No, the answer is TV TV TV
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I’d imagine some of the layoffs and cost cutting have affected that - their UK operation for example has been gutted, there’s no repair centre anywhere outside North America now and support is mostly left to an AI chatbot.
So they’re likely missing local knowledge anymore - yes it was amateurish, but the huge cuts, layoffs and price hikes were likely forced by Microsoft, in the same way I’m not really blaming Sharma for these ones - it’s all sodding Satya and the Microsoft exec.
But that’s my point, they’re screwed whoever’s in charge as Microsoft just wants huge margins every single quarter which just isn’t doable in the gaming industry, and their love for annual layoffs really screws up teams
I slept on this for a few nights and I can safely say this is Microsofts biggest mistake. I bet this is one of the few times Asha Sharma not being a gamer is going to backfire as, and i could be wrong, I feel like the next doom will be ran on unreal. Microsoft owns one of if not the best FPS engine in the industry they should of utilised that more and the next halo should of ran on that but instead gut one of the best studios.
I think I have been pretty positive to Asha overrall but I will call out BS when I see it
Everything is microsoft and never xbox previous management. They had 10 whole years and 80billion dollars and did nothing thats the truth. I would never excuse either phil, Sharma or any other ceo, I dont care what they are handed.
Idtech engine is taken care of in Germany as far as I know, I hope they go back to old doom and make the games great again.
I don’t know. I am optimistic overrall and think she is already better than Phil since she can make the hard choices but I refuse to be a “Yes girl”. I will call them out and I think striking ID or at least striking them as hard as they did is at best worrying and at worse a terrible sign. Doom the dark ages under performed sure but doom 2016 and eternal both did amazingly and I feel like if any studio deserved another chance it was was ID. I could be wrong but I wouldn’t be shocked if the next doom is made on unreal and outsourced
None of that would of happened if they just made doom eternal 2 
sad but thats the truth if they had a executive telling to make more of the stuff people liked they would still have thier jobs.
Except for Don Mattrick, I’m guessing he gets excused?
I do agree with the point you made before that he may have also been a bit screwed by Microsoft and their priorities - but in that case give the same benefit of the doubt to the others.
Declaring Don (the man who seriously caused issues during the One launch when he declared “we have a console for people who don’t want this, it’s called the 360”) amazing and free of error, while hammering the other CEOs is a bit childish - the consistent factor here is Microsoft leadership and their complete lack of und of gamers and the industry
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Don Matrick is goated. He should take Matt Bootys job
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The revenues were so cooked that they announced their highest ever even growing post ABK, and maintained YOY overall even during a quarter where Amy hood predicted a decline in early following the poor BO7 release and hardware cost rises.
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80 billion was just ABK. Even the Xbox Wire specifies only 20 billion for the last 5 years (we don’t know the last 10 but it’s 80B) excluding ABK. They invested a ton in Xbox, brought it back from the dead, built up a new business model, became a leader in growth areas in the industry like cloud, became like the second biggest publisher, and had tight margins but were profitable and consistently growing YOY revenue. It’s Microsoft who said that wasn’t enough and demanded faster returns than the gaming industry allows. They said they need more game sales from studios with the same mouth that highlighted how their game output supports Game Pass & how game pass reached 5 billion in yearly revenue & is building a new stable foundation for Xbox’s business model. They still said it despite looking around the industry with the mess they partly caused due to the AI enabled shortages and while also ignoring the realities that COVID created. It’s been LESS than 10 years since all of these studios were purchased. At the earliest they were bought in 2017. The Zenimax ones going through insane layoffs didn’t see their company’s acquisition completed until 2021. They’ve barely even had 5 years to integrate and work as an Xbox arm. We’ve seen constant growth in these studios, great critical successes, and in the past when Microsoft wasn’t just begging for money to throw to AI they happily praised them.
Whats being ignored is that these cuts aren’t unique to Xbox. They’re part of, once again, wider cuts at Microsoft. Xbox could be having its best year ever and this still happen. All MS cares about is optimizing for shareholder value and means treating employees like resources to be managed with analytics and not real people with experiences and skills. It means not reinvesting in the business and taking the time to grow for the long term (even during a bad external macro economic period). This time Microsoft is focusing on consumer facing businesses and products citing changes in consumer habits. What they mean to say is they’re getting rid of people and jobs they think are CURRENTLY replaceable or not doing anything to find more money they can throw into the AI bubble… again. Or to dividends. Whatever surges the stock prices and raises their valuation.
