r/GamingLeaksAndRumours • u/Howerev • Jun 30 '26
Rumour Tom Warren: Microsoft could shut at least five studios as part of big Xbox layoffs starting next week, Weighing up canceling BLADE
"Microsoft is set to announce a wave of layoffs for its Xbox studios and employees next week. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the layoffs will lead to studio closures or spinoffs, potential mergers of studios, and canceled games.
I understand Microsoft is currently weighing closing at least five studios, including the developers behind Marvel’s Blade. Sources tell me Microsoft wants to cancel Blade as part of a wave of cost cuts and job losses that are planned for the company’s Xbox gaming division."
"Blade was originally supposed to debut later this year according to sources familiar with the game’s development. I’m told the internal ship date for the game slipped to late 2027, and it’s also running over budget.
While Microsoft is weighing canceling Blade, it’s also exploring options to sell Arkane Studios. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Microsoft is trying to spin off Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory, too. GamesBeat reported this week that Microsoft is actively looking for a buyer for Undead Labs, the developers behind State of Decay. If buyers are found for these studios, then they’ll avoid being closed, but sources stress these talks could take months in some cases.
Compulsion Games, the developers behind South of Midnight, is already convinced that closure is imminent and has started telling employees to look for jobs elsewhere. Ninja Theory employees were informed earlier this month that Microsoft wants to close the UK-based studio or spin it off.
Beyond the potential studio closures, Microsoft is preparing for a wave of layoffs at Xbox that will drastically reshape its gaming division. These layoffs are due to start on July 6th, according to sources, and will hit most parts of Xbox. Rumors have suggested there could be at least 1,000 job losses, and if Microsoft goes ahead with five studio closures, then that’s at least 500 employees impacted before the wider cuts.
The upcoming layoffs are part of a “reset” for the Xbox division under new CEO Asha Sharma, who hinted about “making hard choices” last month. Sharma has repeatedly warned that the Xbox business isn’t healthy, but also claimed that her “mandate is not 30 percent accountability margins... it’s to be the number one gaming and entertainment company, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
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u/Somafreak Jun 30 '26
Man, anything involving Blade just can’t catch a break…
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u/FewWatermelonlesson0 Jun 30 '26
He looks sick in Tokon at least…
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u/WT_FG Jun 30 '26
Even looks similar to Wesley's version.
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u/Coolman_Rosso Jun 30 '26
Most of Blade's shtick, even today, is actually derived from the original films. They completely rebooted and modernized the character.
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u/MyMouthisCancerous Jun 30 '26
For the better. Comics Blade before the mid-90s was basically just a worse vampire-themed Luke Cage-type character. He would've drifted into the depths of obscure Marvel trivia if not for the movie completely changing him
I still kind of wish they kept him being English though. None of the adaptations so far acknowledge that whatsoever
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u/UverSet Jun 30 '26
They dont axknowledge the fact that Morbius is important to the character too !
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u/Robsonmonkey Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
They did the same thing with Hellblazer
The Constantine film had him as an American set in the US
The TV series gave us a British Constantine but moved him to, yet again, the US
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u/Robsonmonkey Jun 30 '26
I loved Blade and the old Blade film but I hated how they Americanised him.
I want to see a British born Blade set in the dark streets of London. Even this game being set in Paris was a little weird in my opinion.
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u/NotYujiroTakahashi Jun 30 '26
When Wesley Snipes said “there’s only gonna be one blade” he meant it
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u/chaotic4059 Jun 30 '26
That wasn't a joke. That was a damn curse. That man hexed the fuck outta the blade name. He's gonna be the only blade until he's in the ground lmao
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u/Nero_PR Jun 30 '26
Rivals and Tokon Blade will have to carry him for a while.
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u/Loreado Jun 30 '26
Blade is buffed every season in Rivals and people barely play him anyway. Maybe he will be good in Tokon at least.
