Amazon Game Studios: What Moving Away From Triple-A Looks Like

Honestly, the announcement on 28 October that New World would enter maintenance mode wasn't a big surprise. After all, since the launch of EVE Online's Havoc expansion in November 2023 the Amazon product was unable to achieve the same number of average concurrent users on PC that the 20-year-old Icelandic game did outside of China.

If I had paid attention to news affecting my Amazon Prime account I would have noticed the re-launch of something called Amazon Luna. Polygon covered the story at the beginning of the month.

Amazon's cloud-gaming platform is getting a big "rethink" in 2025, the company announced Wednesday, promising a "completely redesigned and reimagined Amazon Luna that combines innovative social party games with amazing blockbusters." In addition to streaming hits like Hogwarts Legacy, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, the new Luna will include GameNight, a collection of family-friendly social party games.

The first game announced by Amazon is something called Courtroom Chaos: Starring Snoop Dogg. The game is described as:

...a human-built, AI-powered, voice-driven improv courtroom game where players take turns inventing absurd characters, spinning wild stories, and doing anything it takes to defend their testimonies in front of Judge Snoop Dogg.

No, I did not copy this from Copilot. This is not an AI hallucination, although I wish it were. I'll include the launch trailer below.

Perhaps I had good reason not to pay attention to Amazon's video game offerings that come with an Amazon Prime membership. Let me continue on with Amazon's own description of Luna.

Luna (Included with Prime)

Included with Prime are titles like Hogwarts Legacy, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and TopSpin 2K25, alongside a growing catalog of recent-release blockbusters, popular classics, indie gems, and more. (Games outside of the GameNight library on Luna do require a controller or mouse and keyboard to play.)

“We know that 95% of Prime households include someone who loves games, but there’s not always a straightforward path for many of them to play,” says Gattis. “Luna is purpose-built to remove the historical barriers to gaming. There’s no need to purchase costly, dedicated PC or console hardware. No downloads or installations required. And best of all, access is included within the same Prime membership enjoyed by more than 200 million paid members today.”

By the way, Amazon also offers a premium version of Luna that costs $9.99 per month. If Amazon really wanted my money, the company should have thought about how the launch was announced. But then again, I don't think I'm the target audience for the service.

In an effort to look at the issue rationally, I cranked Copilot up to eleven and asked about the closing of New World. The AI gave me a 13-page, 3900 word report with 27 references. I don't think I can argue with this explanation of why Amazon is moving away from triple-A games in general and MMORPGs specifically.

The strategic rationale for this pivot is clear: casual and party games can be developed more quickly and cost-effectively than AAA MMOs, align with Amazon’s broader entertainment ecosystem, and leverage the company’s strengths in cloud streaming and AI. By bundling Luna access with Prime, Amazon aims to drive engagement and retention across its core customer base, while differentiating itself from competitors focused on traditional console and PC gaming.

Now for my pie-in-the-sky take. I spend a lot of time on YouTube watching content about video games. Forget about AA games like Expedition 33. Indie games with small development teams like Ball x Pit, Escape from Duckov, Megabonk, and Slots & Daggers look like fun games that would fit in my schedule between sessions of games like Final Fantasy XIV. Below is a video by Veteran Joystick highlighting the types of games I think Amazon Game Studios would like to make.

AGS would clearly like to adopt the template developed by indie and double-A games to become successful. According to Veteran Joystick:

It's the same pattern. Tiny team, weird idea, massive success. So, what do all of these have in common? Innovation, risk, fun first, sales second. A clear vision from people who clearly love games.

I can't even say the formula would not work for AGS. After all, they failed miserably over the past several years trying to develop a successful MMORPG. Escape from Duckov, on the other hand, had a 5-person development team. Bilibili, a Chinese company sometimes referred to as “China’s YouTube for Gen Z” succeeded in making small development teams while being a large company. The internal Team Soda developed the game and Bilibili provided the marketing and publishing power to make the game a success.

Could Amazon build the same type of synergy with its new approach? Possibly. But given history, I can also imagine a continuous stream of slop, whether AI-generated or produced by humans. At least, as an Amazon Prime member, I won't have to spend any extra money to find out.

Pearl Abyss Q3 2025 Earnings Call

On Tuesday in South Korea, Pearl Abyss held its earnings call for the third quarter of 2025. The company experienced a quarter-over-quarter increase in revenue of 34.2%, from ₩79.6 billion ($56.8 million) in Q2 2025 to ₩106.8 billion ($77 million) in the third quarter. Year-over-year the company's third quarter revenue increased by 34.3%. 

From the Q3 2025 earnings call

Pearl Abyss also recorded both operating and net profits in the same quarter for the first time since the last three months of 2024. On the call the PA C-Suite indicated a large reason for the profits was due to foreign currency exchange effects and tax rebates. Of the ₩106.8 billion in operating revenue, only ₩100.3 billion came from either the Black Desert or EVE intellectual properties. The remaining ₩6.5 billion ($4.7 million) made up 22.4% of the company's net profit.

From the Q3 2025 earnings call

Overall, the revenue from the company's core game IPs rose 26.8% quarter-over-quarter to ₩100.3 billion ($74.3 million). Performance compared to Q3 2024 was even better, improving 34.6% year-over-year.

The big revenue gain came from the Black Desert IP. The ₩79.5 billion ($57.4 million) in revenue last quarter was a 44.8% increase over Q2 2025's sales and 47.2% over the third quarter of 2024. While console revenue in the previous quarter doubled following the release of the console version of BDO in June. However, the actual increase in revenue from ₩2.4 billion to ₩5.0 billion did not account for most of the increase. Instead the most likely reasons were the introduction of a new class, Wukong, and a new end game region, Edania.

In historical terms, Q3 revenue was the most since the beginning of Pearl Abyss self-publishing in 2021. In Q1 2021 the Black Desert IP recorded ₩82.9 billion ($74.4 million) in revenue. However, due to the weakening of the won vs the US dollar, revenue was the greatest since Q2 2022.

EVE IP revenue was pretty much as expected. Revenue fell 14.1% down to ₩20.8 billion ($15.0 million). In an interesting development Pearl Abyss did point out to the analysts on the call the decline was expected as the effect of the Legion expansion, released in May, began to wear off. However, the revenue did meet the guidance that the EVE IP would bring in at least ₩20 billion every quarter issued back on the Q2 2024 earnings call.

