Summer 2026 Gaming News Dump

[00:00:10] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of The Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren and I'm joined as always by the pixel professor, Jacob Price. It's July 23rd, 2026. Man, it's been a while since we've done an episode like this. Jake, I already said this if you're not a Patreon member, which most of you are not. Hint, hint.

[00:00:36] And yeah, dude, life has just punched, I think, both of us in the face, especially Jake. Tons of travel. Jake moved into a new house. Work has been crazy. So it's been nuts. So anyway, we're back to it. But being back to it, being back to it, there's so much news to talk about that we have to spend, I think, an entire episode just talking about news.

[00:00:59] I know we've been, we've been hinting about it just like kind of in conversations that we've had that have been recorded, but a lot of conversations that Cameron and I have just had, right? We're just like, dude, what is going on right now? So yeah, it is has we we used to do I feel like with a little more regular cadence episodes that would just totally be dedicated to a topic rather than a game. But yeah, it's been been a while and there's going to be a whole lot to discuss. Too much maybe but like,

[00:01:28] we'll do our best. I guess the only caveat here is remember that we are not experts, right? Please don't put me on blast for saying something when it's just my opinion. And we're content creators on podcast. But we are also 100% correct in everything that we say.

[00:01:48] Yes, this is the definitive source for all news for anything that happens in the world of video games. That being said, Jake, let's start off talking about the games we've been playing because it's been a long time. So let's catch up on what we're playing. Jake, what have what's been on your docket as you've been having vacations and all that sorts of stuff?

[00:02:10] I let's see. I'm actually nearly through Shadow of the Tomb Raider. That's the final entry in the Laura and the Laura Croft Tomb Raider reboot that Crystal Dynamics did.

[00:02:24] Dude, those games are just great video games, man. I just am super I don't know. A part of me is like, are we? Has the games industry moved beyond making like double A or triple A games that just like have this linear path with plenty of side content if you want to do it and just a good story and a lot of action?

[00:02:44] I really hope not. I kind of think the triple A space has left that to a certain degree. And then games like the Plague Tale games have kind of filled in that gap. But so I've been playing a lot of that. I've been playing an indie JRPG called Quartet on Switch. Nice. I have been playing Mina the Hollower on Switch, which I think I have a love-hate relationship with. Ooh.

[00:03:09] When that game hits, it hits. And when it slogs, oh my gosh, you're like neck deep in mud trying to get through an area or whatever. I did not pick that one up because I was like, there's no way that I'll... So here's the thing. This is maybe unpopular opinion, especially in the indie sphere, but I'm not a big fan of the 8-bit style. Like the top-down 8-bit.

[00:03:38] I don't have any nostalgia for that. 16-bit? Great. That's awesome. Like, I love it. That like top-down kind of more like the Shovel Knight and Mina the Hollower. Yeah, I just... I can't... I can't do it, man. Anyway, just as a side note on that, but... Yeah, I think that's fair. Let's see. Those two games I've been playing and then... Well, those three. Those two on Switch. And then I started an indie game on PlayStation called Concrete Genie.

[00:04:07] Oh. Do you remember this one? Mm-hmm. There's a lot that I really love about that game. Man, it kind of hurts to play because it's about like teenagers bullying this kid. And you're playing as the kid who's getting bullied. Okay. I vaguely remember this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like brutally realistic in what teenage bullies are like.

[00:04:32] Like, I fortunately didn't deal with like a lot of bullying growing up, except funnily enough, like when I played baseball, I got bullied really bad because I didn't want to be there. But I'm like, oh my gosh, do I have unresolved trauma? Or like, I'm like feeling the bullying in that game really hard. I don't know. So it's a great game, though. Great concept. I hope it ends really well.

[00:04:58] A part of me is like, is this game going to end just like, and, you know, main character whose name is Ash. Ash was dealing with trauma through the invention of imaginary friends. And actually their life is just a living hell, even at the end of this game, when it all reality comes crashing down. I don't know. So I'm like gritting my teeth and playing that game. But those are the games that I'm primarily cycling through right now. That sounds a bit heavy. It is heavy.

[00:05:27] And I think that's the thing that's getting me, right? It's just like the bullying in that game is so freaking intense. Dang. I don't know, man. Jake, if you all showed up at a reunion with your, you know, eight year old baseball bullies, I guarantee you'd have the biggest arms. So you'd win that fight. I live for these kind of compliments. I'll take it.

[00:05:53] They'd all be, you know, they'd be, you know, overweight, probably divorced, probably, you know, you know, bad stepfather. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Is this a way to resolve bullying? This is probably not the right path to go down. My bad. Don't listen to me. This isn't a official counseling advice. Go see a professional. Go see a professional. Or go play Concrete Genie. This will help resolve things.

[00:06:19] Maybe I'm going to, I'm working through some trauma playing Concrete Genie, but it's rough. I need a game about like, you know, interesting, highly controlling parents, mothers maybe. And then I could reflect. Oh, man. If any, any, any developers out there have something for me, just go ahead and let me know. There has got to. Nothing comes to mind to me, which really surprises me.

[00:06:47] But there has got to be a game out there about controlling moms. If I made an indie game, I could make a specific game centered around Christmas time. I've shared with you this experience, Jake. Yeah. I won't rehash it on the podcast, but I could actually make a video game out of that pretty handily for sure. Um, if you talk, so this game has a good mom in it, but if you talk to the developer who, oh my gosh, I forgot her name, but, um, the solo dead behind the game fish bowl that came out this year, that would be a good pairing.

[00:07:17] I think. Nice. That could be a good idea for a podcast, uh, to getting, getting back to our podcast interview format. We just, instead of talking about the actual game, we just talk about the traumas behind the games. Right. Nice. Maybe that'd be a little too deep. Could be a little too much. Yeah. Well, let's see. I have been playing predominantly, uh, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resync.

[00:07:45] And that game holds up. Like I've already said on this podcast before, that's one of my favorite games ever, probably. And yeah, man, like I've been playing it on PC. It is absolutely gorgeous. Like the whole, uh, gameplay loop of sailing the Caribbean and doing missions and, you know, finding buried treasure and upgrading the jackdaw and like boarding ships, that whole thing. Just, they nailed that man.