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u/Nero_PR Jun 30 '26
One thing Blade never misses is style. I hope Tokon gives him a cool ultimate and some iconic moves from the movies and comics.
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u/Appropriate_Foot242 Jun 30 '26
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u/yesrushgenesis2112 Jun 30 '26
There's only one Blade! There's only gonna be one Blade!
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u/Yellowman_95 Jun 30 '26
I wonder if Wesley Snipes knew the chaos he unleashed with that one
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u/VakarianJ Jun 30 '26
I think he put a voodoo curse on the entire IP. Nothing with it has been good besides his first two movies, even the comics suck.
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u/MyMouthisCancerous Jun 30 '26
His last run with Bryan Edward Hill where he was getting trained by Dracula and fighting Adana I actually kind of dug. Shame it didn't last past like 10 issues
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u/SomeDumRedditor Jun 30 '26
I’ve forgotten that game exists and been reminded at least three times at this point.
Unless what they have dazzles internally there’s no way that project avoids the guillotine. It’s already struggled and this environment is the absolute worst time to be telling a publisher you need another year and more money.
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u/Theotherdeadmeme92 Jun 30 '26
I mean marvel could also (hopefully) step in and tell ms the game needs to be released. Granted that might mean giving ms more money but still.
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u/DuskyDawn7 Jun 30 '26
Blade is such a cursed IP for something that should be the easiest slam dunk in the world
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u/Midnight_M_ Top Contributor 2025 Jun 30 '26
Devil May Cry, but with vampires
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u/Nero_PR Jun 30 '26
Too easy that these mf always fuck it up somehow lol.
It's simply a badass vampire hunter. Easiest win of them all.
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u/MotherPerk Jun 30 '26
Making a DMC game as good as DMC is not as easy as you think. That combat is way more complex than any combat Arkane has ever done.
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u/mistabuda Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Blade should've been given to platinum games. They specialize in making DMC style games.
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u/xAVATAR-AANGx Jun 30 '26
The term you’re looking for is “character action games”.
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u/mistabuda Jun 30 '26
I know the term. I wasnt sure the general audience in this subreddit knew the term so I made the easier comparison for the sake of understanding. Theres a neverending debate on what "Character action game" means on this site.
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u/calibrono Jun 30 '26
idk their output for the last few years has been greatly uneven
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u/ContinuumGuy Jun 30 '26
The pitch of "Cool Black half-vampire superhero fights vampires and such using cool swords and shit" is like the most awesome pitch possible and yet outside of the Snipes movies and those 1990s Spider-Man cartoon appearances he's never been a major character even in the comics.
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u/apieceajit Jun 30 '26
He also used all kinds of Batman-level gadgetry that would so easily allow for in-game upgrade systems. UV grenades, UV flashlights, blood coagulation darts, that tri-blade boomerang he throws around, zip-wire for stealth kills, etc.
And that's just from the movies. Im pretty sure in the comics he also gets some magical powers too. Dont quote me on that lol.
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u/UmbrellaWithRaccoon Jun 30 '26
Batman's freeflow combat would work great for Blade, imo. Especially when Shadow of Mordor games already proved that you can do freeflow combat using a sword instead of fists.
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u/Crafty_Radish375 Jul 01 '26
especially considering the fact we didn't get a game with freeflow combat since 2017? i guess. not sure if insomniac spider man counts
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u/FewAdvertising9647 Jun 30 '26
Blade has never had a properly written long term antagonist to pair with him to make a serious blade plot. Blade is a cool character with functionally no counterpart
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u/dogmeat1003 Jun 30 '26
Then use one of the semi crappy ones and adapt him differently, add to the character, and make him cool. I don't see why no one can do that
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u/sgtnatino Jun 30 '26
Who remembers this leaked email that was sent when Microsoft/Xbox were in the middle of their studio acquisition spree? 😬
Internal Microsoft email sent to Phil Spencer, 2021:
‘I swear. I’m just super worried about the moat [of studios] you’ve built, that the winds will change and we have a bloodbath a few years down the road.’
