Gritsngravy
Superstar
What does a crash mean and what it look like?
Gaming Crash incoming, or has it already began?
- Thread starter The Mad Titan
- Start date
Expected norms around how games are developed and consumed will change.
Gritsngravy
Superstar
What does that mean
Dudes were hitting the ye shrug on some "layoffs suck, shyt happens 
" when 2500+ devs across ABK/Bethesda/Xbox Game Studios got let go in the last 2 years while multiple studios and games well into development got canceled. Now in December '25 after Xbox got outsold by the TemuBox and M$ too poor to afford to do a '25 Wrapped for their players because they're so invested in AI, they crying about an industry crash 
" when 2500+ devs across ABK/Bethesda/Xbox Game Studios got let go in the last 2 years while multiple studios and games well into development got canceled. Now in December '25 after Xbox got outsold by the TemuBox and M$ too poor to afford to do a '25 Wrapped for their players because they're so invested in AI, they crying about an industry crash 
The Prince of All Saiyans
Formerly Jisoo Stan & @Twitter
Now if i respond to this with actual facts would we have a real convo or would we just go on to more cult facts for daps??Dudes were hitting the ye shrug on some "layoffs suck, shyt happens
It means lots of things but just to spell a few out.
Hardware will be sold for profit. No more “cheap” consoles.
AAA games will take much less risks. We will still get the big games like GTA6 but if it’s not a for sure hit, it probably won’t be greenlit.
Things like A.I. Microtransactions, DLC, Cross gen games, etc. Lots of the things gammers rally against will become even more prevalent.
Games will likely shrink in size/scope instead of growing.
Exclusive games will continue to get fewer and fewer.
There’s more stuff to list, but there’s a few for you
Now if i respond to this with actual facts would we have a real convo or would we just go on to more cult facts for daps??
If you actually had a meaningful response you would've said it, instead of p*ssyfooting around your alleged point
Scustin Bieburr
Baby baybee baybee UUUGH
So much content on YouTube is designed to be as hyperbolic as possible to get engagement.
I saw a video recently posted up saying something like "PC gaming will die forever" likely motivated by the focus of these companies on A.I. infrastructure.
The manufacturers will try to pivot to cloud gaming and sell it as a more affordable alternative. If thaf fails to generate the sales they want, then they'll be forced to pivot back.
Players are voting with their wallets by buying games when they go on sale, or when they get the opportunity, buying AA games like the dispatch or hollow knight. The game awards basically showed you the state of gaming today. Hardly anything from ubisoft, ea, Bethesda, Activision etc. Ghost of yotei, donkey Kong, death stranding 2, all got ignored for the most part. Likely because most people voting could not afford to buy these games new so they just decided to play something more affordable.
Affordability is a problem they cannot ignore. They can keep trying to cater to the 'whales' who will spend tens of thousands on microtransactions and brand new releases, but that is ultimately a losing battle if people are choosing to support smaller studios that price their games appropriately and dont annoy people with that frivolous bullshyt.
People are largely excited for gta 6 because its an example of a game from a big publisher that will actually give them their money's worth. Even if its 90 dollars, they know they will be playing the single player mode for at least 40 hours and then spending hundreds of hours online and getting substantial updates that actually enhance the experience. I can't say the same for what Bethesda or Activision is going to shyt out next.
I saw a video recently posted up saying something like "PC gaming will die forever" likely motivated by the focus of these companies on A.I. infrastructure.
The manufacturers will try to pivot to cloud gaming and sell it as a more affordable alternative. If thaf fails to generate the sales they want, then they'll be forced to pivot back.
Players are voting with their wallets by buying games when they go on sale, or when they get the opportunity, buying AA games like the dispatch or hollow knight. The game awards basically showed you the state of gaming today. Hardly anything from ubisoft, ea, Bethesda, Activision etc. Ghost of yotei, donkey Kong, death stranding 2, all got ignored for the most part. Likely because most people voting could not afford to buy these games new so they just decided to play something more affordable.
Affordability is a problem they cannot ignore. They can keep trying to cater to the 'whales' who will spend tens of thousands on microtransactions and brand new releases, but that is ultimately a losing battle if people are choosing to support smaller studios that price their games appropriately and dont annoy people with that frivolous bullshyt.
People are largely excited for gta 6 because its an example of a game from a big publisher that will actually give them their money's worth. Even if its 90 dollars, they know they will be playing the single player mode for at least 40 hours and then spending hundreds of hours online and getting substantial updates that actually enhance the experience. I can't say the same for what Bethesda or Activision is going to shyt out next.
MajesticLion
Veteran
The Way of the Patient Gamer endures.
