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[TransTrender]

> buy 50 studios
> release zero good games
> fire thousands of people
> close 50 studios

What is this business strategy called?

Obligatory

 

[PauloRoberto]

There is no "more fair way" in meritocracy.
MS for sure loves it's money and if you can sell your work as pivotal for bringing in money, I'm sure you'll be fine even in the most toxic companies.
But point is not about internal MS culture, it's about that giving up your work, even if you think that's "it's unfair", is not a good decision when you still employed.

I never said anything remotely related to goving up work. You are putting words on my month. I said about working the bare minimum because, why will i try to finish something in 1 day instead of 2 if in the end, this won't matter? And if you believe that meritocracy is valid in a place that Phil Spencer still has a job, they you are not ust a fool, you live in a another world. BLock.

 

[Felessan]

I never said anything remotely related to goving up work. You are putting words on my month. I said about working the bare minimum because, why will i try to finish something in 1 day instead of 2 if in the end, this won't matter? And if you believe that meritocracy is valid in a place that Phil Spencer still has a job, they you are not ust a fool, you live in a another world. BLock.

You are too emotional, especially for someone who claim to work on meritocracy basis
Deliberately underperforming to bare minimum is what was suggested and it is giving up work. It's Italian strike and it's a fast way to get a red mark.
I never said that Phil performing on meritocracy basis - it's not how all companies or all departments operate. Or maybe he is and it's just Nadella valuation/expectations of merits is vastly different from ours. Merits valuation heavily depends on targets and goals and they might not align with customers wishes.
I work seriously and don't slack even after I handed resignation notice. Because you really never knows whom you'll meet in the future and it's always good to leave good impression on surrounding people even if the company is shit.

 

[thismeinteil]

Hol' up a minute.

"301 layoff starting Aug 1 and another 830 more employees go bye bye at the end of August."

Oh shit. Could be that some of that 830 are the ~150 Ninja Theory employees. Funny how some were bragging about these studio gets for MS, but are perfectly fine with those same studios closing down, now. Whatever Xbox/MS does is good.

 

[T-800]

Microsoft is a multinational company with over 220k employees. They're going to keep cutting.

Xbox's cuts, however, are going to get worse as time goes on, not better.

This. How is 1k even news. Ms sucks ofc duh.

 

[RCX]

They canned Romero… you do not stand a chance here unless you're Phil Spencer. He's bullet proof.

I'll take that bet.

Phil will "retire" by mid 2026 after some careful "encouragement" from MS corp

 

[Evil Calvin]

For those that don't know, the WARN act requires any company that employs over 100 to submit notification of intent to layoff individuals. As well as when they're notified, amount of employees and date.

Worker adjustment and retraining notification (WARN) layoff and closure database | Employment Security Department

esd.wa.gov

301 layoff starting Aug 1 and another 830 more employees go bye bye at the end of August

You can also see the confirmed layoffs from beginning of July of over 1900

Gaming division or Microsoft? They have 228,000 employees overall.

 

[Boss Man]

Artificial intelligence is decimating programmer jobs rapidly.

None of those jobs are being replaced by AI. The "big secret" in big tech right now is that it's unlikely that they ever will be (at least not with LLM technology). At the same time, stock performance is tied to how sold investors are on AI.

The layoffs are mostly due to over hiring during COVID and AI spend (not usage). It's in their best interest to say, "Our outlook for growth hasn't changed, AI is just going to reduce costs." To be clear, AI will boost productivity it's just more likely to be something like a 10% boost, not automating the industry.

The impact of LLMs on software development so far is that it's easier than using google, and dev tools are now capable of (bad) predictive autocomplete on a line-by-line basis.

For very simple, very well defined tasks, AI might be able to generate a working prototype. For anything else, you're holding its hand and if you want to force AI to do it it's more work than just doing it yourself. It's also not very good at completing tasks in the context of an existing system.

You might think, "Well the technology is advancing rapidly though." but the ChatGPT breakthrough in 2022 was a breakthrough using a specific technology (LLM) that has a hard ceiling. Think of the jump from 2021 -> 2022 vs the jump from 2022 -> 2025. It has barely even gotten noticeably "smarter" at all, just some better tools have been created around it. Fundamentally, it is very advanced auto-complete not a thinking machine. The quest for AGI might end up looking like the quest for video game photorealism. Always right around the corner, but never close in hindsight.

tl;dr
AI is a powerful new tool that everyone should learn in the same way that they learned to use computers, but its ability to automate jobs is overstated (until completely new, non-LLM breakthroughs emerge, but that could be anywhere from 1-100 years). In most cases where AI can replace a human, it requires another human using the AI.

Maybe the sudden emergence of powerful LLMs offered the general public some credence to the fears of eventual AI replacement that went largely ignored until recently.

 

[laynelane]

remember when there is people who claim Microsoft would 'fix' those company their acquired and make it better?

Yeah, it was a big talking point during the acquisition process. Still amazes me that people, with MS' history fully public knowledge, bought that bullshit.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Yeah, it was a big talking point during the acquisition process. Still amazes me that people, with MS' history fully public knowledge, bought that bullshit.

I still have a grudge on them for Nokia.

 

[laynelane]

Hopefully, the dude who told people to use AI for emotional support last time doesn't post again.

Sad news - expected but still sad. Current employees must be so stressed with the frequency and number of these layoffs.

 

[ecosse_011172]

scumbag company.
I'll be happy to dump my series x and never give them a penny again

 

[poodaddy]

Maybe that's all part of Satya's Keikaku.
People lower productivity to bare minimum - makes AI boost % look even larger. Flawless.

