This week, John, Niki, and Lotus go very long on this week’s seismic Xbox news, including the numerous studio closures on the table, key departures, and Microsoft CEO’s Satya Nadella’s curious take on why their gaming arm is struggling.
00:00:00 Intro & Lotus’ Big Saturday
00:11:10 South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games is the unsurprising yet disappointing first studio to confirm possible closure or spinoff
00:17:00 A long, great conversation about the games media’s role in reporting on these layoffs and closures
00:28:00 How Xbox got here (mostly)
00:48:52 Satya Nadella seems to be confused about how Xbox got into this jam
00:54:00 That Senua sequel was only announced to help fuel a possible sale of Ninja Theory
01:02:14 The weight of working in corporate-owned game development right now
01:06:34 Key personnel leaving Xbox
01:07:56 What’s the plan moving forward for Xbox?
01:16:10 EA introducing new in-game advertising platform
01:25:57 UK government is banning teens from social media; plan will not work
01:33:10 Fuck’s Quest 2 lacks consistent humor and mechanical clarity
01:37:07 Niki played the first two Sonic games on Genesis (skip this part, Sonic fans!!!)
01:45:10 John decided to give Ocarina of Time another try
01:49:10 Our latest (possibly final) thoughts on 007 First Light
02:02:47 Hive Questions
02:18:12 Outro
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VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.
