The Fallout of the Xbox Layoffs - Kinda Funny Games Daily 07.03.25

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Episode: The Fallout of the Xbox Layoffs
Release Date: July 3, 2025
Hosts: Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Tim Gettys, and Blessing Adeoye Jr.

---

Introduction

In this somber episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily, hosts Tim Gettys and Andy Cortez delve into the troubling news surrounding the video game industry. The focus centers on significant layoffs at Microsoft’s Xbox division, project cancellations, and the broader implications for the gaming community. Despite the heavy topics, the episode also touches on some positive updates and engages with listener super chats towards the end.

---

Major Layoffs and Project Cancellations

Microsoft’s Xbox Layoffs

The episode begins with Tim Gettys announcing a challenging day filled with unsettling news: "It's not gonna be a fun one. Mostly bad news about the video game industry." (00:00)

According to Sean Carey at True Achievements, over 9,000 employees across various Microsoft divisions, including Xbox, have been laid off. This massive reduction has led to the shutdown of significant initiatives:

• Perfect Dark: A long-awaited title by Rare, now canceled.
• Everwild: An unannounced MMORPG from ZeniMax, also canceled.

Departure of Key Personnel:

• Matt Fryer, head of ZeniMax Online Studios, announces his departure after 18 years, expressing confidence in the new leadership:
  “While I won't be working on the game anymore, I will be cheering you on...” (09:00)

• Louis O'Connor, executive producer at Rare, and Greg Nails, legendary designer, are also leaving the company.

Impact on the Industry

Andy Cortez shares his distress over the layoffs:
"It feels like we're just reading the tea leaves of this and... it is not a." (10:58)

He emphasizes the emotional and professional toll on the affected employees, highlighting the unpredictability and instability now pervasive in the industry.

---

EA’s Battlefield 6 Ambitions

The discussion shifts to EA’s ambitious target for Battlefield 6, which aims for 100 million players—three times more than its best-selling predecessors. Tim Gettys cites Conan McCarr at Eurogamer:
"EA's executive leadership has reportedly set a goal of 100 million players for the upcoming Battlefield game..." (08:38)

Skepticism Surrounding the Goal:

• Past performances, such as Battlefield 2042 reaching only 22 million players, fuel doubts.
• Comparisons to Call of Duty Warzone, which achieved 100 million players in about a year, but under different market conditions.

Andy Cortez is highly critical of these numbers:
"It should. It just shows you that, like, it doesn't matter. It intelligence doesn't matter..." (30:19)

He argues that the expectations are unrealistic and rooted in a lack of understanding of the current gaming landscape.

---

Build a Rocket Boy’s Struggles

Build a Rocket Boy (Barb), a Scotland-based developer, faces severe challenges following the disastrous launch of Mind’s Eye. Sources from IGN report that around 300 UK employees have received redundancy notices due to:

• Poor game performance with only 26 concurrent players at the time of reporting.
• Negative user reviews and numerous bugs.
• Allegations of sabotage, with CEO Leslie Benzies blaming both internal and external factors for the game's failure.

Tim Gettys summarizes Benzies’ statement:
"I was being told that our publisher has canceled funding... we're working quickly to support our team." (30:19)

Andy Cortez expresses frustration over the situation:
"It's insane that we're in this space... Legends in the industry being shuttered." (43:47)

---

Romero Games Closure

Another blow to the industry comes with the closure of Romero Games, a subsidiary of Microsoft’s Xbox. According to Jordan Midler at VGC:

• Over 75 developers from the Ireland-based studio are affected.
• The cancellation stems from Microsoft pulling funding, not direct layoffs.
• The studio was working on a first-person shooter using Unreal Engine 5.

Tim Gettys reflects on the broader impact:
"Is that going to continue, Andy, funding Kojima's OD? Are we going to hear that that's canceled?" (42:00)

Andy responds with disbelief:
"I really don't believe that anybody is safe through any of this." (43:49)

---

Good News: Helldivers 2 Arrives on Xbox

Amidst the bleakness, Helldivers 2 is announced for Xbox Series X and S on August 26, priced at $40, as reported by Xbox Wire. Tim Gettys views this as a positive development:
"What this means is very promising for the multiplayer community and cross-platform play." (44:40)

Andy Cortez appreciates the move:
"This is a great move and I like that we're seeing the willingness from Sony to do something like this." (45:08)

The collaboration between Sony and Xbox publishers is seen as a beacon of hope amidst the turmoil.

---

Rumors: Phil Spencer’s Retirement

A rumor suggests that Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, plans to retire following the next-gen console launch. Sourced from Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming and echoed by ghostaccounts on social media, the rumor lacks official confirmation. Tim Gettys expresses his expectation for Spencer’s departure:
"Given today's recent blood bath of layoffs, I'm with all this not a surprise." (48:42)

However, listener skepticism remains high, with some chats debunking the claims.

---

Last of Us HBO Series Changes

In a surprising turn, both Neil Druckmann and Holly Gross announce their departure from the creative aspects of the Last of Us HBO series:

• Neil Druckmann:
  “I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in Last of Us on HBO…” (52:12)

• Holly Gross:
  “I’ve decided to take a step back from my day-to-day work on HBO’s Last of Us to make space for what comes next.” (52:12)

The hosts speculate on potential reasons, including creative differences or a focus shift towards upcoming projects like Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet.

---

Street Fighter Movie Casting

In lighter news, Cody Rhodes has been cast as Guile in the upcoming Street Fighter movie, as reported by Deadline:

• The cast choice is met with excitement, although concerns about maintaining character accuracy are raised.
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. expresses enthusiasm:
  “I can't wait for this goddamn movie.” (53:34)

---

Listener Super Chats Highlights

The episode concludes with a series of listener super chats providing diverse perspectives:

• Condor (56:06): Points out Trenchant failures from Build a Rocket Boy.
• Nico (56:06): Criticizes Xbox’s fluctuating strategies.
• Trent (56:06): Highlights the loss of talent and its long-term effects.
• EBO (56:06): Suggests that game cancellations are for tax write-offs.
• Brookie (56:06): Asks about upcoming reviews for Jurassic World Rebirth.

These comments underscore the community’s concerns about industry instability and the future of game development.

---

Conclusion

The episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily paints a grim picture of the current state of the video game industry, dominated by massive layoffs, project cancellations, and the exodus of key talent. While there are glimmers of hope, such as the release of Helldivers 2 on Xbox, the overarching sentiment remains one of concern for the industry's sustainability and the well-being of its workforce. The hosts engage thoughtfully with listener feedback, reinforcing the communal impact of these developments.

---

Note: All timestamps correspond to their position in the provided transcript.

Transcript

[Tim Gettys]

Today's stories include. I'm gonna be real with you. It is one of those days. It's not gonna be a fun one. Mostly bad news about the video game industry. We got Xbox bad news. We have non Xbox bad news, and we have non Xbox bad news. That's actually bad news because of Xbox, but Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox. Hey. Love all that and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. What's up? And welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Thursday, July 3, 2025. I, of course, am your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by the lovely Andy Cortez.

