Angelus said:
Multiple things can be true. MS was gonna do some amount of layoffs regardless. The cancelled projects probably all had good reason to be cancelled. Perfect Dark I wouldn't have guessed, but the reporting on it now make a lot of sense. And let's be real, the only reason we're getting those reports, is because with all the links in the chain caused by the massive outsourcing of the project, there's gonna be a lot more people to talk about the state of things. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some potential animosity between the idea team at The Initiative and the guys at CD that are supposed to be doing the bulk of the work. People are gonna talk when there's clashing going on. When it comes to Everwild, or the Zenimax MMO, those projects being all inhouse is gonna lead to far fewer people in the know and talking openly about what's going on. The only comments you're gonna get is from people on or around those teams who wanna be optimistic about their work, cus they're invested in it. But they've had enough time to present something viable. If not to us as consumers, then certainly internally within the company. Especially the MMO. You think MS wouldn't LOVE to know they've got another money printing live service game on the way if they just gave that team another couple years maybe? You really think that if there was something there that just needed a bit more time to cook, they wouldn't jump at the chance to see if they got another decade long running MMO on their hands? Yea right. If they had some great internal demos or pre-alphas or something and development was going well, MS would be thrilled. That was probably ages behind schedule at best, and in development hell at worst. If it was coming along even remotely well, MS would have gladly found other places to make cuts. |
Maybe. Won't really know. Just know that Satya has been ripping through Microsoft for years now, layoffs every year, to drive up the stock price and funnel more funding into AI, whether these projects were in development hell or not likely didn't matter. Even if Microsoft Gaming was running perfectly and every studio making big profits (and we know Rare was profiting) they would have made cuts. Might have thought Everwild would need another studio spun up to support it, if it was a live-service, and figured nah lets just spend that money on AI, Rare is already making nice profits with Sea of Thieves which is a sure thing. Likewise with Zenimax Online.
Big sure hits will be safe because they will have a noticeable impact on but modest profit hits won't be noticed at all to Microsoft and can just be cancelled and instead have their money diverted to AI, Lol. Plus increase Microsoft Gaming profit margins to the rumoured 30% target. Even King got hit...Which is a very profitable studio.
