Plus: Fascinating insights into employee retention at Nintendo and sales numbers for (some rather pricey) Switch 2 peripherals.
Hello again Patch People. I have some good news! Prolific pianist and composer Masakatsu Takagi announced a new album called 'Notes' that'll be hoisted into the world on July 31.
If you find nature-infused ambient stylings particularly titillating, I implore you to listen to his long-running Marginalia series of compositions, most of which are recorded from Takagi's home in rural Kyoto in collaboration with the local fauna. Cicadas know how to groove. There's something uniquely relaxing about his work that helps me decompress after staring into the soul of the game industry.
Speaking of which, if you find existential dread particularly titillating, I implore you to build a career in video games.
That's right, it has been another week of upheaval for developers around the world. Multiple studios including 1047 Games, Supermassive Games, Side, Sandsoft, and Airship Syndicate announced layoffs, while indie marketplace Itch.io confirmed plans to shun adult content at the behest of payment providers like Visa and Mastercard. Steam eat your heart out.
With disharmony still (unfortunately) the name of the game, we spoke with a number of employees at The Elder Scrolls maker ZeniMax to learn how they felt about Microsoft's latest debilitating round of mass layoffs. Understandably, kind words were in short supply.
As always, we have more on those stories below. But why not stick on some Takagi before you dig in? It might help take the edge off.
Itch.io deindexing adult content to appease payment providers
via Game Developer // Indie game marketplace Itch.io has followed in the footsteps of Steam and detailed plans to deindex and eventually remove some adult and NSFW content. The company said it made the change to comply with the wishes of payment providers like Visa and Mastercard and the Collective Shout campaign—which has accused those companies of "profiting from rape, incest [and] child abuse games" on Steam and other platforms. Itch co-founder Leaf Corcoran said the platform will introduce "new compliance measures" going forward. It's unclear what form those measures will take.
ZeniMax staff lambast chaotic Xbox layoffs: 'It's difficult to work when you're looking at a graveyard'
via Game Developer // Microsoft has been vehemently called out by a number of ZeniMax employees for completely botching its latest round of mass layoffs. Multiple sources told us how the cuts have resulted in the loss of institutional knowledge that will make life harder for those left behind. They also criticized Xbox leadership for completely missing the mark when communicating with employees on the day the cuts were announced internally. One source described Microsoft's approach as "inhumane" and said workers were left in a state of "fight or flight" after the company failed to effectively clarify who would be impacted. "Some people were here for 15 years and cut out. Making it so that people have to rush to type a goodbye message into Slack to their colleagues that they've been working with on various projects, that have been making your corporation money for 15 years, is disgusting, they added. The full story is a tough but vital read.
Nintendo employee data indicates the company excels at retaining workers
via Game Developer // New data published by Nintendo shows the company is incredibly adept at retaining talent. The company's revised Employee Data Sheet shows that staff in Japan have an average tenure of 14.4 years, which is more than the national average of 12.5 years. Notably, the company's employee turnover rate in the country is a meager 1.9 percent. Nintendo also posted similarly impressive figures in other regions such as the United States and Europe. Why is this notable? Well, retaining knowledge and keeping teams together is vital in the game industry. It helps ensure production runs smoothly, benefitting both workers and consumers in a world of spiraling development costs and lofty sales expectations.
Obsidian just cut the controversial price of The Outer Worlds 2
via Polygon // Xbox has reconsidered its decision to start flogging games for $80. This week, Obsidian revealed The Outer Worlds 2 will now retail for $69.99—down from the previously announced RRP of $79.99. The first-party studio shared the news via a tongue-in-cheek social media post, and said it had "worked with [REDACTED]" to revise the price of the sci-fi sequel. An Xbox spokesperson subsequently confirmed the company will be selling its full-priced holiday releases at $69.99 "in line with current market conditions." What happens after the holiday season is anybody's guess.
Rainbow Six Siege underperforms to leave Ubisoft net bookings 'below expectations'
via Game Developer // Fresh from securing a massive $1.8 billion investment from Tencent and pushing ahead with a protracted layoff spree, Ubisoft published its fiscal report for the first quarter of the year and revealed that Q1 net bookings fell below exceptions. The company said the downturn was due to the underperformance of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X, which faced "temporary but significant disruptions due to technical pricing issues." Ubisoft expects the shooter to bounce back, which seems like good news given how reliant the company seems on the 10-year-old title. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot also outlined plans to reorganize the company into "Creative Houses" to become more agile and deliver long-term stability. Where have we heard that before?
1047 Games lays off developers, CEO says he's made 'many, many mistakes'
via Game Developer // 1047 Games is laying off a number of developers and "unlaunching" Splitgate 2. In a lengthy statement posted on social media, 1047 Games CEO Ian Proulx said the studio ultimately rushed the sequel to market and must now rethink its approach to build the game players deserve. It's the second round of layoffs the company has made this year—but it made headlines for other unsavory reasons too, after Proulx took to the stage at Summer Game Fest wearing a 'Make FPS Great Again' hat to announce Splitgate 2 would be getting a battle royale mode. After the move drew criticism given the moniker's links to U.S. President Donald Trump and his right wing cohort of MAGA supporters, Proulx bravely decided to die on his MAGA-memeing hill and refused to apologize. He then apologized three days later. In an interview with Polygon announcing the layoffs, he said he has made "many, many mistakes." We suspect most would agree with him there.
Supermassive Games is laying off 36 people and delaying Directive 8020
via Game Developer // Dark Pictures Anthology developer Supermassive Games confirmed it would be making 36 people redundant this week to survive in a "challenging" business environment. The studio's upcoming horror title Directive 8020 has also been delayed to the first half of 2026—but Little Nightmares III won't be impacted by the cuts. The news comes during period of upheaval for the UK studio, which lost its long-serving leadership team in February 2024. It then laid off a reported 90 people shortly after. That means the company has seemingly made 126 people redundant in around 18 months. How very bleak.
Just how much do consumers care about Nintendo Switch 2 peripherals?
via Game File (subscription required) // New data published by Circana, spotlighted in Game File, indicates Nintendo sold around 512,000 Switch 2 Pro Controllers in the United States during the Switch 2's launch month. It's a number that means the premium gamepad, which retails for $85, had an attach rate of 32 percent in the region—in other words, one in three consumers purchased one with their Switch 2. Circana video game analyst Mat Piscatella also shared another interesting tidbit with Game File. He said the Switch 2's official camera—available for $55 in the U.S.—had a "mid-single digit percentage" attach rate. It'll be interesting to see whether Nintendo eventually shares concrete sales numbers to provide an indication as to how people are responding to the Switch 2's new social features.
Data points to slowing layoffs, but doesn't capture true harm to game industry
via Game Developer // Believe it or not, it appears that game industry layoffs might actually be slowing down. Of course, the caveat is that so many people have been forcibly removed from their jobs over the past few years that you have to wonder how companies are still finding people to hurl out of the door. In her latest piece for Game Developer, veteran reporter Nicole Carpenter looks at how the layoff numbers have stacked up in the wake of a short-lived pandemic boom, how companies are approaching hiring after those widespread cuts, and why an apparent slowdown doesn't mean the industry or its workforce is suddenly out of the woods. Hint: propagating a culture of fear isn't helpful if you want people to make good video games.