Bitcast 292 : Discussing the Evolving Gaming Industry

In Bitcast 292 the guys discuss the latest round of layoffs, this time affecting multiple Xbox first-party studios under Bethesda. They chat on AAA game development, how Gen Alpha is impacting gaming, and why we're seeing record layoffs. They also talk Hades 2 early-access release, Animal Well, Indika, and a lot more.
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#Gaming #Podcast #Xbox #PlayStation
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[@expertb6348]

I'm 100% with Hoeg on this one. The amount of anger I've seen everywhere on the closer of these studious is insane. You'd think Microsoft shutdown all of Xbox with their reaction. It's honestly the reason why I dropped A LOT of podcasts over the past few months. You guys are genuinely one of a kind, and I dread the day you decide to stop. I'm an audio listener and the amounts of times you guys make me laugh is insane. I'm sure if I were to watch it instead I would laugh more because of Travis shenanigans. Thank you very much for the *weekly* shows xD

[@SeasonedGaming]

Always appreciate it Expert - thank you!

[@robertvarley8740]

I think the problem here with Hoegs argument is hes only looking at it from an objective pov. Yes from a business pov you can understand why these decisions were made. But at the same time you should also be able to understand why people would be upset about it. Maybe some people are out there blowing it out of porpotion. But its definitely a situation we should be able to empathise with.

[@SeasonedGaming]

Agreed Rob!

[@triplecombogaming]

There's a case to be made for all the studios being closed. My issue with Tango is that part of the industry is growth. Imagine if Sony closed Naughty Dog after Uncharted 1, or Guerrilla Games after Killzone Shadow Fall? Tango showed that they were capable of making a successful game. And while their other projects, The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo, didn't succeed as well, those were under the Zenimax umbrella. Being under Microsoft, why not keep the studio around and focus on growing and nurturing Tango so their next game can be bigger and better? And with some games going to other platforms, the play may have been for the sequel to launch multiplatform to help with revenue. Unless you're Call of Duty, studios aren't always going to break sales records. The ones that do find critical success are where you focus resources to help them grow and hopefully find better success. I know Microsoft as a corporation is always trying to make a profit, but I feel they're in the wrong industry if they aren't willing to nurture the teams instead of closing them, especially if they aren't hurting for money.

[@SeasonedGaming]

All fair points that I agree with (this is Ains). It's a frustrating part of the industry for sure.

[@StingrayX]

I'm going to have to hard disagree with Hoeg on this one. What happened is a slap in the face to developers who work hard and win awards just to get sacked. I feel like we should voice our opinions on the matter. Maybe it would cause a welcome change in the future, maybe not, but at least we can try.

[@SeasonedGaming]

Personally I think that's fair Stingray. I think the vast majority agree too. Sadly, I think this panel has just lived in the spaces (or worked with) so we often try to explain the corporate viewpoint even if we don't personally agree with it. More of just explaining the "whys."

[@StingrayX]

@SeasonedGaming Yeah, each of us has our own views from personal experience for sure, so it fluxes. One of the main reasons I respect you 3. There are more or less, different opinions from each conversation, per week.

[@SeasonedGaming]

@@StingrayX We try. There are PLENTY of echo-chamber shows out there. We don't want to be one of them. We welcome disagreement as you know.

[@marianopompa2342]

I am still dying over Mopthoter's day 😂😂😂😂

[@SeasonedGaming]

New holiday for sure. Takes place on February 30th every 6 years.

