In a document about its financials for the previous year, Arkane Studios in its revenue section that “game development activities exclusively for ZeniMax/Microsoft group are ongoing,” according to a translation of the text via Google. “The production phase of the AAA project was launched at the end of 2024, following prototype validation.”

While the project hasn’t been outright named in the document, the timing, as well as the fact that Arkane Studios has been working on Marvel’s Blade for some time now with no other announced game, would indicate that development has been slow. The fact that the game had just entered its main production phase at the end of 2024 would also indicate that the game might still be on track for the rumoured 2027 launch window.

It is also likely that the internal expectations of the launch window for Marvel’s Blade might have changed, however, since the rumoured 2027 projected launch came from all the way back in 2023. “Right now, internally, they are expecting that to be sold on store shelves and digitally in 2027,” said GiantBomb’s Jeff Grub at the time. “That is the year that they are aiming for that game.”

The timeline for the game’s development also likely saw quite a few changes when one of the studios under the Arkane banner – Arkane Austin – was shuttered early last year. After it had happened, Marvel’s Blade and Deathloop director Dinga Bikaba had spoken out about Microsoft’s decision to close the studio along with others like Tango Gameworks.

“This is absolutely terrible,” said Bikaba at the time. “Permission to be human: to any executive reading this, a friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry, and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them create value for you.”

“Don’t throw us into gold fever gambits, don’t use us as strawmen for miscalculations/blind spots, don’t make our work environments Darwinist jungles. You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we saw it before. For now, great teams are sunsetting before our eyes again, and it’s a f*****g gut stab.”

Marvel’s Blade was officially announced back in December 2023 with a trailer. The game is slated to be a a single-player action-adventure title with mature themes and, considering the superhero it involves, likely quite a bit of violence. In a departure for Arkane Studios, the game will also make use of a third-person camera angle, compared to the first-person titles usually worked on by the studio.

The team behind Marvel’s Blade – Arkane Lyon – has previously worked on titles like Deathloop and Dishonored 2.

Rumours of a new DOOM game have been doing the rounds for a while now, and speculation suggests that we might be getting an announcement of a new game in Xbox’s June showcase event. Furthermore, a project named “DOOM: Year Zero” has been in the works for some time now as per Microsoft’s FTC court case documents.

Talking about Microsoft and Xbox, the gaming conglomerate has recently announced that it would be shuttering down Arkane Austin, who developed Redfall (which has now been abandoned), and Tango Gameworks of Hi-Fi Rush fame – read more on that through here.

In an internal memo sent out to employees, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said the layoffs come as a result of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard looking to “align on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure”, as a result of which jobs will be made redundant across Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax.

“It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft,” Spencer’s memo reads. “As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizzard is committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with a sustainable cost structure that will support the whole of our growing business. Together, we’ve set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we’re all aligned on the best opportunities for growth.

“As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1,900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. The Gaming Leadership Team and I are committed to navigating this process as thoughtfully as possible. The people who are directly impacted by these reductions have all played an important part in the success of Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax and the Xbox teams, and they should be proud of everything they’ve accomplished here. We are grateful for all of the creativity, passion and dedication they have brought to our games, our players and our colleagues. We will provide our full support to those who are impacted during the transition, including severance benefits informed by local employment laws. Those whose roles will be impacted will be notified, and we ask that you please treat your departing colleagues with the respect and compassion that is consistent with our values.

“Looking ahead, we’ll continue to invest in areas that will grow our business and support our strategy of bringing more games to more players around the world. Although this is a difficult moment for our team, I’m as confident as ever in your ability to create and nurture the games, stories and worlds that bring players together.”

Microsoft joins a long list of companies that have hit their staff with layoffs right at the outset of 2024, including Unity, Riot Games, Thunderful Group, Lost Boys Interactive, CI Games, Black Forest Games, Behaviour Interactive, and People Can Fly, among others.

Incredibly enough, this isn’t Microsoft’s most brutal round of layoffs in recent memory. Almost exactly a year ago, the company laid off over 10,000 employees across all of its divisions, with its gaming arm also being significantly impacted. The company is currently valued at over $3 trillion, and is only the second company ever to cross that market cap.

As a result of said reorganization, some high-ranking executives under the Xbox umbrella are being promoted to new positions. Sarah Bond, previously the vice president of Xbox, is now the division’s president, while Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty will now serve as the president of game content and studios.

In an internal memo sent to Microsoft employees, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said that Bond will “manage the platform of today, and build the platform of tomorrow”, as she oversees the Xbox platform and its hardware and software efforts going forward.

Meanwhile, Booty’s expanded role will see him overseeing not only Xbox Game Studios, but also all of ZeniMax, which, as per Spencer, will “enable Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax’s development studios to collaborate effectively together”. Spencer has also explained, however, that as before, ZeniMax “will continue to operate as a limited integration entity”, with Jamie Leder still serving as President.

It remains to be seen how Activision Blizzard and all the studios under it will be integrated into the Xbox infrastructure going forward, especially with ZeniMax’s full integration having come over two years after it was acquired. Previously, it was confirmed that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick would be leaving his post at the company after the end of the year.

According to IGN, the FTC revealed a chat conversation from November 2021 between Xbox CFO Tim Stuart and Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty where the two spoke about a meeting about Spencer making the call to make all ZeniMax games exclusive.

“All games going forward?” Stuart asked. “Not just new IP, but ALL games going forward? Wow.”

“Phil [Spencer] told them all titles going foward, Xbox exclusive,” responded Booty.

