imo laying off 1,600 people today and threatening those who survive this bloodbath with the promise that you'll lay off another 1,600 sometime over the next 12 months is literally psychological warfare

Hope is an act not a state of being. It requires talking about and sharing to grow. It is hard to hope but I'm gonna ask you for it anyway: If you're a game dev and have stories of what makes you hopeful for the future of games whatever that may be and would be willing to talk about it, get in touch

If you're a game writer/narrative designer, have a bachelor's degree (in any field), and are willing to consider relocating to Beijing for 2 years, apply to Microfun. The salary is lower than US/CAN rates but it is a stable job that Will Not Lay You Off www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Any journalists at Develop next week want to catch up over a coffee? Hoping to learn more about what you’re covering, how best to help freelancers get their bag, talk Witchbrook and KYORA, and general state of play. Shares much appreciated! 🙏

Hey all, In light of... everything my current contract will be ending on July 31. If you know of any senior writer or narrative designer roles please send them my way. www.linkedin.com/in/macleoh/

Looking for recommendations on new games from small teams that have flown under the radar this year? Ideally less than 1,000 Steam reviews Examples: Don't Let It Starve, Dunecrawl, Titanium Court

in light of the other shoe dropping today:

Soojin is a brilliant and adaptable artist. Did you love the look of Pentiment? They were responsible for a ton of it. Out of the many, many ways they left their mark on that game, though, my favorites have to be the Landsknecht playing cards and story-time with Brother Sebhat.

GG to GDQ

So many amazing, wonderful people - and me - were laid off today. All of them deserve the world and I hope they get back on their feet soon. As for me? I suppose I'm open for work once the shock wears off.

I and a good number of very talented game devs were laid off by Obsidian as part of the Microsoft sacrificial rituals this morning. If you or anyone you know is looking for a Senior Writer/ND with more than two decades' experience in titles like Dragon Age and Mass Effect, please let me know!

I'm very sorry to announce that I was one of the devs affected by the Obsidian layoffs today. At least for four years, it was a beautiful dream. If you need a writer with experience in everything from the fog of war to romance - especially if you're open to remote - please get in touch.

microsoft's plan, Lay Off Everybody Who Makes Games & Then Find 1 Billion People Per Day To Play The Games They Aren't Making... it's bold. i will give them that

A bit of good news in the middle of all the bloodbath today: Supercell has announced a Grants program for game development studios across Africa with equity-free grants of USD $20,000–$200,000 to help them reach their next stage of growth. supercell.com/en/news/deve...

the horrors persist, but so do we chat, so do we Trans Rights

she x on my box until i cut 3200 jobs over the next 12 months

"We want a billion players a day" Bitch with what games

The majority of chatter today will be about the fate of studios who build the games we love. But we cannot forget that these cuts will include hundreds of less visible folk w top expertise in a variety of supporting departments. No studios close today, but the loss personal & professional is immense

Are they gonna like force us all to play Halo in order to check our emails or something, like what the fuck are you talking about woman

Even now there's misinformation floating around, so let me make this clear: Xbox is cutting 3,200 jobs, or 20% of the organization. 1,600 jobs will be eliminated today, and then another 1,600 (including the studio divestments) in the next 12 months. Full story: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

in light of the other shoe dropping today:

Florida folks: If you have O- blood and are of African or African American descent, OneBlood is searching for donors who have a rare antigen that matches with a teenager with sickle cell disease who needs 50 units of blood so she can have a bone marrow transplant.

they've passed $65k combined with one day left -- the time is now!

We have never 'owned' our games, our games just had no technological protection measures. (thread 👇, I'm so mad about the PS no physical decision and I need an IP rant)

The Video Game History Foundation has called on trade groups like the ESA to find a way to "legally preserve" digital-only games for research. "Asking museums to download a copy of GTA 6 and hope it’ll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution." www.videogameschronicle.com/news/video-g...

AND no genAI 🤗

phoebe bridgers dropping a game onto itch was not on my bingo card

A smaller number of emails than usual, so there's a far better chance of getting featured this time out! Indie devs, to action!

If you're an Xbox worker open to chatting confidentially (or otherwise) about the latest period of upheaval at the company please do reach out. Email is in bio. DMs are open. Signal QR is pinned. I'd be incredibly interested to hear your thoughts on how the division has been managed.

thank fucking god imo

or if you're queer you befriend the girls you originally had crushes on :^)

Two more weeks until Neurocracy expands once more with a batch of new stories! Starting now and running for the duration of these stories, we've discounted the game to half price, with all proceeds donated to help the people of Venezuela after the devastating earthquakes Please share if you can 🙏

The non-profits mentioned: - gamehistory.org | @gamehistoryorg.bsky.social - hitsave.org | @hitsave.org - thenvm.org/about/vhs/ | @nvmuk.bsky.social

Sony announced that it won't be making physical disks of the games releasing on PlayStation starting January 2028. Additionally, the PS3 and PS Vita stores will be closing their online PS stores. Here's what's happening and why Sony is fully converting to digital only: youtu.be/MxImPbx1VwE

Storage only continues to skyrocket in price, yet they completely move away from discs?? Not only are discs cheap as hell to manufacture (it’s what got Sony their bag back in the day) but people WANT to own stuff rather just digitally lease it. Cutting back production, fine. This is just crazy.

Sony is taking this away from us

Like many others, Sony ditching discs reminded me of that E3 2013 moment when two now-former PlayStation execs made a mockery of Xbox's convoluted digital gaming rights Xbox One plans by showing that you could share a PS4 game by simply handing it to someone But I'd forgotten about this...

NEW: Sony to end production of discs for all new PlayStation games (first and third party) as of January 2028 Full news and analysis at the link: www.gamefile.news/p/sony-drops...

Despair aside, the above is why it's so so so important to support the folks doing work your believe in! There is still a lot to love about this industry, so champion it!

sony getting rid of game discs is awful news for preservation, consumer agency and (less importantly but still crucial) my love of owning the entertainment i buy

We're almost at 50%!! That's some news to sink your teeth into!

i guess you need to be tall, white, and AAA to be considered in the “first real mom game” discourse 🤠

39 of you have taken advantage of this very good deal... can we get to 50 by the end of the day??? 50% off is hard to beat, you cannot deny

i think of a king of the hill episode from 2004 is all it takes to see how easy it is to be normal about sex (the fact that this episode has aged to show how far we've regressed is depressing)

mutuals what if I flew to come visit and hang out. i can cook for you and treat your house like a walking simulator (i am picking things up and asking for its backstory) in exchange for hanging out with me

Deadpool is the only character that will flirt with the hunter regardless of their gender. I wonder who wrote him

A gentle reminder that if you're reaching out to devs who've been laid off, don't speculate about the perceived failure of the game/studio in messages where you reach out to them. It's not necessary and it really sucks! (someone did this to me and I still think about it months later!!)