Studios FIGHTING Xbox to Stay Alive - Kinda Funny Games Daily 06.16.26

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0:34Joey Noel:Today, in the nerdy news you need to know about, Double Fine, Compulsion, and Ninja Theory are all fighting for their independence and trying to avoid Xbox closing them. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.

0:54Joey Noel:what's up everybody welcome to kind of funny games daily for tuesday june 16th 2026 i'm one of your hosts greg miller alongside the best voice in the business paris lily good morning greg hi paris how are you xbox bad again it's just you talked about it with Tim yesterday. Yeah. I don't, it's like, do we book you more or less? Cause when fate just lines it up that, okay, we're putting Paris on to these Monday and Tuesday. We need help. People are off. They're recovering from SGF. I got people on assignment. We'll get Paris on that. It'd be great. And then fucking back to back Xbox, just shit in the bed, crazy fucking news.

1:40Joey Noel:here you are. Don't book me anymore. Cause my God, this is just impeccable timing that all this is happening on back to back days, but we're here. We'll, we'll talk about it. We're here. And I'm so terrified of what else will happen today. What else? What will be the other shoe to drop this evening today? Are there more studios happening? Is there, are we getting official? Jeez Louise. We'll get into all of it and more because this is kind of funny games daily each and every week, day we run you through the biggest news stories in the video game world we are of course are live on twitch.tv slash kind of funny games youtube.com slash kind of funny games podcast services around the globe if you like that pick up a kind of funny membership but more importantly super chat youtube.com slash kind of funny games to be part of the show with your questions comments thoughts opinions about xbox and everything else under the video game sun of course we couldn't do this show without our Patreon producers on patreon.com slash kind of funny.

2:38Joey Noel:So thank you, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, Delaney, the Psalm twining and lax nomad. For now, let's begin the show with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. There it is. Time for some news. Four items on the Roper Report. A Baker's Desert. Four sounds light, but I assure you we're going to be on story number one for quite some time. Story number one comes, of course, from the Shry guy, Jason Schreier, a YouTuber who also apparently writes at Bloomberg. I didn't realize that. Xbox Closing, Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory. Several studios in Microsoft's Xbox gaming division, including Montreal-based Compulsion Games and San Francisco-based Double Fine, are in active negotiations to spin off as they try to thwart closure, according to people familiar with the company's plans.

3:34Joey Noel:Cambridge, England-based Ninja Theory, the maker of Hellblade, is also in conversations with Xbox, as are several other studios across the portfolio that are at risk of being shuttered. We named three several other studios at risk of being shuttered. the studios may still have the opportunity to buy themselves back from xbox and go independent although many employees will likely lose their jobs as a result said the people who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the press employees at several studios have been informed of the situation and given permission to seek new work but were told that the status of the studios is still in flux an xbox spokesperson declined to comment the potential closures are part of a broader reorganization being overseen by asha sharma who took over as xbox's new chief create executive officer i apologize in february last week bloomberg news reported that the gaming division is planning significant layoffs sharma sent out a memo to staff lamenting the bleak state of the business which has seen revenue and margins plummet in recent years quote going forward this cannot continue she wrote compulsion games double fine and Ninja Theory all made award-winning games that were not commercial hits.

4:52Joey Noel:But even some of Xbox's more commercially successful studios are not yet sure how they will fit into Sharma's new mandate, which will prioritize the biggest franchises as the company looks to return to growth. Compulsion Games is the developer behind South of Midnight, which was released last year. Double Fine, best known for Psychonauts, released a smaller game's Keeper and Killed over the past year. Xbox is facing the current challenges despite having made major purchases in recent years, including its acquisition of Activision Blizzard Incorporated for$69 billion in a deal that closed in 2023.

5:32Joey Noel:Xbox game studio head Craig Duncan stepped down last week ahead of the layoffs, said to people familiar with Microsoft's plans. Gaming newsletter, the game business previously reported his departure. That has happened Paris since yesterday's. games daily of course where you talked just about compulsion with tim a lot it was before we knew other studios were involved named double fine named ninja theory and then several others that are apparently in the same kind of conversations let's catch you up if you haven't been on the internet then for 24 hours everybody or maybe 23 at this point beyond that double fine broke silence last night on blue or BS.

