Gaming, in brief

Disney is moving toward thousands of job cuts, people familiar with the plans told Bloomberg. [1]

Disney owns Pixar, the ESPN sports channels and big TV and film studios. [2] It employed about 231,000 people at the end of last year. [3]

Some managers were told to find 20% in yearly savings. [1] The savings can come from cutting jobs or from other spending. [1]

Thousands of people in Disney's TV and film teams now wait to learn whether their jobs survive. [4]

D'Amaro has said the savings will pay for new shows and new things to do at the parks. [4]

Human resources teams call it a voluntary early retirement offer: a firm pays people to leave by choice first. [2]

Disney's offer went out in August, and more managers took it than expected, Deadline's sources said. [4]

Such an offer usually comes before forced job cuts, Deadline reports, and Disney's cuts have now followed. [5]

A coach asks who wants to sit out before picking who must, so fewer players are dropped against their will.

The plan rests on people who asked Bloomberg not to name them. [1] Disney declined to comment. [2]

Disney reports its results for the three months to September on 17 November. [2]

Disney's creative chief explained its cuts by pointing at what its rivals do. [2]

Bloomberg says D'Amaro aims to put part of the savings into them. [2]

Managers were given savings targets first, and the jobs that go will follow from them. [4]

How many Disney jobs will go, and in which parts of the company.

The report gives no number beyond thousands and names no division, and Disney declined to comment. [1][2]

Helen Chiang, who ran Xbox's daily business until last month, says a report she broke company policy is "not accurate". [17]

In July Xbox made her its first chief operating officer, in charge of its games, consoles and services. [18]

She had worked at Microsoft since 2005, and ran Minecraft, its most important game series, for over 10 years. [19]

About three months after the promotion she left, with a two-sentence memo from Xbox's boss, Asha Sharma. [18]

In a long LinkedIn post she denied leaking secrets to reporters or leaving to join a rival. [19]

She also wrote that she has "serious concerns" about how the company applied its rules to her. [17]

Xbox is cutting about 3,200 jobs in all, many still to come. [20] Chiang asks whether its rules are applied the same way to everyone. [18]

Communication researchers call silence after a sudden exit an information vacuum: rumours fill the gap. [21]

Xbox said only that she was leaving, so a report of a policy breach filled the gap until she answered. [18]

When a friend leaves a group chat without a word, the others guess why, and the guesses spread.

Chiang did not say why she left, and Microsoft did not answer The Verge in time. [17]

Why Microsoft let Helen Chiang go.

She says the reported policy breach is not accurate but did not say what happened, and Microsoft did not reply. [17]

Schell Games, a US studio that makes virtual reality games, has laid off staff for the second time this year. [6]

Based in Pittsburgh, it makes the I Expect You To Die puzzle games and helped make Among Us VR. [6]

Its first layoffs came in August, the first time it had cut staff since it opened in 2002. [6]

Engineers, artists, sound designers, marketers and testers were among those let go, GamesIndustry.biz reports. [6]

Its notice blamed "this challenging time in the game industry". [6]

In 2024 its boss, Jesse Schell, said firms should cut "when everybody else is doing it". [6]

Then, he said, a cut makes a company "look normal" instead of looking like something is wrong. [6]

Schell says the cut will keep the studio stable. [6] The people let go must find work in what it calls a challenging time. [6]

Schell Games did not say how many people lost their jobs. [6]

Why firms lay off staff when their rivals do

Nobody can be sure how many staff a firm will need next year

So each firm watches what its rivals do

When rivals cut staff, a cut looks normal, not like a sign of trouble

So firms cut in the same months, and each cut makes the next look more normal

Firms do not only cut staff when their own sums say so.

Three firms cutting staff in the same autumn, all named in today's stories.

Its boss said in 2024 that a firm should cut when everybody else does, so the cut looks normal, and its notice now blames the whole industry's hard times.

Newsom wants rewards for studios that base production in California, the kind New Mexico and New Jersey already offer, so a state copies the rivals it is losing work to.

