Podcast appearances and mentions of aaron bush

The sub-AA/AAA world of games has become increasingly competitive in recent years, and yet Serenity Forge, a diverse 40-50 person publisher based out of Colorado, has found a way to grow, develop, and publish games with very high success rates. How do they do it?To answer this question, host Aaron Bush is joined by Zhenghua (Z) Yang, the founder and CEO of Serenity Forge. They discuss Z's inspiring story, how publishing has evolved over the past decade, and how Z goes above and beyond to ensure success. They also dig into the nuances of working with subscription platforms, the underdiscussed benefits of physical sales, building unique distribution, structuring publishing deals, and how AI does (and doesn't) impact the way they think about supporting games. If you want a case study of how to win and stand out in a crowded gaming market, make sure to give this episode a listen!We'd also like to thank AWS for Games for making this episode possible. AWS for Games aligns purpose-built game development capabilities — including AWS services like Amazon GameLift as well as solutions from AWS Partners — to help game developers build, run, and grow their games. For more information, visit https://aws.amazon.com/gametech/If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Zhenghua (Z) Yang: https://www.linkedin.com/in/serenityz/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

  Dr. Janet Patterson: Welcome to this Aphasia Access Aphasia Conversations Podcast, a series of conversations about the LPAA model and aphasia programs that follow this model. My name is Janet Patterson, and I am a research speech-language pathologist at the VA Northern California Healthcare System in Martinez, California. Today, I am delighted to be speaking with Dr. Elizabeth Madden, an Assistant Professor at Florida State University in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders and an affiliate of the Institute for Successful Longevity. Liz also leads the FSU Aphasia Research Laboratory. Liz's research, teaching and clinical interests focus on rehabilitation of aphasia, and specifically on understanding the relationship between spoken and written language abilities in individuals with aphasia and developing behavioral treatments to address reading and writing disorders post stroke. Her work also addresses the impact of aphasia on the friendships and social well-being of people with aphasia and their care partners. These Show Notes accompany the conversation with Liz but are not a verbatim transcript.   In today's episode you will hear about: the power of friendship and what people with aphasia and care partners think about how aphasia can affect the ability to create and sustain friendships, the definition of literacy and its behavioral components, and behavioral treatments for reading comprehension deficit in aphasia.   In 2024, Liz was named a Distinguished Scholar USA by the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia UK. The Tavistock Trust aims to help improve the quality of life for those with aphasia, their families and care partners by addressing research capacity related to quality-of-life issues in aphasia. Congratulations on receiving this honor, Liz. Aphasia Access collaborates with the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia in selecting the awardees and is pleased to have the opportunity to discuss their work and the career influence of the Tavistock Award.   Welcome Liz, to Aphasia Access Conversations.   Dr. Liz Madden: Thank you, Janet. I'm really happy to be here today. I also say thank you to Aphasia Access and to the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia. I'm very grateful for this award and excited to have this conversation.   Janet: I'm excited to be talking to you, my friend and research partner in several endeavors that we've been working on over the last few years.   Liz, as we've said, you were named a Tavistock Trust Distinguished Scholar USA for this year, and you join a talented and dedicated group of individuals. How has receiving the Tavistock Award influenced your clinical and research efforts in aphasia,   Liz: I first wanted to extend that thank you to the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia, and specifically Henrietta, the Duchess of Bedford and the honorable Nicole Campbell, and just a very gracious, sincere thank you for all the time and effort and support they give to aphasia researchers. I would say, I'm just delighted and very humbled to be recognized this year. I would say further that this award motivates my work that is focused on trying to really make an impact on the lives and quality of life and successful living for people who have aphasia and continuing my work. My beginning work was really more impairment focused, which some of that we will talk about, and I really value that. But having this award, and the more I stay in the field, it is extending that and making sure that everything I'm doing always is directly related to helping the lives of people with aphasia.   Janet: That leads right into the question I'd like to begin with Liz, which is about your recent work investigating the role of friendship for persons with aphasia. I believe in the power of friendship and community during joyful times and also during the sad times in one's life. In Aphasia. Access podcast episode number 119, Finding the person in front of aphasia, I talked with your friend and colleague, Dr Lauren Bislick, with whom I believe you collaborate to investigate friendship and aphasia. How did you become interested in this aspect of aphasia, and what can you tell us about your work in this area and your collaboration with Lauren?   Liz: Lauren and I did our Ph.D.'s together. We both were mentored by Diane Kendall at the University of Washington, so Lauren and I are Ph.D. sisters. Also, we were both at Project Bridge, led by Dr. Jackie Hinkley in 2018. That's really where my interest in friendship began. That conference brought together researchers, speech-language pathologists, people with aphasia, and their friends and family. I was the researcher at a table, and we ended up being Team Friendship. Lauren was also at this meeting, but she was at Team Yoga; Lauren does a lot of work with friendship, but also with yoga. My other colleague who does a lot of friendship work with me is Dr. Michelle Therrien here at FSU. She primarily works with children who use AAC, but her main research is friendship. She and I had already had some conversations about the importance of friendship, particularly for people who have communication disorders. The idea was we leave the conference and to take action and carry out some of the goals that were generated from that discussion. So that's when I reached back out to Lauren, because she was at that conference. Then I also reached out to my friend, Michelle Therrien, and other individuals who became part of our Team Friendship, Dr. Sarah Wallace, who's also one of our good friends and collaborators, and Rachel Gough Albritton who is one of Jackie Hinkley's former doc students and here at FSU as well. and the office of research. That is the background of some conversations before Project Bridge, but really for me, coming back and actually starting studies addressing different aspects of friendship, which I know we'll talk more about, was really brought about by the Project Bridge conference.   Janet: That is quite a story, and I can see you sitting around the table and developing Team Friendship - good for you.   We all know, Liz, that one of the unfortunate consequences of aphasia can be the loss of or the diminishing of friendships, or the disruption of the communication skills important to developing and sustaining friendship and community. What have you learned from people with aphasia about their successes and challenges in sustaining and creating new friendships.   Liz: Yes, good question. Well, at that conference that I mentioned, there were five or six people with aphasia, and initially our table was labeled something like, What happens in the long run? and we started having conversations. It was very clear after our initial conversation that the group centered on relationships and friendship, so we shifted to being friendship only. I will say, just at that table, it became very clear to me, that's what rose to the top when the group was thinking about the bigger picture of living life.   In a research project we've done there was a small sample of 15 people with aphasia, and we talked to them over time. I think the timing of a conversation is really something important to keep in mind when we're talking to people with aphasia about any topic, of course, but particularly friendship. From other studies we've noticed that responses are really different. If we're talking during the early days, maybe the acute days, versus the chronic days, we'd get really different responses. Just a quick summary, again, this was 15 people and a unique set. Most people in our study were a part of aphasia groups, and, of course, really motivated to do research. But I will say, when we looked at their responses, when asked to think back to the early days, all different aspects of friendship, how supported they felt, or how they were able to communicate, and we compared it to their responses in the now. Overall, the pattern was less satisfaction, feeling less supported or less able to engage in those earlier days, but more of a recovery pattern over time, but again, not for everybody. There were still a few people in our group that were reporting not having many friends. Our paper had a different light, a positive light about friendships. Some of the other papers out there have a more negative tone. It's a very important area we need to address. I was happy to see this group reporting, now that they had been living with aphasia for several years, their pattern of more negative responses early, and a recovering pattern now. They reported making friends with other people who have aphasia, and finding at this point, who are those good friends.   There's other great work being done by other colleagues, Brent Archer, Jamie Azios and Katie Strong, who are studying the same topic. They had a great paper that describes who stuck around, they were examining the next steps of what it takes to support the positive recovery that we know does happen for some people.   Janet: I like the positive perspective you are taking. Given that one has had a stroke, and given that the this is the situation in life, what is the positive? What can you do? Who are your friends? Look at positive ideas rather than publishing research on all the negative aspects. Kudos to you for doing that.   Liz: Thanks, all of it's important, right? We have to know that. I think we had a special group. I think we had a particularly positive outcome, and it was good to know that friendships don't disappear for everyone. But I think there's something that those people had done and that their friends had done, that we're still trying to learn more about.   Janet: Thank you for that work. Liz. It makes me think about the aphasia journey in that it involves not just the person with aphasia, but also their care partners and all the people around them. In your investigations of friendship, what do the care partners of persons with aphasia tell you about their successes and challenges in sustaining and developing friendships? These friendships could be individual friendships or partner friendships or group friendships through social, religious or professional activities or even community groups.   Liz: Thank you for this question. I think it's sometimes a forgotten group that we overlook, the care partners, and the critical role they play in the recovery of people with aphasia. I always try to have us remember we want the care partners to do well on their own as people, and so we've done a couple projects. We've just finished data collection on a much larger study of 80 aphasia care partners, and I'm just getting into those data. We did a Qualtrics survey and also did experience sampling, where we used a phone app, and four times a day for two weeks, participants got these little pings, and they had to tell us, Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? How are you feeling? When was the last time you interacted with a friend? Was it a text? I don't have the amazing outcomes for you yet. This project was a much bigger follow-up to a project a few years ago with 35 care partners. We, of course, wanted to interview them but then COVID was happening, so we settled for a really nice Qualtrics survey.   I will say that these individuals were surprised when we were reaching out to them. They kept trying to schedule their loved one with aphasia, and we said, “No, we want to talk to you about your friendships.” And they were surprised, asking, “You want to talk about me.' I will say they were very excited that we wanted to know about them. Back to the timeline I shared earlier in that very small study, the profile was opposite. We asked them about their friendships before they were caregivers, the early stages of caregiving, and then now, and their comments kind of make sense. Across the group they reported in the early stages, they felt like they had really great friends, support and satisfaction. People were rallying around them, coming to the hospital to support them. Many of them had been caregiving for a very long time when we did a comparison, and their reported friendship satisfaction and support was actually lower now. The questions were not the same and the groups were different, but as I told you a few minutes ago, the people with aphasia were more negative in the acute stage, and our small group were more positive now with how they're feeling about their friendships, and the care partners were the opposite. They were feeling more supported in the beginning, and now as time has gone on, some of them report the friends aren't there as much. Some of them felt like they were a burden, or they didn't know how to engage, being very selfless. They have dropped their own social interests to take care of their loved one. We did see in that project, that the longer, the more months a person had been caregiving, was correlated with poor self-perceived friendships and also how they perceived their loved one's health. That was just their perception. If they perceived their loved one to have more health concerns, not just a feature but overall health, they also tended to rate themselves as not as satisfied with their friendship. Bringing in that piece of information and the caregiving burden into our new projects, we did actually get scales on resilience and caregiving burden depression. In this new project we replicated some of our same questions, and we're now trying to look more at overall well-being, seeing how resilience and purpose in life and caregiving burden might play a role.   Janet: That reminds me of the commercials, when you are taking off in an airplane or when you are thinking about being a care partner, you do have to take care of yourself as the care partner before you can give the best care to the person with aphasia. Anything that we can do to focus on the person the with aphasia, and also focus on the care partner, I think, is good in terms of developing and sustaining friendships,   Liz: Yes. Care partners definitely have a lot more to say, and we haven't actually been able to do face to face interviews yet, but we did have a lot of really rich, open ended responses and surveys that we're still looking through. A piece I'm really interested in, is we have that one-time perception when they did our one-time survey, now we have their responses, we can track how people respond over a two-week period, were they always at home with their loved ones and not responding to friends? I think there's just a lot and again, trying to understand from this group what are the positives. Who are the people that have these positive responses? Then, of course, the next big steps are trying to provide more research resources and interventions for both care partners and people with aphasia. Our group has not yet reached out to friends, so that's a big part to come. I think other researchers have examined friends and a key part intervening with these friends too.   Janet: People with aphasia and care partners have different friendship styles and needs, and when aphasia disrupts communication, it can also affect the way a person approaches friendship. As speech-language pathologists, I believe that we can play a role in guiding a person with aphasia and a care partner to develop communication skills that can support friendship efforts. Liz, what are some ideas or actions that you might think of for speech-language pathologists in a busy clinical practice? What kind of actions can they take to support friendship activities, for a person with aphasia, recognizing, of course, that we are all different in our friendship activities. Also recognizing that you're at the very beginning of some of this work, I'm hoping that you have some ideas you might be able to share with us.   Liz: Yes, actually our very first friendship project addressed this topic. It was led by Michelle Therrien, and we surveyed about 40 speech-language pathologists trying to find out their view of the role that they think they should play. They find friendship to be very important. They find it to be in their scope of practice. But not surprising, were not aware of resources. They felt overwhelmed with how much speech-language pathologists have to cover, right? But it was really good to know that the group we reached out to found it to be a very important part of their practice that they want to address. I think you hit on something really important, that we teach and adopt having a person-centered care model, and we know that it's part of what we ask about. The simplest thing is asking. We don't need tools. We just need to make sure it's part of what we ask, making sure we're talking about relationships, talking about friendships.   There are some really great tools that do exist. There's the Stroke Social Network Scale by Sarah Northcott and Katerina Hillary from the UK. Katie Strong, Brent Archer, Jamie Azios and Natalie Douglas are a wonderful group who have been studying friendship. They've used the Social Convoy Model in some of their papers. It has a great visual that they have used, and therapists can also use. Basically, it is mapping out the social network of who's most important, which could be used one time, or as a pre-post measure. There are different ways, formal or informal, of trying to monitor someone's social network or how they feel supported. I don't think there's a target number of friendships and I don't think more means better, but it could be just making sure we're checking in and that we know that's an important part of therapy. We want them to be able to communicate and interact with friends. Speech-language pathologists are creative in to how to make that happen.   Janet: I agree with that view Liz, and I hope that speech-language pathologists will feel comfortable being creative and asking people about their friendships or what they might need to help maintain or sustain their friendships.   I would like to turn now to the topics of reading and literacy, which I know you have been investigating. While these terms are related, they are not synonymous. Would you please explain the difference between them and how you are investigating both in your research?   