Forza Leaked and Broke Every Record | Sony Kills PC Ports | $38B Saudi Gaming Bet | Gamified #161

THIS WEEK ON GAMIFIED: Forza Horizon 6 leaked before launch - then broke every franchise record. 172K concurrent on early access alone. 302K by end of week. Nearly 4x FH5's all-time peak.

Sony held a staff town hall: single-player first-party games are PS5 exclusive going forward. No more Steam ports. A direct reversal of a six-year trend.

Nintendo stock jumped 6.8% in three days. The reason? Investors rotating out of AI stocks into companies that aren't burning money on it.

Saudi Arabia deployed $38 billion into gaming through Savvy Gaming Group. The acquisition phase is done. Now what?

Amazon cancelled its Lord of the Rings MMO for the second time. Six days later, Warhorse Studios announced an open-world Middle-earth RPG.

Xbox hired Matthew Ball as Chief Strategy Officer. The most analytics-driven hire the console space has ever made. But can strategy decks fix Xbox?

Also... sorry for no episode last week - I got married!

CHAPTERS:

0:00 - Intro

2:42 - Forza Horizon 6: Did the Leak Actually Help? | Buy or Sell

16:26 - Saudi Arabia Spent $38B on Gaming | Sentiment Score

34:08 - LOTR Goes to Warhorse | What's the Word

49:53 - Can Matthew Ball Save Xbox? | What Are the Odds

1:04:27 - Sony Goes Full PS5 Exclusive, Kills PC Ports | Buy or Sell

Watch instead of listen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VswZ5WNNJKo

PANEL:

Kate Irwin (Veda) - https://x.com/kateirwin

Payton Kaleiwahea (Wolves Co / Kizuna) - https://x.com/paytkaleiwahea

Michael Christine (Andrometa) - https://x.com/MichaelSatoshi

Kohji Nagata (Parallel) - https://x.com/ParallelTCGpod

Gnoc (Digital Collectors Club) - https://x.com/itsGnoc

Omar Ghanem (Games.gg) https://x.com/yoitsOG

Host: Sam Steffanina - https://x.com/SamSteffanina