Xbox in talks to spin off Double Fine, Ninja Theory and Compulsion
Bloomberg reports Xbox is negotiating buyouts that would let Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games spin off from Microsoft instead of being closed. The talks come amid a broader Xbox restructuring and Microsoft is planning to shut down Compulsion Games, the developer of South of Midnight and We Happy Few. Studio leaders are negotiating to take their companies independent to preserve projects and staff, but even successful spin-offs would still involve significant layoffs and the cancellation or sale of some projects. The outcome matters because Double Fine, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion are known for distinctive, accessibility-forward games, so their survival or disappearance will reshape creative output and staffing across the games industry.
BREAKING: Several Xbox studios, including Compulsion, Ninja Theory and Double Fine, are negotiating with Xbox as they try to avoid closure. Some or all could spin off. Lots still in flux as many studios remain unsure about what's happening. Here's the latest: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Jason Schreier955These are not the only three Xbox studios at risk of closure, but there's still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the company's plans. More to come in the next few days and weeks. Safe to say that the Xbox of July will look drastically different than the Xbox of June.
Brett225Motherfuckers are really trying to close Ninja Theory after JUST ANNOUNCING a new Hellblade game? Burn Microdick go the ground, man.
Xavier Perez189Shutting down Double Fine feels unconscionable. Hopefully they can find a solution.
Miki184Ninja Theory? 2 weeks after revealing their new game? Don't they also have the most advanced motion capture studio in England?
Brandon Makar160Fucking Sony and Xbox doing all these acquisitions just to close the studios down.
Philip Flood144Jason Schreier showing up on my feed like the grim reaper meme every time
Alex Miles67All signs of a good business, I'm sure...
Socky Noob45There will be riots if Double Fine shuts down
UnarmedGorilla 🇨🇦37Wtf is going on at MSFT and XBOX??? They just come off a fantastic showcase, build up all this excitement and goodwill with the community, then a week later decide to just burn it all down! Like man, quit stepping on rakes after every single positive announcement.
NoonDragoon25But don't worry guys, Gears is exclusive now so Xbox is saved.
Der Motzmichel auf Bluesky in der EU!!! 🇪🇺🇺🇦🇮🇱❤️🕊️☮️🏳️🌈🍍🤪🚀🖖🏽✌🏽🖕🏼🤡🙈🙉🙊👉🏽👌🏽🌮🥸🫣💩🌈23Now is the second best time to quit XBOX #gamepass ..! I quit when they raised the prices. They are still not back to normal. Microsoft is killing Xbox! … #gaming
Jesse // BABA16Double Fine fight!! you must live!!!
Matheus Castro16The "glass half full" part of me is finding solace in the fact that, at the very least, they're going for the negotiation route instead of gutting them all like poor Tango. But the "glass half empty" part of me is afraid that one of these studios might very well be... id software.
Víctor Manuel15why couldn't just free the studios??? in this spiral of layoffs, couldn't just free the studio and them thrive alone? the alternative is closing it.... oh, yeah, the capitalism and gameplay oligopoly, yeah, it was that
GrumpHope14Ninja Theory too? Damn. Sad times for gamedev. So this is this "reset" that Sharma was talking about?
Violet13Xbox is so cooked it's not even funny
Forever Woke13I hate Microsoft so much. I wish they never jumped in the game industry. Worthless company
Stefan Gagne13If Double Fine can go indie again and stabilize, I'm all for it. Get the hell off the Titanic before it sinks. It beats MS dismantling the studio for parts and keeping everything. But being an auteur studio in San Francisco is still a dangerous combo.
MGoCoder13This is one of the problems with Game Pass. Compulsion's "South of Midnight" generated tons of Game Pass downloads but very few sales. So how valuable was it? Super hard to quantify.
Burgerpocalypse11dont worry i kept my burning embers of hatred towards microsoft throughout the previous months of them pretending to turn a new leaf
TheMrX9imagine spending billions buying them just to shut them all down, what a clown fest the current CEO is. Worst CEO ever.
