Pumping out new Fallout and Elder Scrolls games faster is reportedly the plan at Xbox, as the spectre of potential corporate rejigging looms
As reports suggesting major changes are brewing at Xbox, likely involving mass layoffs, continue to swirl, the console maker’s current boss’ plans for the future apparently involve pushing out new Fallout and Elder Scrolls games in speedier fashion. Asha Sharma’s desire to whip out new entries in flagship series reportedly comes as Microsoft are considering spinning out or restructuring Xbox as a subsidiary.
According to The Information, the prospect of turning Xbox into a separate sub-company that’d still be owned by Microsoft is being weighed alongside options like creating a joint venture with other partners. If another company was brought in alongside Microsoft, I’d assume something akin to Ubisoft’s deal with Tencent to form Vantage Studios – the subsidiary currently looking after Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six – could be on the cards. That said, a business rejigging expert I certainly am not.
Microsoft currently run LinkedIn and GitHub as wholly owned subsidiaries, so there’s precedent for them opting to oversee divisions/things they own in that fashion.
As for plans to help improve Xbox’s fortunes that don’t involve messing around with how the division works from a business standpoint, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and finance overlord Amy Hood have reportedly approved a proposal from Sharma to up spending on developing top-tier games during the fiscal year which starts in July. The report claims Sharma’s keen to get development of new games in Xbox’s biggest first-party series moving more quickly, with Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and Halo all named specifically.
It speaks to the path Xbox have been on in recent years that ‘let’s get some new entries in these series we own that are known to have massive audiences’ is a plan that can now be positioned as a change of pace. On the one hand, in the case of Fallout and The Elder Scrolls specifically, Bethesda have been off creating Starfield while Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Online merrily tick away. Starfield didn’t turn out to be the sort of stratospheric breakout that can sit alongside its incredibly successful RPG siblings right out of the gate, but that’s not something that was set in stone when the studio opted to take a swing on it.
Lengthier development cycles than games of that size had in the past – very much an industry-wide problem – have made that lack of a home run a lot more costly than it might otherwise have been. Skyrim came out less than six years after Oblivion, while it’s now been 14 and a bit years of wait and counting between Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls 6. That’s not ideal. Is now pushing The Elder Scrolls 6 out of the door in a big rush because Microsoft’s bosses are in profit panic mode ideal? I’d say probably not.
Smaller spin-offs would seem an obvious potential answer to the problem, but so far Xbox have indicated they’re more keen on going down the remaster road via the likes of last year’s recycling of Oblivion. At some point, though, delivering people more of the old stuff is likely just to make them hunger for new stuff even more deeply. If that new stuff’s noticeably rushed, the dinner guests might not even be sated by the main meal. Hence all of this ominous running around in the kitchens at Microsoft.