PocketGamer.biz Podcast

Recorded following Pocket Gamer Connects London, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Nick Poole, CEO of Ukie, for a candid conversation about risk, ambition and what it will take to make the UK the best place to build and scale a games business.

Nick brings a rare perspective to the role. Before leading the UK’s trade body for games, he worked across libraries, museums and chaired Wikimedia UK. His throughline has always been culture, creativity and how institutions shape innovation. Now he’s applying that lens to games.

In this episode, we unpack:
Why the UK risks becoming an “incubator economy” if it cannot retain IP and talent
What’s broken in the funding ladder from prototype to scale-up
Why tax relief is about competitiveness, not handouts
How risk appetite across the industry has shifted post-2020
Why studios must build companies, not just games
What the Games Growth Package, expanded UK Games Fund and new skills initiatives actually mean in practice

Nick is clear: the industry cannot afford to talk itself down. The UK remains one of the most creative and export-driven games markets in the world. But ambition and coordinated action are essential.

We also explore the future of play, the role of generative AI in production pipelines and why automation should unlock creativity, not replace it.
If you are a founder, investor or studio leader navigating 2025–26, this episode is about one thing:

Reclaiming agency.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Pocket Gamer Connects London Highlights
01:14 Guest Intro: Nick Poole's Career Path from Museums to Games
03:57 Understanding Ukie: The Sword and Shield of the UK Games Industry
05:40 Why Historical Government Support for UK Games Has Lacked
07:41 How Studios Can Lobby Effectively: The "Made in the UK" Campaign
11:51 Fixing the "Broken Rungs" in the Game Funding Ladder
14:55 Building the New: Adapting Business Models for 2026 and Beyond
16:14 Tax Reliefs and Fiscal Stimulus: Moving from VGTR to VGEC
22:04 Industrial Strategy: Skills, Trade Missions, and the UK Games Fund
36:58 The Future of AI in Games: Productivity, Curation, and Discovery

Let's Connect
👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz
👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk
👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz
👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event

PocketGamer.biz head of content Craig Chapple, deputy editor Paige Cook and news editor Aaron Astle talk through the latest games industry news on the 89th episode of the Week in Mobile Games Podcast.

On this week’s show we discuss:

- Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen's BAFTA Fellowship award.
- Is BAFTA taking mobile gaming seriously?
- Direct-to-consumer revenue hits record highs in Q4
- Playtika up for sale.
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's blockbuster Box Office numbers.
- Game of Thrones Dragonfire gears up for launch.
- The Division Resurgence's opening salvo.
- What a power shift from West to East means for the games industry.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Pokemon Champions
05:47 BAFTA Games Awards and Recognition for Mobile Games
12:40 The Division Resurgence's Opening Salvo
17:47 Super Mario Galaxy Movie Success
22:17 Record D2C revenue
25:59 The West to East shift
29:44 Game of Thrones Dragonfire
33:20 Playtika up for sale
36:08 Wrap-Up

** Let's Connect **
👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz
👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/company/pocketgamer-biz/
👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz
👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz
👉🏻 Pocket Gamer Connects - https://www.pgconnects.com
👉🏻Pocket Gamer Connects Speaker Submission form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoS5n-vdHu6aU-2d_rR7x1FAgewG51y3nlU1aB8RdetiKaGw/viewform
👉🏻 The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 - https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-top-50-mobile-game-makers-of-2025/
👉🏻 Download the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2024/25 report - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3tbjUxVkG17CuHHljMblfmUC3DZ6gNAzV8qiz8bAALUXSvQ/viewform
👉🏻 Join the AI Gamechangers newsletter - https://aigamechangers.substack.com

Recorded live on-site at GDC, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Robert Burnett, Head of New Content at Skillz, and Jon Radoff, CPO of Beamable, to unpack what just changed for developers building competitive mobile games.

With the acquisition of Beamable, Skillz is pushing into a bigger role: giving developers more control over progression, LiveOps and monetisation inside the game, while still handling the infrastructure that is hardest to build well.

As Jon puts it, the goal is to build “a business operating system for a game studio” so developers can focus on gameplay instead of racking up debt. “If you’re spending any of your effort building the tech instead of the fun, you’re accumulating debt that doesn’t do you any good.”

Skillz also unveiled the Pro SDK at GDC, opening up more control inside Unity for developers who want to build competitive games with richer progression, more flexible monetisation and a stronger live-service layer.

