Andrew Bailey

Curious: Nintendo's initial reveal of the Switch 2 touted 4K, 120FPS, and VRR support. However, a notable change has been spotted on several of Nintendo's official regional websites: the removal of VRR mentions. Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie highlighted this on the Canadian, US, and Japanese sites. As of posting this, the European site still includes this feature at present, suggesting a potential ongoing update across all Nintendo platforms...

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We've been implementing Neural Texture compression in #Assassinscreedmirage. The overall benefit results in better quality textures for less GPU memory usage (links in the first comment). If you followed the topic since our GDC2024 presentation ,this a very practical application of La Forge's mission to bridge the academic world with Ubisoft. #ubisoft #ubisoftlaforge #innovation 👇 "If you've been thinking, like I have, that we're still some way off seeing AI being used in games for more than just upscaling or frame generation, then it's time to think again" (...) "Enter stage left, neural texture compression to cut down on that memory demand. Given the state of the DRAM and SSD market right now, you can bet your last dollar that a whole heap of game developers will be looking closely at what Ubisoft has done to see if it can help out in their games, too"

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The closure of Ubisoft Halifax and the layoffs at Rockstar are stark reminders of how quickly talent availability shifts. For Studio Heads, this is a signal to update your headcount planning immediately. When a studio closes, you have a window of about 2-3 weeks to engage pre-formed teams. These are groups of developers who already have shorthand, established workflows, and trust. If you have the budget, "acqui-hiring" a functional pod from a closing studio is one of the most efficient ways to scale. Don't wait for them to apply to your portal. You need to be proactive. #TalentStrategy #Hiring #GameJobs

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Games Industry Predictions for 2026 I want to share a set of personal predictions that reflect only my views and do not represent my employer, our community, or anyone else. These come from three years of our community’s data, insight from the 5,000 plus studios and partners connected to our network, and many polls and conversations with you. I am not putting hard numbers on most of these yet, but I am confident enough in the direction of these trends to offer these conclusions. In 2026 1. The velocity and magnitude of games hiring will continue to increase The recovery trend is real and accelerating. 2. Layoffs will remain in a similar magnitude ballpark to 2025 Stability will improve but not dramatically. 3. New entrants and attempted entrants will continue to accelerate Including graduates, lateral movers, and those laid off. 4. Early career pressure will remain extremely high I do not see entry challenges easing yet. 5. A rising share of laid off games professionals will find work outside games Despite point 1, the pressure of point 3 will still challenge point 1. 6. The share of open roles in North America and Western Europe will continue to decrease Opportunities will grow in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. 7. A greater share of total production load will continue shifting to external development and contractors Studios will rely on distributed talent more than ever. 8. The average individual’s purchase of full price AAA games will remain flat or decline Prices are challenging in a tough macroeconomic environment, and, particularly, long running series compete with their own cheaper older entries. 9. Indie games will remain the majority of top critical titles Independent creators will continue to shape many celebrated releases. 10. The share of roles in North America will diversify slightly away from the top five states and regions Cost pressures will keep reshaping hiring footprints. 11. Gaps in supply and demand for the most competitive fields like game design, writing, and narrative will get worse Openings remain tight while demand rises. 12. Placement rates will, relatively, improve for mid career professionals with 5-15 years of experience A few fields will remain heavily oversubscribed. I know this reads as a tough picture. It is tough. But I do not believe in most apocalyptic scenarios. I believe it will keep becoming a more globally employed sector with downward pressure on compensation as similar quality talent emerges at lower cost locations. Discoverability will get harder and creators will need to adapt to new influencer driven and socially driven paths for players to find their work. Opportunity will still come from democratized access and the ability for anyone to create something great. The biggest challenges will be at the AAA level where costs remain high. Many teams risk staying locked in a hit or miss survival cycle. I hope more teams break out of that cycle and experiment with new approaches.

