The Venture Deadpool (Ep. 21)

The Venture Deadpool (Ep. 21)

From Gamecraft by Mitch Lasky / Blake Robbins

April 30, 2025 · 1h 7m · Season 3 · Episode 5

About this episode

Mitch and Blake discuss the reasons behind the failure of venture-backed games companies and the unique challenges they face compared to other software companies.

Mitch and Blake address the unpleasant topic of how and why venture-backed games companies fail. They look first at the nature of venture financing and the inherent differences between venture and publisher money. This leads to a conversation about how developers who were used to working with publishers treated venture capital like production financing as opposed to company financing, and why that distinction matters. They then turn to the flawed strategies and tactics of gaming funds and investors, who tried to make up for their lack of judgment and taste by placing many bets on startup studios. They address several other factors that made games investing tricky for venture capitalists who often had little experience managing creative businesses and lack a basic understanding of the peculiarities of game production. Mitch and Blake look at reasons why venture backed companies fail, and why catastrophic failure appears to be more common among venture-backed games companies than other software companies. They discuss the concept of the "naked B," why growth rounds are rare in games companies, and why games companies are uniquely difficult for conventional venture capitalists to…

People in this episode

Hosts: Mitch Lasky, Blake Robbins

Topics covered

  • venture capital
  • game development
  • investment failure
  • startup challenges
  • gaming industry
  • financial strategies

Keywords

  • venture financing
  • publisher money
  • investment strategies
  • gaming industry failures
  • capital return
  • creative business management

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: venture-backed games companies, venture capitalists, gaming funds, startup studios, games companies, conventional venture capitalists

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