IGN Unfiltered

Cliff Bleszinski, renowned designer of Gears of War, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Jazz Jackrabbit, and more, returns for his first IGN Unfiltered interview since 2016 to discuss his life and career as detailed in his new memoir, Control Freak. Cliff talks about the making of Gears of War, Epic's decision to sell Gears to Microsoft, his friendship with Hideo Kojima, his admiration for Shigeru Miyamoto, and much more!

Justin Roiland reveals the origin of Rick & Morty's voices, the long road towards finally getting a hit show, and the longer road towards creating a successful video game studio – including lots of discussion Squanch's upcoming comedy-FPS, High on Life. WARNING: Explicit language throughout.

My guest this episode is Halo Infinite head of creative and longtime Bungie writer Joseph Staten. In this career-spanning interview, Staten discusses his unique path into the video game industry, the early days of Halo at Bungie, helping create Destiny, and how he's affected Halo Infinite since joining the team in 2020 just prior to the one-year delay.

Bethesda Game Studios director Todd Howard – my first repeat guest! – returns to discuss Skyrim as The Elder Scrolls V celebrates its 10th anniversary this week. Of course, we don't just talk about this past. Todd also discusses his next big project, Starfield, and his next next project, The Elder Scrolls 6.

ZeniMax Online Studios boss Matt Firor discusses his long career in MMORPGs, bringing The Elder Scrolls online, what the studio is up to next after the Microsoft acquisition, and more!

Shadow Warrior 3 game director Kuba Opoń, who discusses his career in games – from his start as a programmer inspired by Quake 3 to becoming a game director on Shadow Warrior 3 to what makes good first-person shooter AI and more!

This month's guest is games media investigative reporter Jason Schreier, who's written a new book called Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry. The former Kotaku and current Bloomberg reporter talks about the perils of the game industry in his experience reporting on it, from crunch to studio instability and more, as well as what might be done about it to make the industry a healthier, more sustainable place for its many thousands of talented developers.

IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak talks very openly and honestly about running a AAA independent game studio in the modern era. In this 75-minute interview he discusses leaving Square Enix to go it alone and how the studio almost ran out of money at one point, how the studio landed the James Bond game deal and how the team is thinking about it, the future of Hitman, and much more!

Peter Tamte and Jaime Griesemer, two ex-Halo developers from Bungie, have now teamed up to help bring Six Days in Fallujah, the military shooter based on the real-life Iraq War battle in 2004, to market in 2021 after the original version of it was announced and quickly canceled by publisher Konami in 2009. Tamte and Griesemer discuss how they want the game to be a 'playable documentary', the controversy surrounding the idea of basing a video game on such a modern-day real-world incident, and much more.

My guests this episode are Aliens: Fireteam development leads and Cold Iron Studios co-founders Craig Zinkievich and Matt Highison. The duo discusses how they came to get the Aliens license from Disney, the game they were working on before the Disney deal came together, their work on a canceled Marvel superhero MMORPG, building Star Trek Online, and much more!

Raven Software cofounder Brian discusses starting Raven with his brother in Wisconsin, partnering with Doom creators id Software early on, and subsequently working with giant pop culture brands like Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, and Call of Duty. Raven is the lead developer on the single-player campaign in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which will be released on November 13.

Geoff Keighley – longtime games media personality best known as the host, creator, and executive producer of The Game Awards – discusses his long history with awards shows, his thoughts on the PS5 and Xbox Series X, the cancellation of E3, his famous friendship with Hideo Kojima, and much, much more. [Note: this interview was recorded on July 31, prior to the delay of Halo Infinite, which is referenced here as still releasing this holiday.]

Square Enix External Studios heads Jon Brooke and Lee Singleton discuss their time in the video game industry, from Outriders, their brand-new game with People Can Fly, to their past work on Hitman Go, Sleeping Dogs, Just Cause, and more!

This month's guests are Echtra Games's Max Schaefer and Matt Uelmen, both former Blizzard North developers and co-creators of Diablo and Diablo 2 as well as the Torchlight series. The duo shares stories about Diablo 2 in celebration of its 20th anniversary while also discussing how Diablo has helped them make their new game, Torchlight III, the best action-RPG it can be.

Longtime Bungie art director and eventual game director Marcus Lehto created the Master Chief himself and helmed Halo Reach, one of the series's most beloved entries. In this one-hour interview, Lehto discusses his humble origins, such as how he got Bungie to hire him, as well as leaving the studio in recent years and starting a new studio to work on a new game, June 2020's Disintegration.