Microsoft has certainly painted itself in a bad picture these past few days. Although the high of its Xbox Showcase came & went in June, it pulled the carpet with a massive wave of layoffs for its gaming division. These recent firings included the closure of The Initiative with cancellations for titles Perfect Dark, Rare’s Everwild, and ZeniMax Online Studios Project Blackbird to name a few.
The recent labor restructuring also included a massive refocus for its employees at Turn 10 Studios. It was revealed that those affected were part of the Forza Motorsport team which has been reduced to a support team for the spin-off Horizon series as the original franchise is shuttering. Even Romero Games essentially closes its doors as employees reveal that the layoffs cut its funding and directly axed the game studio.
But amid the fatal blows that hit many Xbox projects, there are some that are still standing following the recent layoffs. According to Windows Central, Hideo Kojima’s cloud-focused project ‘OD’ is still afloat. Announced in 2023, it is a new project in collaboration with Jordan Peele. Previously, Kojima expressed the title to be too ambitious, but that Xbox “showed that they understood, and now we’re working together on the project.”
Additionally, Windows Central also understands that effort on the console front did withstand the Microsoft layoffs too. Recently, it was revealed that the push for next-generation Xbox will be a major partnership with AMD as it will produce bespoke silicon for the platform across console, PC, and handheld.
From CEO Lisa Su, she expressed legacy support is a core focus to be preserved moving forward with the new arrangement with Xbox. “AMD will go beyond building custom chips for Xbox consoles to designing a full roadmap of gaming optimized chips. Combining the power of Ryzen and Radeon for consoles, handhelds, PCs, and the cloud. And we’re doing it all with backwards compatibility so gamers can access their favorite titles across platforms. Delivering on a promise to both gamers and developers.” You can read the full report by heading here.
Are you relieved some projects for Xbox are still alive in the fallout of the Microsoft layoffs?
Source: Windows Central, (1)
