Xbox cuts 268 roles and consolidates studios
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On September 22, Microsoft announced the next stage of the restructuring of its Xbox gaming division — Matt Booty, who heads the studios organization, wrote about it in a letter to employees. 268 roles are being eliminated: at Halo Studios, at other first-party studios and in the XGS management layer. Together with the measures taken since July and the sale of studios, that amounts, by his estimate, to roughly three quarters of the previously announced restructuring.
The main logic is consolidation: there are fewer business units, and teams that were already working together are being merged. Activision is expanding its remit and taking on Rare and World's Edge. The next Halo will be made by a new, separate team that is not tied to Call of Duty development; a small group at Halo Studios will keep supporting the community and the games already released.
Bethesda is now also responsible for Obsidian: the studio keeps its current projects, including Grounded, and is working with Bethesda Game Studios on a new Fallout. King is taking on Microsoft Casual Games — two major players in the casual segment joining forces. Playground and Turn 10 are becoming a single studio focused on Forza and Fable.
A separate thread is the parting with studios. In August, Compulsion and Double Fine returned to their own management, together with the rights to their games, their back catalog and funding. Undead Labs moved over on similar terms and, with a new publisher, will release State of Decay 3 on Game Pass on release day.
Not everything is going smoothly: two separate deals to sell Ninja Theory fell through, so consultations with employees are starting about a possible closure of the studio, although other options are still being explored. Discussion of Arkane's future is dragging on until the end of the year.
Booty emphasizes that the priority right now is to support those affected by the decisions and to treat one another with care. On October 6, at an all-hands meeting, Xbox plans to take stock of progress.
Image: Microsoft Corporation CC BY-SA 4.0 · License
Translation editors: Соловьев В., Пеков А.
Source: news.xbox.com ↗