Finally, some news about Crimson Desert. The game is on track to release on 20 March 2026 (19 March 2026 in the west). The advertising for the launch will reach its peak beginning in January. The company's advertising spend already increased 29.5% QoQ and 52.7% YoY to ₩13.6 billion ($9.8 million) with the marketing efforts at all the video game shows attended. 

In Crimson Desert sales news, the biggest percentage of pre-sales is coming from console sales. Pearl Abyss speculated the reason was that the initial announcement was made on the Playstation Network.

EDIT - 13 November 2025 - For those looking for a transcript of the call, Croda has provided one in his coverage.

A note about currency conversions.

All currency conversions in this blog post were performed using the rates displayed on the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis website using the average quarterly exchange rate.

I Earned Star Contributor In FFXIV's Cosmic Exploration

Sometimes I decide to do something that doesn't make a lot of sense. I took this week off of work and one of my objectives was to get all crafting and gathering classes up to 50,000 cosmic class points. But then a pop-up appeared about a server shutdown from 10:00 p.m. Monday to Nov. 11, 2025 2:00 a.m. (PST) Tuesday to install Dawntrail patch 7.38. If the evaluation period for becoming a Star Contributor was being shortened by 3 hours, why not try to obtain the title?

Standing in front of the hologram of Star Contributors

The benefits of becoming one of the seven current Star Contributors aren't permanent, or even very impactful. According to the wiki:

Star Contributors will be honored for fourteen real-life days in the following ways:

• A hologram of the player will be displayed in Phaenna (X:27.9, Y:12.7).
• The player's name will be displayed on the starward standings stela on Phaenna (X:28.0, Y:12.6).
• A visual effect will be applied to them when they are in a Cosmic Exploration zone. They can click off this buff if they do not want it displayed.

Players who receive Star Contributor will be ineligible to receive it again for 14 days.

In contrast to the limited-time ranking titles in Ishgardian Restoration, Star Contributor is a permanent competitive feature to prevent "fear of missing out". There are no achievements, titles, or item rewards tied to Star Contributor.

So why chase becoming a Star Contributor? Because I could. Also, the evaluation period would end at midnight meaning I wouldn't have to screw up my sleep schedule too much. I'd just need to wake up a few hours early Monday morning. 

The only preparation I did was go out and make 60 All i Pebre. The food based on Goldentail eel is a superior version of the Rroneek Steak, which would matter because the crafting classes I intended to play were not specialists and need all the stats I could give them. I went out and fished for 30 minutes and caught 25 Goldentail (pro-tip - use red maggots and double-hook/triple-hook). I wound up only needing 24, but running out of food was something I didn't want to do.

I should add I was also using Squadron Rationing Manuals. As part of the leveling I've done for my personal squadron I run a mission that provides 10 of the manuals. Perhaps I should take up PvP to get them also.

I actually logged in at 3am local, the start of the evaluation time. I was in for the long run so I did a few things and began the crafting grind at 3:20am. The strategy was simple: do sequential missions and abandon missions that don't lead to the three sequential missions that gave 1100-1200 points for crafting four items. 

These missions will become available after completing certain stellar missions with a gold star rank. Sequential missions are created from a variety of missions, and completing them with the highest score possible will cause more to appear. Failing or abandoning a sequential mission will require the player to complete the prerequisite mission again for another attempt.

I also wound up making a small macro to do missions during Red Alerts. While I have no evidence besides vague hints, I think missions done for Red Alerts get a bonus when the Star Contributor points. 

My first problem occurred shortly before 5am when Steam gave me a message saying my auto-pay didn't work. I figured out I had failed to delete something the last time the issue occurred. Getting everything back to normal took 30 minutes.

But then something happened that should have told me I had Star Contributor in the bag. Despite the payment issue knocking me out of the game, I went from being in the top 30% of players to top 20% of players. Getting up early was paying off.

I went on a roll from 5:30am to 7:15am and got into the top 10%, the highest category. Then I got a headache. A video game grind is not worth pain, so I took some aspirin and laid down for a half-hour until I felt better. I really started feeling good when I checked the math. I was averaging 6100 points per hour and in the top 10%. If I stepped up my efforts I could definitely come close.

But I was still looking to take care of myself. I didn't hesitate to go brew tea or eat lunch when the time came. I also would walk around for a few minutes each hour whether I needed to stretch or not. Over the next 10 hours I averaged 8400 points per hour.

I also learned something about my server. Players didn't start rolling into the zone until 1:30pm my time (11:30am PST). Basically I had an 8 hour head start on any potential competitor. So when I started getting sleepy I felt okay about taking a nap. 

After my nap I wound up finishing strong, managing to get all my crafting classes to at least 50,000 class points.

Final class points at the end of the night

Each of the bronze cups in the picture above represents an achievement earned for getting 50,000 points in a class. During the grind I completed the achievements for Alchemist, Armouer, Blacksmith, Carpenter, and Goldsmith. Perhaps more importantly I racked up 155,662 overall class points, running my total up to 602,000 points. For those who want some more metrics, I averaged 7400 points per hour with a maximum of 11, 988 points in an hour after I took the nap. In the two hours after I took my nap I averaged 11,100 points per hour.

And perhaps that's the point. Long play sessions grinding out cosmic exploration content isn't the optimum use of a player's time. Shorter sessions spread out over a longer time is a more efficient way of doing things. Based on yesterday I'm going to try to spend two hours a day grinding out class points. Because while the point total sounds impressive, my 600,000 overall class points means I'm only 11% of the way to getting the High Mobility Vacuum Suit.

Square Enix Layoffs And Restructuring - 2025 Edition

Yesterday IGN broke the news of layoffs occurring at Square Enix' overseas offices and studios, primarily in the United States and United Kingdom.

Square Enix is undergoing mass layoffs today, potentially impacting over 100 individuals, alongside a broader effort to consolidate its publishing organization and focus its development work in Japan.

