Xbox Reset: Massive Layoffs & Studio Closures — Full Breakdown & Transcript

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[01:07] on limited edition displates, but Displate, for sponsoring the video, and now let's get to it. Gamers, the great Xbox reset is finally here, and I think we can all agree this reset is kind of

[01:20] we were expecting. I mean, we were all collectively braced for the worst. We Oh wait, sorry, that actually is happening. Xbox is sacking 3,200 people really worried about the fate of Double Fine, Compulsion, Ninja Theory, and

[01:34] Undead Labs, but now their future is secure, right? Wait, hang on a second. go independent at a time when game funding deals are rarer than hen's are getting sold to some mysterious

[01:46] be? Hmm. Well, look, at least Arkane incredibly talented studio with a decades-long track record, and they're currently making a Marvel game. Xbox would have been incredibly dumb to part

[02:00] ways with them, and thankfully common sense prevailed. And sorry, I'm just is currently in consultations with the French government about their plans for Arkane. Hmm, okay. Well, look, just focus on the bright side, okay? We still

[02:13] have Obsidian and id Software. These are real flagship studios that have technically polished games. id in particular. I mean, id Tech is literally the greatest FPS engine ever made. And I fear the power of the tech wizards that

[02:26] somehow get it to run at like 200 FPS on PCs that are 10 years old. But that's id Software for you, man. Or at least it was, because more than 130 of id's staff were laid off this week, including a significant number of their programmers

[02:40] and QA testers. Oh, and around 25% of Obsidian was let go, too. Probably not a great time to mention that over 200 people were laid off from ZeniMax Online Studios, and that the future of The Elder Scrolls Online is anything but

[02:52] certain at this point. But don't worry, guys. Mojang and King report directly to Asha Sharma now, and they appointed a COO for the first time ever. So, I personally am feeling really good about the future of Xbox right now. If I am

[03:04] being flippant, it's because I do not at all [ __ ] with the way that this latest the trillion-dollar corporation points to Obsidian, id's game engine, and Psychonauts and says, "Yep, there's your problem." Here's someone who I think

[03:17] frames it rather sensibly. Bernie Sanders, quote, "Last year, Microsoft made $101 billion in profits, got a $12.5 billion tax break from Trump, and paid its CEO $96 million. This year, it's raising the price of an Xbox by

[03:31] $150 and eliminating 3,200 jobs." End quote. I do this every time, but do you quote. I do this every time, but do you know you could employ 960 people at $100,000 each for a full year for the same amount

[03:44] of money that you're paying to one dude for one year. A dude who, mind you, the current state of Xbox. Always helpful to put a potential head count on thousands of people I found. Now look, do I think that nothing at Xbox should

[03:59] their business was not working and buried in Ash's email was a fair amount of sensible stuff which we will cover, but I bristle at the framing of all of this as though Xbox is making the best of a bad situation when they're the ones

[04:12] that made the situation bad. As if Microsoft is somehow doing these continue to exist in some amorphous form. Like you bought these studios. You managed them and are presently managing them as they continue to make cool

[04:27] play and now you want to jettison that because you want to make more Elder Scrolls games? You want to sack id Software staff after their generational run this past decade and sack Obsidian staff after they delivered you like 30%

[04:40] five years. For me, I think this is a profoundly sad day for Xbox not only because it sees 1600 people lose their jobs just today and another 1600 people because it signals the end of an important [music] era of Xbox. One where

[04:56] smaller games and smaller teams still mattered. This reset is entirely about aligning all of Xbox's resources behind big existing franchises so they can become even bigger, but they already have Minecraft and Candy Crush and Call

[05:09] of Duty and Warcraft and Diablo and Overwatch and Forza and Elder Scrolls and Doom and Fallout and on and on and it's still just not enough. I'm all for making Fallout: New Vegas 2. I truly am, but I'm also interested, deeply

[05:22] investing in smaller teams and smaller games and not only because I think Microsoft has a responsibility to help fund games that might not otherwise get made, but also because I think Microsoft is a deeply uncreative business and if

[05:35] creative, then better to do that learning on smaller projects built by smaller teams rather than spending another $500 million on a Gears of War been spilled by Microsoft over the past generation as it struggled to do

[05:49] anything with the majority of its flagship franchises and somehow Tim Schafer ends up losing his job. This [ __ ] is just so ass-backwards. Anyway, it from the top and try to cover all these details properly. Early this week,

[06:02] new Xbox boss Asad Qizilbash released the Great Reset Manifesto, a blog post plans for studio spin-outs, job cuts, and resource reallocation. It begins, significant restructuring in Xbox history. After careful consideration,

[06:18] I've made the difficult decision to reduce our team by approximately 3,200 throughout FY27. This will include approximately 1,600 role eliminations today and in addition, four studios will leave Xbox to new management. I

[06:31] recognize that a year-long restructuring creates additional challenges. all of the necessary changes in a single day and I want to be direct about the scale." End quote. To put these layoffs in perspective, this is the largest

[06:43] single cut that Xbox has ever admitted to [music] since the July 2025 layoffs saw Microsoft sack 9,000 people across their whole business with a significant but undisclosed number of those being Xbox employees. That's 3,200 people who

[06:57] industry entirely now since it's not like anyone's hiring. It adds to the estimated 45,000 people who have been laid off from games industry roles over them forced to leave the industry forever, a permanent brain drain for

[07:10] video games, the impacts of which will be felt for many, many years to come. Schafer then goes on to outline her causes belli, quote, "Our business today margins that are three to 10 times lower than comparable platform and publishing

[07:23] businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a small install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While these businesses have created meaningful value, they did not

[07:35] grow at the pace we expected. As that happened, our core business weakened and and more time hoping for a better outcome. Now the industry is facing the most severe hardware crisis in its history. We must reset Xbox. End quote.

[07:49] remarkably candid assessment of Xbox's strategy and failures under Phil the hardware battle was all but lost at the start of Gen 9, an admission he made appearance where he said that Xbox lost the most important console generation,

[08:04] the one where we all built our digital libraries. In response, he opened up new both found growth, neither of them delivered the scale needed to justify the significant investment into them or the transformative impact that Game Pass

[08:17] console owners were effectively being trained to no longer purchase games, a videogames.com have covered extensively after developers started telling us this years ago. But Asha conveniently leaves out one line item in this list of growth

[08:32] vectors, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King for $69 billion, a sum so vast that it would completely destabilize the Xbox business. When that earnout imperative would supersede all else and that it would be absolutely

[08:46] impossible for Xbox to care about its smaller teams and projects when its naturally led to Xbox to adopt a multi-platform release model since the business was now more leveraged into its IP holdings than its platform install

[08:58] base. And this week it's also naturally led to Xbox jettisoning almost every blockbuster IP. And not for nothing, but Sharma points to the present hardware crisis without mentioning that Microsoft

[09:10] is literally one of the biggest reasons that this hardware crisis exists since that this hardware crisis exists since they're spending some $190 billion on AI-related capex this year. Oh no, but Double Fine is too expensive to keep on

[09:22] that way. Speaking of which, let's look at what Sharma says about the decision Quote, "Since 2018 we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio. While the across the industry now outpaces the last 10 years combined. We now find

[09:37] ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It's neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. We've also learned that we are not the best

[09:49] home for every type of studio. In a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset Xbox, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision." End

[10:03] started to get pissed off. I think the framing of this whole paragraph is too hat to whoever wrote it because I think it's done a fantastic job of muddying the waters around Microsoft's decision. Firstly, Microsoft's small studios were

[10:17] never competing with other independent studios. Like, that's ridiculous framing. People who are interested in this segment of the market don't buy one indie game a year, they buy half a dozen or more. Just because I bought

[10:30] Hollow. So, putting it this way I think is just really disingenuous. Secondly, it's neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio. Of that you should. What are you talking about? This is just more nonsense.

[10:43] Thirdly, we have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio. In a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. And I've seen this figure banded about so much since this post went up with people

[10:55] get rid of those four studios. They were losing so much money on them." But how much of that 64 cents loss could be attributed to Double Fine, which never had more than about 100 people on its staff, or Compulsion, or Ninja Theory,

[11:10] or Undead Labs, who all had about the same head count. 400 people on an average of around 100,000 per year is $40 million a year, by the way, for a $40 million a year, by the way, for a company that pays its CEO $96 million a

[11:24] year, and that this year is spending $175 $175 million on data centers in one year. So, other and try to argue that these four studios had to go so that Xbox could

[11:36] survive. And even if you were to zero in on these studios, how are you measuring First-party games aren't just about their baseline profitability. They're to your ecosystem and how much they round out your portfolio so you have

[11:49] different things to offer to different audiences. Did you know that Psychonauts the past generation to receive a nomination for Game of the Year at The profit and loss statement? And for the record, I'm not saying these studios are

[12:02] perfect. Obviously, South of the Night did not sell well, and obviously, Undead far too long while making State of Decay 3. I do think there is a case to be made studios, but I really don't accept the framing that these studios had to go

[12:16] because they were costing Microsoft, a company worth nearly $3 trillion, too much money. These studios were never meant to make you lots of money. That see that being used as a justification for their jettison. And then Shaman went

[12:30] happening to these four studios. Quote, "Compulsion Games and Double Fine and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for Undead Labs have entered into terms to join new ownership with funding to

[12:45] compete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3." End quote. Admittedly, in a Xbox, just shut down studios and hoard their IP like stuff goblins, this is one with a studio that we've seen. Negotiated sales, IP rights, back

[13:00] help these studios navigate this next period, sure. But what about beyond that? For Compulsion and Double Fine in particular, they're now independent when the funding cupboard is well and truly bare. And as for Undead Labs and

[13:14] idea what plans they have for these studios, so we don't yet know if this is truly a safe harbor. Shaman then revealed that Arkane Lyon was also on any details on that since French labor laws are very strict, and so Microsoft

[13:27] has now entered into negotiations with the relevant authorities. Hard to Microsoft still owning Arcane and agreeing to fund Blade to completion. This is Arcane Lyon by the way who made Dishonored and Deathloop and who secured

[13:40] a Marvel IP deal and are now facing the possibility of closure. Ironically, I do think the fact that Blade is a Marvel IP may be what endangers them most. With Microsoft fully aligning behind its own IP, why invest in building up an IP

[13:53] conclusion when they slowed down their investment in Star Wars titles some day come to that same conclusion. For a missive that seems so willing to provide vagueness in this next section is notable. Quote, "We are also making

[14:08] reductions across other units and in some cases shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects. These changes vary in size across Activision, Bethesda, Zenimax, Blizzard, King, Mojang, and Xbox Game Studios. None of

[14:21] or projects are being canceled as part of these reductions." and quote. So, what were these reductions? Well, the picture is coming into view bit by bit. Obsidian lost around 25% of their people. This is a studio that has been

[14:35] an absolute content powerhouse for Xbox this past generation, delivering Grounded 1 and 2, Pentiment, Avowed, and The Outer Worlds 2. And look, not all of those games were fantastic and not all of them were smash hits. But there's an

[14:48] of the most efficiently run studios in the business right now since their output has been borderline prodigious in an era where some studios take 10 plus claim to want to focus on getting more games out the door and then you sack

[15:01] that than any other studio in your stable. Like what do you even say to because Jason Schreier of Bloomberg is reporting that Obsidian were working on Avowed 2, but that project has since been canceled so that Obsidian can now

[15:14] work on a new Fallout game led by Josh Sawyer, director of the recent Pentiment, but before that director of Fallout New Vegas. So it doesn't take finally going to get New Vegas 2, and we'd probably be getting it sooner and

[15:27] Microsoft hadn't just sacked 25% of Obsidian. We also know, by way of a publicly filed WARN notice, that ZeniMax Online Studios, the team behind The Elder Scrolls Online, lost 213 people. And while we don't know what proportion

[15:41] significant amount given that reports put the studio's estimated head count at developers, though that was before the layoffs related to Project Blackbird mid of The Elder Scrolls Online might be, but community manager Jessica Folsom did

[15:56] post on community forums saying, quote, "The road maps we previously shared will be shifting," end quote. But the real kicker here is the absolute decimation of id Software, with roughly 130 people of their 200-person studio cut, with

[16:10] disciplines like programming and quality assurance. And I don't know how many of you know this, but id's technical legacy is basically peerless in the world of pride for this studio that they pioneered numerous graphical and engine

[16:24] technologies, and that their games were so influential. The id Tech engine is still technological black magic, delivering absolutely absurd performance on even low-end hardware at a time when I can't get most AAA games running at 60

[16:36] FPS on my 590. These cuts have thrown into question the future of the id Tech happy to move a lot of their developers over to Unreal Engine, just like they Software employees have openly speculated that a move to Unreal seems

[16:50] likely, but there's been no official confirmation of that. Our staff at this with a source at Microsoft who has some knowledge of the matter, and they indicated that Microsoft does plan to continue utilizing the id Tech engine

[17:02] question then becomes, who's going to maintain that engine when you've just built it or are trained in it? There is a Frankfurt-based id studio who seem to perhaps we can guess that they'll now fully own it going forward. But

[17:16] clarification [music] on this. All of this talk has just been about the technical side of it, where the creative side is just as strong. Art design, it, id crushed it. And talk about consistency, this studio has put out

[17:29] three games in a 10-year period, all of them with vastly different core combat flawless, and all of them critically and commercially successful. In fact, I'm ago, I participated in a group interview with id's co-directors, Hugo Martin and

[17:43] Marty Stratton, and I asked them how has id managed to put out three incredible polished games inside a 10-year period at a time when there's so much pressure on AAA game development. Here's what Hugo Martin told me, quote, "For us

[17:55] internally, we have the pressures of the founders, the team that came before us. They literally invented a genre and made one of the greatest shooters, greatest video games of all time. Anytime there's a top five list, Doom 1 is usually on

[18:07] that list. So, it's kind of like they made the Godfather, so our project, it internal pressure there, but we live for it. It's why we came here. It's why I came here. It's cheesy, but it's an honor to do this stuff." End quote. That

[18:22] work. That is the bar they set for themselves. And yet, by some miracle, they managed to clear that bar every single time, and it still wasn't enough. You can literally be perfect in every category, technical, creative,

[18:37] commercial, and it still isn't enough to protect your studio or your job, just like it didn't protect Tango Gameworks. And this is why you do not, on any level, have to hand it to Microsoft for their handling of this reset. I don't

[18:49] corporation says about their margins, because ultimately, it doesn't matter. Make an average game that doesn't sell, get laid off. Make multiple incredible games that all sell gangbusters. Believe it or not, still get laid off. Shama

[19:04] cuts to Xbox's platform business, the people responsible for things like [music] Game Pass, XCloud publishing, etc. She says that some decisions were and said that a significant flattening of management layers would take effect

[19:17] decision-making and coordination. In that context, Sharma signaled an end to one of the defining characteristics of Phil Spencer's leadership, the autonomy he afforded his studios. Phil famously said that his job was to acquire great

[19:29] to let them make the things that they want to make. And while that sometimes the end of Phil's tenure, it became clear that this hands-off approach had pipeline of high-quality games. Sharma characterized it this week, quote, "As

[19:44] Xbox grew our head count, we became more fragmented. Teams, studios, and [music] and it became harder to work toward a shared goal, make the right quote. In response, Sharma is appointing Helen Chiang as Xbox's first COO, the

[19:59] style of management will be brought to bear, allowing for Xbox to make more coordinated fashion. Quote, "These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one. The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global,

[20:12] seen before. This year we'll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we'll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates. I want Xbox to be one

[20:25] of the few companies that entertains more than a billion people each day and gives everyone the opportunity to create and connect." End quote. A very ambitious goal given that Xbox currently reaches about half a billion people per

[20:37] month. Can Call of Duty, Todd Howard, and Candy Crush deliver a 60-fold increase in that figure? I guess we're about to find out. So, look, that's all moment, and I'm sure more details are going to trickle out over the coming

[20:50] days, but I would stress that 1,600 more Xbox employees are guaranteed to lose addition to the 1,600 people who lost their jobs today, in addition to the 400 staff attached to the studios being spun out today, in In to Arkane Lyon staff,

[21:06] and their head count is around 130 people. That's a total of five studios and more than 3,500 people leaving Xbox in the next few months, with even some of Xbox's most critically and commercially acclaimed studios affected.

[21:20] actually handled this pretty well [ __ ] I'm 100% with Digital Foundry expecting, and I think we all have to complete stop before we can stand back and fully appreciate how much has been

[21:33] lightning round now to serve as a bit of a palate cleanser, and Sony certainly What with Twitter being basically unusable for them after their recent haven't gotten any better with the news that Marvel Tokun Fighting Souls have

[21:46] been blocked on Steam in over 130 countries and territories. This is almost certainly related to the PSN requirement, since the 130 countries and support for the PSN, and Valve implemented that policy in an attempt to

[21:59] There are, of course, ways around that for players motivated enough, but people who are going to miss out on Tokun as a result of this. Hopefully, the policies around it at some point, but they haven't done so yet, so I

[22:12] hoping that Sony might do an about-face on that recent physical media you. They've already moved on and have started a new relationship with a hot new component called an optical microlens. Sony have already begun

[22:25] Austria, which used to produce upwards of 600,000 discs every day. Now, they camera lenses and headsets, keep the Twitter pressure on people. It's it is funny to watch. Speaking of physical discs, according to The Verge,

[22:39] disc-to-digital feature that will allow users to digitize physical copies of the feature will require players to insert a disc into a console with a disc their Microsoft account to claim a digital entitlement that is then tied to

[22:54] with a friend will result in that game's digital entitlement jumping over to the still be playable after you've redeemed a digital version. The Verge claims that and Xbox One discs and won't be

[23:08] compatible with original Xbox or Xbox 360 discs. A system like this makes a to support physical disc drives in future product releases. So, if this reporting is true, I certainly wouldn't expect Project Helix to support physical

[23:21] it to in the first place. That little known indie gem, Cyberpunk 2077, has now sold through 40 million units. This news comes during the Steam sale the game was daily concurrent player count back up over 100,000 people. That's like 20

[23:37] unit metric, but you know, times have moved on since. How about an actual indie success story to finish? has now sold through 15 million units since its launch just a few weeks ago. Notice how I called it Mech Chameleon

[23:50] because I got a text from someone being like, "Please stop mispronouncing it." And you know what? Fair enough. If I sold 15 million units of something, I'd correctly. I mean, just this week I uploaded a The Blood of Dawn Walker

[24:04] preview, and I truly 100% thought that the name of that game was Blood of the Dawn Walker, to the point where when people began correcting me, my brain was are the same." Anyway, I don't even know how I got into this topic. Oh, that's

[24:16] right. Breakout indie French Slop hit, Mecha Chameleon. Big congrats to them. week, aside from all the layoffs, of course? Well, we did get a couple of next game from Frictional Games, the developers of Amnesia and Soma, got

[24:29] pushed out to 2027. This is a sci-fi horror game called Ontos, and though we locked down, it seemed like they were aiming for 2026. Maybe this is just a This is PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles. Delay was also announced this

[24:42] week for Danganronpa 2x2, which they're calling a full retelling, not a remake, investigation visual novel. This one featuring an enhanced version of the original story on top of an all new one. They pushed this one out of 2026 and

[24:55] meantime, if you're looking for a game about teenagers killing each other, It's kind of the same thing, I guess. PC, PlayStation, and Switch platforms week? Well, the first big one we wanted to mention was Doom The Dark Ages

[25:08] Software's excellent shooter, which somehow manages to mix up the Doom combat formula in a new way again with this new chain spear weapon and several this one as unfortunately no pre-release code was provided to any outlet, but

[25:21] very positive. Though, truth be told, majority of those reviews are coming to express their sympathies and anger towards the devastating Xbox layoffs showing of solidarity there. Here's one about the game itself though from Steam

[25:35] user Ninjaman, quote, "Best DLC yet. Huge expansion is promised with plenty spear, but it's well worth the effort. The level of challenge is far higher you start working on the end game portion. Combat is very demanding of the

[25:48] completely fair thanks to the toolkit provided. End game objectives are even difficulty curve feels great. The story is actually pretty good and serves to Slayer. The soundtrack is phenomenal as well with tons of classic Doom 1/2

[26:03] capstone to the modern Doom trilogy." End quote. I want to say that hopefully see from id, but after the events of this week, I just don't know if that's true. Okay, moving on to a more positive story, Assassin's Creed Black Flag

[26:16] Recede. This is the remake that Ubisoft is likely hoping will take off in a big company reset and make their own sweeping layoffs. This one's landed at a mighty 86 on OpenCritic with over 100 critic reviews counted, which is

[26:28] last game held by Ubisoft Singapore, Skull and Bones. Worth noting that this who really didn't like it very much. I suppose as a remake there's always going fans. One of them is GameSpot's reviewer who landed on a 7 out of 10 saying,

[26:43] something truly fantastic. If you play it, you'll see why the original game was years, but you'll also find a remake that doesn't manage to take the crown from the very game that it's remaking and quote. On our team, Austin was the

[26:56] believe this? This guy never played Black Flag before. So, we thought it'd we're all just looking at this one with some nostalgia goggles. But, you know what? Without the burden of what it was before, he still really loved this. He

[27:08] for what they were and now he's firmly part of Kenway's crew. I'll drop a link the way, don't forget to hit the like button. Quick trip to anime and sports Demco's new action RPG based on the anime Sword Art Online and that's landed

[27:23] at a fair 66 on Open Critic. DualShockers gave it a 6.5 and said the fans wanted from this series in the first place." end quote, but that quote, "Echoes of Ironclad still feels like a game that's only halfway towards

[27:35] end quote. And ending now on EA Sports College Football 27, like a hole-in-one at the bottom of the ninth on overtime during a penalty shootout and other sports references. This annual entry has earned itself a strong 76 on Open

[27:48] reviews, IGN slapped a seven out of 10 on this one knocking the monetization "This season ain't going to knock anybody's socks off and both Dynasty and spreadsheet management this year, but smart on-field additions to an already

[28:01] good game make College Football 27 worth suiting up for once again." end quote. right. So, what's coming out this week? Well, the floodgates have well and truly quiet weeks in June and the first wave out the gate is a torrent of indies

[28:13] big dogs start crowding around again. First up, have you heard of this game? a bit of a splash a little while back, got a few wanted stars from Nintendo cops and now this thing is finally coming out with this 1.0 version on July

[28:26] overhauls to mark the occasion. A new location, a conclusion of a story, a off-brand Pokémon seemed like the worst thing in the world to ever happen to video games? Ah, innocent times. PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and Mac for this one.

[28:40] For some reason, not a Switch to port in sight. Next week is a very busy one and Galleon House, our radar pick from last week. This one's out on July 14th and as a brief refresher, this is a locked room murder mystery deduction game where

[28:52] bunch of people in a 1930s mansion all died, but you're doing it many decades that lets you pick up on old audio waves still lingering in the air. So long as and when. This one comes from the developers of The Root Trees Are Dead

[29:06] and it's PC only. Also coming out on July 14th is a game called Dystopia. published by Annapurna Interactive and it's developed by a small indie studio two people who used to work at acclaimed RPG studio Level 5 known for Ni no Kuni,

[29:21] Dystopia is a kind of gentle adventure game where you play a human caretaker in a facility that uses AI to manage the happiness of its residents. Needless to the residents, and add that human touch to solve problems that machines can't

[29:35] platforms. Another gentle game hitting all platforms the next day on July 15th is called Cozy Grove Camp Spirit. This is the sequel to the crafting {slash} which was so good the developers Spry Fox got snapped up by Netflix to make

[29:48] subscribers on iOS and Android. Then Netflix decided they didn't actually want to develop interesting video games anymore and sold Spry Fox off in 2025, letting them once again be independent. Sound like any other corporation you

[30:01] was originally released back in 2024, but now these guys are independent it's Good luck to them. And man, it sure is a big week for cozy games because also It's a kind of hands-on city builder and management game where you play as the

[30:15] early access for a couple of years now with a very positive sentiment behind it and it finally hits the 1.0 milestone on this day which comes alongside a switch part of the world which is nice. For something a little more intense, look no

[30:27] further than Dengeki Attack, the high-octane Jet Set Radio inspired game where you do sick tricks with your train in a reimagined version of Japan. Looks likes a bit of reflex oriented challenge. This game's coming out after

[30:40] a short delay on PC, PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and Switch, too. Also out the of Cthulhu, which is a co-op where you and up to three players explore a cursed jungle and challenge

[30:52] search for treasure while fighting off its hostile inhabitants, while also will mess up what you might see. Kind of like an extraction shooter, but with a This one's being published by the troubled Nacon, and it's also being

[31:06] Team, an indie studio from Chile who have made some very janky, but Rock of Ages and Zeno Clash. Definitely have their own vibe, so really PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles for this one. If you like intrigue, though,

[31:20] which arrives on July 16th. This is the latest from Crow Country developers SFB Detective Grimoire series. These are really nicely animated point-and-click deduction gameplay plays a big part. These are generally really

[31:34] for this one, as well. PC, PS5, and Switch one and two for this one. If probably heard a little bit about Moss, which joined Astro Bot in being a prime example of how you could build a really good 3D platforming game in VR. Now that

[31:48] VR's on the way out like the fifth time, developers Polyarc have thought to adapt for a flat-screen experience. This one's headed to all platforms. Meanwhile, Rec ago. This is a physics-based four-player co-op extraction game where you play a

[32:02] essentially, which sounds like a good time on paper, I guess. It's been put Games, who have previously helped out on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 and things. And this seems to be their first original game. This one hits PC, PS5,

[32:16] if you like your multiplayer games on for you this week. Well, I should say you can play this one online, as well, raucous. This is a sequel to the physics-based party game created by Lee

[32:28] physics-based party game created by Lee Car week on this segment we featured an upcoming game that's slow and cerebral,

[32:44] twitchy action crowd. So, put this on your radar. your radar. >> [music]

[33:01] about absolutely blitzing away through a dungeon as fast as humanly possible. have 15 seconds to frantically throw your avatar all over the place in order clock runs out. If you've hit the score threshold, you'll grab an upgrade and

[33:16] dungeon and try to do the same thing, but faster. Visually it's going for a on top it lays all sorts of chunky screen shake and psychedelic explosions running into dozens of enemies really intense. It's an absolute dopamine rush

[33:30] about and a few different classes to play with, and it's just a great game to eventually lose an hour or more. For those of you who don't have the APM of a chilled out super hot mode where time

[33:42] focus on the build craft elements. Caz comes out on Monday the 13th of July demo right now if you'd like to check it out. If you do want to check it out, Steam curator page, which also has links to all of the other put this on your

[33:56] like button. Our feel-good story for the week may provide some relief during taxing times. Those times? Steam sales. I know you people, I see you, for I am one of you. Our backlogs stretch beyond the physical limits of time and space,

[34:10] rolls out, we start looking at that Command & Conquer Remaster being like, right after my 12th Elden Ring playthrough." Luckily, Mike Wing has got your back. He created the Steam Summer Sale Simulator. Now you can buy games

[34:25] without spending any actual money. Worried that you don't truly own them? because when you buy stuff on Steam, you're just buying a license to it anyway. Worried that you won't be able to play them because they're not actual

[34:37] games? My dude, you were never going to play them anyway. Be serious. Mike Wing be sure to say thank you for repurchasing the Splinter Cell Legacy Bundle at a 75% discount. On second thought though, that price does sound

[34:51] is the show for the week. Another bummer sadly, but surely sometime soon we've God, I hope so. Well, there is some good news actually. We just launched a We're going to talk more about it soon when we celebrate the one year

[35:05] you're keen to jump in, then head over to thisweekinvideogames.com, supporter, and you can join that discord right away. It's already buzzing with a great conversation. So we'd love for you to join us. You know what else we'd

[35:18] love? A like because we're not above asking for that. And if you're new and ding that notification bell. I'm off to play some Doom: The Dark Ages it's peak. Plus I'm also going to be checking out the Steam Machine this week

[35:30] we'll talk more about that one later. For now, thanks for watching and we'll For now, thanks for watching and we'll see you again real soon. Bye-bye.