Welcome back to your monthly report of game news, where I do my best to compile everything into one convenient ad-free place, so you don’t have to worry about the pesky cracks that info can fall through at other publications.
Thanks and credit for the banner image as always goes to the Avocado’s one and only Space Robot!
June 25th: During Nintendo’s annual main shareholders meeting, Takashi Tezuka clarified that he was only retiring from his executive officer position at Nintendo, he isn’t leaving the company as a whole. In fact, he remains an active game producer and will be able to more fully focus on that task without the executive duties.
July 1st: In the wake of GTA6 being officially revealed as the highest profile digital-only/code-in-box video game launch in history and already seeing what it widely understood to be tens of millions of preorder sales completely undeterred by that status, Sony and PlayStation released an announcement it had been preparing since 2024: PlayStation 5 4K Blu-Ray discs are being wholly discontinued in January 2028, effectively killing a majority of physical video game media since Xbox uses the very same discs and companies can’t reproduce the discs without Sony’s permission or involvement. This should be understood not only as damaging to hardcore hobbyists like myself, but actually damaging to most of the global gaming market as the USA is only country where digital purchases actually make up the vast majority of game sales, some Western countries are only just starting to skew in that direction and the rest of world is around 50/50 or skewed even higher towards physical purchases due to their weaker online infrastructures. Asia and Latin America actually make for more total video gamers than the US and Europe. The PSN store is infamously not even available in over 120 countries that contribute to the video game ecosystem! The strategy of accepting the limits of audience expansion and pivoting towards squeezing more money out of the existing audience is being taken to such an extreme as effectively shutting out hundreds of millions of people from the ecosystem entirely. Sony has dismissed the international market and over-prioritized the US for a long time, as seen with how even their PC ports were denied to the entire massive sector of active markets that don’t have PSN.
A report emerged shortly after the announcement to illustrate how irreversibly large-scale and long-term Sony’s preparations for this moment, saying that the factory based in Thalgau, Austria where the vast majority of Blu-ray manufacturing occurs has been in the process of converting to focusing on optical microlens manufacturing since 2024, with many millions of dollars already spent on that effort and a potential mass production start of 2027. A semi-viral claim among gaming commentators suggested that those microlenses are used in genAI datacenters, but I have yet to find evidence to back up the claim, it always loops back to that same comment by Josh Fairhurst, who I think was confusing them with the microLEDs in this Microsoft post. The original report also had a critical error due to mistranslation or something else: rather than reducing its production capacity of Blu-Ray discs to just 10%, it will instead reduce by 10% percent, as blu-ray manufacturing for film and television and reprints for existing video games will remain in steady volume for now.
At the same time as PS5 discs announcement, PlayStation also announced that the PS3 and PS Vita digital storefronts are being completely shut down in July 2027, over 20 and 15 years respectively since the consoles’ launches, with the rollout starting by targeting Latin America and the Middle East as of August 2026. This is famously Sony’s second attempt at killing these stores, coming five years after the announcement was originally made in March 2021 before being reversed a few weeks later due to heavy backlash. It’s clear that the decision will not be reversed this time. Redownloads of existing purchases will remain indefinitely available as has been the case on Nintendo and Xbox’s older digital games, but this remains illustrative of one of the biggest problems with discontinuing physical media: it enacts vastly greater control over our choice in how we purchase media, it means we are entirely at the mercy of what these corporations provide access to and how they price said purchases. There will be no workarounds for playing games released by deeply unethical parent companies like Microsoft and the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Heavily altered or objectively worse rereleases become the only available method of playing classic games. Price control over games becomes far more rigid, further affecting their affordability at a time of great economic unrest.
external disc drives, disc-to-digital program,
Tom Warren reported that Microsoft is in advanced development and testing on an account-locked disc-to-digital program, that would read Xbox One and Xbox Series discs and create digital copies useable even when the disc is removed, which allow disc owners to move and use their libraries on digital-only hardware, a way to retain at least some users in the transition to the likely digital-only next-gen hardware that is allegedly still coming from Xbox. Microsoft insists it hasn’t finalized its decision on a disc drive for Project Helix yet, but color me skeptical to put it lightly. After further leaks about this program throughout the summer, it was finally officially announced on August 26th. The disc remains useable after its independent digital license has been created, but that license appears to be one-use only, unable to be copied multiple times from the same disc. At the start, many major third parties had yet to opt into the program, but as of this writing, over 1500 games are confirmed to support disc-to-digital conversion after both Ubisoft and Sega started supporting it shortly after launch. While it doesn’t apply to every delisted game as seen with older Forza games, many physical copies of games already delisted from the digital store do also support this program, as seen with such games as Deadpool, Minecraft: Story Mode, Rock Band 4, and Titanfall.
I only bring this up here for the highly theoretical prospect that Sony could develop the same tech or license it from Microsoft in the future, but there hasn’t been any indication that Sony is considering that, its messaging to all the backlash in the months since this announcement has been that it isn’t wavering in the slightest from the decision to essentially kill physical media for good.
Jason Schreier reported for Bloomberg that the Krafton/Unknown Worlds saga has fully ended with the lawsuit being settled and Ted Gill leaving the studio again after the game launched to great success and the developers received the massive payout Krafton was trying to avoid. The bonus compensation was revealed to now be even higher than the initial $250 million contracted, and will be distributed among every worker including those hired after all this mess started. Krafton is looking for new external leadership to appoint to Unknown Worlds.
July 2nd: Microsoft established a new $2.5 billion genAI subsidiary right before undergoing its latest mass-bloodletting at Xbox.
The Brazilian government got in on the ratings board leak game with one of the highest profile leaks I’ve ever seen in this format: Nintendo’s Metroid Ravenous was briefly posted on the website before being quickly taken down, where it was stated that 41 minutes of footage were reviewed for violent and light sexual(?!) content. We now of course have confirmed that this is indeed the 2D Metroid 6 by Mercury Steam it was widely suspected to be, after it was officially announced in the September Nintendo Direct. his game is understood to be the 2D Metroid 6 I’ve repeatedly reported is coming from Mercury Steam. It was greenlit immediately off Dread’s record-setting success in 2021 and Sakamoto’s continued flow of new ideas, and developed in a two team structure alongside last year’s Blades of Fire.
Frictional Games and publisher Kepler delayed their sci fi horror game Ontos to 2027. More recently, Frictional accidentally leaked that they will be releasing a remake of their original breakout hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent before the end of the year.
In the midst of its ongoing financial meltdown, Nacon officially sold the entire Warhammer Blood Bowl license to wargame company Slitherine Software, who sells war simulation software to defense contractors and the US military. Slitherine will now publish the latest Blood Bowl video game, which is arriving later this year as an override patch to Blood Bowl 3.
July 3rd: During the Anime Expo, WayForward announced that the seventh mainline Shantae game is targeting a 2027 launch, while debuting a redesign of the titular character. At the end of month a report at MP1st claimed that WayForward was also working on a 2.5D brawler based on Cyberpunk Edgerunners since 2025, but its status is known as it could be the canceled partner game WayForward mentioned when announcing layoffs last year.
July 5th: In preparation for its ultimate August 6th launch, Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls had its launch build readied on PC, which SteamDB revealed to block a whopping 132 countries from sale due to that all-too-familiar problem of Sony requiring PlayStation Network account access for its PC ports despite not providing PSN to most countries around the world. ArcSys Works was able to update this regional blocklist ahead of launch, making the game available in countries like Pakistan and The Philippines but still blocking a total of 116 countries from purchase.
Nintendo officially announced the launch of its Switch 2 console and controller revisions to comply with the European Union’s regulations about replaceable batteries in consumer electronics. Switch 1 Joy-cons will also have a new compliant model, but the Switch 1 console itself will actually be discontinued exclusively in the EU as of February 2027, marking the beginning of the end for one of the most successful gaming devices ever made.
July 6th: Microsoft finally announced the widely reported layoffs and reorganization for Xbox, which are widespread and devastating though also not as extreme as some of the rumors born from this chaotic, last-minute decision-making. 6400 people will be fired by Microsoft during this new fiscal year, with 3200 coming from Xbox: 1600 Xbox employees were fired immediately after the announcement, and 1600 more will depart from either divestment or firing over the next 12 months. Hundreds of people are just living with an axe over their heads for the next year: Jason Schreier singled out Blizzard Entertainment as an internal studio who was told they’d simply have to wait for future communication to know what will happen to them.