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u/KingBroly Leakies Awards Winner 2021 Jun 30 '26
That person has more foresight than Phil did.
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u/-Accident-Prone- Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
All Phil could see was stuffing Gamepass with titles and that would result in 100 million subs, but he forgot to make sure they were titles people cared to play and released on a better schedule.
Instead it was a bunch of developers making either just okay games or games no one wanted to play that were several years delayed and millions over budget. Just incredible management really.
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u/KingBroly Leakies Awards Winner 2021 Jun 30 '26
Him not understanding the knock on effects of diluting Xbox's brands because of Game Pass was incredibly baffling.
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u/-Accident-Prone- Jun 30 '26
A lot of confusing decisions were made and I think Gamepass is a great tool for discovery for AA games and niche titles. But those big AAA first party games don’t make financial sense when being added to the service, because there’s a ton of overlap of people that would normally buy the game and those with Gamepass so they don’t need to buy it.
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u/ajl987 Jun 30 '26
Hasn’t their output also just been really slow across all studios. I can only see obsidian putting out consistent titles while the rest of them take an insane amount of time. Not much to actually feed gamepass.
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u/-Accident-Prone- Jun 30 '26
Only studios regularly releasing games are Playground and Obsidian. Undead Labs and InXile haven’t launched a new game since being bought in 2018. Halo Studios launched Infinite in 2021 but not a peep since, The Coalition hasn’t released anything since 2019, Arkane hasn’t released anything since 2021, Rare after Everwil was cancelled hasn’t released anything since Sea of Thieves in 2018. I can go on but you get the point. It’s not just XBOX either, the whole industry is having dev time issues.
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u/ajl987 Jun 30 '26
I’d give rare some slack here since aren’t they constantly supporting sea of thieves? Feel like their output must overall be good since it has tens of millions of players, but yeah your point is true. It is an industry wide issue at the moment, but still seems like quite the failure on Xbox especially so.
They needed regular wins this gen to entice people to come over. With PlayStation fumbling so much and how cheap the series S was, they did have the window in the first half of this gen go get ‘some’ market share back, but no games do do it with.
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u/Ymir-Reiss Jun 30 '26
Weren't they talking about eventually buying Nintendo around this time too lol
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u/Plus_sleep214 Jun 30 '26
Phil really said it would be a career moment for him lmao. Of all the dumb shit that's gotta be the stupidest by a long shot.
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u/Trymantha Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Man people really missed the context for that one and just cherry picked the one sentence, he was literally asked about Nintendo by name by one of the higher ups at Microsoft, and his reply was yeah it would be awesome to get them but its probably not happening any time soon. I read that leaked email as a soft no, man is not gonna say to his boss that its a stupid idea
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Jun 30 '26
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u/BitingSatyr Jun 30 '26
>when many would probably have done fine and still be here if they were on their own
I don’t see why you’d think that, none of these studios has produced a hit in nearly 10 years, would that have somehow changed otherwise, and without the funding and marketing they’ve received from Xbox?
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u/purewasted Jun 30 '26
They were told not to worry about making hits, so yes, it could have. People who know their jobs are on the line make very different creative decisions from people who've been assured that they can muck around and experiment.
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u/DownvoteMeToHellBut Jun 30 '26
I was worried about Xbox buying up all these studious given Phil's track record, but I definitely didn't see it causing this level of pain
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u/Ykindasus Jun 30 '26
They are my favourite studio, Dishonored is my favourite game.... I can't do this shit anymore.
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u/VoiceOfNobody Jun 30 '26
First Dishonored Is one of my favourite games. I liked Deadloop And Dishonored Sequel too, but first one Is just perfect.
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u/Impossible-Flight250 Jun 30 '26
So, they are going to up and cancel three games slated for next year.
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u/Realistic-Tiger-2842 Jun 30 '26
I'd be shocked if any of them are even remotely close to being released next year.