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As a freelance rigger, I need to make sure my builds have a lot of flexibility. So I've recently reworked my lid modules to add variable joint counts. By utilizing a curve-based output I can changed the amount of joints used based on the needs of the project. Higher joint counts for fidelity and control, lower counts for simplicity and optimization. Or I can test and iterate to find a happy middle ground. So animators using my rigs on film or game projects can enjoy the same features, such as: - Automated lid follow with eye movement - Main controls to position the lids through translation and sculpt the curvature with rotation/scale  - Secondary controls for finer detail (If there are enough joints to support it) - Manual or automated blinking. Animate controls, or activate the automated meet point between your posed lids for a perfect seal I've been using iterations of this system over my last few projects, both commercials and games. The core elements of this system have been floating around in my head since 2018, so it's been great to finally put it to the test. 

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72% of devs believe Steam has a monopoly on PC games. Conducted by Atomik Research, 306 industry executives were surveyed across the UK and USA. 75% of respondents were senior managers or C-suite level, with 77% from studios with more than 50 employees. The study found that for most studios, Steam accounts for over 75% of revenue. In US law, you’d need to either control the production pipeline top to bottom, or hold a dominant share through acquisitions of competitors. Steam does neither. Valve hasn’t bought out rivals and it doesn’t own all the studios that make the games sold through its store. What it does own is competence, and that’s where this whole argument starts to fall apart. Almost every other storefront has had years to compete, and almost all have stumbled. This isn’t a case of Valve killing competition. The competition just keeps shooting itself in the foot. Steam spent years refining features that now define the PC ecosystem: cloud saves, remote play, Workshop mods, forums, reviews, refund policies, and Proton support for Linux users. It built hardware, an OS, and a handheld that all tie back into the same ecosystem. Most importantly, it kept the service stable, predictable, and user-focused. That level of reliability became its moat. What developers call a monopoly is often just a reflection of consumer trust. Steam is where people go because they know their games, progress, and friends will still be there in a decade. It’s not market manipulation it’s consistency. If studios think they “rely too heavily” on Steam, that says more about their alternatives than about Valve itself. No one forced them to abandon their own launchers or build weak ones. Consumers simply migrate to what works best for them. It’s worth remembering that monopolies aren’t defined by popularity or market share alone. A monopoly becomes illegal when it restrains competition. Steam hasn’t done that. It hasn’t blocked other stores, locked content, or acquired rivals. It just runs the best version of what everyone else keeps trying to make. The day someone builds a better, more reliable, more feature-rich service, Steam will finally have a real challenger. Until then, calling it a monopoly is just a way to avoid admitting the obvious: they aren’t trying to kill their competition. Their competition is almost non-existent.

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Layoffs, studio closures and cautious publishing pipelines have dominated headlines (and conversations at GDC this year). But behind the doomscrolling, the last 12 months have quietly seen billions of dollars flow into gaming from VCs, government programs, crowdfunding campaigns and corporate deals. 🎮 Venture funds are still backing early-stage devs. 🏛️ Governments are doubling down on creative sector grants. 💡 Accelerator programs are popping up globally. 💰 Crowdfunding is booming again (especially for tabletop and indie). 🤝 And the biggest publishers and platforms are still making big bets. That makes me optimistic. I’m not blind to the challenges but convinced that the next wave of breakout studios are already being built. Here’s a snapshot of recent funding and investments that caught my eye… Play Ventures – Fund III – $140M – Announced Nov 2024 Kickstarter – Games crowdfunded – $270M+ in 2024 BITKRAFT Ventures – Fund III target – $275M – Apr 2024 Griffin – Fund III target – $500M – Jun 2024 Transcend. – Fund II – $60M – Nov 2023 A16Z GAMES – Games Fund II – $600M – Apr 2024 a16z speedrun – Accelerator – $1M per startup – 2024–25 cohorts UK Games Fund – Grants up to £150k – £5.5M committed for 2025-26 Canada Media Fund – Game project grants – C$7.8M – Aug 2024 Creative Europe – Game development funding – €5M annual call Screen Australia – Indie game grants – AU$1.6M – Mar 2024 Saudi Arabia / Merak Capital – Exel by Merak – $81M fund – Nov 2024 Tencent Venture Lab – Indie support program – Ongoing Scopely acquires Niantic, Inc. - $3.5B - Mar 2025 Playtika acquires SuperPlay – $2B deal – 2024 EQT Group acquires Keywords Studios – $2.8B – 2024 Miniclip acquires Easybrain – $1.2B – 2024 CVC Capital acquires Jagex – $1.1B – 2024 Modern Times Group MTG AB acquires Plarium – $820M – 2024 Just in those points above that’s $13.5B and I’ve certainly missed a ton. If you're building, job searching or fundraising don’t lose heart! There’s capital out there and plenty of people still backing bold creative bets. 📧 joe@play.vc

