Xbox Cuts 1900 Workers (Largely ABK), Physical Media Team Scrapped

[Rozalia1]

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-lays-off-1900-staff-from-its-video-game-workforce

 

It seems that unlike Bethesda who they delayed cuts to for a good while for PR purposes, they're doing it quickly to ABK. Looking at the bots, shills, and whatever is left of their fanbase – the predictable defence they're making on this is that Microsoft is cutting redundant positions and this is all completely normal. Another is to point at say Embracer, a company with money problems, cutting (less) workers and stating that everybody is doing it. Xbox Game Studios by the way employs 2500 workers and the redundant positions have already been cut at Bethesda. While there certainly will be redundancies among those let go, it is going to be a minor part of the number. Microsoft's man on the inside Ybarra is gone too. Makes sense as his job is done and he does have a bunch of heat. He'll either get given some position at Microsoft down the line, retire with heavy compensation, or he'll continue his infiltration job for Microsoft by joining some other company.

 

There has been talk as of late of a 'civil war' brewing at Microsoft with Spencer and company on one side (who want to console war), and the money men on the other (who want to make money), but I wouldn't exactly say this would be part of any such thing if it is going on. Microsoft doing these cuts even as their value goes up is common, last time being 10K workers across the company (included Bethesda), so even if Xbox was actually being successful this was going to happen. Xbox getting hit this badly is however likely a result of the money men paying more attention now that they got swindled into paying 69 billion for ABK.

 

Information that has come out since the thread was made:

• A Survival game that was being developed at Blizzard for 6 years was cancelled as apparently the whole team working on it got fired. This goes against their behaviour for years, so it was likely cancelled as a consequence of the team getting fired and not because of whatever quality it had.
• Customer Support for ABK games has been cut, though they will keep a small fraction of the numbers they had by outsourcing it somewhere cheap.
• The team dealing with Physical games is gone. It could be a mercy killing due to the sheer disparity of physical in recent charts that has had Xbox with single digit percentages (used to be 20-30%), in some cases straight up 1% and even low enough to get marked down to 0%. Such bad performance by the way often being the Xbox One version, with the Series X version being even worse. On the other hand, the horrible single digit rates might be a reflection of their scrapping of the team having started a good while ago and only now being confirmed. Normally you'd think the latter, but with Xbox sinking even more than usual lately you can't rule out their physical sales straight up tanking that hard. Especially with the story out there of them buying up Starfield stock as they'd rather see the discs broken than rotting away on shelfs unsold. It could also be a sign that they're going third party.
• CoD making studios from the big ones to the small are all apparently seeing significant cuts. Considering CoD is the golden goose they just got done buying, it appears baffling to do this. I assume the idea is to cut these developers because they're just interchangeable cogs to Microsoft, and then if they later need more manpower, bring in contractors as they love to do (everyone uses them, but Microsoft especially so). It was believed by some that whatever might happen to ABK post buyout that Microsoft wouldn't disrupt the 'CoD Machine', but it appears that Microsoft has no issue in doing so.

Edited January 25 by Rozalia1
Adding information that has come to light

[DaivRules]

As I said when this was originally shared in a status update:

 

Game Devs really need to unionize.

 

And yes, massive cuts after an consolidation is normal, doesn't mean it isn't really gross, every time it's done.

 

 

[Conor]

You have to admire the dedication of Xbox fans, speaking as a former such fan.

Is it Stockholm syndrome? An abusive relationship? Sunken cost fallacy? 

[VigilantCrow]

1,900 at once is a shame but it's not that big of a deal. A quick google search gave results that roughly 7,000 lost their jobs in the indutry last year. Same general numbers in previous years as well.

 

People know what they're choosing when entering the field. Short gigs, lay off, find a new project and repeat.

[MidnightDragon]

So they had enough money to buy ABK, but not to keep everyone. Typical. Also, a lot of employees apparently found out the same way we did, which is total bullshit, but what should you expect from a scummy company like MS?

Edited January 25 by MidnightDragon

[Infected Elite]

Layoffs are common. Its just more documented now. It sucks, unions should happen. In this aspect. However unions also have their faults. 

[Yendoron]

I'm willing to bet these layoffs would still occur if Sony acquired Activision

[AJ_-_808]

2 minutes ago, Yendoron said:

I'm willing to bet these layoffs would still occur if Sony acquired Activision

That's dumb.  Nobody else was willing or able to drop 70BILLION on ABK.  There's a reason why MS was able to and did buy it - this wasn't a normal acquisition 

[Sendai-Horatio]

Xbox has reportedly now also shut down all departments that bring physical Xbox games to retail. Looks like they're going all digital.

Edited January 25 by Sendai-Horatio

[DaivRules]

8 minutes ago, Infected Elite said:

Layoffs are common. Its just more documented now. It sucks, unions should happen. In this aspect. However unions also have their faults. 

Unfortunately in the US, the entire 1980's shifted the direction of worker protections down the toilet so unions are the only hope of any kind of worker protections. We'll never see legislation or worker protections re-implemented or strengthened to match civilized countries around the world.
 

[Infected