It's a sad day at Microsoft. Thousands of job cuts across the company including many in the gaming division with Xbox, Zenimax and King all facing many layoffs.
We first heard rumours last week that there'd be monumental changes to Microsoft's gaming business. Earlier today we've seen some of those officially announced, with many more expected to become official in the days ahead.
Most importantly, there are many thousands of people who will unfortunately be seeking employment today. In a trend that the industry cannot get away from, it is becoming almost a weekly event that studios are closed or developers become unemployed.
Amid the news there have been two big game fatalities for Xbox Game Studios today. We brought you the news earlier that the fantastic looking Perfect Dark reboot, which looked terrific during it's gameplay showing at 2024's Xbox Summer Showcase has now been cancelled. Sadly, the studio developing the game, The Initiative has also been closed.
Everwild Cancelled
The second major Xbox gaming fatality of today is the cancellation of Rare's Everwild. Everwild was originally announced at X019 in London (a great show, I was there myself).
However, Microsoft have taken the decision to cancel Everwild and move Rare's focus to other projects including closing the production of the Fable reboot and keeping Sea of Thieves an ongoing success. This is despite the fact that only in a few months ago, Phil Spencer visited Rare in the UK and said he was happy with "the progress that they're making".
In a statement, Matt Booty from Microsoft Studios said:"We have made the decision to stop development of Perfect Dark and Everwild as well as wind down several unannounced projects across our portfolio.”
Truthfully, little was ever really shown of Everwild except for what was seen in a couple of trailers. But with the studio's pedigree you have to look at today's news and wonder, what could have been.
It's a dark day for Xbox. They had only recently announced that next generation hardware is in development including new consoles. Though, in what is so often a cycle for Xbox, bad news so quickly follows the good.
Are you disappointed with the news today? Was Everwild one of those MIA games that you hoped we'd one day get our hands on? Let us know in the comments below and stick with GSC for more Xbox news as it develops.
