Xbox is getting ready to close down or promote no less than three of its studios — Double Positive, Ninja Idea and Compulsion Video games — based on stories from The Verge and Bloomberg on Monday.
Ninja Idea staff have been knowledgeable on Monday that the studio can be closing, based on The Verge, however the staff is searching for a purchaser that may preserve them operational. Ninja Idea is the studio behind the Hellblade collection and it was featured within the latest Xbox Summer season Sport Fest showcase, revealing a brand new entry due in 2027.
Double Positive is the legendary studio behind the Psychonauts video games, Brütal Legend, Damaged Age, Keeper and all method of LucasArts adventures, based by Tim Schafer and mates in 2000. Double Positive leaders are in lively negotiations to purchase themselves again from Xbox moderately than be closed altogether, Bloomberg mentioned.
Compulsion Video games is in an analogous place, based on the report. Compulsion is the Montreal studio behind the uber-stylish video games Distinction, We Completely satisfied Few and South of Midnight, the latter of which got here out in April 2025.
Bloomberg reported that a number of different studios underneath the Xbox Sport Studios banner are additionally negotiating for his or her futures and are liable to being shut down. Because it formally stands, the Xbox Sport Studios umbrella covers dozens of studios, together with Arkane, Bethesda, Halo Studios, id Software program, Obsidian, Playground Video games, ZeniMax and Activision Blizzard King. We now have contacted Xbox for clarification on the reported closures and buyout talks.
Microsoft’s trendy game-studio buying spree kicked off in 2018 with the acquisition of Undead Labs, Playground Video games, Ninja Idea and Compulsion Video games, plus the formation of The Initiative. This momentum continued constructing at a regarding tempo in 2020 and 2021, when Xbox acquired eight extra studios underneath ZeniMax Media, together with Arkane, Bethesda and id. All the things got here to a head in 2022 with the announcement that Xbox deliberate to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, the biggest acquisition in online game historical past. That deal lastly went via on the finish of 2023, after a prolonged battle with regulators.
For the reason that acquisitions, Microsoft has enacted a number of large rounds of layoffs affecting 1000’s of staff in its gaming division, and likewise shuttered well-known studios, together with The Initiative. Sadly, Double Positive, Ninja Idea, Compulsion and the opposite at-risk Xbox studios are in good firm.
Longtime Xbox division head Phil Spencer stepped down this 12 months and was changed by new CEO Asha Sharma, alongside different executive-level adjustments. Additionally on Monday, Xbox Sport Studios head Craig Duncan left the corporate; he first took the function in October 2024. Workers throughout Xbox are bracing for extra layoffs in 2026 after an ominous public memo from Sharma dropped in mid-June, simply because the glow of Summer season Sport Fest totally pale.