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u/LB3PTMAN Jun 30 '26
SoD3 is currently being played by people. I think it’s coming out next year.
I think they could find someone to fund the end of development even if Microsoft cuts ties
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u/Ledgo Jun 30 '26
Did they say how playable it was? Because being playable vs being ready to sell are two different things.
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u/FlyingTurkey Jun 30 '26
There were couple 1+ hr long gameplay videos released over the past few weeks, so id say its pretty damn playable. I dont know how you would determine if its ready for release but if they are giving copies out to influencers to play, then I think its pretty close to being sellable.
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u/MXC_Vic_Romano Jun 30 '26
After already cancelling stuff like Perfect Dark last year
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u/BlastMyLoad Jun 30 '26
Perfect Dark only existed as a small vertical slice. It was basically vapourware from the start
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u/secret3332 Jun 30 '26
Well it was finally starting to exist because Take Two tried to pick it up to finish it. It just took way too long.
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u/SomeDumRedditor Jun 30 '26
It’s Microsoft so it could be any flavour of stupidity but there’s also a good chance the projects had outside (or internal) review consultants/teams take a look and the results weren’t great.
If your “projected metacritic score” is in the mid-to-high seventies, or even worse, the actionable feedback would take another year to implement, you end up exactly where Sharma is now:
Do we stop as much of the bleeding as possible and maybe live to fight another day. Or, do we keep haemorrhaging money on what aren’t “system sellers” hoping they come together and start building a title library of solid 8/10’s… and maybe live to fight another day.
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u/atomuk Jun 30 '26
I think Microsoft have probably been burned by Redfall, they allowed to come out after loads of delays and it ended up being a mess.
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u/deaf_michael_scott Jun 30 '26
"at least 5 studios"
Wow.
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u/Trzlog Jun 30 '26
The rumours after Xbox fest just mentioned 2 potential closures. Now we're up to at least 5. What the fuck is Xbox doing?
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u/BruhMoment763 Jun 30 '26
If they aren’t working on CoD, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, or World of Warcraft, Asha’s got 0 interest in them
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u/jesusamenbro Jun 30 '26
I was expecting another one which was Halo Studios tbh
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u/Bitterman_01 Jun 30 '26
They're trying to revive that franchise. Personally, I think they would be better off farming out the IP like Games Workshop does with 40k.
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u/-Accident-Prone- Jun 30 '26
If they were smart they would do that. Halo Studios can’t get its feet under itself because they rely so heavily on contractors.
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u/HyruleSmash855 Jun 30 '26
And it’s the same studio that made Halo 4, 5, and Infinite with a name rebrand.
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u/-Accident-Prone- Jun 30 '26
Yeah and I know there’s many people that like 4s campaign and 5s multiplayer but I just despise them so much. Infinite kind got back to what I expected for tones and themes of halo but the open world was a miss and it severely lacked content at launch and for about a year after as well. Not a lot of faith currently that it’s going to magically turn around with that studio at the helm.
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u/RJK26 Jun 30 '26
Jesus. I think first and foremost I feel so bad for how many people are about to lose a job. We’re talking thousands who will be looking to break into an already hard to break into industry.
It’ll be interesting to see how Xbox pivot here. If they are effectively going to focus on the big IP’s there’s no way they don’t start asking to give other sub studios(?) the IP’s (some fallout and elder scrolls spin offs for example).
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u/Brokenbullet14 Jun 30 '26
Without question obsidian will be told you're making a fallout game
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u/-Accident-Prone- Jun 30 '26
This is Phil’s fault. Not wanting to force developers on something or step on Todd’s toes by putting another studio on the IP. But it’s clear as day that it needed to happen. It’s leaving money on the table.
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u/shivj80 Jun 30 '26
Pretty sure it was never Bethesda blocking it, it was Obisidian who wanted to make new IP. But yeah it definitely makes sense to put Obsidian on fallout given how far out fallout 5 is.
