More Job Losses At Xbox, “There’s More To Come”: Paul Thurrott

Paul Thurrott in a recent episode commented on the on-going Microsoft fiasco hinting at more job losses and that "there's more to come".

[Sonic1881]

There won't be no more acquiring game publishers from Microsoft in the future . Xbox has to pay Microsoft back. It might take two decades to do that.

[sagapo]

I don’t understand what you’re saying. Xbox IS microsoft so there’s no “paying back “.
And MS gross profit in 2023 was over 140 billion dollars so forget your 2 decades.

Unless you mean the money MS invested in Xbox (acquisitions included) and the time it will take for xbox as a brand to gain that money back on it’s own, then yeah, that could take a while.

[romulus23]

The better term to use might be return on investment, xbox is simply a division of Microsoft one that MS can easily do away with if profit margins are not met. So in that regard he's right, if xbox isn't showing the expected return on investment the higher ups are expecting than it's unlikely Microsoft will acquire any other studios any time soon, especially if they are spending billions buying developers just to shut them down in the end.

[MrBaskerville]

Xbox is a division that they discussed shutting down but doubled down on after Gamepass was pitched.

It needs to make money at some point. Big money.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

So you do understand it or..?

[rokos]

According to Statista the net income of Microsoft is about $72.4 billion dollars which is a bit lower than last year profit. That is almost as much as Activision's acquisition but I assume that would be a one off since it costs so much plus I see how their focus has been shifted to AI, thus any major future investments will probably be in that area.

[Markusb33]

i think you are really missing the point

[VariantAEC]

@romulus23
That is not why MS buys studios. They might continue to buy because it's about taking that sweet sweet IP out of the corporate husks of their acquisitions.

[SonyStyled]

“There won't be no more acquiring game publishers from Microsoft in the future”

No bro, there do be is for Microsoft not acquiring for what is now if not what it be is 😂

[ChasterMies]

Xbox isn’t a separate company from Microsoft. It’s all Microsoft.

[Abear21]

Let’s be real, this is the media spinning all the acquisitions and liquidations of said developers and spinning it to make M$ the villain.

This was bound to happen, a bigger slice of pie and cut costs, when the games come they stand to make more and that’s their agenda—it was the writing on the wall when the sales went through and legally all those who approved the sale and mergers knew this would happen.

Snowflakes need to realize business is ugly and you can cry all you want but this is how capitalism works. And it works.

That said, M$ needs to steer the narrative and grab hold of all this, make their plans known, hype the hell out of all those dead IP’s they plan to revive, and be honest about the timeline. This is likely to involve mobile and IP on other consoles, and most people realize that.

The problem is this company is incapable of being transparent and seems to often want to dissuade and confuse is customer base. The lack of E3 has hurt Microsoft and I don’t think they know how to properly or effectively market their brand anymore.

[jwillj2k4]

There really needs to be a class action lawsuit here. You buy these companies just to put people out of jobs. And it’s not like something happened to derail their plans this WAS the plan. Microsoft has no business in this space at all.

[franwex]

Microsoft has been doing this for years. They simply want the IPs. Look at Nokia. Look at Skype. This time it simply expanded to games. Gaming is not as important to Microsoft’s executives as it was to the founders too. Bill Gates was willing to sell the og Xbox at a loss. Steve Balmer approved the red ring of death fiasco. This CEO isn’t really a gamer.

[-Foxtrot]

Maybe it's time though to put a stop to it and use a big giant like Microsoft as a huge example to the rest of these big companies.

There has to be a line drawn somewhere.

People like the FTC and the like went against Microsoft yet their Actvision deal was still allowed to go through yet look what's happened...it's not even Acitivisions studios aswell, it's Bethesdas.

[franwex]

@Fox

Agreed.

[VariantAEC]

Years?

Try several decades, and in the gaming space 2.3 decades.

[Jon61586]

You do realize this happens in ALL industries? Or are you just saying this because it is Microsoft? In any case I feel for those that are being let go but the trch industry is suffering right now.