Franklin Von Wolfgang Dracula8everything’s fine guys. Xbox is so back!
Jet Set Alejandro Future7I kept bringing up Double Fine in these conversations. Not out of hope or anything remotely close to it. More so despair. Psychonauts was my favorite game growing up. I looked forward to it for months and loved/love every moment of it. This sucks.
Willa6This is what MS does, they buy up companies and then close them. Its insane and I don't know why people continue to sell to them. They have been doing this for literal years while XBOX flounders in the back of the console pack. Zero vision, zero creativity at the top tiers of MS.
Yo I'm Moon (Brendan)🌙6What the fuck?! I genuinely hate that game companies are publicly traded. I hate the corporate greed. A few billion in profit isn't enough to keep people employed. I fucking hate it ALL.
Andrew Oliveira5Just as Xbox fans were given hope about the course being corrected. They won't be fooled again.
Sweet Plasmids (Simon) 🎮5Didn’t they JUST announce a new Senua game. What on earth is going on over there
avijeyy.bsky.social5I hope they let them be independent. Shutting down those studios would be super dumb. Ninja theory doesn't make sense to me because they just announced a game that comes next year but idk
Funtownarcade5I thought eplacing millionaire Phil Spencer with a millionaire who has never played games would fix all their problems for sure.
MaxRoss5Some body tell Tim Schaffer that the target audience for their games is on switch, not Xbox...
MC Leon4How many studios could remain open if Sharma just didn't get paid? Why do these executives get millions just to fail and fuck over hundreds to thousands of people's lives and throw out good talent and art to make a line go up this quarter or fiscal year?
BernyMoon4Please dont’t cancel OD 🤞🏻
Danny, Squaresoft's Official FFVIII Shill4I didnt expect Xbox to last forever but man dying on the hill made of copilots sloppa wasnt one i think people saw coming back in the xbone days.
EliotBallade4Just spin-off the whole brand and make it a complete third-party publisher at this point.
Tom Clancy's Project DIVA F 2nd4... Didn't they JUST annkuce a new Ninja Theory game???
Orfez4You people understand that without MS, these studios would have been dead a long time ago, right? In the last 8 years, they released: Compulsion — We Happy Few, South of Midnight Double Fine — RAD, Psych 2, Keeper, Kiln Ninja Theory — Hellblade VR, Bleeding Edge, Hellblade II
mario yuwono4Well this fucking sucks. And a reminder that corporations are not your friend, no matter how much you like what they make
Matthias Dammes4How fast things change. One week ago Ninja Theory was one of the studios that presented a new game at the Xbox showcase; now they are one of the studios at risk of closure?
Brandon3oh cool just a few of my favorite studios being shut down by the company whose console i purchased over the competition. surely that will ensure i stay in the xbox ecosystem
PigeonFish3Double Fine made Psychonauts 2, my personal favorite game on the Xbox Series. I really hope they don't get tanked. Xbox's new CEO was just starting to get me interested again. If she does this, I'm done with them.
Escarietson3Another Video Game Crash is coming in where Nintendo will survive while everyone else gets liquidated...!
Joey Spiotto3Thinking of @timoflegend.bsky.social and the team today. If anyone should just be left alone to make great work, it would be these folks.
KevandreCactus🌵3Double Fine are you fucking kidding me Absolutely fucking not
Jakejames Lugo2Not a great look at all... A big shame seeing this happen...
Scoops2MS: Hey, Ninja Theory we just greenlit your latest game! Also, fuck you, your fired.
freddywap.bsky.social2This is gonna get so messy. I get wanting to debloat. Especially after what felt like more than a decade of buyout after buyout. But man trimming the fat is gonna attract so much bad pr. Especially if they touch double fine.
Alan B2Keep pissing billions away on 'AI' that nobody asked for or wants though.