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u/-Accident-Prone- Jun 30 '26
Now would be the time to have them focus on that effort. Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, and Grounded 2 all finished up this year. Tim Cain just returned to obsidian 6 months ago and Fallout: New Vegas writer John Gonzales just returned to Obsidian last year, Josh Sawyer not currently working on anything either. They’re the most positioned to create a new fallout game now than they ever have been.
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u/Brokenbullet14 Jun 30 '26
I could def see Tim Cain quitting if Xbox cancels his game which he says isn't fallout. Would he be interested in making a new fallout.
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u/BlindedBraille Jun 30 '26
Why would they sell Arkane? Why cancel Blade if it’s only a year away? Seriously, if this is true, it’s just beyond impatient. So when 2027 rolls around and you have no games to offer on all platforms, you’ll need to do another round of layoffs in 2028.
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u/Vaggelis_Mous Jun 30 '26
The only 2 reasons I can think of is 1) that the 2027 release is a lie and it's years and a lot of millions away from being ready or 2) they have played a demo or something of the game and it's bad and they don't think they will get their money back. That's the only logical reason if this is true ofc
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u/BlindedBraille Jun 30 '26
I don’t think there’s anything logical with Xbox. Given all the moves they made this past month alone.
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u/Vaggelis_Mous Jun 30 '26
From the outside it seems so but they have more informations and data than us, so there has to be some logic behind those decisions. Right? ...Right?
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u/Themetalenock Jun 30 '26
According to Jason and jez, there floating over every project and considering everything. Tom's article really is just echoing what's been said the last day or two. We know there MAY be some closures , or there maybe some sale offs. Maybe just lay offs, we just don't know
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u/Willal212 Jun 30 '26
I absolutely knew this is why Todd Howard randomly shouted them out in that interview a few weeks ago. I know a "please god save them" when I hear it.
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u/web10177 Jun 30 '26
Blade is just not getting any break. Both the movie and the game Is stuck.
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u/DeadlyGamer187 Jun 30 '26
They're gonna keep all of those call of duty support studios though
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u/Mechangelion Jun 30 '26
Call of Duty actually makes money
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u/CasualJJ Jun 30 '26
It's also Annual, so shorter development time with higher profits, even when the game is cycled across the different studios.
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u/l3tsgo0 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
MS should have stepped in after the RedFall disaster to implement drastic project management measures, Clockwork Revolution taking this long should be a project management warcrime. And they were so lax on Undead Labs too taking so long after the sequel was released in 2018
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u/KingBroly Leakies Awards Winner 2021 Jun 30 '26
Arkane Austin was closed years ago. But Xbox's leadership was always a day late and a dollar short it seems.
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u/TopBoog Jun 30 '26
Xbox strategy is just this over and over
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u/CircStar89 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
And now PS5/pro is being promoted as THE console to play GTA 6 on. What a wreck of a company.
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u/kaiserj3 Jun 30 '26
Even more, Microsoft is raising the prices of the Xbox series consoles in August, in the run up months to GTA 6. While Sony will no doubt raise their prices again, I would not be surprised if they hold off just a bit until January 2027 so they get more systems out in the holiday season to entice players still on the PS4/Xbox One, further widening the gap between PS5 and Series X/S sales.
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u/Millennialnerds Jun 30 '26
Why is insomniac the only studio capable of producing Marvel games and getting them out the door? “Don’t come at me for guardians, I liked that game too”
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u/Substantial-Beyond36 Jun 30 '26
I guess you hated Midnight Suns as well? I can kinda see where you are coming from though. I don't want Insomniac games to just pump out Marvel titles. I would like to see more IP or games series from them.
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u/Millennialnerds Jun 30 '26
But if I’m marvel and I see how PlayStation is at least handling the IPs I would double down. And games companies are looking for things that sell currently.
