LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 19, 2026--
Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, today announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Good Game Club, the independent, global podcast dedicated to sharing positive stories from the gaming ecosystem. The partnership builds on a broader effort to support the developers, publishers, and creators shaping the future of the games industry in a positive way by supporting good stories from the human side of video game businesses. The partnership spans the global events calendar, with joint podcast recordings planned each year at gamescom in Cologne and the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco.
Click to Gallery
Mathias Gredal Nørvig, Chief Executive Officer at SYBO, and co-founder and host of the Good Game Club
Jude Ower MBE, co-founder and host of the Good Game Club
Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260819127662/en/
Xsolla and Good Game Club will collaborate on recurring editorial segments and deep-dive episodes exploring studios and stories from every corner of the industry, from up-and-coming teams to mid-tier and established developers. The collaboration will also bring episodes from the road in Dubai, Berlin, Baku and everywhere in between to highlight studios, creators and industry voices doing standout positive work in their markets. Xsolla will join Good Game Club’s existing partners, the Dubai Films & Games Commission and Tencent.
Hosted by Jude Ower MBE, Chief Strategy Officer at PlanetPlay, and Mathias Gredal Nørvig, Chief Executive Officer at SYBO, Xsolla and Good Game Club will spotlight the people, studios and ideas proving what healthy, positive gaming can do for players, communities and the industry at large. Through the partnership, Good Game Club adds a global commerce partner with reach across studios of every size and in every region, helping the show broaden its lens on where positive gaming stories are coming from.
"Good Game Club is telling the stories our collective industry needs more of, stories about games doing right by players and developers building all the things that matter," said Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at Xsolla. "Partnering with Jude and Mathias lets us put our global network behind this mission, and gives developers of every size another stage to share what they are building and why it matters.“
“We are excited to partner with Xsolla, which will enable us to cover even more positive stories from emerging developers and markets globally,” said Jude Ower, co-founder and host of the Good Game Club. “Xsolla is providing a crucial infrastructure to support developers of all shapes and sizes - by working together and drawing on Xsolla’s network, we can highlight the people doing great things within the games industry all over the world.”
“Good Game Club is truly global. Covering all regions of the world and all types of games doing good, we are happy to expand our network and benefit from Xsolla’s strengths and reach,” said Mathias Gredal Nørvig, co-founder and host of the Good Game Club. “We can’t wait to tell all the stories ahead of us and inspire more developers to go the extra mile. Games carry the potential to transform the world to be a better place for all.”
New episodes and partnership content will begin rolling out this year, with Good Game Club available on all major podcast platforms.
To learn more about Xsolla’s partnership with the Good Game Club, visit: https://xsolla.pro/GoodGameClub
About Xsolla
Xsolla is a global commerce company that builds and provides all the things developers need to launch, grow, and monetize video games. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the company supports studios of every size, from indie to AAA, with solutions across direct-to-consumer commerce, intelligent payments, entertainment-based IP, and player engagement products. Xsolla helps developers fund, distribute, market, and monetize their games at scale. Trusted by more than 70% of the top 100 highest-grossing games, Xsolla operates as the merchant of record across 200+ geographies with access to 1,000+ local payment methods worldwide. Grounded in a deep belief in the future of gaming, Xsolla is resolute in bringing opportunities together and unlocking growth for creators everywhere.
For more information, visit xsolla.com
About Good Game Club
Good Game Club is a global podcast where conversations about good gaming happen, hosted by Jude Ower MBE, CSO at PlanetPlay and Mathias Gredal Nørvig, CEO of SYBO. The show shines a light on gaming's hidden and unexpected benefits and the positive impact digital play can have on people and the planet, featuring conversations with developers, creators, and leaders using games to drive meaningful change around the world.
For more information, visit Home | Good Game Club
© 2026 Xsolla. All rights reserved.
Graphic: Xsolla
Mathias Gredal Nørvig, Chief Executive Officer at SYBO, and co-founder and host of the Good Game Club
Jude Ower MBE, co-founder and host of the Good Game Club
Berkley Egenes, Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Xsolla
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, has been picked to lead the Food and Drug Administration, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.
Overton is a medical doctor and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who has worked on several of Trump’s second-term health initiatives. She has become a trusted administration figure and a champion of the Republican president’s goals.
If confirmed by the Senate, she would have to balance a raft of competing priorities, including Trump’s fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Dr. Marty Makary. He resigned in May, leaving behind unfinished projects such as work on ultraprocessed foods, antidepressants and COVID-19 shots.
