Wait, do Asha plan to shut XBOX down or what? (the shot from The Verge)

#XBOX@GameDEV
#Microsoft@GameDEV
#LayOffs@GameDEV

• 1600 jobs are gone today
• 1600 more will follow soon
• Ninja Theory is sold (Senua)
• Undead Labs sold (State of Decay)
• Double Fine goes indie
• Compulsion Games goes indie
• Some of their IPs will be shared
• France blocked Arkane closure
• It is under "consultation" = soon
• More studios will be closed too
• Major cuts across XBOX
• Big cuts in ZeniMax (Bethesda)

• King and Mojang report directly to Asha now (the biggest cash cows)

#XBOX@GameDEV
#LayOffs@GameDEV

Yes, that's the paragraph I don't get and it will probably be explained as a bit of miscommunication.

That amount of desktop gamers in the era of economical decline and lack of hardware is literally impossible. Even with all the marketing in the world and significant market improvement, there's no chance for this scenario.

#XBOX@GameDEV
#Microsoft@GameDEV

And somehow they still have to make more Doom games with half of the team 🫡

#XBOX@GameDEV
#LayOffs@GameDEV

According to the reports, among fired people were the entire id Tech Engine team. Doom The Dark Ages and Indiana Jones may be among the last games made with id Tech 8.

Literally the technology behind first person shooters as the genre. You know, the family tree of this engine is responsible for not just Quake, Doom, and Wolfenstein, but for the whole Source Engine family + fork made for Titanfall and Apex Legends, almost all Call of Duty games, Dishonored and Deathloop, and many others.

The branches are safe for now, but it may be the sign that XBOX will end up with Unreal Engine. Their current experiments with Halo and Oblivion remasters were considered a success.

#GameEngines@GameDEV
#XBOX@GameDEV

Bethesda employees made a memorial for their fired colleagues to cheer them up and promise they will not be forgotten.

HR team instantly contacted the organisers and told them to "immediately remove all the items from the area of public usage", claiming they obstruct the work. Workers agreed and commented that previously there were fanart works and many other items that never caused any troubles before.

#Bethesda@GameDEV
#XBOX@GameDEV

🤔 deals were crazy

#XBOX@GameDEV
#Stalker@GameDEV

Time traveller: steps on a butterfly

The reality: Halo is the most anticipated PlayStation game of 2026...

#meme@GameDEV
#PlayStation@GameDEV
#XBOX@GameDEV
#Halo@GameDEV

XBOX is testing gaming time for ads. A limited library will be available for a number of XBOX Insider program members. 2 minutes of ads can give them up to an hour of gaming.

1. Ads will play before sessions begin.
2. The core game experience is unchanged.
3. This is optional. Players can choose other ways to play at any time.

Sounds odd to me as ad impressions are much less valuable. But here's the catch: they will only allow a very limited number of premium ads for now to boost the revenue.

#XBOX@GameDEV

XBOX console price increases in Europe and UK fully revealed, with Series X now costing €200 more. All thanks to rising memory prieces they expect to double again by late 2027.

Who else to blame but Microsoft themselves? They are the biggest AI enthusiasts and investors after all.

Despite that, they are considering departure from Steam with new games to be released only on consoles and their own Microsoft Store / XBOX app. The tactics that failed for them a decade ago and failed for every competitor as well.

#XBOX@GameDEV
#Microsoft@GameDEV

Sweet little lies, but not little

#Bethesda@GameDEV
#XBOX@GameDEV

Perfect

#XBOX@GameDEV
#HideoKojima@GameDEV
#meme@GameDEV

Summary of the week

#meme@GameDEV
#XBOX@GameDEV
#PlayStation@GameDEV

Microsoft gaming division is hit by the biggest wave of structural changes: Halo, Sea of Thieves (Rare UK), and Age of Empires (World's Edge) are going under Activision. While Halo Studios is left with limited staff and set to support older games.

Obsidian is fully merged with Bethesda to make Fallout, Turn 10 Studios is merged with Playground Games to make Fable and Forza.

While Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Mahjong are moving from Bethesda to King — who are way more experienced with casual games.

With all that, only 268 roles were fully eliminated while Asha promised that there will be extra 1600 layoffs during the year (in addition to 1600 already occured a few mouth ago). It is still expected that these people will be eventually fired sooner than later.

#XBOX@GameDEV
#Halo@GameDEV
#Bethesda@GameDEV

Microsoft way: so, we have some bad news and some good news...

#Microsoft@GameDEV
#XBOX@GameDEV
#WTF@GameDEV

Second time this month: hands-free AAA gameplay is not only for PlayStation fans, XBOX is also into it!

#XBOX@GameDEV
#Fail@GameDEV

Yeah, and there's no Water Physics, no VFX, nothing (in addition to this)

Ninja Theory is shrinking in practice, the ongoing "consultations" are required by law but will most likely lead to a full closure.

#XBOX@GameDEV

Arkane Lyon has less than a month to find a new owner: if they will not be sold by November 13, the studio will be closed. And 217 people will lose their jobs.

#Microsoft@GameDEV
#Arkane@GameDEV
#XBOX@GameDEV

The Microsoft-owned game forgot to mention some platform: do you know which one is missing? 😁

#XBOX@GameDEV
#Activision@GameDEV