re:Play with Greg Off

About re:Play with Greg Off

re:Play is a conversation‑driven podcast about the ins, outs, and upside downs of the games industry — game development, publishing, marketing, and everything in between. Hosted by industry veteran Greg Off, it’s where gaming’s behind‑the‑scenes stories finally step into the spotlight.

Publisher

Gregory Off

Category

business · leisure

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Mar 2026

Latest episode

27 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

21 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   27 Oct 2026

   Lorne Lanning — Infinite Lives

   Lorne Lanning, co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants and the creator and voice of Abe, joins Greg Off to talk about the long road from a New York painter's studio to one of gaming's most personal universes. Before Oddworld, Lorne studied photorealism at the School of Visual Arts, ran the studio of the painter Jack Goldstein, made animation for the "Star Wars" missile-defense program at TRW, and worked his way up to visual effects supervisor at Rhythm & Hues. In 1994 he and Sherry McKenna founded Oddworld Inhabitants, and in 1997 they shipped Abe's Oddysee. Since then he's lived through almost every way a game can get made and paid for, and he's kept the same idea at the center: games can reward empathy instead of aggression. In this episode: A Navy kid in the Cold War, expecting the end of the world. Learning to see at the School of Visual Arts. Jack Goldstein: "You just don't have any ideas." Hope as an endangered natural resource. TRW and the "Star Wars" program: the weapon, or the video of it? Rhythm & Hues, and meeting Sherry McKenna. Joseph Campbell and the case for modern myths. Pitching Sherry: five movies or five games. Why Abe went pre-rendered when everyone else went polygonal. The non-gamer test, and bringing film language to games. Infinite lives, and empathy as the driver. "Just give him a goddamn gun," and the answer: possession. Unique names for a search-engine world. A sequel in nine months: Abe's Exoddus. Double A, not triple A. Rocket League, Fall Guys, and the case for new kinds of games. "A disposable history," and Steam giving Oddworld a second life. Taking the company back. Three generations of players. Never say die. Recorded remotely, the conversation keeps circling back to why Abe never got a gun and what Lorne thinks games owe their players. As he puts it: "I came to believe that the most valuable endangered natural resource was hope." Links & References re:Play: watch, listen, and explore the archive (https://replaypodcast.com/) Greg Off's Substack (https://gregoff1.substack.com/) Oddworld Inhabitants (https://www.oddworld.com/) Lorne Lanning's Oddworld bio (https://www.oddworld.com/lorne-lanning/) Lorne Lanning on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lornelanning/)

2. 

   20 Oct 2026

   Dean Takahashi — We Don't Choose the News

   Dean Takahashi, Editorial Director for GamesBeat and author of two books on the making of the Xbox, joins Greg Off to talk about nearly four decades as the reporter in the room when games became a business. His path runs from a first week covering crime in Dallas to the business desks of the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal and the San Jose Mercury News. In 2008 he left for a five-person startup called VentureBeat, where he built GamesBeat and its conferences. Along the way he learned to tell an inside story from many points of view, to publish what companies don't want published, and to own it when he gets one wrong. In this episode: The arcade at Harrah's, and Pong next to a Vegas tennis court. Rogue, Wing Commander, and buying a friend's PC after one demo. Berkeley, Northwestern, and the Maynard Institute. Dallas: a triple murder on Christmas Eve, then the business desk. Interviewing Jack Kilby. Early stories on the founders of Blizzard and on Nvidia. The angry phone call: Google, Twitch, and owning the miss. Following Jensen Huang since 1996. Why he passed on covering Apple. "Billions" on Xbox, and Seamus Blackley's prototype. The red ring of death investigation. Writing the inside story of a company that didn't want him inside. Tracy Kidder and The Soul of a New Machine. Who deserves more credit for the Xbox. Leaving the Mercury News for a five-person startup. Why a reporter runs conferences. "If you don't cover us, no one will." A different kind of foreign correspondent. GamesBeat goes independent. GamesBeat NEXT. Dean's re:play answer: the one long game he wants to finish. Recorded remotely, the conversation keeps coming back to the job itself. As Dean puts it: "We do not choose the news that happens. And so we cover what we need to." Links & References re:Play: watch, listen, and explore the archive (https://replaypodcast.com/) Greg Off's Substack (https://gregoff1.substack.com/) GamesBeat (https://gamesbeat.com/) GamesBeat NEXT 2026 (https://events.gamesbeat.com/next26/) Dean Takahashi on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deantak/) Dean Takahashi on X (https://x.com/deantak)

3. 

   13 Oct 2026

   Lisa Welch — A Seat at the Table

   Lisa Welch, founder of Brand Therapy and former Global VP of Consumer Strategy & Insights at Activision, joins Greg Off to talk about a career spent bringing the player's voice into the room where decisions are made. Her path runs from the automotive business at TBWA\Chiat\Day to the PlayStation account, through her own consultancy, Mind of the Gamer, and into the publisher side at Activision. Along the way she learned to build an audience picture with very little data, to translate a client's thinking for creative teams, and to give a research team a real seat at the table. In this episode: Moving from data-rich car accounts to the PlayStation account, and the imposter syndrome that came with it. Research before the internet: core versus mass, qualitative work, and media databases. Inside Chiat/Day: planners, creatives, and why a brief shouldn't be a "lengthy." The PS2 launch, and the work she's still proud of. Mind of the Gamer, Deutsch's PlayStation pitch, and meeting Eric Hirshberg. Rebuilding Activision's consumer insights team around franchises. The engagement dip that wasn't in the data. Call of Duty, microtransactions, and the meritocracy players expect. Hypotheses, curiosity, and when research still needs creative judgment. Research with girls, and a game concept built around kindness and collecting. Roblox and the social side of play. Bat Around, and LifePack 2.0. Recorded remotely, the conversation keeps coming back to who gets heard. As Lisa puts it: "It was literally like creating a seat at the table for the consumer's voice." Links & References re:Play: watch, listen, and explore the archive (https://replaypodcast.com/) Greg Off's Substack (https://gregoff1.substack.com/) Brand Therapy (https://brandtherapyllc.com/) LifePack (https://lifepack.org) Lisa Sunshine Welch on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-sunshine-welch-8baa763/) Bat Around (https://www.letsbataround.com/)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Contact re:Play with Greg Off

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.