Leisure

Gamecraft

by Mitch Lasky / Blake Robbins

Video GamesLeisureBusiness

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Latest episodes

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

July 9, 2026 · 1 hr 33 min

The "Second Tournament" begins with 4 tasty quarter-final matches. Mitch and Blake break down the Round of 32 and Round of 16, rate their recommendations from last episode, and then dive into the quarter-finals and trace the paths of the 8…
R32 Update: World Cup Consumer Guide

June 28, 2026 · 1 hr 22 min

Mitch and Blake look back at the group stage and talk about the main themes from the tournament so far. They review their picks for matches to watch from the last episode and what they got right and wrong. Then they turn to the knockout…
World Cup Consumer Guide (Ep. 34)

June 12, 2026 · 1 hr 24 min

Football nerds unite! Mitch & Blake are back with a special episode on the 2026 FIFA World Cup. In this episode they provide a very opinionated "Consumer Guide" to the most watchable matches of the Group Stage of the tournament. Show…
Holy Grail, or Poison Chalice? (Ep. 33)

May 27, 2026 · 52 min

Mitch and Blake conclude Season 4 with a review of a new kind of games company that is getting significant attention from investors: casual game portals with integrated AI game generation engines, seeking to become a "feed" for games akin…
Funding & Founding (Ep. 32)

May 20, 2026 · 56 min

Blake and Mitch discuss the current environment for funding games and some of the challenges and opportunities for founders in the games space. They begin with a short survey of the current venture capital environment and the difficulties…

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A Theory of Fun (Ep. 31)

May 13, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

Blake and Mitch discuss the possibility that games -- mainly mobile and live service games -- have concentrated on providing fun through progression and engagement mechanics rather than fun in the game experience itself. They point to…
Navigating the AI Future (Ep. 30)

May 6, 2026 · 1 hr 18 min

Mitch and Blake offer their thoughts about how to navigate the introduction and impact of large language model AI in the video game business. They begin by discussing their opinion that AI represents a significant technological innovation…
How Istanbul Won the Mobile Puzzle Wars (Ep. 29)

April 29, 2026 · 1 hr 6 min

Mitch and Blake discuss the rise of the Istanbul gaming scene, which has exploded in the last 15 years and come to dominate the incredibly lucractive "match 3" mobile puzzle genre -- a genre which represents a significant percentage of…
The Attention Drain (Ep. 28)

April 22, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min

Blake and Mitch discuss the thesis that the games business is losing share of attention to non-game interactive applications. They discuss whether there is actually a defined market for interactive entertainment, and whether applications…
Roblox (Ep. 27)

April 15, 2026 · 1 hr 22 min

Mitch & Blake discuss one of their favorite companies in games, Roblox. They start by outlining Roblox's core competitive advantages, and how they are unique in providing creation, consumption, aggregation, and monetization in a single…
2026 Trends & Specific Predictions (Ep. 26)

April 8, 2026 · 1 hr 10 min

Blake and Mitch return! They begin with a discussion of the "Great Inflection" in software in the last several months. They then do some follow-up to last season, particularly their "deadpool" episode that turned out to be way too kind to…
The EA "LBO" (Ep. 25)

October 15, 2025 · 37 min

In this Special Edition of the GameCraft podcast, Mitch and Blake discuss the $55 billion leveraged buy-out of Electronic Arts by the Private Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Siliver Lake Partners, and Affinity Partners -- the largest LBO…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Gamecraft is a limited series about the modern history of the video game business. Beginning in the early 1990's, the video game business began a radical transformation from a console and PC packaged goods business into the highly complex, online, multi-platform business it is today. Game industry legend Mitch Lasky and game investor Blake Robbins go on a thematic tour of the last 30 years of gaming, exploring the origins of free-to-play, platform-based publishing, casual & mobile gaming, forever games, user-generated content, consoles, virtual reality, and in-game economies across the eight episodes of Season 1. In Season 2, Mitch and Blake are back with a new series analyzing the state of the video game business in 2024. They start with a macro view of the current business, before looking at some hot topics in gaming: the rise of powerful independent game studios, emerging markets for games around the world, how innovations in artificial intelligence will change game creation, and the renewed importance of intellectual property in the game business.