1/ Circana US Market Highlights for May 2026: May-26 came in about 3% over May-25. Content in May was basically flat YoY, but consistency in Switch 2 sales bumped the hardware number up 38% YoY. PS5 and Xbox hardware have both collapsed given price increases and late cycle realities.

Wildgate struggled to find an audience after launch and the team is ending active development. No layoffs are planned and the game will remain playable (and updated when needed). Moonshot is moving onto other R&D projects. store.steampowered.com/news/app/350...

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. Good game (I played it over cloud), but I don't have time for it. It's too tedious for me to get into right now. press.kochmedia.com/en/KINGDOM-C...

Xbox is raising the price of consoles again. 512 GB models: +$100 1 TB models: +$150 2TB models will no longer be manufactured (likely due to availability on components and being priced out of the target market). news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/0...

Catching up on today... Most of the #Destiny team is being laid off, along with select staff on Marathon (and supporting roles). As you might expect, this is being done to align to the studio's long term direction with development needs. sonyinteractive.com/en/news/blog...

Sony's 2026 20-F contains their general business strategy for #PlayStation (G&NS division): (See thread for individual notes.) Source: www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/...

1/ I don't believe Valve, or anyone else releasing hardware right now, has much of a choice. Since Valve made the decision to procure their first batch of #SteamMachine units (maybe more), the money has already been spent. The unit cost is elevated because they were built fairly recently.

Leaving out PvE, when the dev team already built the components, is leaving money on the table. Boggles my mind why Marathon focused so much on a brutal PvP environment (at launch). They pushed people away that might have otherwise tried it.

Microsoft GDK plug-ins are now available in Unreal Engine 5.8. Standard Win64 projects should be up and running in the "Xbox on PC" compatible environment in a matter of minutes (in theory). developer.microsoft.com/en-us/games/...

This should be the expectation at this point. Sony G&NS revenue numbers confirm their leading revenue category is *add-on content* followed by *digital software*.

A reminder that Embracer is splitting into two business segments. Fellowship and Embracer. Fellowship should appear on the main Stockholm market in 2027. Fellowship Entertainment: Tomb Raider, Metro, Kingdom Come, Dead Island, Darksiders and Remnant.

Capcom would like to expand their user base by turning Mega Man, Devil May Cry, and Ace Attorney into core franchises. More games, ports, and remasters from those franchises. Source: www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/d...

Capcom units sales for FYE March 2026 are a straight up anomaly in the games industry. They had several catalog titles move more units in the past FY than any point in time except their launch year. In the case of DMC5, it actually moved MORE than the launch year. www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/b...

Stop Killing Games is, effectively, dead as far as the EC is concerned. The EC sees no legal path forward to force game makers to provide services after end of life (or provide a playable copy). This outcome was always coming, if we're being honest. ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

MB rejects rumors that there has been a sudden "reverse course" on Xbox's exclusivity play / plans. (Obviously don't expect everything to go exclusive, we know that isn't plausible.)

1/ I don't think gaming enthusiast blogs are ready for the reality of rebuilding a business. Like I said a few days ago, General Electric did it, but it was difficult (and painful for many people) to say the least. Entire businesses were sold, downsized, or closed.

EA Advertising will integrate real products into non-disruptive functions of gameplay. Advertisers will integrate directly through an advertising process / APIs built for Frostbite. For example, a billboard in a sports game will showcase a real product. news.ea.com/press-releas...

I cannot say this means anything more, until it does. When I look back at my own corporate experience, these types of exits often signal more to come. Regardless, I still assume that we're going to see significant changes in the Studios group. www.thegamebusiness.com/p/xbox-game-...

I'll be on Iron Lords today, talking #XBOX and all the corporate things that go along with it. Expect me to pop on around 2:30pm EDT, give or take some time in either direction. www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_Mk...

Just because I find it interesting to discuss (I don't believe it's about to happen), here's what the #XBOX business looks like if it ran as a subsidiary: (Unclear how they handle ABK and Zenimax without it being real.) Remember, this is just "for fun."

My uncle's cousin's brother's former roommate who worked at MSFT told me that Fable had a budget of 12 bananas and a folding chair.

1/ If #XBOX should become a legal subsidiary of Microsoft (in some universe where that happens), here is what you need to know: - A legal subsidiary can take investors independent of the parent company, as long as the parent company retains 51% or more.

1/ The full Matthew Ball section on #Xbox using ads: youtu.be/rTM-I_HDC9A?... He lead the conversation with tiers of services that are based on ads, not payments (or small payments).

Here's a bit of positive news regarding #Xbox: Forza Horizon 6 is still in the Global Steam top 10 for the week of June 2 - 9. It jumped a spot back up to 2nd position. However, I've been told that if it wasn't on Game Pass, they would have sold 80 billion more units. 😆

1/ This segment from the Xbox "reset" almost certainly means the company will be investing in their core mega-IPs, and cutting, or downsizing the non-core IPs / studios. They'll keep select small studios and BUs, but I expect a lot of downsizing in "non-core."

