Nadella backs Xbox layoffs as 'great streamlining' under new CEO Sharma
Microsoft's CEO praised the ongoing restructuring that has already cut over 1,600 Xbox employees, with another 1,600 planned before fiscal year end.
What to know
- Xbox is mid-restructuring with 1,600+ employees already laid off and another 1,600 cuts planned before fiscal year end, described by Nadella as necessary "streamlining."
- New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has set an ambitious goal to reach a billion daily users while improving profitability with fewer studios—a target observers call unrealistic given Xbox's console sales collapse.
- Reddit debate splits between those defending layoffs as overdue correction for years of mismanagement and those questioning whether cuts alone can revive a division they say is profitable but growing too slowly for shareholder expectations.
- Nadella offered no apology or empathy for displaced workers, framing the layoffs purely as business strategy to enable future growth.
The dispute Whether Xbox's layoffs represent justified course-correction or wasteful destruction of a profitable division being sacrificed for unrealistic growth targets. · positions read across 46 posts and comments
The layoffs were necessary to fix years of Xbox mismanagement and wasteful spending on unproductive studios.
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“Nobody can look at Xbox the last 5-7 years and argue that mass layoffs weren't necessary. So many bankrolled studios that couldn't produce a single profitable game.”
DonaldTrumpsGolfGame · reddit ↗
Xbox is profitable but growing too slowly; cutting staff to chase growth at any cost destroys a working business.
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“I know this will be buried but notice how he doesn't say they aren't profitable? They are, just not growing as fast as he demands.”
thej00ninja · reddit ↗
Nadella and Microsoft show contempt for laid-off workers with no apology or sympathy, treating mass layoffs as routine business.
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“Can see Microsoft astroturfing on full display in this thread… Now he's patting Asha on the back for firing thousands of people and not even a fucking hint of sympathy for those laid off.”
South_Buy_3175 · reddit ↗
“I feel fantastic about the IP we have right now. If I look at the studios, the IP portfolio we have, and our ability to then take that and produce great games going forward, I feel fantastic.”
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO · Sources Podcast with Alex Heath ↗ · Sep 24
Satya Nadella Microsoft CEO
Asha Sharma Xbox CEO
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Reddit users challenge Nadella's framing and defend layoff necessity
Discussion on Reddit splits between those who argue massive layoffs were necessary to correct years of mismanagement and those who criticize Microsoft's lack of empathy and question whether layoffs alone can fix Xbox's profitability and growth challenges.
“Nobody can look at Xbox the last 5-7 years and argue that mass layoffs weren't necessary. So many bankrolled studios that couldn't produce a single profitable game.”
— DonaldTrumpsGolfGame, Reddit commenter · source -
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Microslop CEO Satya Nadella on recent Xbox layoffs: "The streamlining is great to see, I think Asha and team have said that Xbox is going to get growth this next fiscal year.” https://www. gamesradar.com/games/amid-mass -xbox-layoffs-microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-says-the-streamlining-is-great-to-see/ # Microslop # Microsoft # Xbox # gaming #…
2 more of the top 3 · 46 posts in this stretch
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Point 2 alone is worth the downvote. PC is growing into the biggest gaming market, and fast. It's been proceeding that way for years now. PC gamers are never going to buy a console just for 1-2 exclusives they actually want to play per year. Microsoft knows this, and so does Sony, which is why they tried marketing on PC themselves, but got too…
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I'd be shocked if most people here weren't using Windows. But as for the Xbox business specifically, you're right too I think: it seems like a bunch of people here are whining about them laying off employees and downsizing, but are these complainers actually Xbox customers themselves? It seems pretty asinine to stick up for laid-off employees when…
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Xbox restructuring reaches 1,600+ layoffs with another 1,600 planned
Coverage reveals that over 1,600 Xbox employees have been laid off this year, with plans for another 1,600 cuts before the fiscal year ends. The restructuring includes studio divestitures and franchise shuffles, including moving Halo under Activision Blizzard.
“There's some amount of streamlining the team is doing, and Asha is doing, which is great to see.”
— Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO · source -
background
Nadella endorses Xbox layoffs on Sources Podcast with Alex Heath — On the Sources Podcast, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella praised the layoffs and restructuring happening at Xbox under new CEO Asha Sharma. He described the cuts as positive "streamlining" and expressed confidence in Xbox's IP portfolio and future growth plans.
