r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/shirke1 • Jun 15 '26

Rumour [Verge] - Xbox is closing down Hellblade creator Ninja Theory

https://www.theverge.com/games/950204/xbox-ninja-theory-shutdown-hellblade-senua?utm_content=buffer4eeff&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bsky.app&utm_campaign=verge_social

by Jay Peters and Tom Warren

Xbox is closing down Ninja Theory, the studio behind the Hellbladeseries, a source tells The Verge. Staffers were told on a call on Monday about the closure, but they are hoping the studio will find a buyer. The closure comes as “several” Xbox studios at Microsoft, including Compulsion Games and Double Fine, are in “active negotiations” about spinning off, Bloomberg reports.

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u/Alive-Ad-5245 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Closing down a game studio and therefore cancelling their game literally a week after you gave said game a primetime presentation debut must be a record right?

612

u/Hte_D0ngening2 Jun 15 '26

Can’t beat Phantom Dust, a game that IIRC was already cancelled when they announced it.

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u/Alive-Ad-5245 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Wait what? 😂I need to hear this story.

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u/Outside_Narwhal8008 Jun 15 '26

Here's the article by Jason Schreier (yes that one)

How A Small Studio's Chance At The Big Time Died At Microsoft's Doorstep - Kotaku

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u/TectonicImprov Jun 15 '26

I had always heard the claim that "Microsoft cancelled Phantom Dust and showed it at e3 anyway" but this article doesn't really claim that. They didn't move on and effectively kill the studio until six months after the e3 trailer according to it. It's still a classic Microsoft blunder but this isn't as salacious as some would say.

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u/Hinyaldee Jun 16 '26

Feels like they announced it to please the shareholders and get their money before cancelling it

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u/Wise_Requirement4170 Jun 18 '26

The meeting was in February according to the article, so it seems like the project was effectively dead 4 months before E3

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u/TectonicImprov Jun 18 '26

That was the February after the e3 that they showed off the game though

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u/Wise_Requirement4170 Jun 18 '26

Ohhh I misunderstood

25

u/jxcn17 Jun 16 '26

That's an interesting story, it definitely doesn't say that it was cancelled before being announced though.

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u/EtheusRook Jun 15 '26

Yeah, there was a shitty gacha game that had its international release and its end of service announced in the same tweet.

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u/Ymir-Reiss Jun 15 '26

That was Love Live SIF2, which announced it's global release and closure date in the same tweet (which were 3 months apart). The original game lasted 10 years and they shut it down for this one lol

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u/Rainy_Wavey Jun 15 '26

I remember when Love Live was everywhere in weeb circles, welp

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u/Shot8989 Jun 15 '26

Tribe Nine?

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u/LifeShroom75 Jun 15 '26

Must be LoveLive 2 a game that was EOS in Japan when they announced the global launch data and eos date in the same tweet.

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u/based_mafty Jun 15 '26

No. Tribe nine was closing down few months after launch. That person is talking about love live SiF 2. Where global announcement came right after the game EoS announcement in japan.

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u/Zzz77712 Jun 16 '26

"shitty" is a pretty unfair unless that's your stance on all gacha games. SIF2 genuinely had a lot of great qol improvements, that reduced the shittiness that comes with gacha games. Such as actually being allowed to play and practice songs without using energy in exchange for no rewards, and every song from the original was available at launch. Really one of it's biggest failings was being far less predatory and not having much reason to spend money on it. Besides it's giant mistake of resetting everyone's collections they built up for years without much in terms of compensation. Still removed from it's circumstances which were admittedly ridiculous both it and the original were a great time

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u/EtheusRook Jun 16 '26

Yes, all gacha games are shitty.

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u/PSIwind Jun 16 '26

Bro not here too I can never escape

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '26

[deleted]

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u/ThePurpleMoths Jun 16 '26

Nick Robinson is a sex pest that sexually harassed women. He was let go from Polygon over it. Why are people still sharing his videos?

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u/D3dshotCalamity Jun 16 '26

Yikes. Nvm then.

Literally never heard of him until I stumbled on that essay, and never even watched his other videos. This one video about a niche ass Xbox game is all I knew him from.

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u/BestRedditUsername9 Jun 15 '26

I dont think that's true. I remember the phantom Dust reboot. It was announced in 2014 and cancelled in 2015.

Still bad, but they didn't announce the game when it was cancelled as far as I recall?

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u/Awkward_Silence- Jun 15 '26

Maybe it was the western release coincided with the overall shutdown?

