Destin Legarie Podcast | Save State Plus

Xbox is talking about a much bigger future: more games, more ways to play, FanFest, Hollywood adaptations, and major franchises like Minecraft, Fallout, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Halo, Blade, and The Elder Scrolls.But that future is coming at a very difficult time. Hardware sales are struggling, console prices are rising, studios are reportedly bracing for layoffs or restructuring, and Xbox leadership has already warned that sacrifices may be coming.So I wanted to look at the recent Entertainment Weekly Xbox at 25 piece with fresh eyes and talk about where Xbox says it wants to go, what may happen over the next 100 days, and whether this strategy actually solves the biggest problems facing the brand.

PlayStation is once again talking about its live service strategy, but the funny part is how much of this sounds like the same plan Sony has been pushing for years. In a new Famitsu interview, PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino talked about Sony’s continued interest in live service games, how the company views PS5 versus PC releases, and why single-player first-party games still appear to be PlayStation-first while live service games are more likely to launch across PS5 and PC.The bigger question is whether Sony has actually learned from what happened with Bungie, Concord, and the wider live service push, or if PlayStation is still trying to make the same strategy work with a slightly cleaner explanation.

I sat down with That’s No Moon to talk about their upcoming single-player reimagining of Crossfire, and what stood out most is how seriously the team is taking combat, cover, and story.This is not being pitched as a traditional cover shooter where you snap to waist-high walls and trade bullets until your health comes back. The team is building what they call adaptive cover, where your character reacts to enemy sightlines, organic geometry, and the environment around you. The goal is to make combat feel more lethal, more tactical, and more cerebral.We also talk about why the studio is taking such a big swing on its first project, how Unreal Engine 5 is enabling their approach, and why they believe story and gameplay need to be inseparable.

Xbox has announced another console price increase, with new worldwide pricing taking effect on August 1, 2026. According to Xbox, 512GB models are going up by $100, 1TB models are going up by $150, and the 2TB model is being sunset. Microsoft says rising storage and memory costs are driving the change, after Xbox already raised U.S. console prices last October.

Bungie is facing another brutal round of layoffs, with Sony confirming cuts across the studio, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon developers. Bungie says Destiny 2 fell short of expectations in recent years, and after its final content update, the studio could no longer operate at its previous size.The biggest question now is whether Bungie co-founder Jason Jones may be affected, after a WARN notice reportedly listed the Chief Vision Officer role as eliminated, which was Jones’ previously listed title.