Liz: Yes. Thanks. That is a good question. To be honest, the first answer is not very scientific. When I was writing papers it was getting cumbersome to always write reading and spelling/ writing. The term came to be when I wanted to make sure that I was making it clear that I wasn't just focused on reading, but also concerned with the spelling and writing components. With my colleagues, Jessica Obermeier and Aaron Bush, we started using the term literacy for some of our work. People will have different ideas of what literacy might entail. I have been describing treatment as “literacy focused”, working on reading and spelling and writing.   My initial work was very much focused on reading, and over the past several years I became more interested in trying to also add on the spelling component. If we're working on spelling and writing it gives us a chance to inherently work on the reading. If we're only focused on reading, it doesn't bring in the writing. There's a time for them to be separate, I fully agree. There are also times where they can be targeted at the same time.   Janet: That makes perfect sense. When I think about how we discussed in the past, reading for pleasure, or reading to gain knowledge, or reading for information, or reading for safety, so many different aspects of reading, literacy also factors into how you use reading in those situations.   Liz: Yes, and so in a lot of day-to-day communication, you need both, right? It's for text messaging, right? We need to read it and respond in a written way, also emails. There are lots of instances where for the for the interaction to go well, we need to be able to read and respond in writing, such as filling out forms, email, texting, social media. For a lot of interactions we need both for there to be a successful written language exchange.   Janet: Liz, as part of our work with the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences, Aphasia Writing Group, you and I were part of the team who critically reviewed treatment approaches for reading comprehension deficits in persons with aphasia. You've also investigated, as you mentioned earlier, specific aspects of reading deficits in persons with aphasia. What are some of the insights that you have gained from this work? And by the way, it was such a pleasure doing that critical review of treatment for reading deficits, and there was a lot of interesting information that came to light in that paper.   Liz: Yes, thank you. I was going to comment that I remember we thought we were going to have all these papers to go through and really and that review, we were very much focused on papers where the main outcome was reading comprehension. When we stuck to what our aim was, there really weren't that many papers that that met the aim of that project. So that really brought to light that it really is an area of our field that doesn't have enough attention.   Some of my recent projects, as I mentioned with Aaron Bush and Jessica Obermeier, we've talked to people with aphasia and gotten their perspective of before and early days. I really like doing this research over time. Things change, but we learned just how important reading and writing are to people with aphasia, and that they really want to work on it. I think we've seen when we looked in the literature, there wasn't much there. When we've talked to people with aphasia and speech-language pathologists, they want to work on reading, and they're not sure how. That further motivates me that this is an area to work on.   In some of my beginning work, I was Diane Kendall's research speech language pathologist for a few years before I did my Ph.D., and I exclusively delivered her phono motor treatment. In that research trial, the main outcome was word retrieval, but the therapy that she designed inherently worked a lot on reading and writing. We retrained every phoneme - how to say it, what your mouth is doing, and also the graphemes that go with the phonemes. As her research speech pathologist, that's really when I got very interested in reading. I'd be in these sessions, and we'd finally bring out the graphemes that go with the phonemes. I recall telling people that this is going to get better – and it did not. That connection between the phonemes and the graphemes, for a lot of people, wasn't there. In that clinical experience as her research speech pathologist is when I realized that the treatment improved reading for some people, but not for everyone. So that's my background of really getting focused on reading.   In the last few years, I've been working on adapting that original version of treatment that was for word retrieval. I've added some components to make it more focused on reading. I've been working with Olga Burkina, who's at the Kessler Stroke Foundation, and has an NIH grant where she is pairing exercise with this reading focused phono motor treatment. It's fun to be a part of that group exploring the idea of doing aerobic exercise to improve the brain blood flow, and to see if that's going to help improve reading treatment. Again, the idea being going forward is what the treatment might change.   There are some other projects also. I'm working with Will Graves at Rutgers. He is using computational modeling to have us stop guessing which treatment. We're trying to get a really good baseline assessment, trying to find out about semantic impairment, phonological impairment, and then we're using this reading focused phono motor treatment. We also have a reading focus semantic feature analysis. I really enjoy getting to work with different researchers who have these wonderful, big questions, and that I'm getting to support it as the speech-language pathologist on these projects focused on reading and writing and phono motor treatment. So those are some exciting projects I'm involved in right now.   Janet: That's exciting, because you started out by saying there were only a few papers that we found that really address reading treatment, and you're right.  It's daunting, then how do you select the reading treatment? How do you help this person with aphasia who wants to improve their reading comprehension? I think it's exciting that you've got all these different avenues and are working with a variety of people to investigate treatment.   Liz: Yeah. And the one thing I'll add to that is part of that, that review we did, for some people those treatments are helping reading comprehension. But for some people, I've been trying to work on the next step. I have a very small dataset where I've added a semantic comprehension stage to my adapted photo motor treatment. I'm in the very early stages of this and I'm sure it's fine to say, but I've been having these really exciting conversations with Kelly Knollman-Porter and Sarah Wallace. They're also Tavistock Trust recipients, and they study reading from a different perspective, using text to speech, compensatory and very focused book reading. They're very comprehension focused, so we're at the very early, fun stages of where we are in our thinking. I think there might be a middle step we are missing, but we are talking about taking these impairment focused treatments, which I think have a role, and have a participation, functional part of it. That's another emerging, new collaboration, where we are coming to reading from different perspectives, and we're trying to see where we can get with that goal, back to this comprehension question, improving functional reading, maybe from impairment and compensatory approaches.   Janet: I think that's the right approach to take, and I think it's exciting, because we have to remember that everybody reads differently. Some people like reading, some people don't enjoy reading. They read what they have to, but they don't particularly enjoy it. So, if we all come to it from different perspectives, we all have different strengths that we bring, and different deficits as well, and different needs or designs, just as is so many things with aphasia. Start with the person with aphasia, asking What do you want to read? What problems are you having? Then use that as a guide to selecting an impairment-based treatment or text to speech treatment, or whatever. I think that's exactly the right approach.   Liz: The one thing the treatment we were talking about, phono motor treatment, in general, is a phonology treatment. The good thing is that my focus is asking, is it improving reading? I'm also extending it to writing. We do know at its core, it's a language treatment, so it is nice that it can be tweaked to serve the person's main interests. I think that's important, that we are trying to work on what people want to work on, but we want to make sure we're improving, if we can, not just one language modality, and we know that these abilities are supported by similar brain structures and underling cognitive processes. That's something else we've been trying to work on, being person centered and at the same time trying to maximize generalization - lots of pieces. I am finding now what's most motivating and exciting is trying to make sure that we're doing things that people with aphasia find important, and how also to keep the whole science moving forward in this way that's going to have functional, important outcomes. That people with aphasia are going to be able to do what they want to do to the best that they can.   Janet: Absolutely! But then there's the scientific challenge of how do you collect the data? How to best observe specific outcome data on performance measures, but also collect the person-centered data. How do you collect data that really can speak to whether you're having a success and whether this might be generalizable or transferable to another person?   Liz: I think it's important that we need both. I always say, and some of my collaborators may not like it, but if in the person reported outcome, a person with aphasia is telling us that they feel better and that they are communicating better in life, and those measures should not be optional, those measures to me, a critically important part of seeing this treatment successful. There are different ways to do that and different ways to capture their perspective. For example, if trained reading words moved this much and if the patient reported outcome change is greater, then I find that to be a success. If the reverse happens, I find treatment not successful. If my probes showed gain but the person with aphasia does not see it or feel it, then I don't find treatment to be a success. So, I think it's really important that persons with aphasia tell us different things, and we need to have many assessments in both of those categories. I think, when possible.   Janet: You're absolutely right. When you think about many of the treatments that we're doing, they are not necessarily easy, and they take time, and you have to stay the course. I think you know, I've been interested for a number of years in motivation and engagement, and what keeps people motivated and doing what they're doing. If you've got a treatment that you can see over time, small changes in your specific reading outcomes, but not so much of a change in the person centered outcomes, or person reported outcomes, how do you know the person is still really engaged and motivated and willing to slog through your treatment in order to get to the place that you hope they will? I think you're correct when you're assessing the importance of the person reported outcome.   Liz: Yeah, that's good. And then that's a whole other like measure in itself, right? The key of motivation we've talked about in some of the trials. The one person who didn't do very well, and just in our conversation, sometimes it for different reasons. That wasn't motivating for that person. There's that's a whole very important piece that a lot of us have a lot of room to improve in how we capture that and support that.   Janet: Which is a challenge when we're trying to devise treatments for, say, reading or anything that can be applicable to a wide range of persons with aphasia. Kudos to you for meeting that challenge as best you can.   Liz: We're working on it. But I do really think that it's changing. Sometimes I feel like there are impairment-based people and life participation people, and I don't think it needs to be that way. It's fine if we only study one area. We can't all study everything, but I think as a whole they complement each other very well. And so I'm just excited to see that it seems like things are moving in a really exciting way, where people who study aphasia in various different ways now seem to have the main outcome, asking is this going to help people with aphasia feel better, communicate better, and look forward to something different in life? I think we're all seeing that that's what we're supposed to be doing, and how we do it is going to look really different, and that's great. I think we're moving in the right direction.   Janet: Very well said. I think, and you obviously do as well, that literacy and reading skills are crucially important to individuals with aphasia in so many ways, such as life skills reading or pleasure reading. Acknowledging that we all have different skill levels and preferences, what are some ideas that you might have identified that speech-language pathologists can use to support the literacy and reading desires and activities for a person with aphasia?   Liz: Great question. I think my answer is very similar to the question about what can SLPs do to help support friendship? I think being person centered. You said earlier, right, we all have different interests. Somebody might say it's not one of my goals and I really don't want to spend a lot of time on this. But just having those conversations and person-centered measures and using supported conversation we can easily gather important information. There are some really good patient-reported outcome measures that ask about reading, so maybe use some of those existing tools. The Comprehensive Aphasia Disability Questionnaire has a nice scale that talks about different aspects of reading as well as other aspects of language. But at the minimum, I think finding a way, even just to draw your own scale and then trying to find out in their life, what are different activities where they want to or need to engage, right? Texting, email, restaurant. I mean, we think about it, we're reading all the time throughout life. So, I think finding the reading need is a general interest and then getting really specific is one way to do it. Another thing could be, as I mentioned before, our brain relies on similar structures and language networks when we are engaging in spoken language and written language. So oftentimes improving our reading and writing improves our spoken abilities and vice versa. So even if it's not the main goal in treatment, for example if the main outcome might be word retrieval, I really believe multimodal learning is important. If, after you've gone through what you want to do say writing it, having them repeat it, maybe copy it, even though that's not the main goal, and it's not slowing the therapy, if it's working for you and your client, then I really think, at the minimum, using written language to support spoken language has a good role. I also think the opposite can be true using spoken language to support written language. So I do think that it's important that we know we are addressing all of language, and that that language skills really do usually move up and down together in aphasia.   Janet: Well said, again. Liz, thank you so very much for joining me today in this fascinating look into friendship, literacy, reading and aphasia. And again, hearty congratulations to you on being named Tavistock, Distinguished Scholar. On behalf of Aphasia Access, I wish you well in your research and clinical efforts, and thank you for taking the time to speak with me today. At this point, I'd also like to thank our listeners for supporting Aphasia Access Conversations by listening to our podcast, including this fascinating discussion with Liz Madden.   Liz: Thanks so much, Janet, I feel like you could just chat with you all day. Thank you again for giving me a chance to highlight some of my work. Also I want to thank everyone with aphasia who has participated in my projects, all my students and collaborators, Aphasia Access and the Tavistock Trust for Aphasia. Thanks again.   Janet: For references and resources mentioned in today's podcast, please see our Show Notes. They are available on our website, www.aphasiaaccess.org. There you can also become a member of our organization, browse our growing library of materials, and find out about the Aphasia Access Academy. If you have an idea for a future podcast episode, email us at info@aphasiaaccess.org. For Aphasia Access Conversations, I'm Janet Patterson, thanking you again for your ongoing support of Aphasia Access. References Antonucci, T. C., & Akiyama, H. (1987). Social networks in adult life and a preliminary examination of the convoy model. Journal of Gerontology, 42(5), 519–527. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/42.5.519 Archer, B.A., Azios, J.H., Douglas, N.F., Strong, K.A., Worrall, L.D. & Simmons-Mackie, N.F. (2024). “I Could Not Talk . . . She Did Everything . . . She's Now My Sister”: People with Aphasia's Perspectives on Friends Who Stuck Around. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 33, 349–368. https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_AJSLP-23-00205 Azios, J.H., Strong, K.A., Archer, B, Douglas, N.F., Simmons-Mackie, N. & Worrall, L. (2021). Friendship matters: A research agenda for aphasia. Aphasiology, 36(3),317-336. https://10.1080/02687038.2021.1873908   Madden, E.B., Bislick, L., Wallace, S.E., Therrien, M.C.S. & Goff-Albritton, R. (2023). Aphasia and friendship: Stroke survivors' self-reported changes over time. Journal of Communication Disorders, 103, 106330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106330 Madden, E., Conway, T., Henry, M., Spencer, K., Yorkston, K., & Kendall, D. (2018). The relationship between non-orthographic language abilities and reading performance in chronic aphasia: An exploration of the primary systems hypothesis. Journal of Speech Language Hearing Research, 61, 3038-3054. https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_JSLHR-L-18-0058 Madden, E. B., Torrence, J., & Kendall, D. (2020). Cross-modal generalization of anomia treatment to reading in aphasia. Aphasiology, 35, 875-899. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2020.1734529   Purdy, M., Coppens, P., Madden, E. B., Freed, D., Mozeiko, J., Patterson, J., & Wallace, S. (2018). Reading comprehension treatment in aphasia: A systematic review. Aphasiology, 33(6), 629–651. https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2018.1482405 Strong, K.A., Douglas, N.F., Johnson, R., Silverman, M., Azios, J.H. & Archer, B. (2023). Stakeholder-engaged research: What our friendship in aphasia team learned about processes and pitfalls. Topics in Language Disorders, 43(1), 43-56. https://10.1097/TLD.0000000000000302   Therrien, M., Madden, E. B., Bislick, L., & Wallace, S. (2021). Aphasia and Friendship: The Role and Perspectives of Speech-Language Pathologists. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 30(5), 2228-2240.   Resources   Stroke Social Network Scale reference and materials: https://cityaccess.org/tests/ssns/      Aphasia Access Conversations Episode #119 - Finding the person in front of aphasia: A conversation with Lauren Bislick