Via public posts from former employees as well as confirmation from internal sources, IGN has learned that employees in the UK and US are being informed of the layoffs today, with an unknown number of US employees being dismissed by the end of the week, and a possible 137 jobs at risk in the UK. Under UK law, Square Enix must undergo redundancy consultations to see if any jobs can potentially be saved, so the final number in the UK could be smaller. It is not yet clear which teams were impacted by this, or to what extent.

Internally, a slide presentation now publicly available was also shared with employees earlier today, offered a progress report on Square Enix's ongoing "reorganization of overseas organizations", of which this restructuring seems to be a part. Per Square Enix, the strategy has already involved "clos[ing] overseas development studios and shift[ing] toward consolidating development functions in Japan."

I downloaded the document and, since the leadership over at Square Enix loves AI so much, I let Copilot provide a TL,DR of the presentation.

## 🎮 Strategic Vision: “Square Enix Reboots and Awakens”

A 3-year transformation plan focused on long-term growth through four core strategies:

• 1. 🏗️ Enhance Productivity in Digital Entertainment (DE)
  
  
• - Shift from quantity to quality in game development.
• - Consolidation of overseas studios; focus development in Japan.
• - Launch of major titles like *Octopath Traveler 0*, *Dragon Quest VII Reimagined*, and *Killer Inn*.
• - Introduction of off-app payment methods to improve profitability.
• - QA automation via generative AI (joint research with University of Tokyo).
  
  
• 2. 💰 Diversify Earnings by Strengthening Customer Contact
  
  
• - Multi-platform strategy for key IPs (e.g., Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest).
• - Expansion of catalog title sales and merchandising.
• - Cross-media initiatives: anime, live-action, stage adaptations.
• - Global growth of publishing IPs and overseas franchise stores.
• - Group collaboration with TAITO for IP exposure in amusement facilities.
  
  
• 3. 🧱 Build Foundational Stability
  
  
• - Structural reforms in overseas publishing: reduced divisions, leaner teams.
• - Integration of global marketing and data functions under CMO.
• - Annual cost savings of over ¥3 billion expected from reorganization.
  
  
• 4. 📊 Capital Allocation: Growth vs. Shareholder Returns
  
  
• - Strategic investments in AI, data marketing, and M&A.
• - Planned dividend payout of ¥15.5 billion in FY2026/3.
• - Stock split (3-for-1) implemented in October 2025.
• - Shareholder return ratio projected at 91.7%.

One big issue brought up in the various reactions was the plan to move up to 70% of quality assurance work from humans to artificial intelligence. But that was only a small part of the presentation, although worthy of its own slide.

From the presentation

We heard of a reorganization in Japan in which SE moved from Created Business Units to Creative Studios. The below slide fleshes out the progress on the effort.

An organizational chart

The price savings of consolidating 11 divisions down to 4 is expected to be ¥3 billion in the next year, which comes out to be $US19.6 million at today's exchange rate.

Another organizational chart

At the risk of offending some folks in the gaming press, stories about layoffs, especially if AI is involved, are sexy. But the other side of cutting costs is bringing in more revenue. After all, if a good game comes along gamers will concentrate on the next interesting trailer.

The Square Enix game pipeline

I'm not going to lie. I'm used to covering game companies like Pearl Abyss and Cloud Imperium. Those companies are not famous for their ability to release finished games. The graphic above points to 5 new games. That's more than I'm used to seeing in the roadmaps of the games I play.

Square Enix games - 2026

I'm also glad to see that the Japanese game maker realizes it needs to focus on quality games. And yes, I'm aware that for some, the road to quality is to make sequels. The urge for security and financial success is often the path most trodden. That thinking is as true in the video game industry as it is in Hollywood.

Dividend history

But in the end, entertainment is still a business. Unlike the game companies I usually cover, Square Enix actually issues dividend payments. While the latest story is about more layoffs, the entire story is about Square Enix trying to turn its finances around after a few not-so-good bordering on terrible years.

Finishing Up In Final Fantasy XIV's Patch 7.35.

With patch 7.4 due to drop in less than 6 weeks, I've spent my time trying to tidy up the place and finish tasks before the next story arc begins. I don't think I'm like most players as I haven't touched major content like The Occult Crescent, Pilgrim's Traverse, the FFXIV x Monster Hunter Wilds crossover event, or any savage or Unreal dungeons. Except for the crossover event none of the major content really interests me, especially with my lack of combat skill. So how have I spent my time in the game?

Cosmic exploration receives some oversight

The first event was working on Cosmic Exploration content. My home server finished the last bit of construction on Monday and I ran through the end quests last night. Looking at the special site I see that as of now three of the four logical data centers in North America have completed Cosmic Exploration. No world in the game is slower than level 20, meaning everyone will complete the Phaenna content before patch 7.41.

Also, as far as I know the Phaenna end quests revealed a very important lore fact. Y'shtola has eleven sisters. Well, her entry in the Final Fantasy wiki tells the story, but I think this was the first time mentioned in the reborn game. The big question is whether players will accept Y'shtola not appearing in a future expansion if one of her sisters plays a major part.

Pleasing the spirits

Next up was reaching bloodsworn with the Yok Huy. On Monday I also finished up Dawntrail's third and final allied society questline. The Yok Huy is the 20th allied society I've reached max reputation with. I'm now ready for the final set of intersocietal quests that should come out in patch 7.5x.

I so want this glamour

I also finished the current installment of the Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures. Personally I think I like the Dawntrail Hildibrand story the best so far. I've never used New Game Plus, but I'm tempted to go back and do the entire set of Hildibrand adventures sometime in the future.

My chocobo companion

The last task finished was 6 years in the making. I finally leveled my chocobo companion to level 20. I'm not saying that's a long time but my neighbor who also plays FFXIV was a bit surprised I hadn't done so yet. Leveling a companion from level 10 to 20 takes a Thavnairian Onion for each level. Back when I began the price, at over 1 million gil each, was a bit too rich for my pouch. But I now have over 160 million gil and the price has dropped to around 100-200 thousand gil so I finally got the task out of the way.

I do have two more tasks I hope to complete by the end of the month involving dungeon runs. The first is finally getting all my Trust characters up to level 100. I currently have 7 of the 8 active NPC avatars in Dawntral to max level. I am currently running through Vanguard with Urianger, who will reach level 98 after the next dungeon completion. 

