Brian Samaroo

AJSA Stream Team Member. 🇬🇾
"He who stands with me shall be my brother."

[Soxic @WhiteSoxic]

😭😭

[Rino🚀 @RinoTheBouncer]

REPORT: Jason Schreier on PlayStation’s decision to end physical game media🚀

✅Sony considers their digital player base is large enough to do without those who continue wanting physical discs

✅They won’t change their retail distribution

✅Stores sell empty boxes with only download code

✅They’re convinced that over time, players will accept a 100% digital gaming future

✅They don’t think it’s necessary to maintain contact with fans

✅They trust the strength of their brand and the loyalty of their community, and imagine they will continue to support their digital games

Regarding profitability:

✅When Sony sells a first party physical game to a retailer, the retailer gets around ~30% of the sale price

✅Digital helps them keep 100% of it

✅They expect to significantly increase their profit margins

This is absolutely disgraceful to read if true. I’m genuinely repulsed by Sony💿

[Tom Henderson @_Tom_Henderson_]

51 Employees, many of whom worked on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, will celebrate its launch today by being laid off. At Ubisoft, even a successful launch won't keep you safe from layoffs.
https://t.co/Gq563ECckK

[Daniel Friedman @DanFriedman81]

"Fallout: New Vegas" was 16 years ago. The studio that made it no longer exists. The problem with Obsidian isn't that they are making "Avowed" instead of "Fallout," the problem is the personnel decisions that transformed them from what they used to be into what they are today.

Even if their next game is a "Fallout" game, it will still be be the next game from the makers of "Avowed" and "Outer Worlds."

[Goblin @TheGoblinnn]

I worry that this will end very badly. Obsidian hasn’t released a great RPG in over a decade. Outer worlds 2 was trash and worse than 1 (which was already not good) and Avowed was AWFUL. Their last 3 RPG’s all flopped. The fact they were even planning an Avowed 2 is terrifying…

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

A new ‘FALLOUT’ game is moving forward at Obsidian.

The game's development is being led by ‘Fallout: New Vegas’ director Josh Sawyer.

(Source: https://t.co/t5CTdwwrA2)

[Joe Vargas @AngryJoeShow]

Our Rapid Fire Review of Star Fox for Nintendo Switch 2! How well has this legendary classic been updated for modern times? And Is this Worth Picking up Again? Find out! https://t.co/JhNI1MSUpV RT & Share Plz!

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

Antony Starr has officially never been nominated for an Emmy for playing Homelander in ‘THE BOYS’.

See the full nominees list: https://t.co/w7tjYoNu6a

[Bordeaux @bordeauxyoutube]

If I wasn’t clear enough yesterday, I will never work with @EASPORTSCollege again if they don’t reverse these decisions.

EA’s playbook will be to wait out the backlash. That’s why this conversation can’t stop. And trust me… we’re not the only ones who feel this way. #CFBPlayDontPay

[Ｓａｗｙｅｒ @Sawyer_DAA]

Sony telling Insomniac "ok you try to tweet"
and they are getting a beating too
https://t.co/CGFpnbQVIu

[Chrono @ThaComicBookFan]

Tried to slander and made the scene cooler 😭😭😭

[deme @demenishki]

“money does not buy you happiness” is such a bullshit statement ngl.

struggling with depression got so much easier when i started making money because i had more options in life to be able to get the help i needed.

[Brian Samaroo @Xer0_S7]

If the game is less than 2 hours long to beat for the average person. It's more of a demo than actually a game.

[Dexerto @Dexerto]

An indie developer claims over 55,000 players refunded their Steam game after beating it fast enough to qualify for Valve's refund policy

Steam's policy allows players to refund games if they have less than two hours of play time

[Gaz @Septic_Sauce]

Domino's pizza staying on PlayStation's ass 🤣

[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

[Wario64 @Wario64]

Microsoft is laying off 4800 employees today / 1600 Xbox employees impacted

-Double Fine and Compulsion Games are going independent
-Microsoft selling Ninja Theory and Undead Labs

Full memo from Asha: https://t.co/1YMaLj9vBJ

[DiscussingFilm @DiscussingFilm]

‘OBSESSION’ has passed $400M worldwide.

One of the most profitable films in history.

[Disussing Film @DisussingFilms]

Scarier than actual Obsession I’m cryin

[ilona ⚢ @astroonye]

après 50heures de travail j’ai enfin fini ma première tapisserie en crochet🙏