This sort of thing is mega-codified these days, turnkey as it were; he hasn't bit the bullet yet, but he's taking it so Goddamn serious that he's begun requesting fit checks from electronical strangers.
I didn't actually pay for a coach but I sure could use some advice! I play tank, Rein and Ram and I am a silver player but would like to get better. Gonna drop a few replays here and if any of you guys want to help an old man improve please do. N1J8YT NVZE6B HN720N
— Gabe (@cwgabriel.bsky.social) February 23, 2026 at 9:37 AM
Can you help? Last time I talked to him he was going on about Natural Cover and dropping wizened takes on Support Philosophy. If I couldn't hang with him before, I'll never be able to hang with this Sun Tzu-ass motherfucker now. The best I could do to help him win is to not join his team. Queued opposite could deliver superior results - but there are technical hurdles to consider.
In other news, if I had to guess, I think it's more likely that Phil Spencer said "no" one too many times than he decided it was time to retire after shepherding the densest consolidation of videogame energy ever amassed in history. That strikes me as unlikely. Sara Bond was the president of Xbox, and she's gone too - except there's no "passing the torch" style social media salvo to accompany her. I find arguments that corporations constitute a kind of person some combination of specious and dangerous, but perhaps we may find common ground on this much: Xbox was decapitated.
I also think it's odd to replace Phil with somebody who has no industry experience, unless that person's AI focus is the point, or if she is only there to be destroyed. Now I'm hearing weird shit I don't believe, like they want to spin out gaming entirely, but then spending seventy billion dollars to figure out that you don't actually like games is also a wild ride. Imagine gestating an Embracer Group situation inside your own company, and then firing the only guy who even remembers all the stuff you bought.
This is why you can't rubberstamp these draconic mergers. I'm satisfied that it's wrong purely on aesthetic grounds, but then, wouldn't I just? But no. The reason you can't do it has to do with eggs and baskets and what ratio of your total eggs should go into each one. As above, so below; it's no less true at a different level of magnification. When a company puts their best liars on the document meant to prove it's a good idea, you should roundfile it. You should start by assuming it's an incredibly bad idea, and that they're gonna throw their new toy right out of the pram the second they get tired of it. We aren't allowed any kind of inoculation from power. Now we just wait for the blastwave.
(CW)TB out.
