In today’s episode I speak with Mario R. Kroll, founder of UberStrategist
. Mario has spent more than 30 years working across PR, publishing and marketing in the video game industry, helping studios figure out how to get their games noticed in an increasingly crowded market.

This was a candid conversation about visibility, marketing, networking and the realities of trying to launch games today. We talk about what actually gets a game noticed, why so many developers leave marketing until far too late, and how difficult it has become for smaller games to cut through the noise when thousands of titles launch every year.

Mario shares how he first entered the games industry after teaching himself web development to build and run Wargamer.com, a fan-made matchmaking and community site for strategy gamers in the 1990s. What started as a hobby eventually turned into a full-time operation and led him into publishing, PR and eventually the founding of UberStrategist, where he now works with studios across games and tabletop.

We also discuss the changing state of games media, the rise of influencers, how AI is changing discoverability, and why strong community building is now just as important as making a good game. Mario talks openly about imposter syndrome, networking culture at industry events, and the pressure developers put on themselves trying to do everything alone instead of asking for help.

We also get into retro games, strategy games, tabletop RPGs, Nightdive Studios, Atari, game preservation, and why some older games still hold up decades later while others don’t. This was a really thoughtful conversation about the business side of games, but also about the people behind them and the challenge of staying creative and motivated in such a competitive industry.

The Examined Game

Each week, host Steven Lake asks the creators behind some of the world’s most influential video games about the meaning of life (in video games), leading to conversations about the personal and creative impact games have had on their lives.