Microsoft has closed down multiple Bethesda studios, including: Tango, Arkane Austin, etc

[Bizwas]

pokoko said:

I am only surprised by the fact that people are surprised.

As a corporate entity, Microsoft has no conscience. Every single performance review is equivalent to the sword of Damocles hovering in the sky. Understand, too, that a moderate success is often equivalent to failure when the context is budget share and return expectations. That is the reality of belonging to a multi-trillion dollar company.

"Good" can easily be "not good enough."

You are absolutely right. We the nerds just easily and happily overlook that because we like to indulge in our sportsclubfan-like enthusiasm for the companies that make our beloved hobby exist. But they are corporate, not philantropic entities. 

1. Phil, Matt, Sarah - even if they play video games themselves, they are not your buddies; they are not XBOX game studios' employees' buddies (they are, so much for console wars, more likely to be buddies of the other higher up millionaires from the competition). 

2. a) What they do and say answers to the interest of the company they are employed by. That might at times overlap with your interest as a consumer, but don't mistake that for that your interest has priority.

2. b) What they do and say today does not guarantee you that they do and say the same tomorrow. 

3. The company by its very nature demands profit (and a lot of profit, not just a little bit- "good can easily be not good enough"). Art, innovation, creativity, the well being of the teams, all that can be appreciated if it is helpful in achieving profit, but it's a means to an end, never an end in itself. The end in itself is profit. Decisions will be made accordingly.

That might seem self evident to many and you don't even have to see it as a bad thing (if you believe in capitalism you maybe think these mechanisms actually are a good thing), but a lot of fans in the gaming community don't acknowledge that. And thus they are surprised now.