Despite mass layoffs at multiple first-party studios and major internal shakeups, CEO Asha Sharma has shot down speculation about a potential Xbox buyout.
This year, Xbox began a corporate “reset” that plans to cut a total of 3,200 jobs across the company before next summer. So far, the restructure has resulted in three studios going independent (Double Fine, Compulsion Games, Undead Labs), while the fate of Hellblade maker Ninja Theory and Dishonored studio Arkane remains up in the air.
In another dramatic turn earlier this month, Xbox handed Activision the keys to the entire Halo series. Rare and World’s Edge (of Age of Empires fame) also moved under the Call of Duty publisher, while Obsidian Entertainment got slotted into Bethesda. That leaves only a handful of developers under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella – The Coalition (Gears of War), Playground Games (Fable, Forza), Mojang (Minecraft), InXile Entertainment (Clockwork Revolution) and what’s left of Halo Studios.
To many, this looked like an attempt at streamlining the business to make it more attractive for potential buyers. (Microsoft might have struggled to sell Rare by itself, for example, but that becomes a much easier task when it’s bundled in with the company in control of Call of Duty.) A sale isn’t on the table at all, however, according to Sharma.
Speaking to The New York Times, she put it plainly: “Xbox is not for sale… We will do whatever it takes to set the company up for success, and we will look at the right partnerships, the right operating model and everything needed to achieve that.”
As NYT noted, Sharma’s answer doesn’t completely rule out the possibility of Xbox being spun off as an independent entity that still works closely with Microsoft, like some analysts have suggested. There’s no signs of that so far, at least.
“We’ve got a long way to go with Microsoft,” Sharma added, “and we’re going to take the long-term view.”
From here, the console maker is hoping next week’s Gears of War: E-Day and next year’s Clockwork Revolution can still make a splash as Xbox console exclusives. Sharma also recently signed a deal with Kojima Productions on its action-stealth game Physint, after rival PlayStation pulled funding from the project.