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Following up on my previous post about using Modular Rig for simple environment animation, but this time focusing on a mechanical prop. This prop uses slightly more complex module than the previous one, and the results were honestly a bit surprising (in a good way). ➤ What worked well ✅ Moving beyond single-joint motion is doable, as long as the prop parts are spitted with animation in mind. ✅ Building a skeleton and painting skin weights directly in Unreal works well for this prop, which has a moderate complexity. ✅ Mechanical modules like Hinge and Piston are already well supported out of the box and easy to reason about. ➤ Where friction shows up ⚠️ This still isn’t a full DCC replacement. The quality of the result depends heavily on how well the asset is designed and segmented upfront. ➤ Bigger takeaway For me, this reinforced that Modular Rig lowers the barrier to keeping work entirely in-engine and expands what environment art and level design can include, especially for smaller projects where DCC round-trips aren’t available or are too costly. On top of that, it could potentially enable iteration to happen directly in the level. Still exploring, but I’m curious how others are thinking about where this kind of workflow fits into their pipelines. 🤔 #UnrealEngine #UE5 #TechnicalAnimation #GameDev #TechnicalArt #LevelDesign #ControlRig #AnimationPipeline

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I've seen people talk about the "deprofessionalization" of game dev - that large game companies are becoming unsustainable and that smaller and indie devs are going to rule the market. Not that long ago, people were complaining about the reverse. The problem then was that all the smaller game companies were dying off and game dev was becoming "winner takes all". All the smaller companies were closing and everyone was going to have to go work at large mega corps. The return of smaller game studios can be a good thing, both for work, as well as the games created. more people taking more risks means more innovation and more "weird" games instead of only safe bets. Don't stress, the pendulum is just swinging back the other way.

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After an exhilarating 60 hours at GDC—walking meetings, mixers, and running between the St. Regis and Intercontinental—here are a few trends I’m particularly bullish on: 𝗨𝗚𝗖 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: Platforms like Roblox, GTA, Steam, and Mobile are shifting engagement away from traditional influencers. #UGC items and rewards are driving deeper, lower-funnel actions, providing brands with better measurement and attribution. 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗼𝘅 𝗮𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗜𝗣 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲: Over the next decade, Roblox could become the leading source of new IP. But with that comes legal and ownership challenges that brands and developers must navigate. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 "𝗣𝗵𝘆𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹" 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲: Selling digital and physical products simultaneously is becoming seamless. Expect more brands to integrate in-game purchases with real-world commerce. 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺: With its new Social SDK, Discord is cementing itself as the backbone of in-game communities. Developers can now integrate features like voice chat and rich presence directly into their games—creating deeper engagement and new brand opportunities. 𝗠𝗶𝗱-𝗧𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝘀 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: AAA isn’t leading the pack anymore—small and mid-sized studios are. A growing ecosystem of support developers is helping them scale and succeed. 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗖𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗕𝘂𝘆: The fight for attention is real. Gaming is one of the few spaces where people are truly engaged. Brands that aren’t increasing spend here will be left behind. It was awesome running into both old and new friends at #GDC! I failed to get many photos, but I did manage to snap one with two LinkedIn superstars—Christopher Anjos🎗️➡️ GDC and Simon Pulman 🔜 SXSW/GDC. More importantly, I truly enjoyed the IRL conversations and the chance to exchange ideas on where gaming is headed. Excited to keep pushing the industry forward and find new opportunities to collaborate. Let’s keep the momentum going! 🚀🎮 UGC, gaming, and data-driven strategies aren’t just trends—they’re reshaping the future of brand engagement. The brands that get this now will win.

