Microsoft’s Xbox has been around since 2001, and over that time the gaming brand has given us huge hits like Halo, Gears of War, Forza, and more. Today, the Xbox brand covers consoles like the Xbox One, PC gaming, and has even expanded to other platforms. You can play Minecraft on everything from a computer to an iPhone to a Nintendo Switch. Along the way, Microsoft has pioneered modern services like Xbox Live and Game Pass, introducing new ways to play games. And with Project Scarlett on the horizon, the Xbox looks to have a bright future.
Aftermath wrote about a rally on Wednesday at ZeniMax’s office in Rockville, MD. ZeniMax, which oversees studios like Bethesda, was hit with 379 cuts in the state of Maryland as part of the broader Xbox layoffs.
379 positions were cut in the state, according to a WARN notice obtained by Game Developer’s Chris Kerr. The cuts include major layoffs in Rockville, where the Bethesda Game Studios HQ is located.
Game File reported on the changes as well, including senior leadership departures at Zenimax Online Studios.
Update: Added Game File’s report.
The studio, which was hit hard by this week’s Xbox layoffs, says that it still has “the crew we need to build the games and tech we’re known for.”
On that note, I really recommend that you check out the new Doom expansion that launched this week — it shows just what makes id special.
Game Developer reports the OneBGS union is holding the rally in support of laid off developers on July 15th at ZeniMax offices in Rockville, Austin, Dallas, and Montreal, as the union announced in an email to members:
“Microsoft and ZeniMax leadership have made the devastating decision to slash over 440 positions across BGS, ZOS, id, ZWU(QA) and ZeniMax corporate (including CTO and CSUR). Because we organized and certified our unions, we have hard-won legal rights and protections that non-unionized studios simply do not have. The company wants us to accept this as a done deal and quietly disappear. We won’t let that happen. Our next steps are to mobilize. We need every single member visible and unified.”
The Xbox CEO, who announced mass layoffs at Xbox this week, will assess “the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, to inform the Federal Reserve’s policy judgments.”
She’ll work alongside Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz, and Charles I. Jones, a Stanford professor who is “on leave” at Anthropic.
[Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System]
That includes “key, high-performing people in the trenches” working on The Elder Scrolls 6, IGN reports. One Bethesda staffer told the publication that the layoffs have had “a crushing effect on morale,” and one said that the QA department was “decimated.”
96 of the layoffs were at the id Software office in Richardson, 40 of the layoffs were for remote workers that reported to that office, and 22 of the layoffs happened at the Bethesda Game Studios office in Austin, according to a WARN notice obtained by Game Developer.
[Game Developer]
I missed this yesterday, reported by Kotaku. The studio will apparently keep working on Grounded 2 and DLC for The Outer Worlds 2, but “plans beyond that are up in the air,” Kotaku says.
The Wall Street Journal reported the number on Monday. Bloomberg corroborated it on Tuesday, adding that the subscribers figure is “4 million fewer than it did when the company last publicly shared data in 2024.” At one point, Microsoft had hoped that the service would have 100 million subscribers by 2030 — it seems unlikely it’ll meet that bar.
The total number of jobs impacted “could be as much as half the development team,” and a community manager has already shared that the game’s roadmaps “will be shifting,” according to Kotaku.
There are currently more than 13,000 people in-game just on Steam, SteamDB says — and since it’s also on PlayStation and Xbox, the total number is likely higher — so any changes to the game’s development will affect a not-insignificant number of players.
Major changes are looming for Microsoft’s gaming division after years of bad decisions.
With Sony ending production of PlayStation discs, one commenter points out that it confirms there’ll be no PS6 disc drive, ending backwards compatibility for physical games — though at least Microsoft is working on a fix for that.
ceejw:
Another thing to consider is that you’ll have no way to playing your physical PS5 and PS4 games on the PS6. Sony will make you buy them again.
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Xbox is expected to make some tough cuts soon, and it already dropped a new franchise from IO Interactive, but OD will continue to be part of Xbox’s publishing lineup, according to IGN.
That’s what the company told Bloomberg for its story about exiting a partnership with IO Interactive. “We expect to invest about the same in content as we did last year,” Xbox says. “What’s changing is where we’re investing and the kinds of projects we’re backing.”
Earlier today, my colleague Tom Warren reported that Xbox is weighing canceling its Blade game and could close at least five studios.
Mikhail Klimentov interviewed Schreier about the channel, where Schreier sits in a room and explains things about video games. “A rule that I set for myself is that I will not do any video that takes me more than 30 minutes to do in any way,” says Schreier.
The oldest video on Schreier’s channel was posted on May 27th, and he already has more than 100,000 subscribers.
[ReaderGrev]
“PlayStation hardware unit sales fell to their lowest May total since May 2000, while Xbox hardware unit sales were the lowest ever recorded for a May month,” says Circana analyst Mat Piscatella.
The PlayStation figures are probably explained by the recently-hiked prices. With Xbox prices going up soon, sales might continue to be grim.
Nice way to get around having to just sit and wait for an update to download. Microsoft is testing the feature for Xbox Insiders.
Sure, you’ll be able to order a physical edition of the game when preorders open tonight, but Rockstar says the box contains a download code anyway. If you’re buying GTA VI, don’t expect to be able to sell it when you’re done.
It’s one of a few new tidbits in a splashy Entertainment Weekly profile about Xbox, which comes at a curious time for Microsoft’s gaming division with troubles including looming layoffs and studio closures.
Like previous Halo titles, unlockable skulls in Halo: Campaign Evolved will allow you crank up explosions, turn down gravity, or celebrate every grunt headshot with confetti and fanfare. You can even mimic the gameplay of the classic Halo: Combat Evolved, or enable remixes of skulls for randomized choas.
Microsoft just shared half an hour of new gameplay footage from the upcoming Fable reboot. Why wasn’t this in Sunday’s Xbox showcase?
The game comes out on February 23rd, 2027, following a recent delay.
