Microsoft is shutting down its Vancouver studio.
If you read Kotaku even semi-regularly, you already know that Xbox has been in a weird spot for some time now. And with today’s news that both Xbox boss Phil Spencer and President Sarah Bond are leaving and the new head of the brand will be a former Meta exec who previously lead Microsoft’s AI division, I think it’s time to call it. Xbox is dead. Time of death: February 20, 2026
This brand died in the last 2 years of 360 since Kinect announcement.. downfall started all of a sudden until reaching the point of no return with xbox 1 DRM disasters
So ready to defend that you posted it twice.
In any event, I have a more accurate quote: "It's dead, Jim".
Also Mark Twain:
I have never wished death on anyone but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.
God! Xbox dead again! Boring! Boring. Heard it all before.
While I normally agree... The future of xbox is on shaky ground. Well, xbox as we know it. Im not sure what they are shooting for but who they put in charge mixed with Phil retiring and bond just flat out leaving. It's not looking good.
Im with you but in western countries I have noticed a trend to put women in control to prevent any kind of critics.
Copilot is running the xbox division now, its first official act was fire Spencer and Bond then sell Xbox for scraps.
Oh come on, Xbox has been dead for at least 10 years now. I think what’s more important right now is Playstation’s death that is very slowly but surely happening through mismanagement and greed.
Some what agree. Sony is in a better position to unf#$k themselves. Xbox isn't.
He's being clowned on by the entire internet but i have been clowning on him way before he became CEO. I hate modern PS so much man. To this day i have no idea how Astro Bot happend in this terrible PS era but that was clearly a miracle.
Every. Time! They compare the closing of a studio (one I liked, mind you, but they know their business better than internet dwellers) to the departure of not one but TWO major figureheads at Xbox. On top of Xbox's other problems, they are also now selling their games everywhere (not just PC).
Sorry diehard Xbox fanatics, we've been down this road before. PlayStation has closed studios. It happens. Maybe they weren't pulling their weight. Maybe they have a restructure in place. What ever the case, it won't come any close to tanking their brand. Xbox isn't in that boat. As a piece of hardware, it is all but irrelevant (hanging on only because of Game Pass at this point). It serves no other purpose because you don't even need that console to play its games. If it was just Xbox/PC, that would be different, but here we are.
So, this isn't the SonyToo that y'all love to hang on. Things are not good for Xbox hardware. At all. It is about time to start accepting that.
Respectfully, This is probably one of my least favorite tactics in making an argument.
I'll give you an example: If I like the color red, it doesn't mean I hate the color blue.
People lamenting the (potential) demise of the xbox brand has nothing to do with sony or playstation. It has everything to do with xbox. Now, for the sake of argument, you could say that Sony and Microsoft are two peas in a pod, and that they've both made absolutely baffling and worryingly stupid decisions in the recent past. But I truly believe that Xbox would be shooting itself in the foot regardless of Sony's presence (I look at you, Xbox One reveal with always online DRM and the inability to share games).
Sony, on the other hand, is making stupid decisions to stay competitive with the market, and like Microsoft, is seemingly forcing by proverbial gunpoint talented developers to try to make the next GAAS experience and never learning their lesson. I believe that Microsoft squandering RARE is the equivalent of Sony squandering Naughty Dog. Neither platform really knows what they want to be, BUT Sony is alot further along in figuring it out before Microsoft pulls out another revolver and takes aim at another of it's own toes.
Xbox died after the Xbox 360. The Xbox One was mediocre, the Series X was game shy. I'm glad Phil is retiring.
Exaggerated projection of xbox problems onto Sony. This is what gave xbox the extra slack all these generations to eventually run themselves into the ground.
This is why the views and comments are low, with lame articles that use divide-and-conquer pretensions.
To be fair "divide and conquer pretensions" have been present in the comment section of this website for years regardless of the articles title, composition or intent. It's therefore unlikely that's what's playing a part in low viewership and commenting.
Microsoft claimed the indie game uses "Minecraft content."
During the conference call for Q2 of FY2026, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and CFO Amy Hood talked about the future of the xbox business.
«partly offset by growth in Xbox Game Pass.»
I take it with a big grain of salt. They've been reporting nothing about GP, only words.
