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While several Xbox studios regained independence or found new owners yesterday, Arkane's staff must negotiate their own future
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While several Xbox studios regained independence or found new owners yesterday, Arkane's staff must negotiate their own future

Yesterday, Xbox announced that they were spinning off five major studios in the course of the latest round of "historic" restructuring, with 1600 jobs instantly chopped and 1600 more layoffs to follow over the next financial year. It's the latest in a string of failures on the part of Xbox leadership, who have repeatedly butchered the division after an evidently overambitious acquisition spree that dates back to the 2010s. It has, at least, not yet resulted in any outright studio closures. Doub

Asus ROG Strix XG129C review
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Asus ROG Strix XG129C review

This fun-sized sidekick touchscreen monitor isn't exactly a value proposition, but it's still kinda fun.

Xbox's layoffs come with a push to focus on series like Fallout, so naturally New Vegas devs Obsidian have reportedly lost around a quarter of their staff
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Xbox's layoffs come with a push to focus on series like Fallout, so naturally New Vegas devs Obsidian have reportedly lost around a quarter of their staff

Xbox laid off around 1600 people yesterday, July 6th, as mass cuts accompanied by the decision to part ways with five studios were set in stone. This substantial upheaval's also had plenty of consequences for the studios staying under the Microsoft banner, including a more concerted push to get remaining staff working on Xbox's most lucrative series. Fallout, for example. That hasn't stopped the reportedly cuts including around a quarter of the staff at noted Fallout spin-off developers Obsidia

Xbox layoffs mean that Elder Scrolls Online's roadmap is "shifting" just two days before Season One's release... the plan put in place for the MMO after the last round of cuts
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Xbox layoffs mean that Elder Scrolls Online's roadmap is "shifting" just two days before Season One's release... the plan put in place for the MMO after the last round of cuts

Yesterday brought the news that Microsoft were cutting 1600 staff, spinning out four studios, and finding a further 1600 jobs to cut in the year to come. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma said in an email to staff that she was "making reductions" and "shifting investment to focus on higher priority projects".Today, we're starting to learn what those cuts mean for the teams that Xbox retained, and the projects they were working on. The most public and immediate of these is Elder Scrolls Online. In January, Z