We had started today by reporting the alleged cancellation of Everwild and some staff cuts, but as the hours went by the situation became clearer and clearer, with ominous news overlapping with each other. Today was really Xbox's Black Wednesday.

So let's put order in the news circulated today. It all started with the alert in recent days, by some insiders, that a wave of layoffs was coming today for Xbox. The news sadly turned out to be well-founded, with 9000 layoffs across Microsoft and Xbox studios heavily impacted. Here are all the effects of this (umpteenth) wave of "restructuring":

• Rare has suffered an unknown number of layoffs, but Everwild has been canceled and the studio will undergo a heavy restructuring. As a result of this, Gregg Mayles, the long-time director of Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong Country and Sea of Theives, has left the studio after 35 years of service. Executive producer Louise O'Connor has also announced that she has left the studio.
• The Initiative, the AAA studio created for the production of Perfect Dark, has been closed after 7 years from its foundation and without having released the game for which it was born. The title dedicated to Joanna Dark has been canceled.
• Turn 10 Studios, the creators of Forza Motorsport, has suffered a 50% cut in its workforce.
• Several Call of Duty studios, such as Raven Software, Sledgehammer and High Moon Studios, have suffered layoffs, but the exact details and numbers are unclear for now.
• Zenimax Online Studios, authors of The Elder Scrolls Online, has suffered a series of layoffs and the new MMO they were working on has been canceled. As a result of this, the studio's president, Matt Firor, announced that he was leaving the company after 18 years of service.
• King (the studio behind Candy Crush) has suffered 200 layoffs.

Final balance: three canceled games, a closed studio and numerous layoffs.

If on the one hand, after major acquisitions such as that of Activision Blizzard, restructurings are inevitable, today's news presents us with a brutal picture, with Microsoft management that seems to have lost faith in Xbox's ability to manage its teams and determined to cut all dead branches, at the cost of losing important creative teams.

Apparently these decisions come from higher than Phil Spencer, who seems to be on his way out: rumors claim that the CEO of Microsoft Gaming will hold the reins of the division until the launch of the new hardware, after which he will give his place to Sarah Bond, who will become CEO of the division. Update: the news has been denied by Microsoft.

It seems that the conclusion of a further chapter for Xbox is about to arrive, with an uncertain future that still sees the green-cross brand establish itself as an important video game publisher and in any case determined to launch a new console (or more devices) in partnership with AMD. Only time will tell if this will be a winning bet.

Finally, to close on a positive note, several sources, including the head of Xbox Studios Matt Booty, reassure fans by explaining that Microsoft currently has more than 40 games in development, on which it continues to focus and invest. All the titles shown at the last Xbox Games Showcase, moreover, are confirmed and will not be canceled. These include Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, The Outer Worlds 2, Grounded 2, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, Gears of War: Reloaded, and Clockwork Revolution.

We are waiting for further news, hoping that the future of Xbox will prove to be more serene than the storm that hit it today!