Xbox is, once again, planning to close a number of game studios including Ninja Theory, Double Fine, and Compulsion Games.
After a stellar Xbox Games Showcase, which showed gameplay from Halo: Campaign Evolved and the freshly-exclusive Gears of War: E-Day, Microsoft’s gaming platform has once again shot itself in the foot.
At the time of writing, Xbox has not confirmed plans to close any game studios, although it seems quite clear that bad news is just around the corner. This comes after last year’s mass layoffs from Microsoft as well which saw the closure of Perfect Dark studio The Initiative, the cancellation of Zenimax’s next MMO, and the scrapping of Rare’s Everwild project.
In a discussion on LinkedIn, thanks GR, former PlayStation Studios boss Shawn Layden argued that Microsoft has a “basic misunderstanding” of the gaming industry. Still the new kid on the block, Microsoft has bought studios for billions, founded new teams, and laid off both existing developers and their own new blood.
“At the risk of sounding like a ‘hater’ (which, I’m really not) the moves evince a basic misunderstanding of how the interactive entertainment world moves. Iykyk, which also means if you don’t you don’t,” the former PlayStation lead said.
Layden’s comments came in the form of a response to industry consultant Tadhg Kelly, who simply labelled the “identity crisis” of the Xbox brand over the last few years. They posted the following moves from Microsoft:
- A new CEO after previous leadership was beheaded
- A rebrand that was kinda just the old brand
- A reaffirmation of expensive Helix
- A claim that hardware can’t be expensive to win
- A claim that 30% margin is done
- A claim that 3% margin is trouble
- Matthew Ball and some new tech-industry hires
- A claim about refocusing on core franchises
- A showcase of new games
- A killing of studios making those new games
- A claim that gaming is important to Microsoft
- A comment that gaming at Microsoft needs to stand alone
It is clear that Xbox, once again, is flip-flopping and largely directionless, despite the incredibly high-quality software coming out of the platform holder. Forza Horizon 6 has been a massive seller, and interest in Halo, Gears and Fable is higher than it’s been in a decade, but the platform holder is still laying off its own employees.
On the other hand, rival platform holder PlayStation is also facing its own issues. After continued losses, Destiny 2 developer Bungie is reportedly facing mass layoffs, and Sony’s recent moves saw the closure of multiple studios including Bluepoint Games.
Right now, the industry is reportedly set to face another rough summer of mass layoffs across the world. We’ve already seen major hits this year with companies like Epic Games laying off thousands of employees, but the true scale of this year’s mass firings are currently unknown.