Copying is not the only reason firms cut. One reporter says big games are now so expensive that their price alone pushes studios to cut, whatever rivals do.

A worker deciding whether to stay, an investor reading the reports and a player wondering why a studio closed are all watching the same season of cuts.

Owners in games and Hollywood are cutting staff in the same season: Disney is preparing thousands of job cuts, Schell Games made its second round and Astragon is closing a studio of more than 40 people. [1][6][7]

When many firms cut at once, each cut looks like the market's fault rather than the company's. Schell Games' own boss said in 2024 that firms should time cuts that way. [6]

Astragon, a publisher of work-simulation games, is closing its own German studio, Astragon Development. [7]

More than 40 people work there, and the firm says it seeks "socially responsible solutions" for them. [7]

The studio began in Hamm in 1990 as Independent Arts, and worked on more than 250 games. [7]

Astragon bought it in April 2023 for up to $3.9 million, to make its own games in-house. [7]

Astragon itself belongs to Everplay Group, the company once called Team17, which bought it in 2022. [7]

In September Astragon fully released Seafarer: The Ship Sim, a game that got over $2 million in German state funding. [7]

Its full release drew far fewer players than its early test version, GamesMarket reported. [7]

The people in Hamm lose their jobs, while Astragon says it will keep updating Seafarer for now. [7]

Economists call buying a supplier vertical integration: a publisher owns the studio instead of hiring outside teams. [7]

Astragon bought Independent Arts to make its own simulation games, and now closes it after one game drew few players. [7]

A family buys its own lawnmower instead of paying a neighbour, then sells it when the garden gets smaller.

GamesMarket calls the closure a strategic realignment, but Astragon gave no reason of its own. [7]

Their studio closes after the full release of its owner's ship game drew few players. [7]

Marty Stratton, who co-runs id Software, says the Doom studio is "doing great" despite losing about half its staff. [20]

id Software made Doom and Quake, and is owned by Microsoft's Xbox. [20]

About 136 people reportedly lost their jobs there in Xbox's July cuts. [20]

Stratton called the cuts part of a "deliberate effort" to make sure the studio could still succeed. [22]

He said id now works "more closely than ever" with MachineGames, the Swedish studio behind the Wolfenstein games. [20]

id's next game has not been announced, so players cannot yet see what the smaller team makes. [20]

Programmers call the shared code that every game is built on an engine; id's is called id Tech. [20]

The July cuts reached the id Tech team, so fewer people now maintain the code under every id game. [20]

A school with fewer cooks still has to feed every class from the same kitchen.

Chris Hays, an id programmer who stayed, said in July that such a game with half the people is impossible. [20]

Gears of War: E-Day's reported $500 million cost paid for years of work, not only the game, a report says. [23]

E-Day is Xbox's new Gears of War action game, made by its studio The Coalition. [24]

Jez Corden of Windows Central says The Coalition also helped build other Xbox games and tools. [23]

It spent more than 18 months on a game that was cancelled. [23] It also helped on Avowed, Hellblade 2 and Grounded 2. [23]

E-Day has sold just over 400,000 copies, a source told The Verge in late October. [24]

Corden suspects the figure is shared inside Xbox to soften the blow of future cuts. [23] He says he has not heard of plans to close the studio. [23]

Corden's worry is for The Coalition's staff: a bigger cost figure makes cuts there easier to argue. [23]

Accountants call this cost allocation: deciding which project a shared cost is charged to. [23]

If years of help for other games are charged to E-Day, E-Day looks far dearer than the game alone. [23]

If one pupil's lunch money also paid for the class trip, their lunch would look very expensive.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier says the $500 million is real, and that such costs drive studios to cut jobs. [24]

What Gears of War: E-Day's $500 million really paid for.

