In the wake of 1,600 job cuts at Xbox this week, with 1,600 more to follow, reports are coming in about who was laid off at which studio and what internal plan changes will result from all this.
The biggest story is that Obsidian’s Avowed 2 is reportedly cancelled, with that team, which experienced a 25% layoff, will now work on a new Fallout game under Josh Sawyer. But there’s a lot to go through now regarding Xbox potentially making the “right” decisions with this and other series, the reality of the situation on the ground, and what may happen with these games in the end.
Fallout – The problem here is that Obsidian has been mishandled from the start. It was immediately clear that Bethesda was not going to be able to get a Fallout game out any time this decade, and the logical choice to do one instead was Obsidian. Instead, we got Avowed, a big swing and relative miss, and the overlooked Outer Worlds 2. Even if Fallout is the correct move now, it is hard to imagine that if work began from scratch immediately, we would see this any time before three years from now, and a “real” Fallout-scale game would take at least five (if Bethesda was making it, probably 10, however). So this is a long, long-term project.
Elder Scrolls VI – Part of this reporting is that Elder Scrolls VI is still 2-3 years away. If that’s true, and at this point, we should probably guess the long end, this would be 10-11 years after the game was announced in 2018 and 17-18 years since Skyrim. This is also from a Bethesda that has made decisions like making Fallout 76 instead of a new sequel, chasing the live-service trend (at least that got better over time), and the ever-controversial Starfield, which absolutely did not make it to the tier of Fallout and Elder Scrolls like they were hoping. So there’s the question if ES6 can even possibly live up to expectations after nearly two decades.
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Halo – No one has any clear idea at all what’s going on with Halo, which is wild given that it should absolutely be Microsoft’s flagship franchise, and it has been on ice since Infinite in 2021, which most would hardly consider a return to form. Halo has been busy doing things like remasters, but the next, actual Halo game has not been announced, and there’s no extensive internal reporting on what’s going on in Halo Studios after all this time, other than things like past story content being cancelled a few years back. It is extremely unlikely we see a Halo title in the next few years given all this, and we’re already five years out from the last game. Then, like Bethesda, there’s the question of if such a Halo game will even be what it needs to be. No 343/Halo Studios game has ever matched the Bungie era, and why would that change with the next one, when they can never get it quite right?
Doom – New reporting says that half of id Software has been laid off as of this week, devastating the studio, and causing many to believe it will never be what it once was again. Formulating the future of Doom from here under these conditions feels like a dramatic uphill battle now.
Perfect Dark – Well, they tried. It was cancelled. There is no indication they’re going to try that again.
Gears of War – E-Day is out this year, so at least that franchise has life. The next one, however, would be ages away. Hopefully E-Day is going to be great.
Fable – The revival of a classic IP is out this fall. Wait, never mind, it was delayed until February 2027. It’s a big test for the concept of bringing back ancient IP with an entirely new team, but so far, prospects seem positive. And it’s imminent, unlike almost any of these others.
Forza – Will release frequently and be great until the end of time.
I don’t think Xbox is unaware of its challenges ahead. New CEO Asha Sharma has said that explicitly time and time again. But even if Xbox is arming itself with a focus on core franchises now, that is going to need a lot of work and very, very high quality to mean anything in the end.
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