XBOX CHAOS: Compulsion Games Closing?! - Kinda Funny Games Daily 06.15.26

0:00This episode is brought to you by Video Game Town, an independent website that strives to pay some of your favorite writers to build a new community for smart and fun daily gaming coverage. Check them out at Video Game Town and on every social media platform. Experience hits technology with the new Pro X2 Super Strike, the fastest mouse Logitech G has ever built. Head over to LogitechG.com to grab yours and start clicking faster than the competition. If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash kind of funny. Today's stories include Microsoft says Xbox has to make money.

0:38The information says Microsoft might spin off Xbox. And Kotaku says Xbox is shutting down compulsion games. Love all this and more because this is Bad Xbox Headlines Daily.

0:56what's up and welcome to kind of funny games daily for monday june 15th 2026 of course i'm your host tim gettys and i am joined today by the perfect man to be here with me today paris lily you know what's hilarious about all this is and this is a bad news day but yeah we we pre-schedule all these things so i was already coming on today regardless and then all this drops it seems like every time i come on kfgd lately there's some breaking news and it's bad so let's let's just jump into it we gotta jump into it man there's a lot to talk about hey remember if you are watching live you can be part of the show by super chatting on youtube.com slash kind of funny games we couldn't do this without our patreon producers on patreon.com slash kind of funny so thank you to carl jacobs omega buster delaney the psalm twining and lax nomad for now let's begin with what is and forever will be the roper report it's time for some news we have Craig didn't write it down uh six stories today uh Baker's Dozo starting with story number one and before I even read this Paris I just I need to tell you this morning I was in the shower I was excited to get in talk about video games I didn't know what the news stories were.

2:13I hadn't checked my phone yet. And I started thinking about the stories that I have seen over the last couple days and the direction Xbox may or may not be going. Who knows? And I started thinking about South of Midnight. And I was like, man, what I would do for a South of Midnight 2. I love South of Midnight 1 more than most people understanding its flaws, but knowing that a sequel could just be that much better. And I was like, damn Tim, there's no chance in hell you're getting a sequel to South of Midnight. In fact, with all the news going around, I'm worried about compulsion. And here we are.

2:48Xbox is planning to shutter Peabody Award winning South of Midnight Studio Compulsion Games. This comes from Rebecca Valentine and Ethan Gatch at Kotaku. Xbox is planning to shut down Compulsion Games, developer of Peabody Award winning South of Midnight and We Happy Few. Kotaku has learned. It's unclear how many individuals total will be impacted. The studio's LinkedIn page says around 90 individuals work there. though Kotaku understands the actual total to be higher, and multiple individuals have now posted on social media looking for work. Just two months ago, the studio's talent lead was posting job listings on LinkedIn for the studio, advertising work on a fascinating, intriguing, brand-new IP.

3:25This comes just days after Xbox CEO Asha Sharma and Microsoft Game Studios head Matt Booty published an open email to the company revealing Xbox's recent financial and logistical struggles amid reports that mass layoffs were expected to begin in the coming weeks. Shama had praised the studio just earlier this year. Quote, the big things that we're thinking about are we want to make great games, she told Gamefile in April. And so, you know, Chief Content Officer Matt Booty can talk about that. The Peabody Award for South of Midnight and Kiln coming out today, like I just feel like every day there's something wonderful there.

3:58Booty, meanwhile, had pointed to Compulsion as an example of Xbox's pursuit of award-winning games. Quote, South of Midnight today won a Peabody Award, which I think is such a validation of the storytelling capability of games these days, he said in the same interview. And that's right on the heels of them winning a BAFTA for a new IP a couple Fridays ago. And that's our goal, right? I mean, we run a portfolio, and our portfolio includes some of the biggest franchises on the planet, Call of Duty and Minecraft. But we're also dedicated to places where new intellectual property can come to life and where these stories can be told, you know, in our studios, like Compulsion and Double Fine, that can get nominations for Keeper.

