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Microsoft has instructed Xbox social media accounts to go dark today to avoid criticism

Bernoulli

Bernoulli

M2 slut
GHG said:
@DarkMage619 nod twice if you've been silenced.
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Last post August 2023

Last seen Today at 5:44 PM · Viewing thread PS5 Pro at $700: ‘Lack of Competition’ Made It an ‘Easier Decision’ for Sony to Run With Higher Price

Homer Watching GIF
 
O

onQ123

Member
HeisenbergFX4 said:
I find this interesting because I will repost what I posted last night in the thread talking about Xbox next move
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I wanted to tell you that the weather had changed after they spoke of the next Xbox but didn't get much of a response.


They are too invested to backout but I think the focus will be on getting all this software in the hands of people who doesn't own a Xbox. Portal is their biggest threat
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Lol.

Thats video game employees and companies for ya. The company knows a firing spat will lead to a gazillion employees airing it out on Twitter. Complete with uploading and company memos for everyone to see.

I have never worked at a company who had tell employees to not go on social media to talk about layoffs. People just know to not do it.
 
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Killjoy-NL

Killjoy-NL

Member
Varteras said:
Out in 2026 at $999 and strangely the price tag will be "understandable" because "it's basically a high-end PC".
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Would be the dumbest thing they could do.

It would be right in between PS5 Pro and PS6 and automatically would make the PS5 Pro seem cheaper, which will also play Xbox games.
Practically turning PS5 Pro into a low-end nextbox.
 
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Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
Draugoth Draugoth here is the full article if you want to add it to the OP

In a week when Xbox fans were hoping to hear a response from Microsoft to the PS5 Pro, the software giant is making a third round of gaming layoffs instead. 650 employees at Microsoft’s gaming business are being laid off, part of continued cuts at Xbox after Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft cut 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox jobs earlier this year and then shuttered four studios it acquired as part of its $7.5 billion Bethesda acquisition in May. Thankfully, Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks was eventually saved from Microsoft’s shutdown after Krafton, the South Korean publisher behind PUBG: Battlegrounds and The Callisto Protocol, acquired the Japanese studio from Microsoft instead.

Xbox chief Phil Spencer announced the latest layoffs to employees in an internal memo, seen by The Verge, at 3AM PT this morning. The cuts are part of the continued restructuring around the Activision Blizzard deal, and “no games, devices or experiences are being canceled,” says Spencer. Unlike prior layoffs, no studios are being closed this time, either. The 650 job cuts will primarily impact “corporate and supporting functions,” according to Spencer, meaning cuts to HR and marketing roles.

The big question is when these Xbox cuts will end. Employees have been bracing for these cuts for days, as word of imminent layoffs started circulating internally recently. I understand that Microsoft is even going dark on social media today, instructing Xbox employees to cancel scheduled posts. Last time Microsoft announced Xbox job cuts, it still launched a fiery-themed controller with a “feel the burn” slogan that generated backlash both publicly and inside of Microsoft. Lots of employees expressed their dissatisfaction over the Xbox controller announcement mistake in posts on Microsoft’s employee-only messaging board at the time.

The continued cuts are having a big impact on morale, according to several Xbox employees I’ve spoken to recently. Some are worried about potential cuts to studios in the future, and most employees I’ve talked to are straight-up confused about Microsoft’s overall gaming strategy.
These latest cuts come amid a continued shake-up after the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Without that acquisition, gaming revenue at Microsoft would have been down 4 percent in the recent quarter, and the additional Activision Blizzard revenue is also helping boost Xbox content and services revenues. With Game Pass subscription growth slowing and Xbox Series S / X sales stalling, Microsoft has turned to bringing some of its Xbox-exclusive games to PlayStation as a way to generate more revenue. It’s a strategy that has a lot of people confused right now, and Microsoft has even been struggling to explain it to employees for months.

Ultimately, for Microsoft’s gaming business, it’s the debt of acquiring Activision Blizzard that’s forcing the division to look at bringing more Xbox games to PlayStation. “We run a business,” admitted Spencer recently, responding to a question about Xbox games on PlayStation during Gamescom. “It’s definitely true inside of Microsoft that the bar is high for us in terms of the delivery that we have to give back to the company because we get a level of support from the company that’s just amazing and [helps] what we’re able to go do.”