My squadron roster

The next is finishing up some very old content. I never did max out my squadron. Once I made Captain in The Order of the Twin Adder I didn't see any reason for continuing to play an abandoned game system. Fast forward a few years and the completionist in me was screaming to finish the job. Between squadron missions and running a group through The Vault once a night I figure I can check this off my todo list before Thanksgiving. The squadron version of The Vault requires a minimum of level 57 and last night I reached that with my lowest ranked squadron member.

With the next patch so close I won't have to worry about things to do. When all else fails I still have the class point grind in Cosmic Exploration to work on. I would really like to get the hardest to get mount from the content. the High Mobility Vacuum Suit. But I won't earn that for a few months yet. In the meantime I'll pick through things and try to do some catching up on content.

Final Fantasy XIV - The Delay In Adding Housing Slots And CPU-kun

While Final Fantasy XIV is rolling into the future with a lot of upcoming content, Creative Studio III is experiencing some technical hurdles. The game's Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida gave a technical explanation of why the developers are not turning FFXIV's housing into Tardis in patch 7.4 and possibly not adding more glamour plates in patch 7.5 during the Producer's Live Letter 89. Because the presentation was in Japanese, we didn't have the explanation ... until now.

As much as I talk negatively about the EVE Online sub-Reddit, the FFXIV sub-Reddit is much better. Especially useful is the sub-Reddit's Discord server which provides unofficial translations of the live letters into English. One of the translators, iluna minori, made the mistake of offering to volunteer to translate the technical explanation. So I figure I might as well post the translation here so the work gets a slightly wider audience.

Before I begin, apparently Square Enix has advanced infrastructure technology. No mention of server hamsters. But as far as I can tell, the honorific "-kun" is usually used informally to refer to males. Hopefully this doesn't get Yoshi-P into trouble.

Yoshida: Right now I'm seeing everyone from Housing side feeling jealous here, but we are currently entering the final stage of the optimization push to increase the placement limit for for the addition of slots for outdoor furnishings and indoor furniture....I'm so sorry that it ended up taking that much time, and I'm very sure we can get it done by Patch 7.5. I'm confident that we are able to increase the outdoor furnishing/indoor furnishing placement amount by around 1.5x, and we're currently entering the final stage of optimizations. Currently we're focusing on the speeding up the servers, and that's what we are doing right now.

Foxclon: So if you could provide us detailed explanation on the matter... 

Yoshida: For this...umm, well, you see...basically the so-called number of objects that can be placed — meaning where the players place these objects — are information we obviously have to manage entirely via our servers. Of course this is a given when the players log out of the game, I mean, they have to log out, right? So this means when the amount becomes 1.5 times higher than the total volume, our beloved CPU-kun has to keep track of it all, and you can imagine our CPU-kun goes “Gyaaaah!” and “Aaaah!” with that kind of work load. 

Under normal operations, we can manage it somehow, sure; but let's say when maintenance happens and we have to restart the server (for example), if we turn off CPU-kun's power, you can imagine CPU-kun would just go blank face at you. Now, imagine me go "Now, CPU-kun, rise from your slumber so that you can welcome our lord players into the gaaaaame!". When that happens, CPU-kun will have to go through the process to  memorize everything all over again, and when the volume is now 1.5 times more, the CPU-kun will just hold its head and go “WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”, which cause the time it takes to open the server getting higher... 

Yep, that's exactly it. In other words, and to simply put, we're optimizing them so that the server memorizes them quicker than what they're doing currently.  And then you see, since we have so many worlds, if we get into cases where we need to perform emergency maintenance for whatever reason that comes up, like taking it down for a second and fixing it right away, it will end up taking three times as long... or something like that.

Plus, this was mentioned in the past but I mentioned something about how you can get your housing interior to be glamoured into L size regardless of your current house size (Size L, Size M,  Size S), right? Well the system is almost complete, actually, it's finished — but here's the thing: assuming everyone switches to L size, this will also cause the number of furniture slot placement to increase, right? In this case, CPU-kun would...well, imagine if the CPU-kun have to perform two of these tasks simultaneously...

Foxclon: This means CPU-kun would already...

Yoshida: Yep, imagine that CPU-kun's eyes would go bloodshot and wring my neck because of all the sufferring...so for now, we are going to work on the final stage of optimizing the numbers where players can place and manage, and then increase these numbers. That way, we can then increase the amount of placement number for S-size house owners, same goes for M-size house owners, and finally the L-size house owners as well. So we really need to get this part done properly first. Once this is done, we can finally work on allowing players to be able to change their interior size while ignoring that house size...we're aiming to deliver not only for indoor furnishings but also outdoor furnishings simultaneously, so we're definitely in the final push for the optimization. So it would be greatly appreciated if players could just wait a little more...We're working and determined to make it happen without players having to get this update on the next expansion, and once we're done with this, we can then FINALLY move into the glamour plates....and so on...!

Foxclon: One by one, in order...

Yoshida: The plates are the same as well! You can imagine the servers go "ARRGHGHGHGHGH" over this. Of course, being able to swap them instantly means it will involve some form of server communication and other factors. (Some parts omitted) Well, beyond that, we also want to add more content...especially as a future challenge, where we want to add more things we can do in public fields※. You are aware that we can only display current buffs up to 30 in a screen now, yes? We really want to optimize that and do something about it, making it possible to develop more ways to play...Well this would involve future content and I might getting ahead of myself here, but we plan to optimize things in order, step-by-step like this, making everyone's experience a lot more comfortable. For now, glamour is going to go through huge changes, and we are now working on the final phases of optimization on housing here, so I'd appreciate everyone's support on the matter.

※ Public field likely refers to the zones that are not cities. You know, the place where you do your FATE / Sightseeing log / taking Gposes

And this is why the added housing slots won't show up until patch 7.5.

Final Fantasy XIV Producer Live Letter 89 - Quick Control Panel

This morning (North America time) Yoshi-P presented his Producer Live Letter 89 (Part 1) for Final Fantasy XIV. I watched a couple of streams along with following along with the translations on the Discord server for the FFXIV sub-Reddit. One of the streamers, MrHappy, said for a part 1 PLL today's presentation was unusually detailed.