6:15Joey Noel:That's a blue sky. Tim, Kevin, can we bring up that BS? Of course, it's just double fine putting on a sweaty laughing emoji. Cause what the fuck is going on? That's what they're saying out there. I appreciate that. Somewhat related. I'm tossing in Kotaku reports that Treyarch studio head Mark Gordon is retiring from the call of duty studio after 22 years, 10 of which he spent his studio head Paris. We're in that section right now as it's all happening at once. They got through that SGF. All right, cool. We got to have a hundred days of everything's great. And now Asha is tightening the belt and figuring out what the fuck's going on and cutting off.

6:54Joey Noel:And it seems like you look at Craig Duncan, you look at Mark Gordon, you look at these studios. Everyone is dealing with the change a different way. Mr. Lily. Yeah. I mean, we're in the hundred days, bad era. So I don't think this is going to be the end. It's probably going to get worse before, before it gets better. like ironically enough yesterday talking with tim double fun was on my mind and i was i almost said and i was like i don't want to jinx it and then here we are uh double fine obviously as a part of it the unfortunate thing is these are the three studios when you would think okay they potentially could close the studio these were the three because they're more they're not these commercially huge success type type games that come out of these three studios they're more of hey smaller unique boutique type games that this was this was the whole point of game pass and the acquisitions that they did i guess this all started back in 2018 that now under the xbox umbrella the microsoft umbrella you're going to be allowed to make these games that they don't have to be these huge hits but they're things that we appreciate it they're things that are going to be award winning that that we're going to love to see as an example keeper does not get made if double finds independent it just doesn't kiln does not get made if it's independent right even uh psychonauts too i mean tim chafer's literally been on this show and talked about how being under xbox allowed them to add more bosses and levels into psychonauts too so this is going to be bad regardless the hope would be that they can become independent and live on but people are still going to lose their jobs as a result these double fine is now going to be thrown back into the thing of having to do kickstarters and fight for money and tim schafer's not going to be able to just focus on the craft of making these games and that sucks and then i don't even know where to start with ninja theory why did we even see cinema why did we even see it you knew this was potentially going to happen why was this not pulled from their showcase it just looks bad regardless if ninja theory is able to continue the game still comes out it's just that it's the it's the ick of all of it that sure it showed great in the showcase a lot of people including myself was excited to see a third game come coming in the senua senua saga you know for lack of a better term but now it just It's just icky no matter what happens.

9:27And obviously, if Ninja Theory just closes altogether and we never get that game, what was the point of showing it? They should have never shown that game. And we already talked about compulsion. That's just terrible, too. You know, there's the rumors about the other ones. I mean, I mean, I'm pretty sure everyone's heard about Arcane at this point. Again, that would make no sense to me. You just had Matt Booty talking about Blade and how good it's looking. I know some people over at Arcane Lion were even talking about, hey, we're cooking. So clearly they're deep into the development of the game.

9:57And then if that closes, what are we doing? And I get it. Asha's coming in as an outsider. She's doing what's right for the business. We've already talked about all that, but it's, it's just icky the way it's going down. There's just no way around it.

10:13Joey Noel:Yeah. It's all disgusting. I mean, I think you can take the personalities out of it and whatever, just in general, like this is something we've lamented for so long on this show, right? Like, I don't even know when you'd want to go in and really talk about kind of funny games daily moving into its layoff era but like where we just talk about the fact that you have all these mega corporations and conglomerates having so many studios which means so many people underneath them and just losing sight of all the human beings and lives attached to this so that yeah I mean you and me can sit here uh you know what I mean as as two men who've watched wall street and understand business and be like sure i get anyone coming in asha coming in sati and adela looking down and you go in there you're like fucking turn a profit right that was the other story yesterday from uh games daily right of sati and adela being like been 25 years it's time for xbox to be sustainable like you hear that in a business sense you see asha come in you know what i mean like i think it's funny bless broke out his uh moment yesterday of talking about there'd be layoffs in like clockwork you can go as far back as when we had the breaking news fill us out asha is in we were on there being like there are going to be layoffs from this this is bad for these developers this is bad for these studios things are going to close none of this is just because it's predictable just because we could all call it a mile away people who listen to the show doesn't make it any less painful doesn't make it any less disgusting that we are in a place in 2026 that in granted you could probably take it way back beyond that but we're in a place where these fucking corporations just don't care about the people no one is trying to do right by their employees anymore they are only trying to do right by their shareholders these companies and that's what's disgusting it's disgusting yeah that you know i you want to talk about matt booty complimenting arcane or comp and there's been so many things of like how great this We want to be able to do something like kiln or what I like.

