Odyssey dead and the Overwatch team was heavily hit too. Blizzard is being pounded with these layoffs.

Lot of Activision employees too, High Moon Studios over 10%, everyone else suffering some form of layoffs, all COD studios including Toys for Bob.

Well, if the Xbox is going all digital what would be the point of LRG? There would be no physical option on the Xbox system. 

Was that really the reason they switched? Because I mean... Fortnite?

Depends if they do an optional disc drive or not.

Apparently.

Odyssey was originally prototyped on the popular Unreal Engine, from Epic Games Inc., but Blizzard executives decided to switch, in part, because it wouldn’t support their ambitions for vast maps supporting up to 100 players at once.

Maybe their makes were far larger than Epic's, Lol. Or maybe it was just because it did more stuff? Don't really know.

Depends on how they were wanting to handle the world of Odyssey. In Fortnite, a match begins and ends. Most Survival games last for an infinite amount of time, or until the server is rebooted. Even when you log off, the game world you were in is ongoing. 

Ark was made in Unreal and it only supports up to 70 players in a public server. They aimed for 100 when the game officially released, but I guess that never materialized. 

Then it's not all digital. 

Idk, I wonder if this is a fairly outdated view on things, visibility likely sold during the X360 era and whatnot but does it have much of an impact nowadays? The people who grew up with mass internet usage and playing these consoles now have kids of their own, their parents are largely more informed and hell, even kids themselves are way more informed than we were as kids.

You'd be surprised about just how informed kids are Tbh.

If I had a kid, I would not need to be informed at all by a salesperson, if any of my gamer friends had kids, likewise to them too, my teenage nieces and nephews have not once gone to a retail store for a game or console, nor had to be informed about anything from a salesperson on what they want. They're already fully onboard the digital only train and find games via other means but never a retail location.

And the thing is, Xbox already barely has any physical presence in these locations you're speaking of so it won't change much and even in their strongest markets, it's simply the way things are headed, consumers are voting for this at large, it does suck for those still wanting physical though but it simply is making less sense for both the manufacturer and the retailer.

Xbox is ahead of the pack here but it's coming to come for everyone, retailers are going to slowly stop stocking so much physical discs, starting with films/tv then moving onto gaming, Xbox will be hit first, Sony will be next, Nintendo won't be for a while. It's what basically all publishers in the industry want so it will happen eventually.

I suspect next Xbox will be digital only (50/50 on an optional disc drive) and I think Sony has one gen left before they follow Xbox, it'll be a domino effect which comes around to everyone because it's what everyone wants and they'll be certain pushes to make it happen too. Sony's 1st party physical sales are still pretty strong but 3rd parties are largely digital and them moving more digital will have a unintentional knock-on effect on Sony.

I'm a bit curious though, I don't know how it works exactly but why exactly can't retailers just stock their sections with digital codes instead of discs? I've just seen a Target full of digital Xbox codes on Twitter, Lol. And PC's are still stocked with digital codes despite physical practically being non-existent for PC.

I use to have a satellite service years ago but cancelled it due to many shows going behind separate paywalls.  I decided to just cancel it and I don't have any subscription services.  I have never had Netflix, Amazon, or the channel pluses.  I have never bought a digital movie.  I've been purchasing DVD's and Blu-ray and Ultra HD 4k's as they come out since the 90's.  

The above was purchased today to add to the Opera section of my library.  If they ever stop making physical media, then I'll be done with this stuff as well.  I currently have enough unwatched (still in plastic) media to keep me busy for at least 7 years.  And with the stuff I have watched included, if I cycle through periodically I'm already set for a lifetime.  

There will always be people willing to dish out the cash for physical and so a market will exist somewhere for peeps like me.  

P.S. Streaming sucks

Saw this comment on ResetEra...Sigh.

We're going to lose thousands of employees when they decide to say fuck it and look for work outside of this mess.

2-3 years of layoffs is going to cause serious damage to the industry.

30% is insane.

How the fuck do they expect them to still do yearly releases and add on a Switch port?

Sledgehammer had to crunch out a COD in short notice because ABK was too cowardly to delay the game and not have a COD in a year, as a result they released an awful product because they were rushed, they received immense backlash and mocking and their thanks at the end is to be laid off.