The two also talked about how not releasing ZeniMax games on PlayStation platforms would affect Microsoft’s profits, as well as how it would affect the deal Microsoft made with ZeniMax during the former’s acquisition of the latter.

“We will have [accountability margin] issues in the deal model as we pull a huge number of PS units out of model,” Stuart said.

These details have come out during a hearing between Microsoft and the FTC, which came about because the FTC didn’t want to allow Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard to move forward. Other details revealed during the hearing including the fact that Microsoft considered acquiring Sega, as well as Square Enix.

“I don’t know, Todd might be the biggest Indiana Jones fan on the planet,” reads an internal email by Pete Hines. “I’m not exaggerating even a little. Anyone who has seen the pitch has immediately said ‘oh my god, I have to play that game right now.'”

In the email, Hines is talking to executives like Xbox boss Phil Spencer, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty, and Xbox chief marketing officer Jerret West. The email also confirms that Howard has been pitching the game, trying to get it made for more than ten years. Howard originally pitched the game to LucasArts all the way back in 2009.

The Indiana Jones game, referred to by its development name Project Relic, doesn’t yet have a release date. The game is seeing being Todd Howard serve as its executive producer, whose involvement won’t affect the release of Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, according to Pete Hines.

A recent report has indicated that the Indiana Jones game will be released on PC and Xbox. While the game was originally going to be a multiplatform release, plans changed after Microsoft acquired Bethesda and ZeniMax.

Bethesda/Machinegames' Indiana Jones is something Todd Howard had been trying to get made for a decade. "Anyone who has seen the pitch has immediately said, 'oh my god, I have to play that game right now" — Pete Hines email from 2021 (which is now evidence in FTC vs Microsoft) pic.twitter.com/MZi6i0MUL1

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 26, 2023

Spencer argued that Microsoft’s strategy of acquiring companies like Bethesda is a way for it to stay competitive in the market against Sony, who has in the past paid for exclusivity for titles like Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo.

“When we acquired ZeniMax one of the impetus for that is that Sony had done a deal for Deathloop and Ghostwire… to pay Bethesda to not ship those games on Xbox,” said Spencer, according to The Verge.

“So the discussion about Starfield when we heard that Starfield was potentially also going to end up skipping Xbox, we can’t be in a position as a third-place console where we fall further behind on our content ownership so we’ve had to secure content to remain viable in the business.”

Spencer has also refused to comment on whether The Elder Scrolls 6 will be exclusive to Xbox, or if it would see a multiplatform release. He cited the fact that the game is still too far out to comment on what platforms it would come out on.

The FTC has been using Microsoft’s past acquisition of Bethesda and how it turned multiplatform games into Xbox exclusives as evidence that it shouldn’t be allowed to acquire Activision Blizzard.

The FTC points towards the fact that Microsoft is releasing Bethesda and Zenimax games exclusively on Xbox platforms, especially with upcoming major titles like Starfield, which will not be getting released on the PS5.

“Defendants put great stock in Microsoft’s concerns about ‘infuriating gamers’ if it were to foreclose rivals’ access to Activision content… But those same concerns did not stop the ZeniMax decision,” says the statement.

The new documents comes shortly after a recent injunction filed by the FTC blocking Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, with a US federal court having agreed to the injunction.

The FTC had filed the statement in order to get some more time to build a legal case against Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The merger has been under quite a bit of scrutiny all over the world. While the European Commission has approved the deal, UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has blocked it.

The European Commission, however, has responded and called that inaccurate, saying that prior to the ZeniMax deal’s approval, Microsoft made no such commitment to keep future Bethesda games multiplatform.

“The Commission cleared the Microsoft/ZeniMax transaction unconditionally as it concluded that the transaction would not raise competition concerns,” the European Commission says (via Seeking Alpha). “Microsoft did not offer any commitments to the Commission.”

As per EU regulators, the approval of the ZeniMax deal did not hinge on any such guarantees.

“The conclusion that there are no competition concerns did not rely on any statements made by Microsoft about the future distribution strategy concerning ZeniMax’s games,” the agency says.

It is, of course, worth going back and looking at Microsoft’s public stance in the lead-up to the ZeniMax deal being finalized. Shortly after announcing its intent to purchase the company, Microsoft said that exclusivity for future Bethesda titles would be decided on a case-by-case basis, but that the Xbox ecosystem would remain the best place to play Bethesda games regardless. Shortly afterward, the company said that the purpose of the acquisition was to deliver exclusive Bethesda content “on platforms where Game Pass exists.”

Where Call of Duty is concerned, the company has committed to bringing the franchise to Steam and Nintendo platforms for the next 10 years, while a similar offer is also on the table for PlayStation.

In addition to the FTC’s aforementioned antitrust lawsuit, Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is also being scrutinized regulatory authorities in other regions, with the UK and the EU both having expressed concerns over how the deal might impact competition, should it go through.

It was announced via the official QuakeCon Twitter that the event is to a digital model this year because the company feels that more planning is required to host such an event successfully in-person thanks to uncertainties surrounding COVID, and Bethesda wasn’t confident it’d be able to do it properly this year. The convention, however, is planning to get back to its usual in-person format next year, and plans for the sameare already underway.

For the uninitiated, QuakeCon is the annual convention-cum-showcase hosted by Bethesda, which showcases new and upcoming games made by Bethesda-owned studios. The 2020 QuakeCon event was cancelled due to COVID, while last year’s show was also a virtual event.

This year's QuakeCon will once again be a digital-only event, August 18-20, 2022. pic.twitter.com/UxJTuZDTYJ

— QuakeCon (@QuakeCon) April 13, 2022