One writer's sources say it covers years of work on other games and tools, and Microsoft has not answered IGN's questions about it. [23][24]

David Sears, creative director of South of Midnight, says he would probably not have paid to make it himself. [9]

South of Midnight is a 2025 game by Compulsion Games that won awards, including a BAFTA. [9]

Xbox paid for games like it and Double Fine's Keeper, which both sides knew were unlikely to earn much. [9]

Sears said the games were meant to raise Xbox's standing, and in the end they did not make much money. [9]

During development he warned others that someone would one day say "the money tap, we're closing those floodgates". [9]

Compulsion was spun out of Xbox in this year's restructuring, and it took its games' rights with it. [9]

Compulsion is now looking for work with other partners, and has not said what it makes next. [9]

Marketers call spending like this brand building: paying for work that makes a name respected, not for its sales. [9]

Xbox paid for it to raise its name, but when Xbox cut costs this year, it let the studio go. [9]

A school pays for a grand play to look good, then drops it when the budget gets tight.

Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind No More Heroes, will make smaller games now that it is independent, founder Suda51 says. [8]

It left NetEase, the games company that had paid for its work, at the start of October. [8]

Under NetEase it had promised 3 big games in 10 years; February's Romeo Is a Dead Man was one. [8]

Suda51 told 4Gamer that plan was made for NetEase, "so that will have to change". [8]

He wants to work on other firms' series too, naming Mobile Suit Gundam and Marvel's Deadpool. [8]

The studio is trying ideas on Roblox and hiring, and says a new game will come out next year. [8]

Without a rich backer, the studio must earn from each game. [8] That limits how big the next one can be. [8]

Economists call it a budget constraint: a firm can only spend what it has or can borrow. [8]

Without NetEase's money, Grasshopper's own earnings set the size of its games, so they get smaller. [8]

Moving out of home means living on your own pay, so the room you can afford gets smaller.

Earlier this year the studio promised another new game in 2026, and it has not come out. [8]

CI Games, maker of the Lords of the Fallen games, has borrowed $32 million to finish and launch the sequel. [10]

Two Polish banks, Erste Bank Polska and Bank Ochrony Srodowiska, made the loan, announced on 30 October. [10]

KUKE, Poland's export credit agency, guarantees 80% of the loan. [10]

The money pays for the rest of the work and the marketing, and pays off all its older bank debt. [10]

In April CI Games ended a deal that would have made Epic Games the game's publisher on PC. [10]

The game is due in early 2027, and CI Games will name a date in December. [10]

Publishing it alone means CI Games keeps all the game's sales instead of sharing them with a publisher. [10]

Bankers call this a guaranteed loan: a state agency promises to repay most of it if the borrower fails. [10]

With KUKE covering 80%, the banks risk little. [10] CI Games plans to repay them from the game's sales by August 2027. [10]

A parent signs a teenager's phone contract too, so the shop agrees to it.

CI Games has never said why its Epic deal ended, and kept the split quiet for over a month. [10]

The loan pays for the game without new shares, so their part of the company does not shrink, its boss said. [10]

Kingdom of Gaming, a new games industry fair backed by Saudi Arabia's government, has moved from December to 2027. [13]

It was due in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on 1 to 3 December. [13]

Its website now says only "Coming in 2027", and no announcement explained why. [13]

Tahaluf runs it: a joint company of a Saudi tech federation and Informa, which runs the GDC developers' conference. [13]

It had promised more than 20,000 visitors, 500 studios and 200 investors, with Ubisoft and Roblox signed up. [13]

Attacks on Saudi Arabia have grown in recent weeks, including strikes on Riyadh's main airport. [13] They follow the US and Israel's war with Iran. [13]

On 27 October Informa said the trouble in Saudi Arabia had forced it to move more events. [13]

Informa now expects no more income from Saudi Arabia this year. [13]

Risk analysts call this country risk: danger to a business from events in the country where it operates. [13]

The fair moved because of fighting around Saudi Arabia, not because of anything in the games business. [13]

A school trip abroad is called off because of trouble in that country, not because the class changed.

Benjamin Kratsch of Saudi-linked Levelz said only: "It takes a little longer, given the current situation." [13]

Neither Informa nor Tahaluf answered requests for comment, ReaderGrev reported. [13]

When Kingdom of Gaming will take place.