[jwillj2k4]

This absolutely does NOT happen all the time. Let me know the last time 1 company with a terrible product track record spent 100 billion onto acquire MULTIPLE successful companies in under a year only to shut them down and stop making their products regardless of how successful they were. Not merge them, completely shut them down.

And you can’t use Microsoft in your example.

[Notellin]

Class action lawsuit? The law is on their side and protects them at all costs. There are no rules to protect the people at the bottom.

[jwillj2k4]

Not true when it comes to mass layoff do your research.

[RNTody]

Ninja Theory, Perfect Dark, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Wolfenstein 3, Dishonored, Prey, Doom, Quake... something tells me that bad things are going to happen to these entities under Microsoft.

[MrDead]

ID software, the makers of Doom and Wolfenstein that have been with us since 1991 could be gone and MS will keep the IPs.

I hope some of these studios can buy their freedom from MS otherwise this is going to be even more devastating for the industry and gamers.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

That's exactly what I'm worried about. I've been a fan of id since Wolfenstein 3D and I'm honestly afraid.

[lodossrage]

Toys for Bob saw the writing on the wall and bought themselves out.

Wouldn't be the first time a company did that under MS either. Bungie and Twisted Pixel did the same. Considering what just happened, I can see some other devs trying to buy themselves out too.

[anast]

Good thing the bosses of all those small studios made their money.

[glenn1979]

they cant do it right now they will get burned

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Phil and his team need to be gone

[lodossrage]

Won't make a difference.

The whole structure needs to be overhauled. Anyone that replaces Phil will be no different than him, Mattrick, or anyone else.

Until the company changes how they go about business, nothing will change

[glenn1979]

I just don't have any idea what they would do , they have done sooo much damage on their xbox brand, they have a show at July or June I think, but will it even matter even they show amazing games, idkn

[lodossrage]

True,

But they may as well get it over with. Whether it happens now or later, the burning is going to hit the same.

Reality is the ONE move that can alleviate a lot of this is the one move they can't make. Remove day 1 from gamepass.

[Knightofelemia]

Lose your job and a CEO and other higher ups get a pay raise or a big bonus.

[thorstein]

The very definition of evil.

[VariantAEC]

Try bad or even downright dumb business. Calling it "evil" is just ridiculous. Not everything can be evil you just dilute the word.

[purple101]

obscure has not commented for 22days now, he must be on a holiday

[jznrpg]

He’s on the alt accounts

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Jeez more destruction from Microsoft coming our way.

[VariantAEC]

We tried to warn everyone in favor of these buy-outs.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

“Like I said, you spend that much money, you now have a top heavy staff in this part of the company,” Paul said. “Obviously there’s going to be consolidation, that is going to result in job losses.”

This website is dumb. Nobody here knows how business works.

[Father__Merrin]

They are a business not a charity to fulfil xbox fans desires. If it's not doing that well they will have to cut back

[gold_drake]

its just such a shame.
this didnt need to happen but MS couldnt help themselves.

[MrBaskerville]

Feels like the Embracer situation, only MS isn't publicly announcing it. Maybe not as dire, but feels like they are making big changes.

[8bitAssassin]

I would drop game pass en masse. They don't care about the developers, and they don't care about the franchises. WAKE UP and look what they're doing. You may say a game sucks, but at least with other studios the game was safe from being lost forever.

Think about this. Microsoft has how much disposable income, yet they don't get behind their games to be larger than life. Instead we are getting unfinished downgrades from conception to completion.

[Doomeduk]

It's a battle for monthly subscriptions and the truth is households choose to trim the fat from the home budget
Lockdowns are over my PSN Spotify netflix and Disney subscriptions had to be trimmed as I'm hardly home now so it was Netflix sacrificed,as for 2 gaming subs no damn way
You want £15/month Xbox for what exactly?

[Tankbusta40]

Gamepass has its ups and downs....Eiyuden Chronicle was a great addition

[isarai]

Is this what's "good for the industry" Phil?