What Microsoft has been quietly calling an "Xbox reset" is looking less like a course correction and more like a demolition job. New reports are pointing to Double Fine and Ninja Theory among the studios potentially facing closure, which is a genuinely alarming list when you actually stop and think about what those teams have made. Double Fine gave us Psychonauts 2, one of the most imaginative platformers in years. Ninja Theory built Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and its sequel into something that pushed storytelling in games to uncomfortable, brilliant places. These are not throwaway studios churning out filler content.
Microsoft has been on a spending spree for years, gobbling up studios and promising a golden age for Xbox Game Pass. The reality in 2026 looks considerably messier. Layoffs have been hitting the gaming industry hard across the board, but shutting down critically respected creative studios feels like a different category of loss entirely. There is a real difference between trimming costs and torching the kind of institutional knowledge and creative culture that took decades to build. Players who care about weird, ambitious, story-driven games have real reason to be worried here, and the broader industry should be paying close attention to how this shakes out over the coming weeks.
Alex
Catch-all — action, adventure, simulation, racing, casual, horror, puzzle