David McDaniel

Passion, Poise & Purpose

[David McDaniel @davidmcd32]

#CFBPlayDontPay @ScottOGallagher @EASPORTSCollege

[David McDaniel @davidmcd32]

BANNGGGG 🇺🇸

[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

[NFL Fashion Advice @fashion_nfl]

These are excellent. Job well done, Tennessee.

[Tennessee Football @Vol_Football]

designed with intention

[Bordeaux @bordeauxyoutube]

It feels like EA intentionally hid micros transactions into dynasty as a slow roll out so it could continue to get worse in the future

I asked a dev if it was an early access bug that the fast and fastest option was missing, heard nothing back

I still haven’t even found the screen to buy coach XP in Dynasty there’s no buttons to show it. Also apparently they took away custom XP sliders in Road to Glory too?

I don’t like the direction on this. I already said the MVP+ Membership was an awful idea, you shouldn’t have to buy Madden too if you want all the early college benefits

I am more scared our single player modes could be hit with heavy micro transactions since Ultimate Team is clearly not what college cares about

Also Drew said more in a reply about what early access capture was like this year… yeah way more anal than previous ones. More stressful than fun. Idc to do it again if it’s like that

[David McDaniel @davidmcd32]

Nah, dude played himself up to the cameras like he was Mr. Positivity. That audio clip is who he actually is, not that weird character he tries to play. You should be including more of it, not apologizing.

[Grant Horvat @GrantHorvatGolf]

After reflecting on the Michael Block situation at the end of part 2, myself and the team at YGT want to apologize.

Our intention was to show the raw emotion of what the YGT means, and how badly the participants want to perform well.

Michael Block showed great leadership and brought a ton of team positivity, and we feel like that was highlighted throughout the entire video.

Ultimately, we made a mistake by leaving the last segment in the video. For that, we apologize to Michael Block and anyone who did not find the clip tasteful or necessary. We do not want to garnish attention through drama and controversy, but through high quality golf. We are thankful for everyone’s commitment and participation on the YGT and they deserve to be portrayed in a more positive light.

[dawn @rundry]

It's cool that swifties have their own glup shitto characters

[NFL Fashion Advice @fashion_nfl]

Tennessee is not meant to have spindly numbers.

[NFL Fashion Advice @fashion_nfl]

This speaks to me.

[David McDaniel @davidmcd32]

Big block numbers are back 🥹 LFG

[adidas US Football @adidasFballUS]

Straight from The Sheriff’s mouth @Vol_Sports

Welcome to the \\\ family

[Pac-12 Conference @pac12]

Greatest #Pac12AfterDark comeback yet... ⚡

The new Pac-12 is here. 😎

#BackThePac

[David McDaniel @davidmcd32]

BANG

[U.S. Soccer Men's National Team @USMNT]

The moment was Malik's.

[Landon @surelando]

Here is Nate Ament’s full interview from the ESPN Draft livestream last night:

[Tennessee Basketball @Vol_Hoops]

Fe to DC!

(trade via Orlando)

[Shams Charania @ShamsCharania]

Sources: Orlando traded No. 46 Felix Okpara to Washington for Nos. 51 and 60.

[Tennessee Basketball @Vol_Hoops]

GO SPURS GO.

Kobi headed to the Western Conference champs!

[Milwaukee Bucks @Bucks]

Welcome to Milwaukee, Nate Ament!

[@GrantRamey @GrantRamey]

Nate Ament headed to the Milwaukee Bucks with the No. 13 overall pick in the NBA Draft, via the Miami Heat.

Rights to the pick belong to the Bucks after the Giannis trade.

https://t.co/ytKZh1n15U