re:Play with Greg Off

Gregory Off
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Marketing

re:Play is a conversation‑driven podcast about the ins, outs, and upside downs of the games industry — game development, publishing, marketing, and everything in between. Hosted by industry veteran Greg Off, it’s where gaming’s behind‑the‑scenes stories finally step into the spotlight.

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    Mark Nash — From 15 Years at Blizzard to a New Indie Publisher in 18 Months

    Mark Nash spent 15 years at Blizzard Entertainment before helping build Humble Games into one of indie gaming's most respected publishing platforms. He later founded the Black Game Developer Fund, supporting underrepresented creators across the industry. Then, on July 23, 2024, the entire Humble Games team was laid off. Eighteen months later, Mark returned as the co-founder and COO of Balor Games, helping redefine what modern indie publishing can be.In this conversation, recorded remotely on Riverside, Greg Off and Mark trace that journey—from a pre-YouTube World of Warcraft machinima that landed him a job at Blizzard, to launching the world's first 24-hour gaming livestream, growing Humble Games into a publisher supporting more than 50 studios, and navigating one of the industry's most talked-about shutdowns before rebuilding from the ground up.They also explore the future of indie publishing, why community remains the most powerful marketing tool in games, the role publishers should play in supporting developers, and Mark's "train stations, train tracks, and trains" framework for building lasting game IP across multiple forms of media. Along the way, they discuss leadership, resilience, diversity initiatives, Game Pass, BitSummit, and what it takes to build sustainable studios in today's industry.The conversation closes with Mark's reflections on rebuilding after adversity, the lessons he'd pass on to aspiring founders and publishing leaders, and the games that continue to inspire his thinking today.For game developers, publishers, studio leaders, founders, and anyone interested in the future of indie games, this is an essential conversation about resilience, community, and building the next generation of game publishing.About re:Play:Long-form conversations with the people who built the games industry—peer to peer, not press to talent. Hosted by Greg Off.Find Mark Nash:https://www.linkedin.com/in/marknash/Learn more about Balor Games:https://balorgames.comFind re:Play:https://replaypodcast.comSubscribe to the re:Play Substack:https://gregoff1.substack.com

    Mark Nash — From 15 Years at Blizzard to a New Indie Publisher in 18 Months

  2. Jul 21

    Raph Koster — The Puddle, the Splat, and the Droplets

    Raph Koster has spent more than three decades shaping the way we think about games, virtual worlds, and player behavior. As the lead designer of Ultima Online and creative director of Star Wars Galaxies, he helped define the MMORPG genre and pioneered many of the systems that still influence game design today. He is also the author of the industry-defining book A Theory of Fun for Game Design, a work that has shaped generations of developers. Today, through Playable Worlds, Raph continues exploring how online worlds can become deeper, more meaningful, and more sustainable for the players who inhabit them.In this conversation, recorded in-studio at Off Base, Greg and Raph dive into the fundamentals of great game design—why games are fundamentally about learning, the psychology behind why players find systems engaging, and how timeless design principles continue to outlast every technological shift. They explore the evolution of virtual worlds, the lessons the industry has forgotten, and why building meaningful player experiences remains the hardest challenge in game development.They also tackle one of the biggest questions facing the industry today: artificial intelligence. Rather than focusing on hype, Raph explains where AI can genuinely improve game development, where it falls short, and why the future belongs to developers who understand design fundamentals first and technology second. Along the way, they discuss procedural generation, player agency, emergent gameplay, online communities, and why creating believable virtual societies remains one of the industry's greatest unsolved problems.The conversation closes with Raph's reflections on decades spent designing worlds for millions of players, the lessons he would pass on to the next generation of developers, and his re:Play picks that continue to inspire his thinking about games today.For game developers, designers, studio leaders, and anyone fascinated by the future of interactive entertainment, this is an essential conversation with one of the industry's most influential thinkers.About re:Play: Long-form conversations with the people who built this industry—peer to peer, not press to talent. Hosted by Greg Off. Find Raph: https://www.raphkoster.com Find Playable Worlds: https://www.playableworlds.comF ind re:Play: replaypodcast.com Substack: gregoff1.substack.com

