Deconstructor of Fun

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“Never trust experts nor believe in business friendships. Never allow others to change your vision. And never underpay yourself.” Those are the 4 critical nevers that Anton Krasnyy once wrote on LinkedIn.

Anton is a former founder, CEO, and Chairman of Murka, a social casino company originally from Ukraine acquired by Blackstone in 2019.

Despite the strong words, I’ve always found Anton to be very empathetic. That’s why I wanted him to come on the podcast and talk in detail about the four critical never and show his real personality, which may come off the wrong way in a written form. 

While it's not as crazy as the Unity Runtime fee fiasco, it's a close second as the cast reviews Apple's plans to address the EU's DMA rules. Kress eats it and admits that Zynga might have potential this year, with Match Factory showing promise. Blizzard picks a new president, and the cast weighs in on her resume, making recommendations and predictions for her future. Riot and Blizzard called cults, in a good way.

Think Istanbul Game Summit (March 7)
https://adsonair.withgoogle.com/events/think-games-istanbul-2024

Newzoo's Lead Analyst, Tom Wijman, returns on the podcast to discuss gaming market predictions for consoles and PCs.

You can access the full Newzoo report here:

https://newzoo.com/games-market-reports-forecasts

And check our previous episode here:

www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/2023/11/2/console-gamings-triple-threat

Sign up to Istanbul Gaming Summit

By deciding not to hear the appeal of the Epic v. Apple case, the injection against Apple's anti-steering rules stands. This means that developers are now free to push US iOS players into web shops. But what doest that mean for the industry? And if this conversation doesn’t tickle your toes, the crew talks Palworld. A real Pokemon killer. 

The doom and gloom of this episode is brought to you by Eric Kress, Jen Donahoe, Philip Black and Laura Taranto. 

Josh Wilson, CEO of Sciplay returns to the podcast to tell the story behind the company’s evolution over the last two years. SciPlay has grown every quarter despite the economic and privacy headwinds thanks to strategic initiatives discussed in this episode. We also talk about the accusations the company has made and why it has been itself acquired. 

Istanbul Gaming Summit

⁠https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/think-games-istanbul-i-google-x-deconstructor-of-fun⁠

segments:

Last two years at SciPlay: (0:00)

Why SciPlay keeps growing: (26:20)

Why SciPlay was acquired: (40:50)

Outro: (51:50)

Istanbul Gaming Summit pre-signup:

https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/think-games-istanbul-i-google-x-deconstructor-of-fun

The squad dips their spoons into the Monopoly Go drama by giving their take on the profitability of Scopely’s blockbuster. We discuss the real reason why NetEase and Activision have suddenly kissed and made up. Scratch our heads as to why Tencent is launching yet another mobile MOBA and dive deep into the state of mobile. 

The doom and gloom of this episode is brought to you by Eric Kress, Jen Donahoe, Philip Black, and Michail Katkoff. 

stanbul Gaming Summit

2024 starts where 2023 ended - and that means layoffs. Unity slashes 1,800 jobs while Twitch fires every third person in the latest layoff rounds at these companies.

In this episode, we announce the Golden Twig "winners", discuss Clash Mini, and continue to scratch our heads about Netflix Games.

Thanks to the show's sponsors: Xsolla, AppsFlyer, Data.ai, and Heroic Labs!

Eric Seufert is a one-of-a-kind marketing expert. He has headed marketing at Rovio, Wooga, and N3TWORK. He has built Mobile Dev Memo into the leading site for marketing professionals. He became a venture capitalist after founding Heracles Capital.

In this podcast, Eric Seufert returns back to the podcast to discuss predictions for mobile marketing. A must-listen for all of us!

sign-up to our PGC event: https://event.appsflyer.com/appsflyerandheroiclabs

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first podcast of 2024! After checking in on the holiday activities, the cast digs into the big news hitting the Chinese game industy. Kress makes predictions about how companies around the world will react to the proposed China game regulations (limiting daily spend, removing loot boxes, etc).

Phil pulled out key insights from the Insomniac leak, and the cast discussed how Sony should approach live service across its console business.

The Survey: https://forms.gle/W1Cy2dRcvsaZhyiW9

Connect with the TWIG cast on LinkedIn

Philip Black, Jen Donahoe, Eric Kress, Laura Taranto