About this episode

The episode discusses new age publishing models in the gaming industry with insights from industry leaders.

Live from Gamescom at the Xsolla Clubhouse in Cologne, Alexandra Takei , VP of Platform Revenue & Gaming at Medal and General Intuition, sits down with Ben Kvalo , Founder and CEO of Midwest Games , to unpack what she calls "new age publishing." With traditional deals no longer the only game in town, Ben explains why he built Midwest Games to run two publishing models under one roof: a classic invest-and-revenue-share arm, and "Shadow Publishing," a for-hire services model that lets developers keep their IP and revenue entirely. Drawing on his background at 2K, Blizzard, and Netflix, Ben breaks down why he chose to root the company in the Midwest rather than a traditional hub, how studios actually choose between the two publishing tracks, and why investors like Prevail, Kun Gao (Crunchyroll), and Mitchell Patterson (Wolfjaw) bet on a hybrid publisher in a moment when capital is fleeing games for AI (and how it completely reversed from the VC financing era in 2021 where VC’s wouldn’t touch publishers). The conversation gets concrete with real portfolio examples plus Ben's take on discoverability, sourcing enough quality titles to publish something every month, and how AI is…

People in this episode

Guests: Alexandra Takei, Ben Kvalo

Topics covered

• new age publishing
• game publishing models
• developer IP
• investor insights
• AI in gaming
• discoverability

Keywords

• publishing
• gaming
• investors
• AI
• Midwest Games
• discoverability
• revenue share

Sponsors

Medal.tv

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Midwest Games, Medal, Prevail, Crunchyroll, Wolfjaw

Places: Cologne

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