Xbox’s ‘Reset’ – What its Franchise-First Future Could Look Like | IGN Opinion

As was feared after rumors of massive layoffs at Xbox started circulating shortly after this year’s Xbox Showcase, the axe has finally fallen at Team Green. While it is the latest in a series of devastating impact waves that have been hitting Xbox ever since its record $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King became official, it is at least a relief to know that the four studios whose fates seemed in doubt – Double Fine, Compulsion, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory – will all live to fight another day as either independent studios or under new corporate ownership (a fifth, Arkane, remains in flux as Microsoft must navigate French labor laws).

But business will clearly be handled differently at Xbox moving forward. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is reportedly seeking to speed up development on Xbox’s tentpole franchises: Halo, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls. I imagine that Forza Horizon, Fable, and Gears of War are also on that list, but obviously those three are all shipping later this year or, in Forza’s case, just shipped in May.