While Xbox didn’t close any studios this week, it may as well have. Four studios leaving the “family”, over a thousand redundancies (with more to come), the decimation of id Software, ZeniMax and Obsidian, and umpteen studios left in the dark about what’s next. Feeling numb yet?
New CEO Asha Sharma may have made the call to butcher studios left, right and centre, but the blood is on the hands of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond too. Oh, and Matt Booty. Seriously, before I go on: how is he still in a job? If Xbox Game Studios is in such disarray that it’s required several four-digit cuts, surely the President of Game Content and Studios, who led XGS for six years, should be held accountable before any workers are.
A special mention for the bald prick himself, Satya Nadella. While the Activision acquisition undoubtedly put a target on Xbox’s back, would the Microsoft CEO be so focused on Xbox if he hadn’t spunked billions on AI investments with no guaranteed return?
Sharma inherited a bloated mess of a division; that much is true. Spencer gambled on Xbox’s future by acquiring studios big and small to support Game Pass with a steady stream of games ranging from smaller, arty titles to blockbuster hits. Maybe he’d be due some credit for that vision if its piss poor execution wasn’t the reason for Xbox’s current state.
I think most of us know that despite being the “best value in gaming” for consumers, Xbox Game Pass is severely damaging to the industry as a whole. The answer to “is it on Game Pass?” has determined whether people bother looking up a game – let alone putting money down for it – for years. It’s also very easy to pick and choose when to engage with it. Fancy the new Halo campaign remake? Play it for a tenner and some change by subscribing for one month and cancelling auto-renewal.
Although Sharma hinted at its failure, Game Pass carries on. Xbox is in too deep. It has twisted itself into a paradox so complex that it would make Dr Monty jealous: Game Pass is damaging the value of its games, but the income generated means it cannot end; Xbox is dedicated to hardware and console-exclusive games, yet it wants to engage with players everywhere; Sharma wants studios to focus purely on hits while simultaneously expecting faster development times. A “shitshow” is putting it lightly.
Sharma’s quote about some areas of Xbox having “fourteen layers of management” seems to have been a smokescreen to cull senior staff. I have no doubt there are departments at Xbox with far too many managers and policies, but it’s frustrating to see people assume Xbox only cut pointless management roles when it’s evident that the damage is much worse. It has burned years of institutional knowledge in a matter of days. Having recently spoken to two young developers for my piece on Jason Blundell, it’s clear that veterans mentoring new talent enhances both individual development and studio projects.
The studios themselves do not make games – the people do. Yes, there’s a culture, a certain way of doing things, a philosophy… but none of these can exist without people in the first place. Replacing experienced talent with contractors or new hires will not save Xbox money. It will cost more and destroy morale, slowing development to a crawl in the process. It’s short-term thinking that has nothing to do with building for the future and everything to do with balancing the books.
When Xbox loses less money, will that mean the storm is over? I wouldn’t bet on it since the company is making it up as it goes along. Sharma herself already admitted that “the plan is the plan until it isn’t the plan.” Insightful stuff.
All things considered, Double Fine, Compulsion, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs and (hopefully) Arkane making it out alive with their catalogues intact is good news. It doesn’t mean Xbox deserves a pat on the back, but it’s a more favourable outcome than I expected.
I sincerely hope all of those teams thrive. Independence and new ownership will introduce unique challenges, but I fancy their chances more than some of the studios stuck within Xbox. A former id Software developer saying that they would have preferred to divest says it all. The DOOM maker stated it’ll keep on going, but morale has to be at an all-time low. Imagine ousting people the day before the release of DOOM: The Dark Ages’ expansion. It truly feels like the worst thing a studio at Xbox can do is release a game.
All the feel-good comeback delusions surrounding Xbox are gone. While many will still use the platform because that’s the console they’re locked into, I don’t know how anyone could be loyal to the company at this stage – never count out the allure of a PR package, I guess.
I expect we’ll see a lot of spontaneity from the remaining studios over the next couple of years as Xbox demands more money, faster. Take the Black Ops I and II PS4 and PS5 ports, for example. It’s hard not to see them as Activision hitting an emergency “fill the coffers” button after Black Ops 7’s failure. Hopefully their success ensures a stable development period for Treyarch ahead of Zombies 20th anniversary, but I’m not counting on it.
