| ▲ | mjr00 3 hours ago | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> - The make around 5 billion in revenue per quarter - The problem according to them is profit margin - around 150-160 million > So first of all, they are big! Secondly they are not at a loss. They just have a "thin, non-growing margin". So to fix all this they are trimming down, so they can "return to growth" (which I think is ridiculous). How is that profit margin distributed though? King (Candy Crush etc) and Mojang (Minecraft) are specifically called out as money-makers, it's possible that they're carrying the majority of profits while everything else is a dud: > We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As an example, Double Fine (one of the studios being chopped) has released 2 games since 2021, Keeper (191 peak player count on steam) and Kiln (163 peak players); these would be flops even for a normal indie game, for a studio getting Microsoft salaries those are enormous flops. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | tracker1 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On the margins, that's crazy thin for the size of the org... One bad quarter could turn from a few million in profits to hundreds of millions in losses. It's too close, and there's no way to build/store funds for any kind of storm at that level. Now, I think the vast majority of the pain is more than self-inflicted... I think actual business, marketing and focus need to start taking priority over idealistic political PoV. Let the games target their natural audiences and have the broadest appeal... at a certain point, trying to gain 1% of audience means alienating 25% or more. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | egypturnash 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Keeper needs an optimization pass so badly. Once I finished the first zone the framerate dropped to the floor on my Steam Deck. Presumably it runs okay on the current XBox, but it sure feels like Double Fine's attention has moved on and will never return. Absolutely drop-dead gorgeous but I don't think I am going to ever finish it until I get a Deck 3/4 in like 5-7 years. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | alexp2021 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Really 191 players or 191k players? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | johnnyanmac an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>Double Fine (one of the studios being chopped) has released 2 games since 2021, Keeper (191 peak player count on steam) and Kiln (163 peak players); these would be flops even for a normal indie game, for a studio getting Microsoft salaries those are enormous flops. Hard to really say. Kiln and Keeper can easily be made up for by the sales of Psychonauts 2. I'm sure an indie Double Fine would not have been able to make those kinds of games. This takes me back to Pertinent, another small game from a reputable studio, had its main writer saying that "this kind of game would not be possible without Gamepass". Which I 100% believe. Microsoft definitely didn't buy Double Fine trying to make the next Fortnite, but that arthouse strategy clearly isn't a factor these days. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||