Straight from a Matt Booty Email, reported on by Windows Central, The Initiative Development Studio will be shut down today and their Perfect Dark Reboot, the alleged "quadruple-A title" (AAAA) will be axed, along with a bevy of other titles in-development under Xbox's publishing.
Alongside these cancellations today came the news that 4% of Microsoft's entire workforce (roughly 9,100 people), will be laid off, including game developers at Rareware and other studios.
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I apologise if this is more appropriate for the r/gamingnews subreddit, but this is huge for the gaming industry and I think it’s worth discussing here as much as anywhere else.
I’m just the messenger and I know you aren’t here for my take, but this is beyond blood boiling for so many reasons and my heart goes out to those who will be affected by today’s news. Both in losing their jobs and the chance to share with the world the art they worked so hard to create.
Xbox leadership has proven thoroughly incompetent on every front for years , and yet mat booty continues to go up the ladder and the remaining continue to be in place
What an egregious waste of time, effort and money. What a poor way to treat those whose hard work afforded them to purchase Activision blizzard acquisition has torpedoed Xbox
That’s a shame. I was super hyped for Perfect Dark.
I don’t know enough about these projects that got shutdown if it was for the better or worse. Not speaking on the layoffs that’s obv bad. What I mean is say they went through with these games if that’s something gamers actually wanted..or if they ended up releasing it would just be something new for people to complain about “__ trash game” “nobody asked for this” “this isn’t how i remember __ they should of left it alone”
good job Microsoft…
Only like the 20th time it’s been posted here………
A new MMO, eh?
Always weird to see a new MMO come out. You wonder if it’s going to be the next Everquest or World of Warcraft, or if it’s just going to be a life-sucking grind with shallow daily login mechanics to try to reel you back in and boost active player count.
ZeniMax was also the dev behind Elder Scrolls Online, so make that what you will of it.
Edit: Apparently “Blackbird”, the new MMO, has been cancelled, along with a host of others? Just found out, but ouch.
Most of the gaming subs couldn’t get enough of Microsoft’s recent effort to monopolize US AAA gaming studios because they thought Phil spencer was ‘ourguy’, or that they’d be investing in them. Now that they’re riffing studio personnel like they’re the grim reaper at a battlefield, I hope you all see the folly of trusting Microsoft – there’s a good reason people stuck on Windows know that MS could fuck up a ham sandwich.
Microsoft cant make their own gaming IPs if their lives depended on it. They gotta buy them all up and then close them down.
And even when they do make a good new IP, they still close the studio down. Looking at you hi fi rush.
its funny how they can announce and cancel games. like throwing away the work of hundreds
Phil Spencer has to be a Sony op. Nobody can possibly be this shitty.
Market studies ( /s ) showed average gamers don’t like good games as good games still bring less money than unoriginal slops designed to reach into your pocket directly. We can shit all we want on MS, but the market doesn’t lie.
The fact they called it a “AAAA” probably killed the hype of a lot of people. It did for me. (Thank to Skull & Bones)
“ZeniMAX MMO”, who’s delusional enough to believe them being able to do that? It will be another stack of MTX wrapped with boring quests.
Damn shame. Perfect Dark looked great
So they killed Perfect Dark but released Redfall… I hate this timeline.
Of all the fucking games that was cancelled why did it have to be this one, of course the one I am actually looking forward to gets the chop, fuck you Microsoft!
Microsoft clearly has no idea where to go from here.
Gotta free up cash flow for AI R&D. That’s really what this is all about. We may not like it, but AI is most definitely the future and Microsoft recognizes that.
Wow…they really don’t know how to please their players. They sure know how to lose and drive them away.
Our fault for supporting Game Pass…
This was totally expected
What an insanely stupid move, they dont ship hardware anymore and now they killing more and more game studios who the hell wants to sign up for a game pass when they bait and switching whats coming to it.
MMO genre is dead.
Microsoft is absolutely getting out of the gaming development and hardware industry.
This is only the beginning
Is Rare next? Sea of Thieves was their last game right?
That game is almost a decade old.
Is rare also working on some secret other game or are they cooked?
The least those bastard’s at Microsoft can do now is put the original game on steam.
OMG, have Nintendo buys Rare’s IPs back already :O
Im just waiting for them to cancel fable 4
Rip team Xbox
They fought long and hard in the console wars
Lot of good men stayed loyal till the end but eventually command stopped sending supplies and rations and the rest was history
Now it’s up for the remaining soldiers to decide to go PC or join the enemy forces because their nation has abandoned them.
*Plays TAPS with a kazoo*
Ok what the fuck is going on microsoft?
Microsoft is the EA of EAs
Microsoft is cancelling huge projects for no reason and laying off thousands of workers despite making record profits. But, no r/gaming tell me instead how Nintendo is evilest gaming company for new TOS that Sony and Microsoft have retained the past twenty years already, and for encrypting their i/o interface.
I find it funny that they killed off the project that was likely to actually make them money.
And i was looking forward to Perfect Dark too.
AAAA? Wtf, people? Injecting money won’t make a game a sudden success for God’s sake
And they most likely won’t spend this money on developers, just powerful machines to compile the project, assets and such
Wtf….
just… wait… what??? the use of big letters so randomly made this so confusing……..
Won’t believe it until xbox announce it themselves
I’ve been saying two things for a year and a half:
– the studio closings are a reflection of corporate greed, not the industry itself.
– there is about to be a big indie boom a la 2012 with all these talented developers being laid off.
If Microsoft can’t do any better than this maybe it’s better if they leave the industry.
bruh what is microsoft doing
Microsoft founded a studio, let’s them develop for 7 years, gets Crystal Dynamics to step in and help, and still cancels the game.
If that isn’t mismanagement I don’t know what is.
To be fair it didn’t look that great. Like a cheap Human Revolution. No way they would have gotten Joanna right in today’s world anyway. Probably for the best.
Don’t tell me…. Scale bound is cancelled.
Kill a game with a legit badass female lead, then woke up and ruin every other franchise you can get your hands on. Sounds like just another day in paradise
I was super excited for Everwild too, goddamnit
I mean after so much time and you still
Don’t have anything to Show for it. It’s the right move to shut er down.
So Xbox entire strategy was destroy their beloved franchises, make worse consoles, buy a lot of studios and then not produce anything, and when a studio did make something good, they would close it down.
Bold strategy, Colton, let’s see if the Game Pass is worth it.
Every time they start showing actual momentum they whip out a Glock and shoot themselves in the hip I swear
This is a sad day.
Perfect Dark is one of my all time favorite games (see username) and I was genuinely looking forward to playing a new one. 🙁