Jude Ower’s Good Game Club podcast launches at Davos with Tencent backing

Industry veteran Jude Ower is helming a new Tencent-backed podcast, called Good Game Club, which has launched at the Davos conference.

The show is intended to discuss how video games can be a “positive force” on society as a whole. It’s hosted by Ower and industry commentator Mathias Gredal Norvig, who together previously collaborated on the 2024 book Gaming for Good.

The Good Game Club’s first episode features Bastian Bergmann, with Game Academy’s David Barrie, Ustwo’s Maria Sayans, SpecialEffect chief Dr Mick Donegan and FuturLub CEO Kirsty Rigden all set to feature in the near future.

“Gaming is the biggest change-making platform in today’s culture, and one of the most transformative art forms for social impact,” Ower said.

“By launching our new podcast at Davos, we aim to share this message with the world’s most influential leaders to ignite action tied to this year’s Forum theme, ‘A Spirit of Dialogue.’ Gaming is a critical tool for building community and spearheading movements to address some of society’s most pressing challenges.”

Chinese tech and entertainment giant Tencent is backing the podcast, saying that this stems from a “shared belief that healthy gameplay is a global force for positive progress”.

“With some three billion people engaged in games worldwide, this medium unites diverse cultures and communities, fostering the development of essential life skills such as collaboration, leadership, adaptability and problem-solving,” the company’s head of public affairs, Danny Marti, said.

“By amplifying voices both within and beyond the industry, we can harness the universal reach of video games to drive meaningful learning, wellbeing and belonging – creating connections and experiences that matter for players, families and communities across the globe.”

Ower founded Playmob back in 2007 with the aim of using video games to help create a better world, something that the CEO told Gamesindustry.biz about back in 2018. The company was acquired by PlanetPlay in 2024.