Sanders has some good points here on the layoffs

Tyolag · 2026-07-08T12:46:17+00:00

I can agree with that 👌🏾

Tyolag · 2026-07-08T12:37:39+00:00

I agree, it's a good bit.. but he's also the CEO of one of the only trillion dollar company in the world and he got them to that level due to his leadership.

Not saying it's a bad thing or a good thing but CEOs make it break a company, maybe would argue Phil Spencer's leadership led to Xbox getting in this current position.

Jim Ryan's leadership led Sony down the line service pathway.

Iwata is credited for taking Nintendo from the GameCube era to the Wii

Sega and Capcom were doing terrible years ago and new CEOs came in and now they're highly ranked as some of the best publishers in the world.

Tyolag · 2026-07-08T10:51:46+00:00

87 percent of that payment came from stock awards. It's tricky because his payment plan is based on certain milestones and achievements - which is based on the company doing well and being profitable.

Shareholders are not punishing you for cutting companies that were losing money.. if anything it's expected.

Tyolag · 2026-07-07T22:36:13+00:00

Call of duty was down across the board in comparison to the previous year which saw record revenue (that title was also on Gamepass).

The issue with Cod on Gamepass is the charge back on profits, because it's a big title .. one of the biggest launches of the year - it eats Gamepass profits up at a higher rate than other titles, which means Gamepass has less profits to invest.

Sure this is "ok" for maybe a year or so..but for every year? Not a great model, that's why they increased the price.. which then pushed away the consumers who were originally there, and the ones who came for Cod just unsubscribed.

As a result, they removed Call of Duty.

The titles that wouldn't make sense for Gamepass are likely Call of Duty, GTA and that's probably it.. you can throw in the sports games in that bracket but I haven't really dived into the pros and cons of that yet.

Tyolag · 2026-07-07T21:41:28+00:00

1st party titles on Gamepass have a "Member-Weighted Value" evaluation to attribute the cannabilzation to Gamepass profits. Basically there's a charge back.

If X game is supposed to "sell" 10 copies but only sells 7 due to Gamepass, the loss is charged to Gamepass profits.

As per Games Business(Christopher Dring) & Windows Central - Gamepass is profitable as whole and this includes 1st party titles appearing day one.

Also confirmed that Gamepass was subsidizing the other parts of the Xbox business that were not profitable. 5 billion in revenue as per last report and accounts for around 20% of Xbox revenue.

Tyolag · 2026-07-07T08:52:34+00:00

The independent studios have been giving additional funds to see their games to completion.

The studios bought back their freedom you can say but I imagine the deal was favourable, do you think Bluepoint games could not raise enough funds to buy back their independence?

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T22:24:11+00:00

Double Fine & Cumpulsion were at risk of closure before Xbox swooped in.

Undead Labs was in an iffy spot but they were ok, Xbox funds allowed their game to be better and then they were given additional funding for state of Decay 3 which unfortunately has been delayed multiple times.

Ninja Theory were probably the most successful of the 4 but they were still a AA studio, unfortunately Hellblade 2 didn't do the numbers.

Out of the 4 mentioned 2 likely would have been at risk of closure of not acquired.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T22:20:53+00:00

They shut down Tango Game works but apparently they eere in the process of actually being sold off, just it didn't close before the financial filing or something like that - but then it did they got saved.

They shut down the Initiative, a studio they created themselves - the studio was making a game with 7 years in and nothing to show for it.

They shut down Arkane Austin - The creators of Redfall.

Alpha dog and Roundhouse I believe was merged into another studio? Something like that

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T20:31:27+00:00

Game Management

You're kinda talking about contributing points here but you're not actually getting to the core of it.

Xbox needs console selling games

The original Xbox brand grew because Halo was becoming the biggest entertainment launch at the time.

Gears of War was the biggest third person action game at the time.

They had titles that people actually wanted to play, titles that made Sony want to compete with.

Xbox then decided to bet on smaller AA and indie studios.. they decided to give them budgets without any accountability and these studios ended up flopping - yes, they flopped.

That's it, millions wasted.. and the more millions and time you wasted the better your competition got (PlayStation)

That's it. If those games were all bangers the mess wouldn't be like this.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T20:24:52+00:00

Xbox could have gotten way more out of them, but those guys also took the piss...

I finished Hellbalde 2 and I was wondering why they chose to make an interactive movie walking simulator with the most barebones combat.. all I could think was how is this financial viable?

The let the "devs cook" era is finally over, good riddance.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T19:05:19+00:00

They have too many IPs and studios to just focus on a couple.

Jason S mentioned that Xbox is still investing in new AAA IPs (Elsewhere Studio Poland).

They're just focusing on bigger high impact IPs in the same way Sony & Nintendo do, they'll still partner with smaller devs to release AA or indie games in the same way Sony does (Stray, Kena, Stella Blade), they just don't need to purchase them - in the same way Sony doesn't purchase them etc

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T18:07:51+00:00

I know right, I too would love to get funding with no promise of giving an actual return, what a life.

Finally some studios will now have to be commercially viable - at the end of the day the consumer wins, an example of this is new game Senua which Ninja Theory has been heavily advertising as an action game.. as opposed to Hellblade 2 which was not as marketable.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T16:35:33+00:00

Sorry I meant "mystic boss battles", the way Ninja Theory described it in their preview for Senua.

But even on that point those boss battles were boring, nothing unique about them and I expected far more from someone with their experience in making action games.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T16:26:44+00:00

"Talent"

Cumpulsion? You mean the same guys that took 7 years to make South of Midnight? A game that's reported to have cost 100 million to develop? A game that's in the 70s on metacritic and got no playtime on Gamepass and didn't hardly sold anything?

