Phil Spencer

Hideo Kojima has revealed a fascinating tidbit about the development of his new Xbox horror game OD: He brought Xbox boss Phil Spencer and other members of the Microsoft gaming team to a traditional Japanese purification ceremony.

The video game console market is about to see its biggest shakeup since Sega stopped producing hardware. Xbox’s Phil Spencer says that the company will share a “business update” with players next week outlining a new vision for the brand. That news comes after a month of rumors that claimed that some of Xbox’s biggest exclusives would be coming to other platforms, including PS5 and Nintendo Switch. The unconfirmed reports sent Xbox loyalists into a panic as fans brace for a possible future where Xbox just produces software instead of physical consoles.

When Microsoft entered the gaming console wars in the early 2000s, many people questioned whether the American-born company could draw in players to its system: the Xbox. After all, Sony and Nintendo had experience under their belts, and Sony was busting out the PS2, which would eventually become the best-selling video game system ever. Nintendo was still cranking out incredible 1st and 3rd party titles, which wouldn’t end by any stretch. So, could Microsoft stand on its own two feet and make an impact? The answer was “yes,” but not in the overarching way. After all, they’ve had plenty of bumps along the road.

The new game is a major horror venture from Hideo Kojima and genre expert Jordan Peele, and it sounds like there might be some real-world haunting to cast the right sort of specter over development. Revealed at the Game Awards 2023, marks Kojima's return to horror after the canceled game that he was working on with Guillermo del Toro in the early 2010s. This time, is in the hands of the independent studio Kojima Productions rather than Konami, so shouldn't run the same risk of meeting its doom too early.

A day after reports of multiple Microsoft first-party titles possibly making their way to rival platforms, the company said early Tuesday that it would host a business update event next week, detailing the “future of Xbox.” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer posted the announcement on X (formerly Twitter), promising more details to the Xbox community. While the Xbox chief did not confirm the agenda of the event, Microsoft reportedly will reveal its plan to bring its exclusive titles, said to include Hi-Fi Rush and others, to rival platforms from Sony and Nintendo next week.

PlayStation 5 had outsold Xbox Series X/S by around 2-to-1 as of the end of 2023, according to data shared by Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said the recent spate of layoffs at Microsoft «contradict» what was presented in the antitrust trial over the company's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

It appears that some retailers may be canceling a few physical releases of Xbox games. Reports of these cancelations come ahead of the upcoming Xbox business update, which will respond to rampant rumors and speculation about the company's role in the broader games market.

The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has fuelled speculation about the company's plans for its first-party line-up.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a complaint against Microsoft to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit following the news of the company planning to lay off around 1,900 members of staff from across its Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax teams.

“We’re listening and we hear you,” Xbox head Phil Spencer wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, without being specific about what he’d been hearing. “We’ve been planning a business update event for next week, where we look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned.”

Microsoft reneged on promises it made in court during its Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust trial in 2023 by laying off 1,900 employees in late January, according to the FTC. FTC lawyer Imad Abyad filed a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday, effectively telling on Microsoft. “This newly-revealed information contradicts Microsoft’s representations in this proceeding,” the FTC lawyer wrote.

This week started with lots of high-profile rumors suggesting that Microsoft would soon switch its strategy on exclusive games. Following the previous rumors of titles like Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush, we heard from various journalists, leakers, and insiders that big games like Bethesda's Starfield, MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and possibly even The Coalition's Gears of War could be landing on other consoles like Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Switch.

Following a weekend of reports and rumours about Xbox going cross-platform with PS5 ports, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has posted to Twitter to announce a “business update” that will reveal Microsoft’s “vision for the future of Xbox.”

Microsoft Corp.'s plans to cut 1,900 jobs from its video game division contradict statements the company made to a US  court that it would operate the newly acquired Activision Blizzard Inc. independently, the US Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.