[00:08:14] Like they just nailed that gameplay loop. It's the same gameplay loop here with this, with this remastered, uh, version. It just looks gorgeous. They added some quality of life things. They changed the combat a little bit. Uh, it's not the greatest combat, but it, I would say that it's serviceable because you're, that's not really what you're there for. You're there to do that, that like pirate loop that I, that I just mentioned. And then they added some interesting things like with the missions and stuff, but yeah,

[00:08:43] overall super fun time. This is going to be like my, this is going to be my number one, eight out of 10 game that I love, like a 10 out of 10 game of the year, probably. Yeah. Um, but yeah. And then I also, I picked up the frost punk to DLC. Oh, nice. Um, Jake and I did a, we did an episode on this. We actually did, uh, we got keys for this one and did an early episode on this. I really loved frost punk too. Yeah. There's a DLC built around a volcano.

[00:09:13] Oh, nice. That's very like militaristic base. So yeah, if you played front Jake, you played frostbuck, obviously there's just a tension and the way that they combine like city building with these emergent story moments is just something I don't think I find in any other game. And that's a reason I just really love this one. I know a lot of people actually didn't like it because it wasn't as deep on the city building

[00:09:38] side in terms of, because the city, there's a city builder sickos out there who, when they play these games, they want to go have this insane level of depth that requires like 400 level college course to actually, you know, understand. Yeah. I'm more of like, I think you just give me sort of like interesting basics, but I think the story elements here are crazy. And I also haven't started it yet, but I picked up a game called the drifter.

[00:10:04] Oh, that just, is that the, um, it's like a point and click pixel. Yeah. It's, this is an older game, but it popped up on my store page and I hadn't seen it before. It has, um, this was during the steam sale. It's overwhelmingly positive. It's from an Australian developer. It came out last summer and it's a point and click called a pulp adventure thriller. And anyway, it just pulled me in. I was just in the mood and it was like $4 or something.

[00:10:33] So I grabbed it. $4 dude. So, um, the drifter, I remember this game and this is the case of not even just indies, but I would say like a lot of games where, um, it's flash in the pan moment. So I remember this one, like it came out people, there's a lot of buzz and then it disappeared really quickly. Yeah. Um, so I never got around to playing it. Uh, I wonder, um, it's on switch now. Oh dude.

[00:11:02] I think I might finally get around to playing this game. Yeah. It has about 3,600 reviews, overwhelming, overwhelmingly positive on steam. I don't know. I was in the mood for something like story driven. And apparently this one is like super dope. And I've got, you know, some good nostalgic memories from point and click games. Like when I was a kid, like monkey Island and that type of stuff. So I was like, yeah, this is, this is dope. So anyway, I haven't started yet, but I'm going to give it a shot.

[00:11:32] But Jake, you know what the biggest game I've been playing is I started a pal world server with my kids. Whoa. Dude, dude, we are insanely addicted to this game. It is, uh, I, so I had fun when we played an early access. Yeah. We played like the bros. We got together and we played and we had fun, had a ton of jank in there.

[00:12:02] Still quite a bit of jank to be honest, but they have fleshed out the world and like the quest system. And dude, it's just, there's a level of depth and fun there in terms of like the survival crafting mechanics and like building out the bases and getting the pals and then like finding pals with certain passives. So you can upgrade your base in a certain way because they have certain skills that they can use. And then the combat is actually pretty fun.

[00:12:32] Like it's, it's, it's fun. And like some of the harder best bosses require a lot of strategy similar to, you know, you got to do like tight matches and like certain passives are going to give you more benefits and stuff like that. Dude, we've been super addicted. Both my kids are crazy addicted to this game. It's very, it's way deeper than you think it is on a surface. Nice. It's super fun. It's janky, but I got, it's full cross play too.

[00:13:00] So I got my daughter set up on the PS5 back here. Son's on the Xbox and I'm on the PC. Dude, we played till 1130 last night. Nice. And my kids like never go to bed now and it's actually getting really bad, but we're so addicted. We just can't stop. Dude. So I know I feel that with my kids last night, they had some friends over and dude, I was like, the friends left like late, like at 945 or 10. Yeah. I was like, all right guys, time to go to bed. And they're like, no, we want to stay up.

[00:13:29] And I was like, wait, no, we need to get this under control. We got to get this under control. Yeah, exactly. We got to get this under control. And then my wife was like, one of my kids, she was just like, I don't think he's washed his hair this like week. I was like, wait, what? And sure enough, I go over there. It's like this, you know, greasy strand of threads. I'm like, all right, dude, we got to get our bodies like figured out. We got to start taking care of ourselves. Dude, the summertime, usually we're pretty out of hand.

[00:13:59] I feel like this summer more than ever has just been like total free for all. Yeah. Like eat whatever you want. Go to bed at any hour. Like it's kind of getting crazy. Jake, do you feel a certain sense of betrayal if you were to play power all because of your Pokemon devotion and fandom? What's your feelings towards power all at this point in time? Yeah. I don't know why I shouldn't. I think I would feel a sense of betrayal, even though I played it in early access and we

[00:14:28] did an episode on it then. And it was I mean, it was good. Right. I remember us getting maybe to the first boss. I don't know. I look at that game now. Let's see. So Power World 1.0 came out and Shrouded 1.0 just came out and Valheim 1.0 came out or is coming out in September. And between those three games, I like already felt exhausted grinding stuff. Just looking at them.

[00:14:54] So I think that's what's keeping me at bay right now is I really don't want to grind resources. But were you telling me this? Maybe that Power World seems to have become its own thing that the associations with Pokemon are pretty much gone at this point. Yeah, they've I mean, they've they won that lawsuit. So right. They've yeah, they've they figured that out.

[00:15:18] I mean, dude, it's the thing is, I don't have enough familiarity with the Pokemon like the the later generations of Pokemon to know like, oh, yeah, these like four are just literally hand ripped from Pokemon and then have it bother me. Right. So when I'm playing it, I'm kind of seeing stuff and like, oh, that guy is cool. Like, I don't I've kind of seen it for the first time, but it's totally a pal. Also, did you see they're coming out with a physical card game this week? Power World is. Oh, yes.

