There's a lot of inner turmoil right now within Xbox as mass layoffs loom overhead while leadership weighs up studio closures by the hour. But one thing is consistent throughout all the reporting: Halo, Fallout, Gears of War, The Elder Scrolls, and Call of Duty are the priorities right now.
The only problem is that none of these flagships are in a good spot. Gears of War is reported to have a budget anywhere between $200 to $400 million (though that figure has been disputed), meaning it would need to be the best-performing entry in the series' history just to break even—not to mention that it's remaining platform exclusive at a time when Xbox's playerbase is dwindling; Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6 remain years away and have a lot to prove after Starfield; Halo: Campaign Evolved is already mired in controversy for its broad changes to the original, arriving on the heels of Infinite, which significantly underperformed; and to top it all off, Game Pass has eaten into Call of Duty's sales, while Black Ops 7 was drowned out last year by immense fan backlash and steep competition, leaving other studios within Xbox allegedly feeling punished for its...