Microsoft recently cut 1,900 jobs from its gaming division and among the layoffs were many at the recently acquired video game developer Activision Blizzard. Blizzard Entertainment's President Mike Ybarra and co-founder Allen Adham are both departing. The tech giant also announced the cancellation of a Blizzard game, called “Odyssey,” that was already six years in development. On Tuesday, Microsoft reported quarterly earnings, posting its strongest revenue growth since 2022.

Cliff Bleszinski (sometimes known as Cliffy B) has mentioned on multiple occasions that he was interested in returning to the Gears of War series, but after publically gunning for a consulting gig, he now says that "it's time to move on."

Crash Bandicoot developer Toys for Bob and Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer Games have reportedly lost around 40 per cent and 30 per cent of their staff, respectively.

Just days after laying off 1,900 workers under the recently acquired Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has become only the second company ever to reach a $3 trillion market value. The recent layoffs by Microsoft were met with inquisition from audiences concerned about the company's profits, though it would seem Microsoft is showing no signs of declining value.

Reports suggest that Toys for Bob has been hit hard by the Microsoft layoffs, with some sources saying that the developer has lost up to 40 percent of its staff. This comes just after Microsoft acquired Toys for Bob's parent company, Activision Blizzard, in a deal that cost almost $70 billion.

Reikon Games has reportedly laid off 60 to 70 people, equating to 56 percent of the company.

Microsoft's decision to cut 1900 staff members has reportedly seen the company's games retail teams reduced, prompting fresh questions over Xbox's future in the physical games business.

Microsoft is laying off around 1,900 members of staff from its games division.

2023 was a brutal year for the games industry with its never-ending wave of layoffs, but 2024 is somehow turning out to be significantly worse. Less than a month into the year, the industry has already seen thousands of jobs being cut, and another significant number has now been added to that total, with IGN reporting that Microsoft’s gaming division is cutting 1,900 jobs out of its total workforce of about 22,000.

Microsoft is the latest big tech and gaming company to announce a sweeping wave of layoffs across the company, with around 8% of Microsoft’s Gaming group to be affected. That might not seem too awful, but with around 22,000 employees across Xbox, Activision Blizzard King and ZeniMax, it will add up to around 1,900 redundancies.

Polish developer People Can Fly, which is arguably best known for making the third-person co-op shooter Outridersand first-person-shooter Bulletstorm, has confirmed that it’s laid off a number of its staff. A spokesperson described the situation as “unfortunate.”

Blizzard’s president Mike Ybarra and its chief design officer Allen Adham are leaving the studio, which has also seen a previously announced survival game cancelled.

Update: This story has now been updated with a response from a Microsoft spokesperson.

Microsoft is laying off 1,900 workers — or around 8% of Microsoft Gaming’s 22,000 employees — from its gaming division. The majority of layoffs are at Activision Blizzard, according to the Verge, though cuts will impact Xbox and ZeniMax employees, too.

Microsoft is laying off 1900 people across its video game teams, including Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and Xbox, equating to approximately eight percent of its gaming workforce.

According to IGN, Microsoft has fired 1,900 employees from its video game divisions including Xbox and Activision Blizzard. The layoffs affect almost 9% of the 22,000 employees at the company. In a memo to staff, Microsoft Gaming CEO claims the layoffs come after leadership at Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard identified areas of overlap following the recent acquisition of Activision, Blizzard, and King.

Microsoft has laid off 1,900 employees from its gaming division—mainly roles at Activision Blizzard King, but also some at Xbox and ZeniMax Media.

Given that Microsoft have spent considerable time and effort becoming the biggest cock-of-the-walk possible, it does, I suppose, make sense that their layoffs are correspondingly massive. In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Phil Spencer is very sad to reveal to the staff that, in order to grow, the combined powers of Microsoft's 22k-strong Gaming Division have to be denuded to the tune of 1,900 human beings. That amounts to about 8% of the division.

Just four months after the merger with Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft has announced that it will lay off 1.900 Activision-Blizzard and Xbox employees.

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Microsoft is laying off around 8% of its Gaming Workforce, affecting game developers across Xbox, ZeniMax Media, and the newly acquired Activision Blizzard.

