The latest mass layoff at Xbox will see roughly 3,200 people lose their jobs—1,600 today, and 1,600 more over the next fiscal year—and four game studios turned loose into the forest: Compulsion and Double Fine as independents, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs under new ownership. It's bad no matter how you look at it, a reflection of flailing leadership at Microsoft and a dreadful state of affairs for the game...
Today, Xbox announced what it calls "the most significant restructure in Xbox history": Part of a larger downsizing at Microsoft that's putting 4,800 employees out of work, the reorganization will eliminate 1,600 Xbox roles today, with the division aiming to reduce its headcount by 3,200 throughout the 2027 financial year.Alongside the layoffs, four game development studios are leaving Microsoft ownership for new management, including South of Midnight and We Happy...
The time has finally come for Xbox's massive reset—in a statement on the official Xbox site today, recently-minted CEO Asha Sharma revealed the fate of several studios. I won't be focusing on them in this article (although you can read the words of my fellow PCG writer Andy Chalk first, if you'd like). Instead I want to highlight (with the deserved scrutiny of a post announcing the threatened livelihoods of...
Watch Dogs 2 is currently $2.50 on Steam. It's hardly a classic, but it's not terrible either. At one cent per 10 minutes of content, how can you resist? It's only five pleasantly tactile mouse clicks away.Maybe you can't resist. During Steam's seasonal sales it's possible to scoop up dozens of games for less than $5 a pop. Ted Litchfield found 31, many of which could individually keep you occupied...
Despite its high price and somewhat disappointing gaming chops, Valve's Steam Machine appears to be selling well, with lots of buyers showing off their new purchase on social media. And in what seems to be the first published instance, the consumer coverage also includes a console-like Red Ring Line of Death.Well, the Steam Machine was pretty cool for the 20 minutes that it worked from r/steammachineReddit user me_hill posted a...
In 2025, Commodore was bought by retro YouTuber Chris "Peri Fractic" Simpson, who re-assembled some key execs and went into the hardware business. The main result so far has been the Commodore 64 Ultimate, the slimline 64C, and a line of merch including, er, a backpack holster?Until last month, that is, when Commodore unveiled the Callback, an old-fashioned flip phone that blocks social media at a system level. No email...
If you're in the market for a pricey, studio-like USB microphone for high-quality audio capture, you've probably considered one of Shure's offerings. You'd do well to look at the Shure MV7+, a dynamic podcast mic that's cemented itself into our best microphone for gaming guide for some time now. Razer, however, has come up with something that might not beat the MV7+ outright, but certainly gives it something to think...
Sand publisher celebrates 300,000 copies sold: 'We getting a half hour of air conditioning tonight!'
XA couple weeks after its early access launch, things are going mostly pretty well for the steampunk-mechs-in-the-desert game Sand: Raiders of Sophie. An update that rolled out on July 2 caused some surprise headaches and had to be rolled back, which isn't great, but on the brighter side the game looks to be a legitimate hit, too."300K copies for Sand sold," Alex Nichiporchik, CEO of publisher TinyBuild, wrote today on...
Ahead of Carcass Clad's reveal at last month's PC Gaming Show, I had the chance to speak to Wrong Organ devs Jeffrey Tomec and Dave van Egdom about the studio's follow-up to its breakout hit, Mouthwashing. Carcass Clad is a very different sort of game, but with familiar themes and atmosphere. The bulk of our conversation, though, was about why the studio pivoted to co-op multiplayer, and how it feels...
After blowing the doors down with narrative horror game Mouthwashing, developer Wrong Organ decided to zig instead of zag: Its next project is Carcass Clad, a roguelike co-op tank simulator in a city where things have gone deeply wrong. But while developer Jeffrey Tomec told me that scripted narrative is on the "back burner for sure" this time, it sounds like Wrong Organ is trying to find a balance for...