Nathan Grayson

@nathangrayson

Co-founder and reporter @. Beats: labor, livestreaming. My book about Twitch, Stream Big, is available now. Formerly: The Washington Post. Send tips to nathan@ or nathangrayson.666 on Signal

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Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· 21d

there were so many better options

A bunch of ultra-rare Pokémon cards
An election
Citizenship in Malta
A ticket to outer space
A basketball that’s selling for $320,722 on Amazon, specifically
The original Breakfast At Tiffany’s script
A year’s worth of food and supplies for multiple families in your community (assuming you, the person who bought the jacket, have a community in any real sense and do not instead own, like, a company town—or a prison)
The Doom bathroom (give or take $88,000)
101,327 lbs or 50.7 tons of cheesecake bites (according to Isaiah’s math, which I do not feel like double checking)
1/400 of Gabe Newell’s biggest yacht
A struggling indie game studio
Most—but not quite all—of the games on Steam
Other jackets Jensen Huang might want in the future, but you dedicate your life to buying them before he can, filling his days with disappointment
A flamethrower, to burn all of Jensen Huang’s jackets
Aftermath

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· 22d

in my max payne 3 era

me in a floral print shirt and pink sunglasses

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· 24d

cum dungeon!

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· 25d

microsoft is in full damage control mode following last week's layoffs. its main strategy so far? namedrop sequels to popular series at every turn. but despite what execs like asha sharma might want you to think, those series were made by people, and now they'll never be the same

Todd Howard just shared plans for the Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Starfield franchises. These worlds have earned a special place with hundreds of millions of people over many years. I'm looking forward to what's next, including the partnership with Obsidian on a new Fallout game and closer collaboration with ZeniMax Online Studios on The Elder Scrolls. The achievements of these franchises are remarkable: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has crossed 65 million units sold, becoming one of the 10 best-selling games of all time, Fallout 4 has also crossed 35 million units sold, joining the top 25, and Starfield will soon reach over 1 billion hours played.
This statement sucks so bad that it makes my blood boil. Look what the franchises did, all by themselves! Look what they’ve accomplished, of their own volition, thanks to their own intrinsic goodness! So many big numbers, which translate to giant heaps of cash in the bank accounts of execs and shareholders! Never mind the people who spent decades painstakingly crafting the many games, stories, and other creative endeavors that corporate ghouls now so happily flatten into “franchises,” erasing themes, meaning, and human beings in favor of empty iconography.

This is how the people running the show at Xbox—and countless companies besides—view games, not to mention everything else in their robotic, colorless lives. Numbers and lines trending ever upward. Fuel for platitudes and faux-inspirational nonsense directed at the LinkedIn hivemind, of which they all paradoxically believe they’re the main character. Another stepping stone toward the next bigger, better thing. No ultimate destination, no camaraderie, no soul. Just an endless ladder that leads to the void regardless of which way you climb.

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· 25d

however, unions and the workers they represent say this is just the beginning

Legal action, though, is just one part of unions’ larger effort to hold Microsoft accountable for its decision to lay off thousands of workers. This week, CWA also hosted a series of “Save Our Devs” demonstrations outside the offices of affected studios like Zenimax, id Software, Bethesda, and Obsidian.

“I think we are trying to put pressure on [Microsoft] from as many angles as possible,” a current Blizzard employee and union member told Aftermath. “Evidently keeping it internal is not enough.”

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· 25d

cwa and cwa canada have filed unfair labor practice charges against microsoft following last week's layoffs. but this is far from the first time they've done so, and the regulatory situation around these things in the US right now is... not great!

This is not CWA’s first time taking legal action against Microsoft and its subsidiaries. In 2025, CWA publicly announced that it had filed an unfair labor practice charge against Activision for allegedly disciplining a Raven Software employee for communicating about bargaining. It appears to have been withdrawn by the NLRB a couple months later. The NLRB’s database also includes a few other open cases filed by CWA against Activision—one from 2025 and two from 2026. Additionally, there are five open cases against Zenimax (not including today's), three from CWA. Also in 2025, CWA Canada filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Bethesda Game Studios for what it deemed unfair bargaining with Canadian employees and “choosing to treat Canada-based employees like second-class citizens.” It is unclear whether or not the case has been resolved.

Currently, the US’ National Labor Relations Board is dealing with a “historic” backlog of cases after 2025 saw Donald Trump take the then-unprecedented step of firing Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox, costing the five-member board its quorum of at least three members and preventing it from deciding cases for nearly a year. The board has traditionally been overseen by two Democrats, two Republicans, and a chair from the president’s party, and with Trump’s nominee recently getting cleared by a Senate panel, it’s looking like Republicans will soon have a 3-1 NLRB advantage. This does not bode well for Biden-era NLRB decisions that encouraged union organizing—nor for unions in general.

