Good morning, tech enthusiasts. Major blows just landed at Xbox. Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory are racing to spin out of Microsoft to avoid closure — while Ninja Theory staff were reportedly told the studio is shutting down anyway.

For Microsoft’s gaming empire, it’s a brutal turn: the $69B Activision Blizzard deal didn’t fix the business, and now even Xbox’s most beloved creative shops are on the chopping block.

In today’s tech rundown:

• Xbox reset puts cult studios on the brink

• UK bans social media for under-16s

• Fox buys streaming giant Roku for $22B

• Solid-state AC could cut cooling’s CO2

• Quick hits on other tech news

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

MICROSOFT

🕹️ Xbox reset puts cult studios on the brink

Image source: Ninja Theory

The Rundown: Microsoft is deepening cuts at Xbox Game Studios again, with Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory racing to spin off and avoid closure — though Ninja Theory staff were reportedly told their studio is shutting down anyway.

The details:

• Bloomberg reports that Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory are in active negotiations to spin off from Microsoft to avoid closure.

• Ninja Theory staff were told on an internal call Monday that the studio is closing, though they’re hoping it finds a buyer, The Verge reports.

• Ninja Theory had just unveiled Senua, a new chapter in its Hellblade series, on June 7, and Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan left the company last week.

• It’s the fallout from new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's “reset”: she’s told staff Xbox’s annual revenue fell by nearly $500M over five years while hardware costs quadrupled.

Why it matters: This is the clearest evidence yet that Microsoft’s decade of gaming acquisitions — including the record $69B Activision Blizzard deal — hasn’t solved Xbox’s profitability problem, and acclaimed studios aren’t safe anymore. It’s the same belt-tightening that drove last year’s 9K Microsoft job cuts.

TECH POLICY

🇬🇧 UK bans social media for under-16s

Image source: Images 2.0 / The Rundown

The Rundown: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Monday that the UK will ban social media for under-16s, claiming the measures will go “further than any country in the world” to protect children from online harms.

The details:

• The ban covers Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X, while messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal stay accessible.

• The UK will also block livestreaming and stranger contact for under-16s, with curfews and infinite-scroll limits under consideration.

• Tech companies bear enforcement responsibility and face steep fines, with a target rollout by spring 2027.

• The UK joins Spain, Malaysia, France, Denmark, Norway, and Australia, which became the first country to implement such a ban in December.

Why it matters: Major platforms are pushing back, arguing it would be hard to enforce at scale and push teens onto riskier, unregulated sites. Early signals from Australia, where around 70% of parents polled in March said their children remained on banned platforms, suggest enforcement may be the law’s weakest link.

FOX & ROKU

📺 Fox buys streaming giant Roku for $22B 

Image source: Ideogram / The Rundown

The Rundown: Fox is acquiring streaming pioneer Roku for $22B in cash and stock, merging its news, sports, and Tubi streaming business with Roku’s connected-TV platform to create the third-largest television company in the U.S.

The details:

• Fox is paying $160 a share for Roku — $96 in cash plus 0.9693 shares of Fox Class A stock per share — backed by a $12B loan it lined up for the deal.

• The deal pairs Fox’s news and sports networks and its Tubi platform with Roku’s connected-TV OS, the Roku Channel, and data from 100M households.

• Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood will join Fox’s board once the deal closes, and Roku says it’ll keep running as an “open, partner-friendly” platform.

• The move leaves existing Fox shareholders with about 73% of the combined company — Fox shares fell sharply after the announcement.

Why it matters: This hands a legacy broadcaster direct ownership of one of streaming’s biggest platforms and its trove of first-party viewer data — the ad-targeting currency that’s been migrating from traditional TV to tech platforms for years. It also shows live sports and news, paired with CTV scale, are a winning formula.

CLIMATE TECH

🥶 Solid-state AC could cut cooling's CO2

Image source: SHoP Architects/MIMiC Systems

The Rundown: Solid-state ACs — ditching compressors and refrigerants for currents, magnets, or pressure shifts — are entering pilot programs as global AC demand is set to triple by 2050, per MIT Technology Review.

The details:

• Brooklyn’s Mimic Systems shifts heat via thermoelectric current via materials like bismuth telluride, with a room-scale unit piloting in a Vancouver apartment.

• Germany’s Magnotherm is piloting a magnetocaloric system — cooling by magnetizing and demagnetizing materials — in a supermarket chain.

• A Hong Kong team’s elastocaloric device reportedly cools below 0°C; the UK’s Barocal is developing pressure-based barocaloric tech.

• Conventional AC hits a coefficient of performance of 3; thermoelectrics lose efficiency fast on big swings, limiting them to niche uses like car-seat cooling.

Why it matters: ACs already eat up 7% of global electricity and 3% of greenhouse-gas emissions, a load set to triple by 2050 as their use surges while the planet heats up. Even a modest foothold for solid-state systems could meaningfully cut that footprint and reduce reliance on CO2-intensive refrigerants.

QUICK HITS

📰 Everything else in tech today

Elon Musk says SpaceX could hit $1T in annual revenue by 2030, a forecast made just days after the company’s record IPO that valued it above $1.75T.

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC the company is working on over 40 designs of new AI devices, including jewelry, earbuds with cameras, and watches.

Chinese leaker Instant Digital posted that a touchscreen MacBook is “100% confirmed,” adding to Gurman and Kuo reports of touchscreen MacBook Pro models.

Chinese Tesla drivers are using tiny plastic doll heads mounted near the rearview mirror to trick the cabin camera into thinking they’re watching the road, Wired reports.

Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato reportedly said curing certain cancers is a realistic goal, adding that AI is already helping the company develop medicines faster.

The FBI built a 22K-square-foot replica town in Huntsville, Alabama, to train investigators on real-world cyberattacks.

Apple reportedly built a fully customizable Camera app internally but held it back from iOS 27 to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro instead, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

A new Data Center Watch (10a Labs) study found that data center opponents blocked or delayed at least 75 projects worth a combined $130B in Q1 2026.

French AI startup Mistral is in talks to raise around €3B ($3.5B) at a valuation of €20B (~$23.2B), nearly doubling its September €11.7B (~$13.6B) valuation.

UT Austin’s water-harvesting jacket fabric pulls 14–30 oz. of drinkable water from the air daily and could scale to backpacks or tents.

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See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — The Rundown’s editorial team