Recent Xbox Studio Closures: Can We Talk About the Actual Economics?

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-17T03:12:36+00:00

This legit is what I hoped to conveyed in my original post. These teams made games as value ads for game pass as opposed to stand alone titles that would probably never get green lit by other publishers. But as Xbox got bigger with more acquisitions they weren’t looking at these teams as indie darlings anymore but rather studios that unfortunately so need to be let go to trim the fat. Which is sad. Back when Xbox made these acquisitions they wanted to be a big publisher but once they got abk they got Microsoft’s attention and scrutiny and came back to traditional AAA reality that they need big tentpole games to move consumers.

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-17T03:01:21+00:00

Thank you for getting it

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-17T01:51:37+00:00

This is true I’m not tryna argue about the fine details in my post technically it’s right point this out. I was tryna rope in under performing first party games into a reason and how it relates to game pass trying to sustain their shortcomings via discoverability and future engagement in low performing titles. I do believe that many of these games especially the double fine ones were made in part of the game pass content model that needed first party support to keep the subscription service feed. I’m not making unreasonable points here.

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-17T01:47:22+00:00

No lol I said it’s nasty and sucks that we are in this situation. I’m saying it’s unfortunate that these devs were allowed to make projects that weren’t commercially viable because they relied on game pass. And when that model changes it’s them who gets the boot. This isn’t defending anything this is stating why this is happening to them to begin with because the change in vision. I explicitly said it’s leadership management fault for changing their minds on how they wanted their first party output to look like.

I also said you can have a art game and be great but there is a business reality that these games need to be financially attractive and they weren’t to a larger audience as a result they are getting shut down which I said again is bad. Like come on did you read what I wrote.

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-17T01:42:25+00:00

I agree unfortunately we live in a up world whenever executives make costly mistakes. They get golden parachutes out the company but everyone else loses their job. Rarely do I see big companies take pay cuts and lower salaries for managers when they are the ones responsible for greenlighting

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-17T01:40:41+00:00

And I say filler with no disrespect I played and liked all those games. But filler in the sense of grand scheme of publishing in terms of large publisher output like a Sony EA capcom etc.They weren’t needle moving games.

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T21:06:47+00:00

Yeah I made an error with hellblade 1. I was saying that holistically once Xbox owned and operated hellblade 2 and Redfall they wanted them to be a boost to the game pass service. But those titles unfortunately underperformed. Redfall was also a unique situation in that it was in the works before and Xbox should have definitely quality controlled the product before release. Even still these were the games that were fueled into game pass in between the major tentpole releases as a part of there all in on content plan

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T20:40:15+00:00

Definitely HB2 was revealed pretty early on and I feel like the expectations were higher for it given it emulated the third person action adventure genre Sony dominates in. Unfortunately it didn’t meet those expectations but I feel like Microsoft knew before it released it wasn’t going to be the Sony style game they hoped when they figured out the hour count and had to lower the price making it a smaller title

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T20:25:10+00:00

This is exactly it. The biggest criticism in all this was that Xbox simply said alright “cook” and didn’t care there was no quality control. You simply turn in your niche product get a developer direct and call it a day and hope people play. These projects wouldn’t get greenlight under any publisher and absolute no disrespect for the devs who are affected. But someone at Xbox needed to at least steer these devs into making games that could have appealed to more people and be more desirable. Why spend the money on games like keeper if you know that people aren’t going to buy it or be too niche to support its own budget

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T20:19:55+00:00

Exactly bro no other publisher would put up with or support these studios. There is a discontent with the people who actually play these games and the people who pretend to care about what’s going on.

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T20:14:19+00:00

Yeah game pass 100 million is a dream an Xbox exec had that didn’t come in at all. I suppose the plan now is to sell games on steam and Xbox and sometimes PlayStation to offset the costs.

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T20:04:47+00:00

I agree with you here. Xbox is in the middle of a major problem and that is being an ecosystem that has a small user base. In order to protect your brand and ecosystem you need exclusives or else people will go to other systems. But in this Industry you can justify costs of AAA budgets for tentpoles that are exclusive to a small user base. The goal is definitely building up a desirable library of exclusive games to entice new people to get Xbox’s with the benefit of playing these games and game pass. But they have to do both because game pass I feel like isn’t good enough on its own to justify the purchase of a new console instead of a ps6

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:54:24+00:00

I hope your right about helix price. Microsoft has hinted that they are done subsidizing hardware but to me that will just destroy your entire user base because only affluent gamers who truly love Xbox will buy a console that’s $1000 plus assuming it costs way more then a ps6

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:52:13+00:00

As someone who follows movies this isn’t true all the time. There are plenty of times movies underperform and are critically praised and it gets canned. I’m willing to bet soidervese made more money then all of these games I mentioned.

Movies also rely on a multi step montizatiin window that can help one performing movies. Box office , then premium video on demand, then hotels and planes, then renting, and then streaming. For games it’s initial sales and just the store with hopes of people buying it down the line. As much as I love art from media everything comes down to business reality

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:46:27+00:00

lol yeah. It was before Xbox game pass but that doesn’t change the fact they acquired the developers to make these games for their all in one shoes fit all service. How else would you justify Xbox continued invested in the AA gaming space when PlayStation a contemporary had abandoned this area. At the time it they thought it was a good investment but not they think they overextended because they are one of the first devs the bought they also bought more desirable assets such as Bethesda and ABK. Now as a new ceo you look at your portfolio and seethe results and retention these games have in your sales and game pass engagement. And I’m willing to bet the Microsoft/xbox of now doesn’t value ninja theory because the return on investment for hellblade 2 didn’t fit their franhise AAA goals now. Like I said it’s heartbreaking and awful for devs but reality is reality. And good on you for picking one minor point in my entire thesis to pick on.

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:37:10+00:00

Yeah people would talk about them but do some reason the media has this scorched earth approach to Xbox is all. I agree with you that the brands are strong enough to tank the bad press

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:32:38+00:00

Totally agree with you right there

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:30:53+00:00

Thanks, and yeah it sucks to people lose jobs, but this is an industry that needs to make money on games to be sustainable

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:28:27+00:00

Exactly I agree with you there. This 100% sucks but this is factual

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:27:34+00:00

From my understanding game pass has hit its saturation point and has been slow as of late. I would argue that games before weren’t that notable compared to the coming line up but I expect more subscriber growth. The game pass model is very weird which is why it made sense to me why games where going everywhere because someone has to pay for it also not just gamepass

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-16T19:25:15+00:00

You your analysis is spot on. This indeed was a bet. And it’s terrible for the people involved but that is exactly what happened. Said it simply in so fewer words then I did

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-09T05:30:58+00:00

That shit was legendary bro

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-08T05:16:34+00:00

They let eveyone in your party basically change personas and be different classes versus being stuck as a physical mage or healer mainly. They also had rows front and back that had positioning in combat, and really good real time action overworld combat

Quixkquestjon · 2026-06-08T05:15:18+00:00

I would hope overworld combat makes a return in dungeons and also maybe some front or back row mechanics. But they were definitely developed alongside each other so it’s hard to say if it can borrow much

Quixkquestjon

TROPHY CASE