[00:15:47] He's good for them. Oh, man. Maybe that'll help with the Pokemon card scalping. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's what I I'm not a Pokemon diehard. I do think Pokemon is cool. I had a great time with Pokemon Pocopia. I what I see this as is like, hey, you know what? Competition is always good. Right. Honestly, that's the point I was going to get to. I was like I was just thinking Pokemon Wind and Waves. Like, dude, let's really see the Pokemon Company and Game Freak.

[00:16:15] Like, dude, give me an eight out of ten game. Don't give me a mainline Pokemon game that will sell, you know, tons of money and will be good. Give me give me a nine out of ten game like outside of the fact that it's Pokemon. That's part of the reason why I'm excited for Beasts of Reincarnation, because that is Game Freak. And I'm like, OK, obviously the talent that's doing something new with Game Freak was put into Beasts of Reincarnation.

[00:16:42] But a part of me is like, OK, like if this game is really good, then I want to know that Game Freak has the chops to like make a really excellent game, not just ride, you know, rest on their laurels. So, yeah. Give me give me that nine out of ten Pokemon game. I'm ready for it. I want them to go deeper in the Duffy with. Yeah, I 100% agree with you. I Pokemon rest on the laurels because it can because of what it's built with its IP and fun creature collecting. Right.

[00:17:12] Like it always is going to have that element of like, I got to go catch them all. Yeah, that's that's always at the core of it. I want them to get deep in the Duffy with the tactics side of it. But I'm just having a blast in power, even though I really honestly I don't really love the design of most of the pals, to be honest. Like they look like Walmart Pokemon, to be frank. Yeah.

[00:17:36] However, what I do think is dope is how deep in the Duffy you can go in terms of like the combat and the passives. And like when you capture different versions of the same one, they all will come with different passives. And then you can like breed them to, you know, get a certain one that has the passive that you want. And then that impacts not only combat, but impacts like your base building and your personal buffs. And so they go like really deep on that tactical side. I want to see Pokemon. They can do it.

[00:18:06] I know they can do it. I want to see them go to like deep on that side more. Yeah. I mean, I'm still thinking of the Pokemon Legends Arceus. It's funny because Pokemon Legends Arceus still lives in my memory better than Pokemon Legends EA. I just think when they did kind of do. Arceus is great. And yeah, when they when they iterated and tried some new things, I think it ended up working a lot better for me and Arceus than ZA. But I don't know. They can do it.

[00:18:34] And so all this to kind of agree with your point that like if Pal World is going to push Pokemon to start like trying harder to put it in like really, I don't know, whatever terms. Yeah, I welcome it. Right. Let's let's see that happen. I know that Temtem kind of made an effort to do that. Temtem, however, is coming out with their basically version of Pal World. That that's right. Yeah. Is it Temtem World? Is it seriously that simple?

[00:19:02] But like I'm actually going to do the same exact thing. Temtem, right? Temtem. Yeah. Temtem is doing it. I'll be totally honest. That Temtem World, that trailer that we saw for that. I'm like, all right, I could see myself getting into this because it just looks way more polished. Temtem Pioneers. Pioneers. Yes, 100%. The art direction looks better. It looks it's a way cleaner visual.

[00:19:31] Also, the creature designs are better than Pal World. 100%. But yeah, this is literally a Pal World competitor straight up. Yeah. Temtem Pioneers absolutely is. So Tame and become roster of 200 plus Temtem. Build in real time combat. Build, craft, battle, discover new creatures. So come up with your friends. Open world survival crafting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Super interesting, dude. I mean, Pal World right now is at 200,000 reviews overwhelmingly positive on Steam.

[00:20:00] And it has a million concurrence. It's insane. That is insane. One million? One million. One million concurrence. That's why. And dude, it's not that polished. It's pretty janky. It's honestly pretty janky. But just like for whatever reason, that creature collecting and then the survival combined with the survival crafting gameplay loop. Like I just dude, I don't know. It's addicting. I see why people like it. Yeah. I'm hoping Temtem Pioneers is that game for me.

[00:20:30] I think Pal World, I'd be willing to give it another go, honestly, and just kind of check out 1.0. But yeah, I don't know. Temtem Pioneers might be the one for me. Dude, this does look. I was just looking at this trailer on Steam. This does look like super polished, man. I mean, it looks really good. And you and I, we reviewed Temtem Swarm, which was their survivor's take. Like again, that game and go back and listen to a review of it.

[00:20:57] It's kind of like if you like the Temtem skin and look, then you're going to really like that game. But in terms of like performance and polish like that, like this studio, I think has a really great handle on the technology they're using. And so, and they do creature collecting really well. So yeah, again, I'm confident from Pioneers. It does look interesting too. It looks like you actually take on, you actually control the creature when you're doing combat.

[00:21:26] I'm just looking at this trailer for Pioneers, which is also kind of a different take. So anyways, that's awesome. Well, let's dive into the, those are the games that we're playing. Lots of stuff, stuff coming. On future podcast episodes to talk about, maybe we'll talk about more about Temtem 1.0 potentially in the future. But let's dive into the news that we missed. Cause, and I think the biggest one, we'll just start right off the top with the big beefcake.

[00:21:55] The Xbox layoffs and restructuring. So Asha Sharma came out, released a big note that she just released it right on Twitter as it was sent internally. Laid off 3,200 employees at Xbox. Shut down.

[00:22:13] Well, it didn't shut down, but sold off or, um, comp both compulsion games and, uh, double fine went, uh, entirely independent. And then undead labs and ninja theory were sold off to what are apparently unannounced third parties.

[00:22:35] But then the rumor is it hasn't happened yet, but Arkane studios who is currently working on, uh, the Marvel blade game, which was announced what? Three years ago now, four years ago. Now, uh, that is supposedly also an active buyout negotiations to leave Microsoft. Yeah. So, um, 3,200 employees. She, she came out and had a huge letter talked about super low margins.

[00:23:01] Apparently 3% console install base, very small game pass subscribers. I think stuck at what? 30 million. I think it got up to as high as 38 million and they lost around eight to 10 million when they increased the price. Obviously they've dropped that back down since then trying to reset Xbox. Jake, what are your top line reactions thoughts to the big Xbox reset?

