Support NeoGAF

[Draugoth]

Microsoft is laying off more than 300 employees. A month after Microsoft laid off more than 6,000 people, it's doing another fresh round of cuts in Redmond, Washington. This time more than 300 have been affected, and I've heard some of those are in Microsoft's legal teams. I've spoken to nearly a dozen current employees and every single one of them is concerned about the ongoing layoffs. The random nature of these cuts and the fact Microsoft isn't doing them all in one go has really hit morale inside the company. I don't think the layoffs are over, either. I keep hearing that there will be Xbox-related layoffs soon, potentially by the end of the month.

https://www.theverge.com/notepad-mi...1/microsoft-signal-magazine-interview-notepad

 

[Astray]

Hope they manage to get back on their feet.

 

[adamsapple]

I keep hearing

Hope he heard wrong, sucks losing a job.

 

[winjer]

It's always the hire ups that make the bad decisions, but it's always the workers that pay the price.

 

[Punished Miku]

If it's legal, it's hard to not think it's AI related. White collar bloodbath incoming.

 

[LordCBH]

Don't perform as well as expected: layoffs
Perform as expected: layoffs
Perform better than expected: layoffs

What the fuck is the point lmao.

 

[Fake]

AI will replace all.

 

[Mr Moose]

RIP Compulsion/Ninja Theory.
Greenberg when?

 

[LordCBH]

If it's legal, it's hard to not think it's AI related. White collar bloodbath incoming.

I'm convinced we're a few years at best away from mass unemployment.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

The cost of winding down the Xbox console business.

Hope they land on their feet.

 

[Punished Miku]

I'm convinced we're a few years at best away from mass unemployment.

It's pretty grim.

 

[Viruz]

 

[DeepEnigma]

RIP Compulsion/Ninja Theory.
Greenberg when?

Lifer's in the boys club don't get the boot.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

 

[Zacfoldor]

If it's legal, it's hard to not think it's AI related. White collar bloodbath incoming.

In my mind this would be more related to their business failures than the boogieman that is AI.

As a business contracts or winds down redundancies are inevitable.

How did we sell people on hating AI? Was it really all just Terminator 2, normies hating deepfakes, and "they took our jerbs!?"

Granted getting fired and losing money sucks, but progress has ended jobs and started new ones as long as jobs have existed. AI is without a doubt the greatest tool mankind has ever created and it will improve all of our lives in the end so I'm just wondering why we hate it so much.

 

[kruis]

I'm convinced we're a few years at best away from mass unemployment.

The mass unemployment AI brings will completely destroy the west.. We've gone from manufacturing driven economies to service based economies and now AI is going to take over a huge percentage of those service jobs. Shit's completely fucked up.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I'm convinced we're a few years at best away from mass unemployment.

In a few years: consumption is down, why are people not buying?!

 

[Deerock71]

Team Xbox rn:

 

[Punished Miku]

In my mind this would be more related to their business failures than the boogieman that is AI.

As a business contracts or winds down, redundancies are inevitable.

How did we sell people on hating AI? Was it really all just Terminator 2 and "they took our jerbs."

Could easily be that. The reality is that they're going to shrink the Xbox division a bit if they're not a traditional 1st party anymore.

 

[Thief1987]

Well, I'm sure that they will tweet a picture with a message about how tough this decision was for them, it should be helpful

 

[Topher]

It's always the hire ups that make the bad decisions, but it's always the workers that pay the price.

Here come the "glad they are dumping dead weight" responses.

 

[LordCBH]

In a few years: consumption is down, why are people not buying?!

"Were we wrong? Was AI a mistake?"
ChatGPT: No AI was not a mistake.
"Oh ok thanks ChatGPT. Just wanted to make sure

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

AI will replace all.

you mean, Indian engineers?

 

[xrnzaaas]

I would say that Ninja Theory and Turn 10 are sweating, but this Microsoft after all... a year ago I'd be almost certain that they'll shut down NT considering how quickly Hellblade 2 was forgotten and how badly it performed outside of Game Pass (or even in Game Pass if you look at achievements related to progression).

 

[Punished Miku]

I would say that Ninja Theory and Turn 10 are sweating, but this Microsoft after all... a year ago I'd be almost certain that they'll shut down NT considering how quickly Hellblade 2 was forgotten and how badly it performed outside of Game Pass (or even in Game Pass if you look at achievements related to progression).

I don't see NT shutting down. They were working on that AI thing for the main MS briefing not that long ago. And we've seen hints of another project already. They operate lean and always have potential to put out top tier stuff. Guess we'll see.

 

[Raziel]

They saw the State of Play.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I would say that Ninja Theory and Turn 10 are sweating, but this Microsoft after all... a year ago I'd be almost certain that they'll shut down NT considering how quickly Hellblade 2 was forgotten and how badly it performed outside of Game Pass (or even in Game Pass if you look at achievements related to progression).

compulsion and Double Fine (toys for bob situation)

 

[Insanemaelstrom]

Considering how tango was shut soon after porting to ps5, I would be sweating if I was ninja theory.

But jokes aside, hope this rumour is fake. Losing a job sucks

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

They saw the State of Play.

And realized all those games were coming to PC so they are deciding to let 3rd party do the heavy lifting?

 

[mayham2199]

Granted getting fired and losing money sucks, but progress has ended jobs and started new ones as long as jobs have existed. AI is without a doubt the greatest tool mankind has ever created and it will improve all of our lives in the end so I'm just wondering why we hate it so much.

