Ten episodes in, the BIG Show is heating up.
GamesBeat’s new podcast launched in December. Since then, the BIG Show has featured 10 guests from across the gaming industry, all of whom are leaders or disruptors pushing the space forward in some form. The goal of the BIG Show is to provide an intimate, behind-the-scenes environment for industry leaders to share their personal stories and hot takes about the past, present and future of gaming — and the first wave of episodes, recorded during GamesBeat NEXT 2025 in November, certainly fit the bill.
Here’s a round-up of all BIG Show episodes filmed at GamesBeat Next, with key takeaways for each.
Randy Pitchford believes social media is a form of gaming
During a jam-packed 30-minute episode of the BIG Show, the Gearbox Software CEO got philosophical about the future of interactive media, positioning both gaming and social media as part of the growing trend of interactivity across all forms of entertainment.
“We figured out a medium, as a species, where the audience is a participant in the experience, and is creating the story because they are it — they are the story,” Pitchford said during the episode. “And that’s fucking beautiful, but we have not even come close to unlocking what that actually means.”
Clinton Sparks is here to bring gaming to the wider culture
After cutting his teeth as a music and entertainment executive, Global Gaming League CEO Clinton Sparks is looking to make competitive gaming into a mainstream entertainment product. During a special episode of the BIG Show recorded at GamesBeat NEXT, Sparks sat down with GamesBeat CEO Gina Joseph for a CEO-to-CEO discussion about his goals for the Global Gaming League and the cultural perceptions holding gaming back going into 2026.
“If you want to go past your target market, you have to learn how to market to a new target — and that’s the problem with gaming, with crypto, with anything. You keep trying to send the same message to the same audience in the same way, and not getting new results,” Sparks said on the podcast. “Like, ‘why don’t they understand us?’ No, you don’t understand them.”
John Hight is genuine “Magic” nerd
John Hight spend a good chunk of his episode discussing his favorite “Magic: the Gathering” colors and play style — which was perfectly fitting, given Hight has served as the president of “Magic” maker Wizards of the Coast since August 2024. As a major “Magic” fan myself, I was more than happy to entertain this conversation — and to discuss Hight’s thoughts on the trajectory of the industry in 2026.
“Both ‘D&D’ and ‘Magic’ — I mean, they form people’s childhoods. A lot of your friendships are based around people you met in those games,” Hight said during his episode. “So, those are sacred.”
Rob Dyer believes in user-generated content
During his episode of the BIG Show recorded at GamesBeat NEXT, Capcom chief operating officer Rob Dyer flexed his knowledge of some of the industry’s hottest topics, from artificial intelligence to the growing presence of user-generated content creators in industry spaces.
“Game developers don’t have all the great ideas,” Dyer said during the 15-minute chat. “There’s a lot of very smart people out there that are hardcore fans — that love their game, and they want to do something — and I love that.”
Tim Morten understands the challenges of the modern gaming market
The purpose of the BIG Show isn’t to put a rosy spotlight on the gaming industry — it’s to have honest discussions about the industry’s bright sides and its challenges, and that’s what Tim Morten did during his episode of the BIG Show. Morten, whose company Frost Giant Studios failed to meet internal benchmarks for the release of its real-time strategy title “Stormgate” last year, was at GamesBeat NEXT to meet with potential fundraising partners, and he was graciously frank — and sharp — in his analysis of what went wrong during the 25-minute conversation.
“It’s a very difficult situation to be in, to have a game that doesn’t reach expectations — that has a smaller-than-expected player count,” Morten said during the episode. “But the team really did this project out of passion, and there is still work going on to continue to improve the game, driven by passion.”
Mac Reynolds thinks music and gaming can learn from each other
Mac Reynolds made his name as the manager of the band Imagine Dragons, whose lead singer Dan Reynolds is his brother, with whom he grew up playing video games. When the Reynolds brothers realized the game of their dreams — a Capture the Flag title — didn’t exist, they decided to form a company to produce it themselves. At GamesBeat Next, Mac Reynolds sat down with GamesBeat’s Rachel Kaser to discuss his plans for the project, as well as his thoughts on how both gaming and music can take cues from each other in the future, in an episode of the BIG Show.