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Microsoft XBox (Games)

Microsoft Lays Off Another 650 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce (ign.com) 37

Posted by msmash from the tough-luck dept.
Microsoft is laying off a further 650 staff from its gaming business, according to a memo sent by Xbox chief Phil Spencer to staff today, September 12. From a report: In the memo, Spencer said the roles affect mostly corporate and support functions, and were made "to organize our business for long term success." He clarified that no games, devices or experiences are being canceled and no studios are being closed as part of these cuts. These latest layoffs mean Microsoft has let go of 2,550 staff from its gaming business since acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in 2023. In his memo, below, Spencer makes it clear that the cuts are related to the acquisition.
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Microsoft Lays Off Another 650 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce More

Microsoft Lays Off Another 650 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce

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  • Synergy in action (Score:3)

    by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Thursday September 12, 2024 @09:10AM (#64782733)
    Good thing Microsoft has been buying up Game Studios, they have a huge Synergy just waiting to contribute to their bottom line. Once again Wall Street wins, Main Street loses.

    • Just takes enough of non-major games on a forever platform like Steam to mean that the big game houses cannot make, release, stop the servers for, ... new games every other year.

      It was called the 'console tax' in ages past, planned obsolescence of platforms, games, etc.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        Just takes enough of non-major games on a forever platform like Steam to mean that the big game houses cannot make, release, stop the servers for, ... new games every other year.

        It was called the 'console tax' in ages past, planned obsolescence of platforms, games, etc.

        Yep, with new consoles costing 700 USD/GBP (800 EUR/CAD) which is about the same as an entry level gaming PC, there isn't much point in getting a console as consoles used to be low cost of entry, high total cost of ownership and PC's were the other way around. There's no point in paying the Sony/MS tax any more. Realistically hasn't been for years. When you buy a console, the savings stop there. When you buy a gaming PC, the savings start there.

  • Acquisitions always go like this. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Thursday September 12, 2024 @09:25AM (#64782757) Homepage Journal

    In order to get approval, they promise that they can eliminate wasteful spending on competition, combine resources, and the result would be better quality and lower prices for consumers. It's an obvious lie every time, they just wind up firing half their people raising prices and lowering quality every time, and the regulatory bodies that are supposed to protect the economy from exactly this kind of monopolism rubber-stamp the whole thing every time.

    What gets me is that everyone knows this. Everyone that hears these promises knows that they are blatant bald-faced lies, and rubber-stamp them anyway. Those who have the job of protecting competition in our markets are the very ones who allow this to happen, again and again.

    The voters see this happening, we all know this is going on. Literally everyone who is in any position to do anything at all about this in any capacity, knows about this, and literally no-one is doing a damn thing to stop this.

    • Something to consider. Has a mega merger ever been denied?

    • Re:Acquisitions always go like this. (Score:5, Informative)

      by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Thursday September 12, 2024 @10:22AM (#64782897)

      literally no-one is doing a damn thing to stop this.

      I mean they tried and lost in the court system: FTC v. Microsoft [wikipedia.org]. If Joseph Simons instead of Lina Khan is in the chair does the FTC even try and stop it? Maybe, but elections matter here in terms of the temperment of the regulatory bodies.

      The fact we have one of the first serious FTC chairs with regards to antitrust in like 30 years is something but a lot of guardrails against this stuff gotten taken apart in the 80's and 90's during the big business era, it's gonna take more than one admin to turn things back and voting public plays a part in that.

      Also the courts have to rule within the confines of the current regulatory statutes, if we want those to be more stringent that will require both legislation (and we are not looking like having a 60 vote Senate for either party in the near future) as well as keeping that mindset within the FTC and other agencies.

      It's easy to be cynical but we elected people like Reagan, Clinton, Bush because a large voter base wanted (or was convinced) those guardrails hould come down.

      • I don't know if you're old enough to remember this, but I am. Back when Reagan was elected, Carter had driven our economy into the doldrums. Reagan weathered the resulting recession and brought things back so well that in '84, Mondale, his opponent, only had 13 votes in the Electoral Collage. Reagan had all the rest along with 58% of the popular vote, meaning that a good chunk of Democrats must have voted for him. Sneer at him all you want, as you're entitled to express your opinion, but the facts just
        • oh yes super hero Reagonomics...and at what cost? Im sure Carter single handedly brought down the economy. So funny what are chosen to be acknowleged "facts."

