Tag: Industry
News Xbox's New PC App Update Is Impressive, Even If There's A Few Teething Problems
It's definitely faster!
Just yesterday, Microsoft began rolling out an update for the Xbox PC app, making it faster and more responsive on Windows desktop and handheld. We've had a little play with the new version, and our first impressions are mostly positive. Xbox boss Asha Sharma posted a short video showing off the boot speed of the revamped...
"I think Kojima is a pioneer, and keeps going out to untrodden waters"
Hideo Kojima always brings a certain sense of mystery and allure to his work, as is currently the case with the OD KNOCK and PHYSINT projects. For quite some time, speculation over who would star in the latter threw all sorts of crazy names into the mixer, before Kojima revealed...
News South Of Midnight Director Reflects On Why He Was 'Always Worried' About Funding At Xbox
"It just seems like, in hindsight at least, it was unsustainable."
We absolutely loved South of Midnight when it launched last year as an Xbox first-party title from Compulsion Games, and it's still one of our favourite Xbox Game Studios releases of recent years. However, a year later, Xbox has parted ways with the development team and helped...
News Former Xbox COO Issues Lengthy Departure Statement To 'Set The Record Straight'
"This is not how I ever imagined my story here would end."
This time last week, we mentioned how newly-promoted Xbox Chief Operating Officer Helen Chiang was suddenly leaving Microsoft after 21 years, with a suggestion at the time that she may have been "terminated for policy violations". Chiang has now taken to LinkedIn to share a lengthy...
News 'Too Big A Risk' - Game Developer Sparks Debate After Delaying Playtest Due To AI Concerns
Will it push us towards a more cloud-focused future?
As AI continues to adopt a bigger influence in the gaming industry, there have been concerns in some circles about how people can use AI to reverse-engineer games, including for upcoming titles that haven't even been released yet. This became a particular talking point a couple of weeks ago when...
News Former Xbox Manager Explains Why $500M Cost For Gears: E-Day Doesn't Tell The Whole Story
"I should know..."
Over the past couple of weeks, there's been a lot of chatter about a rumoured $500 million cost for The Coalition to make Gears of War: E-Day, alongside debates about how much of that money went on the game itself. Speaking on the weekend, former Xbox exec Derek Reese shared his take on the situation, suggesting that The...
Report EA Bet On Star Wars Battlefront III Success, Cancelled Mass Effect Was Too 'Risky'
Looks like we're getting another Battlefront game!
It looks like a collective decision was made at EA to shut BioWare down and focus on the biggest opportunities for the future. According to a report from
News Xbox Exec Issues Statement In Response To Review Controversy
"The first updates are coming soon."
Last night, we covered a story that was rapidly doing the rounds on social media about how Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 barely had any professional reviews for Xbox, whereas the PC and PS5 versions had loads of them. This was getting a ton of attention at the time, and it eventually sparked an official...
News Modern Warfare 4 Sparks Widespread Debate About Lack Of Reviews For Some Xbox Games
Nearly all the reviews were on PS5 and PC
In recent years, we've occasionally heard people talking now and again about the general lack of reviews for Xbox releases on websites like Metacritic - it's a common trend that PC and PS5 games get the majority of them. This has been amplified more today by the situation regarding Call of Duty: Modern...
News Xbox's Newly-Announced COO Is Leaving Microsoft After 21 Years
"I’m grateful for her years of service and wish her well"
In a bit of industry news, it's been revealed that Xbox's Chief Operating Officer Helen Chiang is leaving Microsoft after 21 years at the company. The details were first shared by The Verge in a report late last week. Chiang worked in various notable roles during her time at Microsoft,...
News Xbox Responds To Report Claiming Netflix Offered $500 Million For TV & Film Adaptations
“We have received record-breaking interest in our I.P"
We already know that Xbox has a lot of interest in expanding in the TV and film space in the years ahead, and according to a new report, Netflix was recently interested in spending a whopping $500 million on exclusivity in this space. This is according to the folks at Puck, who say that...
News The Internet Urges Xbox To Save Mass Effect
"Buy the Mass Effect IP, Hire the Best of BioWare and reform it"
EA's closure of BioWare has sent shockwaves of grief throughout the gaming industry as we mourn the loss of yet another iconic development studio. Best known for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series, BioWare has been developing some of the best...
News Xbox Mandates Four-Day Office Work For Certain Employees, Said To Affect 'Thousands'
"Taking advantage of that proximity..."
Last year, Microsoft announced to its employees that it expected them to start working at least three days in the office per-week, and now that requirement is going up to four days for certain Xbox employees as of February 2027. This is according to a report from The Verge, which quotes Xbox's chief people...