This is true but this also lead to people protesting and get angry about it. It always does even if the progress is inevitable.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Don't perform as well as expected: layoffs
Perform as expected: layoffs
Perform better than expected: layoffs

What the fuck is the point lmao.

 

[amigastar]

I'm convinced we're a few years at best away from mass unemployment.

The only guy who keeps his job is the one who resets when AI may freeze.

 

[gothmog]

I'm convinced we're a few years at best away from mass unemployment.

Most of these companies over hired (to the tune of thousands) during the pandemic. This was the unfortunate outcome.

 

[Artistic]

Best of luck.

You're appreciated.

 

[PauloRoberto]

Guys, let's not use AI as a excuse for everything. XBox division is lacking year after year after year... Does anyone really expects a different result ?! For Christ sake, we are talking about divison that closes a studio (in this case, Tango) and them ask the other studios to deliver the same kind of content, what the hell! If anyone from XBOX division is smart, this anyomne is already preparing to land with both feet and a good compensation package (it's is horrible to imagine this situation, but it is what it is... :-()

 

[BennyBlanco]

If it's legal, it's hard to not think it's AI related. White collar bloodbath incoming.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

We better not hear a bunch of people being fired at ID in the upcoming months.

 

[Sooner]

Yeah, I saw they let little chicken go. Hope adamsapple is okay.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Guys, let's not use AI as a excuse for everything. XBox division is lacking year after year after year... Does anyone really expects a different result ?! For Christ sake, we are talking about divison that closes a studio (in this case, Tango) and them ask the other studios to deliver the same kind of content, what the hell! If anyone from XBOX division is smart, this anyomne is already preparing to land with both feet and a good compensation package (it's is horrible to imagine this situation, but it is what it is... :-()

MS is an absolutely enormous company with 200k+ employees. If they're cutting from legal it is almost definitely AI related. Let's not use Xbox as an excuse for everything.

 

[Bernardougf]

And realized all those games were coming to PC so they are deciding to let 3rd party do the heavy lifting?

They discovered Sony genius plan of shows without first party getting As and praise.. so time to close some more studios.

 

[PauloRoberto]

MS is an absolutely enormous company with 200k+ employees. If they're cutting from legal it is almost definitely AI related. Let's not use Xbox as an excuse for everything.

i am, of course, talking about possible xbox related employee layouts.

 

[March Climber]

Don't perform as well as expected: layoffs
Perform as expected: layoffs
Perform better than expected: layoffs

What the fuck is the point lmao.

 

[Connificent]

Make games cheap again

 

[semiconscious]

AI will replace all.

if your job is computer/software based? inevitably. it's simply the nature of the beast...

 

[dragonyeuw]

It's always the hire ups that make the bad decisions, but it's always the workers that pay the price.

 

[Team Andromeda]

AI means massive job losses for millions of people IMO

 

[Rush2112]

LOL they fired their legal team after they helped them win the FTC case. Thanks for helping us win, we don't need you anymore. Bye!

 

[xrnzaaas]

I don't see NT shutting down. They were working on that AI thing for the main MS briefing not that long ago. And we've seen hints of another project already. They operate lean and always have potential to put out top tier stuff. Guess we'll see.

The problem I see with how they CURRENTLY operate is:
a) their next project takes a lot of time
b) there isn't much of the actual game after waiting for 5+ years

I'd love if they dropped the obsession with A/V and just went back to making games with gameplay as the main focus. I LOVED Enslaved and even liked DMC despite how much shit that reboot has received.

 

[Punished Miku]

The problem I see with how they CURRENTLY operate is:
a) their next project takes a lot of time
b) there isn't much of the actual game after waiting for 5+ years

I'd love if they dropped the obsession with A/V and just went back to making games with gameplay as the main focus. I LOVED Enslaved and even liked DMC despite how much shit that reboot has received.

Their next project may be further along. Project Mara was named years ago. Who knows. But yeah could go either way.

 

[Loomy]

If it's legal, it's hard to not think it's AI related. White collar bloodbath incoming.

Already happening. And we're absolutely not ready for it.

In my mind this would be more related to their business failures than the boogieman that is AI.

As a business contracts or winds down redundancies are inevitable.

How did we sell people on hating AI? Was it really all just Terminator 2, normies hating deepfakes, and "they took our jerbs!?"

Granted getting fired and losing money sucks, but progress has ended jobs and started new ones as long as jobs have existed. AI is without a doubt the greatest tool mankind has ever created and it will improve all of our lives in the end so I'm just wondering why we hate it so much.

If you lost your job because it was being replaced by someone else, you'd probably dislike that person. It is understandable that people whose jobs are being replaced by AI feel negatively towards it.

And yeah, all the AI and ML technologies and tools are great, but it's still going to have a massive impact on employment and no one who is championing it cares about that because it means they get to spend less on salary.

Imagine this scenario:
You work for 20 years in a specialized role. You're making ~ $150k a year. All of a sudden huge chunks of your job can be automated, so your team is cut in half. You lose your job. What do you think your chances of finding another job that pays close to that is?

Meta is reportedly looking to automate 90% of its risk management tasks. A lot of those people are going to lose their jobs. When other companies see Meta successfully do this, they're going to copy it, which means the market for that job disappears.

Again, AI is not the devil. Lots of amazing things are going to come out of it. But I think it's shortsighted to not consider the massive unemployment rates in highly skilled, highly specialized tech jobs that's going to hit us over the next few years.