Podcast · Leisure & Travel

Deconstructor of Fun

by Deconstructor of Fun · English · Leisure & Travel

Deconstructor of Fun podcast is created by games professionals for games professionals. We explore the business side of the games industry with the goal of bringing listeners content that is relevant, insightful, and entertaining on a weekly basis. Hosts: Michail Katkoff www.linkedin.com/in/michail

New episodes: Several times a week
Typical length: 1 hr
Latest: 12 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026 · 58 minNew

352. AI Made Every Team Faster. Then It Got Messy.

Retrofitting AI into a 1,300-person company and building one around it from day one are different problems. Mishka Katkoff sits down with Liaz Kamper, AI Experience Architect at AppsFlyer, and Maor Cohen, CTO of Vibes, to compare the two.00:00 — AI-first vs. AI-native companies06:19 — Transforming an established company with AI16:22 — Building an AI-native organization20:40 — Coordination and shared context26:12 — Building the company’s “AI brain”32:27 — Earning customer trust in an AI-powered world37:40 — Success in AI-native teams45:03 — AI as a tool, not the goal51:48 — Token costs58:56 —…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

8 Oct 2026 · 1 hr
TWIG #404: AI Game Mashups Go Viral, Google Launches Playground and Mobile Studios Are Cheap Again
AI-made mashups of games like Skate 3 and Modern Warfare II took over social media, and publishers responded with takedowns. Google launched Playground, joining Roblox and Meta in the race to build prompt-to-game platforms. New InvestGame data shows 2026 already has more deals than any year since 2022, but buyers are paying less for each dollar of revenue, and the market has reopened on their terms. We also look at whether the Resident Evil movie actually sold games, and where Xbox is headed after its latest “we’re not selling” statement.Topics Covered:• AI mashup mods go viral and…
5 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 4 min
351. Why Great Hires Fail at Startups | Garry Hill, Makers Fund
Most startup hiring mistakes come down to two things: hiring too fast and hiring too narrow. Garry Hill, head of talent at Makers Fund, sees both across a portfolio of 130+ companies. Before Makers Fund, he recruited at SpaceX, Amazon, Blizzard, PlayStation and Reddit. We start with the hires who looked perfect on paper and still failed, from pedigreed engineers who burned out at Blizzard to SpaceX's weekend interviews, and how those company cultures really compared. Then we get practical about hiring for game studios and startups discussing referral, interview processes, culture, and how to…
1 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 8 min
TWIG #403: The Market Only Grew 2%, Friendslop Hits the PC Charts and China Drafts Off GTA VI
Strip out inflation and the games market has barely grown in a decade. This week we dig into Newzoo's latest numbers and what they say about where growth comes from: mature Western markets, existing players and five giant companies taking almost all of it. Then we look at how cheap social games like Big Walk and How to Fish cracked the top 10 PC revenue chart, what Naughty Dog's new Last of Us tease means, and why Chinese developers are rushing GTA-style mobile games out ahead of GTA VI. Topics Covered: Mark Pincus and the $400M Supercell deal that almost happened Why 2021 is the wrong…
30 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 2 min
Shooter Monthly #10: War Dogs Sells 2.2M, Cash Economy Breakdown and the 1v1v1 Debate
War Dogs sold 2.2 million copies in four days and nobody saw it coming. This episode we break down Bulkhead's early access hit. A hardcore milsim with three teams, no matchmaking and a $40 price tag beat Helldivers 2's launch curve on Steam, and its peak concurrents grew every day of launch week. We get into the persistent cash economy that might be the teamwork fix Battlefield never found, why the 1v1v1 format splits the panel, and whether a sub-100 person studio can pull off a live service with extraction and PvE modes on the way. Topics Covered: War Dogs launch numbers and who is playing…
E350 · 28 Sep 2026 · 52 min
350. Zynga Founder Mark Pincus: Why Your Favourite Ideas Are Almost Always Wrong