......plan. Just say plan.

Jesus Christ Internet people are weird.

 

[Jigsaah]

If these layoffs continue to hit the gaming studios this is starting to feel like Microsoft is just going through the process to eventually pull the plug on gaming. Rounds and rounds of layoffs. Cancelled projects (though some were justifiable, cough Everwild cough). Major AI investment...a la NVIDIA (who also seems to be giving gaming a backseat). Whoring the brand out to whoever would agree to make a device with them....ROG, META and games with Playstation. Xbox bosses essentially losing more and more power to make decisions. Full on Third party to help sustain themselves at the alter that is Gamepass.

Sad part is, the tech industry would obviously be the first hit when it comes to AI taking jobs, but it's just a signal as what's to come for pretty much every other industry. Next 5-10 years is gonna be tragic

 

[rm082e]

None of those jobs are being replaced by AI. The "big secret" in big tech right now is that it's unlikely that they ever will be (at least not with LLM technology). At the same time, stock performance is tied to how sold investors are on AI.

The layoffs are mostly due to over hiring during COVID and AI spend (not usage). It's in their best interest to say, "Our outlook for growth hasn't changed, AI is just going to reduce costs." To be clear, AI will boost productivity it's just more likely to be something like a 10% boost, not automating the industry.

The impact of LLMs on software development so far is that it's easier than using google, and dev tools are now capable of (bad) predictive autocomplete on a line-by-line basis.

For very simple, very well defined tasks, AI might be able to generate a working prototype. For anything else, you're holding its hand and if you want to force AI to do it it's more work than just doing it yourself. It's also not very good at completing tasks in the context of an existing system.

You might think, "Well the technology is advancing rapidly though." but the ChatGPT breakthrough in 2022 was a breakthrough using a specific technology (LLM) that has a hard ceiling. Think of the jump from 2021 -> 2022 vs the jump from 2022 -> 2025. It has barely even gotten noticeably "smarter" at all, just some better tools have been created around it. Fundamentally, it is very advanced auto-complete not a thinking machine. The quest for AGI might end up looking like the quest for video game photorealism. Always right around the corner, but never close in hindsight.

tl;dr
AI is a powerful new tool that everyone should learn in the same way that they learned to use computers, but its ability to automate jobs is overstated (until completely new, non-LLM breakthroughs emerge, but that could be anywhere from 1-100 years). In most cases where AI can replace a human, it requires another human using the AI.

Maybe the sudden emergence of powerful LLMs offered the general public some credence to the fears of eventual AI replacement that went largely ignored until recently.

I manage a small dev team filled with seniors at a private company. What you said here is exactly what we've been seeing. It's helped them boost their productivity by shortening the loop on a few things here and there. But as a group of people maintaining, improving, and making small feature additions to an established SaaS application, AI has not been a game changer.

We also looked at it from the management angle and found it's not really much help there for someone in a role like mine that's focused on project management and coordination across different departments. I don't need help writing emails.

 

[yogaflame]

Strange that is MS xbox boast that they get allot of profit especially from xbox games sales on Ps5, then why is there allot of job cuts in MS xbox? Even VP Vance already noticed what is happening to MS.

 

[RickMasters]

Meanwhile, in the real world:

Two major AI coding tools wiped out user data after making cascading mistakes

“I have failed you completely and catastrophically,” wrote Gemini.

arstechnica.com

In the real world people are losing their jobs to AI. Some are literally training their own replacements unintentionally. That is the unfortunate reality.

 

[RickMasters]

Microsofts Future staff meetings.

May aswell throw every big tech company in there. They are going all in on AI where it can cut costs.

 

[nowhat]

In the real world people are losing their jobs to AI. Some are literally training their own replacements unintentionally. That is the unfortunate reality.

Right, and it's incredibly short-sighted. Current LLMs always require verification, because they can and do "hallucinate", making them pretty much pointless. Get back to me when we have GAI of reasonable capability.

(no, it's not coming next year)

 

[thismeinteil]

If these layoffs continue to hit the gaming studios this is starting to feel like Microsoft is just going through the process to eventually pull the plug on gaming. Rounds and rounds of layoffs. Cancelled projects (though some were justifiable, cough Everwild cough). Major AI investment...a la NVIDIA (who also seems to be giving gaming a backseat). Whoring the brand out to whoever would agree to make a device with them....ROG, META and games with Playstation. Xbox bosses essentially losing more and more power to make decisions. Full on Third party to help sustain themselves at the alter that is Gamepass.

Sad part is, the tech industry would obviously be the first hit when it comes to AI taking jobs, but it's just a signal as what's to come for pretty much every other industry. Next 5-10 years is gonna be tragic

I doubt they'll pull the plug on gaming completely, but they are definitely going to downsize. Most likely down til the have just a handful of studios developing a handful of their biggest IPs and that's it. Just Halo, COD, Elder Scrolls, etc. Everything else will be too small potatoes for MS.

 

[Valonquar]

Could MS please NOT completely implode for like another 10 years so I can retire without having to rethink my entire career?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

. ...

 

[Kumomeme]

Yeah, it was a big talking point during the acquisition process. Still amazes me that people, with MS' history fully public knowledge, bought that bullshit.

i literaly scoffed when i read those claims. MS cant even handle their own first party studio for decade. one of main reason of the acquisitions also due to their own studios arent ready. how can they suddenly fix others? this logic is either never crossed their mind or just simply never want to be acknowledged due to severe fanboyism.

but Microsoft indeed defying my expectation. i dont expect it would be this BAD.