It isn't Xbox mismanagement, it is MS. Everything that Xbox has wanted to do has been changed by the upper management of MS. It is MS who bought Zenimax, it is MS who bought Activision... not Xbox. The ideas that would come from Xbox teams directly were often times challenged because MS wanted a greater return on investment without giving them the $$ or the time to do so. Keep in mind... Xbox is NOT like Playstation. sony let Playstation division have their freedom to be creative and make the decisions that would shape them into who they are. MS never really let Xbox off the chain and had to keep reeling them back in every now and then. 

Do people honestly think the decisions to close studios and cancel games would come from the desk of the head of Xbox? Absolutely not, they WANT those studios to thrive and the games to succeed... but somebody higher up is not willing to keep watching the $$ pour out with no significant return. I always believed that to make money, you have to spend money... and MS has spent a ton of money and are just too anxious for that ROI to finally kick in. So the ones to suffer are those in the Xbox division. Not Office, not Edge, not Copilot, certainly not Windows...... Xbox.

And just to be clear, Phil never wanted to cancel any games either... his hand was forced. Asha now being head of Xbox also has others she reports to. She may be the bad person to have to deliver the news, but she is not the one who ultimately makes the decision. If MS were to let Xbox be its own thing, like Sony did with PS, then those decisions would come at her behest and she would be the one to blame or praise depending on the situation. 

When Microsoft inevitably sells the Xbox brand to Apple or Tencent are we gong to be better off or worse off?

I would let some studios under Xbox name to go independent, that's the best course of action. Xbox brand doesn't have much value in today's world. Microsoft should just let developers to focus on the best selling brands and let some other studios do their own things independently. Apple and Tencent won't be interested in l buying studios with niche IPs like inXile or Ninja Theory.

Xbox/MS might be willing to let them keep the IP.
However I think the mocap stuff they developed, will be kept by xbox/ms. 
Which Ninja Theory have become dependent on.... so even if someone buys them,
and they get to keep the ip and finish Hellblade 3 (not sure how likely that is).... what happens next?

What if their biggest strength (the mocap and sound design stuff) is taken away by xbox/ms ?
Their storytelling and gameplay are not enough to carry them (or their sales would have been alot higher).

Why would apple care about Xbox brand?
The apple brand is much stronger and more positively viewed.
They have very high effeciency cpu/gpu's as well.... it would be arm based, with their own chips, and their own walled garden. 

Tencent? I'm not sure they are intrested in owning the xbox brand or making consoles.
Their aim would likely be the Chinese market first and foremost.

Elon Musk might buy it, because it has a X in it :)  Xbox....  He plays diablo and liked that game.  He could view it as a fun buy, thingy, just to own blizzard.
He would want xbox to sell him the Diablo IP at the very least, if he did.

Activison alone would make any of these companies enough money to be worth it.

Spin off or closure?

https://www.eurogamer.net/compulsion-double-fine-ninja-theory-xbox-studio-closures-report

Microsoft reportedly negotiating closures of multiple Xbox studios, including Psychonauts' Double Fine, South of Midnight's Compulsion and Hellblade's Ninja Theory

According to Bloomberg, South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games, Psychonauts and Keeper developer Double Fine, and Hellblade developer Ninja Theory have each started negotiations with Microsoft to buy back their independence from Xbox Studios, in a bid to avert full studio closures. Reports of Compulsion's potential closure were also corroborated by Kotaku.

Other threatened Xbox studios were not named in Bloomberg's report, but apparently "several" others are also at risk of being closed. While nothing has been confirmed, Insider Gaming's Mike Straw claims staff at Blade studio Arkane are "scared".

In a separate report by The Verge, sources claimed that staff at Ninja Theory were informed of the impending closure on Monday, though the team is hopeful the studio will find a buyer. Ninja Theory only announced its next game - Senua - at the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this month. Senua is due out at some point next year, on PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox Series S/X, and Game Pass.

Writing on Bluesky, Bloomberg's Jason Schrier said: "Safe to say that the Xbox of July will look drastically different than the Xbox of June."

Great environment to work in :(

This is exactly what some of us warned about when Microsoft were allowed to make two huge acquisitions in a fairly short period of time. Signaling a wish to "turn the brand around" while also notifying of some of the best studios closing down is such a confusing message. What talent exactly will enable the turnaround?

I'm most surprised by Ninja Theory being in the list, to be honest.

Compulsion made a critically acclaimed game, yes, but it didn't sell all that well, and Double Fine makes small scale games that doesn't seem to fit whatever strategy MSoft may have. But Ninja Theory? They announced the next Senua game not even 10 days ago!

If this is an example of how the execs work at MSoft, it's no wonder Windows is going downhill in all fronts. They really need to get their sh*t together.

I really don't think Ninja Theory has a chance.
Its really reliant on graphics and sound design, that were developed at microsoft/xbox. The mocap stuff ect.... they will want to keep that.
So even if they get to keep the IP (senua/hellblade) and maybe get to finish the game (that's like half a year - 1year out).

What do you do with the studio afterwards?  What is Ninja theory without the mocap/sound design stuff? what will their next game look like?
Do you want to gamble on that as a investor?


Compulsion games is just dead. 17years+ and 3 games that just did not sell well, and only 1 that really was critically well received.
Its dead jim.... it's probably not worth anything, nor the IP of its games.

Double Fine, IP are worth something, and the studio is too.  Give them some direction, and lets start pumping out some Psychonauts (platformers) or some of their older Action-Adventure games.  I think Double Fine should survive, or at least deserves too. Hopefully some investors step in.