kin_aruno

Wondering arround

[XBOX Game Pass @XBOXGamePass]

REMINDER WE'RE GETTING THESE GAMES IN THE NEXT 6 MONTHS:

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
Dune: Awakening
Minecraft Dungeons II
Gears of War: E-Day
Stranger Than Heaven
Persona 4: Revival
Fable

[ASHA @asha_shar]

New exclusive single player campaign mission for COD MW4 Beta drops next week. Weekend 2 brings Zodiac, a new warzone resurgence map. Let's go

[ASHA @asha_shar]

Gears has one of the most distinctive visual identities in gaming. The team put a lot of thought into these and I love how they turned out

[ASHA @asha_shar]

Live playthrough of The Elder Scrolls VI: ******** this morning. The scale and grandeur are incredible. The story is even greater.

[Stealth @Stealth40k]

Nintendo is entering the Indonesian market on December 2026.

They are launching both Switch and Switch 2.

https://t.co/MUMncPslw8

[Genki✨ @Genki_JPN]

Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 will officially go on sale in Indonesia in December 2026

https://t.co/kzog6veuLJ

[ASHA @asha_shar]

This summer we've expanded XBOX streaming to more than 150 million TVs and devices around the world because not everyone can afford dedicated gaming hardware. Today we're adding millions more through VIDAA OS and Hisense, so more people can play on the hardware they already own.

[浜口直樹 /FINAL FANTASY VII REVELATION, Spring 2027 @nhamaguc]

The Express interview I did at the FFXIV Fan Festival is now live!
I talk about how the FFXIV collaboration raid, Beyond the Lifestream, came to life and what led to its realization.
I hope you'll check it out!
-
FFXIVファンフェス会場で受けたExpressさんのインタビューが公開されました！FFXIVとのコラボレイド「Beyond the Lifestream」が実現した経緯についてお話ししています。ぜひご覧ください。

#FF14
#FF7R

[kin_aruno @kin_aruno]

@SynthPotato This is the first thing to do on every new game, go to setting and turn off the grain filter

[ASHA @asha_shar]

New tech shouldn't mean leaving behind old games. Today XBOX is launching new tech so you can play the OG XBOX games you own, but now on PC and handhelds

[XBOX @XBOX]

Introducing XBOX Backward Compatibility on PC 🎮🖥️

Play four original XBOX titles across supported PCs and handhelds today, with more on the way: https://t.co/WpcbOOxzlc

[kin_aruno @kin_aruno]

Hei @SquareEnix after FF Resonance, how about make the next Final Fantasy still in pixel art but, you know, not in chibi forrmat

[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

[Warper 🪐 @warper2509]

Final Fantasy XVI me deixa com um gosto amargo na boca...

Não tem como negar, as Boss Fights entre Eikons são alguns dos momentos mais épicos e visualmente absurdos que já vi nos games. É um espetáculo visual!

O Clive também é um bom protagonista que carrega bem o peso da trama política e sombria. Mas, para um fã da série, fica aquele gosto de "quero mais".

O sistema de batalha, embora fluido, acaba sendo simples demais e perde aquela profundidade tática que amamos nos clássicos. E as sidequests... bom, em um mundo tão rico, elas parecem ter vindo de um MMO antigo, quebrando o ritmo da história principal.

É um bom jogo? Sim!
É um bom Final Fantasy? NÃO!

[Shuhei Yoshida @yosp]

@U_N_I_F_I_E_D 😂

[HIDEO_KOJIMA @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN]

I saw “Supergirl” in IMAX. It wasn’t a “superhero movie” about saving the Earth through self-sacrifice as “justice” confronts “evil.” It was a coming-of-age story about saving oneself, Kara, as she struggles with her own trauma. Structurally, it feels less like “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), where everyone is driven purely by survival instinct beyond notions of good and evil, and more like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), where heroes, villains, and scoundrels all converge.

[角醒ハンター オメガホーン／PROJECT R.E.D.シリーズ【東映公式】 @ProjectRED_Toei]

【PROJECT R.E.D.】第2弾発表📣

『超ギャバン』に続く新たな英雄譚が始動—―。

鼓膜に力を入れろ！
その名は
『#角醒ハンターオメガホーン』📢

メインビジュアル、ティザーPV、メインキャスト一挙公開！
https://t.co/gZRJueKSEA

7月26日㈰ テレビ朝日系列にてスタート🔥
#オメガホーン #OMEGAHORN

[XBOX Game Dev @XBOXGameDev]

Unreal Engine 5.8 just made building for Xbox even easier.

Microsoft GDK plug-ins are now public—so you can build, package, and ship to Xbox on PC without changing your workflow.

👉 Get started: https://t.co/JSRfnwnFki

[thomasmahler @thomasmahler]

It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening at Xbox right now.

A lot of great people are being affected, and I don’t want to minimize that. But if we’re being honest, this has felt like a long time coming and I’m not sure this is the end of it. It may just be the beginning of a much larger reset across the industry.

In the long run, I actually think that reset could be good for games and good for gamers.

Xbox has struggled for a long time to identify, empower, and protect the key creative people and teams who could have kept the brand at the top.

Even when we were making Ori with Xbox, it was clear that the main focus was still Halo, Gears, and Forza - even though gamer excitement around Halo and Gears had already cooled heavily after Bungie and Epic moved on from those franchises.

The newer installments simply didn’t reproduce the same cultural impact those series once had.

Meanwhile, Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps became two of the most critically acclaimed Xbox-published games after the 360 era. I always secretly hoped that Microsoft would see the value in what we delivered, that they'd selfishly turn Ori into their Mickey Mouse or a Mario'esque mascot.

I emailed Phil plenty of times making my argument that Xbox should have their eyes on delivering magical experiences for kids and families as well, like Disney and Nintendo always have.

Ori and Moon could've been the start of something new, but the powers to be were probably too focused on the past for that to happen.

We’re still incredibly proud of what we delivered during our Ori era. Our partnership with Xbox produced two games that many players still see as shining stars in the Xbox catalogue.

Microsoft still owns an absolutely insane catalogue of franchises. The potential is still enormous.

The problem is and has always been that great games are not made by IP. They’re made by people. People who have passion and love for this medium, that understand what gamers truly want.

If I were in charge of Xbox right now, I’d also radically slim down, refocus and try to bring back the passion for gaming that clearly existed in the Xbox halls during the 360 era.

Xbox should be one of the strongest publishers in the world. With the brands Microsoft owns, that should honestly be fairly straightforward.

But nostalgia alone is not enough. Nostalgia can get people to look into your direction, but after that, you still have to deliver the goods. You still have to make products that get players genuinely excited. Products that make gamers literally salivate.

And to do that, Xbox has to bet on the right people.

They need to find the Miyamotos, Tezukas, Sakurais, etc. within their own ecosystem - the people who actually speak the same language gamers do - and then support them, protect them, and trust them.

Bet on those people - Not just IP. We've clearly seen now what happens when you own all the best IP in the world, but don't have the right people in charge to actually service those titles.

The formula is really not that complicated:

Ship better games than your competition.

That’s it.

If you consistently do that, you win. And given the scale that Xbox is operating at, they could win HUGE.

Of course, pulling off a full reset inside a giant corporation is brutally difficult. But we’ve seen it done before. Apple in 97 was nearly dead and Steve Jobs turned it around by simplifying the company, focusing on beloved brands and shipping products people couldn’t wait to get their hands on.

The playbook is already written out for you.

From the outside, to people like me, it still looks like Xbox is sitting on an absolute goldmine.

They just need to put the right people in charge of mining that gold.