1UpWelch

Gamer. Nerd. Artist. Anytime, anywhere.
[email protected]

[iam8bit @iam8bit]

👀👀👀

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

Oh cool. My Twitter / X app updated and not only is it uglier, but it removed all my recent searches and view history, meaning I can't see all the cool people I was paying attention to. Nice. Good stuff.

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@IceCreamWaffle4 @CurtRichy The characters are in an abandoned hospital, so everything's already empty, dark and creepy, and as soon as you leave one of the patient's rooms, this is the first thing you see. Not exactly a comforting sight when the larger story goal is to kill each other.

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@ToonHive I love Shantae, I love Stocking and Rei, and Vivi is one of my favorite recent anime, but I think Marinette gives her the most range her voice offers, and it's a wide range. Excellent voice work in an otherwise decent show.

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@whisperwoIf Didn't the anime show something similar to this? In dark lighting, they definitely look similar.

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

This is a crazy twist for a studio executive. Full transparency, no studio closures, and downsizing that, while painful, is necessary for the future they want for the brand. This doesn't make her good, but it does make her different. She's been paying attention.

[ASHA @asha_shar]

This is an important email I sent today to all employees at XBOX:

Team,

We are beginning the most significant restructure in XBOX history. After careful consideration, I've made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27. This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today, and in addition, four studios will leave XBOX to new management. I recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make all the necessary changes in a single day, and I wanted to be direct about the scale.

I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building XBOX. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved XBOX. Today's decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.

Our business today is not healthy. We are operating at margins that are 3–10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a smaller install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they did not grow at the pace we expected. As that happened, our core business weakened, and we added more teams, more investment, and more time, hoping for a better outcome. And now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history. We must reset XBOX.

First, we will reset our content portfolio.

Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset XBOX, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.

Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3. In France, Arkane’s management is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.

We are also making reductions across other units, and in some cases, shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects. These changes vary in size across Activision, Bethesda/ZeniMax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and XBOX Game Studios. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.

In addition, Mojang and King will now report directly to me. These two studios have increasingly become platforms and are our largest by monthly active players. They bring critical geographic, demographic, and differentiation to XBOX.

Second, we will reset our platform.

We know that great technology gets better when it gets simpler, not bigger. Today, in some parts of the company, work passes through as many as 14 layers of management. Our platform teams are 40% larger than they were at the start of this generation, even as our player base and playtime have declined. That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players. As we reset XBOX, we will simplify.

We will reduce management layers to no more than 5, and where possible, 3. We will deliver success through a flatter organization that is built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved in the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes. And we will streamline how we work across our tools, with a cleaner code base, shared services, and 50% reduced vendor spend.

Third, we are resetting how we operate.

As XBOX grew our headcount, we became more fragmented. Teams, studios, and functions often operate independently, and it became harder to work towards a shared goal, make the right tradeoffs, and get things done.

For the first time, we are establishing a Chief Operating Officer with end-to-end P&L responsibility across content, hardware, platform, and services. Helen Chiang has been promoted to this role and will report directly to me. Over nearly two decades at XBOX, Helen has helped build some of our most important businesses, from XBOX Live to leading Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results.

Thank you, Dave McCarthy, who is retiring after 17 years with XBOX. Dave has played a defining role in building the platform that millions of players rely on every day and has been a trusted partner through many of the biggest moments in XBOX's history. We wish him all the best.

These changes are about a bigger future for XBOX, not a smaller one. The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we've seen before. This year, we'll invest as much in XBOX as we ever have, but we'll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making XBOX where the world plays and creates.

I want XBOX to be one of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect. I know we can achieve this goal. XBOX has many of the most beloved franchises in entertainment history, talented studios around the world, and we will return to growth in 2027.

History is full of companies that mistake longevity for inevitability. We will not be one of them.

Asha

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@NKujikawa @jastusa I fully expected them to do this. Amazing for them to fully commit.

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@asukasodomizer @Captain_Phyco @jastusa What are you talking about

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@jastusa No way, you guys are the GOAT! I was in doubt, but now I am sat at the ready!

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@Kingmetalx20a But will they dub them?

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

What the hell... who would've... whose idea... there's no way...

...are they gonna do the H-scenes, too...?

[Noisy Pixel @NoisyPixelNews]

School Days Remastered Reveals Full English Dub Voice Cast https://t.co/rsCvNdlYfr

[DeeGee @DeeGeeGames2009]

People don’t realize how much this could change the gaming market.

When physical games disappear, it doesn’t just affect collectors. It affects the entire ecosystem around gaming.

Retro game stores? Many of them survive because people still buy, sell, and trade physical games. As physical media declines, some of those stores will have a much harder time staying open.

Collector’s Editions? If everything becomes digital, what’s the incentive? Are people really going to spend $200+ for a few digital cosmetics and a downloadable license? A huge part of what made those editions special was owning something tangible.

And don’t think retro prices won’t be affected. As fewer physical games are produced, the older ones become even more desirable. Supply goes down, demand goes up, and prices climb even higher.

This isn’t just about preferring discs over downloads. It’s about ownership, preservation, accessibility, local game stores, collectors, and the future of gaming as a whole.

There’s so much more at stake than people realize, and I don’t think the long term impact is good. #supportphysicalmedia

[Gene Park, Oppaheimer @GenePark]

what sucks is that you can still buy physical media for movies and music. you can still buy a CD for new albums! the options are still there. it's wild to just be like "no options from now on"

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

The interesting thing about this is there are already so few Playstation exclusives currently, let alone ones that are worth it, so this really only serves to hurt Sony and the PS brand, not the gamers looking to play games, as long as MS, Valve, and Nintendo don't shit the bed.

[PlayStation @PlayStation]

Important updates:

News on physical discs for new games - https://t.co/BzZODXdWGY

News on PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita - https://t.co/ev3mN6wj14

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

The industry is officially screwed.

[PlayStation @PlayStation]

Important updates:

News on physical discs for new games - https://t.co/BzZODXdWGY

News on PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita - https://t.co/ev3mN6wj14

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@aniwolf66 I don't watch this show. Why is Kara just 2003 Starfire?

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@TrevorAllenMD This scene is great in both languages, but they cut two of the draws in the dub so it always felt unfinished to me. Not as overkill as it should have been.

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

@finestsoup It could look good, they just a poor job. Half the reason it's so underwhelming is because the martial arts choreography is so bad. If their moves were punchier, as in the show, even the lackluster effects would have more impact. They need to do more than just waving their hands.

[1UpWelch @1UpWelch]

Jesus Christ, you don't hate AI enough.

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

XBOX is increasing the prices of their consoles:

• Series S 512GB: $399 ➡️ $499
• Series S 1TB: $449 ➡️ $599
• Series X 1TB: $649 ➡️ $800
• Series X 1TB Digital: $599 ➡️ $750