    Raph Koster — The Puddle, the Splat, and the Droplets

  3. Jul 14

    Jack Buser — From Dolby to the Living Game

    Jack Buser has been on the bleeding edge of the games industry for nearly 30 years. He joined Dolby Laboratories straight out of the University of Illinois and made it his mission to push Dolby surround sound out of cinema and into games, landing Dolby Digital on PlayStation 2, GameCube, and the original Xbox. In 2008 he joined Sony Interactive Entertainment to run PlayStation Home — the first console-based virtual world, which grew past 40 million users and became the first console microtransactions platform. He went on to help launch PlayStation Plus and build PlayStation Now, the original "Netflix of games." In 2014 he left Sony for a role he couldn't be told about in advance — what would become Stadia — and today he's the Global Director for Games, Strategic Industries at Google Cloud, leading Google's global games initiative with all ten of the biggest game companies in the world plus countless indies. In this conversation, recorded in-studio at Off Base, Greg and Jack cover the full arc — the synth-engineer dream that led to Dolby, hosting Dolbycast before podcasts were a thing, the GDC 2008 call from the great Carter Lipscomb that pulled him into PlayStation Home, the 40-million-user live service that existed before the term "live service" did, the "instant game collection" aha moment behind PlayStation Plus, and the leap to Google in 2014 that Jack still calls the hardest professional decision of his life. They also dig into where Google Cloud sits with the industry in 2026 — the Iron Man suit metaphor for AI in game development (with a shout to Adam Boyes and Mark Stanley), the Capcom + Gemini announcement about saving 30,000 hours a month in human toil debugging, the 10.6 / You vs. Zombies AI character system, Square Enix's Chatty Slammy companion in Dragon Quest Online, Sony AI's Sophie in Gran Turismo, and the term Google coined for what's coming next: the Living Game. Jack argues this is the biggest transformation in game design he has seen since the 2D-to-3D transition in the late '90s, and unpacks why "the train has left the station" for studio leadership. The conversation closes on the retro side — the chunky game room with 22+ consoles from Fairchild Channel F to PS5 Pro (all RGB-modded or HDMI-converted, running through a Hydra SCART switcher and a RetroTink 4K into a Sony 4K projector), the original Asteroids and Ms. Pac-Man cabinets in his living room, and Jack's re:Play answer: PlayStation Home, DOOM 2016, and Espgaluda. For game developers, studio leadership, anyone tracking AI in production, and anyone who wants the long view of the industry from someone who has been three steps ahead of it for 30 years — this one is essential listening. About re:Play: Long-form conversations with the people who built this industry — peer to peer, not press to talent. Hosted by Greg Off. Find Jack: linkedin.com/in/jackbuser Find Google Cloud for Games: cloud.google.com/solutions/games Find re:Play: replaypodcast.com · Substack: gregoff1.substack.com

    Jack Buser — From Dolby to the Living Game

  4. Jul 7

    Michael Yum — Korea, Barbie, Wukong, and the Vault

    Michael Yum went to UC Santa Cruz to study film, got pulled into the games industry through EB Games, and eventually borrowed money from family to fly to South Korea alone and convince Pentavision to let him publish DJMax in North America. Today, he's the CEO and co-founder of PM Studios — a developer, publisher, and physical distribution powerhouse behind more than 100 games a year, including the North American physical releases of Black Myth: Wukong, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero. In this episode, Greg and Michael discuss: • The gamble that launched PM Studios • Why Sony said yes after Nintendo said no • Building one of the biggest physical game publishing businesses in the world • The lawsuit that nearly ended everything • Why making Barbie games helped save the company • The November 2025 vault theft that stole 30% of his lifelong collection—and the incredible operation that recovered 99.9% of it • Why Michael believes physical games still have a bright future • His vision for PanX Games and the future of game discovery Whether you're interested in game publishing, entrepreneurship, physical media, or the business behind some of gaming's biggest releases, this is a conversation you won't want to miss. Subscribe to re:Play for new episodes every week. References & Links PM Studios — https://pm-studios.comre:Play Podcast — https://replaypodcast.comGreg Off's Substack — https://gregoff1.substack.comBlack Myth: Wukong — https://www.playstation.com/games/black-myth-wukong/Honkai: Star Rail — https://hsr.hoyoverse.comZenless Zone Zero — https://zenless.hoyoverse.com

    Michael Yum — Korea, Barbie, Wukong, and the Vault

  5. Jun 30

    Cord Smith — Fence Jumpers and the Game You Have to Make

    Cord Smith has had one of the most unconventional careers in the games industry. From writing for the Official Dreamcast Magazine to leading marketing and production teams at SEGA, Ubisoft, and Square Enix, he's experienced nearly every side of game development before founding Inevitable Studios. In this episode, Greg sits down with Cord to discuss how one cold email launched his career, witnessing SEGA's transition from console manufacturer to third-party publisher, helping Guillaume Provost build the foundation for Compulsion Games, and creating King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV—the only Final Fantasy title developed by a Western studio. They also dive into the realities of starting an independent game studio in today's market and the inspiration behind Always In Mind, Inevitable Studios' debut title. Inspired by the birth of Cord's son during the pandemic, the game follows 12-year-old Teddy as he journeys through the memories and stories of his family while trapped inside a coma. Whether you're interested in game development, studio leadership, or the personal stories behind the people shaping the industry, this conversation offers a thoughtful look at creativity, resilience, and building something meaningful. References Inevitable Studios: https://inevitablestudios.comAlways In Mind (Steam): https://store.steampowered.com/app/2756760/Always_In_Mind/Cord Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cordsmith/Follow re:Play Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6vopn5c... YouTube: / @officialreplaypodcast Website: https://replaypodcast.com Substack: https://gregoff1.substack.com

