Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
That happened last year already
Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees
The cuts primarily affect Activision Blizzard employees.
www.theverge.com
Bloomberg: Microsoft Plans Major Job Cuts at Xbox Gaming Division
- Thread starter Thick Thighs Save Lives
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www.theverge.com
VolticArchangel
Member
So, a $70 billion+ acquisition(s) comes with 4+ mass layoffs (probably more coming in the future), in excess of 10,000+ people being out a job, than the ones who initiated those acquisitions, in a span of just a couple of years beyond the close.
Got it.
Sven Vincke, from Larian, gave this speech last year at The Game Awards, exactly for these morons.
And these dumbasses had a front row seat.
Got it.
Sven Vincke, from Larian, gave this speech last year at The Game Awards, exactly for these morons.
And these dumbasses had a front row seat.
RetroGamingUK
Member
I guarantee in a few years Activision will be COD and nothing else.
Fake
Member
ThatOneGrunt
Member
Oops. Fuck me. Missed that one. I wonder if there will be more?That happened last year already
Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees
The cuts primarily affect Activision Blizzard employees.
Buggy Loop
Member
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Seeing some people saying MS should/could spin off the Xbox division. Wouldn't that just mainly be the hardware side? I strongly doubt MS would want to give their gaming IP to a spinoff, or lock licensing rights exclusively to said spinoff.
Without the IP or a strong global hardware presence, an Xbox spinoff wouldn't be worth much, and I doubt Microsoft would pump that much funding into it. OEMs would likely lose interest in making hardware variants as a result, since they won't put in money Microsoft themselves wouldn't want to put into it. Unless these new Xbox devices really hit it out of the park and sell bucket loads, there's nothing much of value an Xbox spinoff with just the hardware could bring to the market.
It'd basically go the way of Turbo Technologies; a spinoff desperately hoping to push excess of hardware and getting little to no funding from the parent company because they can't produce a substantive profit, but part of the reason they're unable to produce a profit is because they don't have enough funding to sell the hardware. On and on it'd go, until the spinoff just shuts down. Plus, I imagine if these Xbox devices do in fact sell very well, Microsoft would be more inclined to keep the hardware side versus spinning it off into a separate entity.
I doubt any of that would've worked. ABK was just too big a purchase to try mass foreclosure strategies with. Zenimax? Sure. In fact, that was the plan initially with Zenimax and it could've worked if Starfied were a better game, if stuff like Deathloop & Ghostwire were Xbox exclusives at launch, if RedFall weren't a complete piece of shit etc. That might've given more leeway to make some of the ABK titles exclusive while doing early access/DLC content exclusivity on bigger IP like COD to Xbox vs. PlayStation. After all, regulators already said they didn't care about foreclosure of COD on PlayStation (well, the CMA and EC said that, anyway).
But since none of that happened, since other XGS games either flopped (Forza Motorsport, Hellblade II etc.) or went MIA (maybe even internally cancelled & rebooted, like with Everwild), since Halo Infinite was a disappointment and so on, all of that compounded into nullifying any real strategy to use ABK titles as leverage to push Xbox hardware exclusively. MS simply made too many mistakes in rapid succession so, by the time the deal looked like it was going to go through, they took off the kids gloves and put on the big boy pants. Had a real talk about what could realistically be done given all the money sunk in the purchase.
And that's why they're doing what they're doing today.
Without the IP or a strong global hardware presence, an Xbox spinoff wouldn't be worth much, and I doubt Microsoft would pump that much funding into it. OEMs would likely lose interest in making hardware variants as a result, since they won't put in money Microsoft themselves wouldn't want to put into it. Unless these new Xbox devices really hit it out of the park and sell bucket loads, there's nothing much of value an Xbox spinoff with just the hardware could bring to the market.
It'd basically go the way of Turbo Technologies; a spinoff desperately hoping to push excess of hardware and getting little to no funding from the parent company because they can't produce a substantive profit, but part of the reason they're unable to produce a profit is because they don't have enough funding to sell the hardware. On and on it'd go, until the spinoff just shuts down. Plus, I imagine if these Xbox devices do in fact sell very well, Microsoft would be more inclined to keep the hardware side versus spinning it off into a separate entity.
I doubt any of that would've worked. ABK was just too big a purchase to try mass foreclosure strategies with. Zenimax? Sure. In fact, that was the plan initially with Zenimax and it could've worked if Starfied were a better game, if stuff like Deathloop & Ghostwire were Xbox exclusives at launch, if RedFall weren't a complete piece of shit etc. That might've given more leeway to make some of the ABK titles exclusive while doing early access/DLC content exclusivity on bigger IP like COD to Xbox vs. PlayStation. After all, regulators already said they didn't care about foreclosure of COD on PlayStation (well, the CMA and EC said that, anyway).
But since none of that happened, since other XGS games either flopped (Forza Motorsport, Hellblade II etc.) or went MIA (maybe even internally cancelled & rebooted, like with Everwild), since Halo Infinite was a disappointment and so on, all of that compounded into nullifying any real strategy to use ABK titles as leverage to push Xbox hardware exclusively. MS simply made too many mistakes in rapid succession so, by the time the deal looked like it was going to go through, they took off the kids gloves and put on the big boy pants. Had a real talk about what could realistically be done given all the money sunk in the purchase.
And that's why they're doing what they're doing today.
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Kacho
Member
Buggy Loop
Member
ID Software
Machine Games
Compulsion Games
Ninja Theory
Machine Games
Compulsion Games
Ninja Theory
ReBurn
Gold Member
When they put your face on a cookie you can do anything you want
II_JumPeR_I
Member
Would explain the lack of full Localization from games like Avowed and upcoming stuff like Outer worlds 2
GHG
Member
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Utterly absolute cown.
ID Software
Machine Games
Compulsion Games
Ninja Theory
Add inXile and Turn 10 to that list, too.
Buggy Loop
Member
I would assume that a studio who recently dropped a game would be more in danger than one with on-going projects, they can't be that dumb, can they?
yogaflame
Member
Job cuts is always sad except if it's just cleaning up mistakes from twisted DEI by removing leftist imposing and pushing some crap agendas. It is not Sony PlayStation fault if Sony is winning. Same with Nintendo. Sony PS may have been polarizing sometimes especially with there gaas blunders and a few woke and dei crap on some games, but still they give us excellent & award winning exclusives and the PS hardware itself are very good. PS already a planted allot of good seed in the past which made the roots strong even with some blunders. PS brand and also Nintendo brand are already pop culture thing with allot of loyal and patient fans. Xbox alienated and turn-off so many fans, and they wasted all there gains from xbox 360 era.
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Baemono
Member
Didn't he say Xbox killed VR ?
HeisenbergFX4
Member
That was so last week (or whenever it was)
He has new marching orders now so its good now
Klayzer
Member
Turn 10, is one of their core developers. I doubt that they are any kind of danger.
PlayStaytion
Member
AI past forward to the future will basically make it's clients eat themselves alive. AI isn't anyone's friend.Saw that AI threat when I was in the London tube last year. They're really desperate
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Jaybe
Member
I'll preface this with, while I think they could spin-off the Gaming division as its own company, I doubt think it's probable near-term.
If they were, it would likely be both the development studios and IP, and likely the hardware / ecosystem. If it were to be simply one of those that would be the studios and IP for the large franchises.
Unfortunately for MSFT video gaming is low growth relative to AI/cloud and weights on their quarterly reports. Gaming is also a lower margin business too. The elements that make one successful in entertainment differ from business services.
The hardware and OS and ecosystem/storefronts (and cloud initiatives) seem synergistic with Microsoft overall though so I'm not sure that would be divested/spunoff.
All this is theoretical though. It doesn't seem like there is a lot of value to unlock by spinning the Gaming division off and it's not like MSFT is short on cash that they require what a spinoff could generate. It's more about separating entertainment and its business model from a technology/business services business model.
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Loomy
Thinks Microaggressions are Real
There was at least 1 more multi hundred person round of layoffs last year. And yeah, there's going to be more.
