Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Why We're Boycotting Xbox (and Maybe You Should Too) (Patreon)

Published:
2025-12-18 16:12:22
Imported:
2026-10
Tags:

Content

Two years ago, we worked with Tamoor Hussain to publish a video titled 'The Games Industry Must Not Stay Silent on Palestine', where he called for all of us to do more to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as the bombing had just begun.I don't need to tell you what's happened to Gaza since then, but we thought now might be a good time to check back in with this relationship between video games and Palestine to find out what has changed. This is an especially important moment because of a boycott that has since be called against Xbox from the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.In order to understand why Microsoft and Xbox are being targeted in this way, I traveled to Middenmeer in North Holland to see something really important for myself. In fact, that's where our documentary opens.Despite the topic, there's a lot of hope kicking about in this video, thanks to the actions being taken by people across the world, including game developers. And if you stick with me for 40 minutes, I hope you'll leave this video better informed on the boycott and its aims, but also, with some tangible actions you can take right now to push for a more humane world for the people of Palestine.Thanks for watching!

Files

The Xbox Boycott (Still) Matters

Chris investigates the Palestinian-led Xbox Boycott and how it's already secured a major victory against one of the largest corporations on the planet. Pledge your support for the boycott here: https://nogamesforgenocide.com/ Find out more about BDS: https://bdsmovement.net/ Help fund PMG on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/PeopleMakeGames Created by Chris Bratt: https://bsky.app/profile/chrisbratt.bsky.social And Anni Sayers, who doesn't use social media. Stock footage: Getty Images, Reuters Music & SFX: Epidemic Sound 00:00 - It's a platform that's a weapon, no less than that. 09:31 - What is the Xbox boycott? 14:51 - How a boycott like this can beat Microsoft 17:41 - Two years on, has the games industry stood up for Palestine? 23:30 - How a group of Arkane Lyon game devs made a difference 30:27 - Why is the boycott still happening? 33:44 - We have a responsibility to believe things can change 37:39 - Outro credits

Comments

Sir_Racer

I have boycotted Microsoft completely in my private life. I have never had an Xbox or ever wanted Game Pass, but I have bought a lot of their games before, plus I only ever used Windows as my OS. Managed to switch to Linux earlier this year, and I have no intention of using or buying any of their services as far as is possible. It is not possible in my work-life where Windows is mandatory on all the work laptops.

Kerry Palmer

Been boycotting them for basically this whole year (and limiting work use where possible), so stoked to hear you all speak out on why this is important ❤️ keep up the incredible work 🥳

UwUwizard

Truly top tier reporting, PMG. Thank you so much for covering this 💙💙

UwUwizard

I'm looking to migrate to Linux too atm. I mostly use apple but have a win10 partition for games on my iMac. any recommendations on stuff that helped you with making the change?

Benjamin Lawlor

Cancelled my Game pass sub a few months ago and have stopped using my XBOX almost entirely. Ever small act adds up. Saoirse don Phalaistín!

Andrew Ferguson (DominateEye)

Glad to see this. I tried leaving comments about this when Outside Xbox/Xtra had Xbox as a sponsor for Hallowstream, but my comments kept getting deleted. I wasn't necessarily surprised; the Gamer Network channels aren't independent (especially not now that they're owned by IGN) so someone probably had instructions to preserve the business relationship, but it was still disappointing. I know PMG has nothing to do with Gamer Network, but I still associate Chris and PMG with that circle, and it's nice to see this in contrast to what I saw with Oxboxtra.

Matus Chochlik

I've been using (and playing games on) Linux since 2010 and all my home computers run Linux. Honestly today the switch should be pretty painless. Choose one of the mainline distributions like Ubuntu and you should be fine. You can find alternatives for most windows apps, if you really need to keep using some Win-only apps, have a look at the Wine project (allows to run thousands of Win apps natively on Linux). Things like Steam and most games on Steam just run out of the box and are pretty stable (for example Cyberpunk 2077 crashed on me for the first time after more than 100h of playing).

