Xbox Studios Eye Buybacks to Escape Microsoft's Chopping Block
Ninja Theory, Double Fine, and Compulsion Games are negotiating with Microsoft to buy themselves back and go independent.
Multiple Xbox-owned studios are actively trying to buy their way out of Microsoft rather than face the axe. Ninja Theory, the team behind Hellblade, is among those in talks to go independent through a management buyout, according to Bloomberg.
Compulsion Games and Double Fine are also in active negotiations with Xbox leadership. The studios may be given the opportunity to separate from Microsoft and operate independently again.
The move signals that Microsoft's gaming division continues to slim down its sprawling studio portfolio. Rather than simply shuttering underperforming teams, Xbox appears willing to let some developers walk away with their independence intact.
It's a rare scenario in gaming — studios that were acquired by one of the industry's biggest players now scrambling to reverse that deal entirely. Whether all negotiations result in actual buybacks remains to be seen.