In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic kept players locked indoors, sales of Jackbox Games' Jackbox Party Pack exploded. They weren’t the only company to experience a sales boom—but because of how approachable their games work thanks to phone-based controllers and broader comedy appeal, they became a major go-to source of escape for penned up players looking to connect with friends, families, and coworkers over Zoom and other platforms.

Fast forward to 2026, and like almost every other company in games, the studio has seen a decline in sales. But unlike other companies, Jackbox hasn’t laid off employees en masse. That’s because instead of pursuing nonstop growth, they moderated their headcount and stuck to their strengths, leaving them in a solid position when post-pandemic games like The Jackbox Naughty Pack underperformed.

That’s all according to CEO Mike Bilder, who joins us today on the Game Developer Podcast to talk about that process of surviving the post-pandemic contract—and the company’s goals in spinning up a new publishing division.

Related:Inside Skybound's video game strategy ft. David 'DA' Alpert and Jon Goldman

Listen to the full episode if you want to hear a pair of adults embarrass themselves by saying s"ix-seven" into a microphone and learn about what kinds of games Jackbox wants to publish.

About the Game Developer Podcast

The Game Developer podcast is a bi-weekly podcast chronicling the triumphs, catastrophes, and everything in-between of game development, sharing lessons and strategies fellow developers can use to hone their craft. The Game Developer Podcast is hosted by Bryant Francis, edited by Pierre Landriau, and features music by Mike Meehan.

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Game Developer and GDC Festival of Gaming are sibling organizations under Informa Festivals