AI is increasingly touching every corner of the games industry, and one of the areas it may have the largest impact on is user acquisition. Today, host Aaron Bush is joined by Robert Huynh, co-founder and CEO of Reforged Labs, to discuss how AI will transform the way gaming creatives are made, experimented with, and ultimately convert consumers.They dive into how the world of online content and digital marketing may evolve in the coming years, what Reforged Labs is building to help mobile game teams find greater and more efficient success, and how AI in marketing is a democratizing force for smaller companies. Robert shares multiple lessons learned as a repeat founder, walks us through the technology underpinning Reforged Labs, and we chat about why the future of AI content may not be as dystopian as many fear.If you want to learn where the future of marketing is heading, make sure to give this episode a listen!We'd also like to thank Neon – a merchant of record with customizable webshops optimized for conversion – for making this episode possible! Neon is trusted by some of the biggest names in gaming and can help you sell direct without the typical overhead. To learn more, visit https://www.neonpay.com/?utm_source=naavik If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Robert Huynh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/huynhrobert/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Sebastian Park, co-founder of Infinite Canvas and a favorite recurring guest, joins host Aaron Bush to dive into the fascinating topic of building games on new platforms and with new technologies. They discuss how Infinite Canvas rapidly iterates, uses off-the-shelf LLM tech, and what the team has learned lately from building on Discord, Twitch, and Telegram. If you want to better understand how emerging AI-based tools will increase the baseline requirements for competing in game development and what emerging platforms to be most bullish on, make sure to give this episode a listen! We'd also like to thank nSure.ai for making this episode possible! As a proven industry leader, nSure.ai provides scalable payment fraud prevention that's not just effective but tailored specifically to your needs. To learn more, visit https://www.nsure.ai/contactIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Sebastian Park: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastianpark/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In recent years, there's been considerable discourse about the game industry's challenges. However, according to today's guest, Jiten Dajee, one core element has been missing from the conversation: the root technical causes underlying many of today's business woes. After all, game tech shapes the way games are developed and managed, which in turn drives business outcomes.Jiten, General Partner at Rendered VC, joins host Aaron Bush to discuss how the state of game tech is holding developers back, how many managers fail to solve systemic issues, interesting trends across global development teams, and how all of this shapes the way he invests. We also hit where future game tech breakthroughs may come from and areas adjacent to gaming that are worth keeping an eye on.We'd also like to thank AWS for Games for making this episode possible. AWS for Games aligns purpose-built game development capabilities — including AWS services like Amazon GameLift as well as solutions from AWS Partners — to help game developers build, run, and grow their games. For more information, visit https://aws.amazon.com/gametech/If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Jiten Dajee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jitendajee/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

