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[Schreier] Microsoft’s Xbox Is Planning More Cuts After Studio Closings

near

Gold Member
Not rich enough

tzbUIHc.png
Pretty much explains why they don't actually care about their gaming division. Xbox is just experimental spending for them that isn't working out.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Kinect changed the entire architecture of Xbox One. No way Game Pass did more damage. Game Pass ended up just being a bandage on a very deep wound.

Kinect didn’t teach people not to buy games. They took a swing for the fences and whiffed. The market for playing a bunch of games is smaller than they calculated. If their sub was based on CoD and Fortnite skins it would probably be more popular.

Even beyond MS current shitshow the AAA industry is fucked. AAA games take 8 years to make and 150-250M. Immortals of Aveum cost 150M and flopped. Forspoken cost god knows how much and flopped. The industry is headed towards extreme risk aversion and a neverending cycle of boring sequels and GaaS.

If you put out a AAA game now and it flops it has a real good chance of killing your business. Let’s see what happens with Rocksteady and whatever Ubi studio shat out Skull and Bones.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
It's all fun and games until you spend 75 billion and earn a new level of scrutiny. Remember those emails stating that Microsoft is in the unique position to spend PlayStation out of business?

giphy.gif


Now let's laugh at all the console warring fools who championed the acquisition.
Yeah, all the defenders of that deal saying it will bring more competition, GamePass is amazing, MS will be able to manage those studios, give them space to run and other bullshit.

Welp, here we go, a $3 Trillion corporation with $100+ billions in profit is firing the same devs they got in the mergers.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Kinect didn’t teach people not to buy games. They took a swing for the fences and whiffed. The market for playing a bunch of games is smaller than they calculated. If their sub was based on CoD and Fortnite skins it would probably be more popular.

Even beyond MS current shitshow the AAA industry is fucked. AAA games take 8 years to make and 150-250M. Immortals of Aveum cost 150M and flopped. Forspoken cost god knows how much and flopped. The industry is headed towards extreme risk aversion and a neverending cycle of boring sequels and GaaS.

If you put out a AAA game now and it flops it has a real good chance of killing your business. Let’s see what happens with Rocksteady and whatever Ubi studio shat out Skull and Bones.
Honestly, it's a shame people didn't support some of these smaller Xbox games (Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, As Dusk Falls, Psychonauts 2, etc.) over the last 3 years, or a sub service full of indies and experimental titles. I think they were trying to turn towards AA, but few consumers followed. GP would have been that safety net, but everyone on here just shit on them for not having AAA games. Shame.
 
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DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
While there’s no indication that Xbox plans to ditch the Game Pass model, there are hints that its big bets have not paid off.


"Phil said it was sustainable!"
"Phil Said it was profitable!"

Maybe Xbox guys will finally realize that Game Pass has failed and Phil Spencer was doing his usual PR bullshit to hide people from the truth.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
It's all fun and games until you spend 75 billion and earn a new level of scrutiny. Remember those emails stating that Microsoft is in the unique position to spend PlayStation out of business?

giphy.gif


Now let's laugh at all the console warring fools who championed the acquisition.
Some of us said it during the trials....

Be careful what you wish for.....
 
Nothing about the Activision merger is killing Xbox. It's probably the only thing keeping it going. What's killing it is that no one is buying the console, or the sub. They're cutting everything but the Activision stuff.

What? They already cut some activision stuff earlier this year.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Buying Activision is what made the mothership Microsoft take a look at what the fuck was happening in the Xbox division
I don't honestly believe that either. After Starfield came out and console sales kept decreasing, and subs flatlined, it was clear it wasn't working. Activision revenue is the only good thing. They aren't trying to pay back $70 B.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Not rich enough

tzbUIHc.png
That’s the puzzling part honestly. Fuckers are the wealthiest corpo in the planet. They are making $100+ bil of Profit a year. Why in the world do they need to immediately do all this shit.

Replacing game devs with 18 months contractors is going to backfire. Hell, that has been affecting their bread&butter Cloud services and OS development.
 

Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Can’t manage the studios you already have —
Buy big publishers with lots more studios —
Lay off the ‘overlapping’ publishing jobs that apparently aren’t needed —
Still can’t manage the even more studios you have

Fucking retards.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
100%, if you run the math of what you pay for vs how long it takes to complete a game it does not make commercial sense to the business or the customer.

