---
title: 'Already Back to Their Old Trash'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=xtfShT-lp-o'
video_id: 'xtfShT-lp-o'
date: 2026-06-17
duration_sec: 0
---

# Already Back to Their Old Trash

> Source: [Already Back to Their Old Trash](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xtfShT-lp-o)

## Summary

The speaker criticizes Xbox's renewed studio shutdowns, including Ninja Theory, despite them working on promising games. The core issue remains Xbox's lack of exclusive titles, and the speaker argues that closing active studios worsens this problem.

### Key Points

- **Price Anchoring Deception** [0:00] — The speaker initially believed new CEO Asha Chararma was improving Xbox by lowering Game Pass prices, but argues it was a price anchoring tactic, not a benevolent move.
- **No Games = Main Problem** [3:12] — Despite promises, Xbox's biggest issue remains the lack of exclusive games to justify purchasing the console.
- **Ninja Theory Shutdown** [4:13] — Microsoft closed Ninja Theory just as their upcoming game 'Sinoa' (Hellblade 3) was nearly finished, wasting development progress.
- **Other Studios at Risk** [6:56] — Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Arkane are reportedly at risk of closure, despite recent or upcoming releases.
- **Shutdown Logic Critique** [9:36] — The speaker criticizes shutting down productive studios while many non-productive studios remain, worsening the game drought.
- **Industry-Wide Collapse** [11:06] — Notes layoffs at Don't Nod, Quantic Dream, Bethesda, BioWare, and id Software, attributing it to unsustainable AAA budgets.
- **No Winning in AAA** [12:03] — Cites examples of successful games (e.g., Battlefield, Kazan) still leading to studio layoffs, showing the current AAA model is broken.
- **Marathon's Failure** [13:04] — Bungie's Marathon only has 1,000 players, exemplifying the industry's focus on overhyped live-service games that flop.
- **Call for Smaller Budgets** [14:00] — The speaker argues that lower-budget, innovative games consistently outperform expensive failures, yet executives keep ignoring this lesson.

### Conclusion

Xbox continues to undermine its own success by closing productive studios while failing to address its lack of exclusive games. The industry's obsession with massive budgets and chasing trends results in repeated mistakes.