We're not even one month into 2024 and it's already been another brutal year for workers in the video game industry. Microsoft is the latest company to announce a major round of layoffs in its gaming division as it's cutting around 1,900 workers from its Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax (aka Bethesda) teams. That brings the total number of video game layoffs this year to around 6,000 already. There were around 9,000 layoffs in the industry in all of 2023, according to some estimates.

Microsoft has announced that it will be laying off 1,900 members of its 22,000-person gaming division. 

Update, 9:51 a.m. ET, 1/25/24:

Microsoft is reportedly laying off 1,900 of its 22,000 video game staff following the $69 billion Activision Blizzard King acquisition.

Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor: ReFantazio are coming to the Nintendo Switch‘s successor, according to an Atlus insider.

Microsoft had around a total of 33.3 million Xbox Game Pass Subscribers at the end of 2023.

With the acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard, Microsoft can now be a “good publisher” across all platforms, including rival consoles, the boss of the company has said.

Official Xbox news website Xbox Wire has deleted a post that claimed the open beta for Final Fantasy 14 had gone live on Xbox.

Microsoft may be in preliminary discussions to bring Final Fantasy 7 Remake to Xbox, an established industry insider has said. This claim arrives mere months after a well-known leaker labeled a Final Fantasy 7 Remake Xbox port as unlikely, at least in the foreseeable future.

It's been nearly four years since Final Fantasy 7 Remake launched on PlayStation 4, and according to Windows Central managing editor Jez Corden, it might finally be on its way to Xbox.

Call of Duty fans have been asking about a standalone Zombies game for years to no avail. However, according to one developer's LinkedIn profile, they nearly got their wish over a decade ago.

Starfield’s biggest update yet is on the way, with Bethesda promising to bring more than 100 tweaks in the coming weeks.

If you’ve owned an Xbox over the last five or so years, you’re bound to have tried out Sea of Thieves. However, the widely popular online pirate game may have finally made its way to other platforms.

Blizzard has acknowledged the radio silence regarding Diablo 4 Season 3 and says more information is on the way "very soon."

Earlier today, reports started circulating from industry insiders that Microsoft has reportedly considered bringing one of its first-party IPs, Sea of Thieves, to rival Sony and Nintendo platforms.

Xbox hit Hi-Fi Rush is heavily rumored to be set for rival console the Nintendo Switch in 2024, sparking a vociferous debate about Microsoft’s exclusives strategy.

Square Enix has debuted the latest job coming to Final Fantasy 14.

2023 was a year of recovery for Microsoft, with the likes of Hi-Fi Rush, Forza Motorsport, and Starfield adding solid titles to the Xbox Series X/S’ lineup of first party titles, and 2024 is looking even more stocked for the current-gen console duo.

Xbox pioneered the Achievements system with the Xbox 360’s launch back in 2005, but since then, other companies have implemented their own similar systems, many of which have gone on to surpass Xbox’s Achievements in more ways than one. Demands for improvements have been loud in the Xbox community for some time now, and it seems those improvements could be coming this year.

In our gaming world, specs can be the difference between playing a game at its “best performance level” or just a “mediocre level.” Granted, not everyone wants to play video games at the highest resolution on the best screens while being blinded by its 4K output. Sometimes, people just want to play the game and know it looks “good” without being “too much.” But in the battle between Xbox and Sony, they have battled for generations to make their systems better than their rivals. But when you look at Cyberpunk 2077, one console stands above the other: Sony’s.

Steam has added another genre tag to the digital storefront, this time officially recognizing the old-school "boomer shooters," as games about booming and shooting surge. 

Just a couple of days after winning the Game of the Year and Best Story-Rich Game prizes at the Steam Awards 2023, Baldur's Gate 3 is once again preparing to clean up the house at the upcoming 13th Annual New York Game Awards. The New York Videogame Critics Circle (NYVGCC) has just announced the full list of nominees during a live stream event and Larian's outstanding cRPG has received six nominations in the Game of the Year, Best Writing, Best World, Best Music, and Best Acting (twice, for Amelia Tyler as the narrator of Baldur's Gate 3 and Neil Newbon as the High Elf Vampire Rogue companion character Astarion) categories.