[Andy Cortez]

Hello, Tim.

[Tim Gettys]

How are you doing?

[Andy Cortez]

Good morning. I'm all right, yeah. Recovering from Jurassic World Rebirth.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Recovering from.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay, that's recovering from.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. What else? Oh. Oh. I saw the Odyssey trailer for the first time.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, please tell me.

[Andy Cortez]

Spider man talking to Punisher.

[Tim Gettys]

Whoa. He's like, that could never happen.

[Andy Cortez]

Have you. Do you know about my brother Odysseus? And then Punisher's like, hey, here's a thing, kid. You know? Yeah, you want. Yeah. You want to look for your brother? Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you something, kid. You know, like, it's just them going back and forth.

[Tim Gettys]

I love it.

[Andy Cortez]

Cool. Brand new day, big shots, you know? And then it's like, you know, Chris, Christopher, Nolan, the Odyssey coming. You know, it's like, whoa.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, did it get you?

[Andy Cortez]

Honestly, no.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

No. Because it wasn't even really framed, like a trailer. It was just framed as, like, an event. Hey, you didn't even know that this trailer was gonna happen. We're teasing that. Probably new trailers are going to be coming out.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, here's a little, like, glimpse at a weird kind of scene. It was. It wasn't this music, and it was just. It was very odd, honestly.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Very odd to see. It felt unofficial.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, it felt like someone just snuck it in there, you know? And it was the. And it was the first thing that they showed right before the movie started because it was a shitload of previews, obviously.

[Tim Gettys]

Of course.

[Andy Cortez]

Then the lights go down, and it's like syn syncope or whatever. I'm like, oh, that's Nolan's kind of thing. Right? And then the thing starts, like, oh, this is the Odyssey. And then it kind of ended. And then Jurassic World started. I was like, that was a weird thing to kind of throw.

[Tim Gettys]

They always do that. Remember when they did it with Tenet? And, like, I forgot what movie we were watching. I think it was Star Wars Episode 9 and we're just sitting in the theaters. Maybe you missed this one. I've. We went to different screeners for this. Watching Star Wars Episode nine, they just showed like five minutes of Tenet and like, it was just right. It was like the trailers played and then that just happened and it felt with that like, context list. Gotcha know, I ain't going to complain. I'm excited. I'm excited to see this trailer. I still haven't seen Jurassic World, Rebirth. That'll be a this weekend deal for me.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, that's right. You didn't go.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I missed the screener. So. Yeah, I, I, I really don't like what I'm hearing.

[Andy Cortez]

Pretty packed theater.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Oh, I mean, it's doing incredibly well.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Jurassic World so far. Jurassic Park World, all that stuff. The one franchise that no matter how bad the movies are, still bringing in the money in 2025.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

You know, everything else is kind of like all the old heavy hitters, not necessarily swinging the same, but.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

Jurassic still got it. You know who else still got it? Andy Cortez. The number one extreme sports related man named Tony. Oh, do you know who I'm referring to? What type of animal I'm referring to?

[Andy Cortez]

Antonio Hawk.

[Tim Gettys]

No.

[Andy Cortez]

What?

[Tim Gettys]

Tony the Tiger.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, shit.

[Tim Gettys]

Everybody. Oh, he is back. Teaming up with Tony the Hawk. Oh, they are here together. The Tony Cross. Tony limited edition Frosted Flakes. All right.

[Andy Cortez]

The world wasn't ready.

[Tim Gettys]

You can get the Tony the Tiger deck in Tony Hawk Skater 3 and 4 if you buy these Frosted Flakes. They sent me this little care package here. Andy, Tony himself. They sent a nice little, like, note for me. All right. We got some Tony Hawk stickers.

[Andy Cortez]

Beautiful.

[Tim Gettys]

Definitely gonna give these to cool Greg. And then how am I gonna eat the Tony Hawk?

[Andy Cortez]

Put one of those stickers on Greg's laptop without him knowing.

[Tim Gettys]

I will stick it on there. The Gamble Frosted fl. Tony the Tiger.

[Andy Cortez]

That's a perfect little bowl for like, moose or Toretta.

[Tim Gettys]

I know. Maybe also for me to eat my Frosted Flakes.

[Andy Cortez]

I got a shirt.

[Tim Gettys]

Look at my shirt. Tony Hawk Pro. Get a shirt.

[Andy Cortez]

What does it say on the front? Let me see it.

[Tim Gettys]

It says the most important thing. I'd rather be listening to any Tony Hawk's Pro Skater soundtrack.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, I like that.

[Tim Gettys]

That's, that's something I think about.

[Andy Cortez]

What does it say on the front side?

[Tim Gettys]

Tony Hawk, Pro Skater.

[Andy Cortez]

Awesome.

[Tim Gettys]

Front side.

[Andy Cortez]

Are you, Are you allowed to say the story of B?

[Tim Gettys]

I don't know what what you're saying.

[Andy Cortez]

Calling gm being like.

[Tim Gettys]

Probably not. Okay, probably not. But also then the. The Doom Slayer deck. Whoa. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

That'S cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, super cool. I'm. I'm very excited getting.

[Andy Cortez]

Can we keep that for the studio for the, for the. The lab?

[Tim Gettys]

Oh yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Because you like cool.

[Tim Gettys]

Greg might fight you for it.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, well then Cougar gets shipped. Obviously.

[Tim Gettys]

Either way, I love it. I. I'm just excited because getting this stuff is, you know, it is what it is.

[Andy Cortez]

You're right.

[Tim Gettys]

But it's very exciting to me because this means we are very close. You're getting very, very close to Tony hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 4. July 11th. A week away. I'll be grinding.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Tim Gettys]

Buying anyone? This is Kind of Funny Games Daily. Each and every weekday we run you through the video game news that you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube and now Spotify and Apple PodC podcast to get all of our shows ad free and a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of this show, please YouTube super chat your thoughts and opinions as super chats as we go. And we'll get to them. A little housekeeping for you, sunburns be damned. Even though Barrett was viciously attacked by the sun, which made him miss the 10 year anniversary of Batman Arkham Knight, he still wants to celebrate the last game in the Rock City Batman Arkham trilogy with y'.

[Andy Cortez]

All.

[Tim Gettys]

So join him this Saturday. That's two days from now at noon Pacific on Twitch TV. Kind of funny games. It'll be uploaded later on YouTube for a belated Batman Arkham Knight 10 year anniversary stream. Well, he's gonna play through the entire game in one sitting, just like he's done for the previous entries in the franchise. Come hang out and reminisce about this blood series one final time with the biggest Batman Arkham dork at Kinda funny. Remember everyone, we are an 11 person small business all about live talk shows and those talk shows are gonna continue on today. We have Games Daily right now after this is Gamescast it's gonna be Mike and Roger talk how they're barely alive after their death stranding marathon stream. I'm sure they're going to give their thoughts. So far they haven't completed the game yet, but they're kind of reviewing progress of their time with death stranding too. And I'm sure they'll also talk a lot about Outback And Chili's type of guys that they are. Will you hear when Ben Starr caught all the gummy bears in his mouth running on the treadmill?

