If you’ve read one too many headlines about the so-called death of gaming, Frank Gibeau, CEO of Zynga, has a message for you: the doom and gloom is over. In this episode of Secret Stash, Justin Kan and Archie Stonehill sit down with Frank, who cut his teeth as a product marketer at EA in the '90s and later led the company through its mobile transformation, to talk about why he’s more optimistic than ever.Frank shares his lessons from three decades in the trenches - from cartridge-era publishing in 1990’s to rebuilding EA, and steering Zynga into what it is today. From postmortems on Shaq Fu to what it really takes to fix a broken culture and scale a mobile business, this episode is packed with stories, strategy, and an honest look at what’s next for gaming. Be sure to stay til the end to hear Frank's big industry secret! Read the highlights here: http://dev.stash.gg/blog/secret-stash-ep-8-frank-gibeau00:00 - Intro1:40 - Gaming ISN'T dead5:58 - Electronic Arts in the 1990s9:13 - PM is the best job in the world11:04 - Dealing with flops in the 1990s13:55 - Getting a PhD in mobile16:20 - 3 lessons from EA to Zynga16:29 - Hero to zero to hero19:56 - Fixing the company culture25:52 - Fixing the leaky bucket32:30 - M&A for studio talent35:16 - Winning the Turkish market40:21 - Selling Zynga to Take Two48:27 - Going hard on direct-to-consumer56:58 - The impact of AI in gaming1:02:58 - Frank's big industry secret

Gaming isn’t about blockbuster budgets or flashy graphics - it’s about fun. And somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten that. In this episode of Secret Stash, hosts Justin Kan and Archie Stonehill sit down with former Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney to unpack what’s gone sideways in the gaming industry and how to fix it. Here’s what you’ll hear: ⭐ How game development costs are driving up licensing deals ⭐ Why fun is losing out to graphics fidelity in a battle no one asked for ⭐ The ultimate debate between distribution vs. product ⭐ Owen’s two favorite M&A deals at EA (and the one mistake everyone should avoid) ⭐ How to build forever franchises instead of wannabe blockbusters Owen calls it like he sees it, and the result is a refreshingly honest take on what gaming can and should be. Read the highlights here: https://dev.stash.gg/blog/secret-stash-ep-7-owen-mahoney 0:00 - Intro 1:41 - Getting into gaming 3:14 - What EA did right 7:30 - Licensing and development costs 13:08 - Poor man’s Hollywood 20:15 - Distribution vs product 25:05 - Nexon is misunderstood 32:08 - EA’s 2 best M&A deals 37:41 - The biggest M&A mistake 41:31 - Forever franchises

Most games would kill for a community like Plarium’s RAID: Shadow Legends - and the team behind Hellhades has a lot to do with that. What started out as a hobby YouTube channel, is now a massive community with more than 225,000 followers as well as the go-to website for RAID news, guides, and interactive tools. Recently, the Hellhades team decided to turn the world of game development. They founded the studio Fateless and in 10 quick weeks, raised $6M from their community. In this episode of Secret Stash, hosts Archie Stonehill and Justin Kan sit down with the Fateless team - Simon Lockerby, Sham Saleh, and Dan Francis - and discuss: 👉 The origins of HellHades and its growth into a massive community hub 👉 How a YouTube channel turned into a game studio with a $6M raise 👉 Strategies for building a passionate gaming community 👉 How direct-to-consumer is are reshaping communities Read the highlights here: https://dev.stash.gg/blog/secret-stash-ep-6-fateless