Well If Andy Robinson from VGC is reporting on it, and Jason Schrier replies then I say there's fire with that smoke:
This is literally unbelievable. No wonder they were so quick to buy Zenimax and are practically desperate to acquire ABK. Frankly, they need these studios to even have a semblance of game content released this gen.
If this is true, Matt Booty needs to be let go and Phil Spencer should retire. Fable was one of the few games they revealed in 2020 that I thought would be coming along pretty well, all things considered, and that only the likes of Everwild (if Fable is being rebooted internally, Everwild is probably just outright dead), Avowed, Hellblade II and Perfect Dark reboot were among the few that would be out in a timely fashion or have generally good production pipeline.
Again,
IF this is true. But if so, then upper management at Xbox deserves to be put through the criticisms it'll get. You don't have these kind of rampant development issues as a platform holder and still try to act like you're successful, you just don't. People ask why some of us are so critical of MS acquiring major publishers? Well, this could be the exact answer you're looking for.
If they can't manage their own internal teams well, can't keep those projects going smoothly, then what hope is there that they will manage that with even MORE studios acquired, especially if they're all reporting under Phil Spencer (whom XGS currently reports under)? And this reality doesn't work in terms of a victim narrative to regulators to let the ABK deal go through. If you can only "compete" by buying 3P publishers to provide content the 1P studios you already own have been unable to provide due to poor management, that's going to make sensible regulators LESS likely to approve the acquisition. Why let you potentially ruin houses other than your own?
I genuinely don't want to believe this rumor but I wouldn't put it past being true, either.
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