A report from The Game Business reveals that Obsidian Entertainment is one of the many companies in negotiation with XBOX to avoid closure. Additionally, it states that the reason for XBOX’s recent price increase of the Xbox Series X|S was in response to the change in price for Apple products.
UPDATE: Jason Schreier of Bloomberg notes that “I can confirm that Obsidian is not in negotiations to avoid shutting down. Plenty of details are still up in the air surrounding the layoffs (picture will be clear on Monday) but Xbox is keeping Obsidian, according to people familiar with the situation.” The validity of both statements is now up in the air.
Obsidian Entertainment recently released The Outer Worlds 2 and Avowed, which seemingly didn’t reach the heights XBOX had hoped for. However, as The Game Business notes, “Even if Obsidian had delivered an incredible year…it wouldn’t have offset the drop on Call of Duty.” This coincides with the mention that many teams believe that they are being punished for the poor performance of Black Ops 7. Other companies that are presumably on the chopping block include Arkane Studios, Compulsion Games, Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs.
Reportedly, though, XBOX is debating selling off some of its studios, including those mentioned above. All five studios have recently released games within the last year, or have major titles in development, such as South of Midnight, Kiln, Senua, and State of Decay 3. Although, according to IGN, Hideo Kojima’s OD is “safe” from cancellation. Only time will tell which studios are specifically effected, though, as The Verge states that these layoffs are expected to begin on July 6.
It has also reported that XBOX is internally testing a “disc-to-digital” feature that would allow players to digitize their physical game collection. Said rumor comes in the wake of PlayStation announcing that it would end all physical disc production in January 2028. The feature would seemingly allow players to convert their physical copies of Xbox One and Series X|S games to digital versions. Lastly, this would not apply to original Xbox or Xbox 360 games.