[00:23:30] The industry in turmoil with the price of memory looking at kind of Xbox and how they're, they're trying to get quote unquote back on track. Um, listen, there's a lot to be annoyed out here, but I want to start with something that I consider a positive, which is a bunch of these studios were not just wholesale canceled.

[00:23:52] That they were released from some sort of first party contract or they bought themselves out or they, uh, have a future somewhere else rather than just completely wiping out an entire company and all of the team and talent that has been accrued there. So I think important to note too, that a lot of them apparently just, uh, add onto that piece that you keep going. The, the, they were left with runaway. So it wasn't like they were like, Hey, you're on your own guys. See ya. Yeah. You're independent now.

[00:24:22] So anyway, go ahead. Yeah. So double fine, for example, I double fine has always been like this weird studio, right? In terms of just the games that they're making and kind of where they fit. Um, super happy to see that they're standing on their own two legs, right? Um, that they get to do their own thing now. Um, they, despite having, uh, two releases now, of course, these are double fine, like kind of niche games, right? I mean, I really like kiln.

[00:24:50] I think it's a really fantastic game, but you know, that that's not competing with big live service games, um, in the competitive arena. Right. Uh, and then keeper, which again, this is like for your indie enthusiast who likes weird worldless surreal games, right? This is what double fine does. And it's interesting. I can understand why Xbox purchased them way back when the idea is like, okay, let's beef up game pass with a bunch of, you know, either critical darlings or like weird indies.

[00:25:20] That's what they're really good at. And they get to continue to do that. So what I think is great. Compulsion games. This is like the exact same scenario in a way where it's like South of Midnight, a really fantastic game. We reviewed it on our podcast. So go listen to that if you want something more in depth, like fantastic art direction, story, location, music, critical darling. It won a Peabody award. Like this is a really high, highly praised game.

[00:25:48] Did it move as many units as Xbox wants it to? No, it didn't. Right. And so I'm happy that the team gets to stick together and they get to make their next thing. Right. So that's kind of the silver lining, I think, with those studios. Team Ninja. I don't understand this case. I would love to know more details because I really like Senua in both Hellblade games. One and two.

[00:26:14] Wild to me that they showed a trailer for Senua, the third game, presumably in this installment, that looks to have more and better combat with the same incredible graphics and screaming protagonists that we've come to love. It just blows my mind that like a few days later, they're like, yeah, this studio is out.

[00:26:35] From what I understand, Ninja Theory is like one of the preeminent like mocap like studios in Europe. And that's how they make a huge chunk of their money. My guess is whatever Project Mara was or is the horror game they were working on just started sucking up a ton of money. And that's why, again, I'm glad that they're not canceled.

[00:27:02] I'm glad that they got somebody who is going to be funding Senua and maybe Project Mara. I don't know. A lot of question marks there. But again, the silver lining for me is like the studio got out alive with their team. So that's kind of that's my positive optimistic side. Man, it sucks that 1600 employees just lost their job and then 1600 more now live in fear over the next fiscal year of whether or not they're still going to have a job at Xbox.

[00:27:28] That just to me seems like you're allowing a culture of fear, unproductivity and resentment to grow at all of your studios because nobody knows who's going to get laid off everywhere else. So it's just like, I don't know. That sucks, man. I think Xbox's internal culture is probably suffering in a really dramatic way and we don't get to see that. Yeah. I mean, obviously this sucks.

[00:27:58] That's the baseline reaction to it. Sucks because people have to lose their jobs because a few people made decisions that ruined it for everybody. Yeah. And I think that's the ultimate. Let's not be. We can be honest about it. We can be real. Yeah. They're making enough money to like pay the bills. Like they still have 3% profit. Yeah. But we know that. So yeah, like in a ideal universe, we can all just go on about our lives and everything's fine.

[00:28:28] Right. And we talk about this all the time. Like the ideal universe just doesn't exist. Like these companies, it's, it's, we need unending growth. Xbox needs to be doing 30% profit margins, not 3%. Yeah. They don't have a mandate supposedly to do 30%. I think their new mandate is to have, uh, what did Asha Sharma said some crazy number, like a billion active users or something. I don't know. Anyway. Uh, I'm like, yeah. Okay.

[00:28:57] Freak does that even mean? I don't even, I don't know. I get, I think they're counting like between mobile and King and like all that. They also restructured. So like another positive is that she did talk about how that the management layer at Xbox had gotten completely out of control. And that there was in some places like 16 layers of management, right. Between like lower employees to hire, to, to hire leadership. Yeah. So they removed a lot of that. That's positive.

[00:29:26] Um, positive that they left these studios with a bit of runaway and are trying to like get them out on their own. They're basically cleaning house in terms of like their strategy with game pass. I mean, look at the end of the day, if you look at, I think ultimately Phil and his team just, they had a lot of really great ideas.

[00:29:49] And I think a lot of ideas that I think even both of us really liked Jake, like game pass as this sort of place where you could get a lot of interesting things on a service that people normally wouldn't have played, but then played because of game pass. And we talked about it in that way and thought it was great from that standpoint, but clearly from a business standpoint, that team failed to make this, this business work. Yep. Um, uh, and good.

[00:30:19] I was going to say, I remember seeing in the same new cycle that the goal was at this point in 2026, they'd have 60 million game pass subscribers. And, uh, like you said, it really plateaued like somewhere between 30 and 32 with a high of 38. And that's, I think they just found like, okay, game pass works and game pass is profitable. It has, it's a lot of mixed responses, I think internally and externally to, to game pass.

[00:30:49] Um, but yeah, they just kind of found their plateau and they could not figure out how to get more people to, to sub. And, uh, I want to back this up with two things. Well, hold on. I'm kind of transitioning thoughts. So let you finish your thought and then I'll get to this thing. Yeah, no, I just, I just, I just want to like be clear. I think, I think they did fail.

[00:31:10] And ultimately like it always sucks because once again, you've got 1600 people, well, 3,200 people getting left with the bag because of decisions that were made by executives. Yeah. And those executives all just got massive golden parachutes and got to do whatever they want. That sucks. Right. There's not, there's never executive accountability. And if Asha comes in and she's going to make all these changes and she's going to get back to this sort of like, you know, heyday of Xbox or whatever, you know, that's what they keep saying.

