Martin Samek

Ph.D. candidate and former student representative at @PF_CUNI. ICT and consumer protection law.

[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

[Untold War Stories @UntoldWarFacts]

🧵 1/7
One of the most lethal pilots in the Battle of Britain was not British.
He was a Czech refugee, in a polish squadron.
17 kills in 28 days.
This is the story of Josef Frantisek.

[David Šemík @ShingoLa]

Abych taky přispěl hodně osobním příspěvkem k aktuálnímu tématu @DanielVavra : Sleduju to z povzdálí a musím říct, že mě to až fascinuje. Jak profesní a osobnostní rysy člověka ovlivňují jeho život a dílo. S Danem jsem strávil v kanceláři několik let na M1, a velkou část hry jsem pod jeho taktovkou dával dohromady. Byla to jedna velká dopaminová jízda z toho co vznikalo, protkaná noční můrou ze společné pracovní interakce. Dnes Dan napsal, že to nebylo poprvé, co byl ve své kariéře "odsunut", a já jsem rád, že to napsal, i když to hned v další větě shodil. Z žádného článku se moc nedočtete co se vlastně stalo tenkrát, ani teď. Ze zkušenosti kterou jsem udělal, bych jedno vysvětlení možná měl: pusťte si film Whiplash (teď je tuším na HBO) a uvidíte co to ve vás zanechá. Už nikdy bych nic podobného nechtěl ve svém životě zažít, ale současně proto byla Mafie 1 taková jaká byla a mě změnila život. Tak ho, a především jeho spolupracovníky, budu dál profesně sledovat z bezpečného Amanitího lesa.

[NEXTA @nexta_tv]

⚡️ Greenland has been a member of NATO since 1949 and is covered by Article Five

This was stated by Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. His meeting with Rubio and Vance has just concluded.

Key statements:

📍 Greenland — for now and in the foreseeable future — will remain part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
📍 There was an opportunity, at the very least, to challenge Trump’s narrative.
📍 Claims that Chinese warships are allegedly present all around Greenland are not true. According to Danish intelligence, there have been no Chinese warships near Greenland for about a decade.
📍 Dialogue will continue. It was decided to establish a high-level working group to try to find a common way forward.

“We still have fundamental disagreements, but we also agree to disagree,” the Danish foreign minister noted.

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@hlavenkajiri Vždycky, když jen trochu začnu zvažovat, že bych to mohl zase hodit Pirátům, tak mi na timeline vyskočí něco takovýho.
Vlastně nevím, co mě na tom uráží víc: neověřená data, neznalost angličtiny, anebo ta neschopnost uznat chybu a omluvit se a nelhat. @PiratskaStrana

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

Bohužel, tučňáci z Heardova ostrova a McDonaldových ostrovů mají křídla a plovací blány. Nemohou tedy držet žádné karty, a jejich vyjednávací pozice vůči Bílému Domu je tak značně oslabena.

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@VitekNo Řím 🙂

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@WarhorseStudios Opravný patch kďě?

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@DougAMacgregor As a citizen of a country occupied for 30 years by Russians, mainly because your leaders co-decided that they should let us get conquered, even when your generals and soldiers bravely fought and died to liberate us from Nazis, I have one thing to say: Your ancestors are ashamed.

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@WarhorseStudios Hey, the models are switched between this and the Warhorse set.

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@GamewithDave

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@xmireknovak Je hezké že se dnes možná vyřešil gesce, když už jsme měli před měsícem Komisi sdělit notified body. 🙂

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@bratricek J&J barber Vršovice. 🙂

[flyRosťa @flyrosta]

Ředitel ÚCL David Jágr nechal u příležitosti konce ČSA stáhnout vlajky u úřadu na Ruzyni na půl žerdi.

"Nelze zasahovat do svobodného rozhodování právnických osob, ale pocity lze vyjádřit i během nastávajícího státního svátku. Nedělám to často, ale občas ta vlajka musí vlát níž"

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@janrezab @veselovskyma Jako tvrdit o DSA, že je to “amazing piece of law” je skvělý. 😀😀😀 Ale chápu, je to asi jako kdybych já plácnul něco o formulích.

[Karl Korrektor @KarlKorrektor]

@Telicka Myslíte, že ANO a SPD ovlivňují i články v Politicu, které řadí ČR mezi "losers"?
https://t.co/SqOAlCuIOM

[Cornelius Mark @corneliusmark]

App developer here.

I've been in business for over a decade.

What exactly is the business case that makes this a good deal for me as developer and a user of Apple devices?

All I can see is increased risk for smaller app developers as the market gets more fragmented and increased opportunities for large companies like EA being able to handle their own App Store consolidating their marketshare.

So please enlighten me.

[Tramvaják pražský @Tramvajak_Praha]

V Českém Švýcarsku se teď dějí neuvěřitelné věci.

Za pár dní to budou dva roky, kdy tu vypukl jeden z největších požárů moderní historie České republiky. Netřeba popisovat, všichni si jej živě pamatujeme. Oheň byl 20 dní živený kůrovcem zdecimovaným dřevem.

Ale dnes! 😯

1/x

[Martin Samek @samekmartin]

@Milosval1 Produkty od Olma mi doporučovala výživová specialistka. Politiku stranou (taky Babiše nemusím), jejich mléčný produkty jsou z běžně dostupných v supermarketech ty lepší. Například i obyčejný bílý jogurt má 7g proteinu. Tohle mlíko ještě neznám. 🙂