You can learn more about Naavik here. In this conversation, we cover:  - Gaming industry size: $180 billion - Mobile half of that and then 50/50 console/pc - Large players in the industry (AAPL, GOOGL, SONY, NINTENDO, MSFT, ATVI, TTWO, EA, RBLX) - Future of gaming and the evolution over the last few years - Roblox and user-generated platforms - Aaron's 5 biggest personal portfolio positions: MELI, AMZN, NFLX, SHOP, BRKA Thank you so much for listening, we really appreciate you. If you have found this valuable, please consider leaving us a ⁠review⁠ as it will help more people find it! Thanks you're awesome! You can find more information and content here.  Again, we really appreciate that you would take the time to listen. Hope it was valuable. Let us know if you have any questions! To listen to more episodes, you can find them ⁠here⁠. Disclaimer: Under the Investing City umbrella, Infuse Asset Management LP (“Infuse”) is an investment management company to a fund that is in the business of buying and selling securities and other financial instruments. This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or an offer or solicitation to buy or sell an interest in a private fund or any other security. An offer or solicitation of an investment in a private fund will only be made to accredited investors pursuant to a private placement memorandum and associated documents.  Infuse may change its views about or its investment positions in any of the securities mentioned in this document at any time, for any reason or no reason. Infuse may buy, sell, or otherwise change the form or substance of any of its investments. Infuse disclaims any obligation to notify the market of any such changes.  The information in this material is only current as of the date indicated and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons. Statements concerning financial market trends are based on current market conditions, which will fluctuate. Any statements of opinion constitute only current opinions of Infuse which are subject to change and which Infuse does not undertake to update. Due to, among other things, the volatile nature of the markets, and an investment in the fund/partnership may only be suitable for certain investors. Parties should independently investigate any investment strategy or manager, and should consult with qualified investment, legal and tax professionals before making any investment.  The fund is not registered under the investment company act of 1940, as amended, in reliance on an exemption thereunder. Interests in the fund have not been registered under the securities act of 1933, as amended, or the securities laws of any state and are being offered and sold in reliance on exemptions from the registration requirements of said act and laws.

Online safety for kids has only become more important over time, and it's become a thorny compliance topic for games teams to wrestle with. Fortunately, talented entrepreneurs are creating solutions that make it easier for games teams (and beyond) to tackle these challenges. To help explore this nuanced topic, host Aaron Bush is joined by Kieran Donovan, co-founder and CEO of k-ID (which recently raised a $45M Series A, led by Lightspeed and a16z), as well as Dylan Collins, serial entrepreneur behind Demonware, Jolt, and SuperAwesome.We dive into what's changed in the kidtech market over the past decade, k-IDs new approach, lessons learned from SuperAwesome, where the market and k-ID are headed next, and how games teams can benefit from these emerging solutions.This episode is brought to you by CleverTap Gaming, the all-in-one platform for creating personalized player experiences. Visit https://clevertap.com/gaming/ for more details. If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Kieran Donovan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-donovan-06399819/ Guest - Dylan Collins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanc/Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Mobile gaming is a tough business, but Voodoo has been able to evolve with the times. After years of pioneering hypercasual, the company has more recently set its sights on making casual mobile games with deeper metas and monetization tactics. This pivot sparked major changes across the organization, but it's already led to major hits – the largest of which is Mob Control, which surpassed the $200M annual run-rate barrier and is still climbing.In order to learn the full story of Mob Control, host Aaron Bush flew to Barcelona, Spain to meet with Miguel Santirso, a General Manager at Voodoo whose internal studio, Mambo Studio, has masterminded the game's ascent. We discuss Voodoo's unique culture, the origin story of Mob Control, and the key decisions that led to the game's success. We also touch on what's next for Mob Control and how the team is managing the next hit on its hands, Block Jam.This is a case study in mobile gaming excellence you certainly won't want to miss.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Miguel Santirso: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miguelsantirso/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

China is the second largest video game market in the world, and even though its industry has faced domestic challenges, China's global impact on gaming continues to rise. However, if you're an outsider, figuring out what's happening in China can sometimes be opaque. That's why host Aaron Bush is joined today by Josh Ye, a long-time reporter for all things gaming and tech in China.We dig into how China's gaming market became massive over the past couple decades and how its current ecosystem compares and contrasts to the West's. We also discuss the domestic regulatory challenges all gaming companies face in China and how Chinese companies are changing how they pursue international expansion. We hit on several specific companies – including Tencent, NetEase, Bytedance, and Hoyoverse – before wrapping up with some lessons learned and predictions for the future.We'd also like to thank Overwolf for making this episode possible! Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at https://www.overwolf.com/.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Josh Ye: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshyehk/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Modding has long been a force of innovation and creativity in the games industry, but the emergence of cross-platform, premium mods is set to take modding to another level. Thanks to platforms like Overwolf's CurseForge, studios and publishers can now enable all sorts of creators — even other professional studios — to build on top of their games and get rewarded for doing so. This new technical and economic unlock is poised to take UGC gaming to even higher heights and is a compelling growth opportunity for the entire industry.To best discuss this trend, host and Naavik co-founder Aaron Bush is joined by Uri Marchand, CEO of Overwolf, Jeremy Stieglitz, Co-Founder of Studio Wildcard, and Patrick Moran, Founder and COO of Look North World. Look North World, a young UGC-focused publisher and studio, is building a premium DLC on top of Studio Wildcard's popular ARK: Survival Ascended, which is all enabled thanks to Overwolf's CurseForge platform. The crew discusses how to operationalize premium mods, why the economics can be compelling, what cross-platform enablement unlocks, and big predictions for the future.We'd also like to thank Nexus for making this episode possible! Nexus's creator program in-a-box makes it easy for game devs to build and manage a world-class creator program, driving significant growth in conversion, ARPPU, retention, and LTV. To learn more, go to http://nexus.gg/naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Krafton is one of the world's premier video game publishers. After experiencing the explosive success of PUBG in the late 2010s, Krafton rebranded in 2018, went public in 2021, and has since been working to not just extend the PUBG brand to new games, platforms, and regions but also kickstart new IPs with innovative playstyles and partner with emerging developers around the world.To dig into the details, host Aaron Bush is joined by Maria Park, who currently serves as Head of Corporate Development at Krafton and previously was Head of Strategy at PUBG Corporation. In our conversation, we explore what strategically changed after going public, what it was like to navigate PUBG during the heights of battle royale, and the ins-and-outs of Krafton's growth strategy. We cover lessons learned in taking IPs multiplatform, why Krafton is “scaling up creative,” how the company manages its investments, and how Krafton is leveraging emerging technologies like UGC and AI.We'd also like to thank Overwolf for making this episode possible! Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at https://www.overwolf.com/.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Maria Park: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chicago/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

