465. Business Lessons From 20 Years in the Gaming Industry with David Vonderhaar

The Game Changing Attorney Podcast with Michael Mogill

Michael Mogill

Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Business, Management

5.0 • 539 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The only way to build the next big thing is to stop trying to copy the last one. In this episode of The Game Changing Attorney Podcast, Michael Mogill sits down with David Vonderhaar, studio lead at BulletFarm and former studio design director for the Call of Duty franchise, to unpack what it really takes to innovate in a world obsessed with replication. From navigating harsh feedback from passionate audiences to building a studio from the ground up after two decades inside a billion-dollar franchise, David shares the mindset, courage, and conviction required to do things on your own terms. This is a conversation about originality, resilience, and the cost of choosing the harder path. Here's what you'll learn: Why true breakthroughs come from being original, not from copying what's already working How to keep teams engaged under pressure without burning them out What it takes to bet on yourself when walking away from a sure thing If you want to build something that lasts, you have to be willing to build it before anyone else believes in it. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:02:28) Two Decades at Treyarch (00:03:56) Why He Didn't Retire (00:05:49) Origins in the Arcade (00:10:16) Joining the Call of Duty Machine (00:12:07) The Yearly Release Pressure (00:18:43) Navigating a Toxic Community (00:21:12) The End of the Public-Facing Dev (00:26:57) What Made Call of Duty Iconic (00:28:54) When a Game Loses Its Soul (00:30:27) The Business Broke the Industry (00:36:59) Redefining What AAA Means (00:38:45) What Success Looks Like Now (00:41:59) Building the Right Team ---- Links & Resources: BulletFarm NetEase Games Activision Treyarch Infinity Ward Sledgehammer Games Raven Software Call of Duty X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse Dungeons & Dragons ---- Learn what sustainable growth can look like for your firm at crispcoach.com. ---- Do you love this podcast and want to see more game changing content? Subscribe to our YouTube channel. ---- Past guests on The Game Changing Attorney Podcast include David Goggins, John Morgan, Alex Hormozi, Randi McGinn, Kim Scott, Chris Voss, Kevin O’Leary, Laura Wasser, John Maxwell, Mark Lanier, Robert Greene, and many more. ---- If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like: 332. Cliff Bleszinski - What the Legal Industry Can Learn From the Gaming Industry 113. Kevin O’Leary - The Entrepreneurial Journey: Inside the Mind of Mr. Wonderful 48. Eric Siu - Leveling Up: How to Master the Game of Life

Transcript

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0:00.0	The way to break through is to do something unique and original that people haven't done before.
0:06.8	That's how you become call of duty.
0:08.7	You don't become call of duty because you copied call of duty.
0:11.5	You became call of duty because you were call of duty before there was call of duty.
0:16.1	That's David von derhar, studio lead at Bullet Farm and the former studio design director for the Call Duty franchise. Success to be looks like we don't lose money. We build up who we are and the types of games that we made and we find our core audience. And I'm not going to need $10 million in sales to do that. Because I'm not going to spend $10 million of sales worth of money to make the game.
0:47.5	I'm Michael Mogul, founder and CEO of Crisp, the nation's number one law from growth company.
0:48.2	I've built my business through practice, not theory.
0:50.9	Crisp started with just $500 to my name and has grown to over eight figures in
0:54.6	revenue over the last few years, earning a spot on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing
0:59.1	private companies in America. Our approach has been to take everything we've learned about
1:02.9	generating massive growth within our own organization and help the country's most ambitious
1:07.0	and committed law firm owners do the same for theirs. In each episode of this podcast,
1:10.9	I sit down with innovative market leaders from the legal industry and beyond to learn from those
1:15.6	who thrive in the face of adversity, challenge the status quo, and define what it means to be a true
1:20.5	game changer. I sat down with David Bondar to discuss how to navigate feedback from a passionate
1:26.1	audience, the courage required to innovate versus replicate, and how to keep teams engaged under pressure and avoid burnout.
1:32.3	We look for people who are prioritizing helping other people be successful. When you have a bunch of people who their main thing is how can I help you? How can I make the thing that you're doing better?
1:43.3	When you have people who want to make other people that they work with successful,
1:46.0	you will be successful as a group of people. I know it in my soul.
1:51.0	That's coming up on the Game Changing Attorney Podcasts.
1:59.0	Before we begin today's episode, I want to remind you that we aren't beholden to any sponsors or run any ads on this podcast.
2:10.1	This allows us to present all of our episodes raw and unfiltered.
	...

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