s coming late to the traditional console and PC space. GameSight tries to connect data from various resources to determine how spending money can make developers and publishers even more money – but it brings in that data from places like television ads and other traditional avenues for marketing.

I talk with Z and Kevin Zhang of Serenity Forge, which is here in Colorado. I met these fellas back at a Denver Comic Con a few years ago, and now they have found themselves in the business of publishing physical games. Most recently, they distributed Doki Doki Literature Club+ into Targets and Walmarts around the world. And they have plans for more projects like that in the future. Discord Patreon

I talk to Steven Spohn and Dr. Chris Power from Able Gamers about their APX certification for game developers. This is a certification that teaches best practices for accessibility to game creators. Steven and Chris explain how those conversations with devs have changed over the last few years as well as the challenges they continue to face. APX Discord Patreon

On this episode of How Games Make Money, host Jeff Grubb speaks with one of the cofounders of Megadev, Robert Maroschik, about its game-cheat service Plitch. That is a subscription program that uses programs called "trainers" that can adjust the way games behave. But unlike similar programs, like Cheat Engine, Plitch takes out all of the guesswork. But while Plitch is simple, it faces a complicated landscape where game cheats are no longer part of the norm. Megadev wants to change that.  Plitch Discord Patreon

Discord Patreon I speak with 1047 cofounder Ian Proulx. Ian helped build 1047’s Splitgate competitive shooter that combines combat with a futuresport aesthetic. Splitgate is already available on PC, where it has gained a lot of traction. But now it is headed to console as well, and we talk about that process, self-publishing, and a lot more.

Discord Patreon On this episode, Jeff Grubb speaks with Colossal Order chief executive officer Mariina Hallikainen about the studio’s city-building simulator Cities: Skylines, which is now six years old. Mariina and Jeff talk about supporting a game for more than half a decade as well as how things change when a game immediately surpasses its sales expectations.

Discord Patreon On this episode of How Games Make Money, host Jeff Grubb has a conversation with Intel's Joakim Algstam about the new Tiger Lake-H CPUs. These chips are speedy, great for gaming, and great for creation, and Intel is working with OEMs to build laptops that can serve all of those needs. 

Discord Patreon Rainway + Xbox news On this episode of How Games Make Money, host Jeff Grubb speaks with the CEO of streaming-technology company Rainway, Andrew Sampson. Rainway revealed this week that it is working with Microsoft to power the Xbox streaming solution to browsers on mobile devices. Sampson explains how that deal works and why Rainway is well positioned to deliver on that promise. 

Discord Patreon On this week's episode, host Jeff Grubb talks to Joe Ferencz, chief executive officer of Gamefam, which is a studio that works exclusively on Roblox games. Ferencz started the company a few years ago with an idea of bringing traditional-game-development processes to the Roblox community. Now, Gamefam works directly with those creators to build the best and most lucrative versions of their Roblox games. We talk about all of that and more.

Discord Patreon Jake Randall is a YouTuber who helps people get a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. His streams have resulted in a lot of success for people who just want to get into the next-gen but previously couldn't find the hardware. So now he sits down with Jeff Grubb to talk about what that is like.