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It would HAVE to be new laws in the USA. It’s far too easy to fire workers compared to other countries. That’s never going to happen though cuz politicians on both sides in the USA are owned by the very shareholders demanding this. Then Republicans scream that if we enact more employee protection laws, companies will just move to other countries without those laws (and they’re kinda right; even without moving that’s why contractors and temporary employees are being used, to avoid laws regarding employee protections and benefits). Executives won’t change because they’re benefited by feeding the short sighted values of shareholders. They literally get bonuses to that effect. When the long term does come around it doesn’t matter because they’ll either have made their money or will get a golden parachute like Bobby Kotick. Then maybe they’ll run for president and win. The only hope we have is the inevitable crash, but then it’ll be us lower classes mostly impacted and futhre generations told to fix it. Our real only hope is like the Dystopian future of the Time Machine (Wells) where the Wealth gap gets so big that we diverge into to differently evolved races and for the former working class to eventually rise up and kill the docile wealthy. Don’t worry give it several thousands of years.
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What hard choices though, bringing back crunch. I fear as the year goes, we will keep seeing more headlines like this and probably more failed projects. I think everyone wants efficiency, but it needs to make sense
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Saying no to Studios and actually managing them. Like in what multiverse was keeper and kilm great gets that should been approved? In what multiverse did hellblade 2, south of midnight and state of Decay 3 justify taking as long as they did? In what multiverse was Halo Infinite allow to launch in the state it did?
Double fine i find particularly disappointing because I love Phyconauts, under good management double fine would of been told to either would on Phyconauts 3, Brutal Legend 2 or an existing Microsoft IP aka Banjo or Conker but nope…you got Kilm, get hyped
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I have no issue with the fact Kiln and Keeper got greenlit under Xbox - they were weird and interesting games. I am glad Xbox fostered the kind of environment that allowed those games to exist.
What I’d criticise is that was their only output in the 5 years after Psychonauts 2. There was a lot of talk that being under Microsoft would free Tim Schafer up to just be creative and make games - where did that go? And now that they are independent I’ve seen comments of “well I guess they’ll need to focus more on commercial projects - like a Psychonauts remake or getting 2 on switch”. Why was none of this happening before.
I’m not sure Asha has said NO, and her NO isn’t any good from the looks of it. We have yet to see how she manages studio considering Matt Booty is still the one in charge of this. Can you actually name a studio that has taken less than 4 years in making any game this generation.
Psychonauts and brutal legend were not the success you all assume and I’d guess there would have been an equal excuse if they had been greenlit like too expensive or whatever. Also didn’t the last Banjo bomb, not sure why people keep thinking it was a big IP. Today’s audience is very different from the audience you all keep hogging on.
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I’m not sure what the output expectation for studios is anymore. 2 really good new AA games back to back a about four years after Psychonauts 2 sounds fine to me. I am surprised Psychonauts 2 didn’t receive Switch and PS5 ports (It was never PS5 native) when Xbox was doing that. But if the studio was busy getting two other games out then unless Microsoft was hiring more devs or outsourced porting than that would’ve been difficult.
I think commennts of Double Fine being more commercial now are confused. Very confused. Being independent doesn’t increase their resources or headcount. They’ll have to pull back on projects if anything or seek funding. They tried crowd funding Psychonauts 2 but couldn’t get enough to finish it. Maybe just a switch port will save them 
. That actually wouldn’t be too expensive and they could definitely use the sales.
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Games were greenlit because they gave good pitches & judging by actual reviews those led to good games, production cycles got lengthened because of covid, cost increases, and needing to build up the studio, and Halo Infinite launched in the state it did because of horrible employee turnover at MS leading to devs not even knowing how to use their own engine.
Psychonauts 3 wouldn’t be out by now (Double Fine would be in a worse spot), Brutal Legend 2 would cost far far more than Kiln & Keeper combined due to Jack Black and needing licensed music and wouldn’t be out now due to having to make an action game that meets modern standards (double fine would be in a worse position), and I’m just saying Microsoft parted ways with Toys4Bob (making them independent) before Double Fine. Platformers and metrovania’s keep under performing. Even games part of major franchises and to great critical reception have seen teams resolved due to the game’s performance. Out of the 3 options mentioned Banko would’ve been their best bet, but that’s a far different hypothetical future that’s unlikely to have led to a different outcome. Putting Double Fine to work on a legendary IP they’ve never worked with before with high expectations sounds a lot like the Initiative and Perfect Dark. We can play merry go round with what decisions Xbox should’ve made, but there’s no guarantee that doing anything different would’ve led to a different outcome. It could have just led to a worse one. If the concern remains sales then with Game Pass nothing would change. The reality we’re in is that Double Fine releases 3 incredibly creative critical successes within 5 years with seemingly well controlled costs & scopes and that wasn’t enough.
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I think it’s fair to say Xbox needed to find a better balance between “weird interesting” games and crowd pleasers.
The puzzling thing is how does shedding a ton of developers at Id, BGS, and Obsidian help them do that? 
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For ID It more likely has to do with them not having anything greenlit, I think the studio will hire again in the future when they have a game in full production.
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