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That would be true .. unless Phil has been running math on meth. You never know! 😉
 

bender

What time is it?
Pretty much explains why they don't actually care about their gaming division. Xbox is just experimental spending for them that isn't working out.

I'd say your sentiment was true prior to the Activision acquisition but that investment has made them care and now we are seeing the repercussions of that care. The gaming division isn't playing with monopoly money anymore.
 

Mr Moose

Member
Nothing about the Activision merger is killing Xbox. It's probably the only thing keeping it going. What's killing it is that no one is buying the console, or the sub. They're cutting everything but the Activision stuff.
"We're spending a shit load of money on Activision. Let's see how the division is going for us"
*checks*
"What the fuck is all of this? Close everything!"
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
What’s with this dumb talking point that without activision blizzard they’d be down revenue wise. That’s like saying without the house I bought I’ll be homeless.

The analogy is "I've just bought the perfect house, now what to do with the old house I've been spending a fortune fixing up for 20 years ?"

Their answer is obvious, especially given what they've done since the acquisition.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
"We're spending a shit load of money on Activision. Let's see how the division is going for us"
*checks*
"What the fuck is all of this? Close everything!"
You guys really think they don't even know what is happening at Xbox for 20 years? I don't believe that. The big thing that changed is Xbox console sales cratering this gen, and subs flatling.
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
“It’s hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do,” she said, according to audio of the meeting reviewed by Bloomberg.
“I think we were about to topple over,” she added."

Try going back to the fucking office and putting in 8 hours of work. JFC...sorry that running 9 studios from your platies class has proven "difficult" for you. Your job is to make your TEAMS jobs easier to do, that is the ENTIRE purpose of production and management. Either these positions were placed based on levels of incompetency (clearly this is the case) or they were just out for the content all along.

Just own up to the fact you are buying a product and not a process.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Jill Braff, head of ZeniMax studios, said in the town hall that she hoped the reorganization would allow the division, which also develops Fallout and Doom, to put more focus on fewer projects. “It’s hard to support nine studios all across the world with a lean central team with an ever-growing plate of things to do,” she said, according to audio of the meeting reviewed by Bloomberg.

“I think we were about to topple over,” she added.

That's going to go down well at any of the game studios... Sales, high Metacritic scores and MAU don't matter anymore. The most important thing is that MS' precious management team isn't getting overworked by the increased number of studios they now have to oversee.
 
If they lay off Todd he could start his own studio and make a spiritual successor to Fallout…FalliIN!!!
 
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DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
GNFR8mCXYAAh2fu


MS having internal debates about putting CoD on Gamepass and about a potential increase.


I knew something was up when they were slow to put ABK games on Game Pass.

Diablo took months and now there's no Call of Duty?

Call of Duty is still charting high on the Circana charts on Xbox. They don't want to lose that revenue.
 

Puscifer

Member
Would you give the Redfall guys 150M+ to give it another shot?
Honestly, let's be real. Redfall was released to see if Gamepass engagement would be enough to sustain interest over X amount of months to keep people playing. Arkane & Obsidian both released GAAS titles not long into after their purchase. They should've worked on original titles or refined Deathloop and added DLC
 

nial

Member
Honestly, it's a shame people didn't support some of these smaller Xbox games (Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, As Dusk Falls, Psychonauts 2, etc.) over the last 3 years, or a sub service full of indies and experimental titles. I think they were trying to turn towards AA, but few consumers followed. GP would have been that safety net, but everyone on here just shit on them for not having AAA games. Shame.
Stop trying to blame everyone for once, Game Pass IS the core problem.
 

bitbydeath

Member
+TES, Fallout, Doom, Halo, Gears, Blizzard's stable

Contribute to those or die.
Bethesda is no longer safe due to the crapshoot that was Starfield, and their inability to develop games in a satisfactory amount of time.

iD Software will be missed, but sadly they aren’t a big seller anymore, Doom only sold 5m on steam.

Halo and Gears have both been trending down since their third entries.

Blizzard’s skating on ice, Overwatch is dying, Diablo IV wasn’t well received, and all that leaves is WoW has been floundering for years.
 

FewRope

Member
Honestly, it's a shame people didn't support some of these smaller Xbox games (Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, As Dusk Falls, Psychonauts 2, etc.) over the last 3 years, or a sub service full of indies and experimental titles. I think they were trying to turn towards AA, but few consumers followed. GP would have been that safety net, but everyone on here just shit on them for not having AAA games. Shame.
Why people should have support Pentiment when the game is on GP???
 
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