Indie studio Speculative Agency – which is currently making “a narrative courtroom deck-builder about ordinary people who make the powerful pay for destroying our future”, called All Will Rise (quote from Kickstarter) – has made the brave decision to return funding given by Xbox and Microsoft to join the No Games for Genocide boycott.
“This was not an easy decision,” Speculative Agency explained in a statement sent to Eurogamer. “We are – like so many other indies – eager and hungry for funding opportunities.
“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.
“We also debated whether this boycott made political sense for us. Our game is also about ecocide and corporate greed – 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?
“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.”
“The thing is, we are not powerless. Every action matters, and our actions matter immensely when we come together” -Meghna Jayanth
Speaking further on the matter in an email to me, All Will Rise narrative director Meghna Jayanth – renowned for her work on Inkle’s 80 Days and, more recently, the genre-mash-up skateboarding dating game Thirsty Suitors – clarified that Microsoft had agreed to the break in contract but details were still being worked out. “The people we corresponded with at Microsoft have been very understanding of our decision,” she said.
Jayanth couldn’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 – it began in February) has understandably risen because of it.
All Will Rise is described on Kickstarter as “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.” A demo for All Will Rise is currently available on Steam.
Jayanth’s and Speculative Agency’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.
“If you’re part of an indie team and are horrified by Israel’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,” Jayanth said.
“Yes, it’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’re not – they’re made up of people, and they rely on our labour and creativity and good-will to continue to operate.
“We’re calling on everyone – but especially fellow indies – 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’re all feeling outraged and hopeless and disgusted and powerless – but we’re not. We have power together.”
If you’d like to know more about the situation regarding the boycott and about Microsoft’s involvement in military action and relationship with the US and Israeli armed forces, People Make Games has an enlightening and thorough video on the matter.
