Reports say every game showcased at the June Xbox showcase is safe. 

So far 3 confirmed cancelled games. Looks like "only" Everwild and Perfect Dark are the only Xbox Game Studios games cancelled. Along with The Initiative shutting down.

So it seems that the closures and cancellations in Xbox Game Studios.

• Perfect Dark (Cancelled)
• Everwild (Cancelled)
• The Initiative (Closed)
• "Several Unannounced Projects" (Cancelled)

It seems in XGS specifically, the only studio closed down was The Initiative.

Got to say I'm quite surprised by that, but I still think it's only a matter of time for Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games and Double Fine, they need to get their independence back ASAP...God I'm begging some angel investor out there to save them so they have the money to actually go independent. Maybe one of the upcoming indie publishers could save them.

But I will say, I'm of course not saying they should be closed, but how the actual fuck does Everwild, Perfect Dark get cancelled before Contraband? I'm sorry but Contraband has bomb written all over it, I see absolutely zero chance this game is a big success, I don't want them to lose their jobs, I don't want anyone to be laid off and lose their jobs, I'm just confused how Contraband survived over Everwild and Perfect Dark.

This seems like a Sony level judgement on how a GaaS will perform...

"Our overall portfolio strategy is unchanged: -Snip- and create new stories, worlds, and characters." - And that is why we took the decision to cancel 2 new IPs (Kestrel/Everwild) and a revival reboot of a beloved IP (Perfect Dark) and several other IPs! Lol.

Matt Booty, Phil Spencer need to resign, I'm actually going to be pissed off when I see Phil's face during Xbox's 25th celebrations.

Yeah in Xbox Game Studios specifically, the known cancelled projects are Everwild and Perfect Dark, with The Initiative being shutdown, if we believe Matt Booty (Lol) then that should be all for XGS.

But that doesn't mean anything for Zenimax or ABK who could have some closures and cancellations we don't know about yet, I think Matt Booty was specifically talking about XGS.

Well you'd hope games that were shown literally less than a month ago would be safe.

Amazing that we can consider ourselves lucky that Fable should still be alive, for now.

Call of Duty being the closer really was the mask off moment for what direction they're heading in.

I know this is beyond frustrating, and the last thing we have is any say on how Microsoft conducts business, but at the end of the day, we're just consumers to these corporations.

Painfully, this will blow over to majority of the gaming playerbase, and things will continue as usual. If you want to leave Empire (honestly don't even want to call it that anymore) it'll be completely understandable.

This isn't how we all thought Xbox would transpire. They had all the pieces to finally compete properly only to have the rug pulled out from under them.


I only ask for everyone to be kind to each other as there are thousands of now unemployed people that have way worse than we do.

Yeah true that is specifically Xbox Game Studios. So they are probably the least hit with layoffs. Of course they are also the smallest part of Xbox.

Blizzard will probably see the most layoffs considering they are bigger than every other team at Xbox combined.

I do wonder if the 2018 acquired XGS have some sort of protection clauses in their contracts, because they have been through multiple layoffs now and none of them have been closed, however, I am seeing reports of layoffs in Compulsion Games and Undead Labs but it doesn't seem to be a drastic cut, and I'm not yet hearing anything about layoffs to InXile, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Double Fine.

You'd think Ninja Theory and Compulsion would be chopped down in a company as scummy as Microsoft so I can only assume it's because they can't and I'm pretty sure Tim Schaffer of Double Fine said once before that their acquisition contract includes protection clauses such as being able to spin out independently if Microsoft ever decides it wants to close them.

Spinning out independently is more expensive to the owner than just straight up closing them down so that shit might ironically be the only thing stopping Microsoft from shutting them down but I imagine like most clauses it will have an expiration date or a way for Microsoft to get out of it, like if the studio wasn't hitting certain targets, so I still say Double Fine, Ninja Theory and Compulsion need to get out ASAP.

Xbox with all the studios they own, is like if you had the Kansas City Chiefs roster but coached by 2017 Browns 0-16 Coach Hue Jackson, and the teams General Manager was the 2008 lions GM Matt Millen. They turned gold into shit. Spencer and Booty are the worst things to ever happen to that brand.

I am hoping we don't hear anything about big layoffs at Xbox Game Studios, minus what we already know. Compulsion felt like the biggest worry at XGS after The Initiative. 

One thing is for sure, the 2027 and 2028 release slates have been hit pretty hard today. Everwild, Blackbird, and Perfect Dark were likely all games that would have released in 2027 or 2028.

What remains for 2027 and 2028 now should be:


Likely
-CoD 2027
-CoD 2028
-Marvel's Blade
-Clockwork Revolution (they chose not to put a 2026 date on the Summer Showcase trailer, which likely means it will be 2027)

Possible
-TES 6 (Holiday 2028 is possible, depends on just how much the small team working on it from 2018 until 2023 got done during pre-production, and on how much they have staffed up BGS since Starfield released)
-Project Mara (assuming it's still in development, we've heard nothing about it now for 3+ years from any official or unofficial source)
-Halo 1 Remake

Fairly barren 2 years, hopefully they at least get some big day one 3rd party Gamepass deals to make up for the lacking 1st/2nd party slate.