They get to keep their IPs, right?
Yes
So, the layoffs are still awful, but if I’m understanding this correctly, none of the affected studios are closing outright? And Senua, State of Decay 3, and Blade are still happening?
No games are cancelled. It’s just after the games release, they won’t have funding from Xbox again, unless agreement otherwise.
Do we know about Blade? The article seemed a lot more ominous and unclear about what’s happening with Arkane Lyon.
It’s not cancelled. Arkane is in process. We already got the word of a new leader taking place. What they will do next is unclear.
Hoping for the best for Double Fine. They were in a really tight spot before they were purchased and the industry has only gotten far FAR worse sense.
Uh, can’t say I have any good feelings for Xbox. I was excited when they had more talent and creativity under their belt. Not sure how I’m supposed to be excited now that they’re telling me they want less talent and creativity to push more blockbuster franchises. Yay! Not like this fatigue is being complained about in literally every entertainment medium right now including gaming. Double Fine is some major talent for Xbox to part ways with. They’re own their own patting themselves on the back for that one. I’m not going to cheer for more Halo or Fallout if it means the actually creative and interesting games that kept me invested in Xbox as a publisher are going to start to be lost.
Well I’m reluctant to express any positive feeling because this situation still sucks for a lot of Xbox employees.. but I guess this overall could have been a lot worse and I appreciate that Double Fine et al. aren’t actually closing down.
I wish Xbox could have found a way to hold on to Double Fine. Even though they’ve arguably had a few misses lately, they’ve got such a great history and particularly they were such a significant part of the success of Xbox Live Arcade back in the 360 days. I have a lot of happy memories of Double Fine games like Costume Quest and Happy Action Theater.
Xbox will also begin a consultation process with Arkane Studios (Blade), based in Lyon, France, to “review potential strategic options” in the coming months in hopes of selling or spinning out the studio. Unlike the other four studios, this process has not yet started and will take longer than the others due to stringent French labor laws.
This is what was in the Bloomberg article. It doesn’t sound like there is an answer yet and I’ll remain very skeptical - really I’ll try not to think about it - until the game actually releases all things considered. It does sound like the end goal is to part ways with Arkane Lyon as well and if Blade development isn’t working out or won’t be finished near that time then I wouldn’t be surprised if funding is cut and they find themselves with an unfinished game and limited options.
Tbh I lot better than I was dreading/expecting
A shame to see Ninja sold, though
Selling Ninja Theory is a mistake IMO. Not even the biggest fan of the Studio either.
Glad they all will have at least 1 more chance releasing games, i’ll be there for SoD3 day 1.
Very curious about who acquired and will acquire Undead Labs, Ninja Theory and Arkane, can’t get worse i guess xd
I keep going back to the days of Double Fine and Xbox arcade when thinking about this situation. It makes sense that Double Fine wanted to focus on smaller titles after making Psychonauts 2, but this is not the first time they have been in this position and their output back when they were putting out titles like Stacked and Costume Quest is like night and day compared to now. It’s hard to figure out what has gone wrong here when it seems like a failure from both Xbox’s handling of these studios and the studios themselves.
I’m ultimately glad none of these studios are closing, Double Fine particularly - and it seems their parting terms are overall generous. Maybe a positive sign for the future.
One of their best storytelling, visual and animation talents and UE5 masters with a game out next year… MS are fucking evil clowns
I mean what misses have double fine had? Psychonauts 2, Keeper, and Kiln were all critical successes and great cheap game pass games. It seems terrible to call them a failure. Psychonauts 2 was started off as a kickstarter game and had promises to fulfill there and it still did great. Keeper was a very short game that is still only on Xbox & PC. Why would anyone buy it and not just play it on GP? Kiln probably did underperform in player counts but I don’t imagine it cost much to make. It feels more like these studios got the rug pulled from under them. They were bought for a reason and they did a great job in supporting that reason (game pass), but then it was decided that wasn’t enough and now Xbox just wants to follow everyone else and focus on franchise fatigue and that just sucks for the studios.
Also makes me wonder what they’ll do for game pass. The point of building up this variety and having these AA studios was to keep a steady stream of guaranteed first party games coming and build a reputation for game pass. They can do third party deals but that doesn’t really build a baseline you can always count on. The Bloomberg article also blamed game pass plateauing, so then what’s the play? I feel like Game Pass itself is next on the chopping block or at least to get overhauled and Microsoft is just trying to become like every other publisher out there. Then in 10 more years or so some other company will successfully pull off their version of game pass and Microsoft will start chasing it’s tail lamenting on how they gave up too soon or they should’ve have parted with studios or they wish they focused both on popular franchises and new IP to cultivate longevity or whatever. It’s always the same old story. “We have to cut back because our investment didn’t make us as much money as we hoped as quickly as we want.” and then “Darn, we wish we hadn’t cut back. Now we have to sit and watch while other businesses grow past us and succeed where we didn’t.” 
Yep I’m not adding to my stack until I’m much clearer on the future in regards to what I’m going to get on GP, and I’ve about 2 years in the tank so it may be a while before Xbox sees anymore of my money except for premium upgrades if games deserve it (DLC included is a minimum demand).
I think Microsoft basically want huge profits from the division which isn’t ever going to happen - even if they go full third party and whack up GP prices while minimising the cost of it, they’re still going to have good and bad years depending on how well CoD did.
Their attitude is that it’s all about the money now, not about gaming or customers - that’s fine, I choose to also forget any “loyalty” I have to Xbox or Microsoft in my personal or professional life (both mainly down to nostalgia) and aggressively seek the best value.
It also means no Helix as I can’t risk buying their a console they’re cutting corners on when they’ve shut their UK repair facilities, replaced customer support with AI chatbots (leaving you screwed even if they’re illegally claiming the warranty finished early) and in general are treating anything outside North America as an inconvenience
Microsoft’s attitude has always been all bout the money as opposed to the consumer. Which is why most Xbox fans are fans of Xbox in spite of Microsoft not because of it and it was a lot better when they were more “hands off” with the division.
Good to see them going independent rather than being closed down. Keeping their games too! I’m having trouble finding anything negative about this.
I stacked as well before Asha came in and I would definitely put a freeze on stacking until I can ascertain their direction and if it aligns with mine. 3200 is a huge number to let go and now they want a billion daily players. Sounds like a candy crush factory.