Richard

I like video games.

[Nerø 🛸 @NextGenNero]

A excellent looter shooter that isn’t live service slop full of micro transactions trying to nickel and dime you left and right. Thank you Nintendo 🙏🏾

[Richard @richards_isle]

@RSGabe1 I’ve never played splatoon, I bought this one day one after trying the demo at Target. It’s legit an awesome game so happy I got it

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

Sony wants to abandon fans? Let's give them a small taste of their own medicine!

Together with other creators we call for a 1 week #PSBlackout in August. No logins, no play sessions, no purchases on any of Sony's platforms.

[Richard @richards_isle]

@MoxsyOG @SkillUpYT I tried the demo at target last week and instantly got those looter shooter vibes but in a true single player experience. I was bought in after that moment instant day 1 buy for me

[Richard @richards_isle]

@PlayerEssence You think he’s trying to project confidence to not “scare away investors” but on the inside he know they are cooked

[Mason Home Builder @bankertobuilder]

Just designed the perfect strip mall that will get exactly zero visitors each day

[BlackSageD : The Titanfall Evangelist 🤖 @Black_D_Gamer1]

Because you had computer nerds basically running the game industry, instead of theatre kids, with daddy issues.

[Richard @richards_isle]

@Creseki Wish it had an English translation

[Richard @richards_isle]

It’s over, we have lost

[Hunter 🎮 @NextGenPlayer]

Analysts speaking to IGN:

“Sony will not reverse this decision. Digital is just too lucrative.”

“50 million people subscribe to PS+. Let's say 500,000 cancel in protest, that would be just 1% of that business gone.”

Canceling PS+, posting on X, community noting or signing petitions “won’t make any difference” and won’t reverse Sony’s decision analysts say

▶️ https://t.co/PwhbonEzJp

[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

[Richard @richards_isle]

@GenePark You have a -20 oxygen but +40 speech

[Richard @richards_isle]

@RGT_85 IM TIRED BOSS

[GamesNosh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @GamesNosh]

I'm talking to people - Sony is currently being inundated with emails and messages behind the scenes from smaller publishers and devs voicing their displeasure over the end of physical games.

I'm actually kinda shocked just how much internal backlash there has been to this.

Doubt it'll make a difference, this was apparently a decision made by the money men within the last two months, is 100% influenced by component costs & manufacturing (AI ruining everything again)

They know nobody will buy a $1000+ PS6

They have calculated that the only way the PS6 makes business sense for them right now in terms of margins is to kill both the retail and resale market. Furthermore, they figure people are invested enough in the ecosystem that they're locked-in for life.

They fully expected a huge backlash and took it into account, but they think the anger won't amount to much in terms of real financial losses and are willing to take the PR hit.

Of the 15% of the current PlayStation audience that buy physical, they expect only 2-3% of people not to move over to fully-digital upon being forced.

The money saved by getting rid of the retailer cut, and lost on the reseller market eclipses that 2-3% and makes up for their miniscule profit expected per PS6 sold. (they will not sell it at a loss, but are willing to only make as little as $50 per unit sold)

The only way they'd ever reverse this decision is if the 2-3% of physical audience they expect to lose is instead around 8-10%+

As much as i'd love to see everyone come together and somehow force their hand with a mass boycott, I doubt it will happen.

They have been wanting to kill physical since around 2020, the AI RAMpocalypse has forced their hand.

[Richard @richards_isle]

Nintendo is in a very interesting situation right now. When you buy a Switch 2, you get access to exclusive Nintendo games, on top of that they are 100 percent physical (excluding legends ZA)

[Richard @richards_isle]

This Sony news is like watching a local shop that you loved going to as a kid get shut down. You know that it’s never going to come back, and things will never be the same again.

#sony

[Brad @kindabradatthis]

End of an Era

[HIDEO_KOJIMA @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN]

1/2
Eventually, even digital data will no longer be owned by individuals on their own initiative. Whenever there is a major change or accident in the world, in a country, in a government, in an idea, in a trend, access to it may suddenly be cut off.

[Richard @richards_isle]

@LonelyGoomba I agree the end of physical games only really effects a niche group of people me being one of them. However this does feel like that local shop you like going to as a kid shutting down, you know that with it being gone things will be different forever, never to return again.

[Genki✨ @Genki_JPN]

In case some people didn’t know. All physical PlayStation games are manufactured by Sony. You have to go through Sony to get your game printed on a disc.

Once PlayStation decides it’s not making discs anymore, it’s all over for physical media on their platform.

[Richard @richards_isle]

A sad dystopian ending for gaming.