We’ll have to see how it all plays out. It’s not a bad thing if they put more focus on IP like TES and Fallout (both have been lying dormant way too long) and hopefully it means we get both sooner now too. I don’t even care imagine how long the wait for TES VI still is, let alone Fallout 5.
We really should’ve had a spin off by now, and yeah I know, Todd Howard isn’t fond of that uses but he still is extremely busy on TES.
Just saw a post on Bluesky, that the accessability staff is getting heavy cuts at Xbox. The main reason I would say is true is because of Steve Saylor.
But we will just have to wait and see for now.
That sucks but it wouldn’t be surprising. The Adaptive Controller kind of fits right into the larger portfolio of things like backwards compatibility, Smart Delivery, etc. where Xbox tried to differentiate themselves with better service and gamers largely shrugged and bought PlayStations instead. I hate that they can’t justify stuff like that anymore but I do understand it. 
So Blade has been delayed internally and running over budget? I really hope it can and will succeed though.
Oof, can you imagine if all of that was just gone?
The only positives are that none of the five studios are being shutting down with Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions going back to being independent while Ninja Theory and Undead Labs were sold. No games were cancelled but with State of Decay 3, there’s no guarantee that it stays day one on Game Pass Ultimate which will be disappointing but at least the game and studio will still exist.
Arkane Lyon seems to be taking longer to get situated due to French laws but at least they’re not being shut down or anything like that, at least not as of now anyway.
The actual layoff count of 3000+ employees is fucking insane and shitty. The truly sad part is that Nadella, Sharma, etc. could easily sacrifice a bonus or salary for a quarter (three months) and save everyone’s job but God forbid the rich don’t get richer, right?
The 14 layers of management is fucking insane as well. Asha wants to cut this down to 5 at least and possibly down to 3 layers which this aspect makes sense because that’s way too many layers to go through just to get something fucking done.
I’m not really a fan of just going with “big IP’s” because it doesn’t actually work like people believe. First, they will still take way too long from start to release and what will you be releasing while waiting on the bigger titles? Second, it hasn’t worked for Ubisoft as they’re a fucking shit show and a disaster while for Sony, their big IP’s have all declined compared to last generation.
I will say that the only major IP that should have had something being worked on was Fallout once Microsoft acquired Bethesda in March 2021 legally. To go 5+ years without a new Fallout game especially when you have a TV show (which has turned out to be not only great but pretty huge) is bad management by Phil and company.
Obsidian should have been setup to do Fallout New Vegas 2. Stays away from the main line series, could have put The Outer Worlds 2 on hold until after while having a smaller single player RPG set in the world of Fallout.
I’m happy that Obsidian is as of now anyway, safe. I will be shocked if they don’t start working on a new Fallout game by 2027 because I can’t imagine them being retained to just go with Avowed 2 and something else not named Fallout.
With that all said, all of the layoffs and whatnot is still shitty and horrible.
Increasingly shitty market
Increasingly shitty MS (headstart on that)
Niche gaming needs our support, MS ain’t it. PS ain’t it. Nintendo ain’t it.
At least no studios are closing, but this is basically ‘XBox doesn’t make enough profit, and in an age of insane AI gambles, that’s morally bankrupt so kk thx peeps bye’
Any mention of who is buying NT and Undead?
XBox needs to get back to making sequels to IP that sells & get more games on a sensible development schedule of less than 7 year’s. The number of staff & studios was also getting silly & unsustainable
A rest was needed, I do wish we could have kept Ninja Theory, though
As always, screw corpos and management, always support the workers.
The EIC for Edge was especially disgraceful with his tweet about Rare. Scum.
It’s utterly shit, just not as shit as the worst predictions at least.
Compulsion and Double Fine independent, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs bought and Arkane Lyon likely looking for a buyer.
Plus another 1,600 jobs going this year on top of the ones today which seem to have hit everywhere but particularly Bethesda.
I’m already numb to it I guess, my opinion of Microsoft is already in the basement so this is slightly better than feared but still absolutely awful for those affected, hearts go out to them and to everyone still in Xbox fearing they may be one of the next 1,600 - and really hope for the best for those studios going elsewhere.
The rationale stinks of bullshit too - they complain about margins compared to other platforms but they’ve done fine compared to PlayStation which has had wafer thin margins for years now with super expensive to make first party games and write offs like Bungie and Concord.
What they really mean is platforms like Fortnite (despite it having overextended and started to cut back) - they want huge margins like that or their enterprise business which is just unfeasible for a console platform so if that’s their goal they might as well refund us all now and fuck off and give up.
The investment figure is suspicious too - for every dollar invested they “lost 64 cents”, in that case Xbox would have been reporting huge losses each year, clearly they’re fudging the numbers by including acquisition costs which is bullshit as the assets have value anyway.
