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VersusEvil on 26 June 2025

Word is those layoffs will amount to 10-20% (around 1-2k of their 10k) from Xbox with studio closures too. SMGDH.

Last edited by VersusEvil - on 26 June 2025

Ride The Chariot | ‘25 Completion

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Ryuu96 on 26 June 2025
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

Ryuu96 on 26 June 2025

Idas said:

The whole industry is going all-in on big IP. Just look at some moves from major publishers in the first half of 2025:

  • Warner Bros. is only making games based on Mortal Kombat, DC, Game of Thrones and HP.
  • EA is doubling down on Battlefield, The Sims and its sports games, trying to revive Apex, while staying away from new licensed IPs.
  • Take-Two is focused on GTA, Red Dead, Borderlands and Civilization. They even sold Private Division because, in their own words: "We're in the business of making big great hits."
  • Ubisoft created a new subsidiary just to handle Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six and Far Cry.
  • Square Enix is cutting back hard—"quality over quantity"—and scrapped a bunch of unannounced projects.

And then there's Microsoft, now the biggest game publisher on the planet. They're going to follow the same way.

On top of that, MS is slowly moving away from being a platform holder to just being a third-party publisher. That's a big change because when you're not managing a console ecosystem (and Game Pass is less important than 5 years ago), you don't need variety, you need hits. And if a game costs a ton, takes 5–6 years, and doesn't make a big splash the developer is probably getting canned or the publishing agreement finished.

I don't like this either, but among other things, this is the result of most people sticking to the same few games: CoD, Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox… In this scenario if your game isn't huge and can't hold attention for long enough, maybe it's just not worth the investment—especially when you're publishing at Microsoft's scale.

====

Saw this post by Idas and it's really depressing when you look at statements from recent 3rd parties.

Saw this thread chain by Seamus too (Xbox Father).

Seamus Blackley: "The games business is about games. If you’re in the games business, and somehow (as often happens) your company somehow is now focused on something else (AI, XR, “IP,” acquisitions, etc.) you’re in for a period of struggle. Everyone will wonder what’s wrong. But you know. It’s about games. Gameplay." — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "It’s hard to sit in a room with a bunch of finance and MBA people and tell them this. Especially when there’s either a lot, or else not very much money in the bank. They will tell you to do all sorts of dumb shit. They will mock you for talking about gameplay and gamers." — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "They will also confuse you by supporting mission statements, PR, and marketing messages that claim quality and gameplay are the company’s core values. But in reality games are secondary to them. Games are widgets to sell. You make em cheap and push them into the funnel. Make those quarterly targets!" — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "If you love games, make games well, and consider business to be a necessary evil, these folks will really frustrate you. Some of your friends will inevitably decide that success requires becoming like them, and it will feel like they have turned to the dark side. If you’ve been here you know. 😔" — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "You will hear that “it’s time to grow up!” and “this is how the world works!” but paradoxically, the fortunes of the organization will start to wane. Gamers, as you know in your gamer heart, don’t give a shit about EBITDA or KPIs. They pay you when you give them a game they love. Simple but hard!" — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "Now, the MBAs and business folk are not evil. They’re actually around most likely because you’ve had some success! But they have grown up in a world of hard facts and numbers, and this idea of gameplay and “fun” is hard to quantify. It scares them, and it’s understandable. Remember this." — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "This is a pattern that exists in every creative industry. Success brings a change that makes future success harder. And for a moment the new business focus will increase sales. Right until the “what’s the next game” conversation happens. Now your world has changed. It’s harder to do the right thing!" — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "I get asked a lot about “what’s wrong at Xbox?” This is my answer. Organizations go through waves of this pattern. Sales of games from these organizations follow the pattern, and go up and down, feeding into it. It’s a crazy roller coaster. Especially at a big company that has other non-games biz." — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "Nintendo has a huge advantage here as their only business is their games, so they face less of this (but not none). Sony did a great job at avoiding this by elevating developers in the brand. Xbox has always struggled because it exists within and depends upon the fate of other business inside MS." — Bluesky

Seamus Blackley: "I really hope it works out for Xbox. It is a thing, an idea, an effort, a dream and an accomplishment that is so dear to me that I can’t really describe it in words. So, go sweet Xbox go. Do the right thing. Make us smile." — Bluesky

It feels like he's telling Xbox leadership to fight harder to protect their employees from the money grubbing cunts at Microsoft. Honestly Phil needs to resign though, how can he show his face in the Xbox company to his employees when he has gone through multiple successive thousands of employees layoffs then he's going to celebrate the 25th Xbox anniversary? He has failed his employees.

Why should Xbox employees give a shit about Microsoft when they don't give a shit about them? Why should they work hard to deliver great products when it doesn't matter anyway? They'll get laid off either way whether they make something terrible or make something amazing! Microsoft doesn't care, they only care about the line on a graph. Microsoft is incapable of understanding what massive layoffs every 6 months do to employee morale because Microsoft is incapable of empathy.

