| VersusEvil said: Word is those layoffs will amount to 10-20% (around 1-2k of their 10k) from Xbox with studio closures too. SMGDH. |
They actually have around 20k employees (Xbox/Zenimax/ABK). ABK alone has around 15k employees and Xbox/Zenimax combined were around 5k. A lot of companies are trying to shed 10% of their workforce and Microsoft seems to be shedding 10% every year so Microsoft Gaming is probably also 10% which would amount to 2k.
I think Activision-Blizzard support/mobile studios are most at risk, since Microsoft the clowns hate internal co-development and would rather opt to outsourcing co-development or assistance work to external studio, and their mobile endeavours failed, so that would be Digital Legends (Mobile), Solid State Studios (Mobile), Beenox (Support).
I also think the smaller studios that just released a product are at risk (Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games) because again, the clowns at Microsoft can only think 3 months ahead and since they've just released a game it's shutdown time, like with Tango, they can't be bothered to wait for another game, especially with the studios being small in scale and them having bigger products.
I also think The Initiative is at risk but I've thought that ever since Crystal Dynamics basically took full control of Perfect Dark, even in some leadership positions. I think The Initiative will be closed even if Perfect Dark is a big success because the expenses of having a studio dedicated solely to very highly paid, senior staff, based in California, who only released a single game after 6+ years, it looks a bit like a failed experiment and Crystal Dynamics will take full control of the Perfect Dark IP if it is successful.
I hope Double Fine buys back their independence before Microsoft fucks them over too, heck, I'm not even worried about Obsidian closing and I hope they buy back their independence too, Microsoft doesn't give a fuck about them, I legit think someone like Josh Sawyer would probably leave Obsidian soon due to Microsoft's actions. Morale at Xbox studios must be at the lowest it has ever been.
All these 2018 studios they acquired ought to buyback their independence, take their chances being independent which I will admit would be a big risk too but at least it would on their own terms, Microsoft will find an excuse to shut them down eventually to pump that line up every 6 months, until they're left with no studios and the line goes down because the fucking idiots can't think far into the future.
They've had an incredible run of releases recently too, quality and quantity for over a year now, they finally got into a good position, with the exception of Flight Simulator 2024 (broken launch), all their games released recently have ranged from good to great to amazing, it has been non-stop releases that I can't keep up.
Now what do they think these layoffs are going to do for that? It's going to destroy morale, it's going to fuck their pipeline, and quality/quantity will decline as a result. Employees will hate working under these conditions, but Satya only sees AI and doesn't give a fuck about how employees actually have to be happy to do good work.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 26 June 2025
