Xbox has reportedly not yet closed either of Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games, though the latter’s leadership has allowed its employees to look for new jobs.
Bloomberg investigative journalist Jason Schreier took to Reddit to challenge recent reports claiming that Xbox has already begun laying off staff at Ninja Theory and Compulsion Games, stating that no employees have actually been dismissed yet, despite the future of both studios remaining uncertain. The clarification came in response to a headline published by Windows Central, which stated that “Compulsion Games begins an unknown number of layoffs at the studio behind South of Midnight and We Happy Few.” According to Schreier, this inaccurate because Microsoft’s latest round of Xbox layoffs won’t begin until early July, after the start of the company’s new fiscal year.
“This headline is not true,” Schreier said. “Xbox’s layoffs are not beginning until early July. What happened at Compulsion is that studio leadership gave their employees permission to openly look for work because they almost certainly will be losing their jobs then. Nobody has been laid off yet. Might sound like a semantic difference but facts matter!”
Responding to a Reddit user who questioned whether the developer could still negotiate its survival, Schreier suggested that even a successful bid for independence would likely come at a significant cost for Compulsion Games. “I think the implication is that if the studio does negotiate independence, it will be with a skeleton staff and so most of those staff will lose their jobs regardless,” he explained.
Following recent reports that Ninja Theory had already been shut down, a user asked whether those claims were premature given that Xbox’s reported layoffs are expected to take place in early July. Schreier responded by saying, “Correct, reports saying that Xbox has already closed Ninja Theory are inaccurate.”
