Yeah, no idea how that mocap job went so badly wrong, I didn't know it was supposed to be Haley Atwell when I first watched it, not until the next day when i saw the discourse about it online. Not that I'm a big fan of AI, but it only took a guy on X doing some slight tweaking with an AI to make Haley Atwell recognizable as Haley Atwell (disregard the cleavage of course, that isn't necessary to recognize her, I mean just those slight facial tweaks made her recognizable):

It kind of kills the whole purpose of getting star power for your game if people can't recognize them as that star.

Yeah it has been updated some weeks ago.

I don't think it was on PC? I got the old notification yesterday and now today I got the new one after an update to the app. The old notification was VERY different from the one on Xbox.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-10/xbox-plans-significant-layoffs-as-it-transforms-under-new-ceo-asha-sharma

According to unnamed sources asking for anonymity due to not being allowed to speak to the press:

• Layoffs of unknown scale and division expected shortly after the close of the quarter on June 30th
• Xbox marketing budget will be significantly slashed, as well as funding for some other areas of the business
• Comes after Asha's earlier comments about the need to reset the business due to Xbox not being in a healthy spot when she took over
• In an email to employees Asha sent today which Bloomberg saw, Asha noted that Xbox's accountability margin will be just 3% when this fiscal year end later this month, and noted that in spite of spending over $20b in ongoing investments over the last 5 years (excluding the ABK acquisition), Xbox's annual revenue has declined by half a billion. "Going forward, this cannot continue" she noted. “We expanded our studio system when we needed a pipeline of content to meet multiple strategies across subscription, streaming and devices,” she wrote. “In the process, we have found ourselves over extended as we executed on changing strategies in a landscape of more readily available content. We are the fortunate stewards of industry-defining franchises that have enormous potential and player demand, but we have not adequately funded them to compete and win. At the same time, as we saw this past weekend at Showcase, a reliable pipeline of first- and third-party exclusives and new IP are critical to our success. We need to reassess the balance between these and our investment priorities for the next 5 years.”

LOL amazing. Some things just don't change.

Slash marketing budgets???? There's barely been any marketing this gen at all! You have to imagine there's a very real danger that Double Fine and Compulsion may get shutdown.

Wouldn't be Xbox without good news followed immediately by bad news.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/06/10/next-100-days-xbox-reset/

Xbox has now publicly released that email that Bloomberg saw

So, to summarize each of her points

1. 1 billion unique Xbox players each year, between hardware, software, subs, and cloud gaming. 72 billion hours of playtime each year
2. Accountability margin has fallen to just 3%, and in spite of $20b spend by Xbox in the last 5 years, yearly revenue has fallen by nearly half a billion dollars
3. Hardware component crisis has severely impacted Xbox, even more than some of it's peers (Playstation, Nintendo, PC OEMs) due to choices made in the last half decade (likely referring to dropping hardware orders leading to their parts partners taking other deals), SSD and RAM prices expected to increase by roughly 5x between Fall 2024 and Fall 2026. Demand for Xbox consoles is up but they just can't make enough of them currently, will need to find new hardware component partners they can make deals with.
4. Xbox expanded a little too quickly, acquired more studios than they could adequately fund. Xbox owns huge IP's with much potential but they haven't be adequately funded. At the same time, she notes a need for 1st and 3rd party exclusives calling them critical to Xbox's success. Will rebalance between the need for more software revenue and software exclusivity over the next 5 years.
5. Xbox's platform infrastructure is inadequate for the years ahead. Xbox's systems are overly complex which hinders our ability to move fast. We must increase the value of what we ship to consumers and decrease the time it takes to do so. Will look at potential future mergers and acquisitions to help Xbox win in hardware, software, PC, mobile, and streaming.

The timing of this release is really perplexing. You'd think they'd wait a bit while they're riding some positive buzz from the Xbox showcase. But they immediately put this out. Perhaps their hand was forced by the Bloomberg article, but if this email was always going up on xbox.com publicly today then... just a really poor decision on timing.

They probably saw the Bloomberg article and decided to post it. 

What I get from this is less original IPs and more of a focus on their biggest IPs like Halo, Gears, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Forza Horizon, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if Obsidian is put on the Fallout franchise and Bethesda is grown to have 2 or 3 teams. So we get a new Fallout and Elder Scrolls game ever 5 or so years. Along with Fallout 3 and NV, Morrowind, and Skyrim remasters.

I wonder where the layoffs will happen. Or if some of the smaller studios they own will be allowed to go independent again. Like they did with Toys for Bob.

Yeah, if the layoffs aren't happening until after the fiscal year results, I don't see why they needed to sour the good mood the Xbox Summer Showcase created this soon with some bad news. Layoffs were always going to happen of course, Asha inherited a bloated beast that is losing money, and something had to give somewhere. I just hope the layoffs aren't at too many of the studios, would rather see bloated middle management within Xbox itself go.