It can change, but you severely underestimate the mountains of cash MS has. 

This is a frivilious expense for them that has nice branding perks for them. It's like a billionaire that buys a pro sports team ... he's not buying it expecting it to be as profitable as his main businesses, it's a vanity thing in a lot of ways. 

MS doesn't need the money from the XBox division, it's token bonus to them. 

Believe me, I'd like to see them leave the industry too ... for purely selfish reasons, not because they aren't a pretty darn good game company (they actually are). I'd just like more space for a company like Nintendo that actually needs the money (since they're gaming only) to have some breathing room. 

The fact that they're hiring already for the next XBox to me suggests nothing is going to change all that much in the next 5-6 years. 

I don't see it like that at all. Lol why do you think that?

lol @ "pour it all". MS profits billions every quarter. We all know investors want them to dump Xbox. Investors only see dollar signs though. Luckily MS is more forward thinking than that. As are Sony and Nintendo, too. Remember recently Sony said something like 6-7 out of every 10 games lose money. Investors would tell you to just not make those 6-7 games. What does their input matter in the grand scheme of things? Nothing.

MS is looking to get rid of unneeded personnel after a big buyout. It's natural. If they also lay off some marketing people from Europe, oh well. Companies lay people off all the time.

I hope this is just the beginning of these funny doom theories.

Predictable responses.

"Microsoft has infinite cash"

"Investor opinion is useless"

All of that is false, and investors are the prime responsibility of the board in terms of who they have to serve. The idea of Xbox was to further their brand and to stave off potential threats coming from the living room. The failure of XB1 to succeed in the marketplace globally has damaged the first, and the threats from the living room in terms of consoles never materialized as anything that could damage their core business model.

In short, Xbox is a liability unless they adapt it to their new mobile-first philosophy.

Exactly what I've been trying to tell some posters on here. But they don't wanna hear the truth.

Yep. Balmer has been ignoring shareholders for years. Its only because Sony has a multimedia OS and threatened the PC market with their dominance in the console realm why Bill Gates even signed up on the Xbox project in the first place. If Sony wasn't a visible threat to Microsofts multimedia OS monopolizing dreams they wouldn't have entered the gaming industry. They would've stayed right on Apples heels and kept publishing Flight Simulator like happy little boys. I have to hand it to them, they didn't increase the gaming market but they did take a chunk out of Sony's  expected marketshare last gen. ;)

P.S.

Microsoft will continue to pursue trying to discourage Sony's market growth. If Sony destroys them it will only encourage investors even further that the gaming industry is distracting them. Profit in gaming is nothing for Microsoft. They don't need to be here, but as long as Sony thrives, they have all the reason they need. Well either that...or Sony gives up and probably agrees to partner with them, because thats half the reason they are breathing down their necks as well.

So let me get this straight.  MS bought Nokia which is 30,000 strong international company and MS is planning to cut jobs and this means that the Xbox division is in trouble.  Even the rumor states its Marketing, engineering and other jobs that overlab between the 2 companies (usually the purchased company).

On the other hand you can find listings for Jobs for the next Xbox right now.  You can also find listing for jobs within the internal game studios at MS.  Does it cross some of your minds that when big companies like this get a chance to restructure they trim all divisions.  The fact that MS is still hiring people to their studios and hardware division should be a bigger indication where they are putting their resources.

As for people going doom and gloom that the Xbox division which doesn't even make 1% of a global business that make over 18 billion a quater was a surprise or that the CEO is more than willing to tell the obvious, not sure what you people expected.  

^ That doesn't sound logical to me. iPod threatened them more than home consoles ever have, because it was a door into tons of young consumers with disposable income (and leads to Macbook/iPhone sales of course).

Microsoft's answer was Zune. It tried. It was actually a great product. But it failed, and MS canned it.

Microsoft doesn't care one crap about Sony's 'market growth'. Sony is INFINITELY less of an issue in relation to Microsoft in contrast to Apple/Google. Why do you think they're buying phone companies, screaming 'MOBILE/CLOUD is NUMERO UNO!"? Apple and Google can cause real harm to Microsoft, and have already in fact. Sony? They could sell 100M Vitas and 200M PS4s and it wouldn't mean jack squat to MS. In fact, if MS Game Studios made software and provided servers for those platforms, they could actually out-profit Sony on their own devices. Do you think it's lost on investors that Activision and Rockstar EASILY made more money off of Xbox than Microsoft ever did? Fat chance.

Say it with me "Consoles are not a threat to the PC/Business industry"

Now repeat.

The fact is, back in the 90s into the very early 00s, people misunderstood what consoles might become, and what they might replace. The reality has shown that they may eat into makers of dvd players and streaming boxes at best, but PCs? Pfft.

What IS a threat to PCs? People dropping them for phones and tablets at home. PERIOD.

I'm wondering if we will see another XBox...