Gamecraft

Latest episodes

Showing 20 · updated from the feed

QF Update: World Cup Consumer Guide (Ep. 36)

The "Second Tournament" begins with 4 tasty quarter-final matches. Mitch and Blake break down the Round of 32 and Round of 16, rate their recommendations from last episod

Jul 9
1 h 33 min

R32 Update: World Cup Consumer Guide

Mitch and Blake look back at the group stage and talk about the main themes from the tournament so far. They review their picks for matches to watch from the last episo

Jun 28
1 h 22 min

World Cup Consumer Guide (Ep. 34)

Football nerds unite! Mitch & Blake are back with a special episode on the 2026 FIFA World Cup. In this episode they provide a very opinionated "Consumer Guide" to the mo

Jun 12
1 h 24 min

Holy Grail, or Poison Chalice? (Ep. 33)

Mitch and Blake conclude Season 4 with a review of a new kind of games company that is getting significant attention from investors: casual game portals with integrated A

May 27
51 min

Funding & Founding (Ep. 32)

Blake and Mitch discuss the current environment for funding games and some of the challenges and opportunities for founders in the games space. They begin with a short su

May 20
55 min

A Theory of Fun

Blake and Mitch discuss the possibility that games -- mainly mobile and live service games -- have concentrated on providing fun through progression and engagement mechan

May 13
1 h 05 min

Navigating the AI Future (Ep. 30)

Mitch and Blake offer their thoughts about how to navigate the introduction and impact of large language model AI in the video game business. They begin by discussing the

May 6
1 h 18 min

How Istanbul Won the Mobile Puzzle Wars (Ep. 29)

Mitch and Blake discuss the rise of the Istanbul gaming scene, which has exploded in the last 15 years and come to dominate the incredibly lucractive "match 3" mobile puz

Apr 29
1 h 06 min

The Attention Drain (Ep. 28)

Blake and Mitch discuss the thesis that the games business is losing share of attention to non-game interactive applications. They discuss whether there is actually a def

Apr 22
1 h 08 min

Roblox (Ep. 27)

Mitch & Blake discuss one of their favorite companies in games, Roblox. They start by outlining Roblox's core competitive advantages, and how they are unique in providi

Apr 15
1 h 21 min

2026 Trends & Specific Predictions (Ep. 26)

Blake and Mitch return! They begin with a discussion of the "Great Inflection" in software in the last several months. They then do some follow-up to last season, partic

Apr 8
1 h 09 min

The EA "LBO" (Ep. 25)

In this Special Edition of the GameCraft podcast, Mitch and Blake discuss the $55 billion leveraged buy-out of Electronic Arts by the Private Investment Fund of Saudi Ara

Oct 15 2025
37 min

The Sum of the Parts (Ep. 24)

Mitch and Blake explore the role of consolidation -- primarily through mergers and acquistions -- in building some of the biggest and most durable companies in gaming.

May 21 2025
1 h 09 min

AI as a Platform (Ep. 23)

Last season, Mitch and Blake discussed the implications of new Large Language Model Artificial Intelligence in games. In this episode, they return to the topic, this time

May 14 2025
52 min

Hasbro and Lego (Ep. 22)

Mitch and Blake look at two of the largest toy companies in the world, Hasbro and Lego, and discuss their divergent but ultimately very successful forays into the games b

May 7 2025
44 min

The Venture Deadpool (Ep. 21)

Mitch and Blake address the unpleasant topic of how and why venture-backed games companies fail. They look first at the nature of venture financing and the inherent dif

Apr 30 2025
1 h 06 min

China (Ep. 20)

Mitch and Blake look at the current state of the vitally important Chinese gaming market, on the precipice of a bitter trade war resulting from the Trump tariffs. They

Apr 23 2025
56 min

Valve (Ep. 19)

Mitch and Blake take an in-depth look at one of the most important companies in the global gaming business: Valve. They trace the company's origin as the developer of fir

Apr 16 2025
1 h 01 min

The Mobile Gaming Duopoly (Ep. 18)

Mitch and Blake discuss the mobile duopoly in which Apple and Google exert extraordinary power by tying their app stores to hardware and software platforms. They warn tha

Apr 9 2025
59 min

Cycles & Survival (Ep. 17)

Mitch and Blake kick off Season 3 of the podcast with a high-level look at the current moment in the video game business, critiquing both the idea that the business is cy

Apr 2 2025
1 h 23 min

Chart trend

Position in the Video Games chart (US), last 90 days.

#1#101#200JunJulAugSep

#12

all-time peak

118

days in the top 50 since Nov 2024

Chart positions

Where Gamecraft ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Sep 16, 2026).

#132 ▲ 42 Video Games US

What listeners say

A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.

This podcast is incredibly high quality content. I have been running my own game companies for 18 years and I learn something with every episode. If you are an exec in the games industry, it’s absolutely a must to listen to. It’s not unbiased, and I disagree with some of the analysis, but the discussion is top notch.

B1ueButterf1y · May 2025

Amazing podcast for anyone interested in the business of game development. Provided a whole new level of insight, first for the nostalgic games of my youth, and then for the modern game industry where I’ve spent my career over the past 15 years. Truly fascinating to hear such insightful commentary on the current state of the industry and the forces shaping companies I have worked. My half-baked suggestion for season 3 would be to do deeper-dive case studies featuring guest interviews.

Travisschau · May 2025

Fantastic. No commercials. Just amazing information and perspective. A must listen for the game industry.

Mikey17373628 · May 2025

Just love the depth of the content, great for anyone interested in the games business and media/business in general. Looking forward to season 4!

daddyroggie · May 2025

In Season 1, Episode 06 of Gamecraft ("Console Castles”, around minute 29:36-30:30), Mitch Lasky talks about a false story of Satoru Iwata punching someone at an investor meeting as if it actually happened. (More info about this is shared in a Medium article titled “Satoru Iwata NEVER Punched a Man at an Investor Meeting.”) I emailed Mitch and Blake to politely point out this inaccuracy and to ask them to please consider uploading a new audio file for Season 1, Episode 06 that does not include the false Iwata story. I also asked them to please consider removing the "Iwata chooses violence" link from the episode's show notes. Mitch sent me two email replies. In one of them, he wrote: "I am a busy man and I am not going to honor your request. I have my own issues with Iwata whom I dealt with personally and I don’t share your belief in his sainthood. I have disavowed this story publicly and that’s the end of it.” One's opinion of Iwata is not relevant to the fact that a false story about him was propagated on the Gamecraft Podcast. Also, I never claimed that Iwata was a saint and I have not found any evidence of Mitch publicly disavowing the false Iwata story. It's possible that Mitch did publicly disavow the false Iwata story in the joint Acquired/Gamecraft podcast episode, but that portion of the conversation was cut from the public version of the podcast (this is just speculation). Since Gamecraft presents itself as an authoritative source of information on the video game industry, it should be held to a high standard of accuracy. Gamecraft cannot be trusted as a reliable source of information because the co-hosts have demonstrated an unwillingness to take a few minutes to remove an egregious factual error from one of their episodes. Out of respect for the late Satoru Iwata (and accuracy), I hope that one of the co-hosts of Gamecraft chooses to upload a new audio file of Season 1, Episode 06 that does not include the false Iwata story. I also hope that they remove the misleading "Iwata chooses violence" link from the episode's show notes. These corrections would help prevent future Gamecraft listeners from being misled to believe a false and defamatory story about Satoru Iwata. If these corrections are made, I will gladly update my review and change my rating to 5 stars.

Chad Timblin · May 2024

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