[00:31:40] Right. We're going to, which I'll just say, I have no clue how in the world she's actually going to pull that off. Because if we look at the, we look at this inflection point of like, okay, we're going to make all these changes. And by the way, it's a generational memory crisis where the next console, right? That could be sort of this reset point, project Helix or whatever. What's it going to cost? $1,200? $1,500?

[00:32:12] What are you selling it as? Is it a, like, how do you even? And so I think you're screwed either way. So it's like 3,200 people, probably a lot of people with a lot of great depth of experience to go and actually make more video games, which is what Xbox needs to do. It's the same thing they've been needing to do forever.

[00:32:33] I think my top line thought on like why it failed ultimately comes down to one thing and one thing only, which is the games that they made at the Xbox studios were just simply not good enough. To draw people into Game Pass at the end of the day. And I think they just never made the one or two all-time generational hits that they needed to make to make that service like so insanely popular. They just never did that.

[00:33:02] So anyway, and then going into now what, and we'll talk about what the new strategy looks like because we can kind of see echoes or shades of what's going to happen. And I just don't know how it's actually going to change moving forward. But anyway, continue with your thought, Jake. Oh, man, I've got a lot of things to say just to kind of follow up with what you're saying.

[00:33:22] So I have just for people listening, what I have pulled up is the July 6th blog post or internal letter resetting Xbox that then was made public, right? This is a really fascinating paragraph for me as somebody who's interested in indies. So since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last 10 years combined.

[00:33:49] I mean, she's right. I mean, in the sense of like up to date, I think we were on track for this year on Steam releases alone to be like 20,000, like 18 to 20,000 games released, right? We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.

[00:34:15] 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. What I think is something that we can appreciate about this post here is like the amount of candidness and the actual numbers we're seeing. Xbox is not making money and they are realizing that they are not a sustainable company as it's been set up, right? So things need to change.

[00:34:42] Um, this sounds worrisome if you're thinking like, oh my gosh, does this mean they're completely not going to invest in any indie games and Xbox? And I think what it sounds like is they are done buying studios and they are done buying studios, uh, especially anything that's small. And the investment in small projects is going to drastically change. The last sentence that they have in this paragraph is as we reset Xbox, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.

[00:35:12] To me, this means two things. I mean, it's reiterating the fact that they are not going to be investing in small projects anymore. Right. Um, which I think is a shame when it comes to, we talked about this in our special episode, but like Obsidian, we're not getting another pentiment from Obsidian. I don't think we are. We're not getting any of those small kind of spinoff, whatever projects from these studios. They're not happening anymore. They're not considered to be viable.

[00:35:38] What I hope is happening here is that Xbox does not can their idea Xbox program. And to me, it sounds like they won't. Uh, it says here, we will help independent creators by, uh, succeed by providing open development tools. This is what idea Xbox does. Idea Xbox selects independent studios and games. People who are releasing games on consoles for the first time, specifically Xbox consoles for the first time.

[00:36:05] And it essentially helps them be able to have that game be developed and then ship on an Xbox console. And then it says, and audiences to realize their vision. So to me, they're no longer going to be investing in Xbox, like first party studios in small games and small, fun, little, whatever critical darlings. Those are gone, but they will do it via third party via idea Xbox. That's my interpretation of that paragraph. Yeah. There's a huge, major consolidation going on.

[00:36:35] Basically it's like, and I'll say about, I mean, look, double fine. Didn't make anything that popped off. Sorry. Popped off from an audience and like sales perspective. Okay. Same thing with compulsion games, right? You just talked about South of midnight. Incredible from like a critical standpoint, from an artistic standpoint, but didn't do anything. Undead labs. They didn't release a game in eight years.

[00:37:06] They still haven't released. It's like, dude, I mean, if you're just, if you're just looking at this as game, uh, game company management, Sim. Like if you're playing this as a video game on steam, and then you look at one of your studios that hasn't released anything in eight years. Right. They didn't, uh, state of decay three has still not come out. You're kind of like, okay. But that's just like, you're not, you're just like, come on. It's just too much. Right. Yeah.

[00:37:34] And then Ninja theory, super cool stuff with Senua. But I, the, the thing that they revealed at the Xbox show was what I thought the second Senua was going to be. And it wasn't. And so it looks like they're finally actually doing that, but it's just too late. It's just took too long. And those were kind of niche sort of artistic demos. Right. Arcane is the one where it's like, but again, it's like, you just haven't been very productive.

[00:38:00] And your last title was, um, oh my gosh, death loop. Right. Death loop. Well, after death loop was, uh, the vampire. Oh, that's, that's arcane Austin though. Rather than that was arcane. Okay. That's right. That's right. Is that part of the same umbrella and they just cut that off or was that a totally different studio? Let me see if I can remember what happened here. I remember reading an excellent Jason Schreier report on what happened to arcane Austin.

[00:38:29] From what I remember, um, both arcane studios were under Zenimax, right? Okay. Um, and Zenimax, listen, if you want to point fingers, Zenimax royally screwed arcane Austin by saying, Hey, you need to make a live service multiplayer game and it needs to sell a billion dollars. And this was a studio that didn't make those games. And then they made red fall, um, or they were making red fall. Zenimax was purchased by Xbox red fall. That's it. Yeah.

[00:38:58] And then Xbox was like hands off, like, Hey, you guys are making red fall. Sounds great. That'll be great for game pass. It's a multiplayer game, you know, work on it. And they were working on it and struggling to make it. Then Xbox finally stepped in to be like, what's taking so long? And they're like, Oh, you guys are screwed. And so they sent in a bunch of people. I want to say it was, um, it was, uh, oh my gosh. Who makes the gears of war games?

[00:39:26] Uh, yeah, I know you're blanking on that studio's name. But, uh, anyway, from what I remember, I think it was that studio. The unreal experts, right? Uh, yeah. So I'm pretty cool. The coalition, the coalition. So I'm pretty sure the coalition sent a bunch of people there and were like, okay, let's make your game work and let's get it shipped. Right. So anyway, that story aside that if you want to point fingers, I'm pointing my fingers squarely

[00:39:54] at Zenimax leadership, telling these, the studio to make a hit game in a genre and a style that they don't make games in. Now when it comes to arcane, was it lion Leon France, whatever Leon Leon. Yeah. Thank you. Um, they got, we saw that blade thing and we were like, dude, they can absolutely make a blade game. Um, but we haven't seen anything from that studio since then. And it's just been, okay, well what's happening over there. Right.

