Recorded on location at Pocket Gamer Connects London, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Berkley Egenes, CMO at Xsolla, to examine a structural shift in the industry.

Gaming is no longer just entertainment. It is becoming the commerce layer connecting developers, brands, platforms and players.

Xsolla’s recent rebrand reflects that evolution — moving beyond payments to enable publishing, distribution, promotions and marketplace infrastructure designed to help developers launch, grow and win.

In this conversation, Peggy and Berkley break down:

• Why D2C is now a strategic pillar, not a workaround
• How casual games are outperforming expectations in web shop adoption
• Why Southeast Asia is accelerating faster than many Western markets
• How brands, telecoms and super apps are converging around gaming
• What happens when commerce, loyalty and gameplay start to merge

As Berkley puts it, the stereotype of the “gamer” is gone. Everyone is a gamer. That makes gaming the most powerful engagement layer in digital culture.

When attention lives in games, commerce follows.

This episode explores why the next phase of growth may depend less on transactions inside the app — and more on orchestrating an ecosystem around it.

Chapters

00:00 The Evolving Identity of the Gamer

00:40 Xsolla’s Mission in Video Game Commerce

02:53 Exploring Growth in Southeast Asia

05:07 Unique Ad Experiences and Monetization

07:07 Integrating Non-Endemic Brands into Gaming

09:23 Insights from the Xsolla Report

14:41 The Future of the Gaming Industry

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