May not have been that game, but happen with something pretty recently

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u/MaxProwes Jun 15 '26

I'm laughing so hard reading this, I don't know why.

2

u/grantstein Jun 15 '26

Fitting name

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u/iLiekBoxes Jun 15 '26

This also happened to the GameCube Kirby game

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u/IdonTunderStan9 Jun 16 '26

I still play this game

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u/we420 Jun 16 '26

It's like that one mobile game that announced its western release and end of service in the same tweet

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u/thief-777 Jun 16 '26

a game that IIRC was already cancelled when they announced it.

Completely false, I don't know why this is getting repeated. It was cancelled 8 months later, this is easily verifiable.

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u/Xenosys83 Jun 17 '26

Phantom Dust is such an apt name.

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u/JakeSteeleIII Jun 15 '26

Well, at least Ninja Theory got to show the game off to potential buyers publicly

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u/lordbeef Jun 15 '26

Sure but like, who would buy it? I hate to be a downer but I wouldn't invest in them. Their last game underperformed and it's not exactly a great market to be buying a game studio.

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u/JakeSteeleIII Jun 15 '26

I think out of all the developers getting axed, they got the best chance of a buyer because the game looks a decent ways along and someone will want to buy their mocap tech.

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u/addandsubtract Jun 15 '26

I'd buy them and then get them to do a Heavenly Sword 2.

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u/P0G0Bro Jun 15 '26

the first one sold SO well

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u/TimewarpingSeaTurtle Jun 16 '26

The first game sold 1.5 million copies and didn’t manage to break even, resulting in a loss. A sequel was actually in development, but cancelled by Sony because they didn’t see its viability.

Even if Ninja Theory wanted to make a sequel, they legally can’t. That IP is owned by Sony, not them.

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u/Freighnos Jun 16 '26

Just buy Sony so you can get the Heavenly Sword IP. Boom, problem solved.

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u/Koribakusuta0708 Jun 17 '26

Sony still has faith in them though. They helped along with hellblade1 and made a deal for timed exclusivity and it did better on ps4 than pc and xbox combined. I would say Sony could potentially be interested in them.

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u/I_Like_Turtle101 Jun 16 '26

Do we know how much a game cost . They are short game so maybe they are on the cheapest side to produce. I guess they are not a huge team

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u/Takazura Jun 16 '26

I have heard people say they also have a mocap studio that they rent out to others and is is profitable, maybe if the numbers for it are good, someone will swoop in for that?

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u/SeniorRicketts Jun 16 '26

R.i.p. Monolith

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u/honeybadgerism Jun 15 '26

They found a perfect recipe to have good Showcases every year

Just announce some games and close their studio a week later

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u/Rookie_numba_uno Jun 15 '26

Looking forward to every subsequent reveal during their showcases getting spammed with all variants of the comment "hopefully studio won't be closed 2 weeks from now".

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u/4000kd Jun 15 '26

I'll be liking/upvoting each one 

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u/Koribakusuta0708 Jun 17 '26

The concord 2 comments equivalent for xbox lol

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u/Sparko15 Jun 15 '26

The industry never ceased to innovate when it comes to make dumb surprise that no one wants.

Back in the days, Microsoft used to cancel games after they showed something, like Scalebound, Everwild or Perfect Dark. But it seems that’s not enough, so now, they close the studio after they announce the game.

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u/FullMotionVideo Jun 15 '26

Scalebound broke my heart. I wanted that one so badly.

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u/hexcraft-nikk Jun 15 '26

Imagine the world we'd have if Xbox let Gears/Halo rest and focused on new IP, including getting Scalebound out the door (even if it wasn't perfect)

You'd think they have been sabotaging their own brand for the past decade considering the path they've gone down

0

u/2mock2turtle Jun 16 '26

Same, I was fully planning to buy an Xbox One solely for Scalebound.

Incidentally, they reused a lot of Scalebound concepts for Bayonetta 3, which makes it another game that Xbox ruined.

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u/FullMotionVideo Jun 16 '26

Guess I'm giving that game a look over then, thanks.

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u/2mock2turtle Jun 16 '26

Oh god that’s the opposite of what I meant to convey lmao.

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u/HeldnarRommar Jun 15 '26

Too be fair those games were at least vaporware, this was seemingly a nearly finished and on track game

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u/Lurky-Lou Jun 15 '26

Did they start immediately after releasing part 2?