[00:40:23] Um, yeah. So what, what they say about arcane here, this sounds, this is this ominous sentence in France. Arcane's management is beginning required consultation with its works council to review potential strategic options. Yikes. So they're trying to get rid of arcane France. Yeah. I mean, they must know that it's going to be another year or two to get, uh, blade finished. Right. And so then they're probably going like, well, this is not a guarantee.

[00:40:54] This is a brand new friend. I mean, it's Marvel. We're going to have to give 40% of the profits to Disney. Yeah. We don't know if this game is going to pop off and be a major hit. Blade is not even that popular of our character. If we're being honest, right? Super dope idea. Oh, I really hope this doesn't get canceled because I think it's a sick idea, especially from the freaking dishonored people. Oh yeah. Like, like my goodness, like what a cool idea, but will it pop off in the way that

[00:41:20] Asha Sharma is sitting up there going like, okay, well we need guaranteed crazy high number hits. Everything's got to be a guarantee. Like anything that's not is just taking money out of the coffers. We have to get way more profitable guys like slash slash slash, um, which is why, uh, obsidian is stopped everything and is making a new follow game. Yeah.

[00:41:47] I mean, I, I imagine Asha Sharma is like looking at arcane France and she goes, what's blade in which this is not a knock on her, you know, because like you're saying, if you are, if you are at all familiar with like Marvel stuff, I would say more than just like a casual fan or a fan of the movies, then you might know who blade is. And, but for like the, the lay person, you ask them name 10 superheroes, like 10, he's not on that list. Right.

[00:42:16] So I imagine she's like, okay, what's blade. She's like, okay, vampire thing. Okay, cool. Whatever. She's like, okay, well, we're going to cancel this. It's been taking too long. And then someone's like, excuse me, man, but this is a Marvel property. And she's like, Oh, expletive. You know, like, right. What do we do with a Marvel property? She's like, I didn't know who blade was, but this is a mark. I imagine like from the executive standpoint, this is what the line of thinking is here.

[00:42:43] It's like, crap, this costs a ton of money and we are going to have to shell out a ton of money. Yeah. There's, there's going to be a zoom call with like the Disney interactive executives and to be like, Hey guys. Can we, can we redo or, you know, maybe tear up the contract that we made earlier? Can we rethink it? I mean, what are we on the hook for here? You know? And then, and then arcane's probably going to Xbox leadership and being like, yeah, we

[00:43:09] need another year, maybe two to get this across the finish line, which is going to cost another $200 million. Right. This, yep. This is exactly how I think this conversation is going and it looks terrible for everybody involved. Right. So I do not. And with Phil Spencer in charge, he's probably going like, you know, cause you know, Phil's like, he likes video games and he's like, Oh yeah, this is a dope idea. Like this will be successful. Right. Like, yep. Yeah. We can do it.

[00:43:37] I'm sure Phil was like, Phil knows who blade is and was like, Hey, blade is one of the cheaper Marvel properties. Maybe that we can make a game of dude. Arcane France probably can make a really dope blade game because of dishonored. What if we paired those? Like Phil, probably the ever optimist was like, dude, he sees the stars align. He's like, okay, blade. Well, so that was the other part that was revealed about this is that Xbox leadership

[00:44:03] has not been actually as involved as you think they would be with the individual studios. So they were kind of sitting back and kind of letting each of the studios sort of govern themselves. And I think the new model is now. Well, they changed that somewhat recently with Matt booty. Well, Phil was still in charge where Matt got officially put right as like the direct report for each of the studio heads. So I think that's going to be even more hands on now. Right.

[00:44:32] Like where Xbox leadership is going to be with the studios going like, Nope, you're not making that. You're making fallout. You're making halo. You're making this gears thing. You're making a Minecraft thing. Yeah. All right. We're turning. Hey, Minecraft. Hey, Mojang. Minecraft needs to become Roblox. We need to sell mini games inside of Minecraft as microtransactions because that's our biggest property. It pays for everything else and it needs to make more money. Dude, that is a thousand percent what's happening with Mojang right now.

[00:45:02] Let me let me draw to this paragraph here. In addition, Mojang and King will now report directly to me. Wow. Yep. Okay. So she's trying to flatten and get rid of management. There it is. These two studios have increasingly become platforms, right? They're no longer games. They are platforms. And our largest bi-monthly active players, they bring critical geographic demographic and differentiation to Xbox. I read this as exactly what you're saying.

[00:45:32] Minecraft, you are a platform. You are no longer a game. Therefore, we need you to start functioning like Roblox and Fortnite. How they function as platforms rather than just single games. So yeah, you're a thousand percent correct there. I think Mojang, it's like, dude, the Roblox version of Minecraft is coming very soon. I think it'll probably be incredibly popular. I think it'll be a smash success. Honestly, like commercial success. Oh, yeah.

[00:46:02] Minecraft is the game that just continues to pay the bills. It's for what I mean. Dude, my son is obsessed with Minecraft and he's eight. Yeah. And there's parents now who are obsessed with Minecraft. You know what I mean? So it's like, yeah. I would say Minecraft has the advantage of being around much longer than something like Roblox or Fortnite.

[00:46:30] And so they have accrued so much, I would just say, knowledge, industry knowledge. But also, I mean, all the things that we champion, industry knowledge, talent retention, like all this stuff, Mojang has that. And so whatever they release, I think it's funny. Sorry, I'm starting a lot of thoughts here, but I'll finish them with this one thought. We'll consolidate just like they're doing an Xbox, right?

[00:46:55] What I think Mojang actually could make a platform to get a piece of the pie from Roblox and Fortnite. I think out of, you know, and oftentimes in this podcast, we talk about and reiterate how like we are talking about like outside of the 1% of gamers. Like that's mostly who we're talking with. That's mostly who's listening to these episodes. Mojang, right?

