Microsoft is going through another big 'reset', which is a nice way of saying culling, as it reportedly prepares to cut major games and studios as part of reassessing its videogame investments. But amid all the carnage, Hideo Kojima's OD is apparently unscathed.

According to IGN, a source familiar with Microsoft's plans implied the upcoming horror game remains in the works at Kojima Productions alongside Xbox Publishing. This news comes as Microsoft says it's "taking a fresh look at where we invest so we're focusing on our highest priorities." And honestly, I can't say I'm surprised that OD qualifies as one.

Kojima carries quite a bit of weight around this industry, just ask Geoff Keighley, but OD doesn't just feature his work—acclaimed director Jordan Peele is also reportedly collaborating with Kojima on this one. Add that to its star studded cast which includes the likes of Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and the late Udo Kier, and you get a game that's considerably harder to axe.

The proof is also in the pudding—this isn't the first time OD has escaped from harm. Almost exactly a year ago today, we saw unfortunately familiar circumstances play out when Microsoft laid off 9,000 employees, cancelling games like Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot—just one moment in its year of shame. OD survived this as well.

Phil Spencer, former Xbox boss, signed the game, and his new replacement Asha Sharma has since shared her enthusiasm for the project: "I've got great artists and creatives that can pick a great game better than I can, and so I want to give it space, but most importantly, I think it just represents another kind of game." Kojima has previously said (in a classic Kojima way) that he doesn't even view OD as a game, instead being "a movie, but at the same time a new form of media." Sure, why not?

We won't know for sure whether OD is truly in the clear until Microsoft releases a definitive statement on the supposed upcoming layoffs, but if IGN's source is to be believed, OD will once again survive and carry on its already three-year long development.

World of Warcraft's ramping up to its first major "big number" patch, Curse of Ula'tek—in addition to some interesting changes to how world bosses work, Blizzard's also taking aim at some quality-of-life features. And while these updates haven't all exactly been frictionless, I've gotta tip my hat to Blizzard, here—a lot of these are major plusses.

A recent blog details what Blizzard's already implemented, as well as what's to come. The most notable items here are fixes to auto-looting and area looting, but there's also been performance upgrades to the very-pretty Silvermoon City, faster Prey hunts, EXP buffs, and—in a move that's genuinely really important for the hardcore raiding scene—reduced repair costs.

But Curse of Ula'tek's got a few big upgrades to come, too. Profession knowledge points can now be reset once per profession, crafted housing decor should be cheaper, and the Voidforge will be accessible from Silvermoon City.

There's also UI improvements—and while I'm excited about certain bumps to the experience, like finally being able to see map coordinates without an addon, the most vital by far is the auto-loot setting, which no longer resets when you make a new character.

For those of you who've never had to experience the utter existential horror that is figuring out where a setting in an options menu is more than once, it was genuinely kind of annoying—WoW has a setting that lets you automatically loot everything from a monster with one click, instead of shift-clicking like some sort of peasant.

However, this option was character-specific for some arcane and unknowable reason, meaning any time you made an alt, you'd have the experience of looting your first monster, wondering if you were having a lagspike, remembering that you don't have auto-loot on, and then spending five unreclaimable minutes of your life finding and enabling the option again. No more.

There are also some bug fixes, the one I'm most excited for being: "a number of recurring patterns that could cause players to become stuck in outdoor world combat far longer than expected. This will not address all of these situations, but it should be far less common in Curse of Ula’tek."

I am not kidding when I say that 90% of the reason I play a rogue is to be able to Vanish my way out of combat without having to wait for whatever's chasing me to stop locking me out of my mount. That, and the big annoying smoke cloud I can ruin people's day with as part of my rotation.