Heavy gaming news this July so far, starting with the once-former first party game company Xbox. 

The Big Picture

“I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people.” – Satoru Iwata, former Nintendo president.

This is true in any industry. Motivation and morale will go down if you feel your job is threatened constantly. That is most likely evident in Microsoft Gaming and people behind the Xbox brand, with studios like Rare and The Initiative toiling away at possible projects from the heart like Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot. 

A company as experienced as Microsoft and its gaming division should know better than to rely on their current hiring practices (using contractors as examples) that could affect the brand as a whole in the long run. In the meantime, the executives who failed these laid-off developers are still around and not held accountable, nor are they even making cuts to their own salaries or other penalties to ensure the health of their studios. 

That’s probably what would happen if you paid too damn much for a bunch of game studios like Activision Blizzard. Games are fun, but this week and the past few puts a sour note on the beloved hobby, especially since we can see how the proverbial sausage gets made through insider information and whistleblowers with well-meaning intentions. 

In any case, our hearts go out to everyone affected by the Microsoft and Microsoft Gaming layoffs.

Short Beats

Microsoft will be laying off thousands of its staff, including those at Microsoft Gaming. As a result, Rare game Everwild is cancelled.

After 7 years of development, the Perfect Dark reboot is cancelled following the aforementioned layoffs. Its studio The Initiative is also shut down. 

Hollywood actor Michael Madsen has passed away at the age of 67. He has starred in various big game roles such as Grand Theft Auto III, the first Yakuza/Like A Dragon entry, and the first Dishonored. 

A new My Hero Academia fighting game has been announced; no release date has been mentioned but it is coming out for PC, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5. 

Sega will be opening its flagship merchandise store in Tokyo, Japan. 

The Upin & Ipin Universe game will be out on 17 July for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. Malaysian studio Streamline Studios is making the game; the developer is previously renowned for past alleged unfair labour practices. 

Neil Druckmann will be stepping down from The Last of Us HBO TV adaptation so that they can focus on Naughty Dog and its upcoming game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophecy. 

Games Out This Week

Mecha Break is out now in 1.0 form and is free-to-play on PC. It is a multiplayer third-person shooter offering players three game modes filled with high-octane ground and aerial combat. Pilot your Striker into the breach and take on enemies across worldwide hotspots. 

Irem Collection Volume 3 is a retro game collection of past arcade titles from Irem. These include Mr. Heli, Mystic Riders, and Dragon Breed. 

Game releases are sparse this week, so we’ll be bringing up two free-to-play games that have been talked about a lot on social media from last week onward: 

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is now out in English and for global release for iOS and Android devices. It’s a racing sim game where you take care of horse girls as they race to the top. The horse girls are tailored and named after real-life race horses in Japan, hence its huge fanbase.   

Persona 5: The Phantom X is the mobile sequel to Persona 5, a Japanese role-playing game set in modern Tokyo where you play as Phantom Thieves, curing corruption with turn-based battles and style. The game is available for iOS and Android. 

Recommended Viewing

Here’s a level-headed take on the recent Microsoft Gaming layoffs, courtesy of MrMattyPlays and LordCognito.

The recent #StopKillingGames petition is going strong, at least for the UK and EU side of things. Here’s a recent update: