QUESTION · TUESDAY FOCUS

Did you visit or have friends visit the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 pop-up in LA? Thoughts on if it was successful for the game? Could this be done for independent games?

ASKED BY · Rajan S. · LOS ANGELES · 03 NOV 2026 · ▶ 00:33:37

THE PANEL'S ANSWER
Stephen Heywood

While he didn't attend personally, pop-up activations are an effective promotion strategy; indie developers should get booths at local gaming conventions to showcase their games to enthusiasts.

Summarised by AI from what the panel said. Watch the moment for the full answer.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

From the transcript.

Machine-transcribed, so it may contain errors. Every timestamp opens the episode at that second.

33:34Yep. Not so much. All right, let's go to the next question. Rajan S. is back with us in Los Angeles. Did you visit or have friends visit the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 pop-up in LA? thoughts on if it was successful for the game could this be done for independent games and there's a link they've got so much money what did they do did you hear about this or i've heard

33:58about the pop-ups and it was one of their their most successful uh call of duty launches probably in a while since call of duty goes i personally didn't have any friends that went out to la to do that or um you know have gotten to that but i think any any you know indie game or anybody Anybody that's developing a game could do something like that.

34:19I mean, that's the way to get the word out. And like I said, at conventions, that's the best way to do it. Get into a local video game convention that's in your area. Take your game in there. And a lot of times they're looking for people. They'll give you a booth and you can show off your game to all these other gaming enthusiasts that are there.

34:35That's what I would recommend. Yeah, the convention industry is, you know, they've got their conventions. The convention has conventions. Yep. And one of the things I've noticed for years, I've been going to Comic-Con forever. My brother-in-law was an amateur cartoon artist. And the pop ups, the activations, the things around the convention, that is a robust and well understood and well funded set of operations.

35:00now. I remember last year at Comic-Con here in San Diego, everybody was talking about two things when Johnny Depp popped up in downtown in character for the movie he's got coming up in a couple of months. And Ryan Reynolds, I think, popping, going up, just wandering around Comic-Con as Deadpool, because that was the one place he could completely be anonymous. So, yeah, what you're saying makes

35:29Makes perfect sense to me. Understand that promotion and how you get traction for these kind of new titles has changed a lot. And you've got to keep up with what the crowd wants and where their eyeballs are. Next question. This one comes to us from Guy Cochran in Seattle. What are your thoughts on these in real life backpacks? Oh, for live streaming out of a black backpack.

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ALSO IN THIS EPISODE

14 more questions
from Reinventing a Brand with Stephen Heywood.

The whole episode →
▶ 00:02:30You have a fascinating story of reinvention. You came out of tech broadcasting. How did you decide to make the pivot into the gaming world?▶ 00:24:28What changes are you seeing in the game world now that anyone can spin up a version of Doom in AI? Could we all become game creators? Pong, Mario, Call of Duty?▶ 00:26:38Steven, please talk about your views on where the live streaming landscape is heading next.▶ 00:29:23Gaming continues to be bigger than most Hollywood blockbusters. What are those audiences looking for? And how can Office Hours Global work alongside that group? We have a lot of similarities: technical interests in streaming, interactivity, community.▶ 00:31:11What words of encouragement do you have for our community members that want to start or grow a YouTube channel?▶ 00:35:45What are your thoughts on these IRL "Backpacks"?▶ 00:37:21Stephen, do you consider professional producers are still relevant now that "everyone" can have a YouTube channel and stream? How can you be an outlier in the industry?▶ 00:39:50What feels distinctive about the culture of gaming communities compared with the tech community you came from?▶ 00:43:22Looking at your channel and the old videos versus the new, what initiated the "Reinvention"?▶ 00:49:06Have you seen people turn skills learned through gaming streams into opportunities in live production or other fields?▶ 00:51:01Besides YouTube, do you still follow through your career in a regular 9-5? Or has this YouTube channel and convention production become your business?▶ 00:52:10Which supposed "must-haves" can you drop from a show without much trouble, and which "creature comforts" have you found surprisingly necessary?▶ 00:53:51What would you advise us to transform ourselves and shift on improving our content and channels?▶ 00:57:55What do you do to help people find your channel and make it feel connected and relevant?