Tal Liron

I'm no fan of Microsoft, but this is so, so misguided and full of a false sense of self-importance. Boycotting the gaming division of a company. That also has a data storage division. That was used by the IDF. As far as you know, that data could have nothing to do with Palestnians or Palestine or any military intelligence. (I would be shocked if the IDF stores intelligence data on 3rd-party clouds.) As you point out, the IDF immediately switched to Amazon when Microsoft backed off. And this while you probably support online privacy, so that storage companies don't have a right to peer into your data. The IDF could have easily used Mega.nz, NordLocker, etc., and they probably do. And do you ask where Hamas stores its data? I wouldn't be surprised if they also have some on Microsoft Azure. And this is done in support of BDS, which is already a problematic effort. Wholesale, blanket boycotting of scientific research funding, cultural events and production, sports teams, products made by Israeli citizens, etc. So you can feel like you are being a "hero". Being a hero by *not* spending money? What a great deal! I'm old enough to remember when Paul Simon "broke" the cultural boycott on South Africa to produce his Graceland album. He got a lot of flak for it at the time, but he was so, so right. His project opened doors, built bridges, and supported actual South Africans and their culture. Blanket boycotts of an entire country are counterproductive, not only in hurting innocent people, but specifically in hurting people that could be helping to make the world a better place. Isn't that the mission? And would you also support a boycott of Palestinian goods where the money might be flowing to a brutal, terror-embracing, fundamentalist Islamic organization named Hamas? You don't even go there because that doesn't fit the smug, simple narrative about innocent children being oppressed by an evil colonial state. Not buying an Xbox is "activism" in 2025. I've supported you for a long time on Patreon, but that ends now. You've relinquished the mission, let alone any sense of journalistic integrity. You've done such great work in the past! One of my favorite examples is your coverage of the Disco Elysium saga. There, you went to highly appreciated, extraordinary efforts to take all perspectives into account, even from those who you could not interview. But all of that was forgotten when you purposely gave a one-sided soapbox to Tamoor Hussain in a video brimming with dangerous falsehoods. You did not seek "other perspectives". And that was fresh after October 7, when more than a thousand Israelis of all ages were brutally murdered, raped, tortured, with many still in captivity. To which you gave quick lip service but then "moved on", because it's not like what happens to Israelis might affect what they think and do. No, no connection there. Of course if you actually interviewed Israeli peace activists and supporters of Palestinian rights you would get some perspective on how October 7 affected them and their mission. In Disco Elysium, every perspective mattered, had nuance, subtlety, and was worthy of consideration. But, again, let's ignore what doesn't fit our narrative. I gave you a pass on the Tamoor Hussain video because I was convinced that your heart was in the right place. But over time the harm your narrative causes becomes more apparent. Calling Israel an "apartheid" and "genocide" state is not just incorrect, it's harmful. To be clear—and sad that I have to make it clear—I am opposed to Israeli actions in Palestine. But there is a direct line of cause and effect from comparing Israel and its actions to the *actual* apartheid in South Africa and *actual* genocide by Nazi Germany to events like Bondi Beach, Australia. You preposterously think you're saving the children by not buying an Xbox. Meanwhile you're actually providing free fuel to the global rise in anti-semitism.

People Make Games

Hi Tal, I'm going to keep my reply reasonably short here as I don't think I'm going to be able to change your mind here and I remember we had a long back and forth in the comments section of our first video about Palestine in 2023. Since we last spoke and since you last criticized the way in which we covered this topic on PMG, a further 60,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military. It's hard to know what to type here if that hasn't shaken your own views on what's happening. As I'm sure you know, I'm not the only person who has used the words "apartheid" and "genocide" to describe what's happening to the Palestinian people. These words have also been used by the South African government as they filed their case with the International Court of Justice against Israel for crimes against humanity. Outside of that, the word genocide has also been used by the United Nations Human Right Council, Genocide Watch, Amnesty International, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Human Right Watch, Médecins Sans Frontières, Jewish Voice For Peace, B'Tselem & Physicians for Human Rights–Israel amongst many others. Again, I don't expect to change your mind with this comment and I'm sorry we see this tragedy in such vastly different ways.

trem_low

Better to signal virtue than live in vice. From the river to the sea.