Gizmo_Duck
blathering blatherskite!
Let’s try.
First off i will preface this by saying. It’s not the layoff olympics. Microsoft’s amount of layoffs doesn’t change the overall reason pretty much EVERY major tech company has gone through extensive layoffs recently. They are all dealing with the same market conditions and they all responded pretty much the same with layoffs.
With that said with regard to microsoft in gaming specifically, your number is made up. I’m not sure where you got 2500+ from but it’s not a number that’s been reported anywhere that i have seen.
In reality when talking about Net jobs microsoft gaming division is actually growing not shrinking. Even with the layoffs they are hiring more people and investing big into gaming.
Microsoft: Number of Employees 2011-2025 | MSFT
Interactive chart of Microsoft (MSFT) annual worldwide employee count from 2011 to 2025. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>Microsoft total number of employees in 2025 was <strong>228,000</strong>, a <strong>0% decline</strong> from 2024.</li> <li>Microsoft total number of...
www.macrotrends.net
Sony: Number of Employees 2011-2025 | SONY
Interactive chart of Sony (SONY) annual worldwide employee count from 2011 to 2025. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>Sony total number of employees in 2025 was <strong>112,300</strong>, a <strong>0.62% decline</strong> from 2024.</li> <li>Sony total number of employees in 2024...
www.macrotrends.net
Now we get to the question why are all tech companies having so many layoffs.
A big part of that is covid. Covid created conditions where tech companies grew too large too fast and most of the layoffs are just pulling back on that unstable growth.
The other side of it is world economics. The world economy is very volatile right now, investment confidence is really low, investors are very risk adverse right now. Costs had to be cut to give investors confidence in growth.
Now specific to gaming. Inflation has made the cost to make a game triple in the last 3-5 years. Spiderman 2 cost 3 times the amount it cost to make Spiderman 1 but its sales are slightly softer. So from an investment standpoint that’s an unsustainable trajectory. It’s why we saw layoffs at insomniac despite them seemingly being very successful in software sales.
Also gaming habits have changed. So much time and money is going to the top maybe 5 or so GAAAS it leaves very little space for smaller games to be successful. Games are no longer competing for dollars, they are competing for time. If a game can’t pull people away from fortnight then it will have a hard road to financial success. Which is why lots of games have been canceled(not just microsoft games) and some studios are reaching for GAAS success. The economics of AAA game development have become very difficult unless your game has a built in fan base.
There’s more but i will stop here.
Now let’s see if i get a reasonable response, or more cult dap bait
Gritsngravy
Superstar
I’m not sure how that’s much different from right nowNow if i respond to this with actual facts would we have a real convo or would we just go on to more cult facts for daps??
It means lots of things but just to spell a few out.
Hardware will be sold for profit. No more “cheap” consoles.
AAA games will take much less risks. We will still get the big games like GTA6 but if it’s not a for sure hit, it probably won’t be greenlit.
Things like A.I. Microtransactions, DLC, Cross gen games, etc. Lots of the things gammers rally against will become even more prevalent.
Games will likely shrink in size/scope instead of growing.
Exclusive games will continue to get fewer and fewer.
There’s more stuff to list, but there’s a few for you
I think the “crash” started before anyone was calling it that. Hard to know when you are in the middle of it.
JuvenileHell
Veteran
took the words right out of my mouth (pause)
nikkas want gaming to die because the Xbox is currently a vegetable.
Brian O'Conner
All Star
Xbox being gone from gaming needs to happen here’s why;
Xbox marketplace is what standardized dlc in games. Xbox made popular and accelerated paying $5-$15 extra which led publishers to cut game content from the base game so they could sell it as dlc, xbox360 also started to tie achievements to dlc so you couldn’t plat the game unless you paid extra.
Xbox Live Gold made paying for online play normal on consoles. Which used to be free
Xbox is the one who started the games as a service trend and micro transactions in full priced games
And they screwed over devs by forcing the kinect on Xbox one and series S. Hardware that nobody wanted and devs hated, this took time and resources away from polishing the final product which in many cases was released unfinished and buggy
Xbox marketplace is what standardized dlc in games. Xbox made popular and accelerated paying $5-$15 extra which led publishers to cut game content from the base game so they could sell it as dlc, xbox360 also started to tie achievements to dlc so you couldn’t plat the game unless you paid extra.
Xbox Live Gold made paying for online play normal on consoles. Which used to be free
Xbox is the one who started the games as a service trend and micro transactions in full priced games
And they screwed over devs by forcing the kinect on Xbox one and series S. Hardware that nobody wanted and devs hated, this took time and resources away from polishing the final product which in many cases was released unfinished and buggy
