Game Economist Cast

Hosted by Phillip Black

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Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

What does the new wave of open economies mean for monetization? Will negative externalities overcome cosmetic economies in the long run? What exactly does a game economist do? Game Economist Cast is a roundtable discussion of the latest developments in mobile, HD, and crypto games, through a bunch of people figuring it out using the economic toolkit.

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46 recent

September 14, 20251 hr 18 min

E43: Bentham's Body, Hypothesis Testing & Marginal ROAS (w/Eric Seufert)

Eric Seufert joins to dissect AI hype, marginal ROAS, Jeremy Bentham's legacy, and managing a multi-million-dollar marketing budget that falls empirically short. WE discuss: How do you evaluate an “AI startup” in 90 seconds without being duped? Can LLM-driven hypothesis testing replace the Monday creative meeting and outperform it? If marginal ROAS is the real constraint, why do teams still optimize to averages? When should a Battlefield-scale launch actually spend less on day one and wait two weeks? Why did free-to-play economics conquer games but stall on platforms like Twitch or Spotify? Will AI-driven volatility make electricity markets funky?

September 1, 20251 hr 6 min

E42: Vertical Progression Is Gaming's Sex & Finally A Web3 Hope

Forget the endless autopsies on why Web3 gaming flatlined, @Chris gets past the clichés and gets into the real pathology: a misdiagnosis of what “play-to-earn” was ever good for. @Eric & @Phil on vertical progression is the most important retention driver for several specific reasons The “market for lemons” problem in developer <> publisher relations: why developers can banbooze publishers Sub to Eric and Chris' Substack here: https://substack.com/@ericguan https://substack.com/@chriseconomics 00:00 Introduction and Free Trials in Drug Dealing 00:28 Economics of Drug Dealing 02:11 Personal Experiences and Data Collection 03:24 Car Dealerships and Market Monopolies 04:57 Gaming Industry Insights: Clash Royale 19:08 Battlefield 6: Gameplay and Strategy 27:11 Rollerblading Adventures 28:36 Rollerblading Economics 30:16 Web3 Gaming Struggles 34:54 Understanding Play-to-Earn Mechanics 43:42 The Market for Lemons 52:24 Conflicting Data on Gen Z Spending 56:51 The Importance of Reliable Economic Data 01:05:43 Conclusion and Future Topics

August 4, 20251 hr 2 min

E41: Karl Marx as a 5* Character & Ukrainian Drone Economy Design

Eric covers the economy and the system’s design of Ukraine’s Drone squadron. What does economy balancing look like in the face of war? Phil can’t stop gushing about Heroes of History, but there's one economy design piece holding it up. The crew descends into a John Maynard Keynes debate as a 4* or 5* character. Chris covers the economic impact of the UK’s new obligation for internet providers, potentially transforming UGC as we know it. https://ericguan.substack.com/p/ukraine-gamified-drone-warfare

June 16, 20251 hr 10 min

E40: The Best Web3 Arguments (w/Yat Siu, Cofounder of Animoca Brands)

Yat Siu , Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, steps cast to defend Web3 against @Eric and @Phil’s vigorous skepticism. @Chris just want to know why gamers don’t get it. Is Web2 fundamentally incapable of grasping the promise of open markets? What is and should be promised to token holders? We discuss: Laying down Web3’s steelman case Why the West still doesn't get Web3 like the East Examining the original token sin, where did it all go wrong? Do digital property rights actually hold back economic growth?

May 12, 20251 hr 10 min

E39: Law & Economic Order, A Game Economist Investigation

Pokémon's patent of spherical objects throwing of cartoon creatures threatens Palword's lifeblood, while Tim Sweeney has lifted, at least a percentage point, in total gaming GDP with its injunction success. How does Apple's rent-seeking rate change in the face of this ruling? Should Apple lower its rate to 15%, like it did in subscriptions? Remember, it faced competition primarily from "webstores" too. We premier a new segment: SOLVE that for EQUILIBRIUM. We discuss the marginal *monetization* effects and debate the benefits of personalization opportunities (hint: there are none) with webstores. @Chris is intrigued by Joost's piece on rising game costs, while AI's effects on the industry are measured in the Solow model. @Phil insists rising game costs mean rising revenue and stable margins, while Eric has his own doubts. Eric's on IP Laws: https://substack.com/home/post/p-161276950 Joost's On Gaming Costs: https://superjoost.substack.com/p/gamings-billion-dollar-gamble

April 21, 202539 min

E38: Economics of Game Innovation & AI's Now Proof

What is the GDP-maximizing set of copyright protections? 10 years? 5 years? None at all? Chris, Eric, and I debate the relevance of patents and copyright protections and the gains to network effects of knowledge. Does the "gentlemen's agreement" to avoid patent protections on game design help or hurt the industry? Chris talks about Monster Hunter's lineage and woeful service, while Eric introduces a novel use of AI in game design. Phil believes the Gini coefficient is underutilized for measuring live-ops-driven revenue.

April 6, 202536 min

GEC BONUS EP: What's up at GDC 2025 (w/Charlie Hsu)

Phillip & Eric navigate the strangely subdued landscape of GDC 2025, pondering if there really is such a thing as a free lunch. Chris dials in, wondering if his absence is secretly the key to Eric's roundtable success. They dissect the talks, the conference economics, the rise of mobile's respectability, and a guest in economy designer, Charlie Hsu. In this episode: Is the game industry actually shrinking, or just taking a nap? And if Web3 isn't the savior, what's left besides... sweeps? Is GDC just a cleverly disguised wealth transfer from sponsors to developers What's the latest "reasonable" pitch for Web3 in games? What's the economic model behind those San Francisco walk-up shops overflowing with candy bars right next to the register? High margins? A tourist trap? Something... else

March 3, 20251 hr 11 min

E37: Is Gaming Better Than Everyone at Experimentation? (w/Dr.Julian Runge)

The best tech firm experimentation seems to offer thousands of button color experiments. Dr.Runge has a better approach, which changes at every game development stage. We debate gaming's broken relationship with science, the proper experimentation framework, and how much you'd bet on yourself to complete Cousera assignments. Read Dr.Runge's new paper NOW! Showlinks: Julian Runge Gaming Companies Run Thousands of Experiments a Year Game Data Pros How to use games to build relationships with your customers

February 10, 20251 hr 13 min

E36: Pokémon Pocket's Gimped Trading and Matthew Ball's State of Gaming

Pokémon TCG Pocket is one of a handful of games to implement P2P trading on mobile. Yet it sucks. On purpose. As @Eric explains, their game economy needs high sinks to combat hourly sourcing of card packs. Without the nearly 80% trading tax, prices would tend toward $0. However, that's secondary to a UX that is so gimped it makes Friend Codes look seamless by comparison. We deconstruct Matthew Ball's new State of Gaming report slide by slide (or at least curated slides.) @Chris thinks we're failing to keep pace with inflation, putting the industry at risk, while @Phil wants to know why TikTok is winning at the margin. Is gaming becoming LESS compelling relative to social media?

January 19, 20251 hr 22 min

E35: In Defense of Loot Boxes (w/Dr. Matthew McCaffrey)

Loot boxes have all the markings of a moral panic. Dr.McCaffrey reviewed the emerging literature, and like the research on video game violence, it's destined for methodological malfunction. We discuss why everything isn't a loot box, the apathetic interest of economists in games, what George R.R. Martin's economic equilibrium teaches us, and how to get more people interested in economics. Follow Dr.McCaffrey on Twitter [1] , see him on video games [2] , and read his loot box and A Song of Fire and Ice papers here [3] .

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