UNBOXING: Play and Profit for the Gaming Curious

Fall syllabi with final cuts revealed, then get a behind the scenes look at the annual gameplay habits survey. PLUS: Roblox doc w/ Chris Hansen? Yep, that’s a thing.

EA, Take-Two & Krafton earnings decoded. Updates on this summer’s top stories. PLUS: Find out who is throwing dildos at WNBA games and why!

Roblox quarterly earnings broken down. Updates in the Epic v Google lawsuit. PLUS: Raven Software locks in a historic union contract!

Steam and Itch.io pulled thousands of NSFW games. PLUS, find out how payment processors became censors and how the UK’s Online Safety Act isn’t helping.

UPDATE: UNBOXING is coming to you… well.. pre-recorded but hey, we're on video now! Apple delists a classic while Stop Killing Games campaign returns. PLUS: Laine talks with Phil Salvador from the Video Game History Foundation.

Laine & Joost go full professor mode with a mid-summer syllabi swap. PLUS: buy now, pay later comes to gaming and Nintendo announces casting choices for live-action Zelda movie.

Another round of Microsoft layoffs spark consolidation questions, then what the ESA’s Essential Facts report tells us about gaming in the US. PLUS: your hosts recap the Games for Change conference and more!

Embracer gets serious about restructuring. PLUS: Microsoft ratifies the first-ever U.S. game worker union contract and your hosts discuss new and exciting things coming out in the world of games.

This week, Laine and Joost wade through the glittering but sometimes shallow waters of summer games season, breaking down what the Xbox Showcase, Summer Game Fest, and Sony’s State of Play actually tell us about the future of games (spoiler: not much). They reflect on the post-E3 showcase sprawl, the flattening effect of digital-only reveals, and the quiet collapse of industry pageantry into trailer fatigue and corporate branding exercises. Then, the duo turns to GameStop’s latest mutation—into a Bitcoin-hoarding, Pokémon-peddling quasi-hedge fund. Is it a savvy reinvention or just late-stage capitalism in cosplay? They talk meme stock mayhem and the vibes-based logic of retail pivots.

Laine and Joost return from hiatus older, wiser, and slightly more disillusioned. After swapping life updates (burnout, sabbatical travel, bike repair, Belgian sauce gossip), they dive into the state of the games industry: mass layoffs, market decline, and the collapse of the forever-growth fantasy. Plus: Apple loses in court, Steam gets sued (again), GTA VI becomes the industry’s last great hope, and Laine spills the tea on fighting the ESA over game preservation rights. It’s only Season 4, episode 1 and it’s already a ride.