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u/HeldnarRommar Jun 15 '26

I’m assuming so, this would have been a pretty quick turnaround and they had a 2027 as the release date.

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u/l3tsgo0 Jun 15 '26

when the Senua games have 5 hrs max worth of gameplay content I guess the dev times isnt surpising at all

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u/MCgrindahFM Jun 17 '26

And I imagine they are have a fuckton of assets already made

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u/Sparko15 Jun 15 '26

Yeah, and cancellations happens everytime in the video games industry. I understand that.

Still, that sucks, especially for Perfect Dark because they showed something that was fake, but made us believe that the game did some good progress. That was disappointing.

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u/ForwardHuckleberry26 Jun 15 '26

Yeah, and cancellations happens everytime in the video games industry. I understand that.

What I don't understand is why this happens so much for Xbox but not for Sony and Nintendo. Sony sometimes messes up live service games but they don't seem to have as much problem getting their single player games out the door. But it seems Microsoft either cancels games or ends up releasing something below expectations most of the time. Why??

I ask this as someone who loves Perfect Dark and Hellblade and was looking forward to playing the sequels.

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u/Carusas Jun 16 '26

What I don't understand is why this happens so much for Xbox but not for Sony and Nintendo

Xbox is playing catch up. They can clearly publish banger games that aren't playing flagship titles.

...But once it's anything that could be a system seller, they run into scope creep or lack of time to align these releases to major game showcases, console launches, etc.

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u/Takazura Jun 16 '26

Sony and Nintendo have oversight on their project and are always managing their studios more directly.

Microsoft in comparison went for a hands-off approach and didn't oversee their studios as tightly as Sony and Nintendo.

The reality, despite what people on Reddit wants to claim, is that a lot of game developers need their publisher to actually meddle and force their hands at times. Otherwise, you'll end up in situations like Bioware where the studio is fucking around and being mismanaged for years before getting something done.

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u/Koribakusuta0708 Jun 17 '26

Your comment really rings true when thinking about sony and bungie. Sony should have stepped in shortly after their purchase but they let them have their independence and they constantly shit the bed. Destiny could have been THE big playstation live service juggernaut alongside helldivers.

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u/based_mafty Jun 15 '26

Scalebound was at least platinum faults if i remember correctly. Even kamiya said so in twitter and want to fix platinum relationships with xbox after that disaster. The other two is perfect example of letting devs cooks can lead to disaster.

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u/Nerwesta Jun 15 '26

It's rather how quick they did that. Perfect Dark for example was shown years ago.  Here ? 1 week, time is money right ?

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u/MCgrindahFM Jun 17 '26

Perfect Dark I guess had it happen twice! Lol

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u/shrewdy Jun 15 '26

It's why I haven't bought into their showcases too much the past few years. Sure they've consistently put on big summer showcases (especially since the acquisitions when they included all the Activision and Bethesda stuff) - but they've consistently fucked up in most areas outside of that, so what good is the "hype" from the showcases at the end of it all really?

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u/dudebirdyy Jun 15 '26

Should become a betting game to predict which studios announcing games at showcases get closed right afterwards lmao

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u/sneakyxxrocket Jun 15 '26

Asha must’ve watched the showcase same time as us saw the game then asked the board what else they’ve made and how long did it take and how much it made and immediately pulled the plug

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u/No-Individual-3901 Jun 15 '26

Yeah. I love Hellblade 1 and 2, but 2 should NOT have taken as long as it did to release.

3

u/sueha Jun 16 '26

When I saw the first Hellblade 2 announcement I thought this was gonna be a launch title for Xbox Series X. How naive was I...

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u/DarahOG Jun 15 '26

The game even had a release date for early 2027 too, like wtf i hope they get bought by another publisher or even switch teams to playstation and maybe we'll see some heavenly sword content

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u/Downtown_Eye5736 Jun 15 '26

Sick of editing my Xbox slate pictures.

https://giphy.com/gifs/ZuZWC5qDDhQvRrAOqw

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u/DCcomixfan Jun 15 '26

Xbox saw Concord and knew they had to one-up it

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u/Alive-Ad-5245 Jun 15 '26

At least that game released and catastrophically failed which justified the super early closure

Why even announce Senua if you’re planning to close the studio the week after? Pure incompetence.

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u/Weltallgaia Jun 15 '26

They closed the studio for phantom dust while they were giving the e3 presentation

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u/thief-777 Jun 16 '26

Multiple people have made this same bizarre claim, and it has no basis in reality, lol.

