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[Magic Carpet]

This is enough for...how many AAA studios?
This is more than Bungie...the entire publisher Sony bought...holy crap.

And this is Microsoft...the 3 trillion company.

1800 people is 1 billion dollars over 10 years. less with inflation going up up up.
Thats 4 or 5 AAA games in 10 years I calculate.

 

[ulantan]

I don't, actually. Most people here were against the acquisition.

Purple forum was full of so was the hell pit twitter

 

[tmlDan]

I totally understand letting go of some due to redundancies, but the amount of you justifying this is insane behaviour.

1,900 is not just "redundancies". It'll be more than that by years end, and the quality of the games will get worse.

This is just cost cutting.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

It gets worse

The part about the survival game being canceled needs to be its own thread.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

did phil got fired?!

He sure is awfully quiet lately.

 

[lh032]

Microsoft: We can afford every video game publisher
Microsoft: We cant afford every video game employee

 

[SportsFan581]

Tom Warren mistating the number. Microsoft are laying off 1900 "roles". That equates to 22,000 employees.

"As part of this process, we have made the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately 1900 roles out of the 22,000 people on our team. "
-Phil Spencer

Elsewhere....

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/technology/microsoft-apple-most-valuable-company.html

1900 roles of 22,000 doesn't mean what you think it does there.

22,000 is roughly their entire headcount before the cuts. I think it's safe to assume they aren't firing everybody.

 

[OverHeat]

It gets worse

Mike got the shaft again

 

[Little Chicken]

Most will probably be corporate, customer service and admin, of which Microsoft already has their own workforce.

 

[Hot5pur]

Seems layoffs are hitting everyone, this is likely both a consolidation and cutting the staff over hired during the pandemic.
Microsoft doesn't give me confidence as a manager of studios, that phil guy is very mid.

 

[Del_X]

I bet it was mostly fake email jobs.

 

[Gudji]

No one saw this coming.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

The part about the survival game being canceled needs to be its own thread.

This is getting brutal, lol. But at least we have Avowed.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

It gets worse

Ybarra is a tough one. He always seemed like he was ahead of the game in spotting the big, upcoming titles. He never seemed to get his way when he was at MS. I'm guessing there was some beef there for him to leave so quickly.

Also, I'm surprised at the survival game cancellation, as they were really pushing it as the next big thing. I wonder where Blizzard goes next.

No clue who that other dude is.

I've seen the "save Actv Blizz" argument in another forum, were saying otherwise got you banned.

Purple forum. LOL

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Regardless of whether these positions were redundant or not, it's staggering the lack of vision on all the parties that cheered for the acquisition, devs included.

The CMA should be roasted for this too. You should not approve any merger when the company of interest is laying off people and shutting down studios left and right.

Embracer and MS are getting exposed badly. Sony will follow suit soon, they will cut off 2-3 studios within the next two years.

 

[Thyuda]

It gets worse

Oh my god, I don't care what anybody has to say on this, there's no possible outcome where this isn't bad.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Too bad Phil isnt part of that 1900

 

[GHG]

I don't, actually. Most people here were against the acquisition.

 

[adamsapple]

Hope the effected land on their feet.

 

[Little Chicken]

It gets worse

Does it actually get worse though?

The state of Diablo 4 and OW2 issues makes me feel that new leadership at Blizzard is a good thing.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I totally understand letting go of some due to redundancies, but the amount of you justifying this is insane behaviour.

1,900 is not just "redundancies". It'll be more than that by years end, and the quality of the games will get worse.

This is just cost cutting.

As my bro told me long time ago during the global crisis (he was head of finance at a big bank.... not the CEO but he was up there). Any time there's a big event like global crisis and people are getting fired, there's two kinds of companies doing it.

1. The company is cutting costs for survival as that company got nailed by the event, losing money, and they got to do something to turn it around

2. The company is using the event to cut people, but not for survival. But using it as a reason why and hopes with all the companies and economy having shitty news they do it too hoping to blend in

 

[GHG]

Job well done by Agent Ybarra.

