UNBOXING: Play & Profit for the Gaming Curious

Netflix’s $80B bid for Warner Bros. PLUS: an indie sweep at The Game Awards?! Tune in!  --  Never miss an update and listen to your favorite UNBOXING episodes wherever you get your podcasts:  ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠ ⁠Apple⁠ For the true fans, subscribe to our newsletter for weekly email updates and more!

UNBOXING's end-of-semester wrap: finals, feedback & feels. PLUS: Pwns, owns & holiday vibes!  --  Never miss an update and listen to your favorite UNBOXING episodes wherever you get your podcasts: ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠ ⁠Apple⁠ For the true fans, subscribe to our newsletter for weekly email updates and more!

GTA VI delayed (yet again) & union-busting allegations at Rockstar? PLUS: Our thoughts on the Game Awards preview.  --  Never miss an update and listen to your favorite UNBOXING episodes wherever you get your podcasts - ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠ ⁠Apple⁠ For the true fans, subscribe to our newsletter for weekly email updates and more!

Steam Machine crashes the console party. Ubisoft delays earnings & halts trading (!?) PLUS: Laine's thoughts on Sky Sports’ “Halo” disaster. Tune in!  --  Never miss an update and listen to your favorite UNBOXING episodes wherever you get your podcasts - ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠ ⁠Apple⁠ For the true fans, subscribe to our newsletter for weekly email updates and more!

GDC gets a rebrand! PLUS: Laine’s inside look at GDC’s State of the Industry report.  --  Never miss an update and listen to your favorite UNBOXING episodes wherever you get your podcasts - ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠Spotify⁠ ⁠Apple⁠ For the true fans, subscribe to our newsletter for weekly email updates and more!

The EU’s Digital (Un)Fairness Act? PLUS: Pod Friends returns with Mitu Khandaker, the Associate Director of NYU Tandon’s new Game Design Future Lab, who will share her view on the future of games in NYC! For more on the Game Design Future Labs, check these links out: Website Instagram LinkedIn -- Never miss an update and listen to your favorite UNBOXING episodes wherever you get your podcasts - YouTube Spotify Apple For the true fans, get weekly email updates by subscribing to our newsletter!

The ESA’s 2025 Global Games Report drops, and Laine + Joost have some thoughts.

EA acquired in a $55B Saudi-backed buyout––what this means both for the gay couple in The Sims and for our geopolitical landscape. PLUS: Xbox’s $1K handheld + what’s new at the Video Game History Foundation.

What Trump’s $100K H-1B visa fee means for games. “Pod Friends” kick off w/ Colleen Macklin, fresh from the Game UX Summit. PLUS: Stone-skipping scandals (?!) + the benefits of regular student feedback (!!)

The long awaited student gameplay survey results revealed. PLUS: WNBA playoffs & Mario turns 40!

Nintendo’s Switch 2 smashes records & why they keep winning, then Roblox under fire... again! PLUS: the $80 game debate & student survey sneak peaks for next week!

Fall syllabi with final cuts revealed, then get a behind the scenes look at the annual gameplay habits survey. PLUS: Roblox doc w/ Chris Hansen? Yep, that’s a thing.

EA, Take-Two & Krafton earnings decoded. Updates on this summer’s top stories. PLUS: Find out who is throwing dildos at WNBA games and why!

Roblox quarterly earnings broken down. Updates in the Epic v Google lawsuit. PLUS: Raven Software locks in a historic union contract!

Steam and Itch.io pulled thousands of NSFW games. PLUS, find out how payment processors became censors and how the UK’s Online Safety Act isn’t helping.

UPDATE: UNBOXING is coming to you… well.. pre-recorded but hey, we're on video now! This week, your co-hosts discuss Apple's delisting of a classic and the return of Stop Killing Games campaign. PLUS: Laine talks with Phil Salvador from the Video Game History Foundation.

Laine & Joost go full professor mode with a mid-summer syllabi swap. PLUS: buy now, pay later comes to gaming and Nintendo announces casting choices for live-action Zelda movie.

Another round of Microsoft layoffs spark consolidation questions, then what the ESA’s Essential Facts report tells us about gaming in the US. PLUS: your hosts recap the Games for Change conference and more!

Embracer gets serious about restructuring. PLUS: Microsoft ratifies the first-ever U.S. game worker union contract and your hosts discuss new and exciting things coming out in the world of games.

This week, Laine and Joost wade through the glittering but sometimes shallow waters of summer games season, breaking down what the Xbox Showcase, Summer Game Fest, and Sony’s State of Play actually tell us about the future of games (spoiler: not much). They reflect on the post-E3 showcase sprawl, the flattening effect of digital-only reveals, and the quiet collapse of industry pageantry into trailer fatigue and corporate branding exercises. Then, the duo turns to GameStop’s latest mutation—into a Bitcoin-hoarding, Pokémon-peddling quasi-hedge fund. Is it a savvy reinvention or just late-stage capitalism in cosplay? They talk meme stock mayhem and the vibes-based logic of retail pivots.