Smart & Wright : The Business of Gaming

Adam Smart
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Smart & Wright is a gaming industry podcast with Adam Smart and John Wright, talking about the business behind games, where the money is going, what’s changing, and what everyone else is talking about. From UA, monetisation and measurement to PC & console, mobile, D2C, AI, launches, M&A and whatever else is shaking up the industry. No scripts. No corporate answers. Just two people who’ve spent far too long in the games industry trying to work out what’s actually going on. Sometimes we talk about the news. Sometimes we disagree with it. And occasionally, we might just create it.

Episodes

  1. Oct 13

    Mobile Gaming CPIs Are Out of Control. Is Web the Answer? | Smart & Wright Ep. 6

    Mobile gaming has a problem. User acquisition costs keep rising, and even studios doing everything right are struggling to keep up. In Episode 6 of Smart & Wright, Adam Smart and John Wright discuss whether web-to-app acquisition could be one of the answers. John shares how his studio almost doubled player lifetime value (LTV) over 12 months, only to see acquisition costs rise by 80%. It’s a perfect example of just how difficult mobile gaming’s economics have become. With traditional mobile acquisition getting more expensive, could the answer be to start looking outside the app stores? We explore how studios can use web campaigns, browser-based games and landing pages to reach new audiences, potentially reduce acquisition costs and build better acquisition funnels. We also discuss how attribution technology has improved, why web-to-app is suddenly becoming such a big talking point, and whether this is a genuine shift in mobile gaming or just another short-lived trend. In this episode: • Why mobile gaming CPIs keep increasing • How one studio nearly doubled LTV but saw CPIs rise by 80% • Why smaller studios are struggling to compete • How web-to-app acquisition actually works • Using browser-based games to acquire mobile players • The challenges of retention and conversion on web • How attribution and measurement are improving • Our predictions for web-to-app over the next 12–24 months And, because it’s Smart & Wright, we somehow end up discussing attribution models from 15 years ago and why gaming might be going backwards to move forwards. Two gaming industry veterans discussing the business of games, user acquisition, monetisation and everything in between. Subscribe for more conversations about the gaming industry. #MobileGaming #UserAcquisition #WebToApp #SmartAndWright #GamingIndustry

  2. Oct 8

    AI Is Flooding the App Stores. Is Gaming in Trouble? | Smart & Wright Ep. 5

    AI is changing gaming faster than anyone expected. But is it actually making the industry better? In Episode 5 of Smart & Wright, Adam Smart and John Wright are finally in the same room, recording from BrewDog in London, and we’re tackling one of the biggest challenges facing gaming right now. With AI making it easier than ever to build and launch games, app stores are becoming increasingly crowded. More games, more competition and potentially higher CPIs. But what does that mean for developers trying to make a living? We get into: 🎮 Why AI could create a discoverability nightmare for mobile games. 📈 How rising CPIs could hit smaller studios harder than the big publishers. 🤖 Whether AI-generated games are the future or just flooding the market with content nobody wants. 🎯 Why hyper-personalised games could open up entirely new markets. 💰 How AI is changing development costs and what that means for the economics of gaming. 🍎 Whether Apple and Google will need to rethink their app store policies. We also discuss the growing divide between mobile and PC/console players when it comes to accepting AI, why some gamers are pushing back, and whether the industry is heading towards a world where anyone can build their perfect game. AI is opening some incredible doors for developers, but it could also make an already difficult market even harder to compete in. Is AI the biggest opportunity gaming has seen in years, or are we creating a problem we haven’t worked out how to solve? Welcome to Smart & Wright. #GamingIndustry #ArtificialIntelligence #MobileGaming #GameDevelopment #UserAcquisition #GameMarketing #SmartAndWright

  3. Sep 29

    Would You Be Crazy to Launch a Game Against GTA 6? | Smart & Wright Ep. 4

    Would you launch a game against GTA 6? Probably not. In this episode of Smart & Wright, Adam Smart and John Wright finally get into GTA 6 — not just the game itself, but the business and marketing machine being built around what could be the biggest entertainment launch ever. We talk about Rockstar’s unusual marketing strategy, the Netflix GTA event, the frankly ridiculous level of pre-orders, and whether GTA 6 is about to swallow up a huge chunk of consumer gaming spend when it launches. But there’s one company seemingly quite happy to go up against it: Nintendo. We dig into why Nintendo launching Zelda into the same window might actually make complete sense, how nostalgia and a completely different audience changes the equation, and what other publishers should be thinking about before going anywhere near GTA 6. We also get into the strange state of pre-orders, why John has already bought the Ultimate Edition despite complaining about it. Another completely unscripted 17 minutes of the business of games. Smart & Wright with Adam Smart & John Wright. Subscribe for more conversations about gaming, marketing, UA, monetisation and the increasingly weird business behind the games we play.

  4. Sep 22

    Ep. 3: We Spent 20 Years Trying to Crack China. China Cracked Us.