By Emma Roth, a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

Rumor has it a reboot could be on the way, but there's another Rare game revival that may never arrive. The first, released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, is best described as a 3D collectathon platformer. Players control two characters — Banjo the bear and Kazooie the breegull — as they traipse across eleven worlds, picking up valuable music notes and puzzle pieces to progress. It's been praised for its innovative gameplay. Banjo and Kazooie each have unique abilities that make tackling certain levels easier, and learn more throughout the game. The game's charming sense of humor has also contributed to its status as an all-time classic.

While Microsoft has now officially acquired Activision Blizzard, the company had to restructure the deal to win the approval of the UK's Competition and Markets Authority regulator, which originally found the deal concerning for a variety of reasons. Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, wasn't happy about the original verdict, meeting it with some harsh words, but it seems like things have changed since, now that the deal has finally gone through.

There is a new rumor going around that Banjo-Kazooie is finally, really, staging another comeback.

An insider has claimed that a Banjo-Kazooie game is currently an "active project" for Xbox, although it's likely to be some time away as the project was reportedly only greenlit in early 2022.

Starfield was one of the best-performing games on Steam this year, alongside Baldur's Gate 3, Destiny 2, Sons of the Forest, and more. This is despite its mixed reception among general players, so much so that the game has slipped into "mostly negative" reviews on Steam.

The CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, is officially stepping down from his role later this month, it’s been confirmed. 

Activision Blizzard boss Robert Kotick is stepping down as CEO.

With the year coming to a close, Bethesda Game Studios has announced that the space-faring RPG Starfield has topped 13 million players. This is just a few weeks after Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer revealed over 12 million players across all platforms.

Microsoft announced that Activision Blizzard CEO is finally stepping down, effective December 29. He is not the only high-profile departure, though Microsoft intends to leave most of the company’s management in place.  

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

It’s official: The Bobby Kotick era at Activision Blizzard will end on December 29. According to The Verge, Instead of appointing a new replacement, the top Activision Blizzard executives will now report to Microsoft’s game content and studios president Matt Booty. Several more higher-level Activision Blizzard employees will also leave the company in the new year with departures planned through March 2024.

After a 32-year career, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is officially stepping down next week, with his last day at the company being Friday, December 29. Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced a series of key leadership changes as it works to bring Activision Blizzard into Xbox's fold.

Microsoft has announced that Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, will be stepping down on December 29th. Instead of a replacement, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and Activision publishing president Rob Kostich will report to Microsoft Gaming game content and studios president Matt Booty, per The Verge. Activision Blizzard vice chair Thomas Tippl is also leaving in March 2024 but reports to Booty till then.

It is now official: In a farewell message to employees, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has confirmed that he will be leaving the company.

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It was massive news when Microsoft revealed that they had put out a bid to acquire Activision Blizzard. Billions of dollars went into this purchase, and it was anything but easy. There were court cases and battles against the regulators to ensure that this deal would go through. Fortunately for Microsoft, the deal was finalized earlier this year. Since then, we’ve seen Microsoft go into a transitional phase to ensure production could continue while Microsoft took over the reins. Meanwhile, it was noted that Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, would continue staying on until the upcoming year.

Controversial Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick will depart the company on 29th December, it's been announced.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will leave the company on December 29 after 32 years, and remaining Activision Blizzard executives such as Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra, Activision Publishing president Rob Kostich, and Activision Blizzard vice chairman Thomas Tippl will be overseen by Microsoft Gaming game content and studios president Matt Booty.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is officially resigning from the company after the completion of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of the gaming developer and publisher. Kotick’s last day is Dec. 29, when Microsoft studio head Matt Booty will take lead of the Activision Blizzard executive leadership team. Kotick led Activision Blizzard for 32 years.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will officially leave the company on December 29, it’s been confirmed.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has announced he’s stepping down from his position on December 29. The news comes two months after Microsoft officially completed its acquisition of the developer/publisher.