{"id":1824367,"date":"2026-03-13T12:56:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1824367"},"modified":"2026-03-13T12:56:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:56:06","slug":"we-are-not-powerless-every-action-matters-indie-studio-speculative-agency-returns-microsoft-xbox-funding-and-urges-others-to-boycott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1824367","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;We are not powerless, every action matters&#8221; &#8211; Indie studio Speculative Agency returns Microsoft Xbox funding and urges others to boycott"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">&#8220;We are not powerless, every action matters&#8221; &#8211; Indie studio Speculative Agency returns Microsoft Xbox funding and urges others to boycott<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;We have power together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/all-will-rise_ImqDmBj.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"An illustrative scene from All Will Rise, showing a huge plume of swirling fire coming off of a body of water, and people flocking around a shore to try and do something about it.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"all-will-rise_ImqDmBj.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"320\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Speculative Agency<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-03-13T12:56:06+00:00\">March 13, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"2e9807b2-df19-4d7f-908e-8f24929ff544\" data-name=\"All Will Rise\" data-follow-text=\"Follow All Will Rise\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following All Will Rise\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow All Will Rise\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following All Will Rise\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow All Will Rise\" title=\"Follow All Will Rise\"><br \/>\n  Follow All Will Rise<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Indie studio Speculative Agency &#8211; which is currently making &#8220;a narrative courtroom deck-builder about ordinary people who make the powerful pay for destroying our future&#8221;, called All Will Rise (quote from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/speculativeagency\/all-will-rise\/description\">Kickstarter<\/a>) &#8211; has made the brave decision to return funding given by Xbox and Microsoft to join the <a href=\"https:\/\/nogamesforgenocide.com\/\">No Games for Genocide boycott<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was not an easy decision,&#8221; Speculative Agency explained in a statement sent to Eurogamer. &#8220;We are &#8211; like so many other indies &#8211; eager and hungry for funding opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had received some funding from Microsoft as part of a developer acceleration programme deal which we signed in 2025, so we would have to ask Microsoft to let us break our contract and somehow make up the shortfall of funds at a time where funding is extremely difficult to come by in the industry. Also we would be giving up the opportunity to reach the large audience of players on Xbox, increasing our financial risk and decreasing our potential player pool.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also debated whether this boycott made political sense for us. Our game is also about ecocide and corporate greed &#8211; should we refuse to participate in corporate platforms that are currently destroying the planet? How do we strike the balance between our themes, integrity, consistency and, frankly, our interest in making a commercial indie game?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But eventually, the urgency of No Games For Genocide and its value as a growing movement that has the potential to pressure Microsoft to cease its complicity with Israeli genocide won out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote right\"><p><em>&#8220;The thing is, we are not powerless. Every action matters, and our actions matter immensely when we come together&#8221; -Meghna Jayanth<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Speaking further on the matter in an email to me, All Will Rise narrative director <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/meet-meghna-jayanth-in-episode-2-of-the-new-eurogamer-podcast\">Meghna Jayanth &#8211; renowned for her work on Inkle&#8217;s 80 Days<\/a> and, more recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/thirsty-suitors-review\">the genre-mash-up skateboarding dating game Thirsty Suitors <\/a>&#8211; clarified that Microsoft had agreed to the break in contract but details were still being worked out. &#8220;The people we corresponded with at Microsoft have been very understanding of our decision,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Jayanth couldn&#8217;t say what the funding shortfall on All Will Rise will be as a result of this action, for confidentiality reasons, but the pressure on the already underway Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign (linked above &#8211; it began in February) has understandably risen because of it.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"All Will Rise - Support us on Kickstarter\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qXQaHJq_AQA?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/qXQaHJq_AQA\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">All Will Rise &#8211; Support us on Kickstarter<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qXQaHJq_AQA\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>All Will Rise is described on Kickstarter as &#8220;a wild and messy game about taking billionaires to court for wrecking the planet, set in a speculative version of Kerala, India. It combines strategic role-playing with deck-building in a crime thriller story that can get cosy and dark at the same time.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/3165340\/All_Will_Rise\/\">A demo for All Will Rise is currently available on Steam<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Jayanth&#8217;s and Speculative Agency&#8217;s hope, in taking a risky action such as this, is that it can demonstrate to others that however small your voice, and however small someone perceives their power to be, that using it can still have an effect.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re part of an indie team and are horrified by Israel&#8217;s genocide in Gaza, and the ways in which many of our governments and corporations are complicit in it, have a conversation about pledging to No Games For Genocide,&#8221; Jayanth said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, it&#8217;s a difficult decision to make. Yes, it involves sacrificing a potential player base on Xbox. It may involve refusing Microsoft funding. The thing is, we are not powerless. Every action matters, and our actions matter immensely when we come together. There is a real opportunity for us to take a stand and pressure Microsoft to end its complicity. We can win. Corporations like Microsoft might seem impossibly huge and impossible to move, but they&#8217;re not &#8211; they&#8217;re made up of people, and they rely on our labour and creativity and good-will to continue to operate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re calling on everyone &#8211; but especially fellow indies &#8211; to join game studios like us, and also individual gamers and devs, tech workers, and even workers inside Microsoft who disagree with leadership decisions and just need more leverage to push for change. We&#8217;re all feeling outraged and hopeless and disgusted and powerless &#8211; but we&#8217;re not. We have power together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to know more about the situation regarding the boycott and about Microsoft&#8217;s involvement in military action and relationship with the US and Israeli armed forces, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ybj10537yi4?si=yypovjvsJ7dmGwc2\">People Make Games has an enlightening and thorough video<\/a> on the matter.