Video Gamers Podcast - Microsoft Layoffs, Helldivers 2 Xbox Hype and Subnautica 2 Woes (TWIG) - Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan, and John are back with another jam-packed episode, set down your video games and listen up. This week we’re diving headfirst into the biggest stories shaking up the gaming world. Microsoft has dropped another round of layoffs—what does this mean for the future of Xbox and the company’s long-term gaming strategy?  We’re also talking about the Helldivers 2 bombshell: it’s finally coming to Xbox! Is this the cross-platform move fans have been begging for, or is backup arriving too late to make waves? We break down what this means for the co-op shooter and how it fits into the broader video games landscape. Plus, there’s trouble beneath the gaming surface of Subnautica 2. With news of internal studio struggles and development delays, fans are starting to worry if this highly anticipated sequel will sink or swim. All that and more on this week’s episode of the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’Jake, Gaius and Phelps   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, Patrick and PeopleWonder   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: ⁠https://discord.gg/Dsx2rgEEbz⁠ Follow us on Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠ Follow us on X: ⁠https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠ Subscribe to us on YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Visit us on the web: ⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Follow us on Twitch: ⁠https://www.twitch.tv/videogamerspodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Nothing is ever dull in the video game industry, that's for sure. We've got some pretty giant happenings to discuss from the creators of Subnautica getting canned to Microsoft laying off the population of a small third world country to Helldivers 2 coming to Xbox. It's been a wild week for gaming news, but before we get to all that, some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh and joining me, he's host with the most the guy we never even think about doing this show without Wait, wait, sorry one second. Oh, oh he's been let go. Oh, man. This just got awkward

It's the former host formerly known as Ryan Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's my uh, I'd better get a good Severance package. That's all I know. Yeah. Sorry, there's no money involved in this podcast for any of us. All right, a big hug. That's all I know.

All right, fair. And joining us, Ever the Entrepreneur, he's opened up a studio on how to properly salute your fellow Helldivers, how to dive into cover properly and the best place to call down your mortar It's John Thank you for mentioning the salute thing I

Sarah my wife like ribs me for the way I introduce myself to people like on walks and stuff and I like I't know why, but we were walking past this like couple that we walked past every morning. And I say howdy for some reason. And I also gave this guy a salute on the way. And Sarah was like, you're trying out a salute now, huh? It was very embarrassing. Oh, this is great.

Like howdy, salute. And she's like, where is this coming from, man? I'm basically my dad, yeah. Yeah, it happens to all of us, man. Guys, I mean, listen, we've got a lot of news to cover. This is not exciting news, but I am actually excited to talk about this because some of these stories are really giving some insight

into the gaming industry, and it also kind of brings up a few questions. John, you know, you and I were chatting before recording. And we always record all this stuff as an extra for our supporters over on Patreon. We always record kind of the pre-show chatter and the post show chatter. And you and I kind of got into a discussion on one of these news stories and how live service gaming is affecting the

gaming industry and if there's some like I'll just use regulations involved with that. But it's like some of this stuff as gamers is fascinating, you know, like we've got some honestly some just real down stories to cover with Microsoft letting a whole bunch of people go. But it also kind of begs the question of, you know, is this just something that you assume is natural in the gaming industry? Is there a better way?

Is there risks involved? How can we mitigate some of that? So I have a feeling we're gonna have some pretty, pretty good discussion on today's episode, even if some of the stories aren't the most ideal stories to be talking about. So boys, let's just get into this, man, because my goodness, what is going on right now, dude? Listen, it's the doldrums of summer, right?

There's nothing coming out in July. We talked about this. There's really no good games. And I know people like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4, Grounded 2 Early Access or Game Preview or whatever they're calling it. A couple other things. And it's like, okay guys, but I mean, there's games releasing, but it's like,

is there anything to like get super excited for? And the answer, in my opinion, is like, well, no, July's a dead month. I started looking at August. There's really not much coming out in August until August 28th, which is Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eaters. So that's like that. Yeah. See Ryan's flexing. Cause like, okay, that's the next big game we're all part of. But again, that's a remaster too. That's a low risk.

I mean, very fair point, John, is it's a remaster. It's not even a new IP. It's not a new title. Like, so we're in the doldrums of summer. So some of this stuff is to be expected, right? We hit, we hit 2025 just, I mean, on fire, dude. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Split Fiction, Expedition 33, The Alters, I mean, it's been, it's been insane. Peak. Hey dude, it's crushing right now, man.