What does it take to stand out and succeed as a games industry entrepreneur these days? And how should smart venture capitalists best identify and work with these best founders? To help answer these questions, host Aaron Bush is joined by David Kaye, serial entrepreneur and general partner of F4 Fund. We discuss why David believes 99% of games studios aren't fit for venture capital and what makes that top 1% so special. We also cover how early-stage teams, especially in a post-cheap money era, can get scrappy, think about distribution cleverly, and unlock early forms of competitive advantage. Plus, alongside discussing the state of gaming venture capital at large, we also dig into what David sees as underrated and how that's reflected in the way F4 builds its portfolio. Buckle in for a thought-provoking conversation.If you're interested in learning more from David, make sure to subscribe to his newsletter: https://blog.davidkaye.co/ We'd also like to thank Overwolf for making this episode possible! Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at https://www.overwolf.com/.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - David Kaye, General Partner, F4 Fund: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkaye/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

There's no shortage of conversation around how new technologies are changing the way games are made, but that technological change doesn't end there. New platforms are also contending for player attention, and where and how games are distributed is all destined to evolve, likely in bigger ways than most people think. We all know about Roblox and UEFN, but what about Discord, ChatGPT, and whatever new AI-focused consumer platforms may emerge? Could other large social and messaging platforms make a gaming comeback? Could new devices actually grow the games industry over the next decade?To help unpack these big questions, host Aaron Bush is joined by Sebastian Park, co-founder of Infinite Canvas. Infinite Canvas was not only early to building on Roblox, but has been at the bleeding edge of experimenting with making games on platforms like Discord and ChatGPT. Sebastian shares his views on these emerging platforms, how design implications change with varying technology and incentive models, how advertising may evolve with AI, where he's seeing success today, and more. This is a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation you won't want to miss.We'd also like to thank Nexus for making this episode possible! Nexus's creator program in-a-box makes it easy for game devs to build and manage a world-class creator program, driving significant growth in conversion, ARPPU, retention, and LTV. To learn more, go to http://nexus.gg/naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - Sebastian Park: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastianpark/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad takes a deep dive into the unique atmosphere of this year's Game Developers Conference (GDC), marked by a spirit of camaraderie and innovation amidst widespread industry layoffs. We then pivot to discuss the monumental acquisition of data.ai by Sensor Tower, setting the stage for what could become the definitive source of mobile app data. The conversation heats up as we explore Epic Games' showcase of Unreal Engine, UEFN, and the bombshell announcement of a mobile Epic Store set to launch by year's end. We shift gears to dissect the U.S. Department of Justice's sweeping lawsuit against Apple, examining the broader implications of the case beyond the specific policies contested by Epic, and reflecting on the growing global backlash against Apple's business practices. Lastly, we delve into a revealing survey from Mistplay, which predicts a downturn in mobile spending by high-value users. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Dave Elton, and host Devin Becker.We'd like to thank RallyHere for making this episode possible. RallyHere is a proven gaming backend platform and service made specifically for cross-platform live-service games. RallyHere is your one-stop-shop to streamline your development processes, increase speed to market, and optimize your post-launch live services. To learn more or schedule a demo, visit rallyhere.gg  If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad unpacks the seismic impact of Nintendo's legal victory, securing a $2.4M settlement against the Switch emulator Yuzu, a move that has dramatically reshaped the emulation landscape. We then pivot to Netflix's strategic foray into gaming, spotlighting its latest coup in bringing the critically acclaimed indie darling Hades to mobile platforms, signaling a deeper commitment to integrating premium gaming into its ecosystem. The conversation shifts to the ever-evolving acquisitions landscape, including the recent sales of Saber Interactive's and Jagex, which hints at private equity's growing role in the gaming industry's future. Amid the flurry of industry upheavals, we also take a moment to shine a light on the positive trends and standout successes that have emerged early in 2024, offering a counter-narrative to the often gloomy industry headlines. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Anil Das-Gupta, and host Devin Becker.If you'd like to speak with Naavik at GDC, please use this form to let us know! https://9r0y051mvrx.typeform.com/to/hRCVP7VNWe'd also like to thank Lightspeed Venture Partners for making this episode possible! With its dedicated gaming practice, "Lightspeed Gaming," the firm is investing from over $7B in early- and growth-stage capital — the by far largest fund focused on gaming and interactive technology. If you're interested in learning more, go to https://gaming.lsvp.com/.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

The games industry can no longer ignore the MENA region, encompassing markets like Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and more. With approximately 800 million people, a young and growing audience of gamers, expanding wealth, rising ARPUs, and emerging talent, it's abundantly clear that MENA will be much more important to the games industry's future than it was in the past.To tell us more about what's going on here, host Aaron Bush sat down with David Fernandez, CEO of Sandsoft Games. We dig into emerging trends in MENA, how global teams can maximize their success in the region, how better developing talent could change the entrepreneurial landscape, and how Sandsoft is positioning itself to become a Saudi-based global leader as a publisher and developer.We'd also like to thank Overwolf for making this episode possible! Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at https://www.overwolf.com/.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Who's On:Guest - David Fernandez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dremesal/ Host - Aaron Bush: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-bush-846b8185/ Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad dives into the unexpected success of Helldivers 2, PlayStation Studios' first game to launch simultaneously on PlayStation and PC. We then shift gears to Microsoft's Xbox Business Event, which, despite its brevity, sparked a flurry of speculation regarding the company's strategy for porting "exclusives" to PlayStation. The conversation takes a critical turn as we examine the Epic Game Store's 2023 performance review, alongside Epic's maneuver to reintroduce Fortnite on iOS in Europe via its own mobile app store. Additionally, we dissect Supercell's annual public letter and debate the effectiveness of the company's strategic pivots since its last game released in 2018. This week's discussion offers a blend of analysis and insight into the evolving dynamics of game development, distribution, and the broader industry's competitive landscape. Join us for all the latest games business news with Sebastian Park, Tammy Levy, Aaron Bush, and host Devin Becker.You can sign up for the Naavik x Betaworks NYC meetup here: https://lu.ma/3lrc2t71We'd like to thank RallyHere for making this episode possible. RallyHere is a proven gaming backend platform and service made specifically for cross-platform live-service games. RallyHere is your one-stop-shop to streamline your development processes, increase speed to market, and optimize your post-launch live services. To learn more or schedule a demo, visit rallyhere.ggIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Today's guest is Shanti Bergel, Founding General Partner and Managing Director of Transcend Fund, which has been a top decile performer since the firm was founded in 2020.Shanti is not just on the cutting edge of where the games industry is headed, but he's also a veteran operator across much of the industry's decades-long dynamism. In this episode, Shanti and host, Aaron Bush, chat through Shanti's career at companies like EA, Gree, and FunPlus, pull out evergreen lessons learned, and then discuss his views on gaming VC. His insights about navigating platform shifts, succeeding in global expansions, becoming better at sales, and the power of startups focusing on distribution innovations are all worth learning from.We'd also like to thank Nefta for making this episode possible. Nefta has created an advertising network that pays game publishers higher eCPMs on their iOS opt-out users and drives better results for advertisers. Learn more about how Nefta can boost your results at http://nefta.io/If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