In this episode, Peggy and Craig get into:
Puzzle Blockz, the first live proof point for the combined platform
What this shift means for smaller teams that want to move faster without building every part of the stack themselves
How advertising, IAP and competition can start to work together instead of sitting in separate silos

If you are serious about building competitive mobile games that can keep players and grow revenue, start here.

Chapters
00:00 New Ways for Developers to Monetize
01:34 The Acquisition of Beamable by Skillz
01:59 Solving Pain Points with the Pro SDK
04:46 A Business Operating System for Game Studios
06:27 The Role of AI in Rapid Prototyping
10:14 Economies of Scale in Game Development
11:51 From Vibe Coding to Agentic Systems
16:01 Case Study: The Puzzle Blocks Proof of Concept
22:50 Iterating Based on Real-Time Player Feedback
34:31 The Future Roadmap: Intelligence and Automation

Let's Connect
👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz
👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk
👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz
👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event

PocketGamer.biz head of content Craig Chapple and news editor Aaron Astle talk through the latest games industry news on the 87th episode of the Week in Mobile Games Podcast.

On this week’s show we discuss:
- How Unity is copying the AppLovin playbook by shedding its publishing division Supersonic to focus on the Vector growth story.
- The Ninth Circuit's decision to deny Apple's rehearing request in the Epic Games App Store dispute.
- The February mobile game charts.
- Sonic Rumble's quiet rebrand to Sonic Rumble Party.
- Fire Emblem Shadows' slow start to life.

00:00 Introduction and Personal Updates
07:21 Unity's Strategic Shift in Advertising
11:13 Sonic Rumble's Rebranding and Performance Analysis
16:52 Apple vs. Epic Games: Legal Updates and Implications
19:36 Fire Emblem Shadows Analysis
23:32 February Mobile Game Charts Insights

** Let's Connect **
👉🏻 Twitter - https://twitter.com/pgbiz
👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/company/pocketgamer-biz/
👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz
👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz
👉🏻 Pocket Gamer Connects - https://www.pgconnects.com
👉🏻Pocket Gamer Connects Speaker Submission form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoS5n-vdHu6aU-2d_rR7x1FAgewG51y3nlU1aB8RdetiKaGw/viewform
👉🏻 The Top 50 Mobile Game Makers 2025 - https://www.pocketgamer.biz/the-top-50-mobile-game-makers-of-2025/
👉🏻 Download the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Games Developer Trends Survey Winter 2024/25 report - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf3tbjUxVkG17CuHHljMblfmUC3DZ6gNAzV8qiz8bAALUXSvQ/viewform
👉🏻 Join the AI Gamechangers newsletter - https://aigamechangers.substack.com

This episode is brought to you in partnership with GameAnalytics. PocketGamer.biz Podcast hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Baglow sit down with Falko Boecker, Head of BD & Customer Success at GameAnalytics, to explore a hard truth about the industry:

Studios are not short on data.

They are short on clarity.

Across rising UA costs, privacy shifts, AI disruption and tighter margins, one thing has become non-negotiable: teams must make better decisions, faster.

But collecting data is not the same as using it well.

Falko brings a rare perspective, having worked across journalism, publishing and business development before moving into analytics. His mission has always been to connect creative thinkers with the business side of games, and data is now the bridge.

In this conversation, we unpack:
Why “data maturity” is not the same as “data sophistication”
Where studios get stuck when trying to think full funnel
Why infrastructure matters less than mindset
How segmentation moves teams beyond surface-level metrics
What actually changes between pre-launch and live ops
Why Roblox and fast-moving ecosystems are redefining how teams react to player behaviour

One of the most important takeaways:

Data does not replace creativity. It sharpens it.

As Falko explains, analytics should not be a black box owned by specialists. It should be accessible across design, product and marketing so teams can align around shared goals instead of siloed assumptions.

We also explore how AI is beginning to shift analytics from reactive dashboards to proactive insight, and where humans still need to drive the decisions.

If you are building a game in 2026, this episode is a reminder that success is not about having more dashboards.

It is about asking better questions.

** Let's Connect **
👉🏻 X - https://x.com/pgbiz
👉🏻 LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/pocketgamer-biz/?originalSubdomain=uk
👉🏻 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/PGbiz
👉🏻 Website - https://www.pocketgamer.biz

Check out more world-class speakers sharing their insights and expertise at one of our events. You can find details of our next event here - https://www.pgconnects.com/next-event