FKFTSH2Hopefully they can become independent. Reminder that Microsoft is still subject to a BDS boycott due to complicity in the genocide in Palestine.
fan_of_gaming2Why announce Senua at their Showcase if they were just going to close Ninja Theory...
arankays2we need to open source the greatest devil may cry game ever made before ninja theory closes
alvarobnu.bsky.social2@sushi.jogabilida.de @phluttilippe.bsky.social @brunofreex.bsky.social @zitosilva.bsky.social @lucaszavadil.bsky.social até estúdio com jogo anunciado já está com a faca no pescoço
theovy.bsky.social2If Double Fine is dissolved, we riot
Midnight Oil2Feels like it's going to hit like a shotgun when they also close or sell Arkane, Machine and a couple Cod support studios.
LeonIncognito2DF is definitely in trouble
Whitney S Misch II2thank god they bought up half the industry so they can now just lay them all off!
Sleepy Gamer2Been expecting stuff like this since the Activision acquisition, but the timing on this, after a pretty good showcase, is bonkers.
Ash2This generation has been so depressing
Corey “Big Slice” Strobbe2Who the hell is left after that?
Imagine owning Double Fine and even *considering* closing it. The history of Double Fine is the history of the games industry itself. This is a crime.
Dan Marshall125Double Fine are magic because you simply *cannot guess* what type of game they'll make next. They're eclectic and varied and that's a rare thing. The industry needs MORE of that kind of thing, so much more.
Tom Forsyth44The frustrating thing is that when these studios were all being acquired, WE KNEW AND SAID this day would come. This is all so tediously predictable. Guess what's going to happen in another ten years?
The only consolation is that Schaffer can probably just open a new studio on his reputation alone and hopefully just rehire everyone. I wonder how much of their IP they lose in this.
Daniel Platt7psychonauts 2 is one of three games I've bought for the xbox x, to close them instead of wanting more of it would be highly dumb
karpad5Look, are Double Fine a bunch of weirdos whose games don't turn a huge profit, if at all? yes. But like, that's what they were when you bought them. This is like buying an Iguana so you could be "that dude who owns an Iguana" and then getting upset when the iguana doesn't turn a profit?
thelxr2Well they did basically close Arkane... Nothing is sacred to them anymore.
Relevant Ferret If Known2They confirmed closing Ninja Theory despite announcing their new game a week ago, so I don't think historical precedent is gonna sway them much...
Multiple Xbox studios are in negotiations to go independent in an attempt to avoid closure, including Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory, sources say. www.videogameschronicle.com/news/xbox-st...
Manuel Romero15Oh yes, please. Don't stay! You are definitely better off following Toys for Bob. None of you benefit from this situation by staying
Forever Woke7Microsoft should've never been allowed to buy up huge chunks of the industry.
Anthony Lobato6They all need to become independent!!!
Lupin Central5I actually can't keep up with this any more. I imagine we'll get some statement / letter from their CEO tomorrow. It's mental. Best of luck to the developers.
Messy642Gosh I really cannot imagine what it must be like to work at Microsoft in the Xbox side of things. How do you acquire multiple studios and then go almost nowhere with them??? Except rewarding the devs behind Hi-Fi Rush with nearly shutting them down. Absolutely wild man.
Xbox is currently in negotiations to close both Double Fine and Ninja Theory, as well as the previously-reported Compulsion Games https://kotaku.com/psychonauts-hellblade-south-of-midnight-studios-negotiating-xbox-closure-2000706718
The Sevateem 🏳️⚧️58Instead of this, why doesn’t ceo take a 75% pay cut?
Little Miss Soylent Robot 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️35i dont think xbox should be a thing anymore tbh
Squelvin HQ26Tim Schaeffer and Ninja Theory deserve better than a company who treats them like this.
Friska Be Eatin 🏳️⚧️18However much you hate Microsoft, it isn’t enough
Flashn00b15I think all these layoffs and closures are indicative that during the time of the Activision purchase, Microsoft REALLY couldn't afford it.
Jerome Čop11"Though the studios could go independent..." I hope that's the case. Both are extremely talented studios, and I'd hate to see them close.
Cryptic_TX557If any of this happens, I propose that we stop treating Asha Sharma and Matt Booty as human beings.
Flux5Didn't ninja theory just announce a new game?