4:34that got some nominations for Keeper. Xbox did not respond to Kotaku's request for comments. Let's start there. Paris. I mean, yeah, where do you even dig into this? Let's just go back to South of Midnight for a second because you mentioned it at the top. You know, when we reviewed it, I gave it a 7 out of 10. And it was strictly because, hey, the combat, there wasn't a lot there with the combat, right? That was the biggest critique, but everything else was just so good. The art, the music, just the, just the world that they had crafted. I just loved it so much. Right. That despite the combat not being that great, like what was the one song that were super catchy?

5:20I think it was Molly Molly or something like that. Right. Just sticks in your head. That to your point. Yeah. Two-toed Tom. That's another thing. I was excited to see what they could do next. Like, hey, they've gotten some great lessons learned from South of Midnight. They know they were lacking on the combat side. Maybe this they can take it to another level. And just the the love and the care that they put into celebrating the Deep South with South of Midnight. Right. I was fortunate enough to go to the studio before before launch. I got to interview the team. I got to see a lot of people that were working on this this game.

5:57So I understood the passion they had for it. but when and i know we'll get into it later in there but when xbox started talking about you know some tough decisions are going to be coming and all that everyone started saying layoffs this was probably the number one studio that people said yep compulsion i think i think everyone if it wasn't number one it was in the top three of studios they thought that potentially could get laid off and here we are i mean when i saw the kotaku headline and i saw it was rebecca a valentine i go this is real this is gonna happen and it sucks it's it's a bummer again anyone losing their job right now in this current economy in this industry you know sucks and to see a studio that was doing something unique that was doing something so artistic that they're gonna go away and we're not gonna see what their next project is it's just just a sad day i mean i don't think there's any other way to put it yeah and you know the the saddest part is like this is just the beginning of whatever this wave is going to be and you know to you say compulsion is one of the first to come to mind like i hate that we're even at a point that we're speculating on oh man which which teams are the ones that are going to get cut and just because that's where we're at we know that to be true and it's like it i'm i don't want to sit here and fantasy book what like who's going to get the job i don't either right and it's like that's just like it's just such a tough place because it's i think not that hard to actually consider who it might be specifically in frame of reference to all of the news that some of it we're covering today some that we've been covering the last couple weeks but what we're hearing is there will be cuts and then you need to think about okay well then what aren't they going to cut and we got a new story last week about them wanting to speed up development and double down on the giant ip of halo and um uh elder scrolls and things like that so what does that mean for the south of midnights i mean it's clear isn't it nothing it means that they will not exist and this reminds me a lot of activision when they started uh finding this major success with microtransactions and everything that they did with both overwatch and call of duty where just call of duty started gobbling up so many talented teams like never soft and uh you know high moon studios and all of the talented teams that activision had that would work on so many different games all of a sudden they're just call of duty support teams and then overwatch becomes a big hit and you know activision and blizzard merge in that way and all of a sudden it's like all right cool well any other team that had any chance of doing their own thing they're now a support team for either call of duty or overwatch now guess what both of those studios are owned by microsoft for 69 billion dollars so what does that mean we're getting to the point that just more and more teams are being put on these support for these giant things and we're now from all the news we're getting going down a path that so is everyone just going to be working on elder scrolls 6 just to try to get it out the door as early as possible like that's not how that works but that sounds like that's what's going to happen at this point yeah yeah i completely agree that's exactly what it sounds like it sounds like they're to to the point of the news gonna focus on the ips that they know are going to be huge sellers and it's about making money and you know obviously satya had the comments that he had over the weekend as well which i'm sure we'll get into but yeah they're not the the games the artistic games that that we've all loved and love to see a team take a risk and do something different i i think those days are are gone unfortunately i think it is just going to be the big ips that they know people will subscribe to game pass for buy an xbox for right be huge sellers i think that is going to be their focus moving forward yeah and that's it's a tough place to be i think more tough than ever given all the market circumstances like we've been talking about project helix like what is the least that thing can cost like let's just started at a thousand dollars which i think is being incredibly optimistic at this point yes like to get a thousand dollar xbox at this point into the amount of households that it would need to for these heavy sellers to sell heavy it's an uphill battle to a degree we have never seen in video games yet and this is talking about an xbox that's already been struggling to find those wins i want it clear we all understand xbox has been very successful from the revenue perspective and from being a publisher over the last decade.

