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Microsoft Lays Off Another 650 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Sends Memo to Staff

Microsoft Lays Off Another 650 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Sends Memo to Staff - IGN

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-lays-off-another-650-staff-from-its-video-game-workforce-xbox-boss-phil-spencer-sends-memo-to-staff

Microsoft is laying off a further 650 staff from its Xbox gaming business, according to a memo sent by chief Phil Spencer to staff today, September 12, and obtained by IGN.

Microsoft Lays Off Another 650 Staff From Its Video Game Workforce, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Sends Memo to Staff - IGN

19 comments

zecg

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Xbox Boss Phil Spencer

Get rid of that fucker first

tourist

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but he still needs to collect his Q3 bonus cheque 🥺

Melonpoly

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But, but, he's a gamer bro :(

imecth

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Meanwhile they reveal 1 Billion revenue from their latest acquisition...

trustnoone

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Absolutely disgusting. Im so happy i traded away my xbox and am done with the company.

Anti Competition commisioner or government agency should directly fine the corporation for breach of compeition law agreed on during purchase of these IPs.

realitista

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Buying an Xbox rather than a PS4 in the last generation was the biggest disappointment in my 40 year gaming history. I won't be doing it again.

hoshikarakitaridia

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Man if big studios are constantly layng ppl off, that means in a few years we will probably have an influx of even more small game studios and it's gonna be way harder for big companies to acquire them.

Though I don't like the layoffs, I like the world in which game developers are back to steering their own company again.

Kecessa

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They do layoffs and rehire later though

sylver_dragon

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While I hate the idea of people losing their jobs, stepping back for a moment and looking at what they are claiming, its not terribly surprising:

Spencer said the roles affect mostly corporate and support functions

When companies merge, this is kinda needed. You don't need two fully functional HR departments. While the HR staff from the buying company will likely need to expand, it won't be by the same amount as the HR department of the company being bought. As network functions are merged, you probably don't need all of the IT staff which came with the merger. A lot of management functions likely end up merged, meaning redundancies. And this sort of thing is going to move through a lot of the non-project work functions of the company.

Yes it sucks. But, it's to be expected in a merger. Now, whether or not we want this level of consolidation, that's a different ball of wax entirely. The last thing we need is more studios falling under the sway of these massive companies. That's the thing which should be drawing our ire.

heavy

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One of, if not the wealthiest company on the planet, acting like they can't afford it. These people need to come back down to reality.

Kushan

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This is why they're one of the wealthiest companies on the planet. They're very good at "business", which is just a way of saying they're good at maximising profits.

frazw

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They wanted the IP not the staff.

skulbuny

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And people thought 14 years of copyright was too short... you play capitalist games of granting virtually infinite monopolies (trademarks are incredibly effective at restricting the public domain), as property to sell and trade to the highest bidders, the public domain be damned, and you get capitalist prizes like massive layoffs and unemployment and a deteriorating, corporation-owned culture

NoForwardslashS

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I said something similar in another thread, but Phil is looking (and acting) more and more like an alien cockroach is inhabiting his skin lately.

ninjabard

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Is Phil asking for more sugar in his water?

thefartographer

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He looked much better after putting on a few pounds and beating the shit out of a blind lawyer

Xanvial

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Isn't he always like this? Don't really understand why he's always protected by the community. He's the head of xbox studio before xbox one released. Which is around the time xbox started to to have problems with their first party output

NeryK

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He's well liked because he came from the trenches and has a good track record of knowing his shit. When compared with the likes of Kotick or Guillemot, it's a breath of fresh air (despite being such a low bar). However as one of the highest execs in the entire gaming industry, this is the kind of stuff he does all year long.

Plus you know, his public-facing image is well curated and people like it.

IsThisAnAI

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Game pass is great and the Xbox is a better OS compared to Sony. Sony has those games though. So the debate will continue another 30 years.