It’s a scary time to be a game studio that is a part of the Xbox Games Studio family, as layoffs loom and rumors circulate as to who is on the chopping block. It’s no secret that Xbox is facing tough decisions moving forward in a bid to survive and flourish. From a change in leadership to restructuring, which involves both new staff and branding and services, there’s a lot in progress to save what apparently has been a sinking ship. Execs Asha Sharma and Matt Booty have been straightforward that Xbox “overextended” itself with investments, and would be reexamining them moving forward, but some of the studios said to be getting cut have also received praise recently, and one has a new title set to release soon. From Bloomberg to Insider Gaming and Kotaku (via VideoCardz and KitGuru), rumors are spreading about who in the Xbox family is getting let go.
First up is Ninja Theory, whose staff were notified yesterday that it would be closing, but is hoping to find another buyer. The studio, famed for its Hellblade games, has a side-project based on its main character, called Senua, which is set to launch soon.
Next up is Compulsion Games, which launched South of Midnight last year, and while that title received positive reviews, sales figures may not have reached favorable target levels. Meanwhile, Psychonauts developers Double Fine are rumored to be on a list as well. Arkane Lyon, who is reportedly working on Marvel’s Blade, has developed Dishonored 2 and Deathloop, and is potentially facing the reaper as well. As a reminder, Arkane Austin was closed a couple of years back. If true, the upcoming Marvel game could be a sink-or-swim moment for the studio.
With multiple sources claiming such similar outcomes, it does look as if Xbox is about to make some major changes soon, but one does have to wonder about the timing of it all with new projects on the horizon. Another rumor that circulated over the weekend is that Microsoft is considering spinning off Xbox, thus making it an independently fiscally responsible company. It’s been said that some studios will be offered the opportunity to buy out their contracts, but that has not been officially confirmed. So many rumors and so much to think about for anyone working at Xbox.
Discussion (10 replies)
Join Discussion →How is anything MS in talks about ' survival' and such. I dont get it.
Microsoft has never seemed to understand why it was making video games. Perhaps it never will.
Games take a constant supply of human invention and creative risk and turn it into a meaningful connection with players, which then makes money. For some reason, this business model breaks Microsoft's brain, even though its rivals Sony and Nintendo have been demonstrably and quite unmysteriously successful at it for decades.
Spencer's kindness was cruel.
Asha Sharma, the new Xbox CEO is a sharp knife, as unsentimental as Spencer was indulgent, and she's been sent in to clean up his mess: a bloated, barely profitable business suffering a catastrophic loss of market share in consoles and attempting to compete with Steam on PC. (Good luck with that.) She'll take the heat for these latest cuts, but the blame for them lies with the poor decisions made by Spencer and compounded by his boss, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Only making big, safe bets isn't the answer to Xbox's woes. Sharma doesn't have a lot of options. Sure, she has to make cuts, and she needs big games. But more than that, she needs a whole new way of thinking about the game business that isn't mired in a quarter-century of wrongheaded decisions and strategic confusion.
https://www.polygon.com/xbox-micros...ueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
Based on their own statements, and rumors, it sounds like Matt and Asha have been told fix it soon or else.
Everyone's all smiles except for those getting laid off and MS has mostly been mum on not really letting on how bad things have gotten while some have speculated for years about this as MS shuffled numbers for Xbox in its financials (I seem to remember a story about this around 6 months to a year ago).
MS worried about survival, nope not in the slightest but if these two don't manage to turn things around Xbox could end up being something entirely different from what we know now. Essentially a company that exists as a brand with no hardware and very little software. How many studios do they plan to keep and how do they hope to keep release timelines in check if too many are let go? It was just the other day someone said they wanted to cut down on long release windows and you can't achieve both, or may be you can if you replace them all with AI.
I also find it strange that things have gone silent regarding the gaming handheld front after the Ally Xbox. Intel has things planned but nary a peep from MS regarding its Xbox push that began with ASUS.
As a PC gamer I want the gaming division of MS to flourish because they will be making games for PC's. I don't think PC first is the path to profitability, but it definitely isn't PC forgotten.
If the AI bubble doesn't burst, next gen consoles/hardware is dead.
MS already said they expect hardware costs to jump 5x by the end of next year and is scrambling to come up with a solution.
There is a real possibility that we lose both XBOX and Sony consoles over the next few years because losing money on a $2000+ Playstation 6 isn't a valid business.
XBOX can easily turn publisher but I don't think Sony can/will pivot fast enough.
We just have to hope the AI bubble bursts but if they all have successful IPOs we are truly fucked.
Honestly, if they make their own hardware.. and lets be real... MS and Sony can do that... or partner with Samsung in Sony's case to do that rather easily. They can make their own DDR4 ram, put in on a SOC to remove latency, and call it done. Make their own storage as part of the SOC and a half way decent CPU licensed to some GPU tech from AMD and you're good. Could be the equivelent to a couple generations old but still better than what is out today. And the price becomes much more controllable.
Just puts another nail in PC or DIY systems for gaming... at least to prevent them from needing to buy newer better hardware for that.
It's just delaying the inevitable.
We are witnessing a radical shift away from big corpos in media. Star Wars movie with baby Yoda is tanking. He-Man is a massive flop. Supergirl is projected to crash and burn. Word has it, test screenings were so bad they cut 30 minutes from it and added more Superman. The most profitable movies this summer are from social media content creators, were relatively inexpensive to make, and I think both are near or past $250 million now.
In gaming, Concord is one of the biggest flops ever. High Guard and Suicide Squad games lost around $200 million each. How bad was Redfall? LMAO. Meanwhile Expedition 33 and Slay the Spire games are estimated at $10 million and less to make, and evidently crushing it on profits.
Amazon seems to understand things have changed, but is clueless how to leverage it. Canceling Stargate because existing fans would like it. Stating they wanted a new audience for it, had me laughing. That's not how any of it works. Every time a corpo tries to update an old franchise for "modern audiences" it fails. Or at best is only mildly successful and drops like a lead balloon later. Star Trek and Star Wars for example. How many shows and movies have to flop before they get a clue? If a large fan base exists make content that is laser focused on them. No social engineering nonsense. No trying to target long established properties to a modern audience you obviously have no chance of actually understanding. Because they don't give a crap about your boomer stuff. Or "games for Unc".
Some industry insiders claimed Asha was being brought in to take XBOX behind the shed and put it down. She came in and started making great decisions instead. But the cancer may have spread too far.
If their goal is truly profitability then PC first is the most straightforward option. You don't have to spend billions on developing hardware and then convincing devs why they should use that HW over or besides all others.
But I don't think the goal is just being profitable, they want to build back up the xbox brand, and through it control a large chunk of the market. Well, good luck with that.
I agree. They have never fully recovered from the anti consumer crap they tried to pull with the XBONE. If they were banking on gamers having short memories, they goofed but good.
The terrible job they have done managing Gears and Halo, the anchors of the ecosystem, should be crimes. The new plan seems to be to start over from the beginning with both. To succeed; They better have kept sweet baby inc. crap away from them. Rumor has it Sony gave them the boot and canceled projects they were involved in. Their finger prints have to be all over Spider-Man 2 and the last of us P2.
And again; Stop trying to make game franchises we played 20+ years ago for a different audience. Make them for us and we will buy them again. We have the most disposable income you nitwits. They will discover there are millions of kids that will like the games for the exact same reasons we did. The rest you have no chance of capturing with them so just stop trying. Zoomers in their 20s keep saying the even younger kids have only a few games they play, and almost always MP. Roblox, Minecraft, fortnite, CS2, PUBG, Valorant, etc.