Defining Duke, Episode 234 | It's Happening AGAIN - More Xbox Layoffs Inbound... (Patreon)

It was supposed to be a slow news week, so naturally we talked for almost four hours on the latest in gaming. Heading up our show is a recurrent subject: layoffs at Xbox. Despite Phil's claims about a sustainable business, the cuts keep coming. Of course, that leaves us in a bit of a pickle. What parts of Xbox business are faltering? We're about a year removed from last year where Xbox began shutting down multiple teams, so it's not a far cry to say we may be approaching that point. We haven't seen Game Pass numbers in a hot minute, titles like South Of Midnight and Hellblade 2 have questionable sales at best, and the green team is all but officially confirmed to be out on physical games. So, which is it, if any? We gab quite a bit before leaving it to next week where we'll get official confirmation. Plus, Xbox integrating other PC storefronts into their app, righting the record on Final Fantasy XVI, diving into Lies Of P sales figures, and so much more in what was an unexpectedly meaty (oh!) episode of Defining Duke.Timestamps:

0:00:00 - Intro

0:16:24 - Health Is Wealth

0:32:22 - Correcting FF16 information from last week

0:41:52 - A new Halo game is releasing… kinda

0:54:16 - Meta Quest 3S Xbox Edition announced

1:01:46 - SEGA sales data leaks

1:14:08 - Persona 4 Revival & Stranger Than Heaven release info

1:17:35 - Blood Of Dawnwalker Gameplay deep dive

1:22:58 - Cyberpunk 2077 update 2.3 has been delayed

1:27:54 - Layoffs headed for Mindseye developer

1:40:01 - Blood Message reveal reaction

1:43:03 - Rematch devs respond to crossplay issues

1:48:34 - Third party Switch 2 sales below estimates

1:59:03 - Splitgate 2 devs face layoffs

2:12:25 - Lies Of P difficulty settings

2:23:24 - What We’re Playing

3:08:15 - Major Xbox layoffs inbound

3:33:13 - Steam library comes to Xbox PC App

3:45:03 - Game Pass Pick Of The Week