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Indie studio Speculative Agency &#8211; which is currently making &#8220;a narrative courtroom deck-builder about ordinary people who make the powerful pay for destroying our future&#8221;, called All Will Rise (quote from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/speculativeagency\/all-will-rise\/description\">Kickstarter<\/a>) &#8211; has made the brave decision to return funding given by Xbox and Microsoft to join the <a href=\"https:\/\/nogamesforgenocide.com\/\">No Games for Genocide boycott<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was not an easy decision,&#8221; Speculative Agency explained in a statement sent to Eurogamer. &#8220;We are &#8211; like so many other indies &#8211; eager and hungry for funding opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had received some funding from Microsoft as part of a developer acceleration programme deal which we signed in 2025, so we would have to ask Microsoft to let us break our contract and somehow make up the shortfall of funds at a time where funding is extremely difficult to come by in the industry. Also we would be giving up the opportunity to reach the large audience of players on Xbox, increasing our financial risk and decreasing our potential player pool.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We also debated whether this boycott made political sense for us. Our game is also about ecocide and corporate greed &#8211; should we refuse to participate in corporate platforms that are currently destroying the planet? How do we strike the balance between our themes, integrity, consistency and, frankly, our interest in making a commercial indie game?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But eventually, the urgency of No Games For Genocide and its value as a growing movement that has the potential to pressure Microsoft to cease its complicity with Israeli genocide won out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote right\"><p><em>&#8220;The thing is, we are not powerless. Every action matters, and our actions matter immensely when we come together&#8221; -Meghna Jayanth<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Speaking further on the matter in an email to me, All Will Rise narrative director <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/meet-meghna-jayanth-in-episode-2-of-the-new-eurogamer-podcast\">Meghna Jayanth &#8211; renowned for her work on Inkle&#8217;s 80 Days<\/a> and, more recently, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/thirsty-suitors-review\">the genre-mash-up skateboarding dating game Thirsty Suitors <\/a>&#8211; clarified that Microsoft had agreed to the break in contract but details were still being worked out. &#8220;The people we corresponded with at Microsoft have been very understanding of our decision,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Jayanth couldn&#8217;t say what the funding shortfall on All Will Rise will be as a result of this action, for confidentiality reasons, but the pressure on the already underway Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign (linked above &#8211; it began in February) has understandably risen because of it.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"All Will Rise - Support us on Kickstarter\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qXQaHJq_AQA?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/qXQaHJq_AQA\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">All Will Rise &#8211; Support us on Kickstarter<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><a class=\"button video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qXQaHJq_AQA\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figure>\n<p>All Will Rise is described on Kickstarter as &#8220;a wild and messy game about taking billionaires to court for wrecking the planet, set in a speculative version of Kerala, India. It combines strategic role-playing with deck-building in a crime thriller story that can get cosy and dark at the same time.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/3165340\/All_Will_Rise\/\">A demo for All Will Rise is currently available on Steam<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Jayanth&#8217;s and Speculative Agency&#8217;s hope, in taking a risky action such as this, is that it can demonstrate to others that however small your voice, and however small someone perceives their power to be, that using it can still have an effect.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you&#8217;re part of an indie team and are horrified by Israel&#8217;s genocide in Gaza, and the ways in which many of our governments and corporations are complicit in it, have a conversation about pledging to No Games For Genocide,&#8221; Jayanth said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, it&#8217;s a difficult decision to make. Yes, it involves sacrificing a potential player base on Xbox. It may involve refusing Microsoft funding. The thing is, we are not powerless. Every action matters, and our actions matter immensely when we come together. There is a real opportunity for us to take a stand and pressure Microsoft to end its complicity. We can win. Corporations like Microsoft might seem impossibly huge and impossible to move, but they&#8217;re not &#8211; they&#8217;re made up of people, and they rely on our labour and creativity and good-will to continue to operate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re calling on everyone &#8211; but especially fellow indies &#8211; to join game studios like us, and also individual gamers and devs, tech workers, and even workers inside Microsoft who disagree with leadership decisions and just need more leverage to push for change. We&#8217;re all feeling outraged and hopeless and disgusted and powerless &#8211; but we&#8217;re not. We have power together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to know more about the situation regarding the boycott and about Microsoft&#8217;s involvement in military action and relationship with the US and Israeli armed forces, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Ybj10537yi4?si=yypovjvsJ7dmGwc2\">People Make Games has an enlightening and thorough video<\/a> on the matter.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News &#8220;We are not powerless, every action matters&#8221; &#8211; Indie studio Speculative Agency returns Microsoft Xbox funding and urges others to boycott &#8220;We have power together.&#8221; Image credit: Speculative Agency News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on March 13, 2026 Follow All Will Rise Indie studio Speculative Agency &#8211; which is currently making [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1824367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1824367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1824367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1824367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1824367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}