In an announcement from Xbox, we learned that 9,000 roles within Microsoft’s Xbox teams will be eliminated. This is a growing pattern for the company’s gaming wing, following massive acquisitions, a number of cancelled projects, and a variety of attempts to redirect efforts to stay competitive in the market. Alongside Rare’s Everwild project, the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot was also announced to be cancelled, along with the closure of the studio behind its development. Here’s the latest on the most recent round of layoffs at Xbox.

Windows Central is confirming that, as part of the latest round of layoffs at Microsoft’s Xbox division, The Initiative, the studio behind the Perfect Dark reboot, will close. This comes as 4% of the workforce at Xbox was notified that their positions are being eliminated today, per Bloomberg. Rare’s Everwild was also canceled due to changes in workforce personnel, marking yet another round of sizable layoffs for Xbox since the acquisitions of Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and ZeniMax.

Perfect Dark was in production for seven years. It was first revealed as the debut project from The Initiative, an Xbox Game Studios team led by former Tomb Raider reboot studio Crystal Dynamics CEO Darrell Gallagher. In total, 9,000 Xbox employees across its various gaming studios and teams are to be led through severance processes starting today. This comes at a time when a steady stream of games is finally giving Xbox a chance to regain ground in the gaming marketplace beyond Game Pass and publishing success, thanks to PC and PS5 ports.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to envision a time when we won’t see studios promise a new project led by a significant investment in staff and resources, only to have it canceled when it inevitably fails to meet shareholder expectations. With several Xbox Games Showcase 2025 projects seemingly unaffected by the layoffs, according to Windows Central sources, I can’t imagine anyone is confident that their role is 100% secure.

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