## Transcript

We have been schmeckledorfed. It's only
been two months since they played the
big prank on us. Since we were all
deceived like Sauron giving us the
rings. I foolishly bought into the idea
that Xbox's new CEO, Asha Chararma, was
on the right path after she made that
statement about the shortcomings and
what Xbox needs to return to its former
glory and even dropping the absurd Game
Pass prices down, which I know isn't
some move of an angel. Like, it's not
some benevolent gift she bestowed upon
us out of the goodness of her heart. It
is a standard business tactic called
price anchoring because where they ended
up with the new price for Game Pass is
still higher than where the price was
initially before they had the absolute
lunacy that was the 50% price increase
which is just [ __ ] sinful. Trust me,
just like when the peanut butter's on
the top shelf, I know it's there and
it's painful. I get it. I really do. But
what you have to understand when it
comes to Xbox, we are just emaciated
when it comes to anything positive in
that [ __ ] cess poolool. You have to
dumpster dive into the very bottom, get
into get into the dumpster juice, the
sludge water there to find W's when
there's even a morsel of one there. And
in this case, her reverting that price
even a little bit, like taking foot off
of everyone's nutsack, I believed was at
least a step in the right direction. and
the things she was was saying was
accurate about like why Xbox is no
longer the juggernaut that it was. So, I
really did think that she was starting
to course correct the ship here. But
now, sports fans, I got to tell you, it
really seems like anyone who takes up
the mantle at Xbox is cursed to ride the
orb of confusion crazy style. Like,
that's the only explanation here. They
are once again back on their barnacles,
bro. And to be fair, it's not even
accurate to say that cuz they just never
stopped with the horseradish. I just
assumed and I think a lot of us assumed
that with Asha correctly identifying the
shortcomings of the Xbox brand for so
long, they would also have that come to
Jesus moment that Eureka, the light bulb
that goes off in their head that the
relentless, ruthless, cutthroat shutting
down of studios was also not helping
them at all in most cases. There were a
few that I understood where they just
literally had nothing to show for years
upon years of work, like just couldn't
release a game. So, I get it because it
was just hemorrhaging money. Just these
huge uh payments and still not a single
game that they were able to fart out.
Like, I get those. But that's not all of
their shutdowns. and their most recent
ones actually have me at my chin
scratching the [ __ ] out of it cuz I
can't understand because some of the
studios they shut down are actively far
along in development on titles people
are excited for or they have also just
recently released titles as well. Like
it just makes no sense to be constantly
looking for ways of shutting down these
studios when the biggest problem, the
one that's plagued Xbox the most above
all others and one that Asha herself has
even tinkered around with and slapped
around is that Xbox has no games. There
is nothing to justify spending the
hundreds of dollars required to get the
Xbox when there's just [ __ ] nothing
on it except dust and broken dreams.
Like there is no reason for you nor I
nor your mom, your mom's boyfriend, your
dad, whoever to go out and get an Xbox.
There's just no [ __ ] games for it.
And you know what doesn't help there is
shutting down all the studios that are
working on games. And that's what's just
happened here. And you know what else
just happened here? Me dropping the
truth about the best damn beverage on
the planet, Gamerade from Gamers. This
is my new flavor here. Motion Potion.
Can't get the camera to focus on it.
There it is. It was glistening too
brightly with a heavenly glow. it.
Gamerade is a no caffeine, no sugar,
hydration formula with creatine. And I
think you all know by now I'm a big
proponent of creatine. The quantity in
here isn't for like weightlifting or
anything. It's just for general brain
health, just to keep you sharp. So, if
you're interested in trying it, you can
click the link in the description below.
And like I was saying, it is happening
again here with Xbox. They have just
shut down Ninja Theory and they put the
Fear of God in other studios under their
umbrella. It's not even really an
umbrella. They got them in like [ __ ]
pit of like barb wire basically. They're
walking on eggshells down there. But
they have also uh apparently been
tinkering around with the idea of, you
know, double fine maybe closing the door
there. Compulsion games and arcane. Now,
I think this is crazy because at the
most recent Xbox showcase, which was
like eight days ago, they prominently
featured Ninja Theory's upcoming game,
the new Hellblade game, uh, Sinoa. And I
understand the Hell Hellblade franchise
has historically flopped. It It's been
kind of weak in terms of sales, and I
personally am not a huge fan of them. I
find them to be more like tech demos
than actual games. But they were
actively far along with Sinoa and they
had even showcased it at Xbox's own
event to pretty big success because it
looks like they were prioritizing making
it a game for the first time in this
franchise's history. So it was pretty
exciting to a lot of people and now they
announced that the studios banished to
the Shadow Realm after they just
unveiled it and it comes out early 2027.
So they are presumably like at the
finish line of this game.
If you were going to shut down Ninja
Theory, why wouldn't you do it after
Hellblade 2's flop? Why wait until this
is already like almost done to shut it
down instead of like let them release
the game? Because at least you'd still
have a game coming from them. Now you
just have nothing to show for it. Again,
the biggest problem is they don't have
games and now they've just shut down a
studio that does have a big game on the
horizon. It just seems very silly. And
Double Fine, they just released a game
not long ago. Compulsion just released a
game not long ago. Like it's just there
are studios Microsoft could shut down
that I would understand again because
they have so many studios that just
aren't making anything. Literally not
making anything. And they did overextend
when they started gluttonously gobbling
up every game development studio on the
planet and putting them under Microsoft.
Tons of them just coasted and haven't
made anything. Why not target some of
those that still have nothing to show?
Why go after some of these that are
actively making games? Even if the games
aren't performing up to like the
standards you would like to see, it's
still better than nothing. And they have
a lot of nothing under their umbrella. I
just don't get why the crosshair
wouldn't be over there. RIP Ninja
Theory. What?
They Wait, what? They just unveiled the
new Hellblade
and now they're shutting them down.
Compulsion games, Double Fine, and
Arcane are also at risk of getting shut
down. Yeah, I see Compulsion and Double
Fine here. Arcane, too.
They had they were told on a call on
Monday, and they've got several other
active negotiations about spinning off