        • Winning an election off of overheating the economy to favor short terms gains at the sacrifice of long term problems does not mean that Reagan's policies were successful in terms of history. Most the opposite actually:

          Tax cuts for the wealthy only benefit the rich: debunking trickle-down economics [lse.ac.uk]

          Escalated the War on Drugs to it's draconian maximum
          Completely bungled the AIDs epidemic
          Iran-Contra
          Really the one who brought the Evangelical's into control of the Republican party
          Savings and loan crisis
          Played a hu

          • Interesting, I think, that your only "evidence" is an opinion piece that doesn't link to anything, let alone supporting facts for its assertions.

            And, I'm astonished that you don't bring up SDI, aka "Star Warz" as an example of Ronnie Raygun wasting money on another boondoggle. Of course, you might actually understand what it was all about: by starting a new program that might have worked and we could afford to try, we forced the USSR to copy us even though they couldn't afford it and bankrupted what was

            • That "opinion piece" is an entire study from the London School of Economics

              The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich [lse.ac.uk]

              I didn't bring up SDI because I don't necessarilly disagree with it, we were in the midst of the Cold War still, theres a laundry list of military research expenditures. However the idea that it was the thing that "bankrupted the USSR" is imo Republican historical fantasy whitewashing that ignores the decades of economic issues and internal strife that eventually led to the att

        • The economic problems were in place before Carter too, you can point some of those fingers at Nixon and Johnson. Economic changes take a lot of time and are the result of many factors, it's always short sighted to put the causes on a single administration. Ie, the cost of the Vietnam war left a lot of deficits, there was the oil crisis, the stock market crash in 1973, the "Nixon Shock" measures, etc. Carter inherited a bad set of problems, and Reagan inherited an economy that was starting to recover. Th

          • For sure, but Regans reaction to those issues definitely contriuted to problems then and led into many of the issues we see today, especially the cutting of regulations, the exploding defecits, abaondment of the labor movement, huge tax cuts and a general attitude shift that we can trace the origins of the Trump maddness currently in control of the Republican party.

            Just the same I think Obama's response to 2008 was misguided and delayed recovery longer than it should have (big mistakes to bail out baks inst

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jbengt ( 874751 )

          I don't know if you're old enough to remember this, but I am. Back when Reagan was elected . . .

          I am old enough to remember this. The economy was in bad shape before Carter was elected, including from oil embargoes causing spikes in energy prices and Nixon's attempt at wage & price controls. Inflation was staying high and toward the end of Carter's years the Federal Reserve, led by Carter's appointee Paul Volcker, squeezed the money supply to tackle inflation, which caused a recession that helped el

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      I believe the FTC fought the merger all the way. And is still trying to find a way to reverse it. It would be more accurate to say the FTC has been neutered into invectiveness. Which we can probably blame congress for.

  • Record profits (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Njovich ( 553857 ) on Thursday September 12, 2024 @09:26AM (#64782763)

    Wow, record profits for microsoft last quarter! Congrats guys!

    Sorry to hear you were again not able to keep your promises about job cuts! https://www.washingtontimes.co... [washingtontimes.com]

    Must be really tough on you guys killing people's livelyhood out of pure greed after promising not to do that. Hey here is an idea! Why don't the authorities in the US and EU make a real good note of this. That you outright lied on a legal claim. You know, when you next are going in for a chat about anticompetitive behavior, a merger, or a data rights check. Just to make sure you don't accidentally do such a little oopsy again.

    • Never underestimate the allure of MORE PROFIT!

    • Must be really tough on you guys killing people's livelyhood out of pure greed after promising not to do that.

      It's easy to take this cynical view, but the reality is that market forces drove job cuts at every gaming studio to the point where 2023/2024 gaming layoffs has its own dedicated Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] . The fact that most of Microsoft's cuts didn't come from Activision but from somewhere else kind of points to them not breaking the promise they made: the job cuts weren't the result of the merger - they were going to happen anyway.

      But coming to the actual sentence you wrote: No one

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Njovich ( 553857 )

        The fact that most of Microsoft's cuts didn't come from Activision but from somewhere else kind of points to them not breaking the promise they made: the job cuts weren't the result of the merger - they were going to happen anyway.

        FTC people are no idiots. You think the FTC is just saying this? You are refering to a key point in Microsoft defense. Activision is operating independently and did these cuts independently. Except... they fucked up and announced it as a Microsoft restructuring that they holistically did together with Microsoft... oops. Microsoft lied. FTC caught them and now they are trying to come up with this gaslighting nonsense. Microsoft made a solemn promise to the People of the US that they would do a number of thi

  • ... so many maintained solitaire and minesweeper.

    I all seriousness, if Activision made a reasonably profit, hence the purchase, why dick around with the staffing?

  • "He clarified that no games, devices or experiences are being canceled and no studios are being closed as part of these cuts." Two words- bull shit

  • This is going to be the first real test of the new gaming unions under Microsoft. Are they going to pushback or strike? Or will they acquiesce without a fight?

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