I'm worried about Rare after losing Gregg and Louise Tbh.

Just makes me feel sad for the Rare studio itself and how they must be feeling.

Baffled about Crystal Dynamics still though, and the casual reporting on it, I actually think this is something that needs further investigation to determine what the fuck happened. I don't want to accuse Crystal Dynamics of anything nefarious, they aren't Gearbox, but how do you get funded for years and only produce vertical slices with no foundation and remain in pre-production? Was Microsoft giving them a pre-production budget for like 4-5 years and thought nothing weird of that? How did Matt not bloody notice? 

I want a full Jason Schrier report.

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.

Dying Light developer Techland cancels two upcoming | GameWatcher

Sigh.

In GameFile, Totilo notes "Regarding the scale of the cuts Microsoft would only share that they were less than half of the company's overall layoffs."

Their overall layoffs are 9000 so less than half isn't exactly encouraging because that could still be anywhere below ~4499 and MS Gaming has 20,000 employees. It could be 4000 which would be 20%...That was rumoured before by someone, although he got the overall numbers wrong because he calculated MS Gaming at 10k instead of 20k, he did say 10%-20%. I really hope they aren't that big, I'm not even sure how you lay off 4000 without closing even more studios.

I’ve heard from sources that the Xbox user research team has been hit hard, with nearly half the team affected. It’s a key team that focuses on ensuring quality across Xbox games, the platform, and developer tools. Even the head of Xbox family and child safety has also been laid off.

Microsoft’s Xbox cuts have hit key areas. | The Verge

Laying off the Head of Family and Child Safety...

This fucking company man.

When you’re the product lead and domain expert for Family and Child Safety across Xbox, you don’t expect to be let go.

But today was my last day.

I’ve been trying to find the words for this - not because I lost my job. I can stomach losing a job.

It’s losing the charter I poured my heart into that’s harder to swallow.
The mission meant everything to me. Still does.

Anyone who’s worked with me knows how I show up - clear north star, all-in energy, unapologetic bar of excellence. That won’t change.

But impact matters. And cutting through noise matters more.

So I’m taking a minute. To reset. To get clear. To decide what’s next.
What I do know is this - I’ll be looking for the space no one else wants to own.

The neglected corners. The afterthoughts. The places that deserve a stalwart, a builder, a champion.

It’s where I thrive. It’s what I love.

I’ve got a few places in mind. A few missions I’d be proud to pour my energy into.

And if the right one finds me before I find it? Even better.

If you know of a space that deserves a champion, a builder, someone who holds the line… you know where to find me.

When you’re the product lead and domain expert for Family and Child Safety across Xbox, you don’t expect to be let go. | Mike Mongeau

Don’t need these teams when you’ve no plans for more hardware. 👀

Idk how anyone can say they aren't making anymore hardware during layoffs like these where the hardware team has largely been unscathed, Lol. If they weren't making anymore hardware then they would have been an incredibly easy layoff target, the entire hardware team would be laid off, they'd be nobody left, and it would save them the $ they so desperately need /s.

Though it's not encouraging to hear Xbox user research teams being gutted, I hope that doesn't mean Windows user research teams would replace them since the future Xbox hardware will be Windows based, though with half left I imagine they're just going to merge them into some Windows group.  If anything these layoffs have made me even more convinced hardware from Microsoft is happening. They won't keep hardware team around for the fun of it when they're cutting costs.

But these people are likely why Xbox consoles feel great to use and losing them is shit, Windows feels shit to use.

I'm not terribly surprised; MS as a central entity have been wanting to slice away at the Xbox division for a long time now. But it's sad to see so many get fired. Meanwhile; Satya Nadella made about 79 million dollars last year. Gotta love a corporate structure in times like these.