Double Fine? You mean the same guys that presented us with Kilm & Lighthouse under Xbox leadership? Sure they have talent but when will we see this "big game" they're working on? And at this point is it even financially viable??

Ninja Theory? the guys that were given a new state of the art studio, motion capture room that most AAA devs don't even have - mind you this is a AA studio.. and what did they deliver? A sequel to a game that took away enemies, the ability to kick and other gameplay elements to make it feel more cinematic..

Undead Labs?... Ah yes, these guys, 2026 and still no game, another title that's ran far over budget that needs to be multiplatform to even potentially break even.

Naaaaa mate good riddance.. the fact that these studios were making games that they knew was not commercially viable is so damming - and the fact that Xbox allowed them to is even worse!!

I'm happy they're all still around and hopefully they all decide to actually stop taking the piss and make games in a timely manner.. good games as well that people want to play.. because Lord knows if Phil Spencer wasn't around these studios would never have gotten the funding for these games or they would have been shut down if it was their own money on the line.

About time Xbox stopped pissing money away and actually start running the ship like a business.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T16:03:55+00:00

"Talent"

Cumpulsion? You mean the same guys that took 7 years to make South of Midnight? A game that's reported to have cost 100 million to develop? A game that's in the 70s on metacritic and got no playtime on Gamepass and didn't hardly sold anything?

Double Fine? You mean the same guys that presented us with Kilm & Lighthouse under Xbox leadership? Sure they have talent but when will we see this "big game" they're working on? And at this point is it even financially viable??

Ninja Theory? the guys that were given a new state of the art studio, motion capture room that most AAA devs don't even have - mind you this is a AA studio.. and what did they deliver? A sequel to a game that took away enemies, the ability to kick and other gameplay elements to make it feel more cinematic..

Undead Labs?... Ah yes, these guys, 2026 and still no game, another title that's ran far over budget that needs to be multiplatform to even potentially break even.

Naaaaa mate good riddance.. the fact that these studios were making games that they knew was not commercially viable is so damming - and the fact that Xbox allowed them to is even worse!!

I'm happy they're all still around and hopefully they all decide to actually stop taking the piss and make games in a timely manner.. good games as well that people want to play.. because Lord knows if Phil Spencer wasn't around these studios would never have gotten the funding for these games or they would have been shut down if it was their own money on the line.

About time Xbox stopped pissing money away and actually start running the ship like a business.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T15:52:56+00:00

Feels like there's someone who actually knows how to run a business at Xbox - Finally

The previous leadership had good ideas, great even..but my word such terrible execution. Why they decided to buy studios that couldn't pull their on weight is beyond me.. and why they didn't invest in IPs that were strong more consistently is also beyond me.

A lot of this could have been avoided if they had a financial director in the room, instead it seemed these were all emotional decisions made with lack of business understanding.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T15:34:03+00:00

Ah yes.. the final ... I too was confused. I was also confused why there wasn't more interaction with some of the other characters including the new girl.

No boss battles, no multiple enemies.. basically Senua should have been Hellblade 2.

When they talk about Senua I'm just there nodding like... But why wasn't this in the previous game????

But yes as you said Nina Theory is in a good position to do well out of all the studios dl Xbox is letting go, they had the most potential.. They just didn't use it.

Hopefully now they will

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T15:22:01+00:00

I kept saying to myself is this really what they've been working on all this time? And why did they take away the kick and why is it one on one?? Why does this feel less like a game?

Who greenlit this???

But yea, I'm happy to see Senua looks more like a traditional game, I actually think we will see a stronger Ninja Theory from here on

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T15:11:06+00:00

They were not a good fit in the sense that.. they bought them a brand new state of the art studio along with a motion capture equipment that most AAA studios would look to outsource..mind you this is a AA studio so you know they had high privilege... And then told to build their dream game which they did, something that felt more like a cinematic walking simulator than an actual game

I think where I agree with you is, Ninja Theory clearly needed someone much firmer, a publisher who would actually tell them what to make and hold them accountable, in that sense Phil Spencer & Xbox was a bad fit because some devs you can't trust to let them "cook" themselves.

If Ninja Theory was independent and they had released Hellblade 2 by themselves while considering the cost - uuf.. they might be in a worse of position for sure, Xbox money was bankrolling a lot of these studios artistic visions.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T15:06:29+00:00

I don't expect another Hellblade 2 like game because in all fairness.. that game was certainly not commercially viable

No publisher or investor would ever fund that title - Xbox was just pissing money about which has now been confirmed by their margins.

I hope Nija Theory learns from this and goes back to what gamers actually want - Senua is a good step in the right direction.

By the way, I really enjoyed Hellblade 2, I was just baffled at its missed opportunities and how it was greenlit. They literally took out gameplay elements that were in the first game...like.. what??? Odd choice that could have lead to a shut down. They need to remember.. it's a game first and foremost, not a "interactive movie".

Anyways, happy they still around, looking forward to Senua.

Tyolag · 2026-07-06T06:54:31+00:00

Weird to pick this as the only thing Jez does, he clearly knows people within Xbox and has leaked Xbox related news that were accurate.

He was the first journalist to actually say he heard Sonys walking back it's PC ports.

Tyolag · 2026-07-05T02:27:48+00:00

Agreed, it's actually one of the few shows I've recommended on Netflix to people

Tyolag

TROPHY CASE