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· 27d

recent criticism of microsoft has mostly focused on layoffs ravaging beloved game studios, but I’ve been told that internal product teams were also hit hard, with some who worked on the original xbox and xbox 360 losing their jobs

Current employees speaking to Aftermath on the condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak publicly, noted that internal Xbox product teams were also hit hard by last week’s layoffs, with some losing 30-40 percent of their staff. This includes, one current employee said, “people who were responsible for the original Xbox and Xbox 360.”
“Xbox in general had a lot of incredible people who stuck around for a very long time,” the current employee told Aftermath. “It’s the only way that we’ve been able to ship consoles which work well despite us always being on a shoestring budget. Tons of institutional knowledge, people stretched thin, and not enough time to properly document things, and Asha and her new leadership team have no trust in or respect [for] the value those people brought to the business. While they correctly diagnosed a shitshow, they don’t know or care to learn about why it’s so bad, and so they’re wildly blowing everything up since they’re too lazy or uncurious to actually listen to the teams who have struggled under the previous incompetent leadership teams.”

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 11

nathermath

aftermath's frontpage with stories exclusively by me

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 11

after 13 years and multiple industry upheavals, warframe is still here. not only that, it's about to release its most ambitious update yet: tau, a whole new star system. but as recent events have shown us, nothing lasts forever. warframe's developers know that all too well

Warframe, which began as a humble co-op space ninja shooter and evolved into a sprawling sci-fi epic with too many gameplay systems to count and one of the most dedicated communities in video games, has proven remarkably resilient in an era where live-service games drop like flies. Even Destiny 2—to which Warframe is often (if erroneously) compared—met what basically amounted to its untimely end earlier this year.

"Games as a service, it's a scary world. We've been doing it for 13 years, and we have no secret formula. We have no cheat code."
And of course, Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs remains all too fresh on everyone’s minds as hardware prices skyrocket and Sony adapts by killing physical discs. Change is afoot, with traditional triple-A games looking more and more like a potential casualty. No one is safe and nothing is sacred. Not even a seemingly unshakable pillar like Warframe.

“It’s fucking awful, what’s happening in this industry,” community director Megan Everett told Aftermath during a recent interview. “I feel very lucky to be working on this game and to have this dev team and the community that we’ve built, because I’m no stranger to the fact that it could all end tomorrow. Games as a service, it's a scary world. We've been doing it for 13 years, and we have no secret formula. We have no cheat code. We have just stayed in our little Canadian homebrew lane, put our heads down, and really tried to make this game what we want and what our community wants it to be.”

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 11

(rebb is not in attendance this year bc of an unfortunately timed surgical procedure)

rebbford
To the Tenno:
Tennocon is my most anticipated event of the year - we are working every day to make sure we have an exciting Warframe reveal, but sadly, I will not be there in person to tell you about it.
Since November 2025, I have been privately dealing with an unexpected health issue that I learned would require major surgery to treat. I planned the required medical preoperative steps as best I could to have the surgery take place after Tennocon. But luck was not on my side - my operation is scheduled for July 10, the Friday of Tennocon. I will be in the hospital for 3 days post-op, then undergo a 6-week recovery. It should be very boring, and I should be very fine. The timing is what sucks, but I need the surgery.
This is plainly devastating for me at a selfish level - spending time with the community after months of hard work and reveals is a gift, and this year I'm missing out. But the team won't be missing out - the event will be incredible, and I will be watching from the recovery room, taking care of my health. I hope you can hear me cheering on my Digital Extremes people and our players.
Thank you for understanding,
Rebecca (Rebb) Ford
P.S: If the date changes, you'll be (almost) the first to know!
741
46
rebbford A notice regarding my attendance at TennoCon 2026:
6 minutes ago

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 11

seems like tennocon is going well

ben starr in a wig and a shirt that says "definitely rebecca ford"

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 11

updated my post with more great runs

video of sgdq's balatro run followed by the text: "Anxiety inducing. Brain breaking. Probably the best run of the entire event."

video of sgdq's "return to gaza" mini doc followed by the text: "Not a run, but an incredibly affecting, humanizing portrayal of people in Gaza."

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 10

despite cutting id in half both at home and abroad, microsoft and id continue to insist that the studio has a future creating its own games aftermath.site/xbox-layoffs...

The id Tech engine, regarded by many as a miracle of optimization, has been a point of concern following recent layoffs. Some employees have claimed that Microsoft tossed crucial institutional knowledge about its basic functions out the window, effectively killing it. In a statement posted to Twitter today, id contested that characterization of events:

While our studio was impacted, those changes were spread across teams. We still have the crew we need to build the games and tech we're known for. The team today is about the same size we were when making DOOM (2016). We have always had a flat studio where everyone is a maker, and we will remain true to that philosophy moving forward.
We are focused on supporting each other and the team members impacted. We're going to keep building the great games and tech that have defined us for the past 35 years, and we're looking forward to seeing you at QuakeCon this August.
In a statement to Kotaku earlier this week, Microsoft claimed that the id Tech engine, specifically, is in no danger of going extinct: “There are dozens of people working on id Tech across multiple locations,” an Xbox spokesperson said. “Reports that there’s only one person left in Texas are inaccurate.” (A Microsoft spokesperson sent the same statement to Aftermath today following a request for comment.)