One of the advanced features of setting up the game is customizing the heads up display (HUD). I shouldn't refer to modifying the user interface as advanced as just placing and altering the layout of one's hotbars is simple. But gamers tend to take simple things and make them complex. 

For example, in order to save space I use a layout that results in collapsible hotbars. I have a macro that allows a hotbar to appear, and then I have macros in that hotbar to make other hotbars appear. A very tedious process and sometimes I forget how to add the hotbars for other classes and jobs.

Overview of the command panel

One of the issues my collapsible hotbar setup solves is freeing up space so I can actually view the game. The command panel looks like an easier way to solve the same problem.

A cluttered UI

The command panel has four pages that can hold 25 actions (macros, emotes, etc) each. In the example above, Yoshi-P took his macros to change classes and moved them to a single page.

Filling up the command panel

He then did the same with his emotes. One thing I should point out is that his layout used two action bars to hold what went onto one page. Freeing up action bars is a good thing.

Four hotbars condensed into two buttons

Finally, players will have the ability to create a button to call up a single page. Kind of like what I have in my collapsible hotbar setup now, except my setup can only call up 12 actions to select from with a single button instead of 25.

I'm really looking forward to the quick control panel coming in patch 7.4. My issue isn't with emotes or calling up different classes. My big issue is with my crafting macros. I can see putting up my normal crafting macros on one page and my Cosmic Exploration macros on another. Right now I keep my macros page open while crafting in the Cosmic Exploration zones because 12 slot hotbars don't offer enough options. But the 25 slots in the command panel are really going to open up some options.

Cloud Imperium Records $12 Million In Cash Shop Revenue In October 2025

Cloud Imperium Games sales began to return to Earth in October. According to the CCU Game dashboard, the CIG online cash shop recorded a few dollars shy of $12 million last month, a year-over-year increase of 29.3% over 2024's total of $9.3 million. The amount also was 13.1% higher than that three-year average sales of $10.6 million from 2022 to 2024. Through the first 10 months CIG has generated $108.5 million in sales, a 39.6% increase over the same period in 2024.

The $882.5 million displayed on the Roberts Space Industries funding page at the end of October was not a comprehensive accounting for all of CIG's revenue since the project's Kickstarter in October 2012. Overall, the company has recorded $1.007 billion in confirmed revenue (the funding page & the 2023 financial report).

• Sales/Pledges: $882.5 million (through 31 October 2025)
• Other cash shop revenue: $2.3 million (through 31 December 2023)
• Subscriptions: $39.5 million (through 31 December 2023)
• All other sources: $82.6 million (through 31 December 2023)

In addition, the company has received a total of $68.25 million in outside investment. According to the 2023 financial report, $4.8 million of the amount was returned to investors in 2020 and another $1.9 million in 2023. Including the outside investment money, the total amount raised by CIG to create Squadron 42 and Star Citizen is $1.075 billion, or $1.068 billion when excluding the returned funds. An additional $12.6 million in loans issued in March 2025 and due for repayment on 31 December 2027 are not included in the total.

New Accounts - October was the 13th anniversary of the Kickstarter campaign. The 53,640 new accounts created last night was a 71.9% increase over the 33,070 created in October 2024. For the year, CIG has issued 498,150 accounts, an increase of 32.1% over the first 10 months of 2024.

Over $1 Billion! - In October CIG went over $1 billion in revenue as counted from official Cloud Imperium sources. At this point the news is a little anti-climatic as the total does not include a lot of revenue generated between the end of 2023 and now. But I can now easily justify the total of $1 billion in revenue generated.

Not a record CitizenCon - CitizenCon this year was basically a 2+ hour experience designed to hype up the player base. The CCU Game dashboard keeps track of a 6-day period to determine cash shop sales associated with the event. While the $5.3 million in revenue generated exceeded 2024's by 24%, the total was still 3.8% less than the record of $5.6 million in 2023.

Upcoming milestones - In November CIG should experience three major milestones. First, cash shop sales should exceed $900 million for CIG's history sometime next month. CIG needs to reach $18.5 million in sales during a month featuring the Interglactic Aerospace Expo. Over the past three years the average sales in October have been $23.9 million.

Next up is a new account milestone. CIG ended October with 5,988,235 accounts. Unless the servers dies for a few weeks the account counter will reach 6 million sometime this month. The last time CIG failed to generate 12,000 new accounts was September 2019.

Finally, the company will surpass the previous high year for cash shop sales sometime in the next few weeks.  Sales only need to reach $9 million for the month to break 2023's record of $117.6 million.

What to watch for - Will cash shop revenue hit $150 million in 2025? Currently CIG is shy by $41.5 million. In the last two months of 2024 CIG experienced $39 million in sales. A good chance exists CIG hits the $150 million threshold, especially with CIG introducing the Nyx system in a patch right before the IAE begins.

Final Fantasy XIV Producer Live Letter 89 - Glamour Updates In 7.4

This morning (North America time) Yoshi-P presented his Producer Live Letter 89 (Part 1) for Final Fantasy XIV. I watched a couple of streams along with following along with the translations on the Discord server for the FFXIV sub-Reddit. One of the streamers, MrHappy, said for a part 1 PLL today's presentation was unusually detailed.

One of the surprising slides came near the end of the two-hour presentation.

Dark knight dressed like a white mage

That's right, glamours are no longer locked to classes and jobs. Here is the slide with the details.

Before anyone asks, Yoshi-P did indicate these changes were in response to the recent banning and shutdown of Mare Synchronos. Those who wondered at the timing of the legal action against the developer of the mod might believe Yoshi-P did not take action until he had a replacement. While not a full replacement, at least the new glamour functionality will work after a major patch.

I have wanted the ability to mix and match between classes and jobs forever. For example, I currently have separate glams for armorsmith and blacksmith. But shouldn't they have the ability to wear the same clothes? After all, they both work over an anvil at a forge. So with patch 7.4 I can free up one glamour plate for something else.