Speaking of those Black Ops ports, they’re fine. I wasn’t expecting much more than that, given how lowkey the announcement was. As someone who’s put a decent amount of time into the backwards compatibility versions of these games, I think the bump to 1080p is a noticeable improvement over playing them on Xbox. The hacker-free (for now…) experience, along with full lobbies, has been a nice trip down memory lane, too.
The price is outrageous, but it’s likely that way to tempt players into impulse buying during the sale period. I do wonder if Activision will look to the past more if these ports exceed expectations. Honestly, with both Black Ops and Modern Warfare suffering from sequelitis, I don’t think a remake in 2028 (with a brand new season of Zombies alongside it) would be the worst idea. I would say that though, wouldn’t I…
It’s naive to categorise what’s happening at Xbox as the industry at work. Yes, the video game industry is in a terrible state (for developers and media), but the decisions Microsoft and Xbox have made and continue to make verge on cultural vandalism. Maybe I’m just jaded, but I fully expect the bad news to continue until Microsoft sells or folds Xbox. It has no interest in video games.
I emptied the clip on Xbox, but don’t think PlayStation is getting off lightly after announcing that it will no longer support physical games from January 2028. When it rains, it pours – especially if one corporation gives its competition the opportunity to bury bad news before it pushes the layoffs button.
The day was always going to come – the trend towards digital is simply too high to ignore – but it seems asinine to ignore a dedicated group of players who want to pay you for something. If the video game market has matured and PlayStation is “focusing more on monetising our user base”, why alienate a chunk of said user base? It’s not like it has a run of must-play games in the chamber, like the PS4’s glory days.
If PlayStation is desperate to remove the physical option for its first-party games, go for it. Knock yourselves out, lads. But at least give third parties and indies the ability to continue selling their games physically. Those studios aren’t a priority, given there was no courtesy heads-up before the public announcement.
For the avoidance of doubt, I make the majority of my purchases digitally. Yet, much like I do with vinyl and Blu-rays, I try to purchase physical copies of the games I care about. Collecting is a fundamental part of enthusiast hobbies; flicking through your digital library is not the same.
The solution seems simple: start doing limited runs of physical copies, include an exclusive booklet or collectable of some kind, charge a little extra, and call it a day. Would this process take time, effort, and money, with little financial return? Yes. But its cultural impact would be massive, and that is arguably more important than a company like PlayStation penny-pinching.
PlayStation is also just as guilty as Xbox when it comes to layoffs and closures. Bungie has been slaughtered once again (I made better acquisitions in the Poundshop when I was 10 years old); it wasn’t long ago that Dark Outlaw Games was killed in the crib; and who can forget Bluepoint shuttering. The difference this time is that its actions will cause hundreds of casualties across the industry, not just within its own house. It’s a decision that will change video games forever. I hate it.
Despite a large movement rallying against the decision, I don’t think PlayStation will fold to any beating it takes online. It’s crunched the numbers and assumes the majority of players will buckle and comply with a digital-only future. Whether that happens, time will tell, but Sony has already started reorganising its major pressing plant. I fear the war is over before anyone even realised.
I’ll be honest. I’m tired, man. It’s a constant barrage of bad news. The video games industry is a business, sure, but you can’t neglect the artistry that goes into it. Both sides of the green-and-blue divide seem to have forgotten that. They’re quick to say “it can’t only be about the art”, yet fail to realise it can’t only be about the money either.
This notion that every studio needs to make a hit is unrealistic, unsustainable and frankly, stupid. You cannot grow the next Fortnite in a lab. You cannot chase trends when it takes years for a game to arrive at market. You cannot bypass the creative process and rush out a husk of a video game with “Battle Pass” and “Store” tabs and not much else.
It’s difficult to feel optimistic about the future of the medium. Fuck, it’s hard not to feel miserable about it all. My advice? Protect your peace. Focus on the games that still make you feel something. If the powers that be get their way, there won’t be many of those left.
