u/Blue_Sheepz

Basically, according to Stephen Totilo's sources:

- Undead Labs' new owner is not obligated to release State of Decay 3 on Game Pass at launch, even though Xbox is still funding it

- Owners for Undead Labs and Ninja Theory should be revealed later this year (Undead Labs' owner sometime in the summer)

- Third-party funding for Game Pass has NOT been cut

- Platform team has been significantly downsized to reduce "bloat"

- Asha Sharma thinks Microsoft has massively underinvested into Minecraft

Source: https://xcancel.com/eXtas1stv/status/2073473904115352052?s=20

It's eXtas1s so take this with a grain of salt. No word on console pricing.

He says that things had previously been decided for Project Helix when it comes to including a disc drive in it, but according to his and Tom Warren's sources, this is now under consideration again.

>The latest information that I have is that Helix was never planned to have a disc drive. . . Things had been decided for Helix previously. However, Tom Warren had more up-to-date information, and they're now seeing what might be possible with Helix with regards to discs.

>I went and tried to update my information and it does seem like indeed they are trying to figure out what they can do here before they can fully commit to the death of physical

"I've heard that Microsoft has lined up buyers for some of these studios already. But things are moving very fast, and things are in flux."

"I heard one rumour that one studio had gotten a buyer, and then that deal fell through because they didn't like Microsoft's terms, and then they found a new buyer."

"I've had that Microsoft management team, and their executives are flying [...] all over the world to try and save these studios."

It will be a PR disaster if they cancel State of Decay.

"So from what I've heard, the plan is if they can't find a buyer, they'll try and see those studios through to complete in what has been announced."

"The best-case scenario is some of these studios do find a buyer, but there are some of the studios that could either go there, could be independent, they could be bought out by the individuals who sold the company originally."

"We're going to see it from next week. We're going to see a combination of studios going independent, studios being sold to the publishers, and then potentially some smaller studios potentially being closed. But then I would expect also head counts across the board. I think every studio is going to have layoffs, at least some layoffs."

Not sure if this means much, but he says that people shouldn't listen to rumors.

This is according to Jez Corden.

From the article:

>In the latest episode of the Xbox Two podcast, Windows Central’s Jez Corden bluntly states that Gears of War: E-Day as a whole “didn’t cost $400 million.” He later goes on to say that The Coalition, the developer of the game, is the “technological glue for all of Xbox.” It “doesn’t just work on games,” it works on “dev tools. . . on Unreal Engine. . . on a lot of stuff beyond simply Gears of War.”

>Corden claims that some of the money spent at The Coalition is “spread across” Xbox’s entire portfolio of games, including non-Unreal Engine titles like Forza and Fable. As such, he concludes that “you can’t really say Gears: E-Day has a $400 million budget. That’s. . . not even the case.”

Saw this on Twitter, not sure if it's legit or not, but might be worth posting.

In English it says:

>At the XBOX event, they just gave me a slightly peculiar cap

>XBOX Film + TV 🎥📺

>We'll see more details tomorrow at the #XBOXShowcase

Source: https://xcancel.com/patog7/status/2063485697970045141?s=20

Source: https://xcancel.com/famitsu/status/2063516441727668551?s=20

It's launching on PS5 sometime later this year.