Peak is crushing. I had to, I had to. Oh, that was such a good reference. I hate Peak for those that didn't get the inside joke. I get I'm alone in this maybe, but Ryan's just teasing me. Josh just hates fun is all it is. Any chance he can get,

because I can't seem to bring myself to like that game for some reason. But here we are, and so maybe this is just the time of year where companies go, what better time to do some restructuring and some analyzing of our workforce and our projections and things like that. Well, first up, boys, one of my favorite games of all time, legitimately, is Subnautica. The people that created Subnautica got canned!

Like what? How do you can the creators of Subnautica guys? Like, so Crafting, the company, the publisher, which is mega publisher, right? It is like Crafting came out and they said, we're not happy with the progress on Subnautica 2. There's been some milestones that weren't hit in the time frame that we want them to be hit by.

And we just aren't happy with the way things are going. And because we own this company, we get to make the decisions. And the creators of Subnautica were let go. Now, number one, that's a kick between the legs, in my opinion. You know the worst part about it is, do you know which studio, like, head they brought in to replace them? Oh no. Who? Do you know? Do you- Guys, one of the biggest bungles in gaming, a game that I am still peeved at because I was so excited,

they brought in the dude that gave us Callisto Protocol. Now I don't know if you guys remember, but when Callisto Protocol released, the day it released, it was unplayable. You're bringing that dude in? This is the let me play the game, right? Well, that was for spoken. Oh, that's right.

This was another just let me play the game because the stuttering in Callisto. And this was not just Josh Rant type thing. Paul tried to play the Callisto protocol. Yeah. And he was like, bro, this is unplayable. So you're telling me that you can, the creators of one of the most unique and joy games that's ever been made in Subnautica, and you replace them

with the dude that released Callisto Protocol in an unplayable state? Just to be clear, the creators for Subnautica got let go and then a replacement was brought in to continue the work on Subnautica 2. Correct. But well, I don't know the exact time. Yes, that's correct. I don't know if they had dude from, from Callisto protocol in the works, but when this news broke, it basically broke at the exact same time. Like part of the news was, Hey, we're letting the,

the Charlie Cleveland technical director, Max McGuire, and unknown world CEO, Ted Gill. So those were the three guys that founded and created Subnautica. And then the CEO for Striking Distance Studios, a guy by the name of Steve Papoutsis, whose credentials are the guy that gave us Callisto Protocol. He was the CEO of the studio that gave us Callisto Protocol, he was the CEO of the studio that gave us Callisto Protocol, is the guy that has been ushered in to continue with the development of Subnautica 2. Guys, this gives me zero, zero confidence that Subnautica 2 is going

to be even remotely decent at this point. Well, and the bad part too is they didn't even let them finish Subnautica 2 is gonna be even remotely decent at this point well in the way the bad part 2 is is uh They didn't even let him finish subnautica 1. You know it's still an early access right? Subnautica 1 is an amazing game Force a friend that was one of our first force of friends or whatever it was the first game I ever made you play Ryan is the force of friend okay so so devil's advocate business guy oh boy I have to imagine put like put yourself in the studio's shoes right the from what I gather Subnautica 2 is actually pretty darn ready to release like it's in a releasable state right now it was supposed to

release it to early access this year in 2025 so it's it's pretty darn well close to a releasable state at a minimum I think that the studio would have had to have some pretty compelling reason To let people go knowing that there would be some discourse in the in the fan Community I have to imagine that when they were talking about making this decision, they were like, look, guys, we have this situation with the current creators. Something isn't going right. So we have a couple of choices. We can either let it ride and have this game tank because of whatever risk that presents, or we can completely upend our loyal following

here and bring in a new person. What are we going to do? And they probably weighed the risks against one another and this is the decision they made. I guarantee it wasn't made lightly. Can we roleplay for a second? Let's guys, off the cuff, let's just roleplay. Ryan, you ready?

