A new report claims that Microsoft was having discussions about Obsidian Entertainment as apart of their layoffs, but changed its mind about it at the last second. According to insider Jeff Grubb, the last-minute decision was made by Xbox leadership within 24 hours.
Xbox was having last-minute discussions about Obsidian amid looming layoffs
In case you missed it, there was a bit of controversy this week when The Games Business reported that Obsidian Entertainment was one of the studios that was in negotiations with Microsoft about being closed down. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier then quickly shot down the report as being inaccurate, and confirmed that Obsidian was not in negotiations and was safe from being closed.
However, veteran games journalist Jeff Grubb has now claimed that the original report about Obsidian actually had some truth to it. In a July 2 podcast episode, the insider explained: “Inside of Xbox, this was going around about [Obsidian]. But it’s happening so fast. They are making decisions within a 24-hour period. And these are decisions that under the previous leadership would have taken weeks or months. But now [Asha Sharma] is turning things around instantaneously.”
Grubb then pointed to his accurate report about Gears of War: E-Day being pulled from PS5 platforms at the last minute. “It sounds like things just happened really fast with Obsidian. Maybe they weren’t at risk of being shut down. But I don’t know if it was clear that they were always safe. Jason Schreier just confirmed that there are currently no negotiations and they are safe now.”
Note: Grubb does say he isn’t 100% certain that Obsidian was on the verge of being shut down. Just that there were recent talks internally about the fate of the studio which they decided against within 24 hours.
Jeff Grubb Says Xbox Studios Are Still in the Dark Over Layoffs
Following the segment, Jeff Grubb then called Microsoft’s current state a “clown show” and claimed that many Xbox studios are still in the dark about the upcoming layoffs. “The studios that are going to have layoffs on Monday seem to still not have the number that they are going to be laying off. And that’s happening on Monday [July 6]. And tomorrow is a holiday.”
Grubb was particularly critical of how Microsoft was handling the Xbox layoffs by making workers stressed over the 4th of July weekend, which is a major holiday in the United States. “So now it’s going to be a long dark holiday for a lot of people. A lot of people are going to get a lot of bad news.”
Finally, Jeff Grubb said Xbox’s new “fly by the seat decision-making” is being justified by Asha Sharma’s “reset” plan. “Xbox’s got a start-up mentality, you see. Move fast, and break things. And you can justify anything by that! Which certainly feels like what is happening right now.”
So there you have it. At least according to Grubb, there were in fact talks at some point about Obsidian internally at Xbox. What those talks were actually about is anyone’s guess. But it might have explained the reporting by The Games Business, which Grubb said they “didn’t just make it up.”
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