Featured Image Credit: Xbox Game Studios
After years of losing ground to the hands of PlayStation, Microsoft is shaking things up at Xbox to make sure history doesn't repeat itself by faltering in the console wars again.
With Project Helix and the PlayStation 6 set to go toe-to-toe again, with the added drama of fending off the Steam Machine, the next few months will be pivotal to the success of the gaming conglomerates.
Unfortunately for hundreds of staff inside Xbox, this means that Microsoft and the new Head of Gaming, Asha Sharma, have evaluated where the funds are heading, and the in-house studios are coming out on the wrong end of the stick.
After it was revealed that Microsoft considered selling Xbox, Sharma steadied the ship and has made some bold moves after taking over from Phil Spencer, such as renegging on the Call of Duty promise to be on Game Pass, lowering the subscription service.
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However, there's no light without a dark shadow, and the in-house Xbox studios are quickly preparing for a 'bloodbath' as Microsoft is looking to cut costs.
A recent blog post from Sharma outlined Microsoft's intention to review in-house studios, with many of them being spun off, closed, or told to get a shift on making new games.
Bethesda was at the top of the conversation, with The Elder Scrolls VI still in development some eight years after being announced, and Fallout's next title also appearing to be some way off being revealed in full.
But with so little to show, Bethesda is expected to be impacted by layoffs, and a range of studios will find out their fate by the end of the company's financial year on June 30.
According to Bloomberg's Jason Schrier, things are about to get ugly, citing a bloodbath for the company that will dwarf the previous layoffs of Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks in the last two years.
"A lot of these studios made plenty of their own mistakes, but in a lot of ways they're being punished today for following orders, for listening to what they were told a few years ago," he said in a YouTube report.
"That is just a shame, and what is going to happen is pretty brutal. The word bloodbath has been thrown around among people I talk to who know about what's going to happen. It's going to be bad."
He also claimed that the studios have been treading on eggshells for some time, which has impacted the productivity of blockbuster titles like The Elder Scrolls VI.
"One of the reasons Xbox studios have struggled to make great games over the past decade is this uncertainty. It's really hard to make great art when working under the fear of layoffs and turbulence and cancellations and shutdowns."
"The last couple of years at Xbox have been quite messy. People start openly questioning Game Pass and saying it's cannibalising sales.
"What might be good for the Game Pass folks may not be so good for the studios and revenue brought in for individual games."
Already, Ninja Theory has been shuttered, just a matter of days after announcing its latest game, Senua.
Schreier claimed that Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions are also facing closure, while layoffs will likely impact more subdivisions of the Xbox umbrella.
With Gears of War bringing E-Day, Microsoft is hurtling towards its own D-Day on June 30, which will likely stain all of the good work Xbox has done in the last few months.
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