As it was previously told, Microsoft has begun firing people (again). It has about 20 000 people in gaming divisions and want to cut this workforce by thousands.

King, Bethesda, and many other companies are among these cuts. It's the fourth big wave of layoffs in the last 18 months.

The total cut among Microsoft's teams (beyond gaming) is expected to be around 9100 employees out of 228 000. They were already planning to cut 7000 people in May (and it's unclear if these are two cuts or an extension).

#LayOffs@GameDEV
#Microsoft@GameDEV
#XBox@GameDEV

Apparently, Bethesda was working on the online game that was supposed to utilize the new engine they have created. But it all got cancelled today.

They also shut down the team behind Forza Motorsport and some other projects. I see dozens and dozens of posts like this on LinkedIn.

#Bethesda@GameDEV
#Microsoft@GameDEV

And here's the email from Phil Spencer: yeah, we make more money than ever, but it's all possible thanks to firing people who previously did a great job and helped us to establish this foothold in the industry. Very ugly phrasing, IMO.

#Microsoft@GameDEV
#LayOffs@GameDEV
#XBox@GameDEV

Ubisoft created a tool to make 3D avatars from a single image: MoSAR. It will benefit from artistic polishing but allows skipping a lot of work.

#Ubisoft@GameDEV
#Animation@GameDEV

What are you...

#meme@GameDEV

The UK version of stop killing games got 100K signatures. Meanwhile, the EU one is very close to completion:

https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home

A bit of inner kitchen of a huge mobile publisher Voodoo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvrETccIlN4
#MobileGames@GameDEV
#Business@GameDEV

Is YouTube getting worse?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmmf2x2muyA
#YouTube@GameDEV
#Google@GameDEV

Romero Games lost funding, Microsoft used to be their publisher (which wasn't announced before).

#LayOffs@GameDEV

Folks, an urgent shit, call your grandma, call your friends, we need 1000 subs on Twitter by yesterday:

https://x.com/GameUnionTV

Unity silently rolled-back the change, local projects are supported again (for now). They haven't explained the initial change, nor the fix. But looks like it was a dirty trick that didn't work out and they gave up.

#Unity@GameDEV

Have you thought, that Microsoft is leaving Windows 10 to die, forcing cloud services, giving up on gaming, and so on.

With the current approach it will turn into a cloud company and completely refocus to B2B.

Steam Deck outsells XBox in several regions now 😐

#Microsoft@GameDEV

The European version of Stop Killing Games is 99% ready and someone is DDoSing the server... https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home

UPD: 1m done, more to go! Since the initiative will be checked, they need more people than just a million, they need a proven million.

Layered material in Unreal Engine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq9Sxi67ZHg
#UnrealEngine@GameDEV
#Turorials@GameDEV
#Shaders@GameDEV

Yet another Anvil Engine talk:

https://youtu.be/CcYq18bkvyU
#Ubisoft@GameDEV
#GameEngines@GameDEV
#Rendering@GameDEV

Morning meme

#meme@GameDEV

Friday is a good time to laugh at vibe coders

#Programming@GameDEV
#AI@GameDEV