Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode: 

- GDC has announced its format updates for the March 1st-5th 2027 show, and this r/gamedev post sums up the changes: “Festival hall is moving from Wed-Fri to Tues-Thur… Summits are more community driven… [The return of the] Friday career day… ” (There’s also “a new Business Hall at Moscone West” for focused biz meetings.) - https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1vnl4td/gdc_2027_announces_changes_to_format_targeting/

- Last week’s big release Mortal Shell II recently hit Advance Access and, thanks to a donated key to SteamDB, we can already see its CCU (23k!) But we also wanted to claim that ‘+$10 to play early and support the dev’ is the real reason people fork out $60 for the ‘Devout Edition.’ (The ‘Obsidian skin set’ ain’t worth $10 - but there’s also nothing wrong with monetizing this kind of early FOMO, is there?) (+ RELATED: Looking at global real-time top sellers on Steam, the top 2 positions are for Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4 & Wardogs, both prominent shooters doing ‘pre-order for access to the Beta’ promotions.)

- PlayStation kicking off ‘shovelware’ publishers got controversial in targeting Ternox Games & STONKS-9800, since the stock market sim has sold decently on Steam: “Sony unilaterally terminated my PlayStation developer and publisher agreement without giving me any reason.” (Ternox previously put out ‘easy Platinum’-ish games, tho, but Stonks is legit/decent. But.. it’s Sony’s platform to clean up!) - https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/indie-developer-of-popular-stock-market-game-says-sony-is-blocking-a-ps5-release-and-delisting-its-previous-games/ [EDIT: they've been let back on again, as of last Friday!]

- Will Big Walk's 1m+ sales usher in a co-op first era - https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/i/212026664/will-big-walks-1m-usher-in-a-co-op-only-game-era - "I don’t understand why more dev teams haven’t been exploring ‘co-op only’ experiences. The precedent is there: Hazelight Studios has made a career over exclusively co-op titles and has sold tens of millions of units: A Way Out, It Takes Two, and Split Fiction. The curiously under-the-radar We Were Here series, which we’ve profiled before for GDCo, is also a multi-million seller, blending co-op only puzzle & exploration. Even the micro-indie horror series Fears To Fathom made a co-op only iteration, Fears To Fathom: Scratch Creek which has been doing great on Twitch and has sold ~300k copies, according to GDCo estimates."

- Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.

Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode:

- PlayStation just surprise dropped Helldivers 2 onto PlayStation Plus Game Catalog, about 2 and a half years after its OG debut.  https://blog.playstation.com/2026/08/12/helldivers-2-joins-playstation-plus-game-catalog-today-devoid-of-liberty-update-out-now/

- Paid mods? Mod.io is making a bigger push into the space, with PC/console games like BMX Streets claiming a $10 ARPPU. (There’s also been The Sims’ move into paid UGC and Curseforge’s previous work with ARK, tho hardcore community reactions can still be mixed at times?) https://mod.io/blog/2026-half-year-update-marketplace-going-live

- Another vital (partially paywalled) Doug Shapiro mega-trends piece is on why “in recent years, almost all the value created in media has accrued to those who distribute content, not create or package it”, but “AI may partially uncouple distribution and coordination in media by introducing a new intermediary layer.” - https://dougshapiro.substack.com/p/coordination-is-king

- Discussing our game showcases overview data - https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/i/210617721/5-key-things-to-ask-before-putting-your-game-in-a-showcase - so we talk about which showcases are the most popular, key things to ask before putting your game in there, etc...

- Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.

Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode:

- Roblox’s results late last week weren’t stellar for the platform, as “daily active users (DAUs) fell 7% sequentially to 123 million in the second quarter:  https://srnnews.com/roblox-forecasts-quarterly-bookings-below-estimates-as-safety-features-dampen-engagement/ 

- Steam 1.0 watch: survival sandbox-er Scrap Mechanic hit 38k CCU (its highest for 6 years!) at 1.0, and 3 million LTD units since 2016; cozy farm sim Fields Of Mistria just hit 27k CCU (all-time high!) at 1.0; first-person sim Waterpark Simulator (13k CCU) and action roguelite Sephiria (30k CCU) are also having super-strong 1.0s. 

- A new interview with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has him saying: “I was happy that the Switch lasted for 8 to 9 years. I think that customers are no longer just looking for specs. I think the ideal is that ‘if you buy the software, you can play it on the device you have at home.’”   https://nintendoeverything.com/shigeru-miyamoto-believes-that-people-are-no-longer-just-looking-for-specs-with-gaming-systems/ 

- What Simon has learned from 30 years in games, looking at a dinosaur-based evolution model (lol!) across three different stages of growth: https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/i/210082715/game-discovery-lessons-from-30-years-in-biz

Mentioned in this episode of the GameDiscoverCo Show: 

- Simon Carless on Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls & the rise of PC games as the 'lead' platform for tech: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/simoncarless_with-the-rise-of-pc-games-as-the-key-pc-ugcPost-7487147115043844096-ziP-/ 
- Kirill Oreshkin on why “The main source of [Steam game] traffic is influencers… for strategy games, tactics & roguelikes - long-form influencers first.": https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kiroreshkin_whats-the-single-biggest-source-of-traffic-share-7481283246438346753-DaRG/
- The Verge on the rise of vertical video: https://www.theverge.com/column/970756/vertical-video-tiktok-youtube-instagram-streaming-facebook
 - Mathew Kumar on hit PC game ‘compulsion loops’ and Vampire Survivors: “It’s getting disturbingly transparent to see the slot machine and scratch card[-ish gameplay].. ‘come join us in the machine zone. [it] doesn’t even need you to spend all your money. Your time is good enough for us, here.’” - https://expzine.com/2026/07/21/vampire-survivors-poncle-2022/ 
- GameDiscoverCo's story on the demo success of roguelike autobattler Guildrun: https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/i/208717522/how-guildrun-genre-mashed-its-way-to-300k-demo-players-in-10-days