12:17Joey Noel:Complimenting these studios. It's like on the one hand, you want to be like you double speaking motherfuckers. But on the other hand, I get what's happening here. This is exactly what I think went wrong with Phil and Sarah. It's that Sati and Adela and Microsoft is what's on top of them. Fucking walking around with a 5 ,000 pound gorilla on your back. Who's like, it doesn't matter what you see. You can sit there and say how great these games are. You can believe that. You can like everybody at Double Fine, but at the end of the day, this is a business. And when your boss says, we got to make business decisions, we got to go do this.

12:49Joey Noel:But that doesn't make any of this easier. And to your point, walk with me here. When I did Kind of Feudy for that first time, I put up my first poll before people understood that we didn't announce it. I put up in December before we announced I was taking this. We're spinning it off, and I'm doing it in between game showdown seasons. And I put up a poll in December when people still thought it was a blessing poll. and feedback on the red, it was like, man, some of these questions are kind of mean. And I was like, you know what? I took that feedback and I'm like, I'm not going to use them because I didn't think it through that way.

13:21Joey Noel:But one of my questions was, I asked 1500 kind of funny best friends, like what are the next studios that are going to be closed at Xbox? And top of the list, right? Is double fine. Number two is compulsion. Number three is rare. Number four is Ninja theory. Then five is halo studios, which is interesting, but I'm not throwing this out to mock it or say it but i'm saying we all can look at this and understand that the intersection of art and business business always fucking wins and it stomps art into the ground and it is sad and it is disgusting and i fucking hate it and so like the ray of hope here the silver lining to all of this yesterday's story where it was compulsion is done and then while you guys were live breaking news from Rebecca hey it looks like there's negotiation to maybe save compulsion we can sit here and be excited that compulsion might be independent that ninja theory might be independent that double fine might be independent but as the article from Jason says and as you just talked about Paris that still means layoffs that still means saying goodbye to your friends because they are going to leave these these agreements with Xbox and I am very much talk shooting from the hip here of what's actually going to happen but you leave and you're in free fall yeah hopefully severance this that the other i don't know if microsoft is going to be nice enough to give you a wind down time as much as it is like cool you got it it's all yours and then you have to imagine let's just take double fine because we know them so well it is tim and it is a couple other studio leads bringing in their own money getting out loans trying to do this blah blah yeah we're independent again hey hooray they are right back to where exactly they were and where i personally believe they hated which was the next game has to hit or we are fucked we need to have a game that makes money or we are fucked we have a san francisco office we have all these different people like we've seen that you know in double fine's always been so great about their journey but when they got bought by xbox the prevalent thought was okay great tim and team gets to go back to what they love doing making games just making games to worry about this and now you are right back into the fucking fire of cool dozens of people's livelihoods now depend on you you got to make it happen and who knows what they've been working on how close they are to it's it's a nightmare Paris no it absolutely is and the the other terrible part of this is there's no money there's no one investing so even if you are independent who's actually going to put up the capital to help you sustain so to your point Double Fine goes independent right they don't go away we're all going to be happy of that they're probably going to say goodbye to a lot of people at the studio terrible all right whatever game they're working on let's say they continue to do it do they have enough funding for it to get to completion and actually launch are they gonna have to take shortcuts right and then when it comes out it has to make money or the studio goes away it's i my whole thing is because obviously on xcast we talked for years about game pass the greatness of it allowing the whole point of game pass was smaller games like from a double find the discoverability of it the fact that it doesn't have to rely on being just this big hit game to to be sustainable it was almost like this big group effort you know rising tide raises all ships or whatever the analogy is and now that is not the case because it's pretty clear the low performing studios are probably going to get cut and there are going to focus on the big triple titles that wasn't the whole point of game pass at least for me anyways why i was excited about it so we're right back to where we were six seven years ago and it sucks it just sucks i don't even know the way to say it and to your point real people are being affected by this and we're losing the art of gaming that that's the whole point of indie gaming having you know these smaller studios they just get to make some cool shit it doesn't have to be this big blockbuster There's just something cool.