    China's games market hit $51.8B in 2025 — but the export numbers are the real story. Adam Smart and John Wright on ARPU, casual 4X, 996, Steam bans and why China now out-executes the West. China's games market hit $51.8B in 2025 and is forecast to pass $59B by 2030. But the domestic number is only half the story: Chinese publishers now account for 35% of all user acquisition spend outside China, and Chinese-developed games generated $20.4B overseas last year, with H1 2026 alone up 30% year on year. In episode 3, Adam Smart and John Wright work through the Niko Partners data and disagree about whether China and the US are really at revenue parity (John isn't buying it). From there: why genre mix and ARPU explain most of the gap, the 10–15 year head start China has on free-to-play, how a Steam ban and a lot of VPNs distort the data everyone is quoting, WeChat instant games at roughly 20% of the domestic market, the casual 4X onboarding hook that finally brought CPIs down, and Tencent telling two studios to build the same game with winner takes all. Also in this one: why competition breeds excellence and what that means for Turkey, the 996 work ethic conversation and where it stops being reasonable, what the Nordics still do better than anyone, and what Japanese whisky has to do with the whole thing. Chapters (00:00) Cold open: are we merging into one person? (01:24) Why China, and what the Niko Partners numbers say (02:53) $51.8B, 769M players, $70+ ARPU (03:06) China vs the US: is it really parity? (03:46) Chinese publishers = 35% of UA spend outside China (05:16) Why China's scale shouldn't surprise anyone (06:25) Genre mix: hardcore vs casual, and what it does to ARPU (07:36) Steam is banned — VPNs and the data blind spot (08:56) Web stores and DTC: China got there years ago (09:13) How Western studios actually enter China (11:35) WeChat instant games: around 20% of the market (12:15) Trying to pay cash for a curry in Beijing (13:07) The export story: $20.4B overseas, H1 2026 up 30% (14:12) Strategy is half of China's overseas top-100 revenue (14:36) Honor of Kings is the biggest game in the world (15:16) Competition breeds excellence — and Turkey is next (16:26) Casual 4X: how they solved the CPI problem (17:48) 42% of global PC revenue, and the free-to-play head start (19:42) Live ops, gacha and meta mini-games (20:04) McDonald's campaigns: games as mainstream culture (21:14) 996 and the work ethic conversation (21:52) Tencent: two studios, same game, winner takes all (23:39) Nordics creativity vs Chinese execution (24:15) Are Chinese companies better at the business of games? (25:27) "We spent 20 years cracking China. China cracked us." (26:06) Japanese whisky, cricket and tiddlywinks (26:31) Wrap, and the TikTok episode we owe you Mentioned in this episode Niko Partners, China games market forecastAppsFlyer, State of GamingNewzoo, global PC games revenue

  5. Sep 15

    Mobile vs Steam, the rise of DTC, and why market forecasts may be missing the real story

    Adam and John Wright compare the current realities of mobile and Steam game publishing, with a focus on why the two markets demand very different strategies. They also dig into the biggest blind spot in current industry forecasts: direct-to-consumer revenue, which may be reshaping how investors and analysts read the gaming market.Speakers covered John Wright — Explains how mobile publishing used to be more predictable, why that changed after ATT, and why Steam is not an easier substituteAdam — Pushes on the market-size comparison, questions the shift from mobile to Steam, and raises concerns about missing revenue in industry forecastsKey topics Mobile and Steam are not interchangeable markets, even if they can look similar from the outsideMobile publishing used to be driven by clearer KPIs, organic lift, and more calculable UA unit economicsPost-ATT mobile became harder to forecast, with fewer new breakout games and larger drop-off points in the funnelOlder games now make up a larger share of mobile revenueMore of the new game pipeline appears to be coming from APAC rather than the WestSteam is a different business, with premium pricing, heavier reliance on influencers, and far less visibility into its algorithmHoping for a Steam breakout is not a strategy because success there is less predictable and depends heavily on community momentumDirect-to-consumer revenue may be missing from current market models and forecastsNegative industry sentiment may partly result from data tools failing to capture DTC performance• • Analysts and investors may be making decisions without full visibility into where gaming revenue comes from

  6. Sep 11

    Gamescom 2026 Recap: AI's Real Cost, Rising CPIs & the Death of the Game Disc

    Welcome to episode 1 of Smart and Right, a weekly, no-nonsense catch-up on everything happening in mobile and console gaming, hosted by Adam Smart (AppsFlyer) and John Wright (Turborilla). In this launch episode, we break down our biggest conversational takeaways from Gamescom 2026: AI adoption has exploded, from supporting single departments a year ago to running across entire game studios today. But it's not all upside: we talk real stories of runaway token costs (one employee burned $30k in a month) and why "head of AI operations" might be gaming's next big hire. Rising mobile CPIs are pushing studios toward web-to-app strategies to cut user acquisition costs, is it actually working? AI is collapsing prototyping timelines from months down to weeks, letting studios take more shots on goal with less spend. The slow death of physical media, PlayStation dropping discs, Switch 2's move to cartridge codes, and what the industry loses as a generation raised on Roblox and in-app purchases takes over as gaming's biggest spenders. China's growing footprint at Gamescom, with major studios like miHoYo targeting female and casual audiences while Western studios stay risk-averse. If you work in gaming, mobile marketing, or just want an honest, unfiltered take on where the industry is heading, subscribe new episodes every week.

  • 6 Episodes

About

Smart & Wright is a gaming industry podcast with Adam Smart and John Wright, talking about the business behind games, where the money is going, what’s changing, and what everyone else is talking about. From UA, monetisation and measurement to PC & console, mobile, D2C, AI, launches, M&A and whatever else is shaking up the industry. No scripts. No corporate answers. Just two people who’ve spent far too long in the games industry trying to work out what’s actually going on. Sometimes we talk about the news. Sometimes we disagree with it. And occasionally, we might just create it.

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