Today, one day after Microsoft announced that it would shut down four of its games studios, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, held a town hall to discuss the division’s future goals. “We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards,” Booty told employees, according to internal remarks shared with The Verge.
For some listeners on the call, it was a surprising goal: Microsoft had just shut down the Japanese developer Tango Gameworks, which was coming off the small, prestigious hit title Hi-Fi Rush.
Hi-Fi Rush, which was a surprise release last year, was praised for its innovation and charm. The rhythm action game featured music by The Black Keys and Nine Inch Nails, with an art style that evoked the hyper-stylized games of the PS2 era. Just four months after its release, Hi-Fi Rush hit 3 million players. During the 2023–2024 awards season, the game went on to win a Game Award, a Game Developers Choice award, and a BAFTA.
Yeah, and it’s currently in a weird form of limbo, so I’m hesitating a bit in asking my favorite creators to support it.
Basically:
So, who knows what’s going to happen to Odysee. It seems they’re getting new owners, and they have a non-crypto fee chart, and hopefully that doesn’t change much because it seems pretty reasonable (creators get like 90% of the money paid for subscriptions, tips, etc).
Nebula seems more stable, so I’m starting there, but I’m guessing it’s easier to get creators to upload to Odysee than to join Nebula. We’ll see though. I’m hopeful that Odysee will come out of it as a stable service, because I’d be totally down to send my favorite creators some money through it.