In My Perfect Console, Simon Parkin, award-winning author video game critic for The Observer invites well-known guests from the worlds of gaming, film and television, music, comedy and more to pick the five video games they would like to immortalise on a fictional games machine. They discuss those five games in chronological order of release, interspersed with biographical chat about the guest’s life and career –– a lens that often leads to new and unexpected insights.
"Thoroughly modern and ahead of its time...a gift." - NEW YORK'S VULTURE
Paolo Pedercini, founder MolleIndustria (McDonald's Videogame, The New York Times Simulator, Future? No Thanks!)
Épisode 180
mardi 29 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:21:58
Paolo Pedercini is an Italian game designer, artist, educator, and activist whose work has spent more than two decades challenging assumptions about what video games are for, and what they are allowed to say. In 2003, he founded Molleindustria as a project dedicated to the "reappropriation of video games and the radicalisation of popular culture."
Since then, he has created a remarkable body of short, provocative games about labour, capitalism, religion, technology, and political power, including McDonald’s Videogame, Oiligarchy, Every Day the Same Dream, Phone Story, and Democratic Socialism Simulator. His games have often been satirical, often controversial, and always interested in using play as a way of thinking through systems and ideology. Now he is working on his most ambitious project yet: Future? No Thanks!, an open-world comedy adventure about a grumpy old man completing his bucket list in a solarpunk future.
Anna Donlon, head of Valorant Studios (Valorant, League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops)
Épisode 179
mardi 22 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:30:07
My guest today is an American game producer and studio leader whose career has been shaped by a deep love of competitive shooters and more than two decades spent building some of the genre’s major titles. She began at Treyarch, where she worked as a senior producer on Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops II, before joining Riot Games in 2015. There, she first helped lead League of Legends’ cosmetic content and in-game events.
She later moved into leading a new tactical shooter project, becoming Executive Producer of VALORANT and guiding the game to its launch in 2020. Today, as Head of VALORANT Studios, she oversees the franchise’s wider creative and strategic direction, while also championing initiatives such as VCT Game Changers, Riot’s programme supporting women and marginalised genders in competitive play.
Correspondence Special #9: Which games should have been on the podcast by now (and much more)
jeudi 17 septembre 2026 • Durée 38:15
In this special correspondence edition, Simon reads out your letters and answers your questions.
Is there a cut-off point for working in games journalism? Which video game does Simon think should surely have been picked by now but hasn't? Who decides how long guests talk about their game choices? How does Simon actually make the show — from bookings to post-production to those musical stingers? What is Simon's new book about, and how did he uncover the untold legal battle thxat changed the shape of the video game industry? And did you know the UK government has a Head of Video Games and Esports who listens to the show? Us neither! All this and much more.
Chris Cantrill, comedian, writer Saturday Night Live UK.
Épisode 178
mardi 15 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:29:12
Chris Cantrill is a British comedian, writer, and actor from West Yorkshire whose work combines rapid-fire jokes with an off-kilter view of everyday life. He first came to prominence as one half of the acclaimed sketch duo The Delightful Sausage, alongside Amy Gledhill, earning Edinburgh Comedy Award nominations for Best Show in both 2019 and 2022. As a solo performer, he added another nomination in 2024, before returning to Edinburgh this summer and finally winning the Comedy Award for Best Show in 2026.
Alongside stand-up, he has appeared in programmes including Alma’s Not Normal, Daddy Issues, Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared, and Avoidance, while his writing credits stretch across television and radio. Most recently, he joined the writing team of Saturday Night Live UK, which returns for its second season this week.
Sarah Maria Griffin, poet, author (Eat the Ones You Love; Strange is the Light)
Épisode 177
mardi 8 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:25:51
My guest today is an Irish writer, poet, critic, and podcaster. Born and raised in Dublin, she began writing seriously as a teenager, studied English, Media and Cultural Studies at IADT, and later completed a Master’s in Creative Writing at NUI Galway. Her early work included the poetry collection Follies and Not Lost, a book of essays about emigration written after she moved to San Francisco in 2012.
