
As part of Wednesday's news that Xbox is once again undergoing layoffs, including the cancelation of Perfect Dark and the closure of The Initiative, Microsoft Gaming studios lead Matt Booty made an interesting comment as part of an email to staff about the cuts.
"We have made the decision to stop development of Perfect Dark and Everwild as well as wind down several unannounced projects across our portfolio. As part of this, we are closing one of our studios, The Initiative. These decisions, along with other changes across our teams, reflect a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to set up our teams for greater success within a changing industry landscape. We did not make these choices lightly, as each project and team represent years of effort, imagination, and commitment," Booty says.
"Our overall portfolio strategy is unchanged: build games that excite our players, continue to grow our biggest franchises, and create new stories, worlds, and characters. We have more than 40 projects in active development, continued momentum on titles shipping this fall, and a strong slate headed into 2026," he adds.
That's an interesting email to me for a couple of reasons. Not because of what's being said — projects exist at varying stages of development, so having 40 games doesn't immediately mean anything tangible to me — but because of what isn't being said.
Namely, Booty refrains from naming any particular game as a highlight for the company to look forward to shipping, a shift in tone compared to his prior emails when explaining away cuts to staff. In doing so, it's harder to see if there's any game (or games) that can be expected to be seen as "safe" amidst the chaotic cuts.

To that end, sources tell Windows Central that every game featured in the recent Xbox Games Showcase is unaffected, meaning games like Double Fine's Keeper and inXile Entertainment's Clockwork Revolution are continuing in development.
This seemed like a reasonable assumption, with the overwhelming majority of the first-party titles featured in the presentation slated to launch later this year, but it's still worth noting.
The aforementioned Clockwork Revolution was the lone exception, but even there, that trailer seemed far along for a game without a release window, suggesting it might not be years and years away from release.
But what about other projects that weren't featured in the June Xbox presentation?
There are numerous other games in production, with the list of already-announced games including Marvel's Blade from Arkane Lyon and State of Decay 3 from Undead Labs, as well as the experimental horror title OD from Kojima Productions and the Xbox publishing team. None of these projects were featured in the showcase, but all of them seem to still be in development right now.
Booty mentions unannounced projects being canceled, and these included a new, unannounced MMORPG from ZeniMax Online Studios.