Referring to her as “Dr. Heidi” in a Truth Social post, Trump said Overton was a smart and respected “rockstar” who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices and more wins for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.
Kennedy posted on X that Overton has “exceptional judgment, professionalism, discipline and an unwavering commitment to the American people.”
Overton attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and has a doctoral degree in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins University, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before joining Trump’s second administration, she was the chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.
In recent months, she has appeared with the president to announce major projects, including some of his “most favored nation” deals with drug companies to lower prices to those of other developed countries and his recent vaccine order that sought to split the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate immunizations — against the advice of medical groups.
At an Oval Office event to promote that order, she stood by Trump as he falsely suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder. Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link.
Overton has been critical of abortion pills and, if confirmed, would be positioned to roll back FDA rules that made them more accessible. U.S. abortion opponents have expressed frustration that the administration has not acted to stem the flow of such pills prescribed online, a situation they view as undermining state abortion bans.
Mifepristone is typically used with misoprostol in medication abortions that make up close to two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. Medical professionals call it “among the safest medications” ever approved by the FDA.
To be confirmed, Overton must seek approval from a narrowly Republican-led Senate and face questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Its chair, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, has been a vocal critic of some of Trump’s actions to sow doubt in vaccinations, including the MMR order.
Cassidy posted Wednesday that while he respects Overton's medical background, he has “strong concerns” about the nomination, mentioning her lack of managerial experience and her participation in the recent vaccine order, which he called “almost disqualifying.”
Democratic senators slammed the nomination.
“Heidi Overton is a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA,” posted Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a committee member.
Before he left the FDA, Makary had drawn complaints from health industry executives and anti-abortion activists. The frustration with him came to a head over the agency’s lack of movement on flavored e-cigarettes. Companies such as R.J. Reynolds are seeking to market to adult smokers, but sweet-flavored vapes have long been blamed for the trend of teenage vaping. FDA scientists have hesitated to endorse those products to curb adult smoking.
Days before Makary's departure, the agency opened the door to allowing more unauthorized electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches onto the U.S. market, in a policy change that essentially bypassed FDA experts.
Pharmaceutical companies will be looking for changes at the agency, too, after rejections or reversals of biotech drugs intended for rare diseases. Complaints from biotech companies, investors and patient groups have grown and been taken up by conservative lawmakers.
Makary tried to assuage industry grievances, in part by announcing new programs designed to streamline or accelerate drug approvals. Some of those initiatives, however, have meant new headaches for the agency.
Several of Makary’s deputies also exited the agency.
Dr. Vinay Prasad, the vaccine and biotech chief, stepped down in April following intense criticism from drugmakers, patients and investors. Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg, who was involved in scrutinizing the safety of antidepressants, COVID-19 vaccines and other widely used therapies, was replaced as FDA’s acting drug center director.
Overton would also need to tend to the priorities of Kennedy’s health movement, some members of which are already skeptical of her.
Kelly Ryerson, an activist critical of pesticides who is known to her supporters as “Glyphosate Girl,” told The Associated Press that Overton parroted pesticide manufacturer Bayer's talking points in a MAHA roundtable at the White House in April.
“I was stunned by the blatant, undisguised corruption,” Ryerson said.
One major decision for the next commissioner is what to do about peptide regulation. A panel of federal health advisers selected by Kennedy recently recommended easing access to several peptides that are popular with wellness influencers and celebrities, despite warnings from FDA scientists that the chemicals have not been shown to be safe or effective.
The agency recently proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new ingredients or additives into processed or packaged foods. But it is still working with the White House to finalize a first-of-its-kind definition of ultraprocessed foods, which Kennedy blames for elevated rates of diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions.
Under Kennedy, the FDA has set up extra hurdles for vaccine testing and blocked the publication of research into the effectiveness of COVID-19 shots. Kennedy stood by Trump recently as the president signed the executive order aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S. despite unprecedented financial and logistical challenges.
The FDA also has an ongoing review of widely used antidepressants, including whether they may increase the risk of autism and other disorders when used during pregnancy. The medicines have long been a target of Kennedy, who was a leader in the anti-vaccine movement before joining the government.
In recent weeks, the agency has been investigating two summertime foodborne illness outbreaks: a cyclospora outbreak linked to tainted iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands of people and a multistate salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño peppers.
Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press journalist Laura Ungar contributed from Louisville, Kentucky.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks as President Donald Trump, left, and Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, listen during a meeting to sign an executive order about vaccines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, and Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, attend a meeting to sign an executive order about vaccines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, speaks during a meeting to sign an executive order about vaccines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