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 10

id's frankfurt office, which mostly focuses on the id tech engine, has been hit by layoffs. I've been told that half were let go today, in line with other locations earlier this week. this follows concern that the engine itself could be on the chopping block (which id and microsoft have refuted)

Current and former id Software employees informed Aftermath of layoffs at the Frankfurt office, saying that six of twelve of id workers were let go, in line with what happened to the rest of id earlier this week. Layoffs also affected Bethesda employees working out of the same office.

Even prior to layoffs, id's Frankfurt operation was small, comprising a dozen employees across multiple departments like art and programming, with the majority working on id’s engine team. The remaining six, current and former employees told Aftermath, work on the engine. Following layoffs, Frankfurt is now home to the majority of id's id Tech engineers, with two others residing in Dallas. That said, other Zenimax studios also work on the id Tech engine.

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 10

need I say more

a wind waker race with a person on the couch dressed as tingle

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 10

GDQ events always make me feel better about games, people, and the world, but this week especially

Everything is bad, with new horrors revealing themselves by the day. But you know what isn’t bad? Speedrunning.

Summer Games Done Quick, the balmy, beachy (at least, by Minneapolis standards) edition of GDQ’s bi-annual charity mega-marathon, has been in full swing since Sunday. It could not be happening at a better and also worse time. The video game industry is on fire in the conflagratory sense; if not for this 24/7 reminder of the fact that games can be good and be used to do good, I’d be losing my mind.

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 9

I take pride in my work

‪Ed Lynch‬
‪@goatburgler.bsky.social‬
· 22m
Someone went through the vid frame by frame to get that exact screenshot. Let them know their work is appreciated.

‪Xavier‬
‪@xavierck.com‬
· 16m
I came to the comments to mention this exactly.

It's truly inspired work.

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 9

lol, lmao

Sharma, whose hobbies include masochism, weird natalist bullshit, and collaborating with other execs to sort of just wing their way through the wanton destruction of 3,200 people’s livelihoods, will be one of three heads of a task force designed to “assess the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, to inform the Federal Reserve's policy judgments.”

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 9

bleak

News
Layoffs Hit GameSpot Again
It's the fifth round of layoffs since the company was purchased by Fandom

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 9

hardly the worst part of this, but an utterly needless shovelful of salt in the wound

According to Insider Gaming, the Barcelona studio’s launch celebration event for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced was downgraded to a smaller catered “get-together at the studio.” The game itself, meanwhile, is already the best reviewed one in the series in over a decade, and seems poised to be a big seller for Ubisoft in an otherwise anemic year for new releases from the French publisher.

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 8

doom and quake studio id software was reportedly working on multiple new project pitches before this week's layoffs, which according to a WARN notice reduced headcount by 136. now? nobody knows

Prior to the layoffs, id was reportedly working on multiple project pitches, including a Western-style robot game, a cyberpunk Chicago “gun fu” game, and a new Perfect Dark. Now nothing is certain.

“We have gotten no studio-wide announcements on what our expectations are going forward after these awful cuts,” a current id employee told Aftermath. “I wouldn't say no one knows how to use the engine anymore, but there are large gaps now. Our colleagues at id Frankfurt as well as Machine Games both have much stronger labor laws and haven't seen the layoffs we have. But within id many things will have to be relearned by new people or outright abandoned.”

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 7

more information on how layoffs have impacted microsoft studios continues to trickle out. today I've confirmed that blizzard china suffered layoffs, and id software lost around half its staff just as it released dlc that required "significant" crunch

“Today was actually the launch of our DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages,” a current id employee told Aftermath. “What was supposed to be a celebratory day after a long effort including significant crunch is now largely a day of mourning. Entire teams have been gutted or even outright eliminated, with institutional knowledge lost that can't be replaced. I don't even know our ability to put out fixes for today's launch if they are needed, let alone new projects.”

“All but one person who helped run all our old titles was let go,” they added. “Passionate fans of id since before working there trying to keep our legacy alive now won't be able to do so, and for some that has been as painful as the job loss itself.”

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 7

love it when people make these kinds of requests on music subreddits, bc it’s like, oh, you’re just gonna tell us all your issues, huh

r/posthardcore
Songs about shitty mothers

Nathan Grayson@nathangrayson· Jul 6

been talking to current and former employees of microsoft-owned studios all day, and the prognosis is grim: zenimax, bethesda, obsidian, id, and activision have all taken big hits, while blizzard seemingly remains safe... for now. but how long that, or anything, lasts is anyone's guess