Microsoft's 60,000 buyout: AI story or cost story? Plus our scariest Halloween games

Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 people. Is that an AI story or a cost story? Bloomberg reported the offer on Monday, and Greg's line is that 60,000 is the number eligible, not the number who will take it: offered, not laid off.

The panel does not agree. Simon Pulman says AI and cost cutting are the same thing at present. Colan Neese thinks coders are the exposed role in a world of AI agents. Stephen Lenz says people and verification still matter. Then the conversation turns to Call of Duty, and to every panelist's scariest Halloween games.

Greg Posner is joined by Simon Pulman of Pryor Cashman, Justin Ruiss of BWG Global, Colan Neese and Stephen Lenz.

IN THIS EPISODE

- Microsoft's buyout: who is eligible, what "offered, not laid off" means, and Justin's line that you can never cost cut your way to growth

- Simon on why AI and cost cutting look like the same thing right now

- Are coders the exposed role? Colan and Stephen on AI agents, and who checks the machine-written code

- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and whether it won players back by being good (Colan's read)

- The Call of Duty movie, and whether the franchise needs teenagers who are on Roblox and older, cheaper games

- Our scariest Halloween games: Simon's Gabriel Knight, Resident Evil 7, Visage and Until Dawn; Stephen's Left 4 Dead and F.E.A.R.; Justin's Silent Hill 2 and P.T.; Colan's The Room, Resident Evil 4 and Kingdom Hearts; and Greg's Silent Hill, a Titanic adventure game and SkiFree, which he insists is a yeti

- Where horror game attention goes: the top of the market and the long tail, and Colan's case that Dead by Daylight is the Fortnite of horror

- What's keeping us entertained, including Phantom Blade Zero

The figures and claims are the panelists' own opinions and recollections and have not been independently verified.

Never Entertained airs every Friday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/96Q7rJu9MVQ

Just want the horror? Watch the Halloween games cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NZHaSdobA

Read the full write-up: https://playerdriven.io/live/never-entertained-microsoft-buyouts-ai-or-cost-story?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=never-entertained-008

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