10:28I think that maybe not decade, five years, they've been an excellent publisher of games. Excellent in terms of results, not in terms of how they've treated anybody and cutting teams and all of that. But yeah, it's a very, very dire situation that we're in. Let's keep going on and try to find some form of story through all the stories that we're going through. Can I focus on one thing that you just talked about just to give additional context to it? See, that is the big problem that Xbox has in comparison to PlayStation, just as an example, right? PlayStation, there are 90 plus million PlayStation fives already in people's hands.

11:06So they don't have to spend a thousand dollars on the PS5 or whatever. They already have a PS5. So they can focus on Wolverines of the world and intergalactics and all that and know that, hey, we have the hardware that is out there in customers' hands to be able to buy and play these games. Xbox can't do that. And now we're in a place where these consoles are costing, I think, the cheapest Series X right now, $600 or something crazy like that. And to your point, Helix is probably at$1 ,000. How can they realistically in this economy expect tens of millions of people to now buy your hardware at these inflated prices?

11:47it just it's not realistic i don't think so their answer is gears e-day and uh clockwork revolution and now granted that's still xbox series x and s as well right um but even those it's like you know those those were not selling to the degree that xbox wanted them to when they were hundreds dollars cheaper you know for the last six years so is gears e-day going to be the thing that gets people to change their minds on that and spend even more than they didn't before i i don't think so you know and that i don't either and that's a thing and again we're talking about 400 million dollar budgets like there's just simple math to this that just seems like they know isn't math and they understand and let's keep going because there's a lot yeah yeah yeah i want to get to the satya story that that gives even more reference or framing for this so story number two uh xbox game studios boss craig duncan steps down this comes from christopher dring at the game business the head of xbox game studios craig duncan has stepped down after more than 18 months in the role duncan replaced studio boss alan hartman in november 24 and oversaw halo studios the coalition flight sim turn 10 playground games rare obsidian ninja theory compulsion games the initiative double fine in exile undead labs world's edge and xbox game series publishing so when you think about the Xbox Game Studios as opposed to Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard, all that.

13:13The Xbox Game Studios. So he departs the organization this week. His studios will report to Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty until a replacement is found. Duncan's been part of the Xbox org since 2011 and is best known for running highly regarded UK developer Rare for nearly 14 years. He oversaw the developers Kinect and Sea of Thieves eras. Meanwhile, Xbox Game Studios Chief of Staff, Louis O 'Connor, will also be leaving the company. O 'Connor joined Rare in 1999, beginning as an animator on cult-favorite N64 game Conker's Bad Fur Day. She's worked in numerous art and production roles at the UK studio, and even won an AIAS award for voicing the character Leifos in Viva Pinata.

13:53She left Rare following the cancellation of Everwild in 2025, before becoming Chief of Staff in September that year. In an email to staff, Duncan wrote, When I stepped into the role of leading XGS 20 months ago, my purpose was to serve our studios, our teams, and the people making our games. Together, we set out to deliver high-quality games, strengthen the cultural fabric across our studios, and help shape the future of our business. I'm proud to say we delivered many flawless launches that drove business success for the company. On O 'Connor, he added, Louis has been a thoughtful, creative, and trusted partner who has consistently championed the craft and supported our studios with clarity and care.

14:29I'm grateful for everything she's brought to XGS and I'm sure she'll be successful in whatever comes next for her. Paris. Again, the bad news just keeps rolling along. To me, this is just a sign of I'll say this way. When I'm at Summer Game Fest all last week, I had someone say to me, it's going to get a lot uglier before it gets better. And he was just talking about gaming in general, not specific to Xbox. But I think this just plays into it. I think we're going to see more of these type of departures happen from, you know, senior senior leadership positions, because it almost seems like, hey, let's get a fresh set of eyes in here because we're changing the business.

15:12We're changing how Xbox is going to work as a company. And I think it's almost, yeah, we got to have new new leadership in place. And I don't know if it was Craig Duncan decided to step down to his own or, you know, he's retiring, whatever the case may be. but change is coming that's just what this told me change is definitely coming and i i don't think this will be the last thing that we see coming out of xbox leadership yeah and you know i think an important thing to bring up that we have over the last couple years as these stories continue to evolve and uh destruct the entire um industry but the the thing is we have never in the history of video games seen a power quite like xbox in terms of how many teams are under its belts and you know them acquiring activision one of the biggest publishers in the world bethesda another example to add on to all these teams that they have we've never had a leadership structure that can handle that you know what i mean like it's like take out like the challenges that they already have of just how hard game development is just from a sheer management perspective this is untenable like it is inevitable that things are going to go bad when there is no structure that makes sense and we've seen them try many different things it's like it's a a task that i don't think has a win condition like i really feel it's just like uh hey we got to just try our best to stay afloat and there's going to be losers.

16:47And it's like, well, that's, that shows like, it's about mismanagement, but it's also about the fact that there has to be an understanding that this is unmanageable. Like there's a reason that we don't see publishers with 40 teams under them. That's not a tenable business operation. Oh, I completely agree in this sense, because here's something I found interesting. When Asha, I think it was a tweet she put out, but she or it might have been the fortune interview but she said they're the number two biggest publisher i honestly thought they were number one so me too that was it's in who's number one and i mean you know we can monday morning quarterback this thing but if you go back in time obviously acquiring activision i mean no matter what side of the fence that you thought you were on you didn't think it was going to be because asha said it we it's untenable we we can't manage at this size and scope.

17:47You thought it's Microsoft, it's Xbox. They'll at least get the pieces in place to be able to properly manage this. And now we're finding out they can't, they couldn't. And here we are, unfortunately. So I think what we're seeing is they're, they're going to consolidate, I think, because by necessity, they kind of have to. And unfortunately it sounds like studios like compulsion are going to get caught up in that wave and i mean there's probably more unfortunately i don't want it to be but here's here's my hope what comes out of all this tim um hopefully like toys for toys for bob i think i'm saying their name correctly they essentially were able to get their independence hopefully other they do this with other studios as well and they don't just completely shut them down maybe even with compulsion right now that happens check this out paris uh sky super chats in saying reb showed an update to the compulsion story on blue sky so i went over there and read post quick update we've learned that the studio leadership is apparently in some sort of negotiations with microsoft over this not sure what the specific end goal would be if successful so something like toys for bob could happen yeah uh toys for bob uh very clearly was like we don't want to be a Call of Duty support studio.

19:07We make 3D platformers, and we make them very well, and we care. We're passionate about them. They worked on the different remakes and sequels and stuff with Crash. They're now working on Spyro. Somehow this all worked out that they ended up surviving, not getting shuttered or fully turned into a support studio, becoming independent, and then being able to still make a Spyro game. Spyro, owned by Activision, owned by Xbox, owned by Microsoft, as you follow that up the chart like yeah I do think that there's chances but for for every opportunity and chance that that might happen there's also a higher likelihood that unless you have an incredibly compelling story that's not going to happen and I do think Toys for Bob had Spyro they had crash like they had sales numbers of projects they worked on that got results I forgot what it was but the Spyro Reignited Trilogy sold something like 13 million units or something.

20:05Like, they had a history of critical reception and sales numbers. That's something that Compulsion doesn't have. Yeah, unfortunately. So it is, I think, a miracle that Toys for Bob was able to pull that all off, but there's also just a story that backs it up, whereas Compulsion doesn't have that, and so that's really concerning. There's the other side, I think a blue point, right? Sony Closing Bluepoint is a personal one of the worst news stories we've ever covered here I've been waiting years to see what they were doing next, I've loved every project they put out, even if they weren't for me something like Demon's Souls, I'm so happy that the people that care about those franchises loved it as much as they did and I just was like, what's next?

20:48I have full faith in them and we'll never know now it's just like, they didn't have the luxury of being able, luxury is even a weird way to put it, but like they didn't have the story to be able to tell and like the, the relationships necessary to be like, Hey, let's figure this out. Do go independent and be able to do something. But I really hope that compulsion could figure that out if they even want to. Yeah. I mean, that's what it really comes down to. If they even want to, and your point about, you know, there's probably like the initiative action is a great example. I'm talking about the initiative they tried to revive perfect arc after it was closed and that fell through there's probably more stories of this falling through than there are successes like toys for bob so I think even the high I'm blanking on their name but the hi-fi rush studio they wound up coming back as well yeah tango um I mean we'll see I look I'm just gonna say the elephant in the room no actually I'm not because I don't want to jinx nothing I'm not even gonna say the one studio I'm thinking of right now because I don't want to jinx it but I just hope you know whatever these changes are that the people that are working at the studios can land on their feet i think that's the most important thing for me i mean games come and go studios come and go but we're just in such crazy times right now that man i just i just don't want to see more people without a job it's just it's it's awful yeah and where are they gonna go like that's the problem is it's like it's it's not like new opportunities are being created here like it's it's not like there is an answer because there were decisions being made that are just destroying the industry and this goes back so long but like that you bring up the monday morning quarterbacking but like at a certain point it's like yo it's seven days a week quarterbacking where when everyone not everyone i i shouldn't talk in absolutes but when so many people that deeply care about this conversation are saying such similar things over and over and over and we're seeing the results be completely different than what we're saying it's like okay all right what i don't know let's get the story number three yeah let's do it xbox has to become sustainable says microsoft ceo this comes from alessio palumbo at wccf tech yesterday in a video interview with hard fork microsoft ceo satya nadella claimed no one could accuse the company of not having invested in xbox throughout the past 25 years, but now the time has come to make it sustainable and monetize the content.

23:19Now the time has come, everybody. Nadella even went so far as to quip that YouTube currently monetizes Xbox games better than Microsoft itself. Quote, Usha's really 100 days in and she put out a post saying in the next 100 days, she's gonna take a fresh look and make sure we deliver on what our fans expect of both of us on the hardware side and on the publishing side. The challenge now for us is to think about how do you innovate both in hardware as well as in the games going forward in a world in an economically viable way. We've invested a lot. No one can accuse Microsoft of not having invested for the last 25 years.

23:51And now we have to turn this into a sustainable business that delivers what is fundamentally one of the best sources of entertainment. The challenge we have is that we've not been monetizing that entertainment. If anything, we've been subsidizing that entertainment. In fact, there's more monetization of Xbox games happening on YouTube than at Microsoft. From Nadella's statement, it's clear the gloves are off and Xbox must live or die on its own, as Microsoft will no longer bankroll it indefinitely. Later in the interview, Nadella added that Asha Sharma and her fellow execs must define a new model that somehow merges all the various Xbox platforms from the consoles to PCs, from mobile to cloud.

24:31Unfortunately, because of what's happening with the cloud and AI, the prices have gone up. I'm going to read that one more time. Unfortunately, because of what's happening with the cloud and AI, the prices have gone up. If only what's happening with the cloud and AI could stop, could not be pushed by Satya Nadella? Microsoft? This is an insane thing to say. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's happening with PCs. It's just happening. It's just happening. It's happening with PCs. It's happening with phones, and Xbox is impacted as well. The scarcity of semiconductor supply and memory in particular is having a massive impact on consumer electronics.

25:12That's a temporal thing that I think we'll get through. It's not going to be permanent. There's a permanent thing, which is, what's the Xbox model going forward? PCs and consoles both have their place. Obviously, mobile has people playing elsewhere. And so we have to now bring it all together while staying true to what we've always done.

25:33Harris, it's the Eric Andre meme. This is what this is. I mean, we all know AI is a huge factor in why all of this is happening with these crazy prices. But at the same time, Microsoft is a key component as to why AI is a thing right now when we have all these crazy prices. But to the point of Xbox and sustainability, and I guess he didn't say it. Maybe this is, again, something else that Asha Sharma was talking about. Yeah, she did say it. That take Activision out of it. they've invested over$20 billion in the Xbox over whatever X amount of years, you know, and obviously part of that was trying to go get, grow game pass other studio acquisitions, all these things, budgets for some of these games that unfortunately have not sold or landed the way that they expected to.

