We weren't able to get together this week, so instead we have an interview special: a conversation with industry veteran Peter Molyneux. This was recorded shortly before the release of his latest - and, he says, final - game, Masters of Albion, and discusses both the game and his legacy as one of a dwindling number of brand-name auteurs in the games industry.

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Lewis dials in from Sao Paulo to report from GamesCom Latam, where a burgeoning industry is crying out for government support, and Jon reports from his time at the ESA's new iicon event, which had a stellar audience that nevertheless missed a few key people. Plus, a quick look at the Roblox and Xbox financials.

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Jon Hicks and Lewis Packwood get together to discuss Xbox's decision to pull Call of Duty from Game Pass, and cut the subscription price - and Asha Sharma's changes to the Xbox organisation, which unfortunately was recorded shortly before Xbox posted its strategy update. Plus, the Mario Galaxy movie proves to be a hit.

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Welcome back to the alpha re-release of the GI Podcast. This instalment was recorded as London Games Week draws to a close, and discusses the highlights of what we saw at the event. We also cover the announcement of new UK government funding for the games industry, the revenue figures allegedly revealed by a hack of Rockstar Games, and Roblox's new parental controls being swiftly followed by the settlement of one of its many court cases over child safety. 

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The latest episode of the GamesIndustry.biz podcast focuses on how recent court rulings have opened up the mobile game landscape. Developers now have the green light to accept payments outside of Apple's systems, potentially allowing them to secure a larger slice of an app's revenue.

GamesIndustry.biz features editor Lewis Packwood is joined by Xsolla president Chris Hewish and Xsolla's chief marketing and growth officer, Berkeley Egenes.

This special episode is sponsored by Xsolla.

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Welcome to the weekly GI Podcast. Never miss an episode and subscribe to the GI Podcast on all podcasting platforms and YouTube.

For this special episode, sponsored by Virtuos, we look at what co-development can offer game developers creatively and commercially, with a particular focus on mid-sized teams, and those in emerging markets across regions such as Southeast Asian, MENA, Brazil, and Australia and New Zealand.

Long-time GamesIndustry.biz contributor Will Freeman returns to hosting duties, and is joined by expert guests Morgan Jafitt, freelance advisor at Wētā Workshop, James Chan, vice president of technology at Rocket Games, and Ryan Thornton, game design director at Virtuos Shanghai.

As always, you can get more news, insight and analysis at www.gamesindustry.biz, and you can get all the biggest news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up to the GI Daily at www.gamesindustry.biz/newsletters.

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Welcome to the weekly GI Microcast giving you the latest in video games news. Join James Batchelor and Chris Dring as they give you their take on the biggest stories in video games. Never miss an episode and subscribe to the GI Microcast on all podcasting platforms and YouTube.

This week, our show focuses on the year ahead with Chris and James both sharing their expectations, predictions and hopes for 2025. The conversation ponders some of the biggest questions the industry faces: When will the layoffs slow down or stop? Will GTA 6 be delayed into 2026? How will Switch 2's launch performance compare to the original? What will happen to Ubisoft? And what will the numbers mean after Chris is not here to tell us?

As always, you can get more news, insight and analysis at www.gamesindustry.biz, and you can get all the biggest news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up to the GI Daily at www.gamesindustry.biz/newsletters.

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Welcome to the weekly GI Microcast giving you the latest in video games news. Join James Batchelor and Chris Dring as they give you their take on the biggest stories in video games. Never miss an episode and subscribe to the GI Microcast on all podcasting platforms and YouTube.

For our penultimate episode of the year, we look back at the biggest trends of the past 12 months. Topics covered include the ongoing layoffs and closures, the struggles of live service games, the transformation of Xbox, the ever-moving goalposts of success, and more.

And we still have What Do The Numbers Mean?, in which Chris explores the year-to-date performance of console and PC games.

As always, you can get more news, insight and analysis at www.gamesindustry.biz, and you can get all the biggest news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up to the GI Daily at www.gamesindustry.biz/newsletters.

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Welcome to the weekly GI Microcast giving you the latest in video games news. Join James Batchelor and Chris Dring as they give you their take on the biggest stories in video games. Never miss an episode and subscribe to the GI Microcast on all podcasting platforms and YouTube.

This week, our show focuses on The Game Awards 2024. Chris reports on his experiences from attending the event, we discuss some of the big winners, and (inevitably) dive deeper into the big announcements from the night, as well as what they indicate about the state of games in the year ahead.

We also have the usual What Do The Numbers Mean? segment, in which we take a look at the initial performance of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

As always, you can get more news, insight and analysis at www.gamesindustry.biz, and you can get all the biggest news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up to the GI Daily at www.gamesindustry.biz/newsletters.

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Welcome to the weekly GI Microcast giving you the latest in video games news. Join James Batchelor and Chris Dring as they give you their take on the biggest stories in video games. Never miss an episode and subscribe to the GI Microcast on all podcasting platforms and YouTube.

Our main topic this week is Ubisoft's decision to shut down XDefiant next year, and what this says about the challenges of live service games. When even the biggest publishers are struggling to create a title that's engaging enough to draw players away from their 'home games', where does the industry go from here?

We also discuss the latest wave of layoffs and studio closures, and this week's What Do The Numbers Mean? explores the impact of Black Friday sales (in the UK).

As always, you can get more news, insight and analysis at www.gamesindustry.biz, and you can get all the biggest news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up to the GI Daily at www.gamesindustry.biz/newsletters.

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Welcome to the weekly GI Microcast giving you the latest in video games news. Join James Batchelor and Chris Dring as they give you their take on the biggest stories in video games. Never miss an episode and subscribe to the GI Microcast on all podcasting platforms and YouTube.

Our main topic this week is the spreading reports that Sony is making a new games handheld. We discuss how the platform holder might approach things differently after the struggles of the PSP and the Vita, how the success of the PlayStation Portal is a strong sign of demand, and how a Sony handheld can contend in a Nintendo-dominated space with an Xbox rival also on the way.

Elsewhere, we discuss some of the biggest stories of the past week, including Shuhei Yoshida's upcoming retirement, plans to shut down Switch online services in China, and the delay to Xbox bringing game sales to its Android app. 

As always, you can get more news, insight and analysis at www.gamesindustry.biz, and you can get all the biggest news delivered straight to your inbox by signing up to the GI Daily at www.gamesindustry.biz/newsletters.

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