Double Fine, Ninja Theory & Compulsion are reportedly negotiating with Microsoft to avoid closures

Multiple studios within Xbox Game Studios could be going independent.

It was reported earlier today that Compulsion Games was facing a full studio closure at the hands of its parent company, Microsoft. Now, new reports allege that multiple game studios within the company are fighting to avoid such a fate, including Double Fine Productions and Ninja Theory.

Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported this afternoon that Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory leadership are currently in discussion with Microsoft to gain their independence.

If Microsoft were to agree to spin the studios off, they could avoid a full shutdown. However, as the Bloomberg report states, layoffs would likely still take place (albeit at a smaller scale). Ninja Theory, one of the studios in question, just announced its next game at the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this month.

This all comes after CEO Asha Sharma announced a “reset” of the Xbox business, which implied some level of restructuring. It was reported this afternoon that South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games was facing a studio closure.

Xbox has yet to publicly comment on today’s reports, but you can expect to read about any future updates here on Shacknews.

Sign up for our monthly roundup of exclusive content, top stories, and updates from Shacknews - once a month, no spam.

Shacknews staff does not use generative artificial intelligence (AI) in their content. Shacknews strictly prohibits the use of its content for AI training or to generate text, including text in the style or format used for this publication. Shacknews reserves all rights to this work.