News Mass Effect 5 Cancelled As Legendary Developer BioWare Closes Down
"There is nothing easy about writing these words."
In some absolutely shock news today, it's been announced that legendary development studio BioWare is closing down after 30 years, and the next entry in the Mass Effect series has been cancelled as a result. BioWare shared a statement on social media confirming this, also shouting out games like...
Report Xbox Valued At Over $100 Billion By Private Equity Firms In 'Short-Lived' Discussions
Asha Sharma recently stated that Xbox isn't for sale
There certainly are a lot of reports coming out about the business side of Xbox this week, and one of them is that a group of private equity firms recently valued the Xbox business as being worth between $100 billion and $150 billion. This is coming from The Information, which says that the...
News Xbox Appears To Be Ditching Security Seals From New Physical Releases
Signed, not sealed, delivered
If you've bought a physical Xbox game lately, you may have noticed the security sticker seal has vanished. Well, this appears to be a new packaging initiative, with reports suggesting that several recent releases have shipped without the added layer of sticky security. According to VGP Video Games Plus, an independent...
News Xbox Hiring For Role Involving Physical Games, But What About The Future Of Discs?
"...coordinate the launch of physical Xbox games..."
Over the weekend, we've seen quite a few people bringing up a new job role that's just been advertised by Microsoft, specifically hiring for an "Xbox Games Supply Strategist". The reason it's getting so much attention is because this role involves physical games - the job description states that...
News Xbox Officially Adds Support For A 'Modern, Powerful And Production Ready Game Engine'
"Defold is a free, powerful, all-in-one game engine"
Here's a cool little story we came across during the week! Xbox officially now supports another game engine in the form of something called Defold, which is a totally free engine that's described as "powerful", "lightweight" and "performant". "Defold is a modern, powerful and production ready...
News Xbox Asks Fans How They'd Feel About A Really Bold Approach To Exclusive Games
As part of new "Xbox Research" surveys being sent to Insiders
Last night, the folks at Windows Central broke some news when they shared a survey that is apparently being sent out to Xbox Insiders, questioning how fans would feel in terms of various exclusivity scenarios. For example, the most bold question asks the reader to imagine that "all...
News Asha Sharma Tells Employees That Xbox Won't Survive By 'Only' Relying On Past Franchises
"I would also like to see us continue to create enduring new IP"
As we've already covered at Pure Xbox, Asha Sharma was part of a Town Hall meeting at Microsoft HQ last week where she updated employees on the future of the brand, discussing various topics that were shared by Windows Central. That same outlet has shared a few more comments tha
News US Hardware Market Said To Be Most 'Precarious' Since 1980s Following Xbox & PS5 Sales Slumps
"Not been in a more precarious position since the early 80s"
Just in case you needed another reminder that the hardware situation looks pretty bleak for the gaming industry (and beyond) as things stand, Mat Piscatella of analyst firm Circana is here to put a bow on it for us! At the end of last week, Piscatella reported that Xbox hardware unit...
News Microsoft Announces New 'Xbox XP' Division With Four Key Focuses
"XP is a play on “Experience Points” and formalizes four investment areas"
We've got more major Xbox news to share today, as a brand-new division called "Xbox XP" has just been announced, spearheaded by a newly-appointed XP President in Kayleen Walters - formerly of Minecraft developer Mojang. The goal of "Xbox XP" will be to focus on four key...
News Xbox CTO Shares Statement About Making It Easier For Developers To Publish Their Games
"We’re working to make it better"
Over the years, we've occasionally heard a grumble-or-two from independent developers about how bringing their games to the Xbox platform has been unnecessarily difficult, and how they've felt like they're jumping through hoops. In a statement published this week, Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet mentions that the team...
News Footage From Xbox's Cancelled Perfect Dark Reboot Is Doing The Rounds Online
Shedding light on a not-so-perfect story
A two-minute video featuring gameplay from The Initiative's cancelled Perfect Dark reboot is popping up all over social media today. Originally reported by Mp1st, the footage features several short snippets of gameplay from various stages of Perfect Dark's development. If you watch the video below, you can...
As part of today's Town Hall at Microsoft HQ
Earlier today, Xbox boss Asha Sharma led a Town Hall meeting at Microsoft to update employees on the state of the business, and thanks to a transcript from the folks at Windows Central, we know what she said to her team. Sharma covered a whole bunch of topics during the discussion, including how the Xbox...