How can people work under these conditions? Living under constant fear of being laid off and knowing it doesn't matter how hard you work, how good of a product you make, you're just a number on a chart that is available to be sacrificed to the Line God and there is literally nothing you can do to guarantee your job is safe. This industry is going to lose so much talent when these people inevitably fuck off out of it and join a different industry where they aren't treated like shit being laid off every 6 months but hey at least we'll have AI right Satya? /S.

I can't say I'm a fan of Xbox at all now, I'm only a fan of the developers/IP under Xbox because they own a lot of amazing developers and employee a lot of amazing people, they have a lot of IP that I still love, these incredible developers still make brilliant videogames for us, the only support shown should be towards them.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 26 June 2025

Ryuu96 on 26 June 2025

I should probably wait and see what is actually cut though. It could be that the majority of cuts are due to merging the publisher branches (XGS/Zenimax/ABK) and most of the roles being cut are in the business/marketing departments of these publisher branches, non-developer roles. I think they will eventually consolidate everything under one publisher branch and I expect right now they have a lot of overlapping positions between the 3 publisher branches, they will further merge them under just "Microsoft Gaming/Xbox" which means a lot of roles will be cut.

I am most hoping that the developer teams don't get hit hard. But like I said, I do think Activision's support/mobile studios will be cut because CoD Mobile flopped and was shutdown, or CoD Warzone, I forgot what it was called, I don't see Microsoft having any mobile teams soon with the exception of King, instead they will outsource mobile adaptations to companies who know what they're doing and have been doing mobile their entire life, less risk that way. Between Beenox, Solid State Studios and Digital Legends that is still 600+ employees though.

I should probably just take a break until the announcement, then take a break again, Lol.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 26 June 2025

konnichiwa on 26 June 2025

Kid loves sonic and you end up buying a controller while feeling you want one yourself :o






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Angelus on 26 June 2025
Ryuu96 said:

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.

How does MS not give a fuck about Obsidian? They're like their most productive developer, and they literally just gave them the biggest spotlight at their show this year, and are calling it the year of Obsidian. And Avowed got a ton of marketing as well earlier this year. 



Angelus on 26 June 2025

Anyway, as far as layoffs/studio closures go, I could definitely see Compulsion being in trouble here. I certainly don't hope for it, cus I actually really enjoyed South of Midnight, and I think they have a lot of potential to keep getting better....

buuuut some number cruncher suit in an office is probably gonna be looking at them and saying "Well, they just took 7 years to make a new game, and it was just modest little AA effort that really made no waves...what do we need them for?"



Ryuu96 on 26 June 2025
Angelus said:
Ryuu96 said:

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.

How does MS not give a fuck about Obsidian? They're like their most productive developer, and they literally just gave them the biggest spotlight at their show this year, and are calling it the year of Obsidian. And Avowed got a ton of marketing as well earlier this year. 

They are productive, Microsoft will ignore them for now, but the moment Obsidian doesn't have a game on the horizon and Microsoft needs to "make line go up" they will absolutely lay off Obsidian employees along with everyone else, because at the end of the day all these employees are to Microsoft are nothing but numbers on a data sheet.

Wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft lays off the Avowed team who haven't yet moved over to The Outer Worlds 2 and then pushes them to be a Fallout studio because it would be bigger than both The Outer Worlds 3 and Avowed 2. All the people begging Obsidian to do Fallout would get their wish but it would come at a shitty cost of turning Obsidian into a 1-2 team studio.



Ryuu96 on 26 June 2025

Not surprised Turn 10 is being hit by layoffs though, the longest development time for a Forza Motorsport, it didn't launch in a great state and it came and went, Imho I do think Horizon has really hurt Motorsport and not many people care about Motorsport anymore, I also think Motorsport should be put on ice, they should not release no more than 1 Motorsport per gen and just support that Motorsport for the entire gen, it's a bit of a dying franchise and the focus should be on Forza Horizon.



Ryuu96 on 26 June 2025

Ninja Theory's Financials.

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2020

  • Operating Profit - £1.5m

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2021

  • Operating Profit - £2.2m

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2022

  • Operating Profit - £936k

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2023

  • Operating Profit - £666k

Playground Games Financials

Full Accounts Made Up To 31 December 2020

  • Operating Loss - £683k

Full Accounts Made Up To 31 December 2021

  • Operating Loss - £2.5m

Full Accounts Made Up To 31 December 2022

  • Operating Profit - £728k

Full Accounts Made Up To 31 December 2023

  • Operating Profit - £940k

Rare's Financials

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2020

  • Operating Profit - £303k

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2021

  • Operating Profit - £1m

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2022

  • Operating Profit - £1.6m

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2023

  • Operating Profit - £570k

Full Accounts Made Up To 30 June 2024

  • Operating Profit - £354k

¯\_(ツ)_/¯