My Perfect Console with Simon Parkin

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.

NOTES:

Paolo Pedercini / Molleindustria
Molleindustria – official site (all Paolo's games)
Paolo Pedercini – Wikipedia
Paolo Pedercini – Bluesky (@molleindustria.org)

Future? No Thanks! (out now)
Future? No Thanks! – Steam
Future? No Thanks! – official site

Other Molleindustria games mentioned
McDonald's Video Game – play free in browser
Oiligarchy – play free in browser
Every Day the Same Dream – play free in browser
Phone Story – Wikipedia
Democratic Socialism Simulator – itch.io
Faith Fighter – play free in browser

Sweatshop (as mentioned by Simon)
Sweatshop – play in browser

The New Yorker piece (as mentioned by Simon)
The Division 2 and the Severing of Politics from Video Games – The New Yorker

Paolo's Perfect Console
Cannon Fodder (Sensible Software, 1993) – Wikipedia
Sensible Software – Wikipedia
Shadow of the Colossus (2005) – Wikipedia
Grand Theft Auto V – Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas – Wikipedia
Push Me Pull You – House House (Steam)
House House – developer of Untitled Goose Game and Big Walk
Radiator Forever – Robert Yang (itch.io)
Robert Yang – game designer

Other games and references mentioned
Theme Park – Bullfrog Productions (1994), Wikipedia
Postal 2 – Wikipedia
GTA San Andreas Hot Coffee mod – Wikipedia
The Yes Men – activist/prankster duo
Foxconn suicides – Wikipedia
itch.io – indie games platform
Aftermath – independent games journalism
Tom Bissell – My Perfect Console episode
Untitled Goose Game – House House

Next week's guest
Úna Míng Kavanagh – IMIRT emerging talent award 2026
Úna Míng Kavanagh – TikTok (@unamingkavanagh)

Support the show
My Perfect Console – episode archive
Support My Perfect Console on Patreon
Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole
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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.

LINKS

Anna Donlon – Valorant & Riot Games
Valorant – official site (free to play)
VCT Game Changers – Riot's programme supporting women and marginalised genders in competitive play
Riot Games – official site

Anna's Perfect Console
Silent Hill 2 (PS2, 2001) – Wikipedia
Silent Hill 2 Remake (2024) – Steam
Grand Theft Auto III (PS2, 2001) – Wikipedia
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, 2005) – Wikipedia
Shadow of the Colossus Remake (2018) – PlayStation
BioShock (2007) – Wikipedia
Ghost of Tsushima – official site
Ghost of Tsushima – PlayStation
Ghost of Tsushima: Iki Island – Wikipedia

Also mentioned
Kaboom! (Atari 2600) – Wikipedia
ICO (PS2, 2001) – Wikipedia
Red Dead Redemption 2 – Rockstar Games
Arc Raiders – Steam
Call of Duty: Black Ops – Wikipedia
Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Wikipedia
Treyarch – Wikipedia
JumpStart – educational games series, Wikipedia
University of California, Santa Cruz

Next week's guest
Paolo Pedercini / Molleindustria – official site
Future? No Thanks! – Steam (out now)

Support the show
My Perfect Console – episode archive
Support My Perfect Console on Patreon
Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

And congratulations to letter-writer Chris Law, who wins a signed copy of Blood Echoes: A Bloodborne Anthology.
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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.

LINKS

Chris Cantrill
Website
Instagram
The Delightful Sausage

Saturday Night Live UK
SNL UK on Sky
Simon's Observer Features

How Saturday Night Live Landed in the UK
Jack Shep on That Princess Di Impression

Chris's Perfect Console
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill
Final Fantasy VII
Bloodborne
Animal Well
The Case of the Golden Idol

Other games discussed
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Dark Souls
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Resident Evil 2 Remake
The Witcher 3
Elden Ring
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole
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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.

LINKS

Sarah Maria Griffin – books & socials

Sarah Maria Griffin – official website
Sarah Maria Griffin – Instagram (@sarahgriffski)
Sarah Maria Griffin – Substack
Sarah Maria Griffin – writing about games for The Guardian

Strange as the Light (out 8 September 2026)
Strange as the Light – Waterstones
Strange as the Light – Titan Books
Strange as the Light – Bookshop.org UK

Earlier novels
Eat the Ones You Love – Waterstones
Other Words for Smoke – Waterstones

Sarah's Perfect Console
EarthBound (SNES, 1994) – Wikipedia
EarthBound – Nintendo Switch Online
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask – Wikipedia
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – Nintendo
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door – Wikipedia
Night in the Woods – official site
Night in the Woods – Steam
Wandersong – official site
Wandersong – Steam

Other references mentioned
Disco Elysium – Steam
Chicory: A Colorful Tale – official site (Greg Lobanov, also made Wandersong)
826 Valencia – literacy non-profit, San Francisco
Dublin Youth Theatre
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin – Waterstones
Rock, Paper, Shotgun – games journalism
Glenn Moore – Button Boys podcast

Next week's guest
Chris Cantrill – Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Show winner 2026 (Rewilding)
Chris Cantrill – Chortle profile
Saturday Night Live UK – ITV

Support the show
My Perfect Console – episode archive
Support My Perfect Console on Patreon
Become a My Perfect Console supporter and receive a range of benefits at www.patreon.com/myperfectconsole
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.