Topic: project cancellations
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Halo Studios Hit by Layoffs Days After Campaign Evolved Launch
Layoffs at Halo Studios occurred just days after the release of "Halo: Campaign Evolved", with several developers, including producer Nick Treitman and Scrum Master Paul Morris, confirming their departures on LinkedIn amid Microsoft's broader reduction of 3,200 positions. The game's development w...
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Hasbro's Video Game Expansion Hits Early Obstacles
Hasbro has invested over $1 billion in internal game studios since 2022, but has struggled with execution, canceling multiple projects and conducting layoffs by 2023. A $56 million impairment charge in Hasbro's second quarter 2026 earnings report resulted from canceling several games scheduled fo...
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Xbox Studio Struggles: Report Explains Why Company is Failing
Microsoft is reportedly planning major layoffs and studio closures at Xbox, with studios like Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory at risk, as new CEO Asha Sharma deems the company's thin profit margins unsustainable. The crisis stems from Xbox's failure to recover from the Xbox One er...
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Ubisoft Testing Generative AI in Far Cry 7, Insider Says It Looks Terrible
Ubisoft is accelerating investments in generative AI for both internal development tools and player-facing features, despite early implementations reportedly falling flat. Generative AI is being tested in Far Cry 7 for research and development, but early assessments describe it as looking "like s...
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Ubisoft Appoints New Creative House General Managers
Ubisoft has appointed Julien Bares as General Manager of Creative Houses 3 and 5, which focus on live games and mobile/casual games respectively, leveraging his extensive industry experience. The company also named Thomas Andrén as General Manager of its new Creative Network, a central support ar...
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Europe's Power Grids Strained by AI Energy Demands
Europe's electricity grids are under severe strain due to a surge in AI-driven data center demand, creating a bottleneck where existing infrastructure cannot deliver sufficient power to key locations, risking system stability. The backlog is immense, with connection queues in England and Wales al...
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Ubisoft CEO Unveils 3-Year Plan to Revive Publisher With Creative House Strategy
Ubisoft is implementing a major three-year strategy, restructuring into autonomous Creative Houses to foster innovation and achieve cost savings following a challenging period. Partnerships, like the completed alliance with Tencent, are central to expanding franchise reach, while a robust pipelin...
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Splinter Cell Remake Still On Despite Ubisoft Layoffs
The Splinter Cell remake is confirmed to still be in active development at Ubisoft Toronto, despite recent layoffs at the studio. Ubisoft eliminated 40 roles at its Toronto studio as part of a broader corporate restructuring and cost-cutting initiative. While the project persists, the workforce r...
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Ubisoft Terminates Assassin's Creed Developer Over Public Criticism
Ubisoft terminated a lead developer after he publicly criticized the company's new full-time return-to-office mandate, following an initial disciplinary suspension for his LinkedIn posts. The company defended the dismissal as a response to a breach of its Code of Conduct, framing it as an enforce...
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Meta's Multi-Million Dollar Push to Make Data Centers Cool
Meta launched a $6.4 million advertising campaign in late 2025 to positively frame its data centers as drivers of local economic revival and community spirit. Growing public opposition, focused on energy and water resource strain, has led to project delays and cancellations, prompting a coordinat...
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Microsoft's Plan to Prevent Data Centers From Raising Your Bills
Microsoft is proactively requesting higher electricity rates for its data centers to prevent increased power bills for nearby residents, addressing community backlash over utility costs. The company's policy shift follows rising national energy costs and significant community resistance, which ha...
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Microsoft's Data Center Boom Won't Raise Your Power Bill
Microsoft has introduced a "community-first" strategy, pledging to cover its full share of power grid strain to prevent increased electricity costs for local residents from its data center expansion. The policy also addresses water usage and job creation, promising to minimize water consumption a...
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Microsoft Faces Backlash Over New AI Data Centers
Growing public resistance to data centers has led to project cancellations and prompted Microsoft to introduce a "Community-First AI Infrastructure" strategy to address concerns over energy, water, and local impact. A primary community concern is rising electricity costs, partly driven by data ce...
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2025 Games Industry Layoffs: A Slight Dip, But Still Devastating
The video game industry is experiencing significant layoffs, with an estimated 9,175 job losses in 2025, a decrease from 2024 but still high, and a further 7,500 cuts are anticipated for 2026. Over 70% of these layoffs are concentrated in North America, severely impacting AAA studios and causing ...
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Communities Are Beating Back Data Centers
A nationwide, bipartisan grassroots movement is uniting against massive data center expansion, primarily due to soaring electricity demands and significant environmental impacts that affect utility bills and local resources. The enormous energy and water consumption of modern data centers, especi...
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Chinese Brands Cancel Plans After iPhone Air Flop
Apple's iPhone Air and Samsung's Galaxy S25 Edge experienced disappointing sales and production cuts, indicating weak consumer demand for premium ultra-thin smartphones. Major Chinese manufacturers like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo have canceled or frozen their ultra-thin phone projects in response to ...
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iPhone Air Failure Halts Ultra-Thin Phone Trend
Apple's iPhone Air has experienced poor market performance, leading to manufacturing cutbacks and the dismantling of assembly lines by key suppliers like Foxconn and Luxshare. Major Chinese smartphone manufacturers, including Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, have cancelled or revised their ultra-thin devi...
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Destiny 3 Reportedly in "Extremely Early Development" at Bungie
Destiny 3 is reportedly in extremely early development at Bungie, according to a reliable leaker, though it remains unconfirmed and could be years away from release. The Destiny community has expressed concern over the franchise's future, with player counts at record lows and mixed reactions to t...
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Yoko Taro Reveals His Games Keep Getting Canceled
Yoko Taro's recent projects include the mobile game 404 Game Re:set and the Voice of Cards trilogy, but fans are awaiting a new non-gacha Nier title. Taro revealed at G-CON 2025 that multiple projects he worked on were canceled during development, explaining his apparent absence from releases. He...
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Microsoft's Xbox Price Hikes, Studio Closures Driven by Profit Goals
Microsoft's Xbox division is implementing price increases, studio shutdowns, and layoffs to meet a new corporate mandate for a 30% profit margin, set by CFO Amy Hood in late 2023. This target is significantly higher than the industry's typical 17-22% margin and more than double Xbox's 12% margin ...
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