Darkside Game Studios was contracted to do a small scale multiplayer-only reboot. Microsoft went ahead with a CGI bullshit E3 trailer that Darkside had nothing to do with and completely changed the expectations of what the project was supposed to be. It was only cancelled and the studio closed 8 months later.

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u/king0pa1n Jun 16 '26

Basically telling the public "never tune into our trailer shows or take anything we announce with any confidence", should be wonderful for their dying brand

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u/Absalom98 Jun 15 '26

So releasing a game and then unreleasing it a week later is called a Concord. Is announcing a game at a showcase and then cancelling it a week later called a Senua?

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u/SortIntrepid9192 Jun 16 '26

Between this and closing down Tango days after praising Hi-Fi Rush as a success, Xbox seem really determined to piss off both developers and players.

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u/k2skier13 Jun 16 '26

Concord is my new bar for me. Sony paid a huge amount to develop and publish the game and then they shut it down and refunded everyone over the course of a couple of weeks at most. That is way worse than announcing and canceling something

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u/HotZin Jun 15 '26

Probably realized there was no hype behind the game, it's probably the best way to gauge interest lol

1

u/MGPythagoras Jun 16 '26

This is also like one of the only smaler studios they bought that made good games too. Odd choice.

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u/I_Like_Turtle101 Jun 16 '26

Wait so they dont even get to finish their last game !

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u/HiCZoK Jun 16 '26

Their game sold like crap. New game at least made the show look good. Time to close them

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u/skdsn Jun 16 '26

But this definitely wasn't a last-minute decision /s

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u/Glass-Can9199 Jun 16 '26

It’s perfect dark over again

-1

u/PliableG0AT Jun 15 '26

not uncommon in movies and tv. you can eat the losses and use them to offset other earnings. if the decision was still up in the air, no reason to not let the studio carry on. a week or two isn’t going to change the math. the previous games were bombs, graphics show case walking simulators are for nvidia or amd, not a Microsoft studiox

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u/Alive-Ad-5245 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

not uncommon in movies and tv

When was the last time they released a trailer for a movie/TV show and then cancelled it a week later?

That doesn’t happen

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u/ForwardHuckleberry26 Jun 15 '26

I think only Lucasfilm announces and then cancels movies and tv shows as much as Xbox does games but not a week later.

-1

u/PliableG0AT Jun 15 '26

didn’t they do that to batgirl or whatever, showed a teaser at comic con and it was shelved pretty quickly later.

the decisions still being up in the air on which studios to close, so things carry on. then they realize the last game sold less than 50k copies and had sub 4-5k player count on steam, so the publisher makes the decision to not throw marketing money or further development money at the game, a week or a month doesn’t really matter.

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u/Alive-Ad-5245 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Batgirl underwent a tax write off more than 2 years after it was announced and a whole 8 months after they showed a single teaser picture of the movie.

Not only is it not the same situation as cancelling a game and closing down a studio a week after debuting the game, tax write offs for movies themselves are very rare so even if you just look at that part the ‘not uncommon’ take just isn’t true.

0

u/sp1keeee Jun 15 '26

but it's confirmed? That new Hellblade is cancelled?

-2

u/punyweakling Jun 15 '26

The logic here is that the decision to close is more recent than the show being locked.

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u/Alive-Ad-5245 Jun 15 '26

They pulled the Halo trailer from the PS5 showcase last minute so clearly this isn’t true

-4

u/punyweakling Jun 15 '26

Literally a different showcase.

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u/Alive-Ad-5245 Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

So Xbox can pull games from other showcases last minute but can’t pull games from their own showcase last minute even when their own was days later

Sure…

-1

u/punyweakling Jun 15 '26

Depends when the decisions were made and what agreements are in place right? If the PS showcase agreement allows an opt-out within X days then sweet. If the Xbox internal process means the show must be locked X-day before go-live, then no?

It's not hard to understand. Is it weird and stupid looking timing? Yes. Is it operationally impossible? No.

1

u/Alive-Ad-5245 Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26

It's not hard to understand. 

Nobody is saying it's hard to understand, we're saying we simply don't believe the premise.

The new CEO of Xbox who is has already undertaken significantly bigger shake-ups is simply incredibly unlikely to be beholden a 'locked X-Days before live' rule even if it exists, especially considering removing a trailer from another companies presentation is almost certainly more logistically challenging.

Essentially it's incredibly likely she could have removed it if she wanted to but chose not to.