Unsung

Rebel scum

[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

[NIB @nib95_]

Seen several quote #PlayStation's 78% digital full game sales, thus omitting important context.

That figure includes countless digital only releases, from back catalogue to indie games etc. Even Capcom revealed 84% of its sales were "older catalog titles", many of which are only available digitally.

So using such data is somewhat misleading.

To gauge REAL physical demand you need to look at splits of games that released both physical AND digital only. Thanks to the Insomniac leaks, we have such data on PS first party games.

Playstation Physical / Digital splits

Sackboy - 77% / 23%
R&C Rift Apart - 76% / 24%
Ghost of Tsushima DC - 71% / 29%
Demon's Souls - 70% / 30%
Miles Morales - 66% / 34%
Spider-Man - 66% / 34%
Returnal - 61% / 39%
The Last of Us 2 - 61% / 39%
Ghost of Tsushima - 51% / 49%
MLB The Show 21 - 39% / 61%

So per Sony's own internal data, 31/33 first party games from their chart sold more PHYSICAL than they did digital.

Uncharted 4 actually has an insane 83% physical split.

Granted it only covers through to a few months into 2022, but we can see from other more recent data, things haven't drastically changed. For example GSD data shows ~60% of Astro Bot sales across Europe were physical.

So what skews revenue and data more digital, beyond digital only releases and platforms? The answer is games with LIVE SERVICE components, especially multiplatform ones.

As you can see from Sony's internal data, MLB has the highest digital split, and it's a live service game.

Generally the highly popular live service or annualised games such as Call of Duty, NBA 2K, FIFA etc, have higher digital splits, as gamers are constantly launching them (often daily) and don't want to be constantly switching discs, thus skewing digital/physical splits.

It's very different to single player games which are shorter and have different play and consumer trends. So again, context matters.

Then there's a MASSIVE audience of gamers that aren't even accounted for in any of this data; the countless consumers that buy and sell used physical games, because they simply can't afford as many new games, but still buy/own consoles, accessories, games, services etc. Everything from poor parents, kids etc.

Ultimately, the data rejects the notion physical is dead or meaningless, even if digital accounts for the overall lionshare of revenue/sales, especially when you look at things with the proper context and/or focus on single player tentpole games, which is PlayStation's bread and butter.

Keep in mind platforms make a 15% licensing fee from third parties on physical games, while they get a 30% cut on digital.

Likewise first party lose a 30% cut to retailers on physical, while they keep all of the revenue on digital.

As I said before, this move to kill physical is more about PlayStation trying to make far more profit and squeeze away the last remnants of consumer ownership, control, flexibility and resale, and could have greater negative market ramifications.

[Unsung @pogo3d]

@mattycash622 Szkoda, że Cię nie będzie. Mam nadzieję że szybko powrócisz!:)

[Unsung @pogo3d]

@SztabGenWP @MON_GOV_PL @DGeneralneRSZ @IWsp_SZ @DowOperSZ Tylko 3 się do czegoś nadaje.

[Unsung @pogo3d]

#Wybory23

[Unsung @pogo3d]

@LaczyNasPilka Ostatni mecz repry, jaki oglądałem. Dzięki!

[XBOX Game Pass @XBOXGamePass]

the pizza party never stops with these guys🍕

follow @XboxGamePass & RT this post with #XboxTMNTMoviesweepstakes for a chance to win these TMNT-inspired controllers!

be sure to see @TMNTMovie in theatres 8/2/23 in the US!

ages 18+. ends 08/13/23. rules: https://t.co/C2Pjfi7yru

[Unsung @pogo3d]

@mattycash622 go go go!

[Unsung @pogo3d]

@LaczyNasPilka Cash już jest, czekamy na tango po meczu:)

[Unsung @pogo3d]

@mattycash622 Cash raz! ⚽️❤️

[Unsung @pogo3d]

Hej, @pzpn_pl Nie macie jakichś wolnych piłek, toreb podróżnych, ręczników?

[Unsung @pogo3d]

@ArmedForcesUkr Heartbreaking😥😥😥

[Unsung @pogo3d]

@visegrad24 Population of russian oficers in #Ukraine decreases

[Unsung @pogo3d]

Piekne, Salvini nie mógł się bardziej skurczyć. Kumpel rządowy. Kto następny?

[gromota @gromotapl]

Salvini dostał prezent od prezydenta Przemyśla - koszulkę z Putinem, coś tam pobełkotał i obrócił się na pięcie i uciekł. Kisnę xD

[Unsung @pogo3d]

Wytłumaczy mi ktoś, jakim cudem przy takich numerach #PiS ma tak wysokie poparcie? @lis_tomasz ?

[Monika WIELICHOWSKA @MWielichowska]

Wiecie co #PIS przemyca w specustawie? BEZKARNOŚĆ URZĘDNICZĄ! Kiedy Polacy okazują serce, dzielą się chlebem i dachem z wojennymi uchodźcami, władza pod pretekstem pomocy ofiarom wojny wykorzystuje kolejny kryzys dla swoich przekrętów. Podłość powiedzieć, to mało powiedzieć. 😡

[Dulcinea 🌹🇪🇺🇵🇱🌈❤️⚡️☀️⛷🏄🏻‍♀️🎸 @iwonanna73]

Pilne !! Mama zginęła w Kijowie 😢😢
Szukamy taty, który pracuje najprawdopodobniej w Warszawie
Maksym i Liza Nesterenko,4 i 6 Lat

[Unsung @pogo3d]

#StopPutinNOW https://t.co/TzVH57HFY4

[Unsung @pogo3d]

#UkraineRussiaWar #StandWithUkraine️ Tylko kto będzie chciał w to grać?

[Tom Warren @tomwarren]

EA is removing the Russian national team and all Russian football clubs from FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile, and FIFA Online. "We're also actively evaluating related changes to other areas of our games." https://t.co/X9bfQRaC16

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

Russia has launched a massive propaganda campaign against Ukraine and Poland.

They accuse the Ukrainian president of Nazism and Poland of racism.

There are deliberate provocations aimed at discrediting Poland and Poles,

says the Polish Ambassador to the EU

🇵🇱🇺🇦🇪🇺