Microsoft's Layoffs Are a Harbinger of Doom for JRPGs (and the game industry as a whole) | GEMS

We will never see any change from Microsoft. The American business sphere is a wild West. They are no different than any other company, stomping out any subsidiary or employees without restraint or repercussion. The only thing we can do is walk away. Stop buying their consoles, services, and games. Yes, that will hurt more employees in the short term, but it will break this cycle. My two cents at least. Thoughtful, lovely video as always dude! ❤️

Ummmm jrpgs where never in the xbox wheelhouse/echosystem. I dont understand jrpgs atm are 99% on playstation & nintendo consoles

I had not purchased a MS gaming product in probably a decade, at least, until very recently, when they released Hi Fi Rush on PS5. I loved that game, and the studio who made it is now dead. Great. Thanks, Phil.

Hey Brandon - I think you may be worrying too much or giving MS too much credit. This is happening across the board in all industries, it's the effect of the tightening economy (it's a recession by textbook definition). The Fed's Interest Rate Hikes has made Money itself more expensive, sounds weird to say that but that is basically what is happening during the period of Quantitative Tightening. Companies are cutting the Fat off, so to speak. Look at Streaming Services like Disney+, News Industry (lol), Tech Companies in Silicone Valley, or other VG Companies like Activision Blizzard, they're all downsizing and laying off. I don't think Sony is modeling itself after Microsoft, or that Microsoft is a unique trail blazer in Downsizing, this is standard business practice especially so in shrinking economy. NOW - that being said - this is not all doom and gloom. The talent doesn't just vanish just because it was released from Microsoft, this is the prime time that new studios are formed - smaller and more focused studios with a shared vision. Remember these studios were gobbled up by bigger Corpos like MS, they existed beforehand and they will exist again. As long as the appetite for these types of games exists, there will be creators. It's hard to explain in a youtube comment but basically - don't fret over the big multibillion dollar Corpo downsizing. If anything, think of it as them letting the talent out of prison.

Ninja Theory and Undead Labs fans should brace for impact because I don't see them surviving over the next two years.

This is a great format, and I appreciate you going over these topics from a specific angel of what your channels focus is. It is interesting to see how these companies affect the larger industry even when they don't necessarily focus on all the things that the fans enjoy (the little people that like jrpgs).

Really enjoyed your discussion!!! Totally agree with you on everything.

i really like this rambly stuff, keep it coming :) you're also making very interesting points about the industry which i don't hear people talking about a lot.

How in the heck would M$ going down affect JRPG's seeing as most are on PS/Nintendo/PC, and despite what same my think all of gaming needs to be a bit better about not spreading themselves so think working on to many things at once.

Hifi Rush was one of my favorite games of 2023 and one of my new favorite IPs so this news was pretty sad to hear. It's also interesting to see how Atlus is now pretty "buddy-buddy" with Xbox and their games are day 1 on gamepass 👀💀

The layoffs have nothing to do with game quality, they have everything to do with tightening monetary policy and inflation. These are macro-economic headwinds, which Microsoft doesn't control. Anyway, Square makes part two of a trilogy, sales are lower and people panic, meanwhile, Falcom releases part 10, 11, 12, and 13 to a never-ending series 4 times in the last 5 years, and seems completely unbothered by how much money it makes, or doesn't make. These are both publicly traded companies, but one is owned by actual investors, while the other still has the founder as the majority share-holder.

Never mind that FF7 Remake came out at the beginning of the pandemic. Of course it was going to sell better than its sequel

Only 50% of FF7 remake players finished it. So, Rebirth selling 2 times less than Remake is logical and expected.

I see what you're saying, and I think it's horrible for the industry as a whole... but I don't think Microsoft is that comparable to other major video game platforms/publishers. like, Nintendo is a purely video game company. if they shut down their video game company, they'd go under because they don't have anything else. if Microsoft shut down their video game company, they'd be fine. (also the answer to how Microsoft systems sell outside of America is: horrible, at least in Japan and Europe. I can't answer the Canada question either lol) as for Squeenix, well, they keep pumping out good to great games so I end up okay with them overall, but I don't understand their public business decisions. it's like they keep announcing their worst decisions and stuff that makes their company looks so bad, like they FREQUENTLY shit-talk their own games' sales. I really can't decide if what they're doing with FF7 remake is good in terms of artistry - as you said, it is going back to what got them here and letting the devs take their time and make what they want - or horrible in terms of artistry - it's just going back to FF7 again, and you may disagree because you love the game and I do not, but the end of Rebirth absolutely infuriated me along those lines

That's just the consequence for thousands of people supporting Bethesda's/ABK's acquisitions. That was their intention since the beginning: pay for the bigger dev studios + the IPs. They didn't care about the smaller ones. I'm surprised how I was mentioning this multiple times and people were saying I was a hater for expecting this terrible scenario. Congratulations to anyone that thought it was a great idea to support this terrible practice.

If another game never got made, there is enough out there that I will never run out of good jrpg's to play. Youtubers, speed through games to make more videos, I take my time and actually enjoy them.

Level-headed and informative, good stuff

I don't see what bearing Microsoft has on JRPGs, they have been a company whose not really had a lot of Japanese support outside Namco, Sega and Capcom until the recent addition of ff14 to the Xbox platform. The vast majority of JRPGs that come to console these days are on switch. Stuff like FF16 and Rebirth and to a lesser extent the souls titles are really outliers in the current JRPG landscape

Arkane Austin got axed because of the absolute disaster that is Redfall. It's a real shame since that studio once brought us Prey, however they had already lost over 70% of their leadership anyway.

Oh Branden, Even if you don’t talk about JRPGs mate I’ll be watching 🍻 The video game space is definitely a weird time right now, for me Nintendo is the best just pound for pound video game experiences for me right now (Which is quite rare for me since i’m a Sega kid turned Sony teen) but Sony haven’t released a a new IP for the PS5 that I really care about, and Xbox outside of Tales of Vesperia back in the day and now Hi Fi Rush, I’ve never been a Xbox guy purely for their lack of JRPGs