    Cord Smith — Fence Jumpers and the Game You Have to Make

  6. Jun 23

    Van Burnham — Supercade, Abscam, and the Museum That Should Already Exist

    Van Burnham has spent three decades making the argument that video games are a legitimate art form — pretty much before anyone wanted to hear it. She's the author of Supercade (MIT Press), one of the most important books ever written about this medium. She has collected nearly 500 arcade machines, interviewed the people who built this industry from the ground up, and is now working to build what she hopes will be gaming's first world-class museum. In this conversation, Van and Greg cover her origin story — born in Raleigh, raised in Cary (now home to Epic Games), then New Jersey, where her dad brought home an Odyssey when she was five — and the mall arcade in Cherry Hill that Supercade is actually named after. She talks about arriving at Wired in the mid-90s as the default "games evangelist," the leap from magazine writing to a publishing deal with MIT, and what it took to track down the last known Abscam cabinet — a Pac-Man clone inspired by the 1980 FBI sting, made in the same Amityville town as the Amityville Horror. They also get into the preservation crisis: how operators destroyed unprofitable cabinets, how the game industry still doesn't fund preservation the way film and music do, why the "ephemeral age" essay in Supercade Volume 2 should be required reading, and how the new deluxe edition of the original book finally lives up to the sequel. By the end of the episode, you understand why a museum isn't a vanity project. It's a rescue operation. About re:Play: Long-form conversations with the people who built this industry — peer to peer, not press to talent. Hosted by Greg Off. Find Van: supercademuseum.org · shop.supercade.com Find re:Play: replaypodcast.com · Substack: gregoff1.substack.com

    Van Burnham — Supercade, Abscam, and the Museum That Should Already Exist

  7. Jun 23

    Amir Satvat — Behind Every Number Is a Person

    Amir Satvat spent 15 years in investment banking and enterprise tech — Goldman Sachs, VMware, Amazon — before finally breaking into games at 38. Then over Thanksgiving 2022, friends were laid off right before the holidays, and he sat down and built a simple Google spreadsheet of open jobs. Three and a half years later, that spreadsheet has become ASGC (Always Supporting the Games Community): 2,500 volunteer coaches, a 13,000-person Discord, and more than 4,700 confirmed job placements — with Amir pushing toward 5,000 by the Fourth of July. In December 2024, Geoff Keighley called his name at The Game Awards for the inaugural Game Changer Award and the room rose for a standing ovation. Within days, the hate mail arrived — targeting his wife, his family, his employer. He answered it the way he answers everything: by getting back to work. In this conversation, Amir and Greg cover the long wait of loving an industry from the outside, the moment a spreadsheet turned into a movement, what the layoff data actually says heading into 2026, why 80–85% of a successful job search has nothing to do with applications, the Game Awards moment (and the backlash that followed), and the strategy guides, the WoW raids, and the wife who keeps him grounded. This is a conversation about what it looks like to choose to be a tank for an entire industry — and to do it without losing yourself. About re:Play: Long-form conversations with the people who built this industry — peer to peer, not press to talent. Hosted by Greg Off. Find ASGC: asgc.gg Find Amir: linkedin.com/in/amirsatvat Find re:Play: replaypodcast.com · Substack: gregoff1.substack.com

    Amir Satvat — Behind Every Number Is a Person

  8. Season 1 Trailer

    Trailer: Welcome to re:Play!

    Get a first listen to re:Play, a new podcast about the ins, outs, and upside downs of the games industry, from game development, publishing, marketing, and everything in between. Hosted by industry veteran Greg Off, this short trailer shares what the show is about and who it’s for. Get ready to discover how re:Play will spotlight the people behind your favorite games. From AAA studios to scrappy passion projects, including a special first episode featuring a live panel from SXSW. Subscribe now so you don’t miss new episodes as they drop!

    Trailer: Welcome to re:Play!

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

re:Play is a conversation‑driven podcast about the ins, outs, and upside downs of the games industry — game development, publishing, marketing, and everything in between. Hosted by industry veteran Greg Off, it’s where gaming’s behind‑the‑scenes stories finally step into the spotlight.

Information

  • Creator
    Gregory Off
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    8
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Greg Off 2026
  • Show Website
    re:Play with Greg Off

You Might Also Like