Nice surprise.

Glad I didn't buy it during digital sale last month when my Gamepass ended.

I'd still like physical copies for Final Fantasy on Xbox even though I bought the FFVII twin-pack during Steam sale. Probably better chance on Switch 2 though.

Gamescom opening live will open with Cod BO7 (August 19)

I hope the union squeezes Microsoft as much as possible, it's the least the scummy company deserves.

Good to hear they're still technically employed with full pay and benefits, is that because the union is making it more difficult or is it because Microsoft has zero fucking clue on what it is doing and just decided to cancel a game and have hundreds of employees sit around twiddling their thumbs? Either way at least the employees are being paid for now.

From a game you never played, I am still at a lost as to why you believe it should come to market.  Its good the people are still there, maybe they are put on to something else, but I am still wondering why we should care when a game gets cancelled especially since it did not even make it to a stage where it could be presented.  On countless times, I have seen troubled games or games that have been in development for a long time reach the market and just fail.  When do you make the decision to cut your losses especially GAAS games when the market already have a lot of big hitters out there.

Coming soon to Game Pass news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/0...

Standard:
-High on Life
-RoboCop: Rogue City (7/17)
-Farming Simulator 25 (8/1)

Ultimate:
-My Friendly Neighborhood (7/17)
-Back to the Dawn (7/18)
-Abiotic Factor (7/22)
-Wheel World (7/23)
-Wuchang: Fallen Feathers (7/24)
-Grounded 2 (7/29)

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— Wario64 (@wario64.bsky.social) 15 July 2025 at 14:03

Really strong drop, although it is hard to be excited for anything related to Xbox lately.

• RoboCop: Rogue City (86% Steam / 73 OC)
• My Friendly Neighborhood (96% Steam / 79 OC)
• Back to the Dawn (92% Steam)
• Farming Simulator 25 (83% Steam / 75 OC)
• Abiotic Factor (96% Steam) - 1.0 Release
• Wheel World - Day One
• Wuchang: Fallen Feathers - Day One
• Grounded 2 - Day One
  

I'll be playing High on Life (I need to play it before High on Life 2 so I'm happy it is returning), RoboCop: Rogue City (Which is now Play Anywhere too), I'm on the fence about My Friendly Neighborhood, I'll interested in Wheel World because of Annapurna's old team being involved, I may play Grounded 2 but I might wait for achievements first.

What logic is it to say that people can't be excited for a game that they've never played? That describes every single currently unreleased game, so nobody can be excited about any upcoming games because they've not yet played it? They shouldn't believe they should come to market because they have not yet played them? That logic is very odd.

I'm willing to bet the only reason people are still there is because either the union is making it more difficult for Microsoft to just straight up lay people off or because Microsoft is just totally clueless and cancelled a game without thinking about what comes after for the employees, I'm leaning towards the former since even the employees don't know what their future is right now, when Arkane Austin was shutdown it was immediately known that some were being sent elsewhere to other projects.

We don't have to defend every single decision Microsoft makes, and speaking of Arkane Austin, when they were shutdown, Matt Booty gave some bullshit answer about how the resources would be diverted to other critical projects, such as Zenimax upcoming new IP. Only for a year later for Microsoft to cancel that upcoming new IP, they're totally clueless on what they're doing.

I was excited for the upcoming new IP because we already heard rumours prior to the cancellation about it which sounded cool, I was excited because I love The Elder Scrolls Online and it being a very solo friendly online title, that is what I loved about it and if that was the case for their upcoming MMO then I would have played that too.

Then after it was cancelled we got even more information about the project and it sounded awesome, unlike with Perfect Dark, there is not a single insider who said that the game didn't sound and look cool, every single person who has leaked info about it has only had praise for it, even the fucking executive leadership team at Xbox was banging on about how amazing it was.

Why else am I annoyed? Because it was a braindead decision. ZOS is one of Bethesda's most profitable studios, they've successfully supported an MMO with great content for over 10 years now, if any studio has proven that they deserve a chance to take a "risk" with a new IP then it's ZOS. This is a studio that was bringing in big profits and a studio that was according to all reports running on schedule.