The following is a DM I sent to a friend when Phil Spencer retired. Unfortunately, what I thought was going to happen...happened. #Xbox over-extended, as did much of the industry.

Mina the Hollower sold over 500,000 copies...so far.

I encourage you to watch the ENTIRE Asha Sharma interview on Fortune Conversations, and not the cherry picked clips. youtu.be/o0hMSekk4XE?...

1/ This statement, by Matthew Ball, is being taken out of context. MB is specifically referring to the STRATEGIC component of XBOX. For example, how they engage players, where they engage them, what steps they take at a global scale.

1/ A few notes from the XBOX showcase: - I noted a significant shift in #Fable marketing. They moved away from the stand-in character that they had been showcasing in previous events and reinforced the fact that you can be whoever you want to be. It's the right move.

007 First Light is now reported to have sold over 3M copies in total, tracking above expectations. www.ign.com/articles/007...

1/ Paramount announces Paramount Games Studio. The new business unit combines Skydance Interactive and Skydance New Media, and plans to utilize Paramount's own IP. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

It isn't clear what these comments are meant to convey, but Amazon Games (if it exists) will likely have SOME kind of stake in a future James Bond title. What exactly what is, from a game production standpoint, is hard to pin down at this point. www.polygon.com/007-first-li...

Control Resonant is scheduled for release on September 24, 2026. I've had my eye on it. The combat looks more appealing (to me) than the first game. That said, I am not quite sure what to make of it.

1/ Helldivers 2 boosted Arrowhead revenue significantly. Obviously we don't have the details on the HD 2 contract between Sony and Arrowhead, but thanks to the Swedish public financial reports, we can see their financials. www.allabolag.se/bokslut/arro...

The pr0n bots and spam account follows are worse here than they are on the other site. Not exaggerating. I don't know if that's just because there are fewer targets here, thus people end up seeing more of them, or it's something else. Regardless, it's worse here.

Take-Two is reporting revenue and margin improvements by going around the app store payment processors. Good. The less Apple controls on payments, especially payments over the WWW, the better.

The CD Projekt Group Q1 investor call contained several questions about the shortcomings on the incentive plan: Songs of the Past was originally intended for 2026 but moved to 2027. There is one more product launch scheduled, but it isn't as ambitious as Songs. www.cdprojekt.com/en/wp-conten...

1/ AB 1921 passed the California State Assembly (California's version of Stop Killing Games), and will now need to survive the state Senate. Survive is the right term. www.msn.com/en-us/news/t...

I don't know what to make about Asha Sharma's comments regarding "hard choices." We'll know it when we see it. In all of my time in corporate America, this kind of message meant select business products / teams are due for cuts, while others would see additional investment.

No one is "turning" on Valve. Social media is not real life. Outside of this bubble, no one is preparing to March on Washington because of #SteamDeck prices. If you're angry that Valve jacked up the price of the Steam Deck, you can...not buy one (or buy a competitor).

I've had multiple people, today, tell me that Sony didn't write off Bungie's assets (save for goodwill). Well folks, sorry to say this is directly from Sony:

The Destiny 2 vs. Marathon debate is a waste of time. D2 wasn't killed so that Marathon can live. They are somewhat independent decisions, even if built by the same studio.

Based on Steam weekly ranks, #ForzaHorizon6 is demonstrating strong sales consistency. MSFT would never leave this money on the table, and any talk about them exiting Steam is nonsense. By sales week starting date (global): May 5: 2 May 12: 2 May 19: 1 At this moment: 2

Besides the obvious issues of using #Halo community members as sources (just stop), even if Campaign Evolved was partially, or mostly built by external contractor, all I have to say is... Welcome to 2026. This is how game development works. This isn't news. www.windowscentral.com/gaming/halo/...

1/ Given Take-Two's hefty predictions for #GTAVI, and how that is expected to boost their financials, let's look at their FY27 guidance (check the details). - Even with the GTAVI release, GAAP earnings are actually somewhat suppressed by the amortization charges they expect to take in FY27 ($624M).

My take on Sony's willingness to fund / support #Destiny 3 (or a game similar to it): TLDR: They probably aren't that excited about doing so.

This will be paid from the corporate level. It won't impact #Xbox or game budgets. It will largely be considered the "cost of doing business." This is a "go away" settlement. I have no idea if the merits of the original accusation hold any water. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Destiny 2 active development was doomed when they wrote off the asset. Internally, it was likely known for some time. youtube.com/shorts/c5QUM...

Forza Horizon 6 reports over 6M players engaged (sales, game pass, etc.) Great game. The improvements over FH5, especially in the world map, make this a great sim-cade racer.