17:32Again, Keeper is a great example of this for me. I freaking love Keeper. It wasn't this big AAA game. It was a very simple story, but it was very heartwarming at the same time, and it was beautiful. I just love the artwork in it. I love the music. There were no voices in the game. Double Client can't afford to make something like that anymore. They got to make Psychonauts 3 and hope people get excited for it and go buy it. I don't know.

17:58Joey Noel:See, it's interesting too, because I feel like out of the, these three double fine compulsion Ninja theory, right? The ones I would be least worried about the future is double fine. Cause I feel like double fines narrative is very simple and they've done such a great job of fostering an audience that is double fine fans. And so I really do feel that they are doing whatever they do with Xbox. They settle it big. Hey, we are independent again. That's great. And then if you have the runway, because again, I don't know how long these negotiations and conversations are actually going to go on, launch the Kickstarter or the Indie, the fig for the next game.

18:38Joey Noel:Cause of course that's what saved them when they broke them out and made them what they are when they did that for a broken age. Right. Even though it was just untitled point and click, whatever they called it, do that again, get people back that way. And that's how you roll. It's a compulsion of like, I love South and midnight. You love South and midnight. So many people love South and midnight. and contrast, right? Their PlayStation 4 launch game that I remember so well where I met so much of the team. Like, they aren't that, hey, here's what we are. You jump over to Ninja Theory and again, I thought, when I saw Senua at the showcase here, I was like, oh, wow, I really didn't expect another Senua from you, nor did I expect it that fast.

19:18Joey Noel:I thought we would go somewhere different with it. So I worry about that one of, for Senua, how much of what we saw there was just basically like that old Wonder Woman trailer. We are doing this, but we're so far from that moment. Like, to then jump in and like, I don't know, but Senua has always looked like an expensive game to me. Like, I think that's where you need the Xbox backing. You need the people behind that and what's going on. And again, I think if I'm Ninja Theory, and let's just say Xbox says you can have Senua and walk away with it, I'm like, fuck. I don't know. We were doing Senua because you wanted another Senua.

19:52Joey Noel:I'm very much imagining a scenario here. you wanted another Senua Xbox and we knew we could turn it fast but we don't think that's going to sell independent of you like without you pushing it and that it's like those are the ones I start to get really scared about fucking if we don't get this goddamn blade game Paris if we don't get this fucking blade game what the fuck man and I mean maybe it's crap which I can't imagine because arcane is incredibly talented but like what is up with the Marvel games like curse like what is going like how they seem like marvel games and i know i'm jumping a track a bit it seemed like marvel games had the best head on their shoulders of partnering with second parties and we're doing all this stuff but then to partner with xbox they can't get their shit together partner with ea they can't get their shit together it's like where the fuck is an ultimate alliance for i know i'm way insomniac you're killing it you're doing great no no no notes snap great job whatever i know the audience is always mad at you but you've been successful like what the fuck is going how can you not make a blade game how can xbox look at this after the success of indiana jones the success of taking our talented studios that make a specific thing that we think we can put an ip on like fucking maddening look i'm i'm gonna remain hopeful here blade does come out but blade has got to be the most cursed ip just in the industry right now i mean wesley's wesley snipes called it best there's only gonna be one blade and it's freaking him so i don't know i i hope it comes out again that team they made death loop which is death loop is a game i really like so love death absolutely so i hope this one is just not true and they figure it out and the game does come out so i don't know man but but just going back to your point yeah the whole lucasfilm game thing like everything they're doing with star wars and these marvel i was like yeah this is such a great idea and just it's just not been landing amy heading captain america black panhandle game that's just gestating over and over and it's like what jesus christ uh we have lots of super chats but i want to bring in actually let me get the super chats and then we have more i have a 40 000 foot view from uh game spot but we'll get there in a second okay uh lots of you are chatting of course as we all wrestle with this so i thank you very much for that um where do i want to jump in though let's go to own miss prime uh it's sad no studio deserves to be shuttered but why they tripled down on a walking sim with clunky combat and cool audio.