User-generated content (UGC) in games continues to grow in scale and impact, and staying on top of this dynamic market has never been more important. In this episode, Naavik analyst and consultant David Taylor joins Aaron Bush to discuss the most important trends and developments on Roblox, UEFN, and beyond. We discuss emerging patterns that make successful UGC experiences, game-changing roadmap features, how studios should approach this market, the possible eventual scales on these platforms, and much more. Whether you are already creating UGC games or are interested in participating in the market in some way (as an investor, brand, or publisher), this episode is a must listen.Additional links:The State of UGC (2024) report: https://naavik.co/deep-dives/state-of-ugc2024/ Interested in chatting or working with us? Contact us here: https://naavik.co/contact-us/ David Taylor's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdavetaylor/ Big thanks to GRID for making this episode possible. GRID is a game data platform providing esports data infrastructure, analytics, and distribution solutions to the leading game publishers including Riot Games, Ubisoft, and KRAFTON. And if you're a fan, developer, or entrepreneur with an idea for a live data-powered project, make sure to apply for GRID Open Access, get free access to official data, and start creating today! To learn more, visit https://grid.gg/?utm_source=naavik.co&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=Naavik If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad dives into the booming success of Palworld, a game that's been dubbed "Pokemon with guns," and explores why it's capturing everyone's curiosity. We then shift gears to discuss Riot's recent pullback (layoffs and game pivots) and what this could mean for other projects in the works. The conversation then heats up as we dissect Newzoo's 2024 market predictions, sparking a fierce debate about the accuracy and implications of these forecasts. Finally, we offer our own insights, discussing the bullish trends we anticipate for 2024 and beyond, providing a glimmer of hope amidst the current climate of doom and gloom. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Tammy Levy, Sebastian Park, and host Devin Becker.We'd like to thank RallyHere for making this episode possible. RallyHere is a proven gaming backend platform and service made specifically for cross-platform live-service games. RallyHere is your one-stop-shop to streamline your development processes, increase speed to market, and optimize your post-launch live services. To learn more or schedule a demo, visit rallyhere.gg If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Venture markets – within and beyond gaming – soared in 2020-2021 and fell back to earth over the past couple of years, but what should we expect in 2024? And what may change about gaming VC longer-term?To answer these questions and more, host Aaron Bush is joined by Moritz Baier-Lentz, Partner and Head of Gaming at Lightspeed. Moritz shares his thoughts on the state of venture capital, lessons learned as an investor, why he's targeting increased exposure to growth-stage deals and post-product-market fit opportunities, and shares an update on Lightspeed Gaming's first year.Moritz walks us through his first three investments at Lightspeed: Believer (raised $55M in Series A), Gardens (raised $31.3M in Series A), and Inworld AI (raised $50M+). We then dig into what corners of the market are attracting Lightspeed's attention in gaming & interactive media today. This includes new studios (like cross-platform forever games), generative AI applications (for developer workflows + novel user experiences), interactive media applications and platforms (leveraging UGC, applied game mechanics, etc.), 3D innovations (like new game engines, generative 3D, and reality capture methods), as well as XR and new AI-driven devices. He also discusses how Lightspeed supports teams across the traditional boundaries of geographies and at the cross-sections of gaming and other industries (like consumer, enterprise, fintech, healthcare, and blockchain).Additional links:Lightspeed's website: https://gaming.lsvp.com/ Game Changers: https://lsvp.com/lightspeed-gamesbeat-game-changers-winners/ Gaming x AI Market Map: https://naavik.co/deep-dives/lightspeed-gaming-x-ai-market-map/ Please enjoy the episode!We'd also like to thank Nexus for making this episode possible! Nexus's creator program in-a-box makes it easy for game devs to build and manage a world-class creator program, driving significant growth in conversion, ARPPU, retention, and LTV. To learn more, go to http://nexus.gg/naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, we explore the gaming highlights from the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show and joke about what trends are peaking in ridiculous ways (AI-powered egg cartons, anyone?). We then dive into a couple strategy changes being discussed by leading subscription businesses: first, how Netflix is reportedly rethinking ways to monetize games, and, second, what Xbox (with Game Pass) may be planning in bringing previous exclusives to the PlayStation 5. We then discuss Unity's and Twitch's major layoffs and what these may foreshadow for the remainder of 2024. Additionally, we explore Second Dinner's large $100M Series B amidst the uncertainty surrounding its publisher Nuverse. Finally, the squad shares new ideas for what M&A markets may deliver in 2024. Join us for all the latest games business news with Dave Elton, Aaron Bush, and host Devin Becker.Big thanks to Lightspeed Venture Partners for making this episode possible! With its dedicated gaming practice, "Lightspeed Gaming," the firm is investing from over $7B in early- and growth-stage capital — the by far largest fund focused on gaming and interactive technology. If you're interested in learning more, go to https://gaming.lsvp.com/.We'd also like to thank Coda Payments for making this episode possible! Coda helps developers collect some of their revenues outside the app stores, keeping more of the income they generate for themselves. To learn more, head to https://www.codapayments.com/naavik?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=webpage&utm_campaign=naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Kyle is recording his band for the Essentially Ellington festival and reached out to Aaron Bush to learn his methods for recording the Foxboro HS Jazz Ensemble. Of course, this turns into a conversation about soulfulness, highlighting your band's strengths, and growing it's weaknesses. To gain access to all show notes and audio files please Subscribe to the podcast and consider supporting the show on Patreon - using the button at the top of growingband.com Our mission is to share practical  advice and explore topics that will help every band director, no matter your experience level, as well as music education students who are working to join us in the coming years. Connect with us with comments or ideas Visit our merchandise store to purchase exclusive swag from The Growing Band Director Podcast  Follow the show: Podcast website : Growingband.com On Youtube The Growing Band Director  Facebook-The Growing Band Director Podcast Group Instagram @thegrowingbanddirector Tik Tok @thegrowingbanddirector If you like what you hear please: Leave a Five Star Review and  Share us with another band director! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kyle-smith95/support