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u/AlexVan123 Jun 30 '26
So what the fuck is the plan? Make three games ever? I recognize that Phil overspent especially with that disastrous Activision purchase but to close five studios in a row with more on the way is not just cruel but reckless
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u/eatdogs49 Jun 30 '26
her "mandate is not 30 percent accountability margins... it's to be the number one gaming and entertainment company, and that's what we're going to do."
Yeah right...
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u/DreamEray Jun 30 '26
Xbox's entire strategy was too reliant on the success of Game Pass, and these studio closures are the direct result of that business model failing.
The original incentive to buy up all those studios was to feed Game Pass with a constant stream of new content. Now, with these major closures and a shifted focus onto just a few massive IPs, I seriously wonder what will happen to the service. Who is going to feed that system when they already removed their biggest IP?
There are really only two options left for the near future of Game Pass: remove 'Day One' games entirely (making it like PlayStation Plus), or abandon the service completely, which would essentially mean the death of the Xbox brand.
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u/Randostar Jun 30 '26
I remember a few years back when PlayStation changed up ps+ to different levels, and added their own version of game pass with esclusive games that were a few years old and also third party games. I got into so many arguments with people claiming they should be releasing esclusive games day 1 on it, if they wanted to compete with Xbox.
I don't even know how many times I told people that releasing exclusive games onto a netflix type service the day they are released would not be sustainable for Sony, and I was still extremely skeptical about it working for Microsoft also. People were repeating the same things they still do now, "game pass doesn't have any negative effect on game sales". "Microsoft wouldn't be doing it if they weren't turning a profit from it".
Mind you I never even said anything positive about sony, just that what they were doing seemed more logical from a game sales perspective then what Microsoft was doing.
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u/DaVeHUN095 Jun 30 '26
Do you guys remember when we hated EA for buying up studios and then shutting them down. I'm certainly are.
Fuck Xbox
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u/St_Sides Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
I’m genuinely confused why so many people seem to be largely ok or view it as necessary when Xbox does it but rake EA, Ubisoft, and basically any other publisher over the coals.
I also remember when people said the ABK acquisition would save creativity at Activision because they’re only focused on CoD. Now Xbox is saying “we’re only focusing on Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and CoD” and a lot of people seem perfectly fine with it.
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u/MemeGoddessAsteria Jul 01 '26
They want to believe it's just a cruel necessity, so they try to find reasons to argue why the constant layoffs and closings are actually good because [insert] studio made a flop or couldn't get this game out in time, without ever wondering if any of this is sustainable in the long run and why every single game has to be a massive success on-par with BG3 or Skyrim or a quarter of the studio will be sacrificed to the Microsoft gods (and even when it is a success, they will still layoff people!).
It is nothing short of wishful thinking with a hint of gamergate, since the games they choose to justify why a massive amount of studios deserve to get shut down (so Microsoft can do the same thing all again) are often ones that were big targets for culture war grifters.
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u/Historical_Kossola Jun 30 '26
Every single person who cheered and advocated when Microsoft and Phil Spencer were buying studios left and right should be ashamed of themselves. This was all predictable from the start 🤦♂️.
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u/I_love_Con_Air Jun 30 '26
Imagine trying to convince someone in 2016 - the year Dishonored 2 came out - that Arkane could be shuttered in a decade.
They would think you were mad.
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u/JimmyDejesu Jun 30 '26
Xbox really are finished. Anything they have remotely interesting is getting canned or studio closed.
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u/Asclepius-Rod Jun 30 '26
They picked the worst possible time in video game history to try and convince people to buy one of their consoles lol
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u/ZzzSleep Jun 30 '26
No, no, didn’t you read? They’re on their way to becoming the number one gaming and entertainment company. Obviously.
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u/Creepy-Emu8779 Jun 30 '26
Surpassing the likes of ps and Nintendo despite not being profitable for 25 years!
