Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan is leaving the company after about 20 months in the role, and Xbox Game Studios chief of staff Louise O’Connor is also departing. Duncan joined Xbox in 2011 and spent almost 14 years leading Rare before becoming head of Xbox Game Studios in late 2024. Duncan will leave this week, with Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty temporarily taking over until a new head of Xbox Game Studios is appointed. In a message to staff, Duncan said: “I am incredibly proud of all that we have achieved together.” “We’ve had many flawless launches, strengthened our culture, and built an amazing foundation for the future.” “Thank you for your passion, creativity, and support.”

Amazon Game Studios has shut down Project Trident and laid off the entire team in San Diego. The game started as a team adventure like Shadow of the Colossus, with giant monster fights, grappling hooks, and flying mounts. In mid-2024 Amazon told all teams to add AI tools as much as possible, so the team quickly changed it into a funny Nordic action game where players could speak or type commands to AI characters The main art, music, story, and gameplay were all made by people, while AI was only used for talking to the characters. The team made many fast changes and built a good test version, but in October 2025 Amazon still laid off the full team during big company cuts and canceled the project because the company is now making fewer large games.

Amazon Game Studios has cancelled its Lord of the Rings MMO. Announced in May 2023 in partnership with Embracer, the project was still in very early pre-production. The decision follows Amazon’s major layoffs last October, which scaled back several first-party AAA and MMO. The studio says it continues exploring a new game experience set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.

Netflix is shutting down two more of its game studios: Night School Studio, the team behind Oxenfree, and Moonloot. Night School just released Unhinged, a Netflix game, only a few weeks ago. Moonloot is being shut down before it even released a game. Netflix has already closed Team Blue in 2024 and Boss Fight Studios last year.

Microsoft's $MSFT XBOX plans to lay off hundreds of employees this week and consolidate several of its game studios, per The Information. It would be the division's second major staff reduction this year.

According to Moore’s Law Is Dead, some third-party game studios are paying Sony thousands of dollars to feature their games on PlayStation’s official social media at specific times. The report says some developers are frustrated because those paid posts are flooded with negative comments and community notes from players mad with PlayStation’s recent decisions It also says this could become a bigger problem for future marketing campaigns, with GTA 6 mentioned as one example if the backlash continues. Good job guys if this is true, complaining works

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Helldivers 2 is set to receive major “core” improvements to the Galactic War this summer, according to an update from Arrowhead Game Studios. The studio has expanded its team focused on meta-progression and the Galactic War, acknowledging that the system needs more depth for long-term player engagement. >Major Orders will evolve into multi-week themed campaigns with branching outcomes based on community performance. >The Galactic War will become more reactive, with player actions directly influencing story developments, available planets, rewards, and even some gameplay systems. >Rewards will offer greater variety and meaning, including the return of stratagem unlocks earned through gameplay rather than warbonds alone. These will feel more distinctive and tied to collective progress. Additional updates will expand player progression overall, raising the level cap beyond 150 with new red stratagems, evolving ship systems, and ship modules.