Agree, i hope the industry will find it's feet quick but it won't happen tomorrow for sure.

Nintendo and their switch / switch 2 are an interesting case, Nintendo is more resilient to the current context and 1 reason is because they don't use a subsidised model to begin while their title's budget are better kept under control.

My guess for the future is, the ps5 pro / next Xbox hardware will not use a subsidised model.

Yeah the only Nintendo games I see costing $100 million or more to develop are the latest mainline Zelda games and 3D Mario. I wish I could say Pokémon, but given all the issues with Scarlet/Violet that is very unlikely. 

As for the subsidized model, the big issue this gen is that the cost to develop them has not really gone down like in previous generations. I could maybe see them subsidizing a bit next-generation, but nowhere near to the level of this generation. Ie. Instead of losing $100 or more per console sold, it is $50 or less. So the sale of 1 or 2 games or a year subscription to PS Plus or Game Pass would be enough to turn that into a profit.

At this point I've personally moved to gaming on my PC, other than with Nintendo. I'll likely get the Switch 2 once the next 3D Mario launches.

Sounds like a different studio.  Good to hear.  I did think DL was borderline perfect.

What conclusions can we draw from these events. If only there was a way to know.

World's richest Company that Spent nealry 90 billion on acquisitions can't afford to have four AA studios running. Pathetic

Today Microsoft lost me as a customer.

Thinking on it but one of the reasons they cited for the existence of Gamepass back then, was that AA and smaller games were supposed to proliferate on that service because it was a safer financial bet for them to be placed on that service.

But they obviously weren't the games to drive the sales of Gamepass in itself, therefore with the stagnation of Gamepass it seems, like they've decided these smaller endeavors are too costly.

Sooooo, Gamepass is losing one of it's far argument and the service will suffer because of it.

Since last year my excitement for the industry is just dread and I feel like not just with Xbox but all big publishers. I'm watching the industry die. It was so hard to see SEGA kill the Dreamcast and go third party but there was still new hardware and a lot of great stuff to be excited about. This just makes me more and more want to become a retro-exclusive game. I liked playing both modern and retro. But I don't know how much longer I can tolerate seeing this industry put so many people out of work over such bullshit.

It just goes to show why you shouldn't take executives' words at face value. It wasn't long ago Aaron Greenberg over at Xbox was claiming Hi-fi rush was a "break-out hit" Clearly that wasn't true since you've shut the studio down. Seems MS has been taking the axe to Bethesda and Activision, wonder if it'll continue.

An absolute disgrace, though nothing new or unexpected in the current climate in the industry. It's just remarkably shortsighted as always, as the video game industry keeps putting some of its most talented people out of work and out of the industry in general. It's just companies staring at the next quarter earnings, rather than considering what exactly is going to drive the companies' revenue over the next five years, let alone ten. Every time these massive layoffs happen, huge sections of those people will leave video games for good, and every time that happens we lose a ridiculous amount of experience and talent that gets more and more difficult to replace with each passing year.

Most of these massive companies are continually announcing record revenues and profits, yet none of that is ever enough, as the whole system we currently have in place is predicated on the idea that there must always be growth, next year's profits must always be higher than the last. It's unsustainable, and much of these layoffs are just a way to push the inevitable a little further back, to squeeze that little bit more money out of the industry and hide just how shaky the foundation for a lot of these companies has become.