Sony is salivating at the possibilities with this

After the bad experience they've had with Bungie, and knowing that Sony has also gone thorugh some layoffs and studio closures earlier this year, I don't think they'll step in and buy any of those studios.

Looks like Undead Labs, the devs behind State of Decay 3, are also on the chopping block:

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/468340/state-of-decay-3-dev-undead-labs-rumored-to-be-facing-closure/

Looks like Arkance might be on the chopping block as well. Shame that Microsoft seems to be shifting gears away from supporting smaller studios/projects in favor of their heavy hitting Halo, Gears of War, Forza Horizon, etc. titles, but I suppose its unrealistic to run operations as large as they had… this is the cost of acquiring major studios.

That makes five studios possibly getting closed, sold off, or able to go independent. 

• Ninja Theory
• Double Fine
• Compulsion Games
• Undead Labs
• Arkane Lyon

Most of Xbox will also likely see some percent laid off as well. We are likely talking 1,500 or more laid off. But we shall see. Xbox has a little under 20,000 employees at this point.

I get why Asha wants to put more focus on its biggest IPs as that is working quite well for PlayStation as they are mainly focusing on only a handful of big IPs. But it still sucks to see so many people getting laid off. Mind you there have been major layoffs at pretty much all big western publishers/studios. 

The editor in chief of EDGE's gaming newsletter says Rare could be on the chopping block too:

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:3v7z57i4yrohogppovcv2uno/post/3mppvl5am2k2v?ref_src=embed

Sea of Thieves still appears to be thriving no? I don't follow it, but that was the impression I had.

I know Sony aren't going to bother to pick them up if this info about Rare is true, but it would be funny . 

Welp, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have found new owners while Double Fine and Compulsion are returning to independence.

Arkane Lyon is in also in the process of being divested:

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/468397/xbox-plans-to-cut-3200-jobs-divesting-5-studios/

On the whole, better than them being closed down.

The bad new is, Xbox is cutting a massive 3200 jobs.

All in all, this was making the best out of a bad situation. No closures, no game cancellations, and no canceled announced projects. Arkane being the exception, but that would be shocking if they couldn’t find a buyer. And Senua/SoD3 are fully funded.

Getting rid of 14 LAYERS OF MANAGEMENT, getting trimmed was a much needed fat cutting measure. Absurd number that meant it was hard to get anything done.

Id Software stings the most personally. I’ve gone to nearly every year to Quakecon since 2005 and it’s looking like id Tech is getting retired. I ran into Hugo Martin just last week and he seemed like he was in good spirits, but I can’t imagine how devastated he was. Especially with the 30th anniversary Quakecon just a month away. Gonna be a sombering opening key note.

Hope everyone else is able to get on their feet.

The reports were saying it was going to be a bloodbath with 5 to 7 studios shut down. So this isn't AS bad as that with 5 studios being divested rather than shut down. The number being laid off is still a LOT and sucks to see. But we've also seen mass layoffs across the industry in Europe and the Americas. 

I understand getting rid of the layers of managements. 14 layers is insane and should not have ben the case. Also not having a COO to keep an eye on spending until now is also crazy. 

As G2 said. id Software stings the most with the layoffs. Not confirmed, but possibly half of the studio was let go.