Since returning to Ireland, she has published a series of acclaimed novels, including Spare and Found Parts and Other Words for Smoke, which won Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Her 2025 horror novel Eat the Ones You Love was followed by a shortlist for Author of the Year, and she is now the 2026 Arts Council Writer Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. Alongside her fiction, she writes about games for The Guardian. Her new horror novel, Strange Is the Light, is out now, and she is currently working on another book, about video games, titled Everything Not Saved.
Mike Diver, journalist, author (Aliens: The Video Games)
Épisode 176
mardi 1 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:27:01
Mike Diver is a British journalist, editor, and author whose career has moved fluidly between music criticism and video games writing, always with an eye for subculture, history, and stories beyond the mainstream. He began at the music website Drowned in Sound, where he rose to become content editor, before going on to work with Clash and contribute to publications including Kerrang! and Rock Sound.
Later, he turned increasingly to video games, writing for outlets including Edge and Kotaku - as well as heading up teams at VICE Gaming (later Waypoint) and GAMINGbible - and bringing the same curiosity and critical energy to games culture, retro hardware, and the history of the medium. Alongside his journalism, he has written six books on video games and edited several more, covering subjects from indie games and esports to Sonic the Hedgehog and Final Fantasy. His latest book, Aliens: The Video Games, continues that fascination with the way great pop-cultural worlds mutate and endure through interactive form.
Soren Johnson, game designer (Civ III, Civ IV, Spore, Old World)
Épisode 175
mardi 25 août 2026 • Durée 01:36:24
Soren Johnson is an American programmer and game designer whose work has helped shape the modern strategy genre. After earning a master’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, he joined Firaxis Games, where he worked as both a programmer and designer on Civilization III before going on to lead the design of Civilization IV, one of the most celebrated strategy games yet made.
Over the years he has contributed to a wide range of projects, including Spore, Dragon Age Legends, and Offworld Trading Company, bringing a distinctive blend of historical insight, systemic thinking, and player-driven design. Today he is the founder and design director of Mohawk Games, where he recently led the development of the acclaimed historical strategy game Old World. Alongside his development work, he continues to explore the craft of game design through his long-running blog and podcast, both of which are titled “Designer Notes”.
Glen Henry, gamemaker, co-founder Jamaica Game Developer Society.
Épisode 174
mardi 18 août 2026 • Durée 01:15:54
My guest today is a Jamaican game developer and studio founder. Based in Kingston, he is the founder of Spritewrench Studios, a narrative-focused micro studio he built after realising, in his final year at university, that he did not need to leave Jamaica or join a hundred-person team to make games of his own.
Inspired by that possibility, he began creating small projects, taking part in game jams, and steadily turning Spritewrench from a name into a company. His work is shaped by a commitment to cultural representation that reaches beyond cliché, and by a wider effort to grow the local scene through the Jamaica Game Developer Society, where he has worked to connect creators and open up pathways into the industry. Now, with Duppy Detective Tashia, a point-and-click mystery rooted in Caribbean folklore, he is bringing that vision to a wider audience.
Amelia Tait is a British journalist and author whose work has made her one of the sharpest observers of modern life online and off. As a freelance writer, she has built a reputation for following the strange, revealing currents of contemporary culture — writing about the internet, and remarkable people for publications including The New Yorker, The Guardian, Wired, and the New York Times.
Her reporting is often drawn to the places where technology and absurdity collide, finding the human story inside subjects other people might dismiss as niche or ephemeral. Now she has turned that same wit and curiosity to fiction with her debut children’s book, Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveller, a funny, fast-moving adventure about a girl bouncing through history while trying to survive friendship drama and the general embarrassment of being thirteen.
James Trickey is a British comedian whose work blends sharp writing, physical comedy, and, in his new show, one of the more extraordinary Edinburgh Fringe stories in recent memory. By day he works as an accountant; by night he has been building a reputation as one of the most promising young voices on the live circuit, with appearances across the UK, a Chortle Student Comedy Award nomination, and a Best New Show nomination at the Leicester Comedy Festival.
Last year, his sold-out Edinburgh debut, Don’t Count on Me, marked him out as a rising talent, earning strong reviews and an enviable word-of-mouth reputation. Since then, he has appeared on the BBC’s Funny Parts and returned to the Fringe with a new show shaped in part by the strange and unexpectedly dramatic events of last summer.
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