[Andy Cortez]

No, five in a row. It was hilarious. I did see that clip I was making the thumbnails from home. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was some funny stuff.

[Tim Gettys]

Marky Adonis in the chat says, speaking of sunburnt, him, you're looking red. Yeah, I got real sunburn during the parade. Real sunburned. And it's starting to fade a little bit. But yeah, it was. It was rough.

[Andy Cortez]

I think you look fine.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that, Andy. The stream's going to be Mike and Roger either continuing Death Stranding 2 or playing the GEX trilogy. I feel like this might be a thing of. What do y' all want to see those boys do? And then next week, a little housekeeping for you two. In reviews, we have Jurassic World Rebirth on Monday, and then Superman, tentatively planned for Thursday. Kind of based on a couple things of screeners and all of that stuff. But yeah, the new dcu, Superman, obviously. It's going to be great. Greg Miller is so damn excited. He's vibrating when I look at him. Next Thursday or also next week, Knicks game showdown season is going to be happening. So to prepare, head over to Twitter or Blue sky to fill out the new kind of feudy poll. It's very serious and important. I misspoke there. It's not airing next week. We're just preparing for it. So go now to Blue sky or Twitter on for Kind of Funny and submit all your kind of future things for whatever the fuck Nick's doing. You know, who knows? Who, who knows? I really don't want to know if you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg Way is 30 minutes and is Roger's most important Greg Way ever. I don't know what that means, but I want to find out. And you will probably want to do that, too. You get the membership and you'll be able to do that. You can also be a Patreon producer like Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney the Psalm Twining. Today we're brought to you by Cash App and Mood, but we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have eight stories today.

[Andy Cortez]

Baker's dozen.

[Tim Gettys]

Like I was saying, we got a lot of bad news. This is kind of the fallout of all the Xbox layoff news from yesterday. It was hard coming up with a headline for this episode because I feel like there's a lot of big stories, but really just the overall tenor of it all is things are dark. There's a lot of layoffs, there's a lot of studio closures, there's a lot of project cancel izations. And we're just kind of seeing the ramifications of that because some of them are surprising. Like some of these aren't necessarily layoffs. It's funding being pulled from games and what that can mean for studios that aren't even necessarily part of Xbox's direct ecosystem. We'll get into all of that, but story number one is Microsoft loses industry veterans following job cuts and cancellations. This comes from Sean Carey at True achievements. Yesterday, over 9,000 workers across various divisions at Microsoft lost their jobs, including staff in Microsoft's gaming division, Xbox. As a result, Microsoft shut down the initiative and canceled Perfect Dark. It also canceled Rare's Ever Wilds, an unannounced MMORPG from ZeniMax and an MMORPG from ZeniMax. Now ZeniMax Online Studios head Matt Fryer has announced he's leaving the studio with later this month, which is a huge bummer. He was just recently here in the studio doing the Elder Scrolls Online series with Greg and Mike. Quote after more than 18 years leading ZeniMax Online Studios, I'll be stepping away later this month. The studio and the Elder Scrolls Online will be in great hands under the direction of new studio head Joe Berba along with executive producer Susan Cath and game director Rich Lambert. Together this leadership team has spearheaded many of ESO's biggest ideas and expansions and will continue to make this game something we're proud of. While I won't be working on the game anymore, I will be cheering you on and adding to the thousands of hours I've already spent in game. There are many, many more stories to be told, adventures to be had, and I know this amazing community will carry that shared legacy and success forward. On top of Fryers departure, VGC reports that following the cancellation of Everwild, executive producer Louis o' Connor is leaving Rare. And so too is legendary designer Greg Nails. Males has spent more than 35 years at Rare heading up games such as Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tuohy, Viva Pinata, and Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. He also served as creative director for Sea of Thieves.

[Andy Cortez]

Damn, damn, damn. I think the thing that stood out to me the most yesterday, aside from all the sadness, unusual, you know, state of feelings that we get into whenever executives Come out and say, you know, this is not because of their. A lack of talent. This is not because of whatever it's, you know, it's because the landscape is shifting and also because we are, we're awful at planning. So that's why a lot of people are going to be without jobs and their families will hopefully survive. But I'm sure they got this. The, the thing that really, really stood out to me was looking at something like ZeniMax Online and this story can be repeated for, you know, you could find a story like this for the past decade, 20 years, 30 years throughout gaming history of they, they had an MMO that started in development in 2018 and it's 2025 now. And sure, that could signal bad development, that could signal bad planning, bad production, bad leadership. But what it still mainly signals is seven years of wasted time for people to be working there. Sure, they may also be working on Elder Scrolls Online or something, but to have a massive gap in your resume like that, as if it's already, as if it's easy to get a job nowadays anyway. But to be working on something and dedicate nearly a decade of your life to something, to have it canceled, taken away from you, not even see the light of day, that, that was like one of the first things that stood out to me and just how depressing and sad that is, that that is such a massive chunk. Like this was two damn years before the pandemic hit. Yeah, like, yeah, that is a lifetime ago. And to have all of that stripped away because of shifting gaming industry landscape. But bad planning and, and you know, and now you're jobless and now you hope to find another job along with the other several thousands of people that were laid off. I know, I know it was 9,000 across Microsoft, but still. Yeah, it's, it's. That is such a wild number considering that we had already seen massive layoffs last year with Xbox as well. So it's holy, man. Like it's, it. It's hard to not be hyperbolic and get ultra worried about just the state of the industry, period.

[Tim Gettys]

I do think that that is a fascinating aspect to this conversation because, like, at a certain point it's not hyperbolic. Right? Like when we're talking about 9, 000 people and that's just another Wednesday, you know, like, it's not the end. We know it's not the end. I mean, in fact, later we have stories like that. It's the further ramifications of today. People getting laid off as a result of decisions made yesterday. Like, it's not hyperbolic. It is the reality that we're in. And it is terrifying that it's not going to change and that it really does feel like there's nothing that can happen to solve this because we're just too far gone. It's too, too into this path of marching towards AI domination. Right. You. You read Phil's statement yesterday. And so much of that is clearly a message to the shareholders, and that's what that was. And I feel like it accomplished its goal of telling them, hey, don't worry, we're doing great. You know, through that too, there is the message to the. The people that are losing their jobs, that were very talented, and they're saying things that are true, like, hey, this isn't because you're not talented enough. It's because we're not making enough money from you. You know, and it just sucks that, like, these statements and facts need to be backed up by decisions that are at least giving a chance to allow that money to be made, to allow it to be. For expectations to be set accordingly and not astronomically high. To a point of. I mean, that's where I think the hype hyperbolics statements come. Is these shareholders needing the numbers to be so ridiculously high that we all sit here and like, this, this isn't going to work. How many times have we talked about Everwild on the show, you know, and questioned is it going to exist or not? How many times have we questioned Perfect Dark? There's so many different games that now here we are. It's like, man, I hate that we feel that. It feels like we are just reading the tea leaves of this and like, it is not a. I was right because there's no joy in being right about this. But it sucks that it feels so obvious and they're not listening.

[Andy Cortez]

And I think one thing that was really present yesterday online was the Xbox Era podcast that I had kept on referencing throughout Summer Game Fest. Whenever anybody on our panel was worried about Everwild, I pointed to the same thing that everybody pointed to yesterday, which is in February, Phil Spencer was on the Xbox Era podcast and said that he's super stoked with the progress that Rare is making on Everwild. And. And my whole point of there was like, I don't think he mentions that if he's not confident in this. That's just a bold face lie. Is that just. We gotta just. You know what? I gotta say something. I'm not gonna. I think silence is probably worse in that Situation because I in February, there's no way you don't know about what's happening several months from now. Yeah but you know, to have an impact that large, this stuff gets planned way, way earlier. Right.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean that there's certain things that we'll never know. But the reality is no matter, there's always a bigger fish. Right. And it at some point gets the top of Bill Spencer himself. The man could have enjoyed Everwild, could have. Everything he said could have been true. But if the people above him are like we need you to cut this much, he has to cut this much, they have to cut this much. And like that fucking sucks. And I'm not defending Phil here. I'm just saying it's just like, like it's terrifying that we can get to a point that ever wild. Sure we didn't know much about felt like potential vaporware. But then to your point he was saying hey, there's a good game here, right. Perfect Dark to me is like an even bigger example. We saw it last year. I would have not been surprised at all that Perfect Dark was canceled.

[Andy Cortez]

This isn't a Wonder Woman situation. This is. Here's a quick teaser or something. Right. Like this was. And part of me even wonders was the gameplay shown off as a, as a proof of life to. Well if we show off a snippet of something, they can't cancel it. Then you know, like your mind starts to wonder and start to go through all these hypotheticals. But you know, for the fact, you know, Perfect Dark being shown off as just a very simple. Here's this little teaser thing similar to how Wonder Woman was done. But then it's. Here's this little gameplay snippet.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean but we got that. The little, the Wonder Woman. We got even more than we got from Wonder Woman from the Perfect Dark debut. Was it at the same showcase? No, that's not right. That's not right. But then to not hear from Perfect Dark for years and then to last year get that big thing. It's like that was the moment. I'm like I am shocked the Perfect Dark was canceled. But it just shows that it's ruthless at this point. Like there is no consistency. Nothing is safe. Literally nothing is safe, period. Right. I. I actually want to like cuz we're talking about this, change the orders of the story a little bit. I want to jump to story number four here talking about Perfect Dark because yesterday in the. The storm of all this news coming out and again we are in the thick of this like I feel like these stories are going to have updates and more people's perspectives over the next coming weeks. So we're going to continue to update and go through how this all goes. But there was a report from Kotaku, I think, talking about how they heard that the perfect, perfect Dark demo that we saw last year, the showcase, was pre rendered okay. And that is terrifying to think about because of the world that we're in and how we expect game showcases to have a level of truth these days. That back when Killzone was shown off on PlayStation 3 and it was like clearly not real, you know, and that was such, such a big thing. We've moved on for that where it's like we see the running on a PS5 running on PS5 Pro. It's like that is an important part of this marketing that I feel like the publishers and developers owe us. And if it's just a CG trailer, it's a CG trailer, that's okay, but you need to really be honest, right? So if this was pre rendered and like I feel like that's a slap in the face. But today that was essentially debunked. So a perfect Dark level designer says that the demo shown was in Engine. This is Adam McDonald on Blue Sky. This demo is actually in Engine. I was one of three level designers that worked on it. It worked best if you played it the way the person playing in the video plays it. But it still worked even if you didn't hit the marks perfectly. There's some fake stuff in it. And the real gameplay system shown off worked just. Just enough to look good in this video. We were rapidly making real design decisions so as not to knowingly lie to players about what the game will be. The parkour is all real. The hacking and deception is mostly real. The combat is real. And that someone had. Sorry, the combat is quote real in that somebody had to really do all that stuff in the video. But it's set up to be played exactly that way and didn't play well if you played it a different way. I'm seeing big controversy over this whole thing was fake and it's annoying to me. So I wanted to say something. I think this is very important to. To point out, right, because I was getting really upset thinking about it being fake and then being canceled because it's like y' all are just manipulating and I know that it's a business and all that, but that, you know, so. So for this it's like now I'm angry in the other way. So it was Real. This was playable last year. Like this vertical slice, at least. And now Perfect Dark and the Initiative are canceled. Andy, do you remember what they called the Initiative?

[Andy Cortez]

No.

[Tim Gettys]

Quadruple A. This was the Quadruple A Studio Me.

[Andy Cortez]

Doesn't matter how many A's you got.

[Tim Gettys]

You.

[Andy Cortez]