If you're going to cancel a project from one of the most profitable studios across XGS/BGS that didn't do anything wrong then that just tells me you've became incredibly risk averse as a company and anything is on the chopping block the next time that Microsoft wants to divert some more money to AI, it tells me that anything you announce at E3, I'm going to think has a chance of being cancelled.

And I would argue there's an opportunity to provide Destiny some competition considering how much of a fuck up Bungie is lately.

They've basically also said to ZOS that TESO better remain popular for another 6-10 years otherwise you're getting shutdown next, because if TESO popularity starts dying down, then they're screwed, there is no way around it, they can't just spin a project out of thing air, because Microsoft just cancelled their last one which was only a few years from release.

So basically a combination of the game sounding awesome based on rumours, the fact that ZOS is dead if TESO popularity starts dying down and what it says to every other Xbox studio that one of the most profitable Xbox studios isn't allowed to take a chance. It's utterly naïve to believe that any Xbox studio is safe under Microsoft now.

I can't wait for in a few years from now for Phil to do his typical bullshit interview where he will say how much he regrets cancelling Zenimax's New IP and talk about how bad of a decision it was, I just hope it doesn't come alongside Zenimax also being shutdown. Again nothing about the Zenimax IP is anything like the Perfect Dark situation, I don't know why people are still defending it.

If one of your most profitable studios can't take a chance then good luck to the rest of them. If you think any studio under Microsoft is safe, including Obsidian who is far less profitable than Zenimax, then you're utterly naïve. I can't wait to hear the defence force when Microsoft cancels an Obsidian New IP because it's "too risky" and they need money for AI.

Any excuse used for cancelling Zenimax New IP like it being too risky, or there being a lot of GaaS competition right now, can be used for practically every single genre out there because the market is absolutely crammed full of videogames lately, the biggest competition to every single release nowadays is Fortnite and it doesn't matter if your game is GaaS or SP only, Fortnite is your competition either way.

Your excuse used to cancel Zenimax IP can be used as an excuse for cancelling any genre, IP, etc.

Until Microsoft is only working on their biggest IPs because they've became a risk averse company, enjoy the future of only The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Call of Duty, Minecraft, Overwatch, Diablo, etc. Receiving sequels and far less new IPs. Even established IPs though, why should Halo exist when they have Call of Duty, amirite? Might as well put a bullet in Gears since it's not a mega hit anymore.

King staff laid off by Microsoft set to be replaced by the AI tools they helped build, studio morale "in the gutter"

➡️ mobilegamer.biz/laid-off-kin...

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— Shinobi602 (@shinobi602.bsky.social) 15 July 2025 at 15:35

They'll be hiring people back once they see how many mistakes AI makes that constantly need correcting by an actual professional and how AI is useless for complex tasks. Practically every developer I've seen who has spoken about using AI describes it as only being capable as an assistance tool and not a replacement due to how many mistakes it makes that need someone combing over and fixing.

AI slop is perfect for the mobile space though, lets hope it doesn't backfire on Microsoft considering they "acquired ABK because of Mobile" Lol.

Morale will be in the gutter across the entire Xbox division. Low morale will result in a poorer workforce which will result in worse products.

MS executives say a lot, Phil also stated that Marathon looked good/Awesome.., or how Zenimax was so important with the recently released HI Fi Rush, upcoming Redfall and Starfield. MS failed Zenimax but also Zenimax failed MS..;

Zenimax didn't fail Microsoft at all, I'm not sure how that can possibly be argued, in that logic every single studio is failing Microsoft. 

And these were private discussions, not just Phil blowing smoke up an interviewers ass, and it came from multiple Xbox executives, multiple insiders, I'm not sure why we're so eager to believe Perfect Dark was a mess because insiders told us so but Zenimax which doesn't have a single bad report about their IP and the complete opposite? Ah it's just people saying stuff, we can't believe it.

Unless you're being sarcastic, you're usually not one to defend Microsoft, Lol.