Its website says only 2027, and neither Informa nor Tahaluf has explained the delay. [13]

Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show drew 219,546 visitors from 113 countries over four days in Bangkok. [25]

It is the Asian version of Gamescom, the huge games fair held each year in Germany. [25]

Its business days drew 6,923 visitors from 78 countries, up 24% from 5,590 last year. [25]

It had 335 exhibitors, up from 294, and 64% of them came from outside Thailand. [25]

Its investor meetings linked 509 developers, publishers and investors, up from 418 last year. [25]

Organiser Mathias Kuepper said exhibitors came "to sign deals, not only to show games". [25]

The show returns to Bangkok on 21 to 24 October 2027. [26]

Studios in South-East Asia can now meet buyers without flying to Germany, its project director said. [25]

The 219,546 figure comes from the organisers themselves. [25]

Gamescom Asia in Bangkok drew 219,546 visitors from 113 countries, and its business days grew 24% on last year.

Japan's government wants overseas sales of Japanese films, TV shows and other content to reach $127 billion by 2033. [11]

The plan, called IP360, is run by METI, Japan's trade and industry ministry. [11]

This year METI set aside $222 million for subsidies to content businesses. [11]

Foreign productions filming in Japan get 50% of their spending there back, with no upper limit. [11]

But only projects costing at least 800 million yen, about $5.1 million, qualify. [11]

One agent for a large manga and anime publisher said its sales are "growing anyway thanks to the streamers". [27]

Smaller films and shows, where most crews learn their trade, fall below the minimum, producer Alex Boden says. [11]

Economists call it industrial policy: a government picks a trade and pays to grow it. [27]

Japan put content on its list of 17 key industries, beside chips, AI and shipbuilding. [27]

A school picks three sports to fund properly, and the clubs not picked get nothing extra.

A sales agent for a mid-sized film company expects the support to go "to the majors". [27]

Only projects above the minimum budget can claim the uncapped rebate. [11]

The new minimum budget shuts them out of the rebate, producer Alex Boden says. [11]

Whether Japan's IP360 money will reach smaller film and anime companies.

Sales agents expect it to favour the biggest firms, and the rules for applying are hard to follow and not translated. [27][11]

Japan's new anime prize will be called the Nippon Anime Awards, its organisers said in Tokyo on 2 November. [28]

They are the Association of Japanese Animations, the anime industry's trade body. [28]

The first ceremony will be held on 21 November 2027 at SGC Hall Ariake in Tokyo. [28]

The awards will honour anime and the people who make them, with viewers in Japan and abroad in mind. [28]

Tokyo's governor, Yuriko Koike, promised the city's "strong support for anime". [28]

The older Tokyo Anime Award Festival, started in 2014, held its last events in March. [29]

With the city it will also run events to find new business and train young anime staff. [28]

Marketing researchers call awards a quality signal: a prize tells buyers which work is worth their time. [28]

A prize from Japan's own anime body points viewers abroad to the shows its makers rate highest. [28]

A gold star on a pupil's drawing tells visitors which work to look at first.

California's governor, Gavin Newsom, wants its yearly film and TV tax credit raised from $750 million to $1 billion. [12]

The credit pays back part of a production's costs when it films in California. [12]

Last year Newsom more than doubled the fund, from $330 million to $750 million. [30]

Fallout, the TV series made from the video games, is one of the shows using the credit. [30]

New York saw $4.63 billion of production spending in the past year, against California's $6.06 billion. [12]

But New York's spending grew 87% in the latest quarter, against California's 17%. [12]

The next governor, chosen in Tuesday's election, will decide whether the raise happens. [12]

Hollywood's unions, including the actors' union SAG-AFTRA, welcomed it but want the next governor to commit too. [30]

Economists call it a subsidy race: places outbid each other with tax breaks to win the same jobs. [12]

Two shops on one street keep cutting prices to win the same customers.

New Mexico and New Jersey already reward studios that base production there, and Newsom wants similar rewards. [12]