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GI Podcast | Call of Duty, Game Pass, and the Mario movie
Microsoft is fundamentally restructuring its Xbox Game Pass strategy, pivoting away from the aggressive "Netflix for games" model toward a more sustainable financial framework.
- Microsoft is restructuring Xbox Game Pass to move away from a 'Netflix for games' model toward a tiered, segmented strategy that restricts day-one access to protect revenue for high-budget titles.
- The release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 caused a 71 percent surge in monthly active users, but engagement levels quickly reverted to historical baselines, indicating that the franchise's core audience does not drive long-term subscription growth.
- Gaming studios are increasingly pivoting toward Hollywood adaptations, driven by the box office success of franchises like Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, and are now scouting platforms like Roblox for future cinematic IP.
🚨📢 BREAKING NEWS: Microsoft changes Game Pass, Roblox goes over 3K headcount, Ubisoft as usual :/
This analysis covers significant industry shifts and corporate developments occurring in the gaming sector during the second quarter of 2026.
- Microsoft has adjusted its Game Pass strategy by lowering subscription prices and delaying the release of Call of Duty titles until one year after their initial launch.
- Roblox reported a 36% year-over-year revenue increase to nearly $5 billion and expanded its full-time workforce by 24% to over 3,000 employees.
- Ubisoft continues to implement cost-cutting measures, most recently resulting in the cancellation of its life-simulation project, Altera.
The story of Samson: The buggy GTA-style game that just had to launch this month
The global gaming industry is currently navigating a period of significant structural recalibration, characterized by shifting subscription models and volatile market performance.
- The gaming industry is undergoing structural recalibration, evidenced by a 5% increase in U.S. consumer spending and a 69% surge in U.K. hardware sales driven by anticipation for the Nintendo Switch 2.
- Major industry players are adjusting strategies, such as Xbox reducing Game Pass pricing by 23% and delaying the inclusion of flagship titles like Call of Duty.
- The open-world title Samson highlights the risks of independent production, as Liquid Swords was forced to pivot to a self-publishing model in 2025 due to a lack of publisher funding.
🎲Dicero: Habby’s biggest bet (And biggest risk?)
Habby is undergoing a fundamental strategic transition, moving away from the hypercasual-adjacent success of titles like Survivor.io toward a more complex, midcore model exemplified by its latest release, Dicero.
- Habby is pivoting from hypercasual-adjacent titles like Survivor.io to a midcore model with Dicero, characterized by complex gacha mechanics, tiered evolution, and a slower-paced merging economy.
- The studio has abandoned rewarded advertisements in favor of a direct-to-consumer web store and high-intent monetization, marking a fundamental shift in its revenue strategy.
- Habby is currently facing its lowest revenue and download figures in recent history, casting doubt on whether its new, more complex gameplay can achieve the same market penetration as previous hits.
Apple's undercooked games efforts, Google's big AI claims, Ilkka's BAFTA speech, data, jobs, more
The mobile games industry is currently navigating a period of significant transition, marked by shifting leadership at major platform holders, the pervasive yet often clandestine integration of artificial intelligence, and the ongoing evolution of indie development.
- Google Cloud's games division reports that approximately 90% of game studios are currently using AI tools in development, though many studios underreport this usage to avoid public backlash.
- Apple's leadership under Tim Cook has historically shown disinterest in the gaming sector, exemplified by the perfunctory nature of the Apple Games app and Cook's own admission of not being a gamer during the Epic trial.
- Leadership changes at Apple, including the promotion of John Ternus and new App Store management under Carson Oliver and Anne Thai, may signal a shift toward better developer relations and increased focus on gaming hardware.
UA Monthly #3: Freecash Ban, Unity Kills ironSource & Vector’s Rise
The recent deplatforming of the rewarded ad network Freecash underscores a critical shift in the mobile user acquisition landscape, signaling that app stores are increasingly intolerant of aggressive, non-native incentive models.
- The deplatforming of Freecash signals that app stores are increasingly penalizing aggressive, non-native incentive models and deceptive affiliate marketing practices.
