Curation, control, and connection: David Pava on the real work of direct-to-consumer marketing

Welcome to The Business of Games Podcast, brought to you by Xsolla.Marketing a game used to end at launch. In this extended cut, host Chris Hewish sits down with David Pava, Senior Director of Marketing for World of Tanks Modern Armor at Wargaming, to explore what happens when studios stop thinking in campaigns and start thinking in relationships.David brings a career path unlike most, from webmaster for World Championship Wrestling in the early days of the internet to marketing console games for millions of players on PlayStation and Xbox. Along the way, he's developed a philosophy rooted in feedback loops, curation, and earning trust at every touchpoint.In this conversation, he makes the case that direct-to-consumer is fundamentally about eliminating friction — between a studio and its audience, between data and decisions, between messaging and meaning. And he draws some surprising parallels between live service games and the world of professional wrestling to prove it.We dive into:Why direct-to-consumer is really about two things: curation and controlHow World of Tanks Modern Armor tripled its Twitch audience, and why that matters as much as DAUsThe 60-factor player segmentation model that shapes how the team targets and experimentsWhy AI accelerates your existing systems (for better or worse), and why authenticity is the antidoteHow an eight-week season pass cadence creates a build-test-learn loop that compounds over timeWhat new marketing teams should prioritize first when building a direct-to-consumer foundationWhether you're running a live service title, building your first owned channel strategy, or just trying to understand what it actually means to own the player relationship, David's perspective offers hard-won clarity.Let's get into it.For more insights and resources, visit xsolla.com/podcast. Want to join the conversation? Follow and comment on our LinkedIn page at The Business of Games Podcast. That’s where we’ll be sharing updates, highlights, and continuing the discussion. And don’t forget to subscribe, rate, review, and share the podcast with friends who want to learn more about the business of games.