Xbox lays off 268 more employees, merges Obsidian into Bethesda and puts Activision in charge of Halo

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• Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  These fuckers won’t rest until there’s nothing good left to play and all that’s left are multiplayer only games that cost $100 up front and still need several microtransactions a day forever in order to be in any way playable 😮‍💨🤬

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• rosahaj@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  “I wonder what will happen if we put all of our eggs in the same basket?” - Famous basket-dropper.

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  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    closing down the division. seems like the head of xbox is there to do just that.

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• ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Activision in charge of Halo? That’s a deathblow if ever I heard one.

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  • Sabin10@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Post bungie halo has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion, the series has survived the last 16 years on reputation alone.

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    • QueenHawlSera@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Post Halo Bungie hasn’t fared much better….

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  • warm@kbin.earth ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    It literally doesnt matter. Halo died with Bungie and Bungie died with Halo.

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  • psx_crab@lemmy.zip ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    On the bright side, Activision is quite capable of making the exact same game over and over again and consistently. Their knowledge of beating the dead horse is borderline necromancy. Can’t say the same for 343.

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    • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Tbf if you were to give Halo back to Bungie they too would fuck it up nowadays.

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    • harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Oh it is straight up necromancy and Black Ops might be necrophilia.

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  • harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Halo Black Ops

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    • Quicky@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      That was ODST

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  • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Activision doesn’t only publish Call of Duty though. They publish all kinds of games: Sekiro, the Tony Hawk games, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, etc.

    Way more potential than what 343 had. I mean, 343 was purposefully NOT hiring former Bungie-era Halo employees. The important ones, like Marcus Lehto, Marty ODonnell, heck they only brought Joe Staten to get Infinite “back on track” and then promptly kicked him to the curb too. 343 definitely deserved this earlier, I am gonna be honest.

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    • ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The games you mentioned ring in my head as mid-2000s highlights, with nothing more than blatant money grabs published in the last decade. Not very indicative of a healthy studio imo. They may have once been capable of turning out good games, but that was roughly in the era 343 was turning out good games too

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  • AustralianSimon@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    CODification here it comes. Couldn’t be worse than the current state of Halo though?

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    • Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Halo became what it is now because they tried to turn it into CoD, so it couldn’t be better either

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• seaplant@slrpnk.net ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  A good time to mention that Xbox (and boycotting Game Pass especially) is one of a dozen or so priority targets chosen by the Palestinian BDS Movement beecause they’re vulnerable and Microsoft’s cloud computing services are so vital for “Israel’s” military and prison system

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• ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Halo to become Call of Duty In Space in 3…

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  • Rakonat@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Where have you been for the last 14 years? Halo has been call of duty in space since 343 took over.

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    • Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      No, no, Halo has been Call Of Titanfall Strike: Global Offensive Theft Auto 2: Yet Another An Ancient Evil Awakens Worse Than The One Before in space since 343 took over

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  • B0NK3RS@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Halo of Duty?

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• harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Can’t wait for Fallout 5: Skyrim Crossover Edition.

  Turns out Heimskr was working with the Thalmor the whole time and after Ulfric captured Hoover Dam, the Khajit Commonwealth just said “fuck it” and nuked everyone.

  Well, it was skooma spiked with Nuka Cola.

  The Radskeevers are everywhere and are a pain to kill.

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• Pronell@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  As I remember, back in the 90s, the CEO of Activision hated video games.

  So of course that zombie of a company is still fucking up gaming.

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• Damage@feddit.it ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Microsoft Is the worst thing that ever happened to computers

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  • scops@reddthat.com ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Ehhhhh, if we could see into the multiverse ball, maybe. I’d fucking hate to see a timeline where Apple was the dominant consumer-grade OS producer through the 90s and 2000s.

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    • False@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Notch no longer being involved in it is also a plus

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  • drmoose@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    With Apple right behind it.

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• Glitch@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Lol, smells like desperation from here.

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• chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  So is Halo Studios/343 just…dead now? Seems like they’re dead if they don’t have Halo. Kind of in their name.

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  • krashmo@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    They made awful games so who cares. I don’t think even Activision could have made it more like a Call of Duty clone than 343 did.

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    • myyass@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      So since the company has dissolved. There was an idea to make it like a COD game… and an idea to make it like a minecraft/fortnite game… after so many years it turned to just make a halo something game because having 300 contractors alongside the studio ended up costing too much.

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  • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I think the plan is to have them do publishing and IP management, like what happened with LucasArts.

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• ScarlettStunningSpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Xbox is dead

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• aeronmelon@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Deck chairs on the Titanic.

  I honestly believe that Xbox will stop existing as a company in a few years.

