Microsoft is moving forward with large cuts, cutting a little less than  4 % of its labor or about 9,000 jobs across the organization. Maybe inevitably, various activities in growth within Xbox Game Studios have been cancelled as a result.

When reached for comment, Microsoft directed CNET to  accounts Wednesday by Variety, confirming their reliability.

” To job Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on proper growth areas, we will stop or reduce work in certain areas of the business and following Microsoft’s lead in removing layers of management to improve agility and effectiveness,” Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer wrote in a staff memo Wednesday morning, as published by Variety.

Xbox Game Studios brain Matt Booty  confirmed the sport refunds in an internal message published by Variety, naming Great Dark and Everwild particularly, as well as other “unannounced” headings.

” We have made the decision to stop growth of Perfect Dark and Everwild as well as weather down numerous unannounced projects across our profile,” Booty wrote in the internet. ” As part of this, we are closing one of our productions, The Initiative. “

Treasure added that the choices to hammer these games “reflect a broader effort to change priorities and target resources to set up our teams for greater accomplishment within a changing business environment. We did not make these choices casually, as each task and staff represent years of effort, thoughts and determination. “

What Xbox activities have been cancelled?

Perhaps the most important subject delayed amid these novel layoffs was a relaunch of the classic FPS series, Great Dark. The workshop that had been working on this new name, The Initiative, will get shut down entirely.  

The long-awaited new entry in the sci-fi spy series has been in the plays since the studio opened in 2018 and initially showed off play images for the subject during an Xbox Games Showcase in June 2024.

Another notable title getting the axe is Everwild, a long-gestating new IP from Rare, the revered British studio Sea of Thieves, which Microsoft acquired in 2002. Over the decades, the studio has also produced the original Donkey King Country games for the SNES, the original Perfect Dark for the Nintendo 64, Conker’s Bad Fur Day and the Banjo-Kazooie series.

According to unnamed sources who spoke to Video Games Chronicle, numerous job cuts and a broader restructuring are expected at Rare, resulting in the game’s cancellation. The sources also confirmed reports over the years about Everwild’s somewhat turbulent development, claiming that it had” struggled to nail down a clear direction for the title. ”  

The game has reportedly been in development for the better part of a decade, being officially announced in 2019, followed by a trailer in 2020. In 2021, reports emerged that development on the game had been “rebooted. “

The other title reportedly put out to pasture was an untitled new MMORPG from Zenimax Online Studios, the creator of the popular MMO Elder Scrolls Online, which has reportedly reached upward of 25 million players since launching in 2014.  

Details about what this title was are sparse, with Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier raporting that the game went by the codename” Blackbird” and had been in the works since 2018. Windows Central said in its raport about Perfect Dark’s cancellation that Blackbird was once intended to act as a successor of sorts to Elder Scrolls Online.

According to Variety, all games that were shown off during the 2025 Xbox Games Showcase in June will continue being developed.