While we knew that large-scale layoffs were coming to Xbox, the 4% cut of 9,000 Microsoft jobs has hit its gaming division in significant ways, and as of now, cancelled three different projects, including a high-profile future offering.
It’s just been confirmed (originally reported by Windows Central) that Xbox has cancelled Perfect Dark, its long-gestating return to the classic IP being made by new “AAAA” studio The Initiative. The Initiative has been closed down as well, and Microsoft is ending its partnership with Tomb Raider’s Crystal Dynamics, which was also working on Perfect Dark. Here’s the memo from Xbox’s Matty Booty:
“As part of this, we are closing one of our studios, The Initiative,” Booty said. “These decisions, along with other changes across our teams, reflect a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape. We did not make these choices lightly, as each project and team represent years of effort, imagination, and commitment.”
Perfect Dark was announced back at The Game Awards in 2020, but barely anything has been released publicly since then, outside of a brief look at alleged gameplay. In that sense, it may not be a shock the game was cancelled, but Microsoft had poured significant resources into it to make it happen, ending in failure. It, along with Fable, seemed like the pair of future Xbox first-party games to get excited about, returning to beloved franchises. Now, it’s just Fable. For now, anyway. The day isn’t over yet.
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This may be the most high-profile cancellation, but it’s only midway through the day. Before this, it was revealed that Rare’s original IP Everwild would be cancelled before ever getting a real showcase, and so would an MMORPG project that The Elder Scrolls Online’s Zenimax was working on. We are still attempting to find the exact number of layoffs that has accompanied all this, but it seems significant, and not just in places where games were cancelled.
Again, the day is not even halfway over, and it remains to be seen what other developers, divisions or games may be affected by these mass Microsoft layoffs. This comes in the wake of a number of controversial changes to the focus of the Xbox brand, which include expanding beyond its obviously declining hardware business into Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, cloud gaming and recently releasing almost all first-party games on rivals like PlayStation. That said, this is clearly a giant swath of cuts affecting far more than just Xbox as Microsoft culls 9,000 jobs. We’ll see what else happens today, or over the next week.
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