Sources tell me Microsoft is banking on Call of Duty on Game Pass to shift the needle for its subscription numbers and help grow its gaming revenues. There had been a long debate internally over whether to put this year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 release on the service, and the company is now gambling that it will help improve Game Pass subscriber numbers amid a busy holiday season for new Xbox games and a promising year ahead.

While the results of the Call of Duty bet won’t be felt until next year, Xbox employees are certainly hoping that the gaming layoffs of 2024 are a thing of the past for 2025.
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DAHGAMING

DAHGAMING

Member
HeisenbergFX4 said:
I don't think its the end of Xbox hardware as I would bet a huge amount of money its not

Its just the end of me being able to tease shit, at least for now

But just as I type this I also wouldn't be shocked in the least if Phil tweets Xbox is in fact ending hardware production
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This post had me feeling like a kid at Christmas who has just got all the toys he ever wanted, only for Jolly old Santa Clause to come back and fucking take them all away.


These boys are gunna chuck this next gen hybrid shit in the bin and go full cock out on a handheld instead, giving it the big-un about hooking it up to tv ect.
 
Daneel Elijah

Daneel Elijah

Member
Killjoy-NL said:
Would be the dumbest thing they could do.

It would be right in between PS5 Pro and PS6 and automatically would make the PS5 Pro seem cheaper, which will also play Xbox games.
Practically turning PS5 Pro into a low-end nextbox.
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With Gamepass Xbox can't stop putting games on the Series S and probably will have a "crossgen" of 2 years at least. Any game made with the S in mind will not be using their next console well. And the PS6 would kill it just after that, dreamcast style. In theory.
I used to talk about how the PS6 will came 2 years after the Xbox and kill it in price/performance easily while using the PS5 market share to make gamers wait, but honestly I changed my mind since. With crossgen being a necessary evil, having a high performance console from Xbox regardless of how they do it and push the industry to move forward, will help us in the long term. If they find a way to make it work, great. If not hopefully Sony won't fuck up and will still give us great games in the next decade. And maybe Nintendo will use the death of Moore law to get closer in power and have in 1 or 2 gen a great console that will play games good enough fro 4k tvs. As for the people that lost their jobs, I hope that by the time Xbox need to rehire people the industry find a way to fight back.
 
HeisenbergFX4

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
DAHGAMING said:
This post had me feeling like a kid at Christmas who has just got all the toys he ever wanted, only for Jolly old Santa Clause to come back and fucking take them all away.


These boys are gunna chuck this next gen hybrid shit in the bin and go full cock out on a handheld instead, giving it the big-un about hooking it up to tv ect.
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both GIF
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
LQX said:
MS always seem to find a way to make things worse. It's so fucking weird.
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Cutting cost is not necessarily worse. We all know they are shrinking to a much, much smaller footprint in the industry with whatever they decide to do with hardware. Sounds like from what little info we have, they're laying off non-development portions of Activision, which would make it mostly redundant. Then they told people to not post anything dumb today. Also not making things worse. Personally, I'd rather they cut 650 jobs from their 3rd redundant publishing arm that aren't needed rather than raise the cost for consumers.
 
DeepEnigma

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Punished Miku said:
Cutting cost is not necessarily worse. We all know they are shrinking to a much, much smaller footprint in the industry with whatever they decide to do with hardware. Sounds like from what little info we have, they're laying off non-development portions of Activision, which would make it mostly redundant. Then they told people to not post anything dumb today. Also not making things worse. Personally, I'd rather they cut 650 jobs from their 3rd redundant publishing arm that aren't needed rather than raise the cost for consumers.
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Translation:

"I'd rather people lose their jobs that I deem redundant for the almighty trillion dollar corporation buying up these companies and then cutting them lose, than raise 1 cent on my little boy toys!"

Straight corpo kowtowing sociopath.

But here is the kicker, they have been raising prices this gen, still.
 
Klayzer

Klayzer

Member
DeepEnigma said:
Translation:

"I'd rather people lose their jobs that I deem redundant for the almighty trillion dollar corporation buying up these companies and then cutting them lose, than raise 1 cent on my little boy toys!"

Straight corpo kowtowing sociopath.

But here is the kicker, they have been raising prices this gen, still.
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Savage.
 
O

onQ123

Member
adamsapple said:
Maybe they're getting ready to have an announcement and don't want people leaking.

Series was announced at The Game Awards too, afterall.
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They are the ones that started talking about the next Xbox out of the blue when trying to calm people down after it was leaked that Xbox games were coming to PS5 they wanted people talking about the next Xbox but it didn't get much traction.
 
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