26:22And it's, I'm, I'm, I'm full of cliches today, but it's, it's the Mordo from Dr. Strange. The bill always comes due, right? You invested all this money into your gaming division. you're not seeing the results that you should have the bills come due. So I think again, she, she mentioned this, they now have to pivot into new and unique business models to find some way to make this sustainable. Because I think what was it? 3 % margin that they have right now is, is crazy. That's, that's shocking to hear, right? But she's being transparent and she's telling you exactly what's happening. And then you got the CEO of Microsoft pretty much confirming all of that on his own that something's got to change.

27:04And I think this, unfortunately, is part of what we're seeing today. And I guess what she said over the next hundred days, this is about resetting Xbox X, but the Xbox we know is gone. This is what it that way. What, what happens by the end of this year, whatever emerges over the next hundred days will not look the same as what we're used to. And I think, you know, myself and a lot of people watching this right now are going to be shocked by what we see because it has to or xbox goes away i guess right how else do you do you define this they can't keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result so if they want to stay in hardware they got to figure out a way to make it cheaper they got to make games that are great that people want to buy right they got to get people subscribing to game pass because i don't know if this is an article and i i could be off on this but it It sounds like game pass was not the issue here.

27:55Game pass was actually before they raised the price was doing what it was supposed to do. I just don't believe that though. And I, here I am. I feel like we're at this point now, Paris, where you and I and combinations of us have had the same conversation for so long. So on one hand, it's like, I don't want to be a broken record. But on the other, I do think it's important that when we're talking about all this to like keep it consistent with everything. I've been saying since day one, that game pass is a huge issue. We are devaluing video games. And for Satya to be here and be like, there's no one that can say that we haven't supported for 25 years.

28:29It's like, yeah, but there were so many choices made there of like supporting and paying money to get these games on Game Pass to get more people to get on that subscription platform at such a low price. The amount of people that were paying sub$5 with the amount of deals that they had forever and ever and ever. And then all of a sudden it's like, those are gone. The prices are incredibly raised. and that causes all those problems. But who's left in the lurch? It's the people that were trying to make the games. And at this point, it's like studios are being closed because not enough money is being made because why would someone pay full price for a video game when they can pay pennies to pay it on Game Pass?

29:06Because the investment was not made to sell consoles. It was made to sell subscription services. And that's where it leads you to not having enough hardware in homes for people to buy these fucking$70 games to allow all of this to continue. And it's just like all of these choices have hurt the business so much, the business as a whole, but the Xbox business, because I didn't even mention the acquisitions. And you said a second ago, like, let's take the giant 70 billion out of it. Let's only talk about the 20 billion. And it's like talking about all of them. The fact of the matter is we can all have any conversation we want about the last couple of years of do exclusives matter?

29:47Do they not matter? This, that, whatever. I think the fact of the matter is stats are stats numbers are numbers when Xbox spent that much money when Microsoft spent that much money to acquire the people making Call of Duty the people that make Skyrim the people that make Doom all of this stuff there was always the thing of like oh well they're not going to put Call of Duty exclusive on Xbox because they just make too much money and I was like oh well they're not going to do that for Elder Scrolls because that they're they're having a pre-existing audience on play stage then why did they do it then why would they do that at all and that's where it leads us of just like sure there was a lot of um support and uh no one can say that we haven't invested in 25 years but you didn't invest in xbox you invested around xbox and that leads us to where we are i don't i don't disagree yeah i know you are i don't disagree with a lot you're saying but i guess this just asks the question then i and let me let me frame it this way go for it i think with asha coming in and having no times no ties to gaming at all no loyalties legacy none of that she's an outsider coming in and it's just there's no bias she's just looking at the raw numbers to your point why is game pass still a thing then you know we we even mike and i used to was talking about this towards the end of xcast Like if game pass is a problem, get rid of it.

