Xbox entered an era of new leadership and promises following the changes made by CEO Asha Sharma recently. Everything seemed to be in good graces- lower Game Pass price, minimized reliance on AI such as Microsoft’s Copilot, and other changes made to the structure of Xbox’s corporate workflow. Things have felt pretty good for the most part- but today, a grim reminder of how these corporate entities work was given to us. 

Despite releasing a trailer for the latest game in the series following the Pictish warrior Senua, that being the simply-titled Senua, the studio, Ninja Theory, producing said game is now at risk of being shut down, alongside the studio Double Fine, creators of classic games such as Psychonauts and Grim Fandango. Apparently this is due to a decline in revenue, which was noted in a letter posted today for Xbox employees, stating, “We will end this fiscal year at about a 3% accountability margin, down year-over-year. Excluding Activision Blizzard King, over the past five years, we have spent over $20 billion on ongoing investments in our content, platform, and hardware subsidy, but our annual revenue has declined nearly half a billion during that time. Going forward, this cannot continue”. 

Alongside this, Compulsion Games, developers of South of Midnight, which took inspiration from the American Deep South and was considered unique and highly artistic, is also up in the air in terms of its fate and what Microsoft will do with it. Some are worried the studio will get shut down, but hopefully Microsoft will be reluctant to do so- after all, we need games pursuing fun and creative settings and experiences over what statistics say sells well.

This also follows head of Xbox Game Studios Craig Duncan and Xbox chief of staff Louise O’Connor stepping down on the 15th with no explanation. Both served for around a decade at Microsoft, making their firing all the more shocking. Although no reason was given for their departure, Sharma had made comments that job layoffs were approaching, so it may be connected to that.