In connection to the glamour update, Yoshi-P pointed out that the changes to housing to allow smaller houses to have larger item limits is pushed back to patch 7.5. Apparently CPUs started crashing when 1.5 times the current limits were reached. What does housing have to do with glamour? Because after the housing issue is taken care of, the next feature planned for an upgrade are glamour plates. So perhaps at the start of the next expansion players will see either more glamour plates or an alteration to the system. But until then, more space in the glamour dresser would be nice.

EVE Frontier Patch Notes: Founders' Access Patches 0.3.2 And 0.3.3

I'm a little late with the patch notes for EVE Frontier's Founders' Access 0.3.2 the game is down for maintenance. As stated before the launch of Cycle 3, yesterday pushed out new content, just in time for players on the 10 day free trial to miss out. I guess that's one way to encourage people to pay for access. Also, to hide any new bugs from the general public. Frontier is in alpha, but the developers want players to experience a polished alpha. I know, a contradiction in terms.

I'm going to alter the order of the patch notes and list the changes based on the roadmap that came out in early October. I'll take the description from the roadmap and combine it with the actual improvements listed in the patch notes.

Creative Base Building 

The first in a series of Build mode upgrades sees the introduction of vertical building placement, along with camera improvements, and greater flexibility in building placement. Build higher, build smarter, and bring your creative vision to life in new ways. 

• Reinforcement timers have been removed from all assemblies.
• An MVP for free camera movement has now been added to Build Mode.
• Precision placement of assemblies based on collision data is now possible in Build Mode.
• Camera panning is now possible in Build Mode.
• Audio improvements are now present in Build Mode.
• Decay has been removed from all Refuges.

Endless Industry 

Industry becomes more intuitive and continuous. This starts with the death of batched jobs.  Keep your structure powered and with enough input materials, and it will keep producing indefinitely. Accompanied by UI changes, this change lays the foundation for a smoother industrial experience. 

• Input materials can now be removed from an manufacturing assembly regardless of its state.
• Input and output materials of the selected blueprint are now pinned to the top of the inventory view.

These entries are under "Creative Base Building" in the patch notes. I'll have to log in and start building a base to see if anything else changed. I waited until after the free trial period specifically to use this feature.

In the 0.3.3 patch notes I saw the following addition to bases and wasn't sure which of the above to attribute the feature to, so I'm placing it here. Some of the market functionality of Upwell structures in EVE Online is finding its way into Frontier.

New Assembly added - Relay. 

• Allows players to sell Feral Data and buy Lenses through the assembly directly. 

The Death Loop 

Death on the Frontier is inevitable, but your re-awakening should give you a fair shot at survival.  Cycle 3 introduces greater control over where they are re-entry, letting you choose where you return to improve your odds of survival, or send you right back into the fray. 

The next portion of the patch notes didn't contain itself to just bullet points of changes. I think someone else wrote this section. The Death Loop apparently is the system the developers feel is the most important introduced in the patch.

Respawn Choice & Strategic Reentry

When a Rider perishes — whether in combat with other Riders, through conflict with NPCs, or by initiating self-destruct protocols on their ship — they now gain improved control over their return to the Frontier.Instead of being cast into a random system, Riders can now select their respawn location directly through the Map Interface. This new view highlights the site of their death alongside available respawn points, empowering Riders to plan their next move and decide which clone to transfer their consciousness to. 

Available Spawn Points

Riders may choose to respawn at:

• Any of the original starting locations, or
• Any Hangar or Refuge they own

This system removes the need for the previous “Set Home Base” functionality, simplifying the process and ensuring a consistent death experience for all Riders. The “Set Home Base” feature has been fully removed as a result.

Our Design Intent

The goal of the Death Loop is to create a unified and more strategic death experience with expanded opportunity space. By allowing Riders to make meaningful choices about their reentry, this system increases motivation to return to the Frontier — not as a setback, but as an opportunity to adapt, learn, and reclaim what was lost.

We will continue investing in the Death Loop experience — expanding its immersion through clone consciousness sequences, richer contextual information, and more. Your feedback is highly encouraged and will help us prioritize next steps 

Next up in the patch notes are entries I don't feel fall within new categories listed in the road map.

Content:

• Three new sites that draw from the Exclave’s historical layer with fractured, half-forgotten relics of the past have been added.
• The NPE has been updated with a new objective to build a Network Node.

And finally a list of defect fixes and known issues.

Defect Fixes:

• Corrected a fuel loss issue stemming from multi-stack refueling.

Known Issues:

• Death Location icon is sometimes slow to appear.
• Autopilot selections appear on the Respawn Selection map.
• Distant respawn location cards jitter during zoom.
• Respawn selection cards change position after entering the Settings menu.

EVE Online Patch Notes: 28-29 October 2025

The latest set of patch notes for EVE Online, divided over two days, seem a bit odd. On Tuesday players received the patch notes for content, namely a ship rebalance and event site updates. Today the patch notes only concerned itself with fixes for defects. The patch notes would seem more normal if Tuesday's content just concerned updates for Crimson Harvest and today's were for EVE in general. But the ship balance updates are not just for the event. More experimentation by the infrastructure team?

CCP did publish a dev blog to go along with yesterday's changes. I'm going to go out of order from the dev blog and address the changes to two Blood Raider ships, the Cruor-class frigate and Ashimmu-class cruiser, first.

In celebration of this grand finale [the Harvest ends at 11:00 UTC on 4 November], the Cruor and Ashimmu have received a ship balance pass. Not a temporary boost, but a permanent evolution, reflecting their Blood Raider legacy.

Cruor

• Small Energy Turret Damage role bonus increased from 100% to 125%.
• New bonus, +20% bonus to Energy Nosferatu and Energy Neutralizer optimal range per level.
• New bonus, +10% bonus to Energy Nosferatu and Energy Neutralizer falloff range per level.

Ashimmu

• Medium Energy Turret Damage role bonus increased from 100% to 125%.
• New bonus, +20% bonus to Energy Nosferatu and Energy Neutralizer optimal range per level.
• New bonus, +10% bonus to Energy Nosferatu and Energy Neutralizer falloff range per level.

The event sites are expanding, presumably to give new content for the event in an attempt to keep players from wandering away from the game bored.

As of today, site distribution across all of New Eden has expanded, with Class 3 Biocybernetic Incident sites now surfacing in highsec. Tetrimon Frontline Base and Dark Blood Gauntlet sites can now also be found in the lowsec constellations of Semou, Jayal, and Hed...

