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

Games as a platform news: ARC Raiders is testing a PvE mode and has some super interesting research on increasing co-op fans (37% and rising) in their player cohort - "There are clear friction points, with friendly players often attempting to avoid PvP entirely, and we hear frustration from certain groups of players around ratting and camping."  https://arcraiders.com/news/pve-toggle-beta-test

PC Gamer’s piece on why so many games have weirdly similar (and forgettable) names has a great Hannah Flynn quote - “suddenly everything's called Rise of the Bonelord: Origins of Dust” and also includes my 2c: “naming isn't that important, since most people buy a game based on video footage… or a recommendation.” https://www.pcgamer.com/games/why-so-many-steam-games-have-weirdly-similar-and-forgettable-names/

Roblox has a lot of teens suddenly making a lot of money with UGC, and therefore a lot of lawsuits with much messiness, such as this Tower Defense Sim one profiled by Aftermath: payroll using Robux, and $35 million in damages demanded from a ‘high school computer science project’ now making megabucks: https://aftermath.site/tower-defense-simulator-roblox-lawsuit/

The platform split on GTA VI got spicy, with Xbox’s chief strategy officer Matthew Ball pushing back on The Verge’s Tom Warren over alleged poor pre-orders: “The title is breaking records for Xbox… our internal analysis shows our share of pre-orders to be matching our share of the console market..” (We don’t find out what that share is, though… Xbox at 25-30%, with PS5 at ~75%, do people think?) - https://x.com/ballmatthew/status/2103210685920424384

Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, 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:

The next part of the Xbox re-org just hit, with more layoffs (250+) at Halo Studios & across Xbox, and Activision now running Rare & a new Halo title that’s more CoD tech-adjacent. Bethesda’s now in charge of Obsidian, and Ninja Theory’s spinoff is not going well (so possible layoffs.) It’s largely logical, but it's a lot: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/09/22/continuing-our-reset/

Trend-analyzing media smart guy Doug Shapiro posted something (semi-paywalled) about how “the relationship between time and value is breaking down” in media. A must-read & made us think of ‘incremental games’ on Steam which are a) inexpensive and b) compressed in a lot of ways, gameplay-wise. (It cites a BCG estimate that $0.70/hr was the average video game spend in 2025, inc. mobile.) - https://dougshapiro.substack.com/p/time-isnt-money

An emerging trend? Demos where save data transfers to the full game! Firms like Square Enix (and just now Konami with Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse) have been pushing this, Graveyard Keeper 2’s exceptionally good Steam demo perf (~30k CCU) also: “Start playing the free demo now, then carry your progress into the full game.” https://www.konami.com/games/castlevania/belmonts_curse/us/en-us/demo

Two Meta announcements: Also in Meta’s presentations: fascinating that the pivot on the Horizon virtual world/UGC creator is multi-platform and AI-first, with tools to “turn any idea into a complete 2D or 3D mobile game.. with progression systems, balanced difficulty, art direction, multiplayer, and more.” (And easy publish to Facebook & Instagram?) https://developers.meta.com/blog/meta-connect-recap-horizon-create-and-horizon-studio/ 

And also: Janko Roettgers sums up Met'as new $1,300 VR Glasses as “the company’s biggest bet on TV-like entertainment to date”, as some games like ‘no controllers needed’ Beat Saber got showcased: https://www.lowpass.cc/p/meta-vr-glasses-tv-replacement-3d-entertainment-content + https://www.uploadvr.com/new-games-announced-for-meta-vr-glasses/

Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, 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:

• There’s a v. unsourced rumor about a 2027 Xbox Game Pass revamp, ft. two main tiers: “Ads tier will cost $12.99 a month… Game Pass without ads will cost $19.99 per month.” There would be no (first-party?) Day 1 games on the service from Feb. 2027, and cloud streaming is an add-on. (The tipper got tier changes right in 2025.) https://x.com/IdleSloth84_/status/2099656444966523172

• Heavily rumored, the Triple-I Initiative streaming showcase is now happening twice per year, and October 8th is the next one, with “35+ announcements with back-to-back trailers of world premieres, gameplay reveals, launch dates [&] demos.” Teaser trailer here, and reveals from Dave the Diver, Risk of Rain 2 & more are promised - https://mailchi.mp/ec574e293d38/a-new-gaming-digital-showcase-hits-april-10th-17456701?e=c05597dc4b

• Roblox Developers Conference had a huge announce, with the keynote revealing: “Soon, creators will have the option to make their games available as standalone apps across mobile, PC, and consoles, with Roblox powering the technology and services underneath.” (This pivot seems early, with scant details besides web play in 2026 & offline modes by mid-2027 - we’ll see if/how it interacts with Steam…) - https://about.roblox.com/newsroom/2026/09/rdc-2026-the-world-needs-more-play

• Marketing consultant Arnaud De Sousa is not a fan of the Steam AI Gaming Festival. And who knows, you might not be too? (Clarifying notes: it’s a third party fest that Steam didn’t ask for, it hasn’t (?) had any front page visibility, and Arnaud spotted paid/ad elements that might make Valve re-examine it.) https://hitbydesign.substack.com/p/steam-ai-gaming-festival+ related IGF controversy (they asked for AI disclosure including code helpers - https://bsky.app/profile/davidcrespo.bsky.social/post/3mvqirhjlik2z .)

Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, what's new or upcoming for GameDiscoverCo Plus & Pro data users since last time, 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:

Ubisoft is testing a workaround for its intrusive Ubisoft Connect PC launcher and Steam, announcing a new Ubisoft Connect Services Steam tool “that keeps Ubisoft game features such as cross-progression, cross-play, player safety, challenges and rewards, among others, without requiring the Ubisoft Connect PC launcher to be installed or launched.” (Another example of third-party launchers backing off of Steam…) https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2751000/view/702153223322993170

ICYMI: Xbox doubled down on Hideo Kojima’s games, signing the formerly PlayStation-published Physint - after Sony dropped it in June - to add to OD, while also “collaborating across film and television to bring new stories to broader audiences.” (PS dropping it makes sense if Death Stranding 1/2 underperformed expectations & the fact Physint would have been PS5 only, per Bloomberg.) - https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/09/09/xbox-and-kojima-productions-expand-partnership-to-publish-physint/

Spotting smaller Steam games getting more front page referrer traffic than they used to? That’s cos, some time recently, Valve changed the featured front-page games in ‘Discounts & Events’ (the non-Daily Deal ones) to be more personalized to logged-in player interests. (A good move to help the little guys, done quietly.) Over on Facebook (!) former Epic wunderkind Cliff Bleszinski has views on the ‘Crash 2.0 for games’ rhetoric: “So is the end near? Hardly. ‘Life finds a way”’ - keep looking towards the AA/’slop’ area to find the fun, and at a reasonable price, which allows you to sample a bunch of quirky, innovative titles with friends. Let AAA faceplant for a while, I say.” - https://www.facebook.com/CliffBleszinski/posts/pfbid02UHX6Xt6fXD8EMUr1LuzntcX8waJaesoV45A7DZozw9BjRCGtq5Lrw5pensGNM992l

Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, and discussion of new features for our GameDiscoverCo Pro/Plus data service.

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

We often reference console hardware price hikes, but how about PC? PC Gamer helps us understand: “Before the memory crisis, there was quite an abundance of RTX 5060 gaming PCs… [as low as] $749… these days you're looking at almost $1,000 for the same thing, and that's if you're lucky.” (PCs can be upgraded more modularly, but..)  https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-pcs/ive-checked-gaming-pc-deals-every-week-for-two-years-and-im-not-exaggerating-when-i-say-there-isnt-a-single-well-priced-pc-left/

Two story combo on companies getting 'less multiplatform': After signaling it would, Xbox is cutting out other platforms from trailers on the Xbox YouTube channel, with no mentions of the non-Xbox SKUs for Minecraft Dungeons II: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/08/xbox-heard-you-purges-ps5-logos-from-multiformat-game-trailers + PlayStation’s latest State Of Play streaming showcase had a reveal or two, and lots of third-party multiplatform games. But it was mainly interesting re: showing first-party titles/DLC (Marvel’s Wolverine, Gran Turismo 7, Until Dawn 2, Saros, Ghost of Yotei) that we suspect won’t be on PC or Steam soon: https://thisweekinvideogames.com/news/playstation-state-of-play-september-2026-all-the-announcements-and-trailers/

Some smart points in this interview with Arrowhead (Helldivers 2) CEO Shams Jorjani. #1: “The only thing that really, really mitigates risk… is brand and recognisability.” #2: for new games, even as a bigger studio, they’ll be “putting it in the hands of players right away - as soon as possible.” https://www.gamesindustry.biz/the-things-that-we-based-our-assumptions-on-have-changed-fundamentally-arrowhead-ceo-shams-jorjani-on-the-games-industrys-rapid-transformation

August's top new PC/console games revealed by GameDiscoverCo - https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/i/213900042/aug-2026s-top-new-pcconsole-games-revealed - 'The 2x million sellers? Less expensive friendslop-adjacents: the absolute smash, albeit at USD $5-$7, was the Landfall-backed ‘fish & then shoot ‘em’ How To Fish, which we have at >6.3m units (!) And the $15-$20 linear co-op hit Big Walk, which we talked about, we’ve got at >1.6m on Steam alone in August. (Not bad.)' (And lots more info...)

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:

As Geoff Keighley reminds us, “Valve was founded 30 years ago today [on August 24th, 1996] by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington.” Tom's Hardware  has more on the history, spanning Half-Life and sequels, the Source Engine, and - of course - a little PC gaming platform called Steam. (Congrats!) https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/valve-was-founded-30-years-ago-today-changed-pc-gaming-forever-with-half-life-then-steam

About that ‘Battle.net getting more third-party games’ rumor? Blizzard just announced a collab with CD Projekt to bring The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered to the PC platform, as well as “gain access to a Geralt-themed skin in Diablo IV” if you buy it on there. (It’s like the ‘Fortnite skins’ move on EGS…) https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24296229/cd-projekt-red-teams-up-with-blizzard-entertainment

Steam is testing personalization on normally curated Midweek Deals, which “are featured on the Steam homepage… from Monday at 10am Pacific until Thursday at 10am Pacific. There are up to six Midweek slots per week.” (If you’re logged in, you’ll see a wide selection of discounted games this week, largely different per account.)

How have hit PC genres changed since 2021? Look, the PC game market has changed significantly over the last 5 years. But how can we quantify that? At GameDiscoverCo, we have a lot of underlying data on this, so we thought we’d use ‘purified’ versions of Steam tag clouds to compare the market in 2021 to that of 2025: https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/i/212562145/how-have-hit-pc-genres-changed-since-2021

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: 

- 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