Xbox's "return to growth": what Sharma actually said
Windows Central obtained a transcript of the all-hands, which it said trusted sources had verified. Per Windows Central, Sharma said Xbox was declining in hours spent, players and revenue at the start of the year. She now says hours spent have stabilized, and that after year-over-year first-party declines Xbox has returned to growth in that area.
The line that traveled furthest is this one. "We're making the right decisions to reinvest in the business, after an all time low, we've started to return to growth, more than 2 to 3 times what we were, and we expect that continue."
The scope matters, because the first wave of headlines made it sound broader. Windows Central later clarified that Sharma was using a chart on first-party growth, meaning games Xbox owns and publishes. Nobody has said what "two to three times" measures, or against what baseline or period. It could be a growth rate, a size or something else. Games.gg also noted that the figures have not been confirmed. I would not read it as "revenue tripled."
Other reported details from the same meeting:
- Sharma said Gears of War: E-Day, Minecraft Dungeons 2 and World of Warcraft Forever have all had "strong" starts.
- Positive brand sentiment for Xbox rose 30% over the past year.
- She again described Project Helix as a family of devices rather than a single console.
- PC stays a focus across Xbox PC, Steam and Battle.net, though she still wants to invest in console.
- On developer experience she said it is "simply very hard to work with Xbox," and outlined four fixes: simpler targets, a headless Partner Center, APIs with the cruft removed, and machine-readable APIs.
For Windows and PC readers, the developer-tooling and PC-store comments are probably the most useful parts of the meeting. The growth headline is the louder one.
The caveat
Massively Overpowered notes that thousands more game-dev job losses are still on the horizon. The roundup doesn't tie that to a specific announcement. Neowin describes the reset as already involving thousands of job cuts, studios spun off and projects moved between divisions. Growth in first-party metrics and ongoing cuts can both be true. A smaller, refocused organization can grow from a low base while shedding people. Management's own chart is also not an audited result.
Kotick lands on the Skydance board
Skydance's October 6 announcement is a board slate for the newly combined company formed through Paramount's merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Bobby Kotick, founder and former CEO of Activision, joins as an independent director, effective immediately. The same release names Laurene Powell Jobs as an independent director and Ynon Kreiz as a director. It also names Tony Blair as a board advisor. David Ellison remains chairman and CEO.
The release credits Kotick with 32 years leading Activision and with the sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft for $68.7 billion. That sale is the Microsoft tie-in for this readership.
Ellison's quote, reproduced in the roundup, praises Kotick's perspective on "building enduring franchises and connecting with fans." That is the company's rationale. The announcement gives no gaming-specific remit, so I would not read this as a Skydance push into games.
Aion 2 and NCsoft: an analyst's read, not a company miss
Massively Overpowered, citing Infostock Daily, relays comments from NH Investment & Securities analyst Jaemin Ahn. Ahn called Aion 2's global launch "decent" but said it is hard to conclude it significantly beat expectations. That led to a slightly lowered earnings estimate for NCsoft. The roundup attributes the cut "in part" to the launch. It also says Ahn still expects strong revenue from the game over the next three months.
Two caveats apply. The quotes are machine-translated, and no forecast figures were provided. The "misses projections" in the headline reflects one analyst's expectations. It is not NCsoft confirming it fell short of its own targets or cutting guidance.
Necesse moves to Fireshine
Massively Overpowered reports that Fireshine Games has acquired Fair Games, the developer of the 2-D survival sandbox Necesse, and is becoming its publishing partner. The reported basis is 2.5 million sales. Fireshine promises long-tail support for the PC title. The developers' Steam announcement says development and updates continue, with Fireshine handling larger tasks such as publishing and porting, which could free time for bigger updates. No price, deal terms or IP details were reported. Treat the bigger-updates line as intent, not a promise.
Gardens Interactive raises $35M+
According to Gardens Interactive's own announcement, dated October 7, the studio has secured more than $35M in Series B funding. Lightspeed led the round, and Sequoia, Index, Accel and Innovation Endeavors are named as investors on the studio's list, alongside the Nintendo and ZeniMax families and the founders of FunPlus and Slack. Additional closings are still being finalized, with the round expected to close by the end of October. "$35M+ so far" is therefore the safer description.
The money funds the launch and live operations of an unrevealed debut game, which the studio calls a social roleplaying "strandbox." Its pitch is a sandbox where what you do stays behind for the next player. The studio says the game runs on an in-house engine and matchmaker called Petri, which blends procedural generation with hand-authored content, and it is taking applications for closed pre-alpha tests. These are studio claims. There is no release date, platform list or independent demonstration yet.
Takeaways
- Xbox: Sharma's first-party growth claim is real reporting, but the metric is undefined and unaudited. The developer-tooling and PC-platform plans are worth watching.
- Kotick: The appointment is confirmed by Skydance's own release. His role there is not specified beyond general board duties.
- Aion 2: One analyst's judgment, via translation.
- Necesse and Gardens: Largely company and developer statements, with no deal terms or final funding total yet.