Five core studios are part of those longer term departures, names that had consistently come up in the reporting ahead of the official news: Double Fine, Compulsion, Undead Labs, Ninja Theory, and Arkane Lyon will all stop being first party Xbox developers in the near future. Double Fine and Compulsion are returning to private self-ownership as fully independent studios, while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are negotiating with undisclosed partners to be bought out. Arkane Lyon has only just now begun the negotiations to determine its future that the other teams are already nearly finished with; French labor laws require the studio cannot be shutdown without warning, require direct consultation from the French government, and require exhaustive procedure before any final sale or closure is reached.
In addition to the layoffs, Xbox is once again majorly restructuring itself around its biggest franchises and around Activision Blizzard King as its most valuable subsidiary. ZeniMax is now squarely focused on five series from Bethesda and idSoft: Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, and Quake. Gone are the days of Rage, Evil Within, Dishonored, and let’s face it, Starfield. Activision is being prioritized, doubling down on Call of Duty and Blizzard as their only current financial pillars.
It feels telling that the biggest targets of these events are all the early victims of Phil Spencer’s acquisition spree; those purchases were about securing unique offerings to strengthen Game Pass’ catalog, and now they’re all being shed with fast and vicious efficiency once the purpose they served was abandoned with an inevitable reversion to Microsoft’s usual corporate values, maximally efficient mass market-oriented product. Of course that’s only an illusory efficiency imagined by tech cultists and MBAs, artists told to do what the bosses want and do more with less until they’re cut to the bone, not anything actually practical. All these small artists were inevitably dwarfed and destroyed by the larger trophies of Zenimax and Activision Blizzard King that were a far more natural fit for Microsoft. This snapback in progress was not created but only accelerated by the fusion between abominations that was Xbox-ABK forming in 2023. Tim Schafer recently revealed that he was highly skeptical of the offer and negotiated the option to leave with all his games intact into the initial contract, because he saw the writing on the wall, the material conditions that allowed for risk-taking projects like Pentiment and Keeper would never last.
As part of the contracts negotiated for these arrangements, both studios leave with full ownership and control over their respective IPs; Double Fine still has its myriad of games from Psychonauts to Keeper, and the same goes for Compulsion with its three projects, Contrast, We Happy Few, and South of Midnight. They are also contracted to receive “runway funding” from Microsoft. On August 20th, Compulsion Games completed their severance from Microsoft and removed the company as publisher on Steam for all three of its games. Double Fine followed on August 21st, and on September 1st Microsoft was removed on the console store pages for all games from both companies, leaving Compulsion and Double Fine as their sole publishers.
Unfortunately, on September 22nd in the midst of the next wave of layoffs and changes by Microsoft, we also got bad news for Undead Labs, Ninja Theory, and Arkane: None of them have actually been able to secure a buyer in the past few months despite Microsoft’s original press release making it sound like deals for the former two had already been finalized. Undead Labs was almost bought by multiplayer shooter studio Splash Damage with backing from their private equity fund, but that deal died. Two separate potential deals for Ninja Theory fell through, perhaps because of the same kind of hardball negotiations by Microsoft that helped kill Perfect Dark. For Undead Labs, this has led to the studio buying itself out and going independent like DF and Compulsion, leaving itself without any safety net and forced to engage in layoffs like Double Fine, but in a creatively beneficial position. Ninja Theory, however, is expected to shut down completely and cancel Senua after all once Microsoft completes employee consultations required by UK labor law. For Arkane, the only official word is that “consultation remains underway and is expected to continue through the end of the year.”
Double Fine has been making a lot of announcements since completing its independence, including a major update and permanent pricecut to $8 for Kiln, and the return of the Amnesia Fortnight Game Jams, where fans will vote on several prototypes to turn one into a released game. Amnesia Fortnight is being supported by an already successful Kickstarter campaign. On September 5th, Double Fine revealed their first mini-game from their Action Labs label for Peak-style quick turnaround projects: Thank You Bus Driver!, a Crazy Taxi esque bus driving game which includes enforcing bus rules and discipline to passengers, and will launch for PC on October 14th. However, not everything for Double Fine has been positive so far: 23 people out of around 90 in the previous total were fired to manage the costs of the studio’s San Francisco-based salaries, reaching a ‘sustainable’ size for their current status.