You'll take the L eventually.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Like it. It's insane that we are in this place. You know, as you know, I hate to get political here, but especially with the big beautiful bill and all that stuff. Like everything awful is just happening all at the same time. And now we're in a. Now we're in a spot where hundreds and thousands of talented developers are jobless now. And there aren't hundreds of studios hiring. And where do those people go? There's. It's. It's. For me, it's the, it's the. The stunning lack of giving a shit about talented people that are put. That are lining your pockets. That's where, you know, it's. It's a very easy thing to point at that, you know, the Satya Nadella made $79 million last year. And we always bring up Andrew Wilson from EA. His bonus being 35 million and 35 million could have funded two years of like 100 employees or 150 employees. And it's just. It's so sad that we're in this place that the bad news never stops. And you're right, it's going to keep getting worse until. Until something drastic happens. I don't know what even can happen drastically.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, what needs to happen. What needs to happen is expectations need to be set that are realistic and sustainable. That is it. Because if they do that, everything works. If they have goals that are going to be able to fund adequately and not just be astronomical and they're able to achieve that and at a cadence that they are putting out releases and that gamers are playing these games and wanting to continue to buy, continue to support, continue to be monetized via live service, whatever it is. But if those expectations are realistic, that is it. That's the. That's how this, the equation of business has to go. But Andy, what if I told you that we are hearing that realistic expectations are an unrealistic thing to think about in the future? We're going to talk about that after a quick word from our sponsors. This episode's brought to you by Cash App. We've all had those moments getting meals out with people that always end in some kind of awkward experience of having to figure out the least complicated way to just get it done or even after figuring it out? Have you used an app and ended up having to wait days for your money to finally show up? What if we could solve all of that easily? Cash App is a completely different experience. Fast, easy and safe and a great way to receive and transfer money to family and friends. It's incredibly easy to set up. You just enter your phone or email and some other basic information. No bank account needed and then there's no waiting around for days. It's your money. You shouldn't have to wait. We love using Cash App because it's fast, it's safe and it just makes life way less stressful. For a limited time only new Cash App users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real? There's no catch. Just download Cash App and sign up. Use our exclusive referral code. Kinda funny in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's Cash App this episode is brought to you by Mood. Let me tell you about the online cannabis company that's revolutionizing how we deal with life's challenges. From sleepless nights to stress filled days, Mood.com has created an entire line of functional gummies that target specific health concerns with 100% federally legal THC blends. They'll deliver them discreetly right to your doorstep and you can get 20% off your first [e-mail] with promo code. Kind of funny. I've been having a great time trying out all their different gummies and I'm loving how each one feels. Their sleepy time gummies will knock you out in about 15 minutes flat. No hangovers, no grogginess, and their epic euphoria. Gummies are perfect for those days when nothing's going right. And best of all, not only does Mood stand behind everything with an industry leading 100 day satisfaction guarantee, but as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code. Kinda funny. So head to mood.com, browse their amazing selection of functional gummies and and find the perfect gummy for whatever you are dealing with. And remember to use promo code Kind of funny at checkout to save 20% on your first order. Sandy I was saying that the solution to this is reasonable expectations for success and that will create a sustainable industry. The EA reportedly expects Battlefield 6 to have 100 million players, three times more than the series bestseller. This comes from Conan McCarr at Eurogamer. EA's executive leadership has reportedly set a goal of 100 million players for the upcoming Battlefield game, which, quote, very few developers believe is achievable. This comes from a tell all report from Ars Technica, which explores the game's many ambitions and problems through information gathered from anonymous sources in this article. Battle royale modes and competitors like Call of Duty inspired this optimistic figure. Obviously, Battlefields never achieved those numbers before, stated one source, while another said it's important to understand that over about the same period, 2042 has only gotten 22 million and they want 100 million. For reference, Call of Duty Warzone reached 100 million players back in April 2021, per an official blog post. Warzone originally came out in March 2020, so it took roughly a year for the biggest FPS IP out there to hit that figure. In 2018, a Fortnite interview in the Wall Street Journal revealed that game had over 200 million people download the and play the industry defining Battle Royale. According to the report, those who had worked at Dice for a while were, quote, particularly skeptical, with one source saying, nothing in the market research or our quality deliverables indicates that we would be anywhere near that. The article also states that Battlefield 5's battle royale mode Firestorm, failed to meet expectations, while the aforementioned competitors continued to retain vast player bases. Nonetheless, it seemed that a new a new attempt at this format is what EA leadership expects will attract much of that 100 million figure. This new Battlefield currently is undergoing a closed alpha test, though that hasn't stopped leaks from getting out. Rush Mode's been leaked some single player campaign info, as well as a deluge of info on weapons and a Battle Royale mode. If this next Battlefield can hit the target set out by EA executives, it'll be the most popular Battlefield game by a wide margin. Whether it can actually do that is something else entirely.

[Andy Cortez]

Who's gonna like, who's misleading these people with these numbers like it that it would be one thing if this was Call of Duty and people had unrealistic expectations about Call of Duty, but this is. This is Battle. I just. This story. I can't even pinpoint one of the, you know, many things that is just so off about all of this. What, what this all seems like to me is it's people that don't know anything about the industry and people that don't know anything about player bases. It would be as if I put a I was building a city block with a bunch of restaurants and I put an in and out there and made it and made all the food free. And then I was like y' all we average, this whole city block is averaging millions of people a month of, of people and people going, oh shit, I should put my restaurant there. But they're eating in and out the free. In and out. They're eating, they're playing the free Roblox, they're playing the free Fortnite, and they're playing the Free War Zone. And just because you're seeing these insane inflated numbers, the games industry is doing all of these numbers. We're throwing all these statistics at you. They think that every game is doing all of that, but it's those select few things. And even if that wasn't the case, to expect those numbers without these free to play, these free to play titans in the industry, to still expect those numbers without that would be ridiculous. To expect that with it is just so fucking dumb like you are dumb. It should. It just shows you that, like, it doesn't matter. It intelligence doesn't matter. It's rich people that were born into money that have this money to throw around and play with it like toys. And they don't understand really much of anything.

[Tim Gettys]

It's not real to them. And look at it and it's like, hey, this, this game where you shoot things that people play, there's 100 million. We could, we could do that too. We have a game that people shoot. It's like it lacks any understanding. Like it, like you, you're nailing it with the, the comparison, the in and out stuff. Like, I think about another industry that is falling apart in a different way with Hollywood. And you look at movies and you look at how many movies have crossed the billion mark in the last 10 years, 20 years, let's even say 15 years is probably the more accurate thing of like, it was insane. It went from very few to almost an expectation for these big blockbusters. Then so many factors came into play, and that is not a fair expectation anymore. And even when it was an expectation, that was an expectation built on quality and pop culture relevance and all this stuff. So after Avengers, Infinity War, if Marvel and Disney were to be like, I bet you that endgame is going to do some astronomical thing, we'd all look at that and be like, I believe it. Yeah, I believe it. But when we look at Black Adam, when we look at like all these things, like, why would you fucking do that? Why would you think that? And that's what this is. This is Battlefield. Battlefield. When is battlefield been like, back in the day, there was the fight between Battlefield and Call of Duty.

[Andy Cortez]

The war has been gone.

[Tim Gettys]

War over.

[Andy Cortez]

It's been over for a long time.

[Tim Gettys]

It's insane. I, this is insane.

[Andy Cortez]

I, I, I want to just hope that this is a, that there was just a really massive miscommunication issue, not even with the people that are being given info, but by, you know, just the article itself. Like there's got to be an extra 0 that was two or one or two extra zeros that were thrown into there.

[Tim Gettys]

One or two feels more reasonable.

[Andy Cortez]

And again, the saddest thing is that the people throwing around money because it isn't real to them are not going to be affected because this is a drop in the bucket of them. And the people that will be affected are the people making the product. And in eight months or whatever it is, we will hear about layoffs @. Yeah, at E, there will be more people out of jobs and there will be more statements from really, really dumb CEOs that don't understand, they're, that don't understand what's happening with the industry and saying, you know, hey, we're cutting costs because we want to be more agile or whatever the stupid terms that they're using nowadays. It's just, man, we've, we've just been over this so many times and it's, it's, I don't want to act like I'm in a bad place because we have to talk about it. Like, it's, it's the people that are being affected by this. These aren't just people that go find another job immediately. These are families that are being affected. And pulling away remote work is even worse because now they got to go somewhere else and pick up their whole life to go get another job. And, and then you're having industry veterans go, I'm kind of done with this. I'll go figure something else. I'll go teach somewhere. Like, you know, it just discourages, it encourages industry veterans to leave the industry before they should, and it discourages people trying to get into the industry to even enter it, period.

[Tim Gettys]

And we talk about this all the time. But institutional knowledge, the video games industry relatively is in its infancy. We are at a point now that it is not the very beginning. You know, we are decades old at this point.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's why I hope people are still really dumb. Yeah, that's why my hope is it's, it we're in such a, at such a point in its infancy that people are still really dumb about expectations that maybe five, ten years from now people will go, no, we, we should not hire 400 people to make that game that we know is only going to move 2 million copies or 1 million copies or whatever, because you know that even though that is going to be a lot of money, how am I going to get my $80 million bonus?