We still don't have any hardware numbers, no software units sold, no subscription numbers, no PC vs console GP, we don't have any profit numbers ... we literally have nothing but overall revenue and words.
Does it really matter? Are you shareholder? Gamers have to stop acting like these companies owe us something. Its obvious everything is down. Thats completely normal in all businesses. It will be up and down again.
Yes, since they don't get tired spewing out word salad 12 months a year.
"Biggest launch", "millions of players", "growth of", "here look our revenue", "We buy ABK", "We'll bring you 1st party every quarter", "Biggest this, biggest that", "We always wanted to share games with everyone", "We're growing", "biggest launch", "millions of players", ... you get the point.
They either shut up.
Or deliver numbers like Nintendo, Playstation, hell even Tencent does.
On a sidenote:
Just years ago, Microsoft wanted to buy out a whole lot more than just Zenimax and ABK. They even wanted to push Sony out and collect Nintendo in.
You bet your butt I'm demanding numbers.
In an article discussing industry matters, telling people to not worry or want better information on the industry is antithesis to the whole point of it. I'm going to try this out with all those review articles. I mean, who cares about scores, just try it out for yourself, that's the only opinion that matters.
«In an article discussing industry matters, telling people to not worry or want better information on the industry is antithesis to the whole point of it.»
Well.
That's it.
Case closed!
He might be a shareholder you can get a etorro or whatever online platform about and throw 20 bucks into Microsoft boom shareholder
Yes, it matters. This is business! Some gamers have to stop acting like it only matters when the company they prefer wants to play ball.
The fact that shareholders are also in the dark im sure is also completely fine with you and Microsoft doesn't owe them anything either amirite? Not withstanding how silly and potentially inappropriate it is for someone to defend a public company from hiding sales information, you are also completely wrong.
@varora
Thank you.
For over 10 years we've been in those quarterly discussions.
Yet Nintendo and Playstation are the only manufacturers that deliver numbers, that deliver proof, that give us numerical baselines to either brag about or compliment them.
The only fraction that's been pulling doooozens of doooozens, hundreds and thousands of word salad bribberish comments out of their Xbox'clestotitis fan cloud is the die hard Xbox community.
And by doing that they're even defending that downward spiral Xbox is suffering from.
Bring the numbers buddies, or else just stfu.
Nintendo and Playstation can deliver all the numbers they want. It doesnt matter much because hardware isn't the only way to make money in the industry. Maybe decades ago but not now. That's why you see sony putting more and more games on PC. They know its the games that keeps the money coming. Consoles stagnate but not the software.
The fact is that Microsoft was and is never gonna outsell them. The competition's console sales doesnt really affect Microsoft"s profit margin much if at all.. Look at how many more consoles sony sells and then go look at what they report in profit. The gap is nowhere near the gap in console sold. Hardware doesn't dictate market trends.
Microsoft doesn't report xbox profit, so how can we compare them.......
Console sales lead to those software sales, thats not a theory its a fact, old days, these days... doesn't matter, one company is doing much better than the other, and thats partly because of said console sales...
I really think Call of Duty underperforming, the raise in subscription prices and Hoods ridiculous expectations of 30% return. Is what led to the lower numbers.
Could you show us the profit charts while you're at it? Would love to see this 'gap' you mentioned. Should be easy to show that right?
This whole report is confusing to me until I remember content and service are separate. Content went down... okay we get that because COD 'bombed' but Services went up because of the price increase which mitigated most of the lost from the cancelations. Okay got it.
I wouldn't blame the results on Amy but she sure as hell had unreasonable expectations.
GamePass has put Xbox in a bad position where the absolutely need PlayStation to make their numbers. So if a big game like COD bombs... they got a problem.
The fact that their service revenue (GamePass) can't drive growth on its own is a huge red flag. That was supposed to be the whole point.
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They were trying to develop a core game on Kinect? No wonder why they were closed down
Uh, is there something going on over at Vancouver? Closing studios & massive lay-offs...
Funny, we haven't had any games produced from that studio. Why they shut it down so fast?
for those who inevitably wont read the article, Microsoft did NOT shut down the studio. they just cancelled Microsoft Flight and an unnamed project.
Microsoft has informed us that they have not shut down the studio but it has ended development on Microsoft Flight and something called Project Columbia.