Lysterao

Bother better and worse than I'd feared.
On the one hand, I'd hope they'd only actually lose maybe 2 of them, with the excess being rumours that got out of hand.

On the other hand. I was sure at least one (Compulsion most likely) would shut, so that's a win at least.

Arkane still being on the chopping block, and likely leaving as well even if they stay open is the real bummer.

@tho_mi It's the sort of thing where, Halo does have huge potential to be popular... if handled right. They make the right game? Then yeah. Military Scifi is very popular. Look at Helldivers, Spacemarine 2 etc....

They nail the vibes, nail the aesthetic and the writing, and lean into that stuff more, rather than making everything about Superhero Spartan 4s, then it could do very well.

But, even then it's no guarentee.

Basically, the name Halo alone isn't enough. But make the right Halo game? They'll make bank

Not going to judge until it's official, but if all these closure rumours are true, especially this one, then even as a 25 year Xbox fan, I think I will just be out of gaming entirely.

Can't continue to get hyped for an industry that is purely based around disappointing me anyway

@Banjo- Why would it be Inexile when Xbox have spent the past 3 years highlighting Clockwork Revolution. Ninja Theory too just announced a game. No, generally studios are most at risk when they've just released a project, even if it got awards. Think Tango, Arkane Austin etc..... sure, studios with games that are in Dev hell could be at risk even if they're years in, but those are still more likely to see cuts than full closures (even if they did do it to The Initiative last year I suppose)

@Millionski I believe the Fable one does include future DLC

@RegnumSolipsi Ninja Theory are actually a much smaller studio than Obsidian by headcount. Less than 100 actual developers (it sounds like 85 from their post), compared to Obsidian which I believe is around 400, split across various smaller teams.

Ultimately, that's why.

@GamerScore200K If they force it in then yes that would be very stupid. If they give an option to buy both subs as a bundle at a reduced price, then that's good. As long as it remains optional.

Same for the ads, as an option free/cheaper tier, then fine. The moment it's non optional I'm out.

@swedetrap From what I've heard about internal thoughts on Sarah, it's this. On the one hand she was genuinely admired for her abilities to get deals done, especially with alot of the developers that had traditionally skipped Xbox. Like Atlus, Square Enix etc... that she was seriously crucial to getting done. On the other hand, she was hard to work with internally many felt.

Make of it what you will, but if true, hopefully they can find another closer to replace her with, as Xbox do need a good one given their market position

@eduscxbox Excpet Xbox already have that niche covered in their catalogue of games. They wouldn't need to publish Mavericks game, they already have Forza Horizon.

Unless Mavericks game is significantly different I suppose

@GamerScore200K No, the company was already run into the ground when he took over.

Without him there's very little chance Xbox would have made it past 2018, as he was the one who convinced Microsoft to actually reinvest in gaming at that point.
Even afterwards, he's done everything he realistically could in that time frame to come back from the unwinnable position Xbox was in from the disastrous Xbox One launch, and the too long wait to actually give him resources to rebuild.

@Cheesyman weird, maybe try reinstalling it? The game is running flawlessly on my Series X.

@InterceptorAlpha That's not actually true. Sony acquired Bluepoint AFTER they released Demon Souls. They haven't released a game since. They worked as a support studio on GoW Ragnarnok for 2 years, then they were doing that Live Service GoW game for another 2 before it got cancelled. Then they spent a year pitching new games, and now they're shut.

So ironically it's the other way around.

All that said, I wouldn't trust Microsoft to not make a similar "economic headwinds" ***** decision and shut them or someone else before long.

@Medic_alert I wonder if they'll pick Kyoto, or even somewhwere like Osaka for the city instead? The Horizon games have never really picked major capitals (sorry Edinburgh, I love you but you're not London), however Tokyo is just so iconic that maybe they will?

@themightyant This sounds more like a bridging book. They SPECIFICALLY name dropped Halo: First Strike in the blog post where they dropped that synopsis. Which was the book that directly followed up Halo CE into Halo 2. You could happily play 2 without reading it, but it was pretty cool.

If this book is like that? Then this is a win. If it's a book that ties off all the plot threads of Infinite so that the next game can ignore them, that's bad.

But following up a game with a book isn't intrinsically bad

Best show of the summer, but... Still a bit disappointed. Giving it a B because what was there was pretty much all great, but there was just SO much they didn't show. Where's Eday? Halo? Everwild, State of Decay 3, Spyro so much more.

I think Grounded 2 (I mean. God damn Obsidian they are utterly exempt from my disappointment the utter maniacs), Keeper and BO7 were the only actual Xbox first party new games announcements.

@TheSimulator That's an ironic comment to make when you're the one out of touch about which showcase is being discussed 🤣