[Tim Gettys]

You know, Andy, I keep wanting to go to a more positive story, but you keep giving me great segues here. So I'm going to go to story number six. Kev Mind's IDEV's UK workforce of around 300 receive at risk emails as former GTA lead Leslie Benzies finally addresses staff. This comes from Wesley Inpol at IGN Build a Rocket Boy, the Scotland based developer of Mind's Eye, has issued at risk of redundancy emails to its around 300 strong UK workforce following the disastrous launch of the game, sources familiar with the goings on at the inside of the embattled studio told IGN at Risk. Emails were also sent to staff at Play Fusion, which they acquired in late 2024. Play Fusion, whose CEO Mark Gerhard became co CEO of Build a Rocket Boy as part of the buyout, is working on a different game, a fast paced FPS called Ascendant, which was meant to come out this year. Last month IGN reported that Barb Build a Rocket Boy had begun a redundancy process following the release of Mind's eye. The standard 45 day consultation process kicked off on June 23rd, which according to a UK law is triggered when an employee proposes 100 or more redundancies within a 90 day period. IGN understands that they currently have around 300 UK employees, so over 100 are at risk for redundancy. We don't know how much more than 100 at the very least, we are talking about a third, a third of this entire team that just put out this game. Soon after Mind's Eye launched, Barb said it was heartbroken over the issues players had faced with the game and promised to release a series of patches to fix the significant performance problems, glitches and AI behavior bugs roll out of these patches has begun On Steam, things aren't going well. The concurrent player count 3,302 at launch, but at 20 its 24 hour peak was just 46 players at the time of this article's publication. 26 people solid 26 people were playing on Steam where Mind's Eye has a mostly negative user review rating. Story Driven Action Adventure Games Mind Mind's Eye was initially designed to be part of Everywhere, the Roblox for adults creation platform led by former Grand Theft Auto design chief Leslie Benzies. They would eventually switch to focus on Mind's Eye, but it has so far failed to do the business for the company. So this is where the story somehow gets even more insane. Andy. Meanwhile, Barb sources told IGN that Benzies finally addressed staff following the release of Mind's Eye and dealing with all these redundancy emails and all of that in a brief video call yesterday, July 2nd. According to two people present who asked not to be named in order to protect their careers, Benzies insisted that Build a Rocket Boy would bounce back and relaunch Mind's Eye, blaming the studio and the game struggles on internal and external saboteurs. What? Among other things, the call is coming.

[Andy Cortez]

From inside the house.

[Tim Gettys]

Internal and external saboteurs. Sabotage. Fucking sabotage.

[Andy Cortez]

We're all looking for the man who did this.

[Tim Gettys]

The comments rekindle memories of those issued by Mark Gerhard. Ahead of the release of Mind's Eye, the co CEO hit the headlines for claiming there was a quote, concerted effort by some to trash the game in the studio, suggesting people were being paid or using spam bots. Spam bots to post negative comments. The Boss publisher of IO Interactive, which makes the Hitman games, subsequently issued a denial like bro, stop.

[Andy Cortez]

Don't do this. Dude. This is so dumb.

[Tim Gettys]

Barb sources told IGN internally there's a desire for Mind's Eye redemption arc that would eventually see it become successful for the studio. But as staff face an anxious wait to discover their fate, there are serious questions over whether Barb will be able to fulfill its post launch roadmap for content, including the promised multiplayer mode on time. So we're talking about potentially, not potentially at least one third of this team getting these at risk emails. It could be significantly more. And they're here talking about sabotage.

[Andy Cortez]

Someone's trying to take me down. They re. They're really trying to ruin my career.

[Tim Gettys]

Fucking wow, dude.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I. I don't really have much for this other than the. The game always seemed like something was wrong there. There just always seemed when you can kind of tell from without any backstory that you can kind of tell something's up here, what's happening. Maybe someone's sabotaging. That's what I thought.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, yeah. No, and Andy, again on one episode, I'm saying this again, it brings me no joy to be right about this. But we were fucking right about this.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

We saw everywhere. We saw Mind's Eye and we joked about it every time because it's like, what the fuck is going on here? And now they're blaming sabotage. Story number five, Romero Games employee has claimed the whole studio is being let go as a result of Microsoft's cuts. This comes from Jordan Midler at vgc. This one is interesting because it is. It's different than these other stories. This is not a Microsoft Team itself. So in a statement from Brenda Romero, the studio announced that last night we learned that our publisher has canceled funding for our game along with several other unannounced projects at other studios. This was a strategic decision made at a high level within the publisher, well above our visibility or control. We deeply wish there had been something, anything we could have done to prevent this outcome. Following the statement, Christophe Ready Reddl, a former Hard Surface artist at Romero Games, took to social media to say that due to the recent Xbox layoffs, I'd lost my position at Romero Games, seemingly confirming that the unnamed publisher from the original statement was Microsoft Game Studios. And then we got an update. A Romero Games employee has claimed that the whole studio is being let go as a result of Microsoft's cuts, with many advertising on LinkedIn that they've lost their jobs. Quote, Today I found out the whole studio is being let go because of the layoffs at Microsoft. I was devastated to hear this morning that Romero Games is closing due to the cutbacks from the publisher, meaning for the second time this year I'm looking for a new role. Wrote another. A designer at Romero called the cuts for Microsoft massive, sudden and unexpected hit on a project that was innovative, going strong and most importantly, fun. They added, the past two years have been amazing. Working with everyone on it was an absolute blast and I'll forever keep all of the memories and moments we shared. It's a shame we won't be able to see it through. Romero Games statement continues by saying this absolutely isn't a reflection of our team's work performance or the quality of the project itself. We hit every milestone on time, every time, consistently received high praise and easily passed all of our internal gates. We currently evaluated next, we're currently evaluating next steps and working quickly to support our team. Many of us have worked together for more than a decade, some for more than 20 years. It's an extremely difficult day and we're heartbroken it's come to this. Romero Games is based in Ireland. Team, which included over 75 developers in 2024, hadn't fully revealed its next project beyond the fact that it was a first person shooter made in Unreal Engine 5. We're talking about a game from the creator of Doom and now because funding is pulled from Xbox. So this isn't layoffs, this isn't studio closures that are owned by Xbox. This is because of them pulling funding. A studio closes. You think about Game Pass. You think about the success that indies have found because they are funded by Game Pass. Is that going to continue, Andy, funding Kojima's od? Are we going to hear that that's canceled? Would you be surprised? Because that sounds crazy, right? It's impossible for Kojima's OD to be canceled. But is it? I'm just saying right now, I wouldn't be fucking surprised. And that is. That should be impossible for me to believe.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. First off, the revelation that Microsoft Game Studies was kind of funding this, which was, I think, news to all of us, right? Like, we didn't really know much about that. And then to then get this devastating news that it's not just that funding is done, it's that the whole thing is done. Like, sorry to Everybody, update your LinkedIns. It's. It's just devastating. It. The bad news doesn't stop. And you're right. I don't. I think we said this, maybe the last round of layoffs, which feels like a couple months ago by now, but we kept on harping on that, like, nobody is safe. But in the back of my mind, I was like, no, some people are probably. Some studios are probably still safe. And now that I, like, I just can't even believe that anymore. I really don't believe that anybody is safe through any of this. No creator, no person. Doesn't matter what's on your resume. It doesn't matter what you've done for the company. You will be likely, you know, filling out your LinkedIn and updating it and moving on to something else. And hopefully you're able to fund your family's, you know, livelihood, and hopefully you're able to, you know, send your kids to school or whatever. Like, it. It's insane that we're in this space, especially after Phil Spencer, after all of those remarks, is saying, industry's going great. We're making money. Like, man, what? Like, that statement will still never get out of my head about how successful things still are. It's like, dude, 9,000, 9,000 people studios and.