31:10And here we are now. Clearly, they got to change the business and they're still not getting rid of game pass. I'm just asking the question out loud. I don't disagree with anything that you're saying. No, I mean, and I'm right there with you in that sense. But there is an answer, which is just like, well, they don't want to get rid of the money that they're getting. Like they're getting money. Like it's not like there's no why would they turn off a place that they're making profit, especially something that they have invested so heavily in? So they want to have their cake and eat it too. That's what's happening here.

31:39That's the only problem though, Tim. That's the problem. Oh yeah. That's the problem. Yeah. And just trying to look at this as unbiased as I can. You, okay. If you're seeing all these things, if you're at these 3 % margins and the current model isn't working, then you got to change something up. They obviously lowered the price of game pass. And I'm trying to make this a game pass conversation. I'm just saying Xbox overall, all you don't have enough hardware out there hardware right now is what what does she say it's five times as much to even make a console than what it was previously why are you still trying to be in hardware business just be a publisher then let playstation nintendo and pc worry about the hardware because it sounds like to your point you're trying to have your cake and eat it too and how is it going to work then i guess that that's all i'm saying How does this work?

32:35My answer, like my solution to all of this is that Xbox should have all of their games not be exclusive. Every single game should be multi-platform. That shouldn't be a question. Like they've invested in ways that that's the only way to go forward. Like because of the amount of money that we're talking about and the big IP that we're talking about and how the small IP like South of Midnight isn't doing enough. No matter what way you cut it, it's not doing enough. so what they need to do is if they're if they insist on having the cake eating it too which i do understand to a certain extent continue to make hardware like i don't think that they should stop i just don't think that they should prioritize it continue to make hardware sell the handfuls of millions of of hardware to then sell game pass because then you're they already have people that are committing to the subscription model and then for everyone else make the money on steam make the money on playstation make the money on nintendo switch 2 that way you're just making the money from all the places you're not cutting off the spigots of of money coming in because guess what the hardware's not selling but tim that's exactly what the previous administration was doing but it wasn't we it wasn't no but no no in this sense i'm talking about moving into the next gen we had all resigned ourselves to the fact that helix was a boutique Boutique console that was going to be super expensive that only the true hardcore was going to get So in turn you put your games everywhere so that people don't have to spend that much They can go buy a playstation or have a pc or switch to because the games are available everywhere And now we're changing that obviously not a hundred percent But they are making they're valuing the box again.

34:14I guess that's the point i'm trying to make So if you value the box, but the box is still too expensive and you can't make enough to meet demand, if you were to make everything exclusive, how does this work? And she's obviously admitted all this because this is what she's been talking about. They got a lot of tough decisions over the next hundred days and they're still committed to Helix, but they're going to rethink Helix. They obviously know the stuff still has to be cheap. Gen 9 can't go away anytime soon. So you got to make the S and the X cheaper. Like, I do not envy her job at all because it sounds like she's being tasked with something that no one's ever had to accomplish before.

34:51I mean, how do you do it? Yeah. And we'll. We'll get to that in a second. Magnum in the chat says Tim says Game Pass failed, but says they're profitable. Help me understand. I didn't say it failed. I said it's devaluing video games. And I'm saying that it being profitable, it's not profitable enough. There's money there that they why would they want to turn that off? They have, I don't know how many it is, but like enough subscribers. You don't want to get rid of subscribers. That is your loyal base. That is, if you're getting revenue from a group of people every month, you need to do anything you can to maintain that.

35:21That is important to these businesses, especially in 2026. That's just where we're at. But it's not making enough to make up for the losses everywhere else and for how the hardware is not selling the way it needs to. I don't know why this is so hard to understand. It's just literal simple math. It's not even complicated math. It's just addition. So let me ask you this question. Let me ask you this question. What do they do with Evil Scrolls 6? I mean, if they want to succeed, put it everywhere. If they want to kill another IP, put it exclusive on Xbox. Like, I don't know, man. Let's take a quick break.

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