Lead

What you'll be able to do.

• ✓Org design
• ✓Crisis playbooks
• ✓Mentoring operators

Content that counts toward L03.

↳ LATEST EPISODES

45:12

EP_172

The game backend is 5% of the budget and 100% of the launch

Mitchell Patterson of Wolfjaw Studios on the invisible layer that decides whether players ever reach your game, and why a launch that works shrinks the contract.

WITH MITCHELL PATTERSONOCT 6, 2026

1:05:03

EP_171

Nobody was on the hook for fourteen years of Halo

Microsoft cut five studios loose, Bungie began giving back the Destiny content it deleted, and a game from 1996 posted the biggest opening in its franchise's history. The panel on why nobody in AAA is on the hook for what they ship.

PLAYER DRIVENSEP 29, 2026

1:04:34

EP_170· VIDEO MISSING

Game Pass bought installs, not players: what actually brings someone back

Microsoft is reportedly ending day-one first-party releases on Game Pass and capping cloud gaming hours. Most people read that as a subscription story. On this episode it turns into a much bigger one.

PLAYER DRIVENSEP 22, 2026

↳ LATEST ESSAYS

· FIELD NOTES

Make-A-Wish’s April Stallings Illuminates the ‘Whys’ of Gaming: Joy, Well-being, and Connection

Make-A-Wish has granted >650,000 wishes to critically ill kids, and Stallings sheds light on why gaming-related requests are at the heart of one of the nonprofit’s four wish categories

Lewis Ward

· TEARDOWN

Make-A-Wish’s April Stallings Illuminates the ‘Whys’ of Gaming: Joy, Well-being, and Connection, Part 2

More insights on the positive effects of granted wishes, Roll for Wishes, and John Cena’s “inspirational…attention and detail” in wish grating

Lewis Ward

· POSTMORTEM

Susanna Pollack, President of Games for Change, Pushes the Video Game Industry Toward a More ‘Hopeful and Optimistic Future’

In an exclusive sit-down with her at Games for Change (G4C) in July, we covered mission, impact, and inspiring participation in the hands-on, playful community

Lewis WardSEP 22, 2026