Forza Motorsport Studio Said To Be 'Bracing' For Job Cuts At Xbox

Spending 69billion is going really well for them isn’t it

Well they did say they were looking at Europe for distribution so good chance studios be affected over this way.

Unfortunately FM missed the mark this time round, but MS don’t have any other game like this so it would be a shame if it closes/job losses

You gotta love capitalism. No matter how much a company earns, it's never enough and significant cuts to the workforce are following. Plus, I honestly thought XBox would develop in a different way after the acquisition of ABK. And yeah, was a bit naive in hindsight.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner given that exclusives are a thing of the past for Microsoft, I don't know how much they bother. Especially given the success of Horizon.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Unfortunately FM missed the mark this time round, but MS don’t have any other game like this so it would be a shame if it closes/job losses

Honestly, FM hasn't really done anything "new" since FM5. FM6 just felt like an expansion to 5, and we all know how FM turned out - and that's not really a game you can stick on other platforms to make some money from due to GT already occupying that space.

It wouldn't surprise me if they trim the team and lessen the release windows for new FM games. One thing is for sure though, Playground is safe.

@Kaloudz it’s never going to do anything ‘new’ that’s track racers for you.

But there’s very few of these type of games out there so it’s certainly worth Xbox keeping it around.

The cruelty of letting these rumours gather for days really is repulsive.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Lijely just keep making Horizon as I'm it sells better.

Retire FM and let Sony have the Sim field with GranTurismo

A studio is ultimately only as good as their last game.

That would be a shame because with the last track update it really felt like they turned towards the positive. For certain I have been having an easier time finding full races even in non peak hours.

While its still not hitting GT7 levels in terms of easy access to multiplayer racing it seemed to me that it was going in the right direction.

Of course at the moment we shouldn't treat this as anything other than an unconfirmed rumour and remain hopeful for everyone involved at all these studios.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner True to a degree; but track racers can add new things that sit outside the realm of "Start to Finish" racing. Weather, track effects, vehicular effects, progression systems etc...

I think the biggest issue for track racers is the sheer cost of all of those licenses on top of dev time.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner with FM8 I always thought if they'd chucked in a few mini games, precision challenges and the like, as well as had an actual soundtrack, it'd feel like a much better "game" without compromising the sim element.

Gt3:A spec. Them were the days.

MS are going to trim every inch of fat off Xbox until it is lean lean lean and sadly that probably means boring.

Does anyone know what Compulsion are making next?

I loved South of Midnight but that seems exactly the sort of studio they'd shutter.

I mean the job security in this field of work is diabolical!!
It's a shame these big companies can just hire and fire so many people despite making so much profit!!
Giving more money to people who already have more than they could ever spend in two life times 🤦

I wouldn't be surprised.

Ninja theory might be on the chopping block. I have a feeling heckblade 2 was more expensive and didn't do as well as they hoped. I wouldn't be surprised if they scale back their next effort a bit.... if there is one.

@BacklogBrad Heckblade 2? Seriously?

@DaveTheRave the paradox is it does if you look at financials. literally the whole growth comes from P&L that used to be ABK P&L and now part of MS.
However, its never enough for these companies...they are always looking to cut teams that are not showing good/great results.

@Raccoonius
That profile pic gets me every time, it's great. The comment is perfect for it😂

@Raccoonius guarantee it was an auto correct. Hardly the worst mistake in the world

@Raccoonius. h e🏒🏒blade 2

Ms could've spent $69B by giving 69 companies a billion each for 2-5 exclusives. 138+ games for this generation and next, and this deal would've done wonders for every party involved.

@DaveTheRave for the 69 billionth time, the $69B they spent was to break into mobile. We know this from the FTC trial. Phil didn't even want ABK, it was Amy Hood as she and Satya were ready to dump Xbox.

ABK has literally almost nothing to do with Xbox. It's about Candy Crush, CoD Mobile, Diablo Immortal, Hearthstone, etc. CoD Mobile has more users than all other platforms combined, and yet gamers act as if they bought ABK for console/PC CoD.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner It could or could not be an autocorrect, but with all the words people censor for no reason at all, it's bloody stupid either way.

@CallMeDuraSouka Guess I made a good choice!

So bad staff, bad use of resources to 'save money/reuse assets' but not in a good way and yet they don't know how to make a racing game? As particular as people are about Forza Horizon, at least many from that studio know how to make one.

Turn 10 aren't even close to their best or their middle but still decent games times.

Goodbye Turn 10 you won't be missed, Xbox/Microsoft/the current staff have done it themselves, they have ruined their reputation and many people have bad leadership, seem to be very 'we connect well but can't make a decent product' so why even have useless staff then, business at Xbox related studios seems to be about pleasing people with dumb conversations, rather than making good products, that's pointless.

If Xbox can have a decent team make a better than we got racing game sure, but if they can't turn Turn 10 around what's the point. I'd like them and Forza Motorsport to continue but the current efforts are so bad I have no respect for them, they did this to themselves. They need a game like this in the space, but they treated it badly and that's just sad and disgusting.

@Kaloudz To me other then a few decent event types/modes (first for the series not competition wise of games that already did them years ago, like Sprint aka 1 Lap Magic from GT4 or any other GT series driving missions or 3rd party racing games mechanics or aesthetics over the years), it felt like it remixed ideas well enough to be appealing but otherwise yeah they haven't done anything particular well in years.

The fact Project Car Racing (or whatever it's called) with it's recent career mode trailer/showcase or Ride 4 have used region systems Forza Motorsport 1 and 2 had but expanded upon them in interesting ways and Turn 10 haven't a single decent idea says a lot of how incompetent Turn 10 are.

Or better showcased cars, tracks, sponsors, progression and more. Let alone better marketing.

Ride has always tried to be Forza Motorsport but bikes even 2 has a cutscene similar to Forza Motorsport 6, let alone menus. Milestone did way better ideas back in the OG Xbox era but still doing well to mix things up besides their budget or other IPs they balance.

Turn 10 was the best studio until Forza Motorsport 6, and Forza Motorsport 7 was a decent game.

The latest Forza didn't feel like it had any love for the game at least at the time of release.

Darn I thought this game was one that actually made money.

@SuntannedDuck2 Totally agree with the vast majority of what you said. We wont know until next week (unless insiders get to spill the gossip first) but I think one thing we can all agree on, is that there are only a couple of studios that are likely 100% safe.

I think, as I've said elsewhere, that Playground and Obsidian are safe. Playground are way too talented and are responsible for MS' most successful cross platform release - plus Fable, and Obsidian are titans at releasing games in excellent time.

I honestly think everyone else is at risk. Or at risk at being at risk, if that makes sense lol. It could just be that one studio gets shuttered (which will sadly be Compulsion) and a few other studios get some trimmings. But who knows.

As others have said the worst thing about all of this is the fact that its looming over people's head and they know without knowing. Worse when its then subject to leaks, rumours and reporting.

Its typical scummy corpo behavior to leave staff hanging until they decide to announce, when in reality the decision has probably already been made.

Forza Motorsport is my favourite circuit racer. It'll be a damn shame if there's any truth to this.