News Xbox Studio 'World's Edge' May Have Cancelled A Game As Part Of Activision Shift
It appears the team were impacted heavily by layoffs
Yesterday, we covered some of the Xbox layoffs from this week and how developers such as The Coalition and World's Edge were involved, and now World's Edge in particular has been getting a lot of chatter online today. This is mainly because of a suggestion that a game (or at least a "project")...
News Devs From The Coalition, World's Edge, And Other Xbox Studios Confirm Layoffs
"Well, that's that"
Yesterday, Xbox announced a further 268 job cuts across Halo Studios and other first-party development teams. Although the post detailed a major restructuring that'll see things like Halo move under Activision, the specifics on who and which studios were affected were quite light. In the past 24 hours, it looks like developers...
News Former Xbox Studio Suffers 'Significant' Layoffs Hours After Going Independent
"Development of State of Decay 3 remains actively underway at Undead Labs"
Yesterday, Undead Labs announced it had completed its separation from Xbox and was now a fully independent operation. Just mere hours later, however, the State of Decay developer returned with news that a significant number of employees had been let go. In the same message...
News Microsoft Files Patent Which Could Bring Game-Pausing Ads To Xbox
Say it isn't so...
Microsoft has filed a patent focused on injecting in-game ads at predictable times during gameplay. The filing, titled 'Contextually Aware Management of Interactive Software Application Access', describes the process of suspending your game and running "promoted audiovisual content to the user". In laymen's terms, this means ad...
News Xbox Game Studios Suddenly Looks Very Different In New Fan-Made Infographic
Just a handful of studios left under the XGS umbrella
Today's announcements regarding the restructure at Xbox Game Studios have switched things up in a big way over at Microsoft, with Activision in particular now taking responsibility for some major names in Halo, Rare and World's Edge. All of this means that Xbox Game Studios itself is now leaner...
News Arkane Studios' Future With Xbox Remains A Total Mystery
Will Marvel's Blade ever see the light of day?
Xbox has revealed its next steps in the company's continued reset, but it's still uncertain what the future holds for Marvel's Blade developer Arkane Studios. In a company-wide message, Xbox CCO Matt Booty detailed the next wave of layoffs, the future of Halo, Forza and Fable, as well as restructuring...
News Xbox Warns Ninja Theory Could Be Closed As Two Agreements Fall Through
But they're "continuing to explore other paths forward"
A couple of months ago, Xbox announced that it would be saying goodbye to four studios in Compulsion Games, Double Fine, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs, with the latter two being sold off. Hellblade developer Ninja Theory is apparently in particularly dire straits though, with Xbox warning that...
News Xbox Announces Four Major Studio Changes And Cuts 286 Jobs
"We are reorganizing our studios"
Earlier today, rumours starting doing the rounds that layoffs were incoming at Xbox, and it's now been confirmed that 286 roles are being eliminated across "Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer". All of this is part of the 3,200 job cuts that were announced...
Report Xbox Layoffs On The Way This Week, Multiple Studios To Be 'Consolidated'
Update: Now confirmed
It looks like more difficult Xbox news could be on the way, as it's being reported that a new wave of layoffs is set to take place at Xbox at some point this week, and multiple studios will be consolidated in the process. Most of this is coming from a report by The Information, which says that "hundreds" of jobs will be cut in...
News Moss Developer Polyarc Games Shutting Its Doors After 12 Years
"Today is the end of an era for Polyarc"
Moss: The Forgotten Relic may well be Polyarc Games' last hurrah, as the developer has announced the studio is shutting its doors after 12 years. The news broke via the Seattle-based developer's LinkedIn page, where they said their farewells and how they're "wind down active development". "Today is the end...
News Xbox Releasing Major Bug Fix This Week To Address Recent Server Outage Issues
Xbox CTO is as transparent as the 25th Anniversary Xbox, and we love to see it
Xbox Chief Technology Officer Scott Van Vliet, who was praised for his transparency following the major Xbox outage that left some users unable to play games - discs or digital - is back with another update. On July 28th, Van Vliet st
News Xbox's Four Priorities Detailed By Asha Sharma After Major 'Reset'
Core, Content, Creation, and Connection
You've most likely heard all about the Xbox 'reset' that laid off of thousands of employees and divestment in studios that saw four of them part ways with the company. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has outline her plans to get the brand back on track. In a memo obtained by The Verge, she detailed four key priorities...
News 'We Must Do Better To Support You' - Xbox Exec Apologises For Xbox Server Outage
"This is an unacceptable situation"
Xbox Chief Technology Officer Scott Van Vliet took to social media last night to apologise for the widespread outage that left some players unable to sign in, view game libraries, or, in the worst cases, launch either digital titles or physical disc-based games on Xbox. The server crash began in the early hours...
News SEGA & Ubisoft Leaders Share Their Thoughts On The Future Of Physical Games
"We are currently considering the important elements of digital media..."
We're still waiting to hear from Xbox on what their plans are for supporting physical games in the future, as we already know that PlayStation will be ditching them (at least in disc form) from January 2028. Interestingly, both the SEGA President and Ubisoft CEO were asked...
News Xbox Achieves Its Biggest Month For US Console Sales In 2026 So Far
"Units up 86% vs last June, avg price up as well"
Although everyone's a bit doom and gloom about the price of Xbox Series consoles following an increase announcement in late June, it turns out that last month was the best month of 2026 for Xbox console sales in the US. Mat Piscatella of Circana has highlighted today how Xbox Series sales were up a...
News Key New Xbox Employee Leaves After Three Months, But Reporter Argues It's A 'Non-Story'
"I’m grateful to Asha and everyone at Microsoft and Xbox"
When Asha Sharma was made the head of Xbox back in early 2026, one of her early moves was to bring over a bunch of employees from the CoreAI division at Microsoft, including its VP of Product in the form of Jared Palmer. Imagine everyone's surprise, then, when Palmer announced on social...
News Physical Sales Graph For The Past 20 Years Highlights Just How Much Gaming Has Changed
It's a pretty depressing pattern
There's been a lot of pressure on Xbox to continue supporting physical games following PlayStation's decision to pull out of them from 2028 onwards, but we also know that physical sales have suffered on Xbox for a long time. Indeed, they've suffered across multiple platforms for a long time, as evidenced by a...
News Reporter Claims Game Pass Is 'Absolutely Detested' By Some Xbox Studio Leaders
Could it change in the future?
There's been a lot of speculation in recent weeks about the future of Xbox Game Pass, especially following the decision to remove "day one" Call of Duty releases from the Ultimate tier in order to bring the price down per-month. Some people are of the belief that Xbox might do the same with other "day one" releases in...
News DOOM Director Elaborates On The State Of The Studio Going Forward
"We're excited to share more of what we're working on"
Last week, we highlighted an official statement from DOOM developer id Software about what to expect from the studio following the Xbox layoffs, with the company insisting that it still has "the crew we need to build the games and tech we're known for", and that it's now back down to around the...
News Xbox Responds To Devastated Fan Who Lost All Their Games Due A Hacked Account
Update: Their account has now been restored
Earlier this week, we covered a story about someone in Brazil who had taken Microsoft to court over a hacked Xbox account in which they'd lost access to all their games and been told that they were essentially unrecoverable. That situation was fortunately resolved in the end, but then almost immediately...
News Xbox Fan Supposedly Wins Legal Battle Over Hacked Account & Missing Games
"They have to restore my acc with all my games"
Here's an interesting story we came across over the weekend! The likes of Eurogamer, Windows Central and Tom's Hardware have all been picking up on a Reddit post
News DOOM Developer Addresses Concerned Fans With Message About Xbox Layoffs
"We're going to keep building the great games and tech..."
We've already mentioned today how Xbox has issued a brief statement regarding the status of id Tech — the game engine used by id Software — and now the DOOM developer has also issued a separate statement of its own. A lot has been reported about the studio in recent days, including that...
News Xbox Sends Out Brief Statement Regarding 'Inaccurate' id Tech Reports
They say dozens of people are still working on the engine
With the Xbox layoffs dominating the headlines this week, it's no surprise that we've been seeing countless stories, reports, rumours and speculation about the state of Xbox's game studios as we head into the second half of 2026. DOOM: The Dark Ages developer id Software is one company...
News Video Game Retailer Urges Xbox To 'Stand Behind Consumer Choice' By Supporting Physical
They've shared an open letter to the Xbox CEO
There's been a lot of talk over the past couple of weeks about PlayStation's decision to stop releasing physical games in 2028 and whether Xbox might go down the same path, and at the moment it seems they're undecided. In the meantime, we've come across an open letter from "North America's premier...
News Xbox CEO Sets Ambitious Goal Of Reaching 'More Than A Billion People Each Day'
She says she knows it's achieveable
New Xbox boss Asha Sharma certainly had a lot to say in her statement regarding the Xbox layoffs and studio departures yesterday, and one particular line from the conclusion has been generating a lot of discussion ever since. While insisting that the changes being made at Xbox are "about a bigger future, not a...