22:13Joey Noel:Senua doesn't sell. It's pretty and boring. It's about what, Greg? Money. Yes. You're not wrong. I guess this is what always drives me up the wall about this stuff, is that Xbox wasn't lied to. They didn't get a false bill of sale here. They knew what they were buying. it's like it would be akin to and this is not i'm using real things here but stick with me i'm not trying to insult anybody but it would be akin to if we bought mid max and then when i laid them all off and closed the thing i was like well they weren't making movies well no they don't make movies idiot they make video game podcasts like we do you know what i mean like you knew what you were buying and that's what's so fucking crazy about this where i've seen this i'm nearly 20 years into doing this full time right i've seen this story over and over and over and over and over again to the point that it's just like when people talk to us kind of funny like oh man would you ever sell i'm like we'll never say never but i can't imagine why the fuck we would do that because it would be all right cool i'm gonna make a huge payday and fuck mike like i don't know what mike's not gonna have a job in seven years probably like it's like we don't like and i i'm not throwing that shade on the video game developers as much as i am in the situation of just are the people who are running the studio as much as I am in the situation of like Xbox knew they were buying these people and had the best intentions but it's like as you kept adding people to the fucking harem of video game developers and studios you kept doing it even when the numbers were going down and it was like did we really think we were going to spend our way out of this problem because here we are in people's lives are not destroyed work isn't everything but they're fucked up right now as they figure out what the hell they're going to do how they're going to have health care what they're gonna how they're gonna pay their rent their mortgage etc their kids school bills like and again to be working on blade like if i was arcane and that was the ip that came through i'd be like oh my god it's too big to fail we're okay you know what i mean like double fine very um honestly and unflinchingly right in their documentary series when they were filming for uh that one side odyssey right uh they have the whole conversation when xbox comes in to buy them and you see the staff be like yeah it's all well and good right now but what about down the road and i'm not again blaming double fine leadership for doing this i understand why it made sense for them but to get to this point which is almost the inevitable conclusion like it's just so maddening that people aren't taking care of each other but back to onimus's question of like it's about the money yes it is about the money it's always about the money i understand that i'm the one screaming it's about the money so it's such a wrestling of your brain versus your heart of like yeah i get it i i mean xbox is losing money hand over fist they are not doing well and i know and i as i've said on this show many times i don't see a path forward that includes hardware so whatever but that's my problem and that's your problem pairs is that we're fucking smart you chat big bad beluga uh sky uh big five you're all smart you're here listening we're talking about the most obvious shit in the world so as we said yesterday on a greg way that is It's going to be up, but it didn't go up because it's wrong.

25:30Joey Noel:But like, as we said yesterday, if you took any of us and gave us control of Xbox, we would walk into Sati Nadella and be like, here's the way to success. We're not getting rid of any of these fucking studios. What we're doing is stopping fucking hardware. You fucked up the world. You fucked up the entire industry by wanting to go after this AI shit. And now no one can buy components. So it doesn't matter if I get gears as an exclusive as an Xbox. You can't buy a new Xbox because it's too fucking expensive. We can't make new Xboxes because the components are too expensive. Your next thing that would be the shot in the fucking arm right now would be, hey, we have a brand new spanking console called Helix.