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  • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yeah, Asha Sharma seems to be set up as an example of the glass cliff. She’s clearly trying to bail out a sinking ship rather than revitalize a stale brand. Giving Halo to Activision shows a misunderstanding of what Halo players want, but the other things she’s doing are things that probably could have helped five or more years ago, but are just too late now. We’re probably heading toward a repeat of the 1983 crash. Xbox and PlayStation might still be around after, but they’ll be in the position that Atari and Sega were after the crash, with their remaining market share evaporating the instant a new competitor arrives.

    Meanwhile, so long as Nintendo just keeps doing what they’ve been doing they should be fine. I could see them phasing out game key cards as an option for devs if the digital only backlash on the next generation is bad enough, but they might not have to given that the publishers that have been using them are the ones most likely to implode.

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    • frank@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Honestly, Nintendo is in such a good position to pick up serious market share from Sony and Xbox. It’s insane that just making actual games that aren’t riddled with crap and not insta firing everyone who works for you is enough to be the clear front runner.

      I wonder if, like Sega and Atari, there will be someone to swoop in and take market share here. I worry it’s a Meta or someone with a terrible spyware product.

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    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      they often hire women to take the PR nightmare, and flak from the public when a company is failing, and looks like the plan is to close down xbox eventually.

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• QueenHawlSera@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I didn’t know Microsoft owned Obsidian

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  • Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Depressing isn’t it.

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    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yeah. Literally all of the big studios making great RPGs in the noughties and tens have either folded, gotten bought by Microsoft, gotten bought by EA, or more than one of the above 😮‍💨

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  • Erdalion@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    They were bought out in 2018.

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• rosahaj@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  From what I’ve heard, Bethesda and Obsidian have always been great places to work. I hope Microsoft isn’t ruining that for the devs. Hopefully the increasing union presence in Microsoft will bring worker interests back into consideration.

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  • Nutteman@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I imagine Bethesda hasn’t been fun to work for for a good 10 years now.

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    • deadcream@sopuli.xyz ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Companies that make “boring” games are often great workplaces, while those that make bestsellers (such as CD project red, rockstar, etc) are shitholes putting workers through hell and permanent crunch.

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    • shartgargle@lemmy.zip ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Word is that NOBODY wanted to make starfield other than Todd Howard. Apparently once whispers of being bought happened, he wanted that game out because he knew Microsoft would never allow them waste time on something that isn’t elder scrolls or fallout.

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  • BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    bethesda has only ever had layoffs twice in their history, i think one was before morrowind and the other was after asha took over xbox

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    • Mora@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Woefully wrong. Pre-Microsoft Bethesda was probably okay. But Microsoft Bethesda layoff waves were:

      • January 2023
      • January 2024
      • May 2024
      • September 2024
      • possibly July 2025
      • (despite Zenimax != Bethesda, they create Elder Scrolls Online, so also July 2026 , where thay cut nearly half of the team responsible for ESO, including the community manager)
      • this new one now

      I am probably missing some. So honestly, the only thing save to assume that the only thing working at Microslop is their CoPilot.

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    • rosahaj@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Makes sense, they were in dire straits before Morrowind, and well, Microsoft is Microsoft.

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  • warm@kbin.earth ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Really? Isnt it just Todd going around demanding things? Id never want to work under that narcissitic dick.

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    • rosahaj@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I can only go off of what I’ve heard directly from Bethesda devs, who from what I’ve seen generally have the attitude of ‘’he is a great boss who has been given too much to handle as the studio got bigger.” You’re probably referring to the ‘seagulling’ post which, afaik, was a 4chan post without a source.

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    • AustralianSimon@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Guys, let’s bring Skyrim to (insert random platform). - Todd

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    • Zahille7@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      With all the bullshit you’re spouting off I’m surprised you haven’t pulled the “Todd hates Obsidian/New Vegas” card yet.

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• Noite_Etion@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Activision is now overseeing Age of Empires… Couldn’t let Sony outshine you “who can shoot themselves in the foot hardest” could you?

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• carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  at least double fine got out… well i don’t want to say “before” microsoft started gutting everything but at least they got out

  also daily reminder that the xbucks you spend on xbox fund genocide

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  • anaVal@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    They got out because they actually have a following they can count on. If they didn’t think they could survive being independent they would have closed as well. Luckily Tim knows how powerful their brand is and that they can just run a crowdfunder to get back on track.

    Anyone reading this, go donate if you want to help a games company that is dedicated to art instead of profit. kickstarter.com/…/amnesia-fortnight-2026-indie-re…

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• TwinTitans@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Well Halo has no where to go but up at this point so why not.

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  • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    More remakes to come

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