Gaming - Page 131

New details on ZeniMax Online's cancelled MMO have surfaced, revealing what could have been Microsoft's own unique answer to Destiny.

Budget cuts, game cancellations, studio closures, and layoffs hit Xbox as Microsoft cuts over 9,000 jobs across the corporation. One of the cancelled games was a promising new MMO project at ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS) set in a fresh IP, and sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that this particular game was the apple of Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer's eye during a playtest session.

New reports say that ZeniMax Online's new game, codenamed 'Blackbird,' was a third-person shooter with MMO elements similar to Bungie's Destiny. The game was the beginning of what was hoped to turn into a franchise, set in a new universe with a cyberpunk-ish design described as a sci-fi style with classic noir overtones.

Reports indicate that ZeniMax Online's cancelled MMORPG codenamed 'Blackbird' was a well-liked superstar among testers and even management.

Yesterday, Microsoft laid off a multitude of workers across all branches of the company, including the Xbox division. Microsoft shuttered The Initiative game studio, cancelled projects, and laid off employees that were part of various teams working on billion-dollar franchises like Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Halo, and Forza.

One of the cancelled games was ZeniMax's new unannounced MMORPG project codenamed 'Blackbird,' which had started development in 2018. Based on recent reports, this cut may have come as a surprise because the game was highly favored by everyone who saw it and/or played it. ZeniMax studio director, Matt Firor, announced he was leaving the company shortly after Microsoft announced its layoffs and cancellations.

Battlefield 6 looks to be in development trouble with a new report suggesting the game has a budget "well north" of $400 million, and super-ambitious targets of over 100 million players.

In a lengthy article posted by Ars Technica, we've got more details about EA's next-gen Battlefield than ever before, which you can read here. The new Battlefield is codenamed Glacier, and seems to be having issues stemming from the top-down vision from leadership, which hardly ever works out.

EA's executive leadership has some lofty goals of wanting to see over 100 million players in the new Battlefield, but the franchise has never even gotten anywhere close to those numbers. One EA employee told Ars: "Obviously, Battlefield has never achieved those numbers before. It's important to understand that over about that same period, 2042 has only gotten 22 million". Even the most successful game in the franchise, Battlefield 1 from 2016, only achieved "maybe 30 million plus".

It was only late last month that playtesters of the new Battlefield game said that a Battle Royale mode was added to the game. Now, the opening for the battle royale mode has leaked online.

Playtesters informed Insider Gaming that the new Battlefield game officially moved from Battlefield Labs and "Pre-Alpha" to just "Alpha," signifying the game is moving along in its development process. The labeling change of the new game came with the inclusion of a Battle Royale mode, which wasn't playable at the time. However, screenshots of the mode were sent to the publication, which reported that the mode consisted of two teams of four in a skirmish in what looked like an abandoned factory.

Other screenshots showed soldiers looting weapons from a hole in the wall, and a team of four players landing with different colored parachutes near high-rise buildings. It was previously reported that Ripple Effect was developing the new BR mode, which is set to be free-to-play.

Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox Series consoles on a very particular day, further underlining the rivals-and-partners duality of Sony and Microsoft.

Helldivers 2 is the most successful PlayStation live game to date, but it's also coming to Xbox, signalling what could be a slight shift in PlayStation's business model. Helldivers 2 sold over 12 million copies in a matter of months across both PS5 and PC, easily becoming Sony's fastest-selling video game of all time. Now Sony and Helldivers developer Arrowhead are expanding that sales potential to Xbox.

Interestingly enough, Helldivers 2 comes to Xbox on the same day that Gears of War Reloaded will drop on PlayStation--August 26, 2025. This dynamic "trading" of IP releases highlights just how tightly-knit the Big 3 actually are--Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are the Big 3, and they often broker mutualistic software deals, especially in more recent years.

Following the mass Xbox layoffs currently underway at many studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner, rumors began circulating that longtime head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, was stepping down from his role as CEO of Xbox.

The rumors can be traced back to TheGhostofHope, who wrote that Spencer was set to retire from his role as Microsoft Gaming CEO after the launch of the next-generation Xbox console. TheGhostofHope claimed this was an exclusive piece of news, and that Spencer was currently working with Sarah Bond and her team to ensure a smooth transition for her to take over as CEO of Microsoft Gaming once Spencer has officially retired.

The GhostofHope also wrote that it was currently unclear who would take over as President of Xbox when Bond became CEO. However, those rumors have now been put to bed as Kari Perez, head of Xbox communications, provided a statement to The Verge, saying, "Phil is not retiring anytime soon." Microsoft didn't directly comment on the rumors, but Frank Shaw, Microsoft's communications chief, took to X to claim that the rumors were simply made up.

The Stop Killing Games initiative, sparked by Ubisoft's announcement to shut down the servers powering the game The Crew, is 99% of the way to its goal of reaching 1 million signatures.

Ubisoft sparked the Stop Killing Games initiative after it announced it was shutting down the servers to The Crew, rendering the game impossible to play, as The Crew is an online-only game. The initiative is an international consumer rights campaign that calls upon lawmakers in numerous countries to prevent publishers from making it impossible to access online-only games after they have been sold to consumers.