26:07Joey Noel:That motherfucker's too expensive. So Satya Nadella, eat a big bag of shit, you son of a bitch. You fucked this into the ground. So now we're going to save the Xbox brand the only way we know how, and that's appealing to the gamers. That's keeping all these studios, letting them make cool art, and we're going to fucking publish it everywhere. Why the fuck are we talking about exclusives right now? What the fuck are we? What? goddamn reality are you living in right now Xbox leadership that we're thinking exclusives are what's going to bring people back to this platform no get out of the fucking hardware keep these studios double fine we need an awesome fun game in nine months to put on game pass or whatever the fuck it needs to be and we're going to put it on game pass but we'll sell it on mobile we'll put it there too like we are going to produce shit this is the way to do it we are gonna make shit and guess what yes bethesda love you you do great shit i'm going over and i'm saying fucking outer worlds devs you're making fallout new vegas 2 when we're calling it fallout new vegas 2 those kids who made the fucking fallout london mod i'm giving them money and we're fucking making a thing out of that too like we're we're gonna have fallout yes we love you you did a great job with all the elder scrolls six todd we can't wait for we're making a spin-off someone else is doing that too like we are going to i'm here i'm here right now and i'm talking to sati well he's just giant fucking bag of shit because fuck this guy but i'm saying you motherfucker we are gonna make all the tentpole bullshit you want but we're also to go back to asha sharma saying they wanted to be the fucking king brand of entertainment or whatever the fucking like we do that by making games and appealing to hardcore gamers and the core fucking audience we need a fucking vision for what Xbox is and we do not have that to this day to this day and it was like you are not going anywhere with this brand if we don't have a vision for what it is I don't know how you cannot look at the failure of the announcement and generation that was the Xbox one and not go we will never do that again we will never step foot on a stage and not have a message we believe in nobody believes in any of this except the fucking money i hope all these studios can get out and go have successful lives and that's not possible and i hate that yeah i'm completely with you i mean like i said with tim yesterday the exclusive thing doesn't make sense in the current climate because you can't make enough hardware and the hardware you can make cost too much yep so unless they got a plan in the next couple years when he looks comes out that all of a sudden their hardware is more affordable and more accessible to more people i i don't understand it you know and that's why when we first talked about how do you fix xbox i'm like they got to keep this stuff on playstation they have too many studios they have too many games you can't limit it to a population of 30 or 35 million people on an xbox console i don't know i don't like you said it's the money the plan the plan is the plan until it isn't a plan.

29:10I get heard saying all that, but it seems to me what they were originally thinking was the right move for what Xbox currently is. So we will see over these next hundred days. Obviously, it's going to have to be a drastic shift. I'm just not seeing it on the hardware side right now due to the cost.

29:30Joey Noel:Maybe we were crazy and we're the only people smart enough to figure, oh no, here we go to GameSpot with Eddie. Upcoming Xbox exclusives are being sent out to die, analyst says. Xbox pushes back. Xbox's chief strategy officer has pushed back against claims that Microsoft could quote-unquote reverse course and alter its stance on exclusive games. At the same time, analyst Reese Elliott of Annalena Analytics tells GameSpot that Gears of War E-Day and Clockwork Revolution are being sent out to die on purpose. Matthew Ball, who joined Xbox earlier this year, said the rumors saying Microsoft quote-unquote might reverse course are false.

30:06Joey Noel:Gears of War E-Day and Clockwork Revolution will stay exclusive, he said. adding that there are no conversations and have been no conversations to reverse course. Not only this, Microsoft is not, I'm sorry. Not only is Microsoft not changing its stance on exclusives, ball reiterated that Microsoft plans on this and plans to build on this. I'm so mad plans to build on this and release signature exclusives every year. Back to the analyst Elliot told GameSpot that Microsoft will never succeed in the console space and promising fans, exclusive games to help drive console sales is not going to make a difference.

30:41Joey Noel:Gears of War Ida and Clockwork Revolution are basically being sent out to die, he said. Console, as we know, it is over for Xbox and has been for a while. There's no turning that ship. But they still need to pretend to care until they've transitioned to pastures where they can return to growth, parentheses, if they succeed. A Gears console exclusive does not shift meaningful numbers of Series X units. exclusivity as a hardware driver is over for them because the install base it would drive simply isn't responsive enough to justify the cost of building hardware at a five times component premium and those games are on steam anyway he added elliot went on to say that gears of war eating clockwork revolution are quote-unquote sacrificial lambs for hearts and minds not economics so starting here with the latter before we get to the former uh well i may be using that wrong starting with the most recent one right as we've often said these is exclusive bullshit as you all know is just trying to appease the twitter crowd or x crowd i should say that's mad about this and doesn't understand business and just wants to justify their fucking box for some reason to go back to the top and talk about matthew ball having the gall as i rhyme all day uh to say we're no plans we're not gonna reverse course what are you talking about matthew fucking ball we have the quotes from Matt booty complimenting the double fine and compulsion games of the people you're closing down right now y 'all don't get to act we've never gone back on our word before we've never you can't act like this isn't the fucking thing we're seeing right now in real goddamn time like and again I get the fucking dance you're a business you're a corporation This is the plan till it's not the plan.