The seasonal reward track has been extended, bringing new items and a final reward crate containing at least a blueprint for any available Blood Raider ship – with the most fortunate capsuleers landing the fabled Dagon or Molok. Keep unlocking rewards on the challenge track to claim it before the Harvest ends at 11:00 UTC on 4 November.

Crimson Harvest:

• New rewards have been added to the Seasonal Reward Track!
• Class 3 Biocybernetic Incident sites can now be discovered in high-security space.
• Spawn delays for standard Blood Raider, standard Tetrimon, and Biocybernetic Incident sites have been significantly reduced.
• Advanced Blood Raider and Tetrimon sites can now be discovered in the Hed, Jayai, and Semou constellations.

Hed is in Heimatar lowsec and home of Amamake. Jayai and Semou are both in Devoid and are linked to Hed. For those not into factional warfare, all three constellations fall within the Amarr/Minmatar war zone.

Finally, today's patch fixed issues in three general areas.

Audio:

• Audio will now correctly follow beam based weapons along their entire length, eg: Mining lasers, Vorton Projector.

Graphics:

• Fixed an issue where lighting on some ships would sometimes render incorrectly when certain weapons were fitted.
• Ghosting on Plasma planets when using anti-aliasing or upscaling has been vastly improved.

Technical:

• Certain wrecks causing the client to crash has been resolved.
• The client will no longer stop responding when using DLSS and jumping through a series of stargates or wormholes.

I think this is the last significant patch for the Legion expansion. Next week should see a patch to remove Crimson Harvest for this year. After that I expect the next patch to be the release of Catalyst.

FFXIV's All Saints' Wake In 2025 - Would Run Again

Last night I finally got around to running through the All Saints' Wake event for 2025.  Unlike the four-week long Crimson Harvest in EVE Online, seasonal events in Final Fantasy XIV are usually very short, as in 15-20 minutes. A perfect length to act as a break in everyday routine.

As usual the past few All Saints' Wakes the player gets to deal with another batch of voidsent. I don't want to spoil the story, but this year I think they got a new writer. Or perhaps the old one came back. Either way, I did like my character's reactions throughout.

Entering the haunted house

I also love the concept of a story in a haunted house. Using Haukke Manor, normally a level 28 dungeon, was the perfect setting. Even though I waited a week after the content was introduced, I still saw a number of other players running around, giving it more of a haunted house feel.

Haukke Manor decorated for the season

I also appreciated seeing the other players because I got to see the event mount in action. I have to say, I love the whole pumpkin aesthetic for this event, including for the mount.

Ambulario - a mechanical version of this year's main NPC

One of the nice things about All Saints' Wake is that the event lives on after the quest is complete. Two instances, Sneaky Hollow and The Haunted Manor, exist to play in until the end of All Saints' Wake. Something that I missed out by not exploring in previous years was the costumes.

Dressed as Inspector Hildibrand's alter-ego Brandihild

Find the right imp and players can transform into their favorite NPCs, including the Derplander from the trailers. One additional factor is the more of the content explored, the greater the choices of costumes.

Little events like All Saints' Wake don't really stand out in the long run. Heck, I didn't even know about transforming into NPCs until this year's event. But I think the little details help make the world as a whole a much more interesting place. Hopefully the fact that the little details are leading me to engage more with the world is a good sign for the content in the next expansion. Because I'm tired of all the complaining I heard about Dawntrail.

CCP Games Announced EVE Online's Winter Expansion: Catalyst

Yesterday CCP Games announced the name of the upcoming winter expansion for EVE Online. Launching on 18 November, Catalyst is a rather humorous, if dark, name for the expansion. The second expansion in a row named after a ship in EVE, the Catalyst is a Gallente destroyer known for using its low cost and high alpha damage as a go-to platform for suicide ganking in high security space. In other words, pretty much the antithesis of the contents of the expansion.

As is my practice, I will copy large portions of the press release issued by CCP as a reminder to how the company is selling the expansion outside the EVE player base. 

REYKJAVÍK, Iceland – October 21, 2025 – Today, CCP Games unveiled EVE Online: Catalyst, the next expansion for the iconic sci-fi MMO, EVE Online. With Catalyst, mining becomes a spark for new conflicts, collaborations, and ambitions. Launching on November 18, 2025, the expansion introduces additional mining vessels, the Prismaticite ore, a highly anticipated 2D star system map, and more.

Read the official news item on the EVE Online website here: 'Catalyst' Expansion Launches 18 November

“Mining is the foundation of all activity in EVE, and with Catalyst, it becomes the forefront of power,” said Bergur Finnbogason, EVE Online’s Creative Director. “We’re reenergizing the mining experience, making it far more dynamic, social, and rewarding. To master the universe, you must master its materials. Whether you build or destroy, it all begins with ore.”

“At face value, ore may seem unremarkable, yet it is the hidden catalyst of EVE’s biggest dramas. Creation, conflict, destruction, and rebirth – it’s the center of the eternal cycle of New Eden,” said Snorri Árnason, EVE Online’s Executive Producer. “But where valuable resources appear, so do rival capsuleers, turning mining operations into contested battlegrounds. Players will once again field the mightiest mining ships in pursuit of extraordinary resources, as well as the brand new Pioneer and Odysseus when Catalyst launches on November 18.”

I want to pause here and belatedly congratulate CCP Rattati on his promotion to Executive Producer for EVE Online. This is the first press release that actually gives him the title. I believe he was promoted back in May after Fanfest as I did find a pre-Legion stream back in May where CCP Swift identified him as such.

A failed experiment on the enigmatic Drifter Gates has destabilized spacetime, causing Hyperspace Fractures to appear across New Eden. These short-lived anomalies reveal Phased Asteroids rich in a volatile new resource, Prismaticite, an erratic ore that reprocesses into random minerals in unpredictable quantities. Outer Ring Excavations (ORE) engineers have unveiled Phase Anchor technology, a deployable system that stabilizes fractured asteroids for coordinated mining.

If the developers are going to introduce more random number generation into mining I much prefer the idea of Prismaticite than the residue mechanic introduced back in December 2021. I mean, the RNG can't be worse, right?

