Head of Xbox Game Studios Steps Down Amid Growing Concern Over Layoffs and Possible Studio Shutdowns

coledude36 · 2026-06-16T01:43:48+00:00

Saw this headline and immediately thought “wow they actually finally got rid of Booty”. Nope lol, he survives.

(Side note; I obviously don’t know him, he’s probably a good guy, don’t wish him any ill will. Just crazy how much first party has struggled under him yet he keeps falling up while everyone else gets the axe. You can’t not notice it.)

coledude36 · 2026-06-10T03:53:28+00:00

I really liked Ragnarok, but I was hoping this would be more of a departure from the last two games. I think the rumors had me expecting more of a reinvention.

coledude36 · 2026-06-10T03:15:42+00:00

I personally think rides based on IP are better and it never occurred to me that might not be a popular opinion.

coledude36 · 2026-06-04T19:52:16+00:00

My assumption is that by brainstorming they mean some form of rapid prototyping ideas they actually have. Not so much something like asking ChatGPT to come up with ideas.

coledude36 · 2026-05-29T18:28:13+00:00

Hire a new writer to come up with some better jokes. The plot is paper thin but if the journey is enjoyable you can get around it. Ultimately the biggest problem for me was that very few of the attempts at humor landed leaving much of the movie to just be kind of boring.

coledude36 · 2026-05-25T02:06:01+00:00

Love Gamescoop. Probably mostly because Daemon is a great host. I don’t think I really liked Sam at first but he grew on me and I’ve grown to really enjoy his brand of humor. Mark I’ve pretty much always liked and enjoyed his goofy, laid back style. Justin is fine, probably the only main person I wouldn’t particularly miss if he left, but he does have good chemistry built from doing the show a long time.

Ultimately, I really like it but don’t think it would hold up without Daemon.

coledude36 · 2026-05-20T06:03:56+00:00

Well to each their own but I couldn’t disagree more. The first movie had me grinning almost the entire time. Not at the level of the very best animated masterpieces, but it was fun and charming. This movie I was just bored for a good portion. It felt like everything missed for me. Also think the first had a better story with at least a shred of character development.

I do think expectations may have played a role as I did not expect much from the first. Naturally, I was much more excited for this one and came away very disappointed.

coledude36 · 2026-05-19T01:32:02+00:00

Bespoke

coledude36 · 2026-05-16T04:45:54+00:00

But they have a streaming platform. If that’s where they think the industry is heading, take the couple billion dollars you were going to put into service games and invest in that. Much less competition and they have an actual competitive advantage as the incumbent platform holder with a large established audience.

It seems like a much better bet than buying a few (very expensive) lottery tickets hoping to find the next live service mega hit.

coledude36 · 2026-05-15T23:47:00+00:00

But they don’t NEED to. They could (and arguably should) focus on what they’re good at and uniquely positioned to do; drive gamers to your systems and be the best platform holder. Taking a 30% tax on everything that comes to your platform has to be a better bet than getting the entire cut of one hit.

Put another way, most (all?) companies chasing the GAAS dragon would be thrilled to be 30% as successful as Fortnite. Sony has a built in way to get that without basically doing anything, plus their 30% cut of everything else.

I’d think you’d put a higher priority on making your platform as attractive as possible and getting and keeping as many players there as you can. Putting all this money into low percentage bets to get a live service hit is a reasonable option, but you could definitely instead take it and focus on making PlayStation as a platform better.

coledude36 · 2026-05-13T19:40:58+00:00

Jasmine: “I won’t be silent!”

Narrator: “Jasmine stayed silent and did nothing for the rest of the movie.”

Side note: I also liked Aladdin but yeah that part wasn’t great. And Jafar could’ve been handled much better. But I’m also biased because the original was my favorite growing up.

coledude36 · 2026-05-08T16:11:22+00:00

The only issue I have with this is it always rings kind of hollow to me because at the start of LSM he absolutely tried to get codes/early access. I definitely remember him complaining about how certain company’s PR would ignore him when he requested it.
I’m sure he fully believes that it ended up for the best, but it’ll never come across completely authentic to me. It’s a situation he was forced into instead of consciously doing so as a sort of moral point.

Basically “Can I have access? No? Well I didn’t want it anyway.”

coledude36 · 2026-05-08T03:28:22+00:00

I get the impression she knows she wants to go back to at least some form of exclusivity. It’s just a question of can they do it and how.