Reporting has confirmed that among the immediate 1600 workers fired, idSoft, Obsidian Entertainment, and Zenimax Online Studios are among the most heavily affected. 213 people at the Elder Scrolls Online team were fired, reducing their size by almost half which has led to a major scaledown of production and support plans for the MMO. An astounding 136 workers out of less than 200 total were fired at Id, reducing the studio to almost only being capable of providing support to a primary Zenimax team like MachineGames or Bethesda. Dozens of workers at the core Bethesda Game Studios teams working on Elder Scrolls 6, Starfield support, Fallout 5 pre-production, etc. were also fired, and a tribute set up for them at the HQ by their remaining colleagues was quickly and forcibly torn down.
The union at id is all but gone after the majority of its members were among those fired. They were hit with this right after suffering brutal crunch in order to ship a paid expansion to Doom: The Dark Ages on time. At least the speculation that the exceptional proprietary idTech engine was being retired in favor of further Unreal 5 adoption has been thankfully soundly rejected, but so much of the expertise that went into that engine’s design will still have to be abandoned without anyone to pass it on anymore.
Roughly 70 people at Obsidian were ultimately affected, including senior talent across all divisions from writing to art to producing to design and programming and even the company’s only recruiter. That equals a fourth of the entire studio, which put them into panic mode over how they’ll continue with their projects. Grounded 2 and Outer Worlds 2 DLC support will continue, but several early projects, and an iterative sequel to Avowed in advance development, were canceled in favor of transitioning Obsidian away from original ideas and towards support on the core franchise that online gamers had been hounding it about for years. Obsidian will now be making a brand new Fallout project led by Josh Sawyer, one that Microsoft wants out as fast as possible to make up for how long Fallout 5 will take, and the studio was formally reorganized to be under Zenimax/Bethesda management as well. To further extend the efforts to fan pander and paper over just how forcibly and harmfully this change was made, Microsoft went ahead and officially announced Fallout 3 Remastered and Fallout New Vegas Remastered, both produced in the same way was Oblivion Remastered, well before they’re ready to release.
Bethesda’s union has filed a legal complaint for violating Canadian labor laws, accusing Microsoft of abruptly and fully terminating workers in July, immediately cutting health benefits and providing the minimum severance pay with no room for negotiation after publicly and privately stating just 11 days earlier that they would remain employed with benefits until September while severance was negotiated. Obsidian is also facing legal action over labor law violations: a class action lawsuit unfolding since last year started by Outer Worlds 2 QA Lead Victoria Turner, which alleges a systemic pattern of underpaying and overworking employees, including unpaid overtime, unpaid severance, and failing to provide meal/rest breaks.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was a greater critical and commercial success than Doom: The Dark Ages, and that plays a big role in why Machine Games has received massive preferential treatment compared to their sister studio id. But there’s a less obvious factor to keep in mind as well: Machine’s next main project is confirmed to be Wolfenstein 3, and a Wolfenstein TV series at Amazon was greenlit simultaneously with the game last year, as I’ve previously reported. Sony and Nintendo have increasingly branched out their gaming divisions into multimedia entertainment, with Sony explicitly announcing that entertainment is its priority over electronics as it formally quit the Consumer Electronics Show on September 28th.
The evidence is everywhere that Microsoft is initiating a large-scale multimedia licensing strategy like its competitors, with the massive success of Fallout on Amazon and A Minecraft Movie at Warner Bros followed by development progressing on Gears of War and Call of Duty movies. These are the launchpad for something much wider scope: an industry report suggests that Microsoft is pitching a package of IPs to major studios like Netflix, Paramount, and Universal at an ambitiously high price of $300 million, and just weeks after Diablo and World of Warcraft (plus Halo and Elder Scrolls) were cited in said report, a Diablo animated series from Netflix was officially announced at BlizzCon with Overwatch and Warcraft explicitly said to be in early discussions for adaptations as well, so maybe Microsoft has already found its partner for a suite of Xbox inspired TV shows and movies.