What people are saying 20 voices from 1 site · best of 46 · verbatim
- Today
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Because of Azure and Surface which Ballmer got started. He pushed for Microsoft to take the hardware and cloud side of the business seriously even though the board was against it. They wanted for companies to keep buying their server OS and do their own hosting but Steve pivoted to pushing as much as he could to the cloud.
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For instance you can access a list of all the roles that were laid off in the state of Texas, that includes id Software and BGS. That was not simplifying layers of upper management at all.
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"I think Asha and team have said...". Imagine any manager as work saying that when they are supposed to know why teams under them are doing what they are doing. "i think my generals said we will take kyiv in 3 days" - Putin 2022. Probably.
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Everything that has come out of MS in the last 5-10 years has sucked ass, why are people surprised of layoffs? Try sucking at your job as much as them, tell me how long your company keeps you.
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Isn’t Asha basically the new management? Wouldn’t some of these eliminated jobs include other levels of management? It’s very reductive to just think no low level employees should ever be laid off because they didn’t make the bad decisions that make their jobs economically unsustainable. People hate on management all the time but one of the…
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It was/is a lose-lose situation. Halo Studios was clearly incapable making a good game (a sad trend with all the new studios Xbox made since the One came out). But removing a dedicated team from behind Halo means the IP is in a limbo now where burying it forever will become easier than ever.
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They're so detached they don't see employees as people, just numbers, a cost-to-company. Because of that, they think people are fungible - the two who were actually let go were - in their minds - equivalent to the two whom you were forced to pick.
- Yesterday
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There’s a Happy Wheels game on my phone. Ads pop up every few deaths. There’s an option to remove ‘em for $2. Prolly gonna be something like that in some of the free games in the Microsoft store.
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It's kind of hard to read because Microsoft doesn't treat AI as its own layer but I'm willing to bet that AI gives them a better ROI than Xbox does. Timing is likely coincidental, Xbox has had issues for at least a decade (if not longer) now.
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the only reductive thinking here is trying to link everything back to your silly muh gapitalische """argument""". occam's has it such that you're dealing with fundamentally evil, selfish people.
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i think capitalism is a coercive force, people make coercive decisions under capitalism, and people's worst impulses are brought to the surface under capitalism. if we removed that puzzle piece, people have incredible ability to improve.
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Kinda enshittification, it’s enshittification as a result of punching above their weight, Gamepass was too good of a deal to be making money, I reckon they did it like that and wanted to operate at a loss in order to shake the industry and gear everything towards subscription services, for which they eventually made 2 purchases of the biggest…
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I know this will be buried but notice how he doesn't say they aren't profitable? They are, just not growing as fast as he demands. Kills me to see a profitable division be upended because the growth isn't fast enough.
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Can see Microsoft astroturfing on full display in this thread, comments bleating on about the same thing. The ‘bloat’ is all a result of their complete fucking ineptitude, they didn’t actually manage shit and was shocked when everything went wrong. Now he’s patting Asha on the back for firing thousands of people and not even a fucking hint of…
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Growth as in profit. They ain't growing anything. In saying that profit is something like 3%. Its nearly better to put your money in long term deposits. Plus the loss leader years when it was released. I was an Xbox and PC gamer for years. I havent touched my Xbox for near 2 years except to patch and install games for my friends kids.
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Handing over yet another American industry, even if it's mostly in name, to foreign industries is not the solution to the problem. Only Japanese shareholders could possibly want LESS consoles and less competition
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Yeah no shit people are going to lose their jobs when they run a franchise into the ground while being given blank checks, it actually takes effort to financially ruin a franchise whose audience is mainly ball and gun gamers. The games industry is fucked these last years with a lot of examples of unjust layoffs, but Halo Studios isn't one of them.
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An AI could have written a better response. At least throw in a "unfortunately we had to make difficult decisions to return the business to growth" or something. Come on.
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I'm saying I agree with you too. But MS doesn't. We will have to see what the new CEO does. The bad thing is we are dealing with the consequences from Phil. It will be awhile before we can judge if this was needed or just dumb.
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Xbox isn’t going to grow. They need quality first party games, something we have yet to see if a very long time. Asha is a non gamer, her opinion about games doesn’t hold any weight.