Damn I have Disney+, Amazon Prime (+Shudder, +Lionsgate, +Paramount) and Netflix, Lol.

Actually like subscription services but it feels like a controversial stance to take lately 😬

Despite the fact they keep exploding in subscribers

30+ from Toys for Bob let go.

Wonder how much of this blind firing comes from the very top of Microsoft, Satya has been in the past pretty ruthless with layoffs, these layoffs are starting to feel purely a "squeeze out the profits" measure with no care as to where they're being done. Microsoft's shitty corporate ruthlessness coming down on Xbox because Gaming is a huge part of the business now may be partly due to Microsoft executives being more pushy on Xbox and demanding more of them.

I think it's why we've heard rumours about a clash inside of Xbox between those who want to remain exclusive and those who want to release multiplatform titles, I don't mind a few titles here and there multiplatform personally but the clash part is interesting to me, I think it's safe to say that Tim Stuart is multiplatform and Tim would report to Amy Hood who reports to Satya.

These layoffs look utterly baffling.

The only DVDs I have are Tomb Raider, Matrix and Passion of the Christ - all of which my parents bought back in the early 2000s.

Never bought any DVDs myself or blu-ray movies.

The only digital movie I bought is Super Mario Bros (2023) which was on sale for like $8 last year (price mistake).

All I have is streaming services and havent had cable/TV service since 2008.

I got Disney+ (with Hulu), Netflix , Apple TV and Amazon Prime. Used to have HBO Max but cancelled for Netflix which has a ton of content that me and my family wants to watch.

I got to watch a lot of stuff I missed out years ago and got to watch stuff that recently came out.

Ironically always wanted a type of service like this for years and glad streaming became a reality.

Helps that I got gigabit fiber internet with no data cap too lol.

Even for music we do streaming - never bought a single music CD or anything.

I mostly use my Apple One account (for Apple Music) and my family use Amazon music for their indian podcasts, prayers, etc.

Games as a service is the only thing I cant get into because my entire gaming library is big enough to last multiple lifetimes.

Yeah, I tell people I still buy Blu-rays for movies and they act like it's weird. When I get the itch to watch something I often can't even find it on a lot of these streaming services. For example, I was just wanting to watch 28 days later again and it's not available on any streaming service. 

Nearly 200 employees from Sledgehammer alone, so hundreds of COD employees laid off across the studios.

It's like they got some monkey to click a bunch of names on a spreadsheet...Of course, all layoffs suck but Call of Duty developer layoffs aren't just bad, they're braindead too, CoD is your money machine, that is on a yearly schedule, that is really struggling to maintain that yearly schedule, and you've just cut hundreds of employees from it.

I struggle to believe Xbox would be this clueless, very much feels like a clueless Microsoft enforcing though.

Not seen any layoffs from XGS so far.

I've only seen maybe one or two from Zenimax, they annoying fired the community manager of Fallout76 who was beloved by the community and even dumber did it before the TV Show.

Biggest hits at ABK seem to be Odyssey team (100+), COD teams (at minimum 200) and Overwatch 2 team. Few hits to the Diablo IV team, WoW team doesn't seem to have been hit much at all. Rest must be coming from business, marketing, etc.

Well, Activision is almost entirely on CoD so the layoffs were going to impact CoD in some way or another.

Funnily, I used to pirate a lot before streaming just because most shows I watched either never aired in the UK or came like a year after their American release and it was annoying to wait and avoid spoilers. When streaming became a thing I both had access finally to a lot of these shows that I watch at the same time as America and more than I can even keep up with, Lol. So I stopped pirating.

Never bought a physical DVD/Blu-Ray for a Film or TV Show...Fully digital on Xbox and Switch since around 2018...Never bought a CD for Music, Lol.

If I want to cancel something, I'll just cancel it and come back later, it's pure laziness on my part that I don't cancel stuff, Lol. I do like that I can add channels to my Amazon Prime too, there are still a few American networks that I still have to wait for unfortunately though. Might get Apple TV eventually but right now I have more than enough shows to watch.

Don't think HBO Max is available in UK...

Anything that doesn't come to a service available to me, I'll just buy them digitally when they eventually drop on Amazon, Lol.

Interestingly enough, vinyls have made a bit of a comeback in popularity recently.