Ryuu, you need to keep up.  Phil just got this promotion.

As to Satya, I am willing to say that he actually did not tell Phil that cuts needed to be made. You are throwing him into the mix because you want to believe he had some say into this decision.  I am saying that Satya had absolutely no say into this decision, but Phil made this decision because he felt it was needed.  I actually believe that Satya has complete trust in Phil because he continues to promote him and now Phil only reports to Satya.  Meaning if I were to think about a conversation between the 2, Satya came to Phil and stated, "ABK looks great but everything else is not.  Hardware down big time and subscriptions to GP is not growing at all.  What is your plan to address these issues".  

Satya is not a CEO who understands the gaming market nor about situations that drives it, that expertise is all Phil.  So, no Satya would not tell, force or even make suggestion as to what Phil needs to do.  Phil came to Satya and told him this is what he will do in order to fix the issues he sees in the market and what Phil believes needs to be done.  

My issue with believe that either Amy or Satya told Phil that these cuts need to be made does not sound right especially when you read the email from Phil, Sarah and Booty.  Instead, it sounds like Phil looked at the market and decided that he needs to make some changes because what we see today isn't just a blip but how the market will be for a while.  Either Phil needs to make serious changes that will improve output, get those GP subs to moving and also get hardware back on track or MS might as well just drop all of that become a single big publisher and call it a day.

Phil got a promotion to a new higher title that didn't exist before to satisfy the growing managerial needs of the Xbox. However, from MS's standpoint, Phil is still the higher-ups at Xbox and the change of title does not absolve him of any responsibility to MS he previously had or give him any more leeway.

You are throwing him into the mix because you want to believe he had some say into this decision.  I am saying that Satya had absolutely no say into this decision, but Phil made this decision because he felt it was needed.

But that's not how things work, I guarantee that whatever operational budget Xbox is attributed is a- decided by MS, B- used to the fullest by Xbox. Because, like with every company, when a division/department doesn't use all attributed budget, it will get a reduced one the next time around. So no one in Phil's position will self-sabotage in this way.

Also, Phil does not have to answer shareholders directly, that's MS BoD and Satya's roles, so if he was not mandated to operate with lower budgets it would even be grounds for MS to terminate his contract for acting in a way that resulted in unwarranted backlash and reduce long-term output. The same way Phil would terminate any Zenimax/ABK/Xbox Games studio's head contract if they made such decisions because they felt it was needed.

My issue with believe that either Amy or Satya told Phil that these cuts need to be made

That's not what we are saying, they didn't need to tell Phil what cut needed to be made if they told him to operate with a lower budget. And Phil also likely did not choose the end targets here. Most likely he, in turn, reduced Zenimax's operational budget with an instruction to preserve ongoing projects as much as possible. 

"including catalog titles" that means late ports of back catalog titles to platforms they skipped initially. Hopefully we get some of the recent year games Xbox has missed over the years, such as:

• FF7 Remake and Rebirth
• FF16
• FF Pixel Remasters
• FF Crystal Chronicles Remaster
• Trials of Mana remake
• Neo TWEWY
• Star Ocean First Departure R
• Star Ocean The Second Story R
• Live a Live
• Octopath Traveler 2
• Triangle Strategy
• Valkyrie Elysium
• SaGa Frontier Remaster
• SaGa Emerald Beyond
• Tactic's Ogre Reborn
• The Centennial Case

Some of those are probably too small to get late ports, but I hope we at least get the ones I bolded.

I do think their main focus will be on their highest selling franchises moving forward, those being Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and Nier, but I think their mid tier series will continue to get releases, albeit at a slower rate, take for instance Mana, the new Mana game looks like they took their time with it, I think they saw what Namco Bandai did with Tales of Arise by catapulting that series up in sales to make it one of their core series, and are hoping to do the same with their Mana series. Additionally I think their HD 2D team have proven themselves with games like Octopath, Triangle Strategy, and Live A Live remake and will continue to make games.

The smallest and most niche franchises will indeed be the ones that suffer, I doubt TWEWY will get a 3rd game after the 2nd flopped, and it seems like the recent Saga Emerald Beyond flopped as well with an 18k debut on Switch in Japan and failing to chart top 10 release week on PS4 or PS5, so I don't see SaGa continuing probably. Valkyrie might continue, it's my understanding that while Valkyrie Elysium physical first week sales were fairly weak in Japan, it actually sold through it's entire physical allotment apparently, so digital sales and late physical sales after restocks may have made up for it. Bravely Default may be safe, Square said Bravely Default 2 sold 1m in the first 10 months, and that was with a late PC release and no release on Xbox or Playstation, with late ports to Xbox and PS5 it may sell well enough to justify continuing the series.

My thoughts here:

Safe

• Final Fantasy
• Kingdom Hearts
• Dragon Quest
• Nier

Possibly Safe

• Mana
• HD 2D games (Triangle, Octopath, etc.)
• Valkyrie
• Star Ocean
• Bravely

Probably Not Safe

• TWEWY
• SaGa
• Forspoken
• Theatrhythm
• Diofield

-CBA-

8 more days till HB2 drops!

I was just looking at the highlights of the last June showcased. It was quite the show and despite all the current drama, all those projects are preserved or have already released.
So I'm really looking forward again to this June Showcase. IMO, Xbox need to deliver something on par or even better than 2023, maybe with a tad more first party content vs third party.