I'm crafting studios, you're the Subnautica devs or right. Okay. You ready? Okay. Hey, uh, Ryan, we're going to need you to put in a whole bunch of live service elements in Subnautica too. Cool. Nah, fam. That ain't me. All right. You're fired. Hey, hey, hey, Joe, Joe, you will put some live service elements in Subnautica too. Uh, yeah, man. Why not? Cool. Joe, you're the new lead. You're the new lead. You're the new lead, buddy, get in here. That is entirely possible. That's entirely possible.

Most, I mean, the backlash against Crafting Studios for this Subnautica thing has been massive, dude. Gamers have said, to the point where Crafting actually released a statement that said, hey, we are not anticipating putting live service, they had to actually defend it. They had to come out and say, we are not looking to insert live service elements into Subnautica 2.

Now I'll believe it when I see it, buddy, but man, and then you replaced it with the guy that just botched, botched the release of Callisto protocol, man. Oh, my goodness. All right. Battle pass for extra oxygen. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Sign up for our. Oh, my. Don't you even, Ryan. Anyway. All right.

Well, that's the first story we're going to cover, guys. Let's get into a little bit of good news for a second. OK. Did you guys ever let's let me just set the stage. Sony, Helldivers 2, one of the biggest just hits to come out in gaming in the last few years. It's a Sony IP, it's exclusive, Xbox, you don't get it. Gears of War, one of Xbox's most iconic IPs next to Halo, you know, there's a couple of others, but let's be be honest Gears of War has always been synonymous with Xbox. Yeah, and that's probably number two after Halo

I would say yeah. Yes, I agree well Xbox is getting hell divers to boys. Yeah The aside is that playstations getting Gears of War remastered or whatever they're calling it when it releases, I think later August sometime around then. But guys, you're bringing the Xbox Army to defend supers. What? It's about to get so sweaty, bro. I what do you guys think about this? Well, I think it's interesting. There's a there's a lot of stuff with Xbox in the spotlight this this week. There's a lot to talk about with Xbox. Oh, yeah, but this is certainly one of them, right? This is something that You know one of the things that I think

PlayStation and Nintendo but PlayStation has really done quite well over Xbox has been the title exclusivity There's lots of really great titles that you can only get on PlayStation that you haven't been able to get on Xbox and Xbox doesn't quite have the weight in their library to to, you know, to combat it properly. interesting and intelligent moves by gaining some of these things either directly or through an alliance with their greatest competitor, which is Steam. So it's really interesting business. We've talked on this show a lot about the death of exclusivity, the death of console exclusivity, and it looks like Xbox is sort of hedging on that bet, but there's a parallel piece of news that comes with this

where there is a lot of questions about whether or not this business model is going to be solvent for them long-term. I've heard- Are you talking about the Game Pass? Are you talking about the exclusivity or you're talking about Game Pass? I'm talking about Game Pass.

That's a story that's coming up. It is coming up and I've heard that hell divers has said they are not Doing game passes. Yeah is not in there is not in their Projection or whatever, but I don't know man I could I could see a situation where this all develops into these are a couple of paragraphs of the same story where subscription is sort of the new normal and it has a huge impact on some of these studios I I love the response that gamers have had to this news where it's number one You've got all the people that have been playing helldivers whether it's been on PlayStation or PC, just welcoming in. I mean, welcoming in their Xbox brethren. And then I said, number one, that's amazing,

right? Because normally there's the whole console war thing and it's like, you don't deserve to have this game. This is, this is our exclusive game and stuff like that. We don't want them. Yeah. Now they're just like, welcome in. I've seen so many memes where you just see like armies of like, you know, storm troopers or whoever. And it's like, you know, Xbox welcoming in the next wave of hell divers and stuff like that.

I am all for this man. 100% I am for this. We have been saying for a while that we think that the days of hard exclusivity are over. There's just too much money to be made, man. There is. Xbox is going to sell a kajillion copies of freaking Helldivers 2, man. Like even in our Discord server, like how much like chatter was there today when this news came out where they're like, oh my gosh, guys, I get to finally play Helldivers?

We can play. And then everybody's like, I'll play, I'll dive back in with you, man. Like absolutely. And then you're getting the people that are clamoring for the crossover stuff Halo odst The odst guys are basically hell divers man. Yeah, like there's so much fun crossover here I freaking love this story, dude. I'm so waiting for my warhammer skin man Oh, we're a war hammer skin on hell divers. Oh, dude. you'd probably never see me again. That would be pretty cool.

I love the crossover stuff. And it seems to be the path a lot of games are going where it's all just like, hey, man, it's one big party. That's popular. Let's bring it in our game. Oh, this is popular. Let's throw it in that game.

And I wonder, too, what do you guys think with how the lack of exclusivity, where they're kind of going away with it for premium titles, do you think the age of the internet and everybody just playing together, being able to play together anymore, you don't have just that specific console. Your console is almost like a medium to the world, to the internet, to where you can play with whoever, with a lot of, especially a lot of cross-platform playing. Do you think that had a lot to do too with this, where they're going away from that model of these kind of premium exclusive games? Yeah.

So I actually just did a interview with a guy named Bobby Voiku, who is a serial entrepreneur in tech and he currently is developing a company, a game company called MixRift, which is like augmented reality or whatever. But he had this really interesting position on this stuff where he was saying that if you ask somebody what the number one gaming device is, a lot of people would probably say like a PlayStation or something along, or at least a PC. The reality is, is that mobile is the most common

gaming device followed by PC and then the consoles. But if you think about that, your most common gaming devices are computing platforms. They are not gaming platforms. I think that as people's attention becomes smaller and smaller, as people are able to develop games with less resources, less dedicated resources available to them, and this year is a wonderful example too,

most of the best selling games this year are indie games. I think that- It's true, I'm good. Well, yeah, and it's a sign of the times too, man. I mean, cheap to develop, cheap to deploy games have a much easier road to profitability than these several hundred million dollar production games like Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed for that matter

I think that this is absolutely something that's on the periphery that that's these proprietary games become less and less common because studios Nate need to make a return on investment and you know if you follow the subscription model of media with Netflix and then Disney Plus and Paramount Plus and Peacock and all these Hulu all these other things they were forced to do this because this is what consumers want and I Don't see gaming being any different

Yeah, I that we got to move on to the next story, but the the discussion of exclusivity again I'm just gonna I think I think it's on its last leg man. I think it used to be a way to sell consoles I think that the consoles are the lower end of what makes gaming a lot of money And I think that if you can get the hell divers or the Marvel rivals or whatever The big thing is that every developer in the world wants that's that's your that's your key to profit And so locking that behind our console in the hopes that more people buy your console to be able to play this game I think that model is dying honestly, so yeah We'll go out kicking and screaming, but well yeah

To that as well, so all right. We gotta take a break We're gonna come right back and talk about some stop killing games, guys. All right, guys, we can't spend too long on this one. This one, John, this one might be a GameCourt episode for us in the future, man. So, for anybody that's not aware, in the UK, there is a movement called Stop Killing Games that somebody started, some famous YouTuber,

forgive me, I don't know his name, but he started this. It got a million signatures, which is apparently like the threshold to actually make this, like, you know, the government kind of pay attention to this movement, I guess, or at least address it. This movement is basically gamers coming together and saying, hey, the, you know, live service gaming is killing games.

Every developer in the world is chasing this dream of hitting it big with a live service game, but these live service games are not around forever. If the developer fails, if the game doesn't take off, then they shut the game game down and that's bad because you're now selling product that you're then taking away or stopping support for in the future. That is the very very quick 30-second breakdown for this you can certainly dive into this more but I have to say man I'm kind of for this idea that everybody chasing live service gaming is not good for gaming.

I think we can all, I mean, I think we've all said this hunt for live service gaming is not good for gaming in general. Have we gotten some amazing games out of it? Helldivers 2 is a live service game and we just got done hyping that but I think gamers as a whole kind of go guys, ugh, another live service game. Marvel Avengers, Suicide Squad, I mean how many failed attempts have we seen at live

service gaming? So you know, John and I were kind of, I don't want to say arguing but we were debating the both sides of this To kind of say well There's a lot of money for developers if this works Which lets them develop other games that we like but at the same time we've seen some failures and What happens when it fails? I bought a game You told me you were gonna support this game for three years with this roadmap. The game sucked. It failed after a year. And now you stop support and I'm left holding the bag because I bought it and you didn't uphold your end of the bargain.

So my general thought on this kind of thing is like if it's not illegal, it's permissible and companies, you know, like any other entity on the face of the planet have the right to fight for their own survival. I think that if it's illegal, we're talking about two totally different things. But I think that this is a sign of the times. I think that as more and more games are being produced faster and faster, it's harder to produce games that are profitable. And live service, really any sort of subscription model, anything, seems to be what is the surest way to profitability at this point. And so I understand why they're... Is it? I don't know. I mean... Is it? I feel like it's chasing the jackpot, man. This is the main thing. Look, Ryan teased me why they're... Is it? I don't know, I mean... Is it? I feel like it's chasing the jackpot, man.

This is the main thing. Look, Ryan teased me at the beginning of the show because I do not like Peak. You know, this is a current game, and everybody in our server's playing Peak, and I'm, dude, I'm super glad that people are having a good time with Peak. This is not shade against the game itself.

This is me understanding that this just isn't my kind of game. But I think Peak is the worst, dude. It's not fun. It's repetitive. It's aggravating. Sure, it's fun with friends, but I can play a million other games. Peak sold 2 million copies in like nine days, dude, from a very small development team.

There is absolutely gobs of money to be made if you can make a fun game. Yeah. You know, I mean, we see it with Stardew Valley, solo developer, dude, Expedition 33. I mean, you can make a gillion dollars if you just make a fun game. But the problem is you've got these AAA studios chasing the jackpot, man.

We all want those billions of dollars that this is going to bring in. And when it fails, they just wipe it off the table and go, well, we took a hit on that one. Let's try again on the next one and hope we get lucky. And then gamers are the ones that are left holding the bag in that case. And I get that companies are protecting themselves

because, hey, you have to agree to the EULA and the terms of service and all that, where you are very clearly acknowledging the fact that they may not continue supporting this game and that's on us as gamers, but the thinking is sound in my opinion that it's like, guys, we kind of do something here, right? Like to just stop this slop being made and then sold

and then unsupported and then abandoned by developers when it doesn't pan out. If you want to chase that jackpot, you're putting your money on the table and you stand to lose a lot of money if that's what you're going for. But I think the market is gonna correct that. The market will, consumers are smart, not all of them,

but a lot of consumers are smart and they're gonna vote with their wallets with this kind of stuff. And when you see from the makers of Suicide Squad on their next game or whatever you're gonna. Yeah, exactly You're gonna be like, oh heck no or at least I'm gonna wait and see how this goes and if it's and if it's taken off then then maybe I'll hop on board and They'll continue to maintain that game

but I think these things it's gonna be yeah, some people are gonna get screwed over but you know life's not fair and Yeah, so so check it out guys over the last five years only 18 to 20 percent of the top 50 revenue generating games were not live service games meaning that 80 to 82 percent of the top earning games in the last five years were live service games. Yeah, I have to wonder, does that include mobile? I wonder if mobile is included in the live service game because games like Candy Crush and Clash of Clans. This is Steam. Oh, Steam?

Specifically, yep. I mean, I think they're... And over 40% of all play time was spent on just 10 of those live service games. And you could probably guess which, it's your Fortnites or Call of Duty, it's your Destiny 2, it's your Rivals. Because if you, and again, I'm not arguing that, why developers are chasing this,

because absolutely that makes sense to me, but at the same time, you shouldn't get to just shoot for the jackpot and then fail and then just abandon without some sort of risk involved. And I know that it's like, well, hey, dude, you think this development isn't expensive and all that. Look at Marathon, dude.

Marathon is delayed indefinitely and it was made to be a live service game and Bungie went, oh man, maybe we're not onto something here. That is a place I don't want to be. And yes, there is catastrophic possibility for failure here, but I want to segue because we're running low on time. And Ryan, you said it. You said it, Ryan. So for every gamer out there that's gonna bemoan this, I'm not saying I agree with it, but you said it.

You said the market will correct itself. Yeah. Xbox, Microsoft just laid off 9,000 people, dude. Is this the market correcting itself? Because, hey man, gamers, they're not buying into some of this live service slop and they're not buying these games that aren't fun and things like that. You know, is this the market correcting itself? Because gamers, even us, are going like, bro, this sucks, dude.

9000 people laid off by Microsoft. Like, this is a dark day for a lot of people and nobody is celebrating that by any means. But when you talk about the market correcting itself, is this the result of that? So I don't know. That's why I'm asking you guys. Yeah, here's, here's, here's.

I thought John was gonna say something. No, here's my holistic thought on the whole thing. So when I'm looking at the data that I have available, the most current available data is from 2023, but in 2023, 73% of all gaming was live service gaming or games that were live service supported. So what that tells me is that it's not necessarily that these people are chasing the jackpot, it's just that there's something in the zeitgeist where people tend to funnel their attention towards these major mega titles that occupy a social place where people,

you know, people talk about it. It's like the scuttlebutt, everybody's got something in common to talk to. And so they have to, these games have to seek that out. That seems to be, if you're a big studio, that's like one of the only ways you can be profitable. And I think that's probably why we're seeing the rise of the indie is because like like these indie games are developed for much

like you're seeing games on Kickstarter get developed for like $30,000 or something $30 to $50,000 which is a drop in the bucket and man it doesn't take a lot to recoup that. The situation with this layoff here I believe comes from the game dev part of this which makes sense for Xbox. Xbox is very clearly focusing more on the software and the availability of games via Game Pass and via you know distributing games that have already been distributed to other places and maybe less on developing their own titles. So that makes sense.

And big layoffs like this happen in all industries, especially large industries. This is not really that surprising. A good friend of mine has worked in tech his whole life. And when I was talking to him about this, he was like, yeah, it's a red herring. It sounds like a big number But this really isn't that big of a deal this kind of thing happens represents 4% it represents 4% of Microsoft's workforce So then you got to go well 4% ain't very much 9,000 people's a lot, but 4% of people

That's like that happens all the time if it wasn't 9,000 people like companies let go of 4% of their people like If it wasn't 9,000 people like companies let go of 4% of their people like Like every day and that's modest to join up the street that slowed down is getting rid of somebody that's got a shift or two Because it's like well, we're not as busy this month So we're gonna let you go you just don't hear about it because it's one or two people at that point. Yeah so a couple of the casualties For games on this one this one Couple of the casualties for games on this one, this one's tough, man, is Perfect Dark, the Perfect Dark remake, which famously Ryan thinks is infinitely better than GoldenEye

was back in the day. It is. Dude, we saw the trailer for Perfect Dark and we all lost our minds. I mean, that game looked incredible. Well, apparently it didn't look incredible enough because they axed that. Everwild, a game I have not heard in a long time, but that game actually looked pretty good There are a lot of studios that got closed You know, this is I this is not to try to belittle or

You know not Understand that this is a big impact for a lot of people. I think it's more so it's just the scope of this at 9,000 people is a lot. But again, when you're seeing this ever shifting gaming market and Microsoft owns freaking 50% of the gaming market now, I, you know, this, this to me seems like a natural, just kind of thing to have happen, man. You know, again, it's not that it's not a lot of people, but a company the size of Microsoft and how much they gobbled up studios and they said, Hey, we're going to try to impact the

gaming world and understand how massive this industry is. You know, this is kind of akin to your Paramounts or your MGMs or, you know, any of these huge, huge, uh, you know, publishers for movies kind of doing the same thing, man, when they make moves, they're gigantic waves just because of the sheer size of these entities, man. And I mean, we don't want to see it, but it does beg the question that if you go into the gaming industry and again, this might be another Game Court episode here, where it's like, if you go into this industry, do you go in just knowing how volatile it is?

Is that a risk that you are willingly accepting because you're going into an industry that is possibly more volatile than anything else out there, with the exception of Alaskan crab fishing? than anything else out there with the exception of like Alaskan crab fishing. Well look, I'm reading here too on one of these articles. They've now laid off over 20,000 people overall since 2023. Microsoft has. But do you know how many, they employ something like 228,000 people. You know, so that's 10% of the workforce. Now I'm not saying that's, again, not trying to belittle the amount of people there, but it is also saying over, and that was since what year, Ryan? 2023. 2023. So right post-COVID when a lot of the world was recovering from COVID and things

like that as well. So I don't know, man. That's a whole nother discussion about if you go into an industry, if I go to be an actor, right? If I say, Hey, I want to get into Hollywood in the movie industry. I want to be an actor. It's like, I kind of go in knowing that, you know, maybe if I'm lucky, I get hired into a couple of commercials before I just fade into obscurity or get let go or told I'm not needed anymore or something like that, man. I know we hate to see it as gamers and I don't want anybody out there thinking that we are just Aok with 9,000 people getting let go and the impact on the gaming industry and stuff like that. It sucks There's no other way around it

It is just the is this the industry that you signed up for you know, and and with gamers John you mentioned it Like part of part of this is we're guilty as gamers. You know, we always say like, hey, you're gonna vote with your wallet. You're gonna put your money where your mouth is. But if live service gaming is something that gamers bemoan day in and day out, and yet 80% of gamers are playing live service games, you don't really get to bemoan it that much, man.

You know, at that point, like that's part of the problem is like we're, we're kind of supporting this man. And I, Hey, I love hell divers too. I I'll dive in with our Xbox brethren. You know what I mean? Like, but I'm supporting live service gaming at that point. So you can't, we just have to take a step back sometimes as gamers and say, look, we

may not like this, but if we're participating in it, we're participating in it at the same time and we can't, you can't, you can't yell and scream about it, but then also play them at the same time and then say, well, this isn't fair because it's like, well, you know, I have the perfect. Yeah. I have the perfect analogy for this. So who, who here watched a movie called the sixth sense that was released? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, who hasn't awesome? Awesome movie right and then another movie came out shortly after called signs. Did you guys watch signs? Yep, watch signs also really good movie had one of the creepiest scenes. I've ever seen in any movie and then

What else has M night Shyamalan? Done a bunch of garbage dude, unfortunately, and I keep hoping I keep hoping he's gonna make something And then what else has M night Shyamalan done? Oh, a bunch of garbage, dude, unfortunately. And I keep hoping, I keep hoping he's going to make something great. Decades and decades of garbage, like literally two decades of garbage. And people complain about it a lot, right? People go, gosh, rotten tomatoes, you know, it's trash, trash, trash, trash, trash, trash, and people rip them apart.

But you know what the reason he keeps getting jobs is because people keep going to see those freaking movies and He'd hoping man. Yep people are Whatever their whatever their opinions are people are still going to see those movies so Get yeah game studios will stop Producing these games chasing these games when they stop paying. Yep, that's true. That's true. Or we stop playing them, which is the same thing.

So all right. Well, listen, guys, that's going to do it for this episode. Not the best week for the gaming industry, but at least, hey, man, our Xbox people, we're going to be diving with you. I can't wait. That's gonna be so much Yeah, I think the silver lining behind all this especially the fact that it's kind of a slow week or slow couple of months Honestly for game releases is now is your perfect time to dig into your backlog guys I'm like I'm now using, like I just beat Halo Infinite campaign. Ah, so fun.

And I'm playing, I'm playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Man, it plays just like a old school Indiana Jones movie. What a fun game that is. And now I'm like, you know what man? The Death Stranding 2 is coming out. I can play Death Stranding 1 on Game Pass. Very, very low risk. I'm gonna play elder scrolls oblivion

And then I still I still have to find what my perfect like PC only game is that I'm that I'm gonna break I told you it's cyber. Yeah, but I can play cyber Man it's gonna be the best I got this hot rod I'm not gonna take it out to the to the drag strip man. Cyberpunk is the cyberpunk is the jet fuel You need man for that. Yeah, I just I literally started a Baldur's Gate 3 run I haven't played it since I played it when it released and it's been a little while and I've got the itch and and I'm Actually gonna play with a couple buddies because I've never tried a multiplayer and it's like dude early July is the best time to just pick up

And Ryan's playing RDR 2 again. I mean it's now now's a, now's a great time, man. That was the time to catch up. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. I, it's, I don't mind that there's not any great games coming out in July. So, all right, that's going to do it for this episode guys. Thank you for hanging out with us, everybody. Let us know what you think about just, you know, the what's going on in the gaming industry right now Is it is it just you know business as usual and it's unfortunate, but it's expected is it like hey, man You know this is big bad Microsoft doing big bad Microsoft things Let us know what you think in the comments We we see every single comment that people leave if you'd like to chat with other gamers that are awesome

Our discord server is the best gaming community on the planet. We say it every show for a reason and we want you to join us if you are an awesome person that loves playing video games and does not like toxicity and being mean to people. The link is in the episode description there. And if you want private access to our before and after chatter before we actually hit the record button. We just revealed a what the hijack a host is for July to our Patreon supporters. Guys, we try to give some really awesome perks to people. We just revamped everything and the feedback so far has been fantastic.

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