32:32Joey Noel:Fine. You have given no fucking reason for anyone to believe anything that is said. And again, I see it. Paris sees it. Sky sees it. Virum deck sees it. And this analyst who seems like is probably, they all see it. This strategy is not going to work. It's not going to work. This isn't the way to save Xbox. What are we talking about? What are we fucking talking about? Maddening Paris. no it it is maddening because i understand we've talked about it i understand you want to take care of your core audience so this is why you do a gear as a clockwork you you want to make them feel good about purchasing that box and i understand exclusivity is a part of that's a reason to buy the box but it's like we already said the box is too expensive and i know asha sharma has said it herself she knows it i'm pretty sure matthew ball has also said it they obviously understand they got to change the business plan to make it more affordable i mean i guess it's actions instead of words at this point we got to see it because it's very hard to see right now that they're they're going to be able to get to that point where they can make games exclusive again and incentivize people to buy hardware but that's never gonna happen yeah and again like uh let's bring in a thing but then i'm gonna quickly piggyback off of it i lost it already because i've expanded oh here you go uh rdj 45 super chat and said quote unquote xbox bought them because i was saying that you mean phil spencer bought them and then left them to do whatever they want and now he's gone and ash has to clean up his mess i do mean that you're right good i i'm talking about xbox as a brand microsoft as a company i do with every fiber of my fucking being believe that if Phil Spencer wasn't having the fucking Reigns jerked left and right every time he makes a decision they change course because of Satya and Dadella probably being up his ass about it I believe Phil Spencer would still be there now would that be a successful thing would Xbox everything's an Xbox paid off and gamepad that's a different reality we can't talk about because we don't know I do think we are here again because of the interference of Microsoft of them not just letting Xbox do what they want to do and I know that sounds stupid but again I think Xbox had a plan as I said when I switched over to being an Xbox play anywhere oh my god this is so great person like I don't know if this plan leads to success but it's definitely interesting it's definitely their best chance at success because now how many fucking years into a console generation we're gonna say we're going back to exclusives on two titles what the fuck are we talking about what the fuck that's not going to work like magic crystal ball like don't worry about it so Matthew ball don't step here like there's no plans to reverse course there isn't right now matthew ball and i'm looking forward to see you eating your fucking shoe when sati and adela tells you this is fucking horrible how much we spent how much money on gears of war e-day and it made how much money only being on pc and xbox fuck it put it on playstation 5 and then they won't buy it there because old game is old that's where we are that's where we are that's what it's actions over words now matthew ball i don't want to eat your shoe i know again you have somebody you have a 5 000 pound gorilla on you i'm just mad i'm just mad paris we can yeah it's it's it's it's just a frustrating thing of just where the industry as a whole is but obviously xbox is going to be highlighted in it because as asha sharma herself said they're the second largest publisher in the world so they have a responsibility to so many studios and so many employees as a result that you want to see these games come out you want to play them you want to enjoy them you want everything to succeed i mean you know i will raise my hand and say i'm guilty that the quote-unquote plan that was starting to be enacted five or six years ago of course i was a fan of it because i'm like we're gonna get a bunch of freaking cool games there's a great value here with the subscription service let's go and now here we are in 2026 and due to so many other different factors it's not it's not a reality you literally can't do what they started out to do six years ago you just can't and now you're trying to have your cake and eat it too and i don't think that's realistic either i think it's one or the other i said it yesterday either you go all in with this or you just become a publisher i i don't know this middle ground right now just doesn't seem reasonable to me i don't know how it works dan and the dan doesn't super chat but i'm fired up and i'll fight the chat uh it's gone there but dan said uh some of the effect of paris you justify every move microsoft makes and then he said something else a little less offensive i don't understand if you know what the show is because the show is reading the news and reacting to it and trying to make sense of it so in the same way we're flipping out right now because the plan doesn't make fucking sense the plan that they enacted that you were excited for Paris that I was excited for made sense we are already done we've lost this generation so to try to make up for it we're gonna buy these video game publishers I'm sorry developers that we know are incredibly fucking talented that we are then going to make money off of their games putting them everywhere but also maybe having them exclusive here this is the early early days of it right okay we're not gonna do that game passes the subscription service cloud is this way.