[Tim Gettys]

And then 9,000 doesn't include Romero games.

[Andy Cortez]

And legends in the industry being shuttered. You know, like, it. It's devastating.

[Tim Gettys]

All right, let's get to some Good news. Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox. This comes from Xbox Wire. A new dawn's upon us. Super Earth is expanding its operations and opening new enlistment centers. Xbox players, your opportunity to enlist is coming when Helldivers 2 deploys to Xbox Series X and S on August 26 from PlayStation Publishing at $40, they said. We know gamers have been asking for this for some time and we're excited to bring more Helldivers into our game. We have so much more in store for the future. Months and years and more players will have the. The more stories we can tell. Oh, the more players we have, the more stories we can tell. The fight for Super Earth has only just begun again. I feel like this would have been a big conversation for us to have on other news days.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And I'm sure we will talk about all of this at various points of what this means. At the end of the day. I think this is great. I think that all games should be looked at of like, where what's the best chance for success for this game, for the player base and for a multiplayer game like this, it should be multiplatform. And the fact that PlayStation is willing to do that in some way and test it a little bit with this Lego horizon on the switch, I think this is good.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. The first published PlayStation game to go to Xbox didn't.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, you know, there's always weird like caveats with that of like, well, MLB the show and it'll be published by.

[Andy Cortez]

By mlb, I believe. That's what I was reading from Paul Tassi. I think like it was MLB the show is published by. By mlb. Even though it's a Sony Santa or Sony. No, not Sony Santa Monica. Who. Who makes the MLB games? Oh my God, I see the logo.

[Tim Gettys]

San Diego.

[Andy Cortez]

San Diego. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, this being like a published by PlayStation game being going over Xbox, it is good news.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I think when we were going back to SGF and I was wondering, man, will we see any sort of, you know, will Microsoft do their. Hey, we're going to put Halo. We're going to do Helldivers with Halo, right? You know, will we see some sort of competition there? Because where's Helldivers on Xbox? People want this, people. It's a very, very popular game still. It's still killing it when it comes to content releases. And I know that the numbers will waver. Ensure numbers can drop to a certain point after a bit of a dead period. But then it launches right back up whenever things are going. And that's the sign of. That's a sign. That's a really, really good sign because that shows your audience and that shows publishers and developers that the game has the sauce. And whenever we drop Something new. People care and people come back. It's awesome. For the devs there, this is the only nice little shining beacon of hope that a small game like that can find success. And for me it's like, oh good, those. Hopefully those devs will stay employed.

[Tim Gettys]

Yep. And to your point, I think that this is going to be another marketing beat for Helldivers 2 to be able to even get PlayStation gamers back into the game. That's exciting. That's good. People in the chat are bringing to attention. This is the release date is the same day that Gears of War Reloaded comes out. That's an interesting move, but okay man. I again think this is very, very good. People are bringing up Death Stranding as another example. We're still in that this is still a interesting thing of a PlayStation published game coming to Xbox. It is not the same as a Naughty Dog Insomniac or Sony Santa Monica game coming to Xbox. I do not think that that is happening anytime soon. But for Helldivers too, I think this is a great move and I. I like that we're seeing the willingness from Sony to do something like this. Where are we at here? What stories do we have left? Oh, we have two more here. One. I'm gonna go through this really quickly here. It's. It's a rumor coming from Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming Phil Spencer will allegedly retire as CEO after next gen console launch. A new rumor said that Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer will be retiring following the next launch. The news comes from the Ghost of Hope, who's who has a decent track record regarding Call of Duty leaks. According to Hope, Phil Spencer is working closely with Sarah Bond and her team to ensure a smooth transition for her takeover as CEO of Microsoft Gaming once he retires. It's a rumor that Tom Henderson heard a few times at Summer Game Fest. And while I fully can't corroborate the claims, it's scuttlebutt that has been circulated for some time and I guess it's probably an easy speculation and expectation. In fact, and for added context and how often I've heard this rumor in the past couple of months, I even had a skeleton pre write ready for today about Spencer leaving just in case he stepped down earlier. Given today's recent blood bath of layoffs. I'm with all this not a surprise. I very much expect exactly that to happen. It is. It's just kind of like the writing's on the wall.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. And we'll. Whenever that does happen, I'm sure the Internet will you know, be set on fire. But we'll wait for whatever this news is. If there is news.

[Tim Gettys]

The chat saying that this has been debunked and that Microsoft denied report. That's all well and good. I bet it happens.

[Andy Cortez]

We also heard that Ever Wild was yeah, you know, a good game and was going to be released. So I, yeah, I, I, I could definitely see it happening. I won't be surprised when it happens. I, I, I really, you know, it's, it's like you were mentioning earlier, I'm not trying to defend Phil here and it's, it just seems like he's the type of person that doesn't always want to be the face of this, of having to put out the, put the press releases of hey, a lot of y' all are not gonna have jobs anymore. I just feel like he is maybe in a spot where he says, I don't know how worth it this is anymore. You know. Yeah. And that's just pure speculation.

[Tim Gettys]

But yeah. So story number eight. Neil Druckman and Holly Gross are stepping away from creative involvement in the Last of Us HBO series. Yesterday they both put up Instagram and social media statements about this. Neil says to our Naughty Dog community, we wanted to let you know that studio had Neil Druckmann delivered the following message to our team this morning. I've made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in Last of Us on hbo. With work completed on season two and before any meaningful work starts on season three, now's the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet. Along with my responsibilities as studio head and head of creative co creating the show has been a career highlight. It's been an honor to work alongside Craig Mason to executive produce, direct and write on the last two seasons. I'm deeply thankful for the thoughtful approach and dedication the talented cast and crew took to adapting the Last of Us Part one and the continued adaptation of Part two. And then Holly over on Instagram says with great care and consideration, I've decided to take a step back from my day to day work on HBO's Last of Us to make space for what comes next. I'm so appreciative of how special this experience has been. Working alongside Neil Craig, HBO and this remarkable cast and crew has been life changing. The stories we told about Love Lost and what it means to be human in a terrifying world are exactly why I love this franchise. I have some truly Rad projects ahead that I can't wait to share. But for now, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who brought Ellie and Joel's world to life with such care. There's a lot we could speculate on here and hypothesize about the. Is this real? Like, what's the real reason? Whatever. My money, if I was a betting man, would be. Yeah, it is what it is here. They're working on big games. Uncharted, Last of Us, Intergalactic. It needs to hit. It needs to be the biggest thing ever. Uncharted had a relatively financially successful movie. Last of Us successful on hbo. Intergalactic needs to be able to hit as a video game and as a multimedia franchise. So this does not surprise me that you know Neil for the level of importance he has at that studio and running that studio. It's like this. We can't have a misstep here. Given every story we just read today, Intergalactic needs to fucking hit, right?

[Andy Cortez]

I. I mean, I'll. I'll go the saucy. You know, the saucy sort of like TMZ route. I'm going to just go ahead and guess and say those little. Trouble in paradise. Yeah, I'm going to maybe assume that, man. Based on. Because I didn't even finish watching Last of Us. But I know that a lot of things were changed and if I was just going to speculate, I'd be in my just guessing world, I would go. I don't think Neil loved the direction things were taken with with the show.

[Tim Gettys]

Very interesting. Yeah, that is a spicy take that I do not think I haven't seen. I would not expect people to bring that up.

[Andy Cortez]

But really, every. I mean, my only impression of the show is through Twitter going, why are all of these things being changed? Of course, there's like, you know. Yeah, you know, we don't find the. The young girl attractive, which is like the weirder weirdo side of Twitter. But the. The rest of the. Of Twitter is like, why would they change this? Why would they make this change? The game was so much better here. The game was so much better here. And I'm gonna go ahead and guess and say, like, yes, all. All of the. That other stuff is so important in my life right now. Intergalactic is. Needs to be priority. And the changes happening in the show certainly didn't really help me wanting to be here any longer. Speculation Station.

[Tim Gettys]

Speculation Station, everybody. Man. Well, I don't really have a great transition here, but, Andy, small stuff.

[Andy Cortez]

Where's it At WE news. Big news.

[Tim Gettys]

We got some WE news for you. We this has been a rumor but now it's official. Cody Rhodes has been cast as Guile in the Street Fighter movie appearance. According to Deadline. This cast is insane and at some point I feel like we need to do a games cast. Just talking about the Street Fighter movie.

[Andy Cortez]

How are you like do you think they're gonna try to go as accurate as they can with the hair?

[Tim Gettys]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

Because like you know the first Street.

[Tim Gettys]

Fighter movie didn't yeah but like when you see the to Kev can you just scroll a little bit like like when you see this casting at yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

No, I know the cast.

[Tim Gettys]

It just tells such a story.

[Andy Cortez]

Why is Andrew Schultz in this movie?

[Tim Gettys]

They are about to make something weird.

[Andy Cortez]

They want to make a meme and I think that's really the only direction.

[Tim Gettys]

You can take this but what's interesting is Bless was telling me that apparently the like writer and like the the people in charge of the movie are most known for Eric Andre show.

[Andy Cortez]

I did hear that on and like you're combined to my boy moist critical combine.

[Tim Gettys]

That with all of this. I can't wait for this goddamn movie.

[Andy Cortez]

Dude. I and I look honestly there's a lot of impactful ways that are full of substance to approach a video game movie and it really seems like they want to take the other route and I really think that's the only thing that Street Fighter that's the only thing. It's the only direction I think will work. Like I they have to go and it you mentioning Eric Andre and that seems like they have a certain vision and tone for this and they know what they're making and that's why the cast is what they are.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And kind of exciting.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm excited. I I I have hopes for this one. Again it's not going to be the best movie ever. I think it's gonna be a damn good time.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

So that's it for WE news. I'm gonna need to run it to a meeting so I want to speed through the your wrongs here out of Tasha says T Rex is the strongest dinosaur. Cool. MLB the show is a PlayStation Studios game. It has the Sony Marvel style cinematic thing before it. So cool. That's from Robbie Rob.

[Andy Cortez]

No spoilers for Jurassic World Rebirth but they show an ankylosaurus.

[Tim Gettys]

That's big for you, dude. That's that's real big for you. Andy, can you do me a favor? Can you read the super chats I will to close out the show Go do Your thing. I'm going to go do a meeting. I love you guys. Thank you for a great week of content. Even if it wasn't the best news. Y' all are the best. See you later.

[Andy Cortez]

Chat. Let's go through some super chats right now. Thank you everybody for supporting us on YouTube and on Twitch and podcast services around the globe. We have Gondor's Condor saying, meanwhile the CEO blamed saboteurs for this dud. Thank you for that two dollar super chat. Still an incredible story from Build a Rocket Boy. I was thinking about Build a Rocket Boy so much in the lead up to that because their social media posted a photo of the whole team post launch. You're excited. And they are all sort of in their, I don't know, their, you know, chill, their, their relaxing area, their studio with a bunch of TVs up and they're like we're watching a bunch of streamers stream our game. Let us know if you're streaming or whatever. And I could me with my anxiety could not have been there. I would not want to be in the room with Build a Rocket Boy as they are watching people play their broken ass game. Like that's got to be so embarrassing. I don't understand how they thought that that was a good idea. We got D Cash says too hard to support Xbox now canceled my game Pass justified D Cash Joshua Moreno says are we dumb to believe public companies? Of course. Of course we are because they, they lie to us all the time because it benefits their dollar nimble Trent with a five dollar super chat says the loss of talent will be so hard to quantify between devs leaving the industry and new potential devs choosing a different industry. Just brutal. It is absolutely brutal. Yes. I, I keep on wanting to stress that point that we are just going to continue losing industry veterans and icons with so much knowledge that they can pass on and we are going to lose young, upcoming, talented people because they are too discouraged to even enter the industry and they're going to go work in film or they're going to go work somewhere else and their creative juices will be utilized elsewhere and we will be a lesser industry for it. $10 super chat from Nico that says:5 months ago I supercharged that Xbox is hard to trust as a long term console investment because their strategy changes every couple of months. Still the same not just as a player of games but as an employee one hundred and again the five dollar super chat from Shambo Baggins says Gears of War reloaded in Helldivers 2 both released on the same day. I wonder what the trade will be for Halo for PS5 and I'll read the final Super Chat right here. 10 Super Chat from EBO says I think one thing that's being missed on this is that canceling a lot of these games is for tax write offs directly ahead of the biggest tax cuts for corpo and billionaires in the industry. There's also a super chat from Brookie asking about will we review Jurassic World Rebirth and yes next week will be the in review for Jurassic World Rebirth but we'll get to that next week because we're off tomorrow. But before we're off tomorrow we got we got a games cast after this. We got a stream after this and we'll see you over the weekend. Barrett has something to say and over the weekend on Saturday Twitch TV kind of funny games. I will be finally celebrating 10 years of Batman, Arkham Knight sunburnt legs be damned. Andy Sunburnt lanes be damned. We'll see you later gamers. Take care of each other.