The Talent Game Podcast

There are genuine practitioner insights scattered throughout - the Shanghai studio culture overhaul, BJ Kim's multi-year planning challenge, and the Cult of the North perks-removal story - but they are diluted by an extended gaming chat segment, generic HR advice (be curious, build trust, understand the business), and heavy ad interruptions that collectively bury the signal.

“we took the talent density down from 150 to 75 people, brought in the right talent around that leader and now that studio makes what used to be FIFA mobile for the globe”

“joe, why every year do you come to me and ask me what we should be doing this year? I build a game. It takes three to five years. What organization are we building over the next three to five years?”

The 'happy doesn't mean good' Shanghai story and the BJ Kim multi-year planning reframe are genuinely counterintuitive, but the bulk of the episode recycles familiar HR concepts - psychological safety, build/buy talent strategy, business acumen, empathy - without any first-principles challenge to the prevailing consensus.

“So the connection between, you know, the, the density of a talent, the culture you want so happy doesn't mean good always”

“there's a culture. Whether you do anything or not, there's going to be one. The question is, is, is it, is it the one that you want or is it a successful or productive one?”

All three guests are genuine operators with hands-on experience at recognisable studios - EA (15 years across US, Shanghai, Asia), Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast, Epic, and Starbreeze - rather than career thought leaders; Joe Wilson's multi-geography studio-building background is the standout, though none reach the truly elite tier of a CHRO operating at public-company scale.

“then I worked at EA for about 15 years in LA Shanghai, building studios out in emerging markets in Asia”

“I was at, uh, five years at electronic Arts...as well as, uh, about five years, my last five years, uh, was with, uh, Hasbro and Wizards of the coast”

Named individuals (BJ Kim), concrete headcount numbers (150 to 75 people), survey data (85% ESAP scores, seven copycat games, team size of ~65 at Starbreeze), and a named game (FIFA Mobile) provide a real evidentiary floor, but strategic discussions frequently drift into framework-level generality ('turning the dials', 'which knobs to tune') without quantified outcomes.

“It was a very, very happy culture. 85, you know, uh, all the, you know, ESAP scores and you know, all that sort of Stuff making seven games that were copycats, that made no money”

“we took the talent density down from 150 to 75 people, brought in the right talent around that leader and now that studio makes what used to be FIFA mobile for the globe”

The host occasionally surfaces worthwhile follow-ups (pressing for specific examples when guests use abstractions like 'turning the dials', making a mild challenge on self-set scorecards) but the conversation is overwhelmingly collegial - filled with 'yeah brilliant thanks' affirmations, an extended what-are-you-playing segment, and almost no productive disagreement or probing of strong claims.

“just, just to get into that, when you say like turning the dials, can you give like a specific example”

“my first instinct might be if you're setting your, setting your own, um, goal posts, could that, could someone fully take advantage of that though”