38:08Joey Noel:Maybe, you know, you know, we're talking five years ago. Maybe they were just like, maybe if hardware ever gets really expensive, it would be cool to be able to stream video games to your fucking phone TV toaster for 10 bucks a month or not, you know, now 22 bucks a month or whatever. And then of course, Microsoft's like, where am I making money off of that? That's fucking stupid. Don't. And then here we are. I got to have a fucking, I got to have AI and goddamn everything. Co-pilot's got to tell me how to wipe my fucking ass. I mean, I mean, I look at it this way in simple terms. Again, it's Monday morning quarterbacking.

38:39It's hindsight. But in 2020, when they were coming out with the Series X and the S, you would imagine in 2026, the Series X is probably$299 right now, and the S is probably$150. So now you can buy the hardware. So it makes more sense to have a game pass. You got all these games because everybody can afford to go buy a freaking Xbox. You can't do that in 2026. And that is just the fundamental problem. People literally cannot afford to own the box. So having exclusive, which is what you were just talking about gears. And I think Matthew ball has said this with, with Chris string already, but they know they're going to lose money on it.

39:18They know it, but they're doing it because this is the plan today, but will it be the plan two or three years from now? No,

39:26Joey Noel:absolutely not. Two super chats on this. And then I'm going to go to an ad and we'll probably get into more super chats because you guys are so talkative on this one short change hero says hot take xbox listens to fans and the fans wanted a box and exclusives if xbox pulled the trigger then fans were aiming the gun i do appreciate you blaming the audience but what i would go back to is what you've heard me over this 20 plus year or 20 year career of mine talk about is that when you hear something online you are listening to the vocal minority no normal people are not the normal and i'm somebody online are not us they are not people online they are not the fucking people tweeting at asha sharma demanding exclusives yeah like you this is why and i'm not taking a swing at asha but this is why you want people who have been in this business long enough to be able to look at and go that's a terrible move we just talk about video games we look at that we go that is a terrible move at least the move of everything is exclusive going forward from us would have been like I also don't think that's going to save, but that's at least something that's compelling and makes sense.

40:30Joey Noel:SG17 says Xbox is captured by reactionary Twitter dregs. They feel like they can't spurn them and lose what little base they have. Asha et al. are terminally online. I agree to a degree with that, of course. Yes, the people in these comments are not going to move the needle for you. If they already own their Xbox, they already own their Xbox. How are we going to get other people to come in here and do it? and nothing I've seen in terms of the strategy right now says, oh, that's a reason to run and get an Xbox if you don't have an Xbox, but we'll see. Everybody, we have more news to do. It's all good news from here.

41:06Joey Noel:No, it isn't. Number two is bad news as well. But we couldn't do the news each and every weekday without your support. If you like what we do here, the rants, the raves, the fun, go ahead and get a membership. You can get on patreon.com slash kind of funny, youtube.com slash kind of funny games, Apple or Spotify. Of course, you go there, toss us a few bucks. so you get everything we do ad-free. You get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller, and a series we call Greg Way. And of course, you get good karma for supporting an 11-person, 11-year-old small business. But right now, you're not using your benefits, so here's a word from our sponsors.

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43:47Joey Noel:CYYUVOD says I understand it's just business but fuck Xbox if Double Fine gets shut down and not given the chance to go indie I'm going to destroy every Xbox I own Double Fine means so much to me and still working on two more games according to their documentary that is like one of the very real and scary realities that they don't get to go independent for me it's like once I heard that I was like oh it kind of became a foregone conclusion of course they're going to let that happen but again if this whole thing is driven by the bottom line and money microsoft doesn't give a shit about actually letting them out and letting them go have fun and have their name and do all this different stuff paris yeah i mean that's this is what we've been talking about that is the scary part about all of this i do not want double find to go away i mean they're just so unique and innovative in this industry that i want i want to see the next double find game so I get his business but no they got to figure this out not change of says this wouldn't have happened if we'd gotten costume quest 3 all kidding aside all these employees are so talented and they deserve so much more they do even though I will be honest if they go independent I think that's my best shot of getting costume quest 3 so I'm pretty stoked if I can make that happen but then I would have this Halloween everybody's got to buy costume quest 1 and 2 again okay that's what we got to do thank you uh this one I want to push back on mr.