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Microsoft should spin off Xbox—before it’s too late. If Bloomberg reporting is accurate about the fourth round of layoffs in the last 18 months, its time to face reality, Xbox has lost this generation: Game Pass failed to hit scale. Hardware share is collapsing. Software share is worse. And the strategic value to Microsoft? Almost nonexistent. Let’s break it down: 🎯Game Pass missed the mark. Still under 40M subs—nowhere near the 100M target. Subscriptions don’t fit gaming like they do TV. Most gamers play a few select titles. Heavy users subscribe, then buy fewer games. That’s not sustainable. 🎯Hardware share is cratering. By end of 2025, Xbox is projected to hold <30% of the console market vs. Sony. And by cycle end, Sony will have sold 4x as many consoles. 🎯 Software is the real red flag. Microsoft’s share of console software vs Sony is expected to fall to just 14% in 2025—thanks to subscription cannibalization and declining 3rd-party sales. That’s disastrous, given the margins on software royalties. 🎯Cloud gaming? It’s a feature on the box, not a strategy. Not expanding the market. Not removing friction. 🎯Cross-platform promise broken. Xbox on mobile makes for nice PR—but it’s not what gamers actually care about. 🎯AI won’t save Xbox. Gaming doesn’t move Microsoft’s AI agenda. And the suggestion of using Xbox player data to train models is a privacy minefield—not to mention, there’s no evidence they’re doing it. Satya Nadella has likely already asked the question: Why are we still in gaming? The solution is clear: Spin off Xbox. 🎯 Let it become an independent company built to compete head-on with Sony and Nintendo. 🔄 Sunset Game Pass in favor of a lighter, online-focused sub. 🎮 Recommit to exclusives for majority of franchises. Offer differentiated Xbox experiences—especially for big brands like Call of Duty. 🔧 Kill Series S. Focus on efficient, scalable first party hardware and license to 3rd parties. 📈 Go public. A standalone Xbox would be another major, pure-play gaming company on public markets in the West. 🧠 Bring in real leadership. People like Frank Gibeau or Owen Mahoney who know how to run big public companies and know gaming. Spinning off Xbox frees it from Microsoft’s broader tech and AI agenda—enabling faster, more gaming focused decision-making. It could even pursue bold M&A moves. The alternative—keeping Xbox at Microsoft—avoids the short-term pain of a major reorg and strategic pivot, but it also guarantees a slow, quiet decline and a slow destruction of teams and franchises. It trades disruption for complacency, and that path leads straight to death by a thousand cuts. #Xbox #GamingStrategy #Microsoft #SpinOff #GamingIndustry #MergersAndAcquisitions #Innovation

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Looking into getting into iGaming in Canada? The rules are changing and I'm in the trenches of so many new movements across the country. Want to know more? DM me! Canada’s New Interactive Digital Media Rules, Why iGaming Should Pay Attention On March 1, 2024, Canada quietly introduced major policy changes under the Investment Canada Act (ICA) that could reshape the future of iGaming. These new rules expand the definition of Interactive Digital Media (IDM) to include online casino games, poker, esports betting, social casino, and other interactive platforms. That means iGaming is now firmly within Canada’s “cultural business” category, triggering much lower thresholds for foreign investment review and much higher scrutiny when foreign-controlled capital is involved. Why this matters now: Ontario’s iGaming market has exploded, $200B in wagers and an $8B industry in just three years. As the sector grows, the Government of Canada is signalling it wants more Canadian control, Canadian IP, and safeguards against “hostile” foreign influence. Key takeaways for iGaming: ⚡ Lower review thresholds mean even smaller deals can trigger ICA reviews. ⚡ National security risk factors now include online chat, streaming, and in-game purchases, all common in iGaming platforms. ⚡ Canadian-first IP and governance will be critical to passing “net benefit” reviews. ⚡ Smaller studios and startups that rely on foreign funding may face new barriers unless they structure deals carefully. In an $8B market that is still expanding, these policies aren’t just a regulatory footnote, they’re a playbook shift. If you’re an operator, supplier, or investor in Canada’s iGaming ecosystem, it’s time to assess your structure, partnerships, and compliance approach before the next big move. Things are about to change! #iGaming #Canada #InvestmentCanadaAct #InteractiveDigitalMedia #OntarioGaming #CanadianTech #DigitalEconomy #casino #onlinecasino https://lnkd.in/gf8ByT8v

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