I already discussed the fallout of Microsoft killing its third party publishing deals at length in the previous roundup, but one partnership that didn’t fit under that umbrella was the contractor-led Project Ekur, an unannounced multiplayer-only Halo spinoff project that has been fully canceled even though the franchise’s competitive multiplayer branch is stuck in the dwindling player bases from Master Chief Collection and Infinite, since the new remake line only has campaign co op. Another smaller story out of this horrible mess is that Microsoft quietly made an arrangement with an already closed subsidiary: after being shuttered back in 2024 as part of the post-ABK buyout cuts, Mighty Doom/mobile developer Alpha Dog Games has newly reopened as an independent company after buying itself back from Xbox.
July 8th: A streamer publicly accused voice actor Craig Burnatowski, who plays Albert Wesker in Resident Evil 4 Remake and probably RE Veronica, of sexual violence with lasting injury during a romantic relationship that ended earlier this year. A fan convention in Poland occurring just days later responded quickly by canceling Burnatowski’s appearance at the event.
Almost two years after we received a legal threat from him, Christopher Barrett’s second lawsuit against Sony and Bungie has ended with him getting a generous settlement of putting his name back in the credits for Marathon.
Ubisoft randomly announced that their latest racing game The Crew Motorfest will release for Switch 2 on October 8th 2026, three years after its original launch.
July 9th: EA is back in hot water over sleazy business tactics, this time with EA College Football 27 receiving a multi-layered controversy: a feature to speed up XP gain in the series’ single player offline modes was replaced this year with microtransactions to achieve the same result, microtransactions intentionally hidden in the game’s review and preview builds to skew reception. EA has already announced plans to remove the microtransactions.
GameSpot announced that it was firing at least ten people, with the entire nine person commerce team and VP Chris Grant all confirmed to be lost. However, at the same time, yet another new independent games journalism outlet has emerged from the ashes of establishment media: Respec was launched by former VG24/7 editors Tom Orry and Alex Donaldson after they were fired by Ziff Davis earlier this year.
After previously releasing on PC and Xbox earlier this year, Strange Scaffold shadowdropped Switch and Switch 2 ports of Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator, the sequel to Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator. Team lead Xalavier Nelson Jr. promised more Switch 2 ports coming in the future. On July 29th 2026, Strange Scaffold revealed and launched their next brand new game, Truck-kun Supporting Me From Another World?! on PC and Xbox Series S|X. This game is a parody of isekai media, taking the trope of a car crash sending a character to a fantasy world and having the player act as a truck driver doing tasks in a 3D sandbox racing environment in order to empower their fantasy hero counterpart. The game’s Switch 2 port was then released on September 14th.
Sunset Visitor’s 1000xResist was rated by the ESRB for Switch 2, and on August 17th the Switch 2 port was officially announced by GoNintendo to be releasing August 20th with a free upgrade for existing owners, while a FanGamer physical release of the PS5 and Switch 2 ports will be coming.
July 10th: Both SK Hynix and Samsung, as two of the three main RAM manufacturers, explicitly and publicly stated that the component pricing crisis will get worse in 2027 and will last until at least 2028 or even 2030.
July 11th: MindsEye developers began protesting outside their employer’s office during an all expenses paid fan event which brought out influencers to try the game’s next big update, due to so much money going to influencers and marketing and not the hundreds of workers the studio has fired.
July 13th: Square Enix abruptly announced that Final Fantasy X and X-2 Remasters, Octopath Traveler, and Octopath Traveler 2 are all getting Switch 2 ports, with the FFX bundle released on July 23rd while the latter games were shadowdropped in Japan and will release internationally on October 1st. Consistent with Square’s other back catalog ports to Switch 2, they have no upgrade path or save transfer.
Nightdive and Atari announced and released a free Switch 2 upgrade for Outlaws Remaster, matching the specs for Nightdive’s other shooter remaster SiN Reloaded, 4K60 and 1440p120fps support in docked mode.
July 14th: Paramount was exposed in a report at GameDeveloper as having hired Mike Zaimont, who sexually harassed his employees at the now defunct Skullgirls studio and who was counter suing his victims earlier this year, for the team developing the Avatar Legends/Last Airbender fighting game which just launched in an unfinished state.
Paw Patrol production company Spin Master announced that it was firing every person who developed the franchise’s new mobile game just two days after it launched.
July 16th: New Saber Interactive executive and former Epic Games executive Steve Allison commented online to say that he won’t force Fortnite-style extra microtransactions into Saber’s games, and in the process outlined Saber’s 2028 game catalog: Space Marine 3, John Wick, and KOTOR Remake are all targeting 2028 launches alongside a few unannounced games.
