Following the newest wave of layoffs across Xbox affecting 268 employees, a developer at id Software has revealed that the situation at the company is “still very chaotic”. In an interview with Aftermath, an anonymous developer spoke about the layoffs and how Xbox CEO Asha Sharma’s plans to “reset” the company largely revolve around boosting revenue and profits as soon as possible. Even communication between Xbox leadership and the various studios owned by the company seemingly reflects this.
However, the developer believes that Xbox’s “reset” plans also seem to lack long-term vision aside from having “aggressive” revenue goals that have only gotten less realistic following the layoffs.
“Things are still very chaotic. While there has been an attempt to communicate to the studios, it is still entirely in bulls*** corporate speak. I still don’t believe they have a clear vision for the future. The only concrete thing they have communicated is they want higher profits, and they want it now. Aggressive goals are being set that would have been unrealistic even before the layoffs. … To say the workers within Xbox have a dim view of the future is putting it mildly. We keep thinking morale can’t sink lower, but the obvious incompetence of Xbox management somehow keeps driving it down worse.”
Back in July, Sharma had announced that, as part of a plan to improve the health of Xbox’s business, layoffs resulting in cuts of around 1,600 jobs had taken place. This, she said, was only one part of the plan, with around 1,600 more cuts planned before the end of the fiscal year. In a statement, Sharma spoke about Xbox having spread itself too thin through aggressive expansion that involved acquiring multiple teams. This seemingly resulted in the company losing 64 cents for every dollar spent.
“Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined. We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.
“We have also learned that we are not the best home for every type of studio; in a typical year, we lost 64 cents for every dollar we invested. As we reset Xbox, we will help independent creators succeed by providing open development tools and audiences to realize their vision.”
A more recent report courtesy of Windows Central’s Jez Corden has indicated that the company is trying to reduce the overall number of job cuts by moving around its employees between different teams rather than simply firing them. Similarly, divesting itself of ownership of studios as it did in July, which involved Double Fine Productions, Undead Labs, Complusion Games, and Ninja Theory, is also part of the plan.
More recently, the company announced major consolidation efforts across its studios; Age of Empires developer World’s Edge and Sea of Thieves developer Rare, for instance, will now fall under Activision’s purview. Similarly, Obsidian Entertainment will work under Bethesda, and Turn 10 Studios is being merged with Playground Games.
