It’s been a rough few days forXbox, its teams, and its fans. Afterrumors surfaced late last monththat Microsoft was planning yet another round of layoffs, the news we feared came to pass this week, with the company beginningits fourth round of redundancies in just 18 months.
Not only did the restructuring cost hundreds of talented developers their jobs, but games likeEverwild and Perfect Dark were canceled, with the studio developing the latter,The Initiative, shut down. The move also proved that even legends aren’t safe, with35-year Rare veteran Gregg Mayles losing his job, andDoom Creator John Romero’s studio’s funding cut.
Naturally, with such drastic cuts and so many cancellations, rumors began to surface thatHideo Kojima’slong-in-developmentOD, which is being published byXbox Game Studios, had also faced the chop. It seems, though, that these reports were wide of the mark.
Xbox And Hideo Kojima Are Still Seemingly Working Together On OD
After it leaked in 2022 as “Overdose”,OD was officially revealed at The Game Awardsin 2023, with Kojima sharing that he and director Jordan Peele would be collaborating to develop the game using Xbox’s cloud technology. The pair plans to create a “one-of-a-kind experience.” The brief Game Awards trailer focused on three of the game’s actors, Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier; however, few other details were shared, and that has remained the case since its reveal.
Development on the gamehas been suspended since last year, alongside work on Physint, another game Kojima is producing, due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes. With Microsoft’s recent sweeping cuts, there was some concern that OD could be a casualty.
A new report fromWindows Central, however, suggests that isn’t the case. According to the site’s sources, Kojima Productions' game is still being funded by Microsoft; however, it ominously states “at least for now.” This could mean the game is on shaky ground, or that it won’t necessarily be immune from any further cuts that Microsoft makes in the future, but at least for now, work on one ofKojima’s weirdest projectsis seemingly moving ahead.
While Kojima Productions remains a separate entity from Microsoft and Xbox, not fully feeling the impact of its recent decisions, other studios have been forced to bear the brunt.Halo Studios' morale has reportedly been at an “all-time low"for a while now, and Forza Motorsport’s Turn 10 has had half of its team removed. It’s hard to see Microsoft doing anything other than playing it safe with the likes ofCall of Dutyfrom here on out.