Owen Mahoney, CEO of Nexon, is back for another phenomenal conversation – this time on the heels of the announcement that Owen is soon stepping down from the CEO role after a decade of market-beating performance. He and host, Aaron Bush, discuss Owen's legacy at Nexon, what he wished he knew about being CEO when he started, what goes into great succession planning, and more about Nexon's next CEO, Junghun Lee. Then the duo discusses how AI-driven software is already enabling AAA games to be made with smaller creative teams (such as Embark Studios' THE FINALS) and how that shifting reality will have a profound impact on AAA publishing in the coming years. Lastly, Owen and Aaron wrap up by discussing what Owen aims to spend more time doing post-Nexon.Also, if you haven't listened to our previous conversation with Owen, which covers how Nexon manages long-lasting virtual worlds and builds antifragility into its business, you can do so here: https://naavik.co/podcast/owen-mahoney/ And here are the book recommendations Owen mentioned during our conversation:Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas: https://www.amazon.com/Mindstorms-Children-Computers-Powerful-Ideas/dp/0465046746  Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience: https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061339202/ Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Games-Guide-Engineering-Experiences/dp/1449337937/ We'd also like to thank Overwolf for making this episode possible! Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at https://www.overwolf.com/ If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad dives into the successful collaboration between LEGO and Fortnite, discussing how LEGO's first successful Minecraft-like venture could potentially broaden both companies' audiences. We then shift gears to Epic's recent legal triumph over Google, analyzing the stark differences from its Apple lawsuit and pondering the implications for the future of mobile gaming. The conversation takes a critical turn as we dissect the "Adults Only" rating awarded to Gods Unchained by the ESRB, due to its real-money value rewards in tokens and NFTs, leading to its automatic delisting from the Epic Games Store. We debate whether this marks the beginning of a series of significant challenges for web3 gaming. Finally, we delve into the plethora of game announcements from The Game Awards, unpacking what this event signifies for the current state of the gaming industry, as well as its future trajectory. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Anil Das-Gupta, Jonathan Anastas and host Devin Becker.We'd also like to thank Windwalk for making this episode possible! Windwalk builds digital communities and the technologies necessary to accelerate them through their flagship software, Harbor. To learn more, simply head to https://www.harbor.gg/ If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad unpacks ByteDance's decision to wind down its gaming arm, Nuverse, and divest popular titles like Marvel Snap. The conversation then pivots to the legal drama at Neon Machine, where the directors of Shrapnel are suing its controlling shareholder in a contentious battle for control over the web3 FPS developer. We also highlight a recent study on League of Legends, revealing surprising insights about player motivation, especially the urge to play more after losing matches. Finally, we spice things up with a series of nominations for a theoretical 2023 Business of Gaming awards, reflecting on the industry's biggest winners and losers, strategic moves, and turnarounds, blending expected outcomes with some hot takes. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Matt Dion, Sebastian Park and host Devin Becker.We'd also like to thank Coda Payments for making this episode possible! Coda helps developers collect some of their revenues outside the app stores, keeping more of the income they generate for themselves. To learn more, head to https://www.codapayments.com/naavik?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=webpage&utm_campaign=naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Welcome to the third and final part in our series covering all things Savvy Games Group, the Saudi-backed gaming giant in the making. In this episode, Aaron Bush sits down with Brian Ward, the CEO of Savvy Games Group, to discuss the company's ambitions, including its goal of becoming the world's largest gaming company and its plans to turn Saudi Arabia into a more prominent gaming hub. We also dive into how Savvy makes investment decisions, manages a decentralized culture, works with the Saudi government, and thinks very long-term. We wrap up with breakdowns of Savvy's core subsidiaries and chat through what else Brian is excited about for the future.Also, if you missed our previous interviews with ESL FACEIT Group and Scopely, the two largest acquired parts of Savvy Games Group, make sure to check those out.We'd also like to thank Windwalk for making this episode possible! Windwalk builds digital communities and the technologies necessary to accelerate them through their flagship software, Harbor. To learn more, simply head to https://www.harbor.gg/ If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad tackles the contentious release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, scrutinizing Activision's bold pricing strategy for what many see as DLC-sized content. We then shift gears to the evolving stances of various companies regarding live service games, including noting where we are in the trend's hype cycle. The conversation pivots to Valve's unveiling of the Steam Deck OLED and what kind of platform the resurgence of handhelds could morph into. We next cover Roblox's recent earnings release and discuss both the tailwinds and headwinds the company faces. The discussion then takes a serious turn with Blizzard shuttering the Overwatch League due to financial woes, leading us to speculate on the future of other esports leagues and why ESL may be in a superior position. Finally, we examine Ubisoft's announcement of a new skin marketplace for the eight-year-old Rainbow Six: Siege and ponder its potential compared to Steam's established marketplace. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Jonathan Anastas, and host Devin Becker.We'd also like to thank Nexus for making this episode possible! Nexus's creator program in-a-box makes it easy for game devs to build and manage a world-class creator program, driving significant growth in conversion, ARPPU, retention, and LTV. To learn more, go to http://nexus.gg/naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad delves into the fresh UK sales numbers, highlighting top hits like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Spider-Man 2. Then we discuss why YTD video game spend in the US is actually down compared to last year (when accounting for inflation) despite it being a notable year of great hits. We pair that discussion with insights from the latest Drake Star and Konvoy Q3 reports, which cover funding and M&A data, and discuss why we're hesitant to project a strong rebound heading into 2024. Next, we hit on Microsoft's major leadership reorg and discuss how emerging technologies (like AI) and new business models (like subscription) could further affect broader industry-wide reorgs in the future. Lastly, as earnings season kicks off, we dive into the latest numbers from Xbox and Ubisoft, and Aaron offers keen analysis about the unspoken and less obvious narratives hidden between the lines. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Sebastian Park, Tammy Levy and host Devin Becker.We'd also like to thank Coda Payments for making this episode possible! Coda helps developers collect some of their revenues outside the app stores, keeping more of the income they generate for themselves. To learn more, head to https://www.codapayments.com/naavik?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=webpage&utm_campaign=naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Welcome to part two in our series covering all things Savvy Games Group. In this episode Aaron Bush chats with Javier Ferreira, the co-CEO of Scopely, which was acquired by Savvy earlier this year for $4.9 billion – the sixth largest gaming acquisition of all time. Scopely is now the #2 largest North American mobile games company (as measured by global IAPs), and it serves over 100 million players across its portfolio of games.In this episode, Javier walks us through how the company has grown, what does and doesn't change now that Scopely is owned by Savvy, and updates us on Scopely's approach to creating great games. We also dive into Monopoly Go (how did Scopely create the #1 mobile game in the US?), Stumble Guys (and what it says about Scopely's cross-platform ambitions), GSN (including how to get better at M&A), and more. We also discuss the tensions between managing creativity and systems at scale, Scopely's view on UGC, and wrap up with a few things Javier is excited about for the future.Also, if you missed our first interview with Javier, which shares great insights into how Scopely operates, check it out here: https://naavik.co/podcast/javier-ferreira/ We'd also like to thank Dive for making this episode possible! Dive is a fully outsourced BI-as-a-Service solution that provides an enterprise-grade data platform and services for gaming studios on all platforms. It also saves studios hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly. To learn more, go to: https://bit.ly/3NRlX3i If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Hybridcasual is a buzzword of late, but what exactly does it mean, and where is it going? As hypercasual continues declining, many games teams are experimenting with either converting their existing hypercasual games to hybridcasual (by adding more casual features) or are building hybridcasual games from the ground up. It's a rapidly shifting environment with many moving pieces.To help make sense of the evolution, Niek Tuerlings, lead game designer at Moonlit Games and long-time Naavik contributor, joins host Aaron Bush to share his research and takeaways. The duo dives into examples from Say Games (Dreamdale), Voodoo (Mob Control + Collect ‘Em All), Madbox (Pocket Champs), and Habby (Survivor.io), shares overarching takeaways, and discusses where the trend is going next.This discussion is also based on Niek's excellent essay, which covers similar ground. Check it out for even more context and insight: https://naavik.co/deep-dives/evolution-of-hybridcasual-deepdive/ This episode is brought to you by CleverTap Gaming, the all-in-one platform for creating personalized player experiences. Visit https://clevertap.com/gaming/ for more details. If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad delves into Microsoft's completed acquisition of Activision Blizzard and speculates on the future landscape of gaming acquisitions. We then touch upon the continued trend of layoffs, this time spotlighting Frontier, and discuss when the tide may shift the other way. Lastly, as the holiday season approaches, we share our predictions on which games are likely to dominate the charts and become festive favorites. Join us for all the latest games business news with Anil Das-Gupta, Aaron Bush, and host Devin Becker.We'd also like to thank Dive for making this episode possible! Dive is a fully outsourced BI-as-a-Service solution that provides an enterprise-grade data platform and services for gaming studios on all platforms. It also saves studios hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly. To learn more, go to: https://bit.ly/3NRlX3iIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad kicks off with the successful mobile launch of Monster Hunter Now, giving Niantic a solid win with an IP well suited for location-based gaming. We then delve into Luda's recent $7M funding for its AI Training Sim, which claims to offer real-time reinforcement training, emphasizing UGC elements. The conversation shifts to the esports realm, where Activision/Blizzard's decision to shut down and revamp the Overwatch League signals further decline. We also dive deep into the full launch of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 2 (CS:GO 2), its impressive crate opening numbers, and the surprising removal of CS:GO 1 from Steam. Lastly, Aaron puts Devin and Felipe to the test with a riveting game's business trivia game. Don't miss out! Join us for all the latest games business news with Felipe Mata, Aaron Bush, and host Devin Becker.We'd also like to thank Coda Payments for making this episode possible! Coda helps developers collect some of their revenues outside the app stores, keeping more of the income they generate for themselves. To learn more, head to https://www.codapayments.com/naavik?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=webpage&utm_campaign=naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad starts off by reflecting on Unity's business model changes and Jim Ryan's retirement after a strong 30 year run at PlayStation. Then we discuss comments from both Xbox's Phil Spencer and Capcom's Haruhiro Tsujimoto that put into question AAA games' pricing and the evolving role of publishers. We also touch on the breaking news of Epic Games' major layoffs and divestments before digging into 2023's biggest winners and losers so far. Lastly, we close with a quick bonus round of hidden gems that is sure to surprise. Join us for all the latest games business news with Mario Stefanidis , Aaron Bush, and host Devin Becker.We'd also like to thank Lakestar - one of the leading European venture capital firms - for making this episode possible!. If you're interested in learning more or getting in contact with the Lakestar's Games and Media team, simply go to lakestar.comIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad shares some personal updates including a recap of Korea Blockchain Week, streetball with Fat Joe, and two new Naavik deep dives. Then we cover the latest in Unity's evolving monetization saga, including why the company got itself into this situation in the first place and why it's (perhaps partially) backpedaling on its monetization policy announcements. We also cover Playtika's acquisition of Innplay Labs, and dig into the court document leaks that highlight much of Xbox's next-generation plans. Join us for all the latest games business news with Anil Das-Gupta, Jonathan Anastas, Aaron Bush, and host Devin Becker.Also, a big thanks to data.ai for supporting all of Naavik's mobile data needs! If your team requires a market and competitive intelligence tool for tracking the mobile games industry, monitoring KPIs, and spotting opportunities across games, check out https://www.data.ai/en/?utm_source=naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

User generated content is a multi-decade wave that continues to grow and transform the games industry. One company pioneering this future is Overwolf, which is creating an all-in-one platform for creating, sharing, and monetizing in-game apps, mods, and game servers. As is laid out in the episode, Overwolf is looking to help creators earn billions of dollars over time by essentially enabling all game studios to build their own versions of UEFN for their games. It's a big, exciting vision, and Overwolf is making steady progress toward its goals.To help catch us up to speed on Overwolf, Naavik co-founder Aaron Bush is joined by Uri Marchand, the company's co-founder and CEO. This is Uri's third time on The Naavik Gaming Podcast, but the discussion dives into new territory. We discuss what new projects Overwolf is working on, how modding and game servers are destined to evolve, and take a step back to learn how Uri has grown as a leader in his 13 years at Overwolf.We'd also like to thank Windwalk for making this episode possible! Windwalk builds digital communities and the technologies necessary to accelerate them through their flagship software, Harbor. To learn more, simply head to https://www.harbor.gg/ If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad highlights data.ai's new 2023 Gaming Spotlight Report (link below) and adds more details around PlayStation's decision to raise subscription prices. Then we cover Starfield's launch, including its impact on Game Pass and the viability of its windowing strategy, followed by discussion on how the writers and actors strike could impact the games industry. Lastly, we wrap up by exploring Humble Bundle's quiet yet interesting expansion strategies. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Dave Elton, and host Maria Gillies.Data.ai's 2023 Gaming Spotlight Report: https://www.data.ai/en/go/gaming-report-idc-2023?utm_source=naavik&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ww-referral-202307-gaming-partnership&utm_content=PR-&sfdcid=7016F000002Y6Tj Big thanks to Coda Payments for sponsoring this episode! Coda helps developers collect some of their revenues outside the app stores, keeping more of the income they generate for themselves. To learn more, head to https://www.codapayments.com/naavik?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=webpage&utm_campaign=naavik We'd also like to thank Pragma for making this episode possible! Pragma is a Backend Game Engine that powers services like accounts, matchmaking and player data for the world's most ambitious live service games. To learn more, head to https://pragma.gg/If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

