Balkanize The Video Game Industry (With Rami Ismail)

On this week’s episode, Nathan and Riley are joined by game developer, consultant, and general industry luminary Rami Ismail to discuss his new Levelling The Playing Field series of courses aimed at making “the critical less-spoken parts of indie gamedev accessible away from expensive visa-locked hotel bars.” These come at a time when the industry is in a massive state of flux, to put it lightly, with layoffs and closures ravaging triple-A studios while indies are forced to appease the ever-changing whims of Steam and penny-pinching publishers. We talk about what it means to release something like this now and whether chunks of it are potentially outdated on launch, as well as the ways indies and publishers—in their attempts to head money troubles off at the pass—often play it too safe and doom themselves to obscurity in the process. Speaking of doom, we then move on to Saudi Arabia’s deal to purchase EA, which finally went through this week. What will this mean for the company and the many studios under its umbrella? Obviously the future is vast and unknowable, but the answer is layoffs. Finally, we speculate as to what would happen if the world ended tomorrow and, eons later, aliens dug through the ruins (they’d correctly ascertain that Stardew Valley slaps).

Credits

- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Riley MacLeod, & special guest Rami Ismail

- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude

- Subscribe to Aftermath!

About The Show

Aftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that’s too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris’ frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don’t know what else to tell you; it’s a great time. Simply by reading this description, you’re already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.

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