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LordCBH
Member
There's a shit ton of things Jez doesn't know. Like, everything not given in the form of marching orders from Phil's golden bunghole.
Insanemaelstrom
Member
Forza is now forza horizon. Playground games is now the defecto for forza franchise
The last horizon game was played by 40 million people, the last motorsport failed to reach top 10 in npd in its launch month. I feel turn 10 is definitely at risk of layoffs( not studio closure).
VAVA Mk2
Member
The courts would not have allowed the merger if they kept Activision stuff exclusive.
Klayzer
Member
Can't really disagree with anything. Playground is a very talented studio.
Sad but true, yes. Plus MS gaming wants an ROI.
SweetTooth
Banned
That would have been $70B saved and people keeping their jobs.
Miyazaki’s Slave
Gold Member
They already have the content…which is what they wanted.
Now then can break all that up into nice little subscription packages for their core users, license content packages to other platforms (Luna, Netflix, whatever is in China), and start making "augmented" new content based on their absolutely gigantic back catalogue.
Mission(s) accomplished.
Now then can break all that up into nice little subscription packages for their core users, license content packages to other platforms (Luna, Netflix, whatever is in China), and start making "augmented" new content based on their absolutely gigantic back catalogue.
Mission(s) accomplished.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
yes. Unless they fire 10-12k people. but i think the reports were taking around 2k
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Competent? It's hard for me to call a studio competent that takes over 6 years to make a 2.5 hour game.
cash_longfellow
Member
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Xbox just has no idea what it's doing.
semiconscious
Member
i've heard that sony's asked ms if they'd shut down media molecule for them while they're at it...
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Pasta la Vista
Member
Again again? I'm really starting to lose track here, thought we just had this happen like a month ago?
Thats incredibly naive. As someone who's used it at work even the small amount t we used it on rewriting policies saved weeks of work. And we are a tiny company. Imagine at scale what these things are gonna do.
StereoVsn
Gold Member
I was literally in meetings with MS, Anthropic and OpenAI last week where they were pitching staff reductions as benefit of their AI services.
Look at current hiring drop off for college grads in white color positions and for lower end of experience curve in general. It's a shit show and we are only starting.
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Hudo
Member
They already cut Kotick
A quick search shows that many companies are already replacing employees. You can't manage a company and be the last to adopt. Its absolutely gonna be a huge influence on hiring and already is in fact. From the search...
AI technology:
Klarna: Replaced roles with an AI assistant that handles the workload equivalent to 700 full-time employees.
UPS: Announced layoffs and indicated the use of new technologies, including machine learning, to automate tasks, suggesting a role for automation in reducing the need for certain positions.
Duolingo: Terminated contracts for 10% of its contractor workforce, citing a pivot to AI for content translation, signifying a shift towards AI-driven content creation.
Intuit: Laid off employees and stated the savings would be reinvested in AI technology to automate tasks like customer support and data analysis.
Cisco: Announced layoffs as part of a strategic pivot toward AI and cybersecurity, with AI tools handling tasks like network monitoring and troubleshooting.
IBM: Laid off employees, with some HR workers replaced by AI agents for repetitive tasks.
This is just the 1st stuff that came up but I heard of many more. Its just the tip of the iceberg.
PauloRoberto
Member
The fact that some users here are ignoring the post-pandemic tech job boom and thinking that AI pure and simple is stealing jobs and there is nothing related to companies adjusting/cutting positions because of bad management and or market conditions is laughable. Let's wait 2 years and see how many jobs will be recreated because AI is useless without GOOD people.
Ass of Can Whooping
Member
The biggest threat to jobs is an AI indian
MayauMiao
Member
RIP Compulsion and Ninja Theory
This is the real life version of the dog house on fire meme.
Because that's what they want to believe.
Zacfoldor
Member
The only studio that I know must be safe is Obsidian. Avowed was pretty good and Grounded 2 has hype. The studio is already pretty small, so no big savings by laying off an efficiently ran(also woke) developer. Obsidian earned their keep. Everybody else, hold on to your butts.
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