Compulsion Games and Double Fine.
Asha Chararma and Chief Content Officer
Matt Booty warning last week of a reset
at Xbox, laying out several challenges
facing Xbox business, including that it
had overextended with its studio system
and the hardware component crisis is
significantly driving up prices. It's an
actual dumpster fire at Xbox right now.
Head of Xbox game studio left and
Treyarch Studios head left as well. What
What
is going on? Really, I I truly am
confused by this because I didn't play
Compulsion's last game, which was South
of Midnight, and I recognize that
they've only released like three games
in 17 [ __ ] years. So, they're
extremely slow, but they've still done
more than like a bunch of other studios
that Xbox still has. So, like they did
release a game. I don't know how it did
like financially, but like the fact they
even released a game is infinitely more
than you could say for so many of their
[ __ ] studios that they haven't axed.
and Double Fine. They released a game
this year and they released a game last
year as well. And they had Psychonauts
2, which was a super banger in uh 2021.
So like what they're they are cranking
games. And I'm pretty sure the two games
Double Fine have released over the last
two years. Keeper and Kiln have been
very wellreceived. I don't know how
they've done financially, but even
still, they are making games. Like that
is what you want from these studios.
Like they are making games. And those
were, from what I can tell, pretty
wellreceived. Now, I know they haven't
like officially, you know, put belt to
ass on Double Fine and the others, but
the fact that it's even on the table
just shows that they are really out of
touch. They need games. That is the only
thing that saves this brand is games.
And you are now going after developers
that are providing you games. Again,
even if they're not Grand Salami, you
know, super touchdowns, you're still
getting games. And in the case of like
Double Fine or Ninja Theory, like Ninja
Theory games, even though I don't like
Hellblade, they are wellreceived. So
like you're still getting like
highquality games that come out. Why
would those be the ones that you would
look at here to just get rid of,
especially coming in as a new CEO, when
you want like hype, like you want things
that'll get people excited? And what
gets people excited is more games that
are good and high quality, not the
opposite of taking even more games away
from an already barren wasteland of a
platform. Can't believe you got tricked
into thinking Xbox was back. I never
said that. I never said Xbox was back.
Just that Asha was at the very least not
driving it more actively into the
ground.
It was it was taking steps to steer it
in the right direction and now it's
right back to standard Xbox behavior. Is
there a way back for Xbox? Games. Games.
Make games.
The way back is through games that
aren't $400 million like Gears Day
apparently is.
People are theorizing that Sinoa trailer
was more of a teaser if some other
company wants to buy Ninja Theory off of
Microsoft. I don't see that happening
though, man. I really don't
like you might be right. Maybe that
theory is accurate, but who would step
in and buy them in the current climate
of AAA gaming,
especially given how Hellblade 1 and 2
performed, right? Like it just feels
like that's cooked. Like that's just
kind of curtains. I don't know if
there's maybe a path forward for Ninja
Theory to independently release it.
Oh man, I don't know if that mic picked
that up, but that was a juicer, but
maybe there is.
Don't nod and Quantic Dream also getting
layoffs, reduced funding. Even reports
that Bethesda, Boware, and ID are all in
trouble.
Looks like it's starting to collapse,
man.
The crazy crazy budgets could only last
so long.
You think this will happen with Gears as
well? If Gears Eday doesn't do [ __ ]
record numbers, I bet Coalition gets
shut down. Yeah, I think it's already
set up for failure now that it's
completely exclusive and apparently 400
million in the can. So, yeah, I think
Coalition's definitely next.
Why do they shut down studios instead of
selling them? Well, I think they'd
prefer to sell them if they could, but
there's not a lot of buyers. There's
only so many buyers.
Hasn't Bethesda only made like two games
in 15 years? Yeah, but Bethesda's like a
powerhouse, so when their games release,
it's like a safe bet. Even their
stinkers like Starfield.
I love Kazan and they fired the whole
team after. Yeah, we already lamented
that talking about Kazan.
[ __ ] shame, man. Changing gears real
quick to the Kazan topic. That one
actually hurts my feelings. That is so
[ __ ] sad. They made an incredible
game, an extraordinary game. Everyone
liked it and they still got taken out
behind the barn and put down just
curtains. Even though they made a game
that was universally appreciated,
it just straight up feels like there is
no winning. Like Battlefield,
Battlefield is another great example.
The new Battlefield, the most recent
Battlefield did really well. Very
wellreceived. Huge layoffs. Like make a
good game, get fired. Make a bad game,
get fired. Make a game, get fired. Don't
make a game, get fired. You don't win in
the AAA space in its current iteration.
It is not sustainable. It's a [ __ ]
bloodbath, and it's filled with like
just so many sterile, boring ass
products that, you know, are doomed for
failure, yet they still just put so much
money into them for seemingly no reason
and then are surprised when it doesn't
work out. I I hate to just keep harping
on this, but let's look at Marathon.
Marathon is a game that today had a
thousand players. A thousand players in
Marathon. A Bungie flagship game. 1,000
players. They just pulled support from
Destiny 2. Like, you can still play it,
but like no more updates are coming to
Destiny 2. It's all in on Marathon. It
has a thousand players. Everyone was
saying, and anyone could tell you that
this game never stood a chance to be
like a huge staple in gaming as like a
live service extraction shooter. They
keep chasing these white whales that are
just unreasonable and they're pouring
endless clams in it and just suffocating
themselves for it and then end up
closing other studios as a result. Like
it's just it's such a disaster. It is
such a disaster. These bloated budgets,
this mismanagement, it sucks so much,
bro. It is so terrible. And it just
keeps happening. Like no lessons are
being learned by these higherups on the
food chain at these massive
corporations. They keep making the same
mistakes over and over and over again. I
don't know how many times we need to
watch a lower budget title pop off, blow
up, and take the world by storm for them
to realize that the future is by having
lower budget games that don't take eight
years to develop and $400 million. It's
smaller games from a passionate team
that do try and do unique things, not
the same standard generic formulaic [ __ ]
that they keep regurgitating every
single time they go around. People are
tired of it and it shows. Like, I just
don't know how else to get it through
because they're not picking up the right
lessons here. It's such a shame. But
anyway, I just wanted to yap about this.
That's really about it. Tip.