Mark Pincus founded Zynga that was later acquired of $12.7B by TakeTwo and still thinks he misplayed the hand. On this episode he unpacks the playbook behind Life at the Speed of Play: why all new fails, how to run a company as a democratic dictatorship why anyone lecturing you about culture has a team rolling their eyes behind them. Life at the Speed of Play: https://www.lifeatthespeedofplay.com/ Key timestamps: 00:00 — Intro 1:30 — Why Mark wrote Life at the Speed of Play 8:49 — How to test instincts: proven, better, new 15:45 — “Know your goal or suffer death by a thousand compromises”…
24 Sep 2026 · 59 min
TWIG #402: Xbox Bets on Kojima, Halo Gets Handed to CoD and AppLovin Hits the Road
Xbox is cutting niche studios and signing a niche Kojima project in the same month. We try to make it make sense. Sony pulled funding on Physint after budget concerns, and Xbox picked it up as a franchise with film and TV rights attached. Meanwhile Microsoft keeps restructuring into clean verticals, with Halo moving under Activision and Obsidian joining Bethesda, which has us asking whether Xbox is getting organized to sell. We also look at Build A Rocket Boy closing after roughly $250M raised and one troubled launch, Apple's new ATT prompt in Europe, and why AppLovin's CEO is suddenly on…
23 Sep 2026 · 41 min
Puzzle Monthly #6: Disney Solitaire's Big Win, Playtika's Earn-Out Trap and Solitaire vs Puzzle
Disney Solitaire is one of the biggest launches of the year, and it might be too successful for its own parent company. This episode breaks down how SuperPlay turned a solitaire game into a Disney-powered hit, why Playtika's debt and earn-out deal could push it to sell, and how Disney Solitaire stacks up against Tiki Solitaire, Grand Harvest and Candy Crush Solitaire. We also look at the full solitaire market, the live ops gap between Disney and everyone else, and whether solitaire can ever rival puzzle. Topics Covered: Why games that scale in tier two and three markets struggle in tier one…
E349 · 21 Sep 2026 · 52 min
349. From Zero Offers To Record Revenue I Michael Martinez, CEO of FunCraft
Michael Martinez, co-founder and CEO of FunCraft, tried to sell his mobile game studio in 2025. Trusted people said "don't do it yet". He chose otherwise. A banker pitched the company to 40 buyers. Zero offers. Then the company doubled to a $50M run rate with just 15 people. Rejection like that either breaks a founder or forces a better business. For FunCraft, it did the second. In this episode, Michael breaks down what went wrong in the M&A process, what a failed sale really costs, and how a 15-person team shifted its focus from valuation to profit. Essential viewing for founders thinking…
17 Sep 2026 · 53 min
TWIG #401: Blizzard Goes All In, Roblox Breaks Out of Its Own App and Aniimo Nails Launch Day
Gaming is back, and this week had a lot to talk about. BlizzCon delivered the biggest slate of announcements Blizzard has had in years, but the timelines and team sizes raise real questions about what Microsoft pressure is doing to the studio. Roblox used RDC to push standalone apps, browser play and a developer wallet, and we debate whether any of it actually improves discoverability. Plus Kojima's Physint moves from PlayStation to Xbox, a heated ad revenue argument over hybrid casual, a surprise 2 million sales hit from Wardogs, and first impressions of FunPlus's Aniimo as it passes 125K…
E348 · 14 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
348. Why None of Us Saw Cyberpunk Coming Apart I Michal Nowakowski. joint CEO, CD PROJEKT RED
Cyberpunk 2077 sold 13 million copies in ten days, then Sony pulled it from the PlayStation Store. CD Projekt Red joint CEO Michal Nowakowski was the one taking the calls. He walks through what actually broke, why the investors weren't the reason, and how the studio went from a Polish box distributor to owning The Witcher outright. Plus the transmedia strategy, the move to Unreal Engine 5, and why Poland built the strongest gaming ecosystem in Europe. Chapters 00:00 From Polish distributor to a global studio 04:43 Buying The Witcher rights 08:15 Why owning the IP was non-negotiable 14:12…
10 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 16 min
TWIG #400: Is the Game Industry Actually Crashing, OpenAI's Astra and 8 Years of Hot Takes
400 episodes in, and yes, we swear more than anyone will admit.This is the big one. Before the retrospective, we tear apart the latest "video game industry is crashing" clickbait using actual employment data, then get into what OpenAI's new Astra model means for teams already shipping with AI. Then we open the vault: eight years of TWIG, the origin stories nobody remembers the same way twice, and the predictions that aged well or badly.Topics Covered:• Why the "worst crash since the 1980s" headline doesn't hold up• AAA budgets ballooning past 400 million and the indie boom it's fueling•…
