Microsoft laid off 4% of its workforce triggering anger from developers over canceled games. Yet MSFT stock rose 1.33% as investors welcomed the cost-cutting move. If the old guard won't lead, it's time devs build their own.

9 THOUSAND Layoffs!!!? Holy smack batman! Wtf

Its been discussed for many years now, but people have been turning a blind eye to it. The best Xbox era was 2001 - 2012, eleven years before it all went to crap. Its been thirteen years since it went to crap, which means the Xbox brand has been around longer as crap than it has been as good. Yikes!

Sounds like a Beastmaster reference

Didnt they also just request 5000+ HB1 visas for mostly Indian workers? 😂

Nintendo and Sony know how to make great first party games. Xbox doesn't know how to do this. They believed that subscription service was the future and quality be damned.

Microsoft couldn’t win the console war so now it’s just burning it all to the ground. GGs

This is what happens when judges allow Microsoft 2 own 2 biggest publishers alot of people pretty much knew that this was probably going to happen

Imagine if devs knew this and you know… just didn’t develop for the platform in protest.

Proof that you can go decades in third place making the least desirable hardware & software and still be insanely profitable

Was Activision purchase too big for Phil and Matt? I was concerned about the purchase as it would take decades to pay back. I knew they would go third party, especially with everything is an Xbox marketing campaign since last year. However, Microsoft promised when they purchased Activision they would not layoff employees or increase their prices. They've done both, which makes me wonder if the deal can be reversed? All the Xbox super fans (most of them are now Sony fanboys) championed the deal. I questioned if they knew what it meant? Bethesda, $7 billion, ok, that can be made back in two-5 really good years. $70 billion? Prior to the Activision purchase, the most Xbox made in 1 year was $2.2 billion profits in 2019. Like I said, a few good years, the Bethesda purchase pays for itself. However, the Activision purchase could take decades and might have been too much for Phil and useless Matt to handle. I mean, last year their profits (not revenue) was only $530 million. Microsoft is not waiting 140 years to get their money back. So here we are, layoffs, prices hikes, studio closers, and upset fans. I will not buy the next Xbox, stick to PC, and my good old Playstation. After all, all of their games come out on the PS and and PC.

MS is a parasite on any sector they latch onto.

Every dev working for MS should all walk out in protest, imagine all those empty offices, and MS losing money. There should be a lawsuit against MS for what they are doing, they are worth over $3.6 trillion. It's companies like this that I wish the worst possible death for the shit bags making these calls.

That is why I am violently against on ABK deal from the start. Microsoft's ultimate goal is to have a monopoly on the gaming industry, no more, no less.

You people talk so much crap it's unbelievable, they are a business, they want profits, like any business should and if a dev team is not making a good game are years you don't just keep them on because you have a lot of money, I am glad they are getting rid of dead weight. Maybe some of those devs who were good can be moved on to better projects

Prepare for more layoffs when Rog Ally Box or whatever the heck it's called flops. When will their stupid decisions and wasteful purchases end?

All the owners of these companies got paid and knew this was going to happen.

Ho ho ho! *grabs popcorn*

What MS doesn't realize (or maybe they do) is they just killed Xbox. They are going to get basically no real talent willing to work for them because who wants to work for a company that goes on frequent layoff sprees? Xbox is done. This is a reputation that will probably stick with them until they inevitably shut it down entirely. Time to replace Phil Spencer. He clearly is running it into the ground.

Then maybe people should stop taking Microsoft money. That would be a positive start

It sucks but it's good at the same time. The shakeups are necessary to move forward in any meaningful way. Like the shake up at WB games putting a long time mortal kombat guy in charge of MK games from actual WB position. Somebody from actual game development. Not blindly throwing money at problems and marketing in typical corporate fashion. This was largely realized when Musk cut like 75% of twitter and it still ran normally. That hit corporations hard because it's the truth. Suits can't make games. They are bloat incarnate. Sucks for the workers but this change is necessary for the future, we will adapt like we always do.

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau