“Largest Lay-Off Event In Gaming”: Duke Nukem Creator Shares Shocking Insight Into Xbox’s Demise
All is not quite right at Xbox. Despite her tenure as CEO starting off with a bang, Asha Sharma is now overseeing a brutal transformation at the company. She admitted that it "isn't healthy" earlier this month, and we're now starting to feel the impact of that.
While nothing has been confirmed yet, Duke Nukem's creator has issued a stark warning about the scale of things to come, calling it the "largest single layoff event in gaming history."
Xbox Is About To Become "Supremely Unpopular" With Its Upcoming Layoffs
For weeks, rumors have been circulating about mass layoffs and studio closures at Xbox. A variety of developers are reportedly about to be hit on different levels. Departures have already begun at South of Midnight creator Compulsion Games, and with each passing day, new studios are mentioned.
Bethesda, ID Software, and BioWare are expected to be caught in the "Massive Bloodbath," and Ninja Theory and Double Fine are two other names that have surfaced regularly. Arkane is another one often seen online, but Bethesda boss Todd Howard did provide a bit of hope for those.
One insider recently called the layoffs "The Big One", and now, another games industry veteran has suggested it could be the biggest round of layoffs video games has ever seen.
"jfc, I just got word of a list of Xbox studio closures (no, not posting them). If it's even close to true (and it's from inside), this will likely be the largest single layoff event in gaming history," said Duke Nukem creator George Broussard on Twitter.
This will likely be the largest single layoff event in gaming history,
"Xbox is going to be supremely unpopular for a very long time and the devastation is going to reverberate like the meteor that took out the dinosaurs," he continued. "On top of all that there will also be layoffs at the studios that remain."
Subscribe for deeper Xbox layoffs analysis
Gain fuller context on Xbox's restructuring and what it means for studios by subscribing to our newsletter. Get expert analysis, industry perspective, and continued coverage to better understand the fallout and the broader implications for gaming. Get Updates By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.In a further response, Broussard suggested that Rare is safe because Sea of Thieves "does quite well".
The impending closures and layoffs are only one indicator of Xbox's struggles. Last week, the company raised prices of its Xbox Series models by up to $150, and yesterday, there were reports that it was backing out of third-party Xbox Game Pass deals.
Like Follow FollowedXbox Series X
Brand Microsoft Original Release Date November 10, 2020 Original MSRP (USD) $499 Operating System Proprietary (Windows-based) Processor Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz Resolution 720p - 4K UHD See at Official Site See at Walmart See at Best Buy $487 at Amazon Expand Collapse