E347 · 7 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 14 min
347. Questions Istanbul Founders Stopped Asking I Akin Babayigit, Arcadia Gaming Partners
McKinsey, the United Nations, Skype, Rocket Internet, Facebook, King. Then Akin Babayigit co-founded Tripledot, spun out Luna Labs, and now runs Arcadia Gaming Partners, a $100M fund he deploys alone.He left Türkiye at sixteen and never moved back, which makes him one of the few people who can talk about Istanbul as both an insider and an outsider. We get into how the ecosystem was built, why Sidar Şahin still shapes it years after disappearing, why payback windows are the wrong lens, and what he told a room of Turkish founders that they did not want to hear.Chapters 02:42 Leaving Türkiye…
3 Sep 2026 · 57 min
TWIG #399: GTA VI Breaks Netflix, EU Targets Roblox and Zero Company's Studio Implodes
GTA VI just proved it can break Netflix, the EU just put Roblox under its strictest rulebook, and one of the best reviewed games of the year is already falling apart behind the scenes.The crew breaks down the numbers behind GTA VI's Netflix trailer drop and what it means for pre-orders, why PlayStation is quietly winning the entire hype cycle, and how rising RAM prices could delay the PS6. They also cover Gamescom's attendance numbers and the shift toward Eastern exhibitors, the EU's new Roblox designation, Star Wars Zero Company's strong launch undone by a founder lawsuit, Brian Ward's exit…
2 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 1 min
Shooter Monthly #9: Battlefield's Hot Streak, Gears Goes Helldiving, and the Battle Pass Plateau
Shooters are having one of their best summers in years, and every major franchise still can't agree on what to do about it.The crew runs through the battle pass shakeup hitting Call of Duty, Battlefield and Overwatch, breaks down why Battlefield is quietly beating Call of Duty on Steam, and picks apart Apex Legends' run as the most consistent live service in the genre. They also dig into Gears of War: E-Day's beta results against Helldivers 2, unpack why War Bonds aren't actually battle passes, and argue about why Western studios keep playing it safe while Eastern developers experiment their…
E346 · 31 Aug 2026 · 40 min
346. Why Mattel Wants Studios to Pitch the Uncomfortable
Mattel owns Barbie, Hot Wheels, UNO, Masters of the Universe and Street Sharks. Marcus Liassides runs its digital business, which now Roblox, Fortnite, and a licensing program that puts Mattel IP in creators' hands without approving what they build with it. This episode is about how a studio actually gets an IP deal with Mattel, and what you get beyond the logo.00:00 - Why Mattel is at a games summit01:13 - The Roblox bet04:18 - Why studios stay skeptical06:22 - AI and why IP matters more10:46 - What Mattel actually wants pitched13:57 - Where pitches go wrong17:40 - Beyond the license19:15 -…
27 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 3 min
TWIG #398: Gaming's 2026 Reality Check, The GTA 6 Leak Nightmare and Why Jobs Are Still Vanishing
Rockstar is fighting a leak it cannot plug, and the leaker has turned the whole thing into a token economy.Episode 398 covers a week where the data says growth and the job market says something else. Newzoo puts 2026 at 214 billion, Makers Fund closes another 250 million that looks nothing like venture capital, Google Play turns RAM into a store requirement, and Gamescom hands us Nodusfall, Palworld on mobile via Garena, and one more round of the HD on mobile argument that never ends.Topics Covered:• CyberLeek posts 16 GTA 6 clips and runs crypto-paid polls on what leaks next• Take-Two…
E345 · 26 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 14 min
345. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of UA Financing
Everyone's telling you cohort financing is free money to scale. It's not, and the contract fine print is where that story falls apart.Josh Chandley (President & COO, Wildcard Games) sits down with Phil Mohr (CEO & Co-founder, Metica) and Martin Macmillan (Founder, Pollen Capital) to break down what cohort financing actually costs, who really takes the risk, and how founders keep getting burned by deals they don't fully understand. Martin lent almost $1B through Pollen VC with zero credit defaults over a decade. Phil looked at 40-50 games before Metica stopped writing new cohort deals…
