# Xsolla President’s New Book Reveals How Gaming Companies Can ‘Get Off That Hit-Driven Hamster Wheel’

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/xsolla-presidents-new-book-reveals-how-gaming-companies-can-get-off-that-hit-driven-hamster-wheel/
- Published: 2026-09-24T21:45:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-25T00:01:17+00:00
- Original publisher: Variety
- Original article: https://variety.com/2026/gaming/news/gaming-industry-book-ending-hit-driven-model-xsolla-1236874531/
- Topics: Art, Culture, Entertainment, Gaming, Government, Politics

## Key points

- Xsolla president's book argues gaming companies should reduce third-party platform dependency
- Complete business data ownership is key to escaping reliance on blockbuster hits
- Incomplete payment data can lead companies to make costly wrong strategic decisions

## Summary

Xsolla president Chris Hewish has published a new book titled "Durable Advantage: Five Pillars of the Modern Game Business," unveiled at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne. The book addresses the gaming industry's current challenges of layoffs and contraction by proposing a strategic framework built on five pillars: relationships, commerce, intelligence, trust and time. Hewish argues that gaming companies have become overly dependent on third-party platforms such as app stores, which control critical business functions and restrict their ability to build direct relationships with players and gather complete business intelligence.

Hewish, a former executive at Activision and DreamWorks now leading a payment software fintech company, advocates that gaming companies must move away from the "hit-driven hamster wheel" by gaining full ownership of their business data and decision-making processes. A critical weakness he identifies is that many companies lack complete visibility into their own monetisation and player behaviour data when relying on third-party platforms to handle payments and commerce. Hewish illustrates this with an example: a company observing revenue decline in a particular country might incorrectly assume it needs more localised content, when in reality the drop could stem from players switching to a newly introduced payment method that the company's platform hasn't integrated—data invisible to the company if payment information remains with the platform.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.