The people behind the unsuccessful 2024 indie live service game Deceive Inc released a new update for the first time in two years, announcing that they are revising the game’s backend to support fan servers and keep the game truly alive indefinitely.
July 17th: ZAUM sadly announced that it is once again engaging in layoffs after their first game since Disco Elysium, Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, did not sell well on PC so far. 32 people are under review for being fired at the developer.
July 23rd: The European Commission officially approved the Saudi PIF leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts, prompting the organizations to announce a week later on July 30th that all needed regulators have signed off and that the deal will close on August 4th 2026. Thanks to its extremely close ties to the US government and especially Trump, this dangerous deal has skirted by easily compared to the flawed but tangible opposition Xbox-ABK received years ago. The EU approval was the only one ever publicly or formally declared, the US simply didn’t bother with any public review process or decision. EA is expected to engage in mass layoffs and general cost-cutting now that the buyout is complete and the $18 billion in loan debt has been incurred to complete the transaction. Selling or closing down Bioware is rumored to be in these plans. The previous vanguard of the Saudi PIF’s gaming investments is the mobile-focused Savvy Games Group, which bought Scopely and Niantic, but its CEO Brian Ward has just abruptly left the company as of September 1st 2026.
Spanish game developer Vermila Studios sadly announced that they were shutting down and firing all staff after launching the acclaimed survival horror game Crisol: Theatre of Idols earlier this year for Blumhouse Games.
Prolific Japanese contractor developer Tose announced that they were once again suffering at the hands of one of their partner companies, an overseas publisher which paused a project they were working on earlier this year and never compensated them or communicated if that project will eventually restart. Tose primarily works with other Japanese companies like Square Enix, Nintendo, and Bandai Namco, so the mention of an overseas publisher immediately makes one think of Xbox cutting its partners program this summer.
July 28th: Reports from GamesBeat, IGN, and Bloomberg revealed a big disaster unfolding out of Tencent’s AAA branch: After six years of development and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the game Last Sentinel, which was revealed at the 2023 Game Awards, California-based subsidiary Lightspeed have seen their project completely canceled and eighty workers fired. The attempt at a GTA-competitor in an open world cyberpunk setting suffered extreme scope creep and lack of direction for a relatively small and new AAA team, though the studio remains open for now and looking for next steps. After recent years of major difficulties and little results outside taking ownership of Ubisoft, Tencent is said to be moving away from AAA production as a whole.
July 30th: Two more games fell into genAI controversy, both from Korean developers: soulslike The Relic: First Guardian, and Stellar Blade 2 by Shift Up. Relic director In-Hyeok Park responded to previews and reviews criticizing the genAI presence in the game, confirming that genAI was used during production while insisting that nothing should be left in the final product, leaving that situation ambiguous but looking like a bad coverup. Meanwhile, Stellar Blade: Blood Rain‘s dev Shift Up is proven at this point to be using genAI and is just ignoring the criticism so far, with the CEO making pro-AI comments earlier this year before the game’s reveal trailer was accused of using it and now a promotional music video has released with credits confirming that it’s entirely AI generated. This is far from Stellar Blade’s only controversy of course given that the series’ sexualized imagery take on a far worse context with the sequel’s far younger protagonist.
The Communication Workers of America Union launched a hardship fund for supporting newly out of work games industry employees, and many indie devs have collabed on an itch.io bundle of their games that sends all proceeds to this new support fund.
Nintendo announced that Super Mario Sunshine and two more Virtual Boy games will be added to the Nintendo Switch Online Classics library, Sunshine on August 13th, Zero Racers and D-Hopper on August 4th alongside changing the VB screen color.
July 31st: A new rumor has emerged that Disney/Lucasfilm has ended its partnership with Aspyr/Embracer Group for Star Wars rereleases after the poor reception to the Battlefront remasters and the development hell of the Kotor Remake, causing planned rereleases for Galactic Battlegrounds and parts of the Kyle Katarn saga to go on hiatus.
Thank you to everyone for your support over the years, in all its forms. I am incredibly grateful for you, all of you, for your enthusiasm, kindness, inspiration, and generosity. I will no longer be asking for your financial support, only for your shining presence in my comments. I am proud to say that this train can keep right on rolling!