AI is all the rage right now, but unless you're in the thick of it, it can be hard to make perfect sense of what's possible today and where we're headed. Will AI be a sustaining or disruptive innovation for the gaming industry? Why is the "open source vs. closed source" conversation so important? How will business models change as technology evolves? What role will humans play as AI takes over more workflows? What's overhyped right now?To help navigate all of these questions, Aaron Bush is joined by Ilya Gelfenbeyn, co-founder and CEO of Inworld AI (the pioneers of AI NPCs), and George Ng, co-founder and CTO of GGWP (AI-driven moderation solutions). Both guests are also serial entrepreneurs, so we also discuss their current businesses as well as explore lessons learned over time.This episode is brought to you by CleverTap Gaming, the all-in-one platform for creating personalized player experiences. Visit https://clevertap.com/gaming/ for more details. If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad gives an update on Baldur's Gate 3's success metrics and Dark and Darker's continuing renegade journey. We explore the seeming free fall of Free Fire through Sea Limited's expansion struggles. We dig into cloud streaming, with an update on the PlayStation Portal and Microsoft handing streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games over to Ubisoft to appease regulators. Finally, we dive into strategic reasons why NetEase continues to acquire Western game developers. Join us for all the latest games business news with Anil Das-Gupta, Matt Dion, Aaron Bush, and host Devin Becker.We'd also like to thank Dive for making this episode possible! Dive is a fully outsourced BI-as-a-Service solution that provides an enterprise-grade data platform and services for gaming studios on all platforms. It also saves studios hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly. To learn more, go to: https://bit.ly/3NRlX3i If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

100 Thieves is a premier lifestyle brand and gaming organization that's building a highly unique ecosystem of products and services. This now includes esports, content creators, apparel, premium keyboards and peripherals (via Higround), energy drinks (via Juvee), and even game development (on UEFN and with Project X).In this episode, Naavik co-founder Aaron Bush is joined by John Robinson, 100 Thieves' President and COO, to discuss why the organization's aspirations are so wide and how they manage this “business of businesses.” They dive into how esports will become more sustainable, how the company is uniquely positioned for game development, the broader branding strategy, and lessons learned from running so many unique business lines.This episode is brought to you by Overwolf. Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at overwolf.com.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

There are more than 3 billion gamers in the world, but the number of gaming professionals interested in business and development content pales in comparison, with approximately 300,000 people employed in the U.S. games business, according to IBIS World. Niche content curation and content creation companies like Deconstructor of Fun, Gamemakers, Elite Game Developers, Naavik, and more cover the space and, importantly, compete with each other for mindshare across this small pool of professional game developers. Is it possible to build a profitable enterprise off this type of organization, and if so, how and through what revenue streams? We bring together a super team of games podcasting and blogging: Joakim Achren, Joseph Kim, and our very own Aaron Bush to discuss.This episode is brought to you by Pragma. Pragma is a Backend Game Engine that powers services like accounts, matchmaking, and player data for the world's most ambitious live service games. To learn more, head here. And as always, if you like the episode, you can help others find us by leaving a rating or review!TLDListen?: Episode summaryWatch the episode: YouTube video Join the discussion: Naavik DiscordRead more: Naavik DigestWatch more: YouTube channelGo premium: Naavik ProFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Gabe.

As virtual worlds become more immersive and widespread, how we all represent ourselves — via avatars — becomes all the more important. That's why Naavik co-founder Aaron Bush sat down with Genies founder and CEO Akash Nigam to discuss the future of avatars and Genies' rising role in it. The two of them discuss Genies' history and focus, why XR will unleash a new wave of avatar use cases, what avatar ecosystems will ultimately look like, what the games industry underrates regarding avatars, and how the team is looking to kickstart avatar interoperability.This episode is brought to you by CleverTap Gaming, the all-in-one platform for creating personalized player experiences. Visit clevertap.com/gaming for more details. If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad discusses Inworld AI raising $50+ million for AI NPCs in games, plus Playtika's acquisition of Youda Games. Then after a short discussion on EA's earnings report, we discuss the demise of physical games and retail outlets like GameStop. Finally, we peel apart the success of BattleBit Remastered to figure out what other game developers can learn from this surprise hit and discuss how much graphic fidelity really matters for success. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Tammy Levy, and host Devin Becker.This episode is brought to you by our partners at Windwalk. Windwalk builds digital communities and the technologies necessary to accelerate them through their flagship software, Harbor. To learn more about this end-to-end community software product, simply head to https://www.harbor.gg/If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the squad discusses Tencent becoming a majority shareholder of Techland and what Blizzard bringing some of its games to Steam could mean for the company pre and post-acquisition. Then we explore how CD Projekt making workforce cuts could affect its plans going forward for franchises like The Witcher and Cyberpunk. We dig into how big brand changes can affect future success with a contrast of Twitter becoming X and FIFA 24 becoming FC24. Earnings updates for Ubisoft and Stillfront lead to Aaron warming up for a victory lap and an analysis of where the market is heading with acquisition strategies. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Anil Das-Gupta, Jonathan Anastas, and host Devin Becker.This episode is brought to you by Overwolf. Whether you're a gamer, creator, or game studio, Overwolf is the ultimate destination for integrating UGC in games! You can check out all Overwolf has to offer at overwolf.com.Also, a big thanks to data.ai for supporting all of Naavik's mobile data needs. If your team requires a market and competitive intelligence tool for tracking the mobile games industry, monitoring KPIs, and spotting opportunities across games, check out https://www.data.ai/en/?utm_source=naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Chris Bell and Stephen Bell have been involved in several defining games like Journey, Sky: Children of the Light, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Blaseball. However, their new project is tackling a whole new level of ambition. In this episode, Naavik co-founder Aaron Bush joins the Bell brothers to discuss their new company Gardens, its unique game in development, and how this project both builds on insights from previous projects and comes with fresh challenges. They also dig into life as first-time founders, goals for their company's culture, and how they managed Gardens' recent $31.3 million Series A.This episode is brought to you by Nexus. Nexus's creator program in-a-box makes it easy for game devs to build and manage a world-class creator program, driving significant growth in conversion, ARPPU, retention, and LTV. To learn more, go to nexus.gg/naavikIf you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, we discuss the FTC losing its court case to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard and explore what Xbox Game Pass means for developers. We also touch on Meta's new social network Threads hitting 100 million users and Final Fantasy XVI's supposedly “disappointing” 373,790 in physical Japan sales after two weeks as a $70 PS5 exclusive. With 87% of games before 2010 being inaccessible to the average gamer, we ask what can be done to improve game archiving. Lastly, we dive into a lawsuit over generative AI technology using book content without permission and how it could affect gaming. Join us for all the latest game business news with Aaron Bush, Sebastian Park, Dave Elton, and host Devin Becker.This episode is brought to you by Coda Payments. Coda helps developers collect some of their revenues outside the app stores, keeping more of the income they generate for themselves. To learn more, head here. If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

David Gardner, co-founder and co-chairman of The Motley Fool, is not just a legendary investor, but he has also pulled off something special: successfully embedding game design into his life and business. In this episode, Naavik co-founder Aaron Bush joins David to ask how gamification can level up anyone's life or business. They also discuss how David's “Rule Breaker Investing” principles can apply to the games industry, why conscious capitalism deserves more attention, and end with a fun game of “Buy, Sell, or Hold.” If you are at all interested in investing, company-building, and the unconventional use of game design, this episode is a must-listen.If you want to learn more from David, make sure to tune into his weekly podcast - Rule Breaker Investing. Also, check out his favorite game of 2023 - Ark Nova.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

In this week's Roundtable, the crew discusses whether Sony may open up its PlayStation audience to Roblox, Unity's new AI tools Sentis and Muse alongside its new AI marketplace, and Scopely's acquisition of Tag Games. We also touch on why Niantic laid off a quarter of its staff after announcing multiple new games and what its reorganization means for Pokémon Go. Also on the agenda is Square Enix introducing a new CEO and the future of the company's long-term franchises like Final Fantasy, as well as interesting revelations from the FTC lawsuit against Microsoft to block its Activision Blizzard acquisition. Join us for all the latest games business news with Aaron Bush, Matt Dion, Mario Stefanidis, and host Devin Becker.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Also, a big thanks to data.ai for supporting all of Naavik's mobile data needs. If your team requires a market and competitive intelligence tool for tracking the mobile games industry, monitoring KPIs, and spotting opportunities across games, check out https://www.data.ai/en/?utm_source=naavik Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

We're halfway through 2023, so let's pause, reflect, and think about the future. This episode's panelists – Aaron Bush, Anil Das-Gupta, Jonathan Anastas, plus host Devin Becker – discuss their standout games of 2023 so far, what trends have defined the industry lately, what's currently over- and under-hyped, and what they're watching closely as the rest of the year unfolds. This wide-ranging conversation covers lots of ground and is filled with spicy takes.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback, shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co.Also, a big thanks to data.ai for supporting all of Naavik's mobile data needs. If your team requires a market and competitive intelligence tool for tracking the mobile games industry, monitoring KPIs, and spotting opportunities across games, check out https://www.data.ai Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.

Nexon is one of the largest and best-performing companies in the gaming industry, but too few Western onlookers fully know why the business excels. That changes today. Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney joins Naavik co-founder Aaron Bush to discuss his journey in games, what he's learned from leading a large global business, and how Nexon builds long-lasting virtual worlds. They also discuss the importance of antifragility, what “weird” new initiatives could define Nexon's future, and why companies often face internal resistance to innovation.If you like the episode, please help others find us by leaving a 5-star rating or review! And if you have any comments, requests, or feedback shoot us a note at podcast@naavik.co. Watch the episode: YouTube ChannelFor more episodes and details: Podcast WebsiteFree newsletter: Naavik DigestFollow us: Twitter | LinkedIn | WebsiteSound design by Gavin Mc Cabe.