Interviews Archives

A Conversation with Acclaim CEO Alex Josef

Acclaim CEO Alex Josef Talks About the Company’s Revival

Here’s a chat I had with Acclaim CEO Alex Josef. As a kid that grew up in New York and spent several years in Oyster Bay, Acclaim was a big deal to me. My brother and I loved playing games like Wizards and Warriors and WWE WrestleMania, and thought it was supremely cool that the publisher was within walking distance from our house. We loved walking by the original Acclaim office whenever we got Italian ice at Bonanza’s.

In the video below, Acclaim CEO Alex Josef told me about why he and his partners wanted to revive the Acclaim brand, the challenges he’s faced in the company’s first seven months, some of the videogames he’s launching with (Katanaut and Takala were particularly interesting to me), his plans and dreams for the company’s future, and more.

Dean Takahashi | Games Journalism’s GOAT

Dean Takahashi is the best videogame journalist ever. In terms of quality, quantity, and reach, nobody can touch him. He has been covering the games beat for decades, writing for prestigious outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Jose Mercury News, Red Herring, and VentureBeat.

Within the business, he’s considered the gold standard. At this point in his career, other journalists should serenade him with “Simply the Best” or “Nobody Does It Better” whenever he walks into a room.

Dean Takahashi is someone that I’ve admired since the day I met him. I half-jokingly call him “my childhood hero,” but I truly hold him in the highest esteem. Like I said in the intro, he’s the best.

RPadTV 3000 Episode 14: John Keefer Talks GameSpy and Ageism

John Keefer served as GameSpy.com’s managing editor while I worked there. He was an excellent boss that became an excellent friend. Last year, he had a major health scare, but has recovered nicely (except for the COVID-19 hiccup just before we streamed this chat). I haven’t spoken with John in a few years and it was fantastic catching up with him using the power of ~~Grayskull~~ the Internet.

Some of the things that John Keefer and I discussed in the video above include:

RPadTV 3000 Episode 13: Championship Sunday 2022 With Marcus Beer

Longtime videogame PR professional and former GameTrailers TV host Marcus Beer is one of the most passionate football fans that I know. This made him the perfect person to talk about Championship Sunday 2022. The 2021/2022 Premier League season was absolutely thrilling, with so many spots left until few weeks of the season and the winner of the season coming down to the last day!

Some of the Championship Sunday 2022 tidbits Marcus Beer and I spoke about include:

RPadTV 3000 Episode 12: Big Trouble in Little China With Jose Sanchez

For nerds of a certain age, Big Trouble in Little China is one of the most important movies of all time. This John Carpenter cult classic did not do well in theaters but became hugely influential after heavy cable rotation and changing sensibilities. Jose “Fubar” Sanchez dropped by to talk about why this movie is beloved by geeks all over the world.

Some of the aspects of Big Trouble in Little China that Jose and I discuss include:

RPadTV 3000 Episode 10: Austin Aries

It was excellent catching up with my friend, pro-wrestler, and greatest man that ever lived, Austin Aries. He’s one of those guys that makes you go, “Damn. We’ve known each other way longer than I thought!” One of my goals with RPadTV 3000 is to introduce you guys and gals to some cool people and I absolutely did that with this conversation. I love that the podcast had very little to do with pro-wrestling and gave you some insight into the man behind the gimmick.

Some of the topics Austin Aries and I chatted about in RPadTV 3000 episode 10 included:

RPadTV 3000 Episode 7: Jon Radoff

Beamable CEO Jon Radoff is one of the smartest people I’ve met in the videogame business. I remember meeting him in San Francisco at my favorite coffeehouse (shout out to Farley’s!) and enjoying his company while also feeling kind of dumb (in a good way). He’s one of those guys that has a deep understanding of many interesting subjects. One of those subjects is the metaverse.

Technologists, nerds, futurists, and geeks are all talking up the metaverse and how it’s the “next big thing” for the Internet. While the technology is exciting and potentially very cool, it’s also confusing and intimidating. There are many definitions of what the metaverse is and while some of them are from people that genuinely understand it, there are some people pushing dishonest definition of what the metaverse is for self-serving reasons. This makes the very concept of the metaverse difficult to comprehend for “normal” people.

With that in mind, I wanted to have a conversation with someone that’s highly intelligent, good at communicating heady concepts in terms that most people can understand, and heavily involved in the metaverse. Jon Radoff was the first person that popped into my head.

In the latest episode of RPadTV 3000, Jon Radoff talks about what the metaverse is and why it’s important. Some of the points we chatted about include:

RPadTV 3000 Episode 6: John Foster and Jon Robinson

John Foster was a longtime PR executive for Bender Helper Impact, one of the most respect agencies in the business. He started as an account executive and finished his career at Bender as vice president. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in writing, but got sidetracked by the wonderful and wacky world of videogames.

Jon Robinson was a longtime editor for numerous videogame publications. Many GamePro fans know him as “Jonny Ballgame,” while many IGN fans know him as the editor for IGN Sports.

Both of these guys have become award-winning authors.

RPadTV 3000 Episode 4: Chris Cross

Chris Cross has been working in videogame development since the mid-90s. He started off in QA at Blizzard, gained notoriety for his work on the critically acclaimed Medal of Honor series, and has led development teams at independent studios and large publishers. From big budget AAA games , to iOS games made by a team of four, to reimagining Pac-Man for Google Stadia, Cross has done it all.

I’ve interviewed Cross several times for various magazines and websites, but those pieces never showed how imaginative, interesting, and fun hanging out with him can be. I think this episode of RPadTV 3000 gets all of that across. Check out the video above to watch Chris Cross and I talk about:

RPadTV 3000 Episode 3: Karen Chu and Chris Kohler

Good Job Brain showrunner Karen Chu and co-host Chris Kohler are the latest guests on RPadTV 3000! I was lucky enough to know these cats when I lived in San Francisco and we were all part of the games media. At the time, Karen was at 1Up and Chris was at Wired. I respected them as peers and enjoyed their company as friends. One of their favorite leisure activities was pub trivia and they were able to parlay their love of trivia into the ultra-successful podcast Good Job Brain.

In addition to sharing the story of Good Job Brain and how the podcast has evolved, Karen Chu and Chris Kohler talk to me about: