Fan Demand For Xbox To 'Stop The Cycle Of Layoffs' Trends On Player Voice Portal

Very complicated topic that is purely based on the business side of things and affects all the big publishers. Player Voice should not be used for this, in my opinion. If you want to support a studio, buy their games at launch, as I do with games that are considered niche. Crying, assuming it's sincere, won't solve anything.

Trust the Developers - Negotiate in good faith with unions and developers, so they can better represent the needs of both developers and gamers.

That's exactly what Phil Spencer did. Some studios are better and more efficient than others, it's that simple. 7 years and $100m for South of Midnight is insane.

Layoffs are a Failure of Leadership.

A failure of the studio's leadership in this case and matching the previous point.

Regarding the general idea, of course, I'd love Microsoft and the rest of the big companies and people in the world to be nice with everybody and that Earth was a better and less polluted planet to live on.

What a dumb post (on the User Voice, not here).

Was it ever confirmed that 3,200 actually lost their jobs?
They also act like MS is the only company doing these sort of cuts. What do you think will happen once GTA 6 comes out?

I love my Xbox, I really do. And I don't disagree with any of those points

@FraserG I remember reading in one report that some were offered a retirement package based upon their age + years of service (that looked like a really sweet package!).
And also eliminated would mean they no longer work for Microsoft, which is true for the studios that are no longer owned by the company. So, like you say, it has actually very difficult to work out the actual number that lost their jobs completely.

Still like, Banjo said, the User Voice is not the place for this sort of thing.

Agreed in principle. One thing I don’t see discussed a lot: who would ever come to work at Xbox at this point, and how are existing teams going to be productive with more layoffs looming? There’s a trickle-down effect that’s going to come to gamers.

Unfortunately, the truth is more complex too. I think Sharma and Nadella’s comments about Xbox being unhealthy and MS no longer willing to lose money on them is very telling — these are public-facing comments, vetted by lawyers and PR reps. And they are wild to hear a company say, which makes it obvious they’re sending a very clear message if they’re choosing to be this blunt (and makes you wonder what’s being said behind closed doors). They want more profit, and they’re threatening spinning of Xbox or walking away if they can’t achieve it. Fan concerns on Xbox forums (including here) aren’t even a consideration.

Sharma comes from the startup tech world, and that surely played a factor in her hiring; layoffs are just an everyday way of life. They’re not going anywhere, I’m afraid.

We’re living in the Bizarro world.

Xbox is doing half decent as far as physical media is concerned (half decent as in they haven’t outright stated they’re killing the format), and the majority of Xbox users probably don’t care about that. Meanwhile they’re slaughtering teams and destroying countless employee’s lives and there’s tremendous outrage over it.

Aside from Bungie and Bluepoint, Sony is doing half decent at keeping their employees tenured, while at the same time they’re in the middle of trying to outright steal customers’ right to own what they buy.

These two situations should be switched. Sony should be preserving discs and laying off utterly useless people like Hermen Hulst and teams that don’t produce (MediaMolecule cough cough), while Xbox should be the ones providing the type of job security that a $3 Trillion parent company can offer, while attempting to kill physical media and strip everyone of ownership rights.

The player voice portal will not last long at this rate.

Very telling. Layoffs need to stop. Overall agree with the focus on large franchises though

All I can really do is laugh at those suggestions or demands.
Microsoft are going to run things the way they want to be honest.
I see this thing as symbiotic saying
"Hey Microsoft we don't really like the way you are doing things lately"
I imagine there response would be
"That's nice"
I care about games enjoying my hobby I can't be worrying about the job security of strangers life's too short!

It's not my job as a consumer to tell a company how its needs to run. If I like the product and have disposable income I'll buy it. If not then not. Simple as that.

@Balaam_ I dont want them to switch. I want both these companies to do better.

"Good" news is industry crash is coming next gen as it starts to look more and more like a premium PRO upgrade for fans (whales). Given overall state of the economy and less disposable income that people have currently, all these greedy platform holders/publiushers will be given a reality check soon - after GTA 6 I expect a slowdown in a year or so

@ZeD I literally was about to sell my launch black SX (I also have white SX from 2024) but this is the only console I currently have with a disc drive so decided to keep it. Maybe even buy disc drive for ps5 pro just so I have the option to go physical even that I am not into it.

Its ridiculous how everytime I have an urge to switch to Sony they pull off same-level anti-consumer move

I have accepted the reality of all 3 (including Nintendo) beeing greedy mf*ers. The solution I have is to limit day 1 purchases for a few games I am really passionate about, the rest can go to wishlist. If I dont own anything, I am not paying premium pricing. I also pretty much boycotted in the past year all deluxe/premium editions unless they have an actual content (season pass with future quests/missions/levels).

I agree with all those points, specially that layoffs are a result of failed leadership and they should focus on obtainable goals instead of shooting for the sky and seek 1 billion players a day as they go hand in hand.

The previous administration did that, expected 100M of Game Pass users and even ignored for a while their core console audience to seek players on PC or Cloud who never came, and now the brand is dealing with the fallout of a failed strategy, however the mere admission that they should and will focus more on their core console business makes me a bit more hopeful, if anything it’s clear we need Xbox back given how Sony wants the absolute control of the console market.

"I sincerely doubt employees who fear they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world." -Satoru Iwata

@IllusiveMan So far I can only agree with ID soft - seems a sucker punch to gut them after more or less successful dark ages and actually very high-rated dlc. bad move.

Double fine can slip under the radar as they have been "weirdo" with stuff like kiln and keeper - on MS as reportedly they told them to do "whatever for GP" but then decided to look as sales. ok.

But compulstion and ninja theory? 7 and 5 years to produce 2 very mid games and apparently given full freedom without strict deadlines? Sounds to me like a studio problem

@Millionski Trying to be positive and not knowing for sure, Xbox Studios might be instructed to use the same in-house engine for shooters as logic would recommend, and the creative minds that worked on the Doom trilogy will still be making great games. Xbox is maintaining Id Tech, IW (based on Id Tech) and an Id Tech fork used by Machine Games. Halo Campaign Evolved runs on Unreal Engine but was outsourced, which is something Asha will not approve in the future.