In the 2021 Xbox documentary Power On, Sarah Bond
said the leadership team asked themselves how to learn from and not repeat the mistake of acquiring a studio (in this case, original Fable developer Lionhead) only to later shut them down. And one year ago, in the wake of Redfall’s disastrous launch, Xbox boss Phil Spencer
said, “One thing I won’t do is push against [the] creative aspirations of our teams. When a team like Rare wants to do Sea of Thieves, when a team like Obsidian wants to do Grounded, when Tango [Gameworks] wants to do Hi-Fi [Rush] when everyone thought they were probably doing The Evil Within 3…I want to give the teams the creative platform to go and push their ability, to push their aspirations.”
At best, those once-reassuring quotes ring hollow today. At worst, they’re outright lies.