I work in financial systems, you can slice the data any way you want to support the message you wish to give, and Asha and Satya’s pronouncements in recent weeks have absolutely reeked of “numbers gained using criteria to support this argument that we’re subsidising a profitable unit”.
I don’t trust this new leadership as far as I can throw them (Phil I felt there were things he wouldn’t or couldn’t say but I never felt he was making shit up), nor Microsoft’s - my planned purchases are already taking that into account, and building a new PC a year or so ago primarily for accessibility reasons is now paying dividends as I expect more AI shit, less customer service and even poorer warranty cover from them in future so Helix is a non-starter for me, and I’m not stacking GP any further (May 28 atm) until I see how this all plays out.
Honestly, fuck the new leadership, fuck Xbox higher ups and fuck Microsoft - I’ll hang around as I’ve little choice (plus I’m going to gouge every penny I can from Rewards) but I’m no longer enthusiastic about Xbox or the future
Yep, by the end EVERY MS studio was being thrown around as closing just for rage bait. Ridiculous, no, reporters are not doing their jobs by spreading rumors for click bait.
This ended up being a lot less destructive then the news articles suggested and no one bothered to hold back until it was announced.
Edge has forever been a PlayStation fuckfest, I had some free issues sent once and was amazed how little Xbox stuff it covered and how the coverage of PlayStation games especially Kojima was practically orgasmic - it’s like if Geoff Keighley was a magazine…
It was definitely over the top in closure reports, although it’s possible they were hearing from people losing their jobs in many of the studios and jumping to conclusions - as many of the studios mentioned are losing significant headcount it seems (both today, as the studios leaving don’t total near 1,600, and in the future with that threatened 1,600.
What the point of that stupid memo a month ago was though, and announcing now that they’re going to kill another 1,600 jobs - it’s a PR bloodbath and stupidity of the highest order (not least as it killed the Showcase hype after just a day or two), as they basically invited everyone to guess which studios were getting cuts or closures, and with the 1.6k still to go that’ll continue for the rest of this year - plus anyone who can will leave Xbox rather than risk being one of them, and morale will be shit.
Microsoft is a corporate company and it tells in stuff like this - they are fucking terrible at PR, this kind of announcement barely gets noticed in the corporate world but in the gaming world it’ll generate clickbait for another year and be mentioned in every review and piece of news about Xbox.
Who the fuck would buy an Xbox in that instance, where you research online briefly and every piece of news and every review mentions it and whether the studio for this game you like may not be around for long?
Just amateur hour it feels like - Sony are dicks but they know to get everything ready, announce then go dark until it blows over - get the bad news out in one go, not allow months of speculation which is just going to kill any hype, any announcements and any goodwill
So, safe to say that accountability in journalism is a bigger joke at this point?
Also, glad no studio was closed. Quite content with that.
You can go build your pc all you want, Widney, but do not, for even one second, think that this whole thing is just Xbox being the dicks; this is bigger than them. It’s the entire industry as a whole, which includes Steam, despite the constant glaze, and they could do no wrong, I see. The steam machine price was the reality check some needed.
Be like me, invest in your current library, make sure it’s all safe and secure, and play the crap out of the backlog.
Also, i like xbox, does not mean am a blind fan,but i do critizize when warranted and am going to wait for what is going to go down not that xbox were the first to do layoffs, which i know for damn sure its going to look tame when i see the state of ea and ubisoft during this month.
I’m well aware other publishers are crappy, but Xbox was supposed to be a bit better, led by a gamer with Game Pass bringing in the cash to fund a wide assortment of games both in size and genre, with developers mostly secure (except for the annual purge by Microsoft).
While I’m glad they’re not as ruthless as Sony and do allow them to go independent or be bought, I’m not sure about the future path so I’ll wait and see - and my PC and Series X will serve me well given the lack of customer support in the UK making a new big purchase potentially costly if it breaks, whereas a PC I’m perfectly capable of fixing.
I’ve got GP stacked for ages, I keep getting gift cards I can use for new games on Xbox but not Steam (employer perk) and yes I’ve a huge backlog, so I’ve plenty to play and I’ll be mostly in the ecosystem still.
As for the media, they’re irresponsible and always have been, but Xbox gave them an open goal when a few days after the showcase they talk about cutting costs - so for a month social media and the gaming news runs riot.
Now instead of doing the layoffs in one go and leaving it there, they announce another 1,600 over the next year which means the furore of the last month will continue for the rest of the year people will be discussing who’s next, as will gaming media - and they can’t really be blamed for speculating given we know some are definitely coming
Apparently ZOE is affected by almost half of the staff, and game director has said that content schedule will have to be revised after this. Considering the game brings something along the lines of 15 million per month (probably less as that was an average since release until 2024 but still) I find it hard to understand these cuts as the game is still quite popular.
Today though sucked less than I thought it would, although this is only half of what to expect. So if it was that rough, I wonder how gutted some of the teams will be by the end of the year.
Id is getting hit hard with layoffs.