E344 · 24 Aug 2026 · 44 min
344. The Truth About Taking Over A Company
In March 2025, Jon Bellamy became CEO of Jagex and Alexis Bonte became CEO of Stillfront. Both inherited companies with legacy, scale, and a long list of things that needed to go. This episode is about what actually happens in a games industry CEO's first 100 days.Timestamps00:00 - The first 100 days05:24 - Knowing the company09:15 - Cultural shift15:16 - Choosing focus19:33 - Public versus private24:52 - Board communication30:44 - Evaluating leaders36:15 - Head coach mode39:17 - Three success markers
20 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 7 min
TWIG #397: Roblox Under Fire, Apple’s EU App Store Shake-Up and Netflix Games’ Studio Retreat
Crew breaks down another packed week in games. Roblox faces mounting pressure over child safety as Congress launches an investigation, Apple rewrites its EU App Store economics while Germany forces changes to ATT, and Netflix Games keeps shrinking with two more studio closures. Meanwhile, Webtoon makes a $100 million bet on gaming, Devolver Digital heads for the exits after a brutal public-market run, and Mishka goes deep on Voodoo’s latest hybrid-casual hit. Topics Covered:• Roblox’s congressional investigation and growing child-safety pressure• Roblox’s Discord problem • What higher opt-in…
E343 · 20 Aug 2026 · 44 min
343. WEBTOON Is Bigger Than Monopoly Go: Inside a New Game Marketing Channel
Jen sits down with WEBTOON and Square Enix to break down a channel that reaches mobile, PC, and console at once.UA is saturated and everyone is hunting for new reach. WEBTOON has 160 million MAU, about 90% under 34, and roughly 69% of its readers play games across all three platforms. Christine Yu (WEBTOON) and Melanie Gordon (Square Enix) walk through how the Visions of Mana and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined campaigns actually came together, what the branded epilogue format is, how long these collabs take, and how the Coin Hunter offerwall is driving 10,000 verified Steam wishlist adds a…
E342 · 17 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 41 min
342. The Man Behind Most Gaming Deals | Affan Butt, Aream & Co.
Affan Butt has advised on 110+ gaming M&A deals worth $40 billion. He breaks down how game studios actually get sold, what acquirers pay for, and why earnouts wreck founders. We go through a studio acquisition from the founder's side of the table. How M&A processes really start, what due diligence looks like, why inbound corp dev interest is not validation, how bidding wars backfire, and the way earnout structures quietly turn against the people who signed them. 0:00 Loom Games sale to Scopely3:21 What creates FOMO in a deal10:58 Investment banker in gaming 21:14 Supercell story 26:26 Peak…
13 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 10 min
TWIG #396: AppLovin's Q2, Unity's Supersonic Fire Sale and GTA VI's Netflix Trailer Drama
Crew breaks down a packed week in mobile and games. AppLovin's stock craters despite the SEC closing its inquiry with no action, Unity sells Supersonic to Tripledot for a shockingly low $40 million, and Take-Two's GTA VI presales are on fire even as its mobile business slows. Topics Covered:• AppLovin's Q2 earnings and stock drop despite growth• Unity's Vector model closing the gap with AppLovin• Unity selling Supersonic to Tripledot for $40M• Take-Two's Q2 earnings, Zynga portfolio trends and GTA VI presales• GTA VI's Netflix trailer exclusive• Blizzard's leaked internal email and its quiet…
E341 · 10 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 9 min
341. Why the Best Founders Are Neither American nor European
Emmanuel De Maistre didn’t build Scenario by choosing between Silicon Valley ambition and European pragmatism. He learned to use both.In this conversation, the Scenario founder breaks down what years of building in the US taught him about ambition, failure, and venture-scale thinking, and why European founders often bring the grounding that Silicon Valley lacks. We also get into what AI adoption actually looks like inside top game studios, why buying tools rarely translates into real usage, what happens to creative teams when AI enters production, and why today’s AI economics may be hiding…
6 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 7 min
TWIG #395: Xbox Prices Explode, Roblox's Worst Day Ever, and Merge Eats Puzzle