[00:47:20] They actually could create something that could go toe to toe with the biggest gaming platforms, since that's a word that's being used. And I think that, I mean, I imagine that right now everybody at Mojang is scrambling. They're like, okay, we need to make this platform to complete with Roblox and Fortnite. How do we do it? And they actually can, I think. Yeah, they 100% can. They 100% can. And they're going to milk that cow.

[00:47:49] So, and we talked, we already talked about how Bethesda announced that Fallout 5 is in pre-production. We did that on a special topics episode, Patreon. We went really in depth on that. But we'll just mention it here. We're like, yeah, it's very clear. Asha went to Bethesda and was like, hey, where's Fallout 5, guys? Like, what are we doing? Like, we got an awesome TV show that's super popular. And we have no Fallout anywhere. So, Obsidian, you're making a Fallout. Yeah.

[00:48:19] Todd, Todd, you better make, like, Fallout 5 needed to be started like two years ago. So, I don't know what you're doing here. What's the Starfield thing? Although, Starfield does have, like, 30 million players. So, that one's not, like... Yeah, Starfield. Just to... Sorry, I don't want to fact check, but I am fact checking. They've had 17 million players in over 1 billion hours played in Starfield. Okay, sorry. I'm 13 million off. I mean, I just want to get that out there.

[00:48:47] I mean, as we talk... I mean, 17 million for a first party title. That's solid. That's successful. That is very successful. So, I think all the Starfield haters out there listening, game was successful despite your hate. Right? That's the point that I really want to make. Which is what you're making, too. Yeah. It's going to continue to be supported. So, you have to support it. It's a big, big piece of that pie. Anyways, obviously, we have Halo still out there. Gear still out there. But, like, yeah.

[00:49:13] I mean, it's going to be a consolidation on the IPs that they have that are making the most money. It's going to be... How do we get more game... At the end of the day, look. I think I'll end with... My ending thought on Xbox is... A, I think no matter what you do, you are screwed because of the hardware crisis. You're just massively screwed. Okay? So, I don't know how you solve that. I have no clue. No clue whatsoever. So, good luck with all that. Unless you just take a bath on whatever the next console is.

[00:49:43] Or the next console is not a graphics upgrade thing. And it's simply like, hey, here's a cheaper... It's basically like a, you know, like a handheld version. Right? And that's the route they go. But it's about the same power as like an Xbox or something like that. And even that's still going to cost like, what? $800, you know? Yeah. So, minimum. My second thought is, look.

[00:50:12] At the end of the day, what does it come down to? Still, it's the same thing that has been said for years and years. At the end of the day, the fix to all of this is to make incredible, awesome games that everyone wants to buy. Yep. And I think Xbox has made a lot of great games. But they haven't really. Ever since they started their shift into Game Pass and all that stuff.

[00:50:35] I still don't think they ever really had that one or two games that really drew people in. That really made major waves that they needed to make. With the exception of Minecraft. But Minecraft was sort of adopted and has kind of always been there. And they haven't really pushed that or leveraged that maybe in a way that they could have.

[00:51:03] Not necessarily should have, but could have. So, I don't know. We'll see. We'll see if they can do it. I don't know if they can. And what's the answer? Always, it's just going to be more layoffs. Yep. If they can't figure it out. Which is less people to actually go and make games. And which is the loss of talent that actually knows how to make the games. So, yeah. Yeah, I would say there was almost a light at the end of the tunnel. I want to say here it's 2024.

[00:51:33] You had Microsoft Flight Sim 24, Indiana Jones, Senua 2. They had a lot of first party games come out then, right? And they almost, I think they almost, at least from my perspective, made it. But, yeah. My final thoughts and some about Xbox, very similar. Small passion projects, they're gone. I don't think we're going to see them.

[00:52:00] We're going to see a lot of the remaining power just focused into franchises and titles that people are familiar with. I wouldn't be surprised. I am holding out hope that Obsidian doesn't just become a support studio. But, I don't know. I think at this point, a lot of these studios that we know at Xbox are just going to become support studios, at least in the time being. I don't know what we're going to do with Game Pass. I think they keep it because it's kind of one of those things that they can't really cut it at this point.

[00:52:29] Because then it's become such a big part of Xbox's identity over the last five years. It's like, dude, if you cut it, then you're cutting out 30 million people. And, yeah. It's just too dangerous, too risky with your player base. I agree with you on the hardware, man. Dude, you're with the hardware crisis. And it's kind of funny because Microsoft is so heavily invested in AI. But that's also driving up prices for console stuff.

[00:52:58] Yeah, they're like eating their own tail. Yeah, so that's a problem they have to resolve if they're going to get serious about hardware. But I agree with you, man. If you're trying to sell me on 120 FPS at 8K resolution and I can't tell the difference looking at most games or most gamers can't, you've got to sell me on features, not on graphical updates or upgrades. There's got to be some crazy cool features coming in that next console.

[00:53:26] Otherwise, it'll be too easy to skip. So, as part of this, effective August 1st, and this is a bit of a transition. So, Steam Deck obviously came out. We saw that the 2TB version was $1,500. And I think the 512 version was $1,000. It is about the same power as an Xbox Series X from what I understand. It's not even like a PS5 Pro level, really, power increase.

[00:53:55] I think it has some different bells and whistles in there that maybe you can get more juice out of it. But Xbox increased the price of the Series X model. Now start at $800. Toof. Or $750. Sorry. And then the Series S is like $500, $550. I can't remember. Switch is going up to $500. And then PS5 is like $750.

[00:54:24] I think the PS5 Pro now is going to be like $900 or $950. Yeah. So, like, who's buying a console now? I don't know. I just... I saw this crazy article from Kotaku that Xbox had its best console selling, like its hardware sales in June than it's had in a really long time. Really? Yeah. And I'm like, who's buying these?

[00:54:51] And so, some of the speculation in the Kotaku article is that there's speculation that there'll be another price increase. So, people who don't have one yet are trying to get one now. Well, I guess also you have GTA 6 looming. So, there's been generational holdoffs because of GTA 6. That's also going to probably push people. It's like, hey, I'm ready to go get GTA 6. Like, oh, you can only play it on the newest consoles. Well, I got to get a new console now. It's like, it costs how much?