The initiative has so far received 999,000 signatures, meaning it's nearing its goal of 1 million. But that might not be enough to see any meaningful change, as a portion of those signatures will be deemed invalid by the European Commission after they are vetted. Stop Killing Games is aware of this and even wrote, "at least 1.2 - 1.3 million, and ever more buffer to account for invalid signatures!" The initiative has until July 31 to reach its goal.

The shaky-at-best release of MindsEye has caused the studio behind the title, Build a Rocket Boy, to be hit with seemingly sweeping layoffs as numerous employees at the studio are now listing employment availability on LinkedIn.

MindsEye joined the growing number of AAA titles released to extremely poor reception, with many players of the game describing the title as an unfinished mess. These sentiments were even partially echoed by the game's lead actor, Alex Hernandez, who said during a recent interview that he understands gamers' perspective about being upset with the game having unfinished animations.

MindsEye's tragic reception is now being felt by the studio behind the title, Build a Rocket Boy, with countless team members recently taking to social media to say they are facing redundancy as numerous roles at the company are now facing imminent layoffs. It wasn't just players who found MindsEye to be bad, as PlayStation even refunded unhappy buyers of the title through the platform's refund policy.

The director of Marvel Rivals has commented on whether a port of the game for the Nintendo Switch 2 is currently in development.

In a recent interview with Video Gamer, Guangyun Chen, the Marvel Rivals game director, touched on bringing the popular team-based shooter over to Nintendo's new console, with the game director saying that NetEase is still trying to obtain a Nintendo Switch 2 developer kit. This means a port hasn't even begun yet, with Chen explaining that once a Switch 2 developer kit has been obtained, they can evaluate whether Marvel Rivals can run on the Nintendo Switch 2 and then provide a response to fans.

Reports state that Marvel Rivals was tested for the Nintendo Switch, but due to the hardware limitations of the console, the developers of Marvel Rivals decided against releasing a port on the Switch 1, as the in-game performance didn't meet the team's standards.

The entire studio at Romero Games is being laid off as Bethesda cuts funding for the team's new FPS.

Yesterday, Microsoft started the process of laying off 9,000 employees across the entire company. Gaming was affected by the layoffs, with around 50% of Forza developer Turn10's studio let go, and whole studios like The Initiative were shut down. New first-party games were cancelled, including Perfect Dark, Rare's new IP Everwild, and ZeniMax Online's new MMORPG codenamed Blackbird.

Third-party partner deals were also affected. Some, like Romero Games' unannounced FPS, were effectively cancelled. Brenda Romero, the wife of legendary FPS maven John Romero and head of Romero Games, shared the news on Twitter this morning that the first-person shooter project was effectively shut down.

Call of Duty: WW2 was added to Xbox Game Pass on June 30, and since then, the player count of the game has increased significantly, but so have the reports of hackers.

Warnings have been issued by multiple players saying that Call of Duty: WW2 is simply not safe to play on PC, as the frequency of hackers has skyrocketed since the game was added to Game Pass. Players have posted clips of seemingly hackers hijacking PCs mid-game, opening up Notepad with a message, and even opening up pornographic videos on a victim's second monitor.

Reports indicate that hackers are taking advantage of Remote Command Execution (RCE) exploits, which enables a bad actor to take control of another player's game, or even their entire PC.

AMD introduced AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 4, or FSR 4, with its latest generation of Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs. Currently exclusive to the company's new RDNA 4 architecture on PC, it leverages new powerful AI hardware integrated into the latest Radeon graphics cards to deliver AI-powered Super Resolution that is exponentially more impressive than previous non-AI versions of FSR.

As we highlighted in our review of AMD's new flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT desktop graphics card, FSR 4 image quality brings the technology so close to NVIDIA's DLSS that it's now a feature you should always enable when gaming in 1440p or 4K to receive a free performance boost.

As part of a new interview with Tom's Guide, PlayStation architect Mark Cerny has confirmed that FSR 4 will arrive on the PlayStation 5 Pro sometime in 2026. AMD co-developed FSR 4 with Sony, and although the PS5 Pro's custom NPU or AI hardware isn't quite at the level of what you'd find in an RDNA 4 GPU, the version of FSR 4 headed to consoles will not be a cut-down version of the algorithm.

Sony has a long-standing partnership with AMD, which supplies and develops custom CPU and GPU hardware for PlayStation consoles. Late last year, Sony announced 'Project Amethyst,' a closer partnership that would jointly develop next-gen hardware and AI architecture for the PlayStation 6.

This partnership builds on Sony's custom work, which includes new AI hardware and tools, such as PSSR upscaling, that it developed for the PlayStation 5 Pro. Although the new initiative was only announced last year, we already know that AMD's new AI-powered FSR 4 for its RDNA 4 generation of Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics was developed as part of 'Project Amethyst.'

That's only the beginning, as we've now learned that Sony is driving significant components of AMD's next-generation Radeon architecture development. In a new interview with PlayStation system architect Mark Cerny over at Tom's Guide, he confirms that "big chunks" of AMD's next-gen gaming architecture are "coming out of engineering I am doing on the project."

ZeniMax Online Studios founder Matt Firor is leaving the company amid the recent layoffs at Xbox.

Today, Microsoft conducted layoffs across various divisions including Xbox gaming. Multiple studios were affected by the layoffs, with some like The Initiative being shut down, as well as game cancellations. One game that had been reportedly cancelled was a new MMORPG in the works at ZeniMax Online Studios, the team behind The Elder Scrolls Online.

Following the cancellation of Blackbird, ZeniMax's MMORPG set in a new IP, studio head Matt Firor announced he would be stepping down from a leadership position and leaving the team that he founded nearly two decades ago.

Layoffs at Microsoft's Xbox games division have affected multiple projects and led to studio shutdowns, including its California-based group The Initiative.

Xbox management has confirmed that it will close video game studio The Initiative, and shut down production on the Perfect Dark reboot project. Xbox had shown a gameplay reveal of Perfect Dark last year at its annual games showcase. Everwild, the new IP from Rare, was also confirmed as cancelled. The announcement was made in an internal memo from Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty.

"We have made the decision to stop development of Perfect Dark and Everwild as well as wind down several unannounced projects across our portfolio. As part of this, we are closing one of our studios, The Initiative."

Former vice president of editorial and creative services, Thomas François, was found guilty of moral and sexual harassment, along with attempted sexual assault.

François was fined €30,000, and sentenced to a three-year suspended prison sentence. Former chief creative officer at Ubisoft, Serge Hascoët, was also accused of making lewd and racist comments to a Muslim Ubisoft employee. Hascoët was also accused of harassment by this employee, as it's claimed he replaced her desktop background with images of food while she was fasting for Ramadan. Hascoët was fined €45,000 and was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence.

The third Ubisoft executive is Guillaume Patrux, who was accused of psychological harassment. Patrux was fined €10,000 and given a 12-month suspended prison sentence. This harassment trial initially began in March but was delayed until June, and came after the "A Better Ubisoft" fiasco that occurred in 2021. For those who don't know, "A Better Ubisoft" was an open letter from employees that called out the toxic culture that was taking place at the company, particularly by the higher ups, such as the three former Ubisoft executives mentioned above.

As expected, Microsoft has begun its third round of layoffs targeting studios under its Xbox Game Studios umbrella, and according to reports, the process is messy, with employees discovering they have been let go from their studio by no longer being able to get into their Slack account.

Previous reports indicated Microsoft was preparing for a third round of layoffs within its Xbox games division, and that this round would be quite significant in terms of how many people would be let go from development studios. Those layoffs have now begun, as accurately predicted by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who said a few days earlier that Microsoft would begin the layoff process on Wednesday.

Reports now indicate several Xbox studios are being targeted, and as many as 9,000 people could be affected by these layoffs. More specifically, King, a key aspect of Microsoft's $70 billion Activision-Blizzard acquisition, has had 10% of its staff cut, with Bloomberg's Jason Schreier recently reporting that at least two games have been cancelled: Rare's Everwild, announced in 2019, and ZeniMax Online's unannounced new MMORPG that was codenamed Blackbird and began development seven years ago.

Multiple video game projects have been cancelled at Microsoft as the company sheds hundreds of workers from its interactive entertainment division.

Today, Microsoft is holding mass layoffs with over 9,000 people believed to be affected. Xbox gaming is being hit with job eliminations and full-scale projects are being cancelled as part of the big cost cuts. Microsoft appears to be clearing its slate of portfolio risk in an effort to control spending, especially at a time when game budgets are spiraling out of control.

Sources have told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that at least two games have been cancelled: Rare's Everwild, which was set in a new colorful IP and announced in 2019, and ZeniMax Online's unannounced new MMORPG, which was codenamed Blackbird and started development some 7 years ago. We had originally reported on Blackbird in 2018, just a few years after The Elder Scrolls Online had launched.

Certain aspects of the Xbox business will cease, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says, but specifics remain unclear.

Today, Microsoft conducted layoffs that could affect 9,000 people, including workers at Xbox. However, as Windows Central reports, gaming wasn't hit the hardest by the layoffs this time.

As is usually the case, Xbox management issued a segment-wide memo telling employees what was happening. In the memo, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said something interesting: "To position Gaming for enduring success and allow us to focus on strategic growth areas, we will end or decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow Microsoft's lead in removing layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness."

Read what Xbox CEO Phil Spencer said to employees this morning as Microsoft cut thousands of jobs.

Today, Microsoft started a layoff spree that could affect as many as 9,000 people, including its billion-dollar games division. The memo that Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer sent out to employees has now been published by IGN, revealing how management handled the delicate situation.

In the memo, Spencer outlines the harsh realities of the interactive entertainment business, especially for gaming in particular: "The success we're seeing currently is based on tough decisions we've made previously," he said, possibly underlining Microsoft's current goals of hybridizing the Xbox platform.