At Microsoft Xbox, the new financial year has got off to a bad start. 3,200 jobs are set to be cut, half of them with immediate effect. Elsewhere, however, there is cause for hope: African studios can look forward to two funding programmes.
The radical restructuring at Xbox, dear readers,
has begun. Today alone, 1,600 jobs have been cut. A further 1,600 are set to be cut by the end of June 2027 – that is, by the end of Microsoft’s financial year, which has only just begun. It may well be that this step is economically necessary. It may be that the numerous acquisitions have turned Microsoft Xbox into a cumbersome tanker that struggles to keep up in the agile games industry, and that it is time to streamline the group.
However, I sincerely hope that, amidst all this ‘we’re restructuring the company’ talk, Xbox does not retreat once again entirely to the role of a platform on which only other companies’ games are marketed. Microsoft has tried this once before and failed miserably. After all, software sells hardware, and any hardware manufacturer without its own software must either, like Apple or Google, not be reliant on game sales, or it simply cannot generate the purchasing impetus for its own platform.
Here are the news of the day!
Your Stephan Steininger
"There are a few ways to look at it, but none of them are particularly friendly for consumers"; we talked to Stop Killing Games Founder Ross Scott about Sony's decision to axe PlayStation disc production and what that means for the initiative.
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by Pascal Wagner
From emergency contacts to party guides, tips for traveling in Cologne and information for trade visitors and exhibitors: Learn everything there is to know about being at gamescom on our big service portal.
With detailed data on the mobile gaming market, game has further refined its market data for 2025, this time focusing on mobile games. The segment is a booming sector, as a long-term analysis also shows, and is dominated by in-game purchases.
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by Stephan Steininger
Subscribers to GamesMarkt have access to our extensive archive of GM+ content, including articles, interviews and background articles, as well as electronic versions of our print editions. Here are three examples from the archive:
The fact that the EU Commission is not currently considering legal changes to the Stop Killing Games initiative does not mean game publishers can do anything they want. IT Law specialist Sandra Spensberger explains the practical implications in her monthly GamesMarket column.
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by Sandra Spensberger
As announced, the new head of Xbox is turning Microsoft’s console unit on its head. 3,200 jobs are to be cut, 1,600 of them with immediate effect. Compulsion Games and Double Fine are being spun off via a MBO, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are to be sold, and Arkane is working on a solution.
(Read more...)
Following in Google’s footsteps, Supercell has now also announced a programme to support studios in Africa. In its first cohort, Supercell plans to provide grants of between 20,000 and 200,000 dollars to companies.
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For the first time, Google is launching the Google Play Indie Games Fund in Africa, a support programme for indie studios from Africa. In total, Google plans to invest $1 million in ten studios.
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Never have a dull evening at gamescom 2026 with our party guide: Every sundown event, from Sunday to Sunday.
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Here's the German Disco Elysium: SWR X Lab and Paintbucket Games have revealed their Babylon Berlin game A Night in Moka Efti, a narrative psychological thriller RPG. It will release in September.
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From 2028 onwards, the PlayStation Store is expected to cover the entire market for new releases on the PS5, but the Sony Store charts are already showing clear trends – namely, a change at the top in June.
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Madeleine Egger
06.07. - 23.08.2026: Esports World Cup (Paris)
10.07.2026: Gamestate Festival BW (Karlsruhe)
14.07. - 16.07.2026: Develop (Brighton)
17.07. - 19.07.2026: MagicCon Amsterdam (Amsterdam)
17.07. - 19.07.2026: Southeast Game Exchange (Greenville, SC, USA)
19.07. - 23.07.2026: Siggraph 2026 (Los Angeles)
22.07. - 23.07.2026: GDD - GermanDevDays - 2026 (Frankfurt am Main)
31.07. - 03.08.2026: ChinaJoy (Shanghai)
05.08. - 07.08.2026: Serious Play Conference (Durham/USA)
23.08. - 25.08.2026: gamescom dev (Cologne)
25.08.2026: gamescom opening night live - tbc - (Cologne/Stream)
26.08. - 30.08.2026: gamescom (Cologne)
27.08.2026: gamescom congress (Cologne)
Find more events in our GamesMarket calendar.
