The Business of Games
The Business of Games: A podcast for developers, publishers, and executives navigating the ever-changing game industry.
From monetization models to player behavior, from platform shifts to emerging markets, The Business of Games is your guide to all the things transforming how games are built, marketed, and scaled.
Hosted by Chris Hewish and Lia Ballentine, each episode blends strategic insight, cinematic storytelling, and candid conversations with the people driving the business of play. You’ll hear from top executives inside studios and strategic partners across the ecosystem who are uncovering the ideas, tactics, and trends shaping tomorrow’s opportunities.
Whether you’re launching your first game or scaling a global studio, you’ll find practical strategies, future-forward thinking, and real-world examples you can act on right away.
The Business of Games is brought to you by Xsolla, your strategic partner behind the scenes. We bring together “All the Things” to help you simplify operations, unlock new revenue, reach more players, and launch fast.
Visit xsolla.com to learn more, connect with our team, and access all the things you need to level up your business of play. Want to join the conversation? Follow and comment on our LinkedIn page at The Business of Games Podcast, where we’ll be sharing updates, highlights, and continuing the discussion. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with friends and colleagues who want to learn more about the business of games.
The Business of Games
The executive summary: what GDC 2026 revealed about the future of games
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla.
Every March, the games industry makes its pilgrimage to San Francisco. GDC isn't a fan show. It's where developers, executives, investors, and platform teams talk to each other about what's actually happening in the business of games.
In this episode, Lia Ballentine flips the script. Xsolla President, Chris Hewish, freshly back from GDC 2026, takes the guest seat to share what he heard on the show floor, inside the Xsolla Clubhouse, and in the conversations between sessions that rarely make it into recap posts.
The mood at GDC this year was what Chris describes as cautiously constructive. The turbulence of the past few years — layoffs, studio closures, a hard reset after pandemic-era expansion — hasn't disappeared from memory. But the tone has shifted. Developers have accepted the new market reality and are asking sharper, more practical questions: How do you build sustainably? How do you reach players directly? How do you harness AI without losing what makes games human?
Chris walked those halls and had those conversations. In this episode, he brings those insights to life, including perspectives from developers and industry voices he connected with on the ground.
What you'll learn:
- Why GDC 2026 felt different and what "cautiously constructive" actually means for the industry
- How AI has moved from theoretical to practical inside real production pipelines
- Why direct-to-player kept surfacing as a through-line across sessions and conversations
- What the investment climate looks like now, and where capital is starting to flow again
- How the most forward-looking studios are shifting from linear development to parallel workflows
- What one takeaway from GDC 2026 should shape how you build your games business in the year ahead
Let's get into it.
For more insights and resources, visit xsolla.com/podcast. Want to join the conversation? Follow and comment on our LinkedIn page at The Business of Games Podcast. That’s where we’ll be sharing updates, highlights, and continuing the discussion. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with friends who want to learn more about the business of games.
