In this week’s Five on Friday, companies are cutting back and seeking new projects. Spotify has cancelled six of their live shows, and Amazon wants to develop another Tomb Raider game, making this their first AAA single-player game. Also, Microsoft is trying to get Sony to pick up Call of Duty with a subscription sweetener to appease the FTC who is trying to block their acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Apple has updated their pricing tiers, allowing developers to try new price points and price more effectively regionally, and DoorDash has laid off 6% of their workforce.

Spotify cancels 6 live audio shows

Streaming programming and tech jobs aren’t the only things suffering cutbacks right now. Spotify has announced they will be cancelling at least six of their live audio shows in their latest round of programming cuts. Earlier this year, the audio giant cut 11 shows from both Parcast and Gimlet.

Shows included in this round of cancellations include Taylor Talk, Lorem Life, The Movie Buff and Doughboys: Snack Pack, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Two of these deals were cancelled halfway through the creators’ contracts. However, all contracts are being paid out in full.

Spotify doesn’t look like they are killing off Live with one fell swoop though. They are continuing with live shows like The Fantasy Footballers, Engadget shared. That Live program is scheduled to continue as planned, with The Fantasy Footballers scheduled to go through the next three NFL seasons. The user base looks to be less than a million, according to Sensor Tower. The app had 10,000 downloads last month, generating less than $5,000 in revenue.

Industry experts think the time for live audio is starting to die out. Spotify Live’s calendar doesn’t reflect a lot of events taking place within the next week, Bloomberg shared. The audio giant is following other companies that have pulled back on their audio capabilities, reported TechCrunch. Facebook pulled their Audio Rooms offering, as well as their Soundbites feature. It doesn’t seem that live audio is something that either giant has the chops for.

Amazon to boost gaming with ‘Tomb Raider’

Amazon has previously shared their ambitions to grow their gaming portfolio, and this time, they want to burst on the scene with a new game in the Tomb Raider franchise. The new addition is still in the early development stages, and there is no release date so far.

The new game is set to be distributed across multiple platforms, and act as a single-player narrative adventure, Engadget reported. Game developer Crystal Dynamics will help publish the game, as this is Amazon’s first venture into single-player narratives. Crystal Dynamics has previously published more than 20 games in the Tomb Raider intellectual property catalog. Both parties say the new installation in the series will retain all the franchise’s hallmarks.

Crystal Dynamics was acquired by Embracer in August, after previously being owned by Square Enix. This acquisition allowed more opportunities including a deal with Amazon, IGN shared. The head of Crystal Dynamics shared that partnering with Amazon gives them the opportunity to rewrite different publishing and development collaborations, and it has been easier to work on the game.

“Tomb Raider is one of the most beloved IPs in entertainment history. Amazon Games is committed to bringing players games of the highest quality, from the best developers, across all variety of platforms and genres, and we’re honored by the opportunity to work with this storied developer and franchise. Our team is incredibly excited about collaborating with the talented and visionary Crystal Dynamics team to bring the next chapter of Lara Croft’s saga to players around the world,” Christoph Hartmann of Amazon said in a press release.

Microsoft trying to share ‘Call of Duty’ with Sony to appease FTC

Santa’s elves may be working hard, but not as hard as Microsoft is to get regulators to approve their acquisition of Activision Blizzard. They are trying to get Sony back on the Call of Duty bandwagon, but are having a hard time getting them to commit.

Previously, Microsoft promised Sony not only the software for Call of Duty, but the rights to sell the title via Sony’s PlayStation Plus subscription, Bloomberg reported. The deal was scheduled to last for 10 years, and was also offered to Nintendo. Nintendo has taken the offer, provided Microsoft’s deal with Activision Blizzard closes, but Sony still has cold feet.

Sony has previously raised concerns to UK regulatory markets about Microsoft and their Activision Blizzard acquisition. Microsoft claims that Sony would still have a larger gamer base than Xbox, even without the promise of console exclusive games and adoption of the Activision Blizzard catalog, IGN shared.

