[STEAM] The fate of Xbox’s vulnerable game studios

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Story written with contributions from Rachel Kaser

Five

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game studios were considered to be vulnerable to the chopping block as Xbox leaders announced extensive layoffs today. Now that

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, we can delve into what will become of those studios.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma

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that she was taking action to implement major layoffs at the division to deal with falling revenues and profit margins. The studio is laying off around 3,200 people in total, with 1,600 of those layoffs happening today. However, the studios who are set to depart Xbox’s stable — which employ over 500 people, by GamesBeat’s estimates — are not counted among that number.

There were five candidates for shutdown among the studios. The list included Arkane (Marvel Blade, Dishonored), Double Fine (Kiln, Keeper), Undead Labs (State of Decay 3), Compulsion Games (South of Midnight) and Ninja Theory (Senua).

Sharma outlined the fate of the five studios in her announcement: Double Fine and Compulsion Games are becoming independent, taking with them their intellectual property and game catalogs. Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have “entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3.”

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Kiln from Double Fine. In her

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, Sharma took decisive action on matters like getting rid of an unpopular ad campaign (“This is an Xbox”), cutting subscription prices and taking Call of Duty out of it, and keeping more exclusives for the the dedicated Xbox fans. But she saw a need to address ******* problems.

As word surfaced of big Xbox layoffs coming,

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told studios that they were candidates for closure if they did not find an outside buyer or make their own bids to buy themselves out. If they did not succeed, their studios would be shut or severely cut.

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Compulsion Games is making South of Midnight. We also heard that Obsidian was also considered as a candidate for possible *****, but then we also heard that this decision was reversed. It was a fluid situation.

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