Jason Schreier: Xbox Executives Were Blown Away by an Upcoming Game. Then They Canceled It

First reported by our very own S SneakersSO

When it begins to come out just how fucking incredible the title he was working on was that got axed today.

That game had some of the best reactions from folks who played it as playtest for an MP-focused title that i'd heard from in years. It takes an absolute truck load to have folks heap praise on an MP playtest in modern times. This game would've been spectacular.

Edit:

Typically, in situations where publicly-known games get cancelled, theres this sense in the fanbase of 'the thing we didn't get might've been so incredible', and finger-pointing amongst execs who just didn't get it. FOMO and all that. Well, this is one of the cancelled games that, by literally every account, sounded like it would've been a slam dunk in literally every sense. Felt like I should make an edit to clarify a little further.







Fuckin' Booty, let the man play the game.

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I am all for shitting on any big company, including Microsoft. But come the fuck on, now. If that game was really so unbelievable and the executives were really "blown away", they wouldn't have cancelled it.
 
I wonder if the answer to this is sales-cannibalization.

EA had that whole thing where DICE and Respawn competed against each other by releasing Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 at the same time back in 2016.
 
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But then they could cancel other projects instead to save this "unbelievably awesome" project.
Expected profit (or revenue, rather, as that seems to be the most important metric for MS gaming) next quarter, versus "unbelievably awesome" a lot later. If it's only the beans you're counting, that's an easy call. A bad one, for sure, but "fiscally responsible".
 
Expected profit (or revenue, rather, as that seems to be the most important metric for MS gaming) next quarter, versus "unbelievably awesome" a lot later. If it's only the beans you're counting, that's an easy call. A bad one, for sure, but "fiscally responsible".
Well, I guess that's why I don't work in a management position.
 
Ah yes. Now comes all the whole, you're lucky these games were cancelled. They were going to pwn all you chuds and raise Xbox to console dominance.
 
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I am all for shitting on any big company, including Microsoft. But come the fuck on, now. If that game was really so unbelievable and the executives were really "blown away", they wouldn't have cancelled it.

It's not what the current market wants. "I think it's great, but it won't sell".
 
Spencer and Booty have to be two of the worst executives ever, definitely at Xbox (I'd argue Mattrick was better even at getting games made)
 
I am all for shitting on any big company, including Microsoft. But come the fuck on, now. If that game was really so unbelievable and the executives were really "blown away", they wouldn't have cancelled it.
They'll cancel it if it doesn't fit into the new strategy they now have, which is the case.

MS is not planning to be some massive publisher releasing tons of games, the way they were even a couple years ago. In five years they will basically be Minecraft+Blizzard+COD, everything else will fall by the wayside.
 
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Daddy Nadela, stresmlining to PC. After a year or so I believe he is going to shutter game pass on console or raise the prices to extreme measures.

Only my opinion, though.
 
Some people are still so dumb and confused about MS.... because MS marketing is so garbage nonsense. Remember "This is an Xbox"? This is clearly MS's strategy to make Xbox a recognized multiplatform brand. Instead of simply rebranding their gaming division with another name like "MS Gaming", they went down this totally dumb route, since "Xbox" is already totally associated with their home Console, that's the shitty confusion the company makes lol. Theres no more "Xbox exclusive" STFU. The company could cancel the gamepass right now, that's the company's BIG issue.... and this is only the beginning. Games are not movies. Movies has no bugs. There's no "live service movies" lol. Some people really lack of brain. Have you noticed that MS hasn't put ANY day one AAA games on Gamepass lately? Except for the hard niche and AA/Indies? There's your answer lol. The root of all MS's problems today is GamePass, which is completely unsustainable given the company's approach. And one way out here would be to aggressively increase the price, which would scare consumers. Do you have a brain or not? At this point its over for them: to become multiplatform and make outsourced "XBOX" PCs (consoles lol) with the Asus logo.
 
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Well the game was in pre production for 7 years, and we know what Spencer and Booty's standards for great looking games includes the likes of Redfall.

But this is it. They're in a position to where they cannot justify continued investment in projects whether or not they think it's good. I don't think anyone in 2025 can bear decade long projects, but there are other unannounced ones that have probably been in less dev turmoil. Being a third party really changes the incentive structure. And being in that awkward transition contributes to environments where such organizational failures are possible. It's a really tangled situation.
 
Was this the MMO?

If so, then who gives a shit?

^ rhetorical question, don't respond to tell me you do because I don't give a FUCK
 
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Well the game was in pre production for 7 years, and we know what Spencer and Booty's standards for great looking games includes the likes of Redfall.

But this is it. They're in a position to where they cannot justify continued investment in projects whether or not they think it's good. I don't think anyone in 2025 can bear decade long projects, but there are other unannounced ones that have probably been in less dev turmoil. Being a third party really changes the incentive structure. And being in that awkward transition contributes to environments where such organizational failures are possible. It's a really tangled situation.
My issue, in this specific case, is that ZOS was already making them a steady stream of money with ESO. (I'm saying this assuming that the rumor of the developer being ZOS is true)

This is different than other developers who were given money for years and ended up becoming a money sink due to no output.

This would be like Square Enix cancelling a secondary project from the FF14 team.
 
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