Those who know, know.

The playbook is now identical to Nokia.

 

[ReBurn]

Post-merger redundancy time.

 

[Team Andromeda]

This is standard practice after any major takeover. However, I do feel sorry for those in the likes of Q&E, HR who will bear the brunt of the layoffs given the overlapping of the jobs

 

[Crispy Gamer]

Remember when people kept saying everyone at activision needed the deal to go through so that Microsoft could save them...I remember.

Yup that was the defense and it was nauseating

 

[Topher]

1900 roles of 22,000 doesn't mean what you think it does there. LOL

22,000 is roughly their entire headcount before the cuts. I think it's safe to assume they aren't firing everybody.

I had already edited my post. Phil Spencer is being vague here

 

[Interfectum]

 

[Gudji]

So who are they hiring for the party this time? Stevie Wonder?

 

[SEGAvangelist]

OK. That's doesn't disprove my point. This majority of posters on this board were very anti-acquisition.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

Ton of dumbasses who thought Microsoft was a charity and would spend endlessly on Xbox. No. They need to make a profit.

Sucks a great deal for those involved.

 

[Elios83]

But the acquisition would benefit the employees, toxicity magically removed and those unions!!!

 

[DenchDeckard]

Not the start of the year that any decent person deserves.

Hope all these staff find jobs quickly.

If they are developers can't they go and help some of the other studios make better quality games?

 

[Forsythia]

Expected, but this sucks for everyone who lost their jobs.

 

[Astray]

Stephen Elop 2.0

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

And the foundations of Xbox are slowly showing more and more cracks.... Goodbye Xbox, you were a good boi.

 

[crackajack]

my positive spin: a lot of potential for Respawn part deux, trois, quatre, cinq ... if there is quality among the affected

 

[Portugeezer]

This year's going to be rough.

 

[DryvBy]

Good thing Blizzard was bought by Microsoft. No one could have predicted any of this.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Ton of dumbasses who thought Microsoft was a charity and would spend endlessly on Xbox. No. They need to make a profit.

Sucks a great deal for those involved.

There's a difference between spending endlessly and trying to be more efficient.

If Xbox was doing that bad for 22 years, MS would had canned Xbox long time ago. RROD alone should had killed it making 360 the last system.

 

[Dick Jones]

Ybarra probably preparing another Stephen Elop moment to his collection. I wonder who is getting sabotaged from within next for MS to buy?

 

[Dane]

That's bound to happen...They just bought them and a lot of corporate job will overlap.

IMO it was bound to happen even if it wasn't bought, pandemic hirings are all being laid off. The frenzy is over and did not result in permanent changes

 

[Tomofdahook17]

Jesus Christ.

Literally, this is an insane layoff!

 

[demigod]

The post covid boom cull continues across the industry. These won't be the first at xbox, abk, bethesda

The covid ship has sailed last year already, stop blaming everything on covid.


ABK employees were praying for the acquisition to go thru, now they are out of jobs. Goodjob fellas. The grass is never green on the other side.


I'm guessing Ybarra didn't get the promotion he was promised so now he's leaving. Did you hear anything HeisenbergFX4 ?

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Oh, almost 2k. Crazy.

 

[Topher]

OK. That's doesn't disprove my point. This board was very anti-acquisition.

This board isn't a hive mind my man. Plenty of folks were pro-acquisition here. I know because I argued with them.

 

[ulantan]

Welcome home

 

[SHA]

So ms can't turn to 11 like spider man, enriching 5 hrs campaigns with "experience" is their best move yet.

 

[Del_X]

Pretty sure we're going to see more layoffs. Ubisoft had a few last year. EA has had a few hiccups. This is sort of a green light for other companies to trim fat.

 

[DKehoe]

Rough news. Good luck to all those affected. Hope they land on their feet.

 

[TheRedRiders]

Check up on your buddy HeisenbergFX4