Xbox prices in Europe jumped as much as 50%, and the console math now writes itself.The crew digs into a rough week for hardware and a strange one for puzzle. PS5 is suddenly the obvious pick while a global RAM crunch threatens the entire next console cycle. Capcom is printing money off seven-year-old games. Roblox got its stock cut 30% after guiding bookings down, and the fight over its algorithm change turns into a bigger argument about platform health versus shareholder duty. Then Phil and Kress go to war over whether Merge-2 is real innovation or the same mechanic in a new skin, while it…
E340 · 3 Aug 2026 · 32 min
340. The $12B+ Mobile Ad Market: Sensor Tower's First-Ever Deep Dive
After years of saying not yet, Sensor Tower finally estimated mobile ad revenue, and the number is $12 billion for 2025.Josh Chandley and Sensor Tower's lead gaming insights analyst Sam walk through how the estimates were built and why $12 billion is a conservative floor. We get into why puzzle pulls more than half of all gaming ad revenue, how AppLovin keeps eating share while smaller networks shrink, the non-gaming advertisers like Temu, Shein, and finance apps flooding into gaming inventory, and why AP-focused hybrids out-earn ad-first hybrids by 4x.CHAPTERS: 00:00 Why Ads Were…
31 Jul 2026 · 54 min
TWIG #394: Playtika's Solitaire Meltdown, the AppLovin-AdMob Duopoly and Why Nobody Wants New Games
The crew breaks down Sensor Tower's big H1 2026 report, digs into why downloads keep falling while nobody seems to want new games, and asks whether ad revenue was ever going to save anyone. Plus a Warframe live service masterclass and the arrow craze that Kress would very much like everyone to stop talking about.Topics Covered:• Disney Solitaire cannibalizing Solitaire Grand Harvest • Where the diligence went on the SuperPlay deal and who is left • Washington State suing Playtika and Aristocrat over social casino• Sensor Tower H1 2026 with downloads down 12% • The 4X surge stalling out while…
27 Jul 2026 · 37 min
Puzzle Monthly #5: The Secret Behind Toon Blast's Success
Why is Toon Blast still growing while every other Blast game is fading away?In this episode of Puzzle Monthly, we break down Toon Blast's remarkable resurgence, from its early days challenging Toy Blast to its recent revenue explosion fueled by Super Light Ball, LiveOps innovation, and relentless experimentation. We explore why Peak Games continues to outperform the entire Blast genre, and what every puzzle developer can learn from it.Topics Covered:• The evolution of Blast games: Pet Rescue Saga, Toy Blast, and Toon Blast• Why Toon Blast continues to grow while the rest of the Blast genre…
23 Jul 2026 · 58 min
TWIG #393: GTA 6's Impossible Attach Rate, Playtika's Earn-Out Disaster, and Unity 7's Big Swing
Convoy says 85 million copies in 60 days. That means 63% of every console owner alive buys GTA 6, and the closest anyone has come without a bundle is half that.The crew digs into the Newzoo and Convoy numbers behind GTA 6 and finds projections that would require almost every active console owner on earth to buy it. Then Playtika, where a badly negotiated earn-out turned Superplay's success into a balance sheet problem big enough to put the studio on the block. Plus Unity 7's roadmap, Netflix throwing out gaming metrics that mean nothing, and what Township's match mode says about where mobile…
21 Jul 2026 · 55 min
Shooter Monthly #8: The Bungie Eulogy, Why Destiny Fell Off, and Can Marathon Save the Studio
Bungie built the defining live shooter of the decade, then spent ten years surviving its own crises. This one plays like the eulogy.The crew runs the full ups and downs of Bungie from Myth to Marathon, with an ex-Bungie insider walking through every near-death moment, why Destiny endured far longer than anyone predicted, why it finally fell off, and whether Sony and Marathon can pull the studio back from the edge.Topics Covered:• The end of Destiny and whether Bungie is actually done• The hot take that Xbox is in decline and Bungie should return to make Halo• The full Bungie crisis history…

About Deconstructor of Fun

Deconstructor of Fun is a English leisure & travel podcast from Deconstructor of Fun. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Deconstructor of Fun
Language: English
Category: Leisure & Travel
New episodes: Several times a week
Typical length: 1 hr
Latest episode: 12 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1241195252
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