🍪 Shareholder Revolts, Union Probes, and Steam’s Review Rot

Hello there industry watchdogs, financially tired optimists. Today we’re looking at investors putting Square Enix on blast, Netflix shrugging at WB Games, a Prime Minister wading into Rockstar’s union mess, Saudi Arabia building a mega conference, Microsoft promising Windows will be “the best place to play,” and an indie publisher begging Valve to take hate reviews seriously.

Square Enix gets a 100 page “we need to talk” from its own investor

3D Investment Partners, which holds around 14 percent of Square Enix, went public with a 100 page presentation accusing the company of sluggish growth, weak margins, heavy impairment losses, and a leadership team that isn’t answering questions. They point to shrinking revenue across recent fiscal years, operating margins far below peers, and billions in write downs, including a huge loss right after new president Takashi Kiryu took over.

The firm says Square Enix’s HD and mobile segments are dragging the company down and that the current medium term plan is too vague to fix anything. Their attempts to get clarity from Kiryu reportedly resulted in a short email insisting the existing plan was “sufficient.” Now they’re rallying other shareholders to send in their “frank views.”

📢 “From FY2022/3 to FY2025/3, SQEX HD’s revenue growth rate was negative, and the company is the only one in its industry to record shrinking revenue.”

🦊 Kiki: This is what happens when “we’ll figure it out later” becomes a business model. Investors don’t drop a 100 slide PowerPoint because they’re slightly irritated. They do it when they believe leadership has lost the plot. If Square Enix doesn’t fix its portfolio focus and discipline, someone else will eventually force the decisions for them.

🍪 Chip is hovering over a stack of old Final Fantasy discs, clutching them like evacuation baggage.

Netflix calls WB Games “relatively minor” in an 82.7 billion dollar deal

Netflix’s massive acquisition of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Discovery’s streaming and studios division technically includes WB Games, but the company admitted it didn’t assign any value to the gaming division in its valuation model. Co CEO Greg Peters called WB Games “relatively minor in the grand scheme,” even though Hogwarts Legacy sold more than 34 million units and topped US sales in 2023.

Netflix said it’s pleased to have the teams and sees opportunity, but that opportunity isn’t part of the financial calculation. With hits and flops mixed across WB’s catalog, they’re clearly treating games as optional upside, not a core asset.

📢 “We didn’t attribute any value to the gaming division because it’s relatively minor compared to the grand scheme of things.”

🦊 Kiki: Imagine shipping the best selling game of 2023 and being told you’re “relatively minor” in an 80 billion dollar transaction. Traditional media still sees games as accessories, not engines. If WB Games wants respect, it needs predictable and recurring cashflow, not surprise hits that studios hope will cover the next flop.

🍪 Chip sticks a note that reads “34 million sold” onto Netflix’s spreadsheet and hopes someone sees it.

UK Prime Minister steps into Rockstar’s union busting row

Rockstar Games fired 31 UK employees in October, and the IWGB – Independent Workers Union of Great Britain union called it one of the most blatant union busting incidents the industry has seen. Now the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has publicly said the case is “deeply concerning” and that ministers will investigate what happened.

Reports suggest the “gross misconduct” accusations were tied to employees discussing workplace conditions and union topics in a Discord group after internal Slack channels were shut down. Protests have been ongoing outside Rockstar’s UK offices.

📢 “Every worker has the right to join a trade union. Our ministers will look into the case.”

🦊 Kiki: When your HR decisions reach Parliament, you’ve graduated from “PR issue” to “national case study.” If the findings show retaliation for organizing, it won’t stay a UK story. It becomes part of every global conversation about unions in games, and Rockstar will look hostile to the talent it depends on.

🍪 Chip is hiding behind a tiny picket sign that says “Don’t fire the people who make your games.”

Saudi Arabia launches Kingdom of Gaming conference for 2026

Saudi Arabia is introducing a new state backed event called Kingdom of Gaming, set for December 1 to 3, 2026 in Riyadh. The show is organized by Tahaluf, the joint venture between Informa, the group behind GDC Festival of Gaming, and the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones.

They’re aiming for 20,000 attendees, 500 studios, 200 investors, and at least 25 business deals. The event fits neatly into Saudi’s Vision 2030 strategy and its aggressive investment in global game companies and esports.

📢 “Riyadh is shifting from being a market for games to a place where games are made.”

🦊 Kiki: This is a soft power speedrun. Kingdom of Gaming isn’t just a conference. It’s the stage for Saudi’s push to become a global development hub. There’s opportunity for sure, funding and partnerships, but also the obvious ethical homework. Anyone flying to Riyadh in 2026 should know their red lines before stepping into the VIP lounge.

🍪 Chip is juggling gold coins and ethics handbooks and dropping both.

Microsoft wants Windows to be “the best place to play” in 2026

Microsoft says Windows 11 gaming improved significantly in 2025 and outlined upgrades coming in 2026. Xbox Full Screen Experience is expanding beyond handhelds, Advanced Shader Delivery will support more devices, and Auto Super Resolution, an OS level AI upscaler, is arriving first on the ROG Xbox Ally X next year.

Microsoft is also focusing on power management, scheduling, graphics stack optimizations, and stability improvements to keep Windows dominant as SteamOS and other challengers mature.

📢 “We’re committed to making Windows the best place to play.”

🦊 Kiki: Promising to make Windows “the best place to play” is like McDonald’s promising to “try burgers.” You already own the space. Now stop tripping over your own updates. Full Screen Experience and proper shader preloading are the kinds of quiet fixes players feel immediately. If Microsoft treated stability with the same passion as it treats Copilot, this slogan might finally land.

🍪 Chip is curled up on a handheld, enjoying his first ever shader preload nap.

Indie publisher asks: “Why does Valve allow this?”

Publisher No More Robots founder Mike Rose shared how the indie sandbox game Little Rocket Lab briefly lost its “Overwhelmingly Positive” recent score after two hateful and off topic reviews complained that the game was “woke” and contained Muslims. He replied telling those players to never play his games again and questioned why Valve corporation allows such reviews to meaningfully impact a rating.

Valve’s moderation tools exist, but in practice a lot of abusive or irrelevant reviews linger long enough to hurt small games before they’re removed, if they’re removed at all. The score eventually bounced back, but not before the damage and the discourse.

📢 “I’m just so tired of this. Valve does nothing. Everyone can see it’s getting worse.”

🦊 Kiki: Steam wants to be hands off, but when your store is a monopoly, “hands off” is a choice with consequences. There’s a big difference between someone saying a game handled its themes poorly and someone knocking it down just because it includes a certain group of people. One is criticism. The other is hate speech dressed up as feedback. The tricky part is that both often land in the same review box. Maybe reviews that touch on sensitive topics should require more context, so readers can see whether the issue is the writing or just the reviewer’s bias. Right now, they get mixed together, and indies pay the price for it.

🍪 Chip is holding a tiny clipboard and trying to separate “actual critique” from “someone having a meltdown,” but the papers keep collapsing into one pile anyway.

• Stay activist, like 3D Investment pushing Square Enix to wake up.

• Keep ambitious, like Riyadh trying to build a global games hub.

• And remember, if you don’t control the story, someone else will write it for you.

Tips, rants or tea here!

🦁 Leo