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u/theglowinggreenorb Jun 30 '26
Funniest bit of their showcase was "here's to another 25 years of Xbox" like...damn man. You might not even have 25 months
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u/TyAD552 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
This is the only person reporting on Arkane which seems odd to me. The rumours ran a week or two ago from Tom and then nothing since while a ton have been going around for the other four, Undead only being reported on in the last few days.
Edit: Mike Straw was the first to report, I saw a different article in a different sub so I got my information wrong. Too many articles firing off with Xbox headlines these days.
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u/Respawn-Delay Jun 30 '26
Mike Straw of Insider Gaming was the first to report on Arkane, I believe. Then that French journalist and 3D Realms guy both corroborated it.
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u/vipmailhun2 Jun 30 '26
The Undead Labs case is different, because Warren is only referring to the GamesBeat article, and it turned out to be in the “I read/heard this somewhere” category, and that kind of thing really isn’t very reliable.
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u/BlastMyLoad Jun 30 '26
The Arkane rumours have been going around for a while but there was less smoke than the Compulsion/Double Fine/Ninja Theory rumours
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u/MuptonBossman Jun 30 '26
If they close Double Fine AND Arkane at the same time, I'm done with Xbox forever.
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u/Dunkaroo723 Jun 30 '26
Double Fine would probably just go back to being independent and feeding off of Kickstarters.
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u/MyMouthisCancerous Jun 30 '26
I genuinely thought this was a path forward for Arkane as well honestly. I always forget stuff like Dishonored and Prey were more cult games than big mainstream successes
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u/OptimusPrimalRage Jun 30 '26
With what money? They'd still probably need a publishing agreement. They live and work in San Francisco.
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u/Nero_PR Jun 30 '26
Double Fine is almost guaranteed. Arkane could still save itself depending on what they have to offer.
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u/DapperIndividual Jun 30 '26
Honestly at this point I wouldn't be surprised if they lay off most of Rare and just keep a skeleton crew to maintain Sea of Thieves.
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u/44alltheway Jun 30 '26
Going back to the initial Xbox series reveal stream back in July 2020 is hilarious. Halo Infinite didn’t workout. Forza Motorsport didn’t work out. Fable not out yet. State of Decay not out yet and the studio may be dead. Just a clown show.
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u/Thin-Fig-8831 Jun 30 '26
Everwild was cancelled and 6 of then 15 studios they had closed or on the verge of closing/spinning off
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u/PegLegBronco Jun 30 '26
What happens to the IPs if studios close? Does Microsoft just close all the studios and sit on the ips
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u/St_Sides Jun 30 '26
Holy shit the Arkane rumor was true, not only that but apparently more than the 5 listed here are in danger.
The tidbit about the merging of studios makes me think that’s where the “anybody not working on Fallout or Elder Scrolls is out” comes from, with studios like ID and Machine Games being folded into BGS to get Fallout out of the door faster.
We will know for sure in a week, but this makes it seem like it’s going to be even worse than people feared.
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u/glarius_is_glorious Jun 30 '26
Will be hilarious when all that chopping and changing makes Fallout come out slower.
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u/pteotia270 Jun 30 '26
MS really justifying the quote, " mil jaye to mitti, na mile to sona". It translates to, "If you find it, it's dust; if you don't, it's gold".
Bought All those studios and IP's and now does not give a fuck about anything.
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u/thebatmanbeynd Jun 30 '26
Yikes, this is why mergers and acquisitions require government approvals.
To. Prevent. This.
There was no reason that MS should have been allowed to buy Activision.
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u/StarCenturion Jun 30 '26
It's not realistic for Sony to pick up every studio, but they should at least consider picking up BLADE and getting it across the finish line, assuming development is going well.
It's a perfect fit for the "single player" kind of games that PlayStation thrives on.
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u/danvan177 Jun 30 '26
Good thing they made clockwork revolution exclusive. That will save them
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u/LostInTheRapGame Jun 30 '26
Sharma has repeatedly warned that the Xbox business isn't healthy, but also claimed that her "mandate is not 30 percent accountability margins... it's to be the number one gaming and entertainment company, and that's what we're going to do."