Sony also reportedly won’t allow Xbox Game Pass on their services, which is why Microsoft is trying to sweeten the deal. Microsoft has been rampant in Xbox Game Pass expansion and promotion, IGN reported. Allowing Sony to tout their own subscription plan would help them keep a competitive edge, especially since Xbox is the leader of the two in gaming subscriptions. However, Phil Spencer of Xbox claims that they are committed to helping bring more games to more people.

By offering the console exclusive to both Sony and Nintendo, it shows that Microsoft wants their Activision Blizzard deal to go through. They are trying to show they are not competitive, and just want to let people game. However, their rapid expansion of Xbox Game Pass, and bringing it to TVs with no console required, shows that they are willing to do what it takes to make it known they’re here for good.

However, playing Call of Duty on Nintendo doesn’t seem like a viable option, when it hasn’t been made available before, EuroGamer said. Is this just a ploy for Microsoft gain favor with the Federal Trade Commission?

Apple updates App Store price points

Apple recently unveiled a major App Store update – a comprehensive pricing update, allowing for 700 additional price points as well as new pricing tools. This new update allows developers to set prices within different countries and regions, manage exchange rates, and more.

In a press release, Apple announced that pricing has been foundational to their App Store’s commerce and payments system. They can offer developers more tools to grow their businesses, and enhance the customer experience, with things like checkout tools, tax and fraud services, and refund management.

Apple said that these price increases would be effective for apps that offered automatically renewable subscriptions immediately, and all other apps and in-app purchases in the spring of next year. All developers now have the option to select from 900 different price points, which is almost 10 times more than what they offered previously. From this selection, there are 600 new price points to choose from, and 100 higher price points upon request from the developer.

With new pricing, developers can start pricing things as low as $0.29, and as high as $10,000. There is also an enhanced price point selection between different points. If a developer wants an item to cost $10.20 or $30.50, they are now able to do so. There are also other pricing conventions for different storefronts. According to Engadget, developers can now have rounded dollar amounts for their prices, like $10.00.

The new changes also make it easier for developers to price internationally. If an app developer gets most of their business from a different country, they are able to price for that country, and do the exchange rate accordingly, TechCrunch shared. Is Apple trying to be more developer friendly?

DoorDash reduces corporate headcount by 6%

DoorDash has been hitting it out of the park this year, but CEO Tony Xu had some bad news for employees this holiday season. Within their corporate team, they had to reduce their staff by approximately 1,250 employees. This makes up about 6% of their workforce, CBC shared. The news was shared in a press release.

Xu said the company was undersized before COVID-19, and then there were several evolving needs of merchants and consumers, as well as Dashers. The company had to catch up with their growth at an unprecedented rate, but that forced their operating expenses to grow quickly. Xu takes blame in not managing their team growth.

Given that circumstance, Xu said that DoorDash as a business had been more resilient than other ecommerce companies, but that alone could not save them from facing economic turmoil. Given how fast they were hiring people and their operating expenses, if they did not cut anyone, their costs would have outpaced their revenue.

“I did not take this decision lightly. We have and will continue to reduce our non-headcount operating expenses, but that alone wouldn’t close the gap. This hard reality ultimately led me to make this painful decision to reduce our team size,” Xu said.

Affected employees will receive 17 weeks of pay, as well as their February 2023 stock vesting. On top of that, their health benefits will continue until the end of March, and they can opt in to COBRA coverage for 18 months. DoorDash will also continue immigration support for those with visa applications, and a desire to stay in the US, as much time as possible to stay in the US, through March 1, 2023, CNBC shared. In addition, they will offer an opt-in directory for companies to reach employees to offer recruiting support in their next career step. Affected employees each received an email with steps specific to their situation.

This is another example of a tech-based company that had to scale up quickly to meet demand during the early days of the pandemic. Now they are forced to downsize teams as the realities of an economic downturn come to fruition.