[00:55:20] Oh, well, guess I got to buy it. That's the demographic, though. Guess I got to buy it for GTA 6 is what's increasing hardware sales. But seriously, though, if you think about like $800. Dang. I just... Yeah, dude. I mean, I don't know what to tell you. I'm like, I'm buying a Switch every day. It's $500. Like, screw graphical.

[00:55:50] I mean, $500 alone is like crazy. But like, the Switch just positioned itself in such an incredible position. The Switch 2. Yeah. If they can get third parties running like decently well, why would you ever buy an Xbox or a PlayStation 5? Why would you buy that? Unless, again, it comes down to Call of Duty and GTA. So, those are the two that are like, okay, well, you can't... That kind of make the difference.

[00:56:19] But even then, like, I think the overlap of people who say, yes, $800 sounds reasonable for me to play the new Call of Duty and GTA 6. I just think that bubble has to be getting so much smaller. All right. I'm just curious, like, of all the people that play video games, how many...

[00:56:37] Is there a number that falls off precipitously enough where there is a major, major crisis in the video game industry where they literally cannot make this price increase or they simply will just not continue to exist? I don't know what that price point is. It's probably higher than we think it is. I bet you probably even this $800 price point is probably not enough to stop people from buying it.

[00:57:04] Because the economics of it has shown us for a lot of other things that prices continue to get up. People continue to find ways to pay more for it. But there has to be a cliff, right? Like, what's the cliff? I don't know, but this is kind of a random thought. People are willing to spend $1,200, $1,300 on, like, an iPhone, right? True. True. Do you think it helps in terms of, like, the consumer mindset towards video game hardware?

[00:57:34] If you have somebody who's willing to spend $1,200 for a new iPhone, they might even be more expensive than that. I don't know. I haven't bought a new iPhone in, like, a decade. I buy all mine used. Anyway, that point aside. To that person, are they like, oh, $800? That's expensive, but I'll get it. You know what I mean?

[00:57:56] Like, I wonder if that cliff that you're talking about gets pushed further away if other, like, electronics that people are buying are getting more expensive. Well, does it then become, I no longer go in and buy the Xbox? I instead go in and I buy the Xbox like it's a phone plan. And I'm paying, you know, $30 a month for three years to pay for my new Xbox.

[00:58:26] I mean, Xbox is starting to roll out. That kind of. They've had that. They've had that, right? But does that become, like, this is now the main way that you, because that's how you buy a phone, right? Like, most people don't buy the phones in cash. They buy it as part of, like, their phone plan. Most people. Right. Right. Right. But I wonder if Xbox, if that becomes, like, it's like, hey, sign up for Game Pass and then get your Xbox for $30 a month. Yeah.

[00:58:55] Your brand new Project Helix for $30 a month, zero interest or whatever, right? Yeah. Something along those lines, but. I don't know, dude. I wouldn't be surprised. I have to. That's the place that we're getting to, because, like, $1,300 or $1,500 or $1,200 or whatever it is. But off the shelf, it's kind of nuts. Yeah. No, I think you're right. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what Xbox is doing.

[00:59:20] Buy this, get the Game Pass service, and then just get Project Helix with an additional $20, $30 a month. Whatever surprised me. Or they just throw in, hey, get Game Pass for free if you buy your Xbox using our finance service. Probably. And then Xbox becomes like a bank. Right? Probably. Like, does Microsoft come out with their own financials? Because they're not going to want to give those fees to those services that, like, offer. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. So.

[00:59:52] Or they'll partner. They're big enough. They could go partner with, like, Wells Fargo or something and keep the fees low or something. Probably. Because it's Microsoft. Yeah. Yeah. It's icky. It's icky, bro. It sucks. You know? It sucks. It's stupid. I was going to say, the Switch 2. We actually just... So we had some friends over from out of town. And one of them asked, they're like, oh, Jacob, so you ended up getting a Switch 2? What do you think of it? And I was like, oh, I love it. I love the Switch 2 because it feels better in my hands.

[01:00:21] And the screen resolution and frame rate is just way better. And they're getting games like Resident Evil Requiem, Pragmatas on Switch 2. They're getting the Elden Ring Tarnished Edition is coming to Switch 2. And so just to come back to this point, you're making about third-party games in Switch 2. Yeah. That $500 price point is looking extremely good. And it can be handheld or docked. Right?

[01:00:46] And I think that feature has just become so, like, not necessary, but, like, so desirable. And I think the Steam Deck kind of helps prove that point. Right? That the Switch 2, yeah, it looks like more and more of a bargain every single day. And then what Nintendo gets to do is charge $80 for all their first-party games. Because it still looks cheaper. Right?

[01:01:14] I mean, GTA 6 is the standard edition is $80. Right? Brand new Zelda game. Brand new Pokemon game. $80. That's normal now. Like, that is, I think, right now, in this present, after GTA 6 announced that its base edition is $60. And after Mario Kart World was, or excuse me, $80. And Mario Kart World is also $80. That is the new normal for some of these games that these companies consider to be premium. And, yeah, I don't know.

[01:01:44] That hardware, $500 plus $80 versus, you know, $800 plus $80? You save $300, man, when you pick up a Switch 2. Nintendo wins. And they're about to have, you know, a FromSoft game. I know. So, exclusive. Duskbloods. And then Splatoon Raiders just came out either today or yesterday. And that's actually $50. That's the thing is that they are playing, too, with, you know, more variety in prices. So, there's that.

[01:02:16] Well, we've had a ton of news conversation. There's still a lot more to talk about. But we're already an hour in. So, I think what we're going to do, we're going to transition to, we're actually going to end the episode. We're going to transition. If you're a Patreon member, we're going to keep the conversation going on a couple more news topics in our extended edition. If not, thank you so much for listening. If you like the show, leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. Help others find the show. If you want to get that extra juicy content, you can sign up. Patreon.com. One price.

[01:02:46] Five bucks a month gets you everything. Gets you at least one special topic and one extended edition of our regular episodes once a month there for the deluxe edition of the podcast on Patreon. Again, patreon.com slash periodercast. You can watch Jake stream on Twitch. Twitch.tv slash chipdip18. Also, join us in the Discord. Hop in on the conversation. And shoot us DMs and let us know your requests for stuff you want us to talk about on the show.

[01:03:15] Thank you so much for listening. Have a great night.