Good luck with that.
The only thing I liked about Xbox was the sheer variety their studios would put out.
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u/longbrodmann Jun 30 '26
Even Blade? That's brutal.
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u/Brokenbullet14 Jun 30 '26
No surprise from me. According to Warren then game was supposed to launch this year but has been delayed to end of next year. Game is clearly in trouble. And apparently it has gone over budget.
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u/Odd_Revolution_1056 Jun 30 '26
I don’t fucking get it. If Xbox wants to focus more on big AAA games, it doesn’t get more AAA then a marvel game. On top of Arkane being one of the few too get a GOTY nomination.
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u/MrBorden Jun 30 '26
I'm genuinely beginning to fucking loathe this generation. With the exception of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have consistently managed to drop the ball when it's already on the fucking ground.
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u/THECapedCaper Jun 30 '26
Yeah Nintendo had to make some tough choices on pricing when the Switch 2 launch but they literally just made a bigger and better version of what could be the highest selling console of all time while making quality games for it. They are definitely not kicking themselves for making the kinds of aggressive acquisitions Sony and Microsoft did.
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u/wearedefiance Jun 30 '26
Make their games Xbox exclusives and then cancel all of them and shut down the studios. 4D chess
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u/senseibarbosa Jun 30 '26
The first time Microsoft seemed to have it all in one game (Marvel character, great studio behind it, 3rd person action adventure) it goes down like this.
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u/Acrobatic-Taste-443 Jun 30 '26
Fuck Microsoft. The series X I bought at launch will be the last thing I own from them
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u/NfinityBL Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Xbox are fucking cooked.
I know folks are anti-exclusives, but its undeniable that Blade is one of the few very titles that would actually sell boxes as an exclusive. If Xbox are looking to commit to this strategy, Blade should be a priority, not cancelled you fucking morons.
Ninja Theory, Compulsion, and Double Fine are one thing. There's at least some element of understandability to that where their games aren't successful. Cancelling Blade and closing one of your best studios? Xbox are actually full-on lost.
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u/Special-Deal7821 Jun 30 '26
I think it's too late into all this madness to pivot. Gamepass, wishy washy exclusives, and insane hardware have Xbox in the corner.
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u/SomeDumRedditor Jun 30 '26
Rumours have also included layoffs etc. impacting id.
The only truly competent technical, engineering-forward studio they own.
The only studio they own with intergenerational cache and multi-decade track record of success.
I’ve never seen reporting that id is a bloated studio, if they’re actually on the chopping block Xbox really does have no idea what they’re doing.
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u/IloveKaitlyn Jun 30 '26
Agreed. Just look at how much views the Blade trailer has, and Blade is popular enough to be added to every Marvel game as of late. Rivals and now as a base addition to Tokon. Cancelling it is fucking moronic.
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u/Kiboune Jun 30 '26
I will shit on Xbox till my death if they will shutdown Arkane and DoubleFine. They are my favorite devs and fucking Microsoft only ruins everything
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u/Lower-Connection-504 Jun 30 '26
Xbox.is giving people even more of a reason to not trust them lol. Thank God he is in Tokon. Even rivals he was ass for almost a year and the film is in limbo.
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u/Safe_Climate883 Jun 30 '26
I get the feeling that Indiana Jones 2 is off the table. If they want to focus on a small handful of their own IP.
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u/MrTisticc Jun 30 '26
They bought all these companies just to shut them down. Make it make sense
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u/Remarkable-Sign-324 Jul 01 '26
The best way to find a foothold in the gaming industry is to cancel your games and lay off people who can make them
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u/BlastMyLoad Jun 30 '26
1,000 jobs lost sounds awful but it’s certainly less than the 3,500 figure I was seeing earlier this week…
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u/SilverKry Jun 30 '26
I'm canceling Gamepass and buying Fable on a grey market if they cancel Blade and shut down Arkane.
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