In the latest news update on Wednesday, it was announced that Xbox is facing further reductions in workforce, with the cancellation of Perfect Dark and the shutdown of The Initiative among other changes. During a team communication, Matt Booty, the head of Microsoft Gaming studios, offered an intriguing perspective on these staff cuts.
In light of shifting industry trends, we are making some tough decisions. This includes discontinuing the development of Perfect Dark and Everwild, wrapping up several unannounced projects, and ultimately shutting down The Initiative studio. These moves, along with other changes within our teams, aim to realign priorities and maximize resources for future success. Please understand that every project and team involved has been a result of dedicated years of work, creativity, and dedication.
Regarding our overall game-making approach, it remains consistent: we’re focusing on crafting games that captivate our players, expanding our most popular series, and developing fresh narratives, environments, and characters. Currently, we have over forty projects in various stages of development, ongoing progress on games set to release this year, and a robust lineup leading us into 2026.
This email is intriguing for a couple of reasons that don’t stem from the content itself. Since there are numerous stages of project development, having forty games listed doesn’t necessarily catch my attention right away. However, it’s the information left unsaid that piques my curiosity.
To put it simply, Booty avoids specifically mentioning any upcoming game as a notable project for the company to release, which is a change from his past emails where he would justify staff reductions. This makes it more challenging to determine if there’s a specific game (or games) that might be considered “secure” amidst the turbulent layoffs.
According to reports from Windows Central, it appears that all games showcased at the recent Xbox Games Showcase will carry on with their development. This includes titles such as Double Fine’s Keeper and inXile Entertainment’s Clockwork Revolution.
It appeared to be a logical guess, considering that most of the games showcased in the presentation are planned for release towards the end of the year. However, it’s important to keep in mind.
In contrast to other unannounced games, the preview for the Clockwork Revolution appeared to be quite advanced, hinting that its launch might not be too distant in the future, perhaps not many years away.
But what about other projects that weren’t featured in the June Xbox presentation?
There are many other games currently being developed, such as Marvel’s Blade by Arkane Lyon, State of Decay 3 from Undead Labs, the horror experiment OD from Kojima Productions, and a few more titles from the Xbox publishing team. However, these projects were not showcased during the event; instead, they appear to be actively under development at this moment.
In his statement, Booty hints at unexpected projects getting axed, among them was an unrevealed MMORPG developed by ZeniMax Online Studios.
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2025-07-03 11:39