[@jamespingel8730]

IDK how you guys close on Skull and Bones and don't mention Anthem while you're at it. I've been doing gamepass for about 1.5 years now. I started when I realized there were like 4 games I wanted all hitting gamepass within a few months of each other in late 2022 - starting with Midnight Fight Express and capping off with High on Life. My original goal was to play all those games for $30 in 3 months and get out. After I finished and/or bounced off all those games, I found there was a lot of stuff that I wanted to play but had never gotten around to for one reason or another. So I played through stuff like the newer Hitman, Mirror's Edge 1/2, Jedi Fallen Order, and then I discovered the Yakuza series and that kept me busy for an entire year. In that time, I was also able to play Starfield for about 75 hours and checked out Forza Motorsport - which I still keep installed and do the new races every week. So now, I keep gamepass for Forza and am going to give it until the end of this year to see what that xbox first party lineup looks like. I have Jedi Fallen Order which just game to gamepass via EA play now that it's a year old (I'm enjoying that one though unfortunately it runs terribly on my PC). I am checking out a few indie games here and there to tide me over (Little Kitty Big City among them), but I am really hoping for something like a Gears of War collection so that I can go through that entire series (for some reason only Gears 1 is on gamepass right now). I also haven't played a COD campaign since Infinite Warfare and am not interested in making an Activision/Blizzard account, so if COD started coming to gamepass I would probably check the campaigns for the last few games out. I suspect if MS can get all those games on gamepass and start delivering a big first party game that I'm interested in trying at least twice a year then I will be a subscriber for a long time.

[@SeasonedGaming]

It sounds like in your case Game Pass works well and in-line with their expectation. So that's good James - glad you're enjoying it!

[@marloncarrero6575]

Watch Xbox make only a portion of the new Call of Duty experience free on Game Pass and require a separate purchase to access some features...

[@SeasonedGaming]

Haha we shall certainly find out soon Marlon.

[@scoty_does]

Its not that Microsoft was looking at xbox not making 1 quarter. Its that Xbox hasn' t been making a profit for 10 years. 70 billion here and 70 billion there, and soon you are talking about real money..

[@SeasonedGaming]

No profit for 10 years? I'm not sure what you mean by this but it's not true. They've generally been profitable for quite some time particularly in the past few years (you can find the fiscal reporting on our site).

[@scoty_does]

@@SeasonedGaming Sorry i meant last place in console sales. They have lost console market share by 50% each generation after Xbox 360. Xbox one X has sold roughly 1/3'rd of what PS5 has.

[@scoty_does]

@@SeasonedGaming My bad. I meant last place in console sales for 10 years. 360 sold 84 million units, xbox one sold 57 million and xbox one X only sold 20 million units. Its business that has been shrinking for 10 years. 70 billion divided by 20 million is around $3000 per user they need to make up.

[@Mmachine88]

@scoty_does yes the xbox one gen sold less consoles, but at the same time they started to offer their games and services in more than one place and in more than one way. You can access both by streaming mobiley without any console, using a PC, and even streaming from your old console. They have their own Xbox app on PC that thanks to GamePass has gotten decent traction, nothing compared to steam but seems to be much more interaction than the Epic games store. It's just odd to compare console sales to the 360 as if in any kind of world that it's a 1to1 when there's more than 3 different ways to engage in Xbox content. So in many ways you could argue the opposite and multiple the current hardware by 3 and get a rough idea what the numbers might be closer to. Not a 1to1 obviously and it's a very VERY rough idea, but I would say it's closer than what you're trying to compare. And did you mean the series X sold 20 million? The series x/s is around 28million sold currently. It's always fascinating to see those who argue against Xbox seemingly always grossly understate the amount they have sold and overstate what other brands do lol

[@Mmachine88]

It's just insane the amount of useless outrage has been going on surrounding Xbox and MS. It's a shame how so many cannot or are refusing to have more than one thought and opinion on the matter and too much "All or nothing" and "black/white" thinking. We can all be upset and disappointed by the recent studio closes and job cuts, but it's like people have 20% of the what's going on while reacting and responding with 80% emotions, and fair enough, but then they take that emotion and spin it into believing they know everything that's going on and and that opinion and feelings are facts.

[@SeasonedGaming]

Sadly that's the state of gaming discourse in a lot of areas and even more sadly, the state of gaming journalism in areas. It feeds itself. We try to offer something different SG in both the way we talk about things and how we report them.

[@Mmachine88]

@SeasonedGaming And that's why I value and contiue to support the work you all do ...EVEN Travis 😅 With peace and love.