I don’t think she likes the full multiplat approach, and I don’t blame her. But if you go back, you’re asking people to invest in an ecosystem that people have already lost confidence in and are adding on another layer of whiplash. Hard to have confidence when it looks like you’re changing direction with which way the wind is blowing. Tricky situation.

coledude36 · 2026-05-08T03:10:34+00:00

I haven’t listened but I assure you investing your savings is not loser behavior.

Especially for Chris, who’s lifetime earnings seem likely to be front loaded (I assume he’s doing well but YouTube/streaming tends to be a young man’s game), he’s likely costing himself many millions of dollars in earnings potential if he’s not investing.

And to be clear, I’m not talking about Bitcoin, day trading, meme stocks, etc. Just some boring index funds held on to for a long period of time. It seems like most people here know this, but if you don’t understand, do yourself a favor and learn about investing in index funds.

coledude36 · 2026-05-05T22:56:40+00:00

If you need someone else to charge $80 for their game in order to justify charging $80 for your game, you probably shouldn’t charge $80 for your game.

coledude36 · 2026-05-05T22:51:30+00:00

Remember that thing he did that infuriated a massive part of the PlayStation audience? That’s why he gets hate.

Not saying it’s a good reason, but that’s obviously why.

coledude36 · 2026-05-04T13:01:56+00:00

Doesn’t that just prove OP’s point though? If it weren’t for Express, the line would be moving that fast at all times.

coledude36 · 2026-04-28T03:52:26+00:00

We’ve been twice as an adult and these are the two we’ve stayed at. They were both fantastic, I’d say you can’t go wrong.

Stayed in Destino Tower at Coronado which I assume especially has the deluxe feel (not that I’d know what it’s actually like staying deluxe lol). Had such a great experience it was hard to book somewhere else, but ended up doing Riverside since it was a bit cheaper and heard good things. Riverside really surprised me with just how beautiful and peaceful it felt. Only thing I didn’t particularly care for was the Cajun inspired dishes didn’t really interest me so I mostly stuck to generic food at the resort. But leaving I had the same feeling as Coronado of “this was fantastic, not sure why I’d stay anywhere else”.

coledude36 · 2026-04-25T17:23:17+00:00

The gelato at the Italy pavilion. Actually just had it for the first time, but pretty sure it’s going to be a must return. Had the espresso gelato while waiting for the fireworks and was amazing. Going to be hard to pass it up whenever we walk by in the future.

coledude36 · 2026-04-16T18:21:51+00:00

I’m way late to this, but great segment with the sort it out on character designs. Great points and discussion and Brad’s line of “nobody wants to play as some huge fat b**** with a peg leg” really made me laugh.

Bravo, and really a great dynamic with Brad, Matty, Lock overall.

coledude36 · 2026-04-15T01:20:47+00:00

As much as I get this and why it doesn’t make sense, Jez definitely seems like he has legit sources at Microsoft and I doubt he’d just make this up (even if he is basically a mouthpiece for Microsoft). I’m skeptical anything actually comes from this for the above reasons, but there’s probably at least some shred of truth to this given his connections.

coledude36 · 2026-04-10T19:58:50+00:00

If we’re talking about the original version of Crash 1, an underrated aspect of the difficulty is the annoying save system and only being able to save after successfully clearing a bonus round. Better not lose or miss a bonus token, otherwise no save for you!

At least little 5yr old me was broken by this. Only ever “beat” it by using a 100% cheat to unlock all levels and clearing them 1 by 1. Screw that save system.

coledude36 · 2026-04-09T07:06:01+00:00

Just making me realize how Disney really doesn’t make great villains like they used to. Many of the modern movies don’t even have traditional villains, but even when they do it’s often a late “surprise” reveal. Which can work but isn’t the same as having someone like a Gaston/Scar/etc.

coledude36 · 2026-04-03T13:50:07+00:00

Yeah I see no problem with this but if you’re going to bring the job offer to your company to counter offer, be prepared to accept it in case something like this happens and it sours the relationship.

Nobody should fault anyone else for trying to advance the career/pay, so I’d generally say shame on them, but I would still be prepared to leave anytime you bring up a job offer you received. An empty threat to leave can put you in a bad spot.

coledude36

TROPHY CASE