lol that was the first thing I thought, this is all Jez' fault.

I've always said I didn't see what was good about hi fi rush. Everyone praised it. I said it was trash but..... now Archanes a different story. Xbox gotta wake up quick!! Might be too late. It sucks.

I actively lose IQ points when I hear people cry about capitalism on a gaming podcast

Thank God, my priorities in life shifted some time ago and I am no longer as invested in gaming and Xbox as I used to. Otherwise this would be a super tough year for me

xbox mindshare is done, sad to be honest.

I believe Microsoft is secretly trading small studios to nintendo and ps, but at the end microsoft will have all the big games like cod, minecraft, roblox etc...

This is one of the worst xbox podcast besides Riskit 4 the biscuit podcast , jez is the worst man, xbox fans should not support these dudes

I'm starting to think that Hi-Fi Rush was way more expensive to make than we could imagine.

DEI hire Sarah Bond

Another awesome show and love the level headedness of delayed, well thought through discourse. Please don't too much chase the trend of daily and "emergency" shows. This four plus hour weekly discourse is heads and shoulders above the rest. Keep up the great work.

Subscribing to gamepass just for cod would not be worth it. You'll save more money just buying the game then to pay a monthly subscription.

2:34:34 Xbox is a dead monopoly?😂

There seems to be a loose plan and making decisions based on optimistic assumptions. In reality, xbox seems purely reactionary. And, like, release games for christ sake!

Everyone talking about Phil and Sarah. What about Matt Booty? How have you not released a GOTY contender in over 10 years and still have a job. We want games and he has not delivered.

I think Obsidian and InXile are safe as they’re the only 2 aside BGS that can make a Fallout game

Jez is coping hard with this. I dont blame him for trying to stay positive, but people are slowly just walking away. In an era where xbox is chasing higher active users, but keeps bleeding fans this won't end good for xbox. I could get to the point were they are forced to leave the industry as a console maker and most people wouldn't even care.

Capitalism is not tge problem, it's greed. If you put all of this into a socialist framework the government would own games and it would be trash.

The only thing destroying MS 1st party developers is Gamepass. Expecting to have massivesuccess and promoting better quality and development by launching day 1 games on a Subscription service that only pays back 12 bucks 0er download is truly unsustainable.

This one was difficult to watch, the mental gymnastics of Jez is outstanding.

What do you mean «the pain of capitalism»? Capitalism is the reason we’re getting any of these games at all.

Jez references to capitalism are laughable , he obviously has no idea what capitalism is .

Expecting an immediate return after buying ABK when they also say games take 4-5 years to develop is a bit optimistic

Couldn't they sell studios instead of closing? Recoup some cash instead of paying severance.

This is so exhausting. Video games are a break from daily lives in entertainment form, now we’re putting everyday happenings into video games. All this fake outrage but the same people will review bomb a developers game into oblivion, sometimes to its closure. The irony is hard as, well iron.

It seems silly to close down tango and arcane over a fallout game you know those fallout games was on sale for like 10 bucks so yeah that was the top seller but it was like 10-20 bucks so it's not like they were full price games and who's to say that the next season of fallout show will be any good what if it sucks just doesn't seem logical to codes a Japanese studio which you need a mobile studio what you need and arcane another great studio you need because you want to make another fallout game in 5 years. These studios haven't even had time to make a game under Microsoft or two games tango made a great AA game and that was it it's like Microsoft not giving any of their plans a chance to work they just doing a 180

Microsoft need to make it crystal clear whether Game Pass subscriptions or sales determine whether a studio stays open for the sake of those people working at the studios.

Recent weeks have made it understandable why Microsoft doesn't report Xbox division's operating profit and margins.

We looked too far into how the sausage was made. Sometimes ignorance is bliss Gamers just have to seperate the conglomerate from the product and just extract the Gamepass value for as long as its valuable to them because Microsoft is not reversing this trajectory

When are you gonna be on camera? You promised us when you hit 100k you would. It’s not hard to get a camera Rand

So it's like all this hard work to get Japanese games on the platform was for nothing just to see it all go away again fantastic fml smh lol

Video games need to sell. That’s the bottom line. Gamepass subs have stagnated because the 1st party offering has been slim pickings for years and years and people are canceling. And when you release stinker after stinker (mostly) for years on end, of course growth is gonna stagnate or even recede. It takes great games to sell a platform. That’s it. If Nintendo has sold 144M Switches, do you think it’s because it’s a powerful system? No. It’s because the games are fucking awesome. Games should always come first. And I think Xbox knows this, but they’re in too deep on Gamepass to backpedal out of the vision now. Wouldn’t go well with investors if they kill Gamepass. Plenty of people will take their money and run.

People hate Microsoft for being intrusive but imagine investing billions of dollars and a decade into a part of your business and there is 0 turn around what’s so ever. These executives continue to fail and then make the devs suffer. Phil Spencer needs to go, lying out his ass for a decade now. Matt booty needs to go, cant manage studios at all. Aaron Greenberg needs to go, terrible marketing no one cares about the games or Xbox. Sarah bond needs to go, why are you talking about mobile when you console is dying and your fans are asking so much questions. It’s disgusting, get new leadership.

Nail on the head!! They could have let Tango and Arkane make a Fallout spin off. They could have even started the next main line fallout.

RAND, IT HAS BEEN LONG ENOUGH... (GOING ON 6 MONTHS) IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO FOLLOW THROUGH AND GET ON CAMERA ! WE GOT YOU THE 100K SUBS! TIME FOR YOU TO HOLD UP YOUR END OF THE DEAL!

Imo Jez hit it on the head when he mentioned Budget. Xboxs budget was thrown out of wack after the closure of the ABK deal, most likely due to the insane increase of staff abk had before the deals close. The unexpected 7000+ staff blew a hole in the Xbox operating budget. Yes Microsoft could cover it, but why would they after investing 70+ billion. Xbox cut some staff at abk and that gave the combative regulators another talking point. Xbox needs to get their operating budget under control somehow,that lead to these cuts/closures.

I really do think this week was the final straw for a lot of people. It isnt just closing of these studios that is so offensive, it's becoming painfully obvious that the Xbox leadership team has no strategy or vision whatsoever. They have just been throwing money at the problem for years. They know nothing about managing studios or cultivating creative talent. Phil Spencer and the rest of the team should resign. If 10 years at the helm and over $75 billion invested into new studios isn't enough to perform, I don’t think you're cut out for this job. They should all feel embarrassed and ashamed.

It seems pretty clear to me that Xbox is moving into third party territory and acting more like a publisher than a console maker. That explains the tango closure to me.

It's clear to me that Phil Spencer had no form of quality control and did not put the right people in charge of these games. Starfield is not making them anymore money, Redfall was a disaster, Halo infinite's potential got cut short and they made the biggest purchase ever with Activision and we're not even sure if the next call of duty will be good.

British demons stay out of Greece

I’ll take these shutdowns to get a new fallout game sooner. I personally don’t like any of the games they have made. And I feel it’s easy for everyone to criticize a decision like this when it’s not your money that is getting spent and then you cry about capitalism when you wouldn’t have any of this shit without it. Ironic🤔

Thanks for all the support!! Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code XB2 at MANSCAPED.com! Timestamps: Getting ready to go live 0:00 Intro and Housekeeping 11:05 Xbox - 4 studios closure Sarah Bond Interview and other news 40:30 Stream issues 1:08:00 Return of stream (w/o issues) 1:17:05 Patreon Questions and Closing 3:23:05

45:47 If Jez were king, Windows phone wouldn't be back, it never would have been canceled in the first place.😊

Still no Camera, Rand? Its not like xbox 2 community is dying to see you guys on camera but its about keeping your word. Thats why people keep asking if you will get a camera.

Timestamps Getting ready to go live 0:00 Intro and Housekeeping 11:05 Xbox - 4 studios closure Sarah Bond Interview and other news 40:30 Stream issues 1:08:00 Return of stream (w/o issues) 1:17:05 Patreon Questions and Closing 3:23:05

Oh i just got here as it ended. This should be a banger 🎉

Bro where are u??? Why dont u talj about your console of choice rn? There’s plenty of news

Rand, you haven't played a single game on Xbox for almost two weeks now. Are you phasing out to another platform or are you just busy?

Alright. Here I am, giving my appreciation for the show. It is true that we usually just agree and don't comment if you feel comfortable or just agree with what is being said. Unfortunate.

Rand's red fall jokes did not age well at all

Microsoft just closed down tango and arkane smh 🤦🏽