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E95: The Challenge Of Live Service Games And How To Win with Ryan Scott

Building Better Games

Release Date: 08/12/2025

E118: The Truth About “Culture Fit” in Game Dev show art E118: The Truth About “Culture Fit” in Game Dev

Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: Is your "culture fit" interview actually just a trap for hiring clones? We tackle the paradox of culture in game development. While many studios are abandoning "culture fit" to avoid echo chambers and bias, ignoring it entirely can lead to toxic hires that destroy trust and decision-making. Ben breaks down the two distinct types of culture—Taste vs....

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Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: Stop treating your game dev estimates like a prophecy; you aren't a prophet. If your estimates keep failing, it’s not because your team is bad at math; it’s because you’re using estimation as a fortune-telling machine instead of a decision-making tool. In this episode, Ben breaks down why "perfect" plans are a trap in the high-uncertainty world of...

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If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: If your team keeps promising that the game will be "fun later," you aren't suffering from a lack of effort—you're suffering from a lack of prioritization. Shipping a mountain of features means nothing if you haven't validated the experience with real players. In this episode, we break down why hiding behind a massive backlog or a 100-page GDD is a "red...

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Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: The game industry is undergoing a massive shift. Between the rise of "black hole games" that consume all player attention and the skyrocketing costs of AAA development, the old playbooks for leadership are breaking. In this episode, Ben is joined by Andrew Brownell, a veteran Game Director at Netflix Games. Andrew brings over 20 years of experience from...

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If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: When leaders say they’re “raising expectations,” teams often hear one thing: work more. That gap between intent and impact is why so many game dev organizations feel terrible to work at—and why “raise the bar” messages often land as threat, not motivation. In this solo episode, Ben unpacks the tragedy of perspective between senior leaders who...

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Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, able to spot problems but struggling to make a real difference, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: If you disappeared for a week, would your team lose their momentum—or just their note-taker? Most game producers are stuck in a "checklist trap"—spending their days managing tickets, booking meetings, and taking notes without ever understanding the actual goal. In this episode, Ben breaks down why production is fundamentally a leadership role...

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Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: 30,000 Layoffs. Solid prototypes can’t get funding. Western Game Dev Is Breaking. In this episode, Rich Vogel explains why Western game development isn’t in a downturn, it’s in a reset. Fresh off fundraising conversations in 2025-2026, Rich breaks down why funding for large-budget games has nearly disappeared, why publishers and VCs are pulling back from North American teams, and how leadership decisions, not...

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Building Better Games

If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: You're doing the work, fighting for your team, but your ideas stall in meetings and people with less context somehow have more influence than you. It can feel like the only way to win is to become the political operator you hate. In this episode, Ben breaks down the simple, three-part system for influence—the Influence Trifecta—so you can drive change for your team and career without selling your soul....

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If you’re a leader in game dev who feels stuck, there is a path forward that levels up your leadership and accelerates your team, game, and career. Sign up here to learn more: Leadership in game dev is hard, but choosing to ignore the biggest technological shift of our generation is a high-stakes gamble. In this episode, we talk with Benjamin Chevalier, Chief AI Officer at Mighty Bear Games, who has a uniquely informed perspective as an Art Director turned tech leader who has spent two decades building games for Ubisoft, Disney, LucasArts, and King. Ben Chevalier outlines his pragmatic,...

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Are live service games truly dying, or are we just seeing a new era of evolution? 

In this episode, we sit down with game designer and product thinker Ryan Scott to unpack the difficult world of live service titles. Ryan brings a wealth of knowledge from his time working on major titles, sharing his unique insights on what makes a live service game thrive or fail. We dive deep into the concept of "switching costs," the importance of meeting specific player needs, and the delicate balance between mastery and novelty that defines a game's longevity.

🎮We talk about:

  • Live service games - dying?

  • The importance of serving real player needs

  • Why a “better” game is not enough to win

  • The elements to balance when updating live service games

  • The 3 questions to consider before any update

  • How elegance relates to design and complexity

  • Who you are building your game for - and who you aren’t building it for

  • Why every game is not “Esports-ready” even when the hype says they are

Here's the breakdown of the games and companies we talked about in this episode:

The Games:

  • Apex Legends

  • Battlefield One

  • Battlefield Five

  • Call of Duty (CoD)

  • Concord

  • Counterstrike (CS)

  • Dota 2

  • Fortnite

  • Halo

  • Hearthstone

  • League of Legends

  • Marvel Rivals

  • Overwatch

  • Path of Exile

  • Rainbow Six

  • Smite

  • Specter Divide

  • StarCraft II

  • The Cycle

  • Valorant

  • Warframe

  • World of Tanks

  • World of Warcraft (WoW)

The Companies & Studios:

  • Blizzard

  • Epic

  • Riot Games

  • Sony

  • Valve

  • 343 Industries/Halo Studios

Learn more about Ryan Scott:

In today's complex and costly industry, planning and estimation matter more than ever but are often destructive rather than helpful. Elevate your studio's decision-making and collaboration by learning how to get more out of estimation in less time.
Learn more in our Advanced Estimation Course: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg/advanced-estimation-course 

Connect with us: 

Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-carcich/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/building-better-games/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildingbettergames/#
Website: https://www.buildingbettergames.gg
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpMT-dUwQR-R4Mb4uub6Sw

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