EVE Online: Catalyst’s key features include:

• Hyperspace Fractures and Prismaticite: Explore volatile, time-limited rifts to locate Phased Asteroids rich in Prismaticite, a new erratic ore type. Players can test their luck with random reprocessing or choose a different base mineral for Prismaticite to reprocess into, giving them increased agency for fueling the mining industry and impacting EVE Online’s player-driven economy.
• ‘Pioneer’ Mining Destroyer: The first of its kind, bridging the gap between mining frigates and barges. Designed for accessibility, this ship can be piloted by Alpha clones and upgraded by Omegas, offering an accessible gateway to EVE Online’s industrial gameplay.
• ‘Odysseus’ Exploration Command Ship: A long-range vessel built for deep-space expeditions, enabling veteran explorers to lead extended missions into uncharted regions.
• Mining UI/UX Overhaul: Mining cycles are faster and more immersive, featuring a refreshed scanning overlay and a 2D ore availability map. The tactical, easy-to-read 2D map provides capsuleers with improved system visualization, clear jump ranges, and dual data overlays, offering precise navigation and sharper insights for exploration. Both 2D and 3D maps will feature ore availability indicators, enhanced data readability, and customizable scales for greater clarity in every view.
• Mining Mutaplasmids and Critical Hits: New customization and yield-boosting systems make resource extraction more unpredictable, engaging, and rewarding.
• PLEX Transaction Logs: Personal PLEX histories introduce transparency to the in-game economy.
• Carrier Balancing and Visual Refresh: Empire carriers receive notable balance adjustments and updated visuals in response to player feedback.

Here is where I go to the dev blog to give a comparison of the features the company is highlighting for the player base.

Catalyst expansion launches 18 November

A new, unpredictable ore ignites a galaxy-wide resource rush

Hyperspace fractures reveal volatile asteroid fields rich in Prismaticite

Command new ships: the Pioneer mining destroyer and Odysseus exploration ship

Mining refined with faster cycles, critical hits, and improved UI

Explore the stars with the new 2D map

Start your journey with a new epic arc

Carriers updated, PLEX logs added, and much more to come

Once again I chuckled as I saw the introduction of a mining destroyer in an expansion named after a ship known for ganking mining ships. But I got really excited when I read the dev blog and the new epic arc.

Learn the Ropes with a New Epic Arc

Whether you’re warping into New Eden for the first time, or just want to explore everything the new expansion has to offer, a new accessible and brief epic arc has got you covered.

Explore and experience the new mining content through an introductory narrative journey, intended to test a new way to introduce expansion content. At the end, you will have a new Pioneer mining destroyer to launch your mining career.

This new arc will introduce the Catalyst expansion to pilots of all experience levels, and help new capsuleers set goals and discover some of the wonders of New Eden.

Just as new players could receive the Venture mining frigate by running through the industrialist career agent missions, new players can receive the new mining destroyer by running through an epic arc. Hopefully the developers will reveal how many players run through that arc in the first month or two.

Finally, soon after the launch of the expansion Access Control Lists (ACL) will receive an update to enable corporations to control who can see and contribute to specific Freelance Jobs.

That's a quick overview of the expansion. I probably will log into the game to run the new epic arc and check on the new mining mechanics. I'm interested to see if the new mining mechanics coming to EVE Frontier wind up in the original game. But for now Catalyst shows promise of being a good expansion.

Still A Lot To Do Two Weeks Into FFXIV's Patch 7.35

I am not two weeks into Final Fantasy XIV's patch 7.35. Amazingly looking back I haven't tried either the Monster Hunter Wilds crossover event or the latest installment of the Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures. Less surprisingly I haven't tried the latest deep dungeon,  Pilgrim's Traverse, or any PvP. What I have done is engage in what feels like a lot of catch-up.

The Yok Huy quests are almost complete

I am doing new content introduced in patch 7.35. The Yok Huy allied society quests are interesting. In FFXIV the allied society quests usually have some of the themes as the main story questline (MSQ). I should reach Sworn reputation with the Yok Huy this weekend and Bloodsworn in early November. 

The Branchbearer

One of the improvements is the return of mounts as an end reward for an allied society series of quests. For the Mamool Ja the Branchbearer Horn actually showed up for purchase once I reached Honored status. Such a beautiful mount really deserved more work put into obtaining it.

Next up is spending the next couple of weeks finishing off leveling my Trust NPCs. Currently I have 5 up to level 100: Alphinaud, Alisaie, Estinien, Thancred, and Y'shtola. G'raha Tia is level 96, Krile is level 95, and Urianger is down at level 91. My stash of ventures was down to just over 1700 and since I started leveling my Trust NPCs I'm back up to 2300. My retainer army uses a minimum of 126 ventures per week so upgrading my Trust characters also aids my retainers.

Another goal I have is to reach rank 4 in all Dawntrail with shared FATEs. In addition to unlocking the vendors in Tuliyollal and Solution Nine I had an additional motive. Despite playing for over 6 years my chocobo companion still has not reached level 20. Right now I'm at level 19 and hopefully the challenge log will help me finally max out my companion in the next three weeks.

Finally I have one more goal. I want to finally reach max reputation with all the Custom Deliveries NPCs. One of the problems with starting the game 6-7 years after launch is that in the rush to reach max level I missed a couple of things. In the case of Custom Deliveries I totally skipped over the four earliest NPCs: Zhloe Aliapoh, M'naago, Kurenai, Adkiragh, and Kai-Shirr. I'm currently working on M'naago and Kurenai, both from Stormblood, because they were on the timer list and thus I already qualified to start leveling them.

Of the five, only M'naago cannot be outfitted with glamour items. Yes, I want to change the world, even if only I can see it.

And finally, I still want to work toward the High Mobility Vacuum Suit one can earn by reaching 500,000 class points in all crafting and gathering classes in Cosmic Exploration. Currently I'm not even close but perhaps when I'm finished with some of the other goals I can make a dent in the monumental slog I've facing to get the suit.

Honestly I don't think I can complain about being bored before we get to patch 7.4 in 6-8 weeks. I have a full schedule of activities ahead of me not only until the next patch, but the next expansion as well.