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It's no surprise that multiple people in the industry are sharing their thoughts about the state of Xbox Game Studios and Xbox's other first-party teams, as the rumours have been flying around about potential job cuts and studio closures.
One of those people is the head of Moon Studios, Thomas Mahler, who delivered two Xbox console exclusives in Ori And The Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps before they later released on Nintendo Switch as well.
Mahler says it's "heartbreaking" to see what's rumoured to be happening with some Xbox studios, but also admits that it's "felt like a long time coming" and quite possibly will spark off "a much larger reset across the industry".
"It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening at Xbox right now. A lot of great people are being affected, and I don’t want to minimize that. But if we’re being honest, this has felt like a long time coming and I’m not sure this is the end of it. It may just be the beginning of a much larger reset across the industry. In the long run, I actually think that reset could be good for games and good for gamers."
The Moon Studios boss goes on to say that "Xbox has struggled for a long time to identify, empower, and protect the key creative people and teams who could have kept the brand at the top", and that in the days of Ori, new versions of the likes of Halo and Gears "simply didn’t reproduce the same cultural impact those series once had".
"Even when we were making Ori with Xbox, it was clear that the main focus was still Halo, Gears, and Forza - even though gamer excitement around Halo and Gears had already cooled heavily after Bungie and Epic moved on from those franchises."
He argues that Xbox's problem is that "great games are not made by IP", and that leadership needs to "try to bring back the passion for gaming that clearly existed in the Xbox halls during the 360 era".
"Microsoft still owns an absolutely insane catalogue of franchises. The potential is still enormous. The problem is and has always been that great games are not made by IP. They’re made by people. People who have passion and love for this medium, that understand what gamers truly want."
"If I were in charge of Xbox right now, I’d also radically slim down, refocus and try to bring back the passion for gaming that clearly existed in the Xbox halls during the 360 era. Xbox should be one of the strongest publishers in the world. With the brands Microsoft owns, that should honestly be fairly straightforward."
He sums up by again suggesting that betting on "the right people" instead of IP is the key to success, and that pulling off a huge reset is "brutally difficult" but still has the potential to work out.
"They need to find the Miyamotos, Tezukas, Sakurais, etc. within their own ecosystem - the people who actually speak the same language gamers do - and then support them, protect them, and trust them. Bet on those people - not just IP. We've clearly seen now what happens when you own all the best IP in the world, but don't have the right people in charge to actually service those titles."
"The playbook is already written out for you. From the outside, to people like me, it still looks like Xbox is sitting on an absolute goldmine. They just need to put the right people in charge of mining that gold."
The entire message can be read over on Twitter if you're interested, where Mahler also discusses how he encouraged Phil Spencer to "deliver magical experiences for kids" on Xbox and potentially even turn Ori into an Xbox mascot.
Of course, Mahler isn't directly involved with Xbox, so this is just someone in the industry giving their opinion - his latest game is No Rest For The Wicked, which is actually launching on PS5 before it ends up on Xbox (and Switch 2).
So what do you think? Do you agree with this take? Let us know down in the comments section below.