Tal Liron

(This is a reply to the comment below from PMG. It seems Patreon lists replies in reverse order!) I'm equally sorry that you think boycotting Xbox (?!) is the way to make this better for anybody. And sorry that you don't seem to care about anti-semitism and your role in helping it. But I'm mostly sorry that you've decided to not do journalism and instead use your channel, which was built on journalism and the mission to give voice to voiceless, to promote a politics that is anti-voice. Flinging the words "apartheid", "genocide", "war crimes", and even "fascism" has been compelling and useful to so many propaganda efforts. It's so prevalent that anybody at war accuses the other side of this. All the organizations and countries you mention have their agendas to promote and reasons to use these words. Real journalism would involve painstakingly look into what they are. But that's too hard to do! Death counts are horrific but not necessary markers of any of these things. Perhaps 700,000 Ukrainians died in their war. Genocide? And perhaps more than 1,000,000 Russians. Genocide? You've lost me, but you can still save your channel by going back to your mission. Double down on it. Investigate with a clear head instead of indulging in rage and letting yourself be so blatantly manipulated. And then you might avoid the sheer ridiculousness into which you've plummeted: Boycott Xbox for peace. Indeed.

A S

When PMG started, I could occasionally get my 8-year-old to sit through one of your videos about gaming esoterica (the queen's golden Wii was a particular hit in our family). Now it's 2025, and my 15-year-old is watching PMG because it informs his views and decisions about morality, humanity, and games. Thanks for that.

Kieran Chakravorty

In an era where we all have to be careful where our money goes I don't believe I can support PMG any longer. What's happening in Palestine is a total tragedy, but I don't support PMG to cover international conflicts. The Disco Elysium and Rockstar stories are great examples of what makes you great, along with the interesting Fallout LARP and such, but you're not war reporters. Although this isn't reporting, this is a self-righteous fundraiser. As a side note, this isn't the big deal you think it is. If you truly want to know about cloud storage and surveillance then start with the EFF as well as the Cloud Act and go from there. Also the USA has openly backed Israel for decades so I'm not sure this is even news. I wish you all good luck, your great people with big hearts. I just don't want to allocate any of my funds to this.

Netcup

This is such an important video, while it is unfortunate that games, which so many of us use as a getaway, as a distraction, as a relaxing fun experience, are tied into these events, we do live in a world where everything is more connected than ever. And the same companies that employ so many great people working hard to give us amazing games can also be profiting of absolutely criminal behaviour exploiting victims of war and occupation. The idea of millions of calls, of an entire country, being stored in some data centre for ai to help determine who and where to bomb, it's dystopian and gut wrenching, (as is of course any ongoing or past genocide). At the end of the day it seems companies only speak money and so we have to speak in the same terms, boycotts do work, and it's up to us to be the change we want to see in the world. Thank you PMG team for not being afraid of tackling these issues which superficially seem to be distant from our games world but are in fact financially, and by extension humanly, tied to it. P.S (I wanted to support PMG for a while, and now that I'm financially able, after the great Rockstar union videos this was the one that solidified my definitive contribution)

AndreGG

It's interesting that people are debating the "wording" and the "terms" but not the facts that a ton of people are being killed. It's interesting where your focus is, on optics, on meaning, and not on the ton of people killed.

KettLs

As with the Rockstar docs and your previous piece with Tamoorh, this is absolutely stellar journalism that is so sadly lacking in the Games space. Despite all the practised propagandising of certain presumably ex-Patrons here, we all know that BDS works and although the means aren't perfect, we can all make a difference. Well bloody done.

Flaming_Kaiser

But they cant do anything about you filming there you are not on their terrain.

Flaming_Kaiser

The only way these corporations care if they lose money.