- Advertisers should treat rewarded traffic as a transient resource and diversify spending away from high-risk, single-network dependencies to mitigate performance decay.
- Unity is pivoting its advertising strategy toward the Vector AI solution following the integration of ironSource, though current performance metrics remain inconsistent.
The Vampire Survivors developer is opening studios and making over 15 projects
Poncle, the developer behind the hit title Vampire Survivors, is currently undergoing a significant strategic expansion.
- Poncle is scaling from a solo-developer origin into a decentralized federation of small, agile teams currently managing over 15 active development projects.
- The studio is expanding its physical footprint beyond the United Kingdom by establishing new offices in Italy and Japan to facilitate better collaboration with local stakeholders.
- Vampire Survivors has reached a global player base of over 27 million, providing the resources to fund a diverse portfolio of new genre experiments, including card games.
🕹️ Playable ads are the most underused growth lever right now
Playable ads represent a critical, underutilized growth lever within the mobile gaming and application sectors, serving as a primary driver for high-quality user acquisition.
- Playable ads are currently the most effective, underutilized growth lever for mobile user acquisition, moving beyond gaming into non-gaming app onboarding.
- Success in playable advertising is driven by high-volume creative iteration rather than the pursuit of individual asset perfection.
- Developers are increasingly adopting a 'plus one' strategy, borrowing and iterating on proven mechanics from successful titles like Township and Pizza Ready to lower customer acquisition costs.
The Prosperous Society, Part 3: The Collapse of the Pareto Principle
The traditional dominance of the Pareto Principle in commerce is undergoing a fundamental collapse as artificial intelligence dismantles the industrial constraints that once necessitated mass-market homogeneity.
- AI-driven personalization is dismantling the Pareto Principle by removing the industrial constraints that previously forced firms to prioritize mass-market homogeneity over niche preferences.
- The shift from standardized production to precision demand routing allows firms to profitably serve idiosyncratic consumer segments that were previously commercially unviable.
- Economic value is being unlocked through improved matching efficiency between specialized supply and individual demand, moving the market away from synthetic demand creation.
Beyond Almedia’s Freecash Ban: What’s up, REWARDED UA?
The rewarded user acquisition sector is currently navigating a critical period of transition following the removal of major platforms like Freecash from the Apple and Google app stores.
- Apple and Google removed the rewarded UA platform Freecash from their app stores due to concerns over misleading advertising practices and sensitive data handling.
- The rewarded UA model is shifting from simple 'install and delete' mechanics to a focus on long-term engagement, play, and monetization.
- Advertisers in the rewarded space often face challenges with profitability, as some top-tier games like Monopoly Go may pay $15–$25 per user, making it difficult to recoup costs within a one-year window.
Building AI Tools for Roblox Creators
Lemonade functions as a specialized AI-powered coding agent designed to democratize game development within the Roblox ecosystem.
- The platform utilizes a complex layer of agents and routers to deconstruct user intent, addressing the challenge that young creators often struggle to articulate technical requirements through traditional prompting.
- Lemonade prioritizes a robust evaluation (evals) framework over post-training, allowing the company to rapidly swap underlying AI models as technology improves without sacrificing the quality of the user experience.
- Beyond basic coding, Lemonade is expanding into UI generation, noting that approximately 50% of Roblox game development is dedicated to 2D interface elements like inventories and leaderboards.
Left VC to Become a Founder Again. Here's What They Don't Tell You About Running a Fund
The venture capital landscape has undergone a significant shift, rendering the fundraising environment for micro-funds increasingly difficult in a post-pandemic economy.
- The current fundraising environment for micro-funds is increasingly difficult, forcing managers to spend over 50% of their time on capital acquisition rather than portfolio support.
- Industry clout and operational experience are insufficient substitutes for direct, high-level institutional relationships when attempting to secure fund backing.
- The micro-VC model is currently a low-margin, grueling endeavor that often requires independent wealth or a long-term bootstrapping mindset to remain sustainable.