Xbox Drops Quby To Save Cash, Considers Recycling Old Halo Grunts As Merch

Live from an unsecured Wi-Fi network hidden inside a QuakeCon LAN hub, Horsebyte has uncovered that Xbox has officially dropped Quby, the pixel-perfect mascot, from this year’s festivities in an attempt to “cut operational fluff.”

According to leaked budget documents Horsebyte found on a mislabeled USB drive labeled “Not The Budget”, Quby’s entire travel and hotel expenses for QuakeCon were deemed “non-essential pixel rendering costs.” Instead, sources say Microsoft will be recycling decommissioned Halo Grunts as “nostalgia-driven, upcycled merch.”

“This is a win-win,” said Todd Grimspoon, Xbox’s Vice President of Merchandising Optimization. “We save money, we save the planet, and fans get to take home something that’s been shot at by Master Chief.”

Longtime Quby fans are furious. “You can’t just delete a mascot like it’s an unused save file!” said Lana ‘LANQueen’ Myers, who has cosplayed as Quby since 2014. “Those Grunts don’t even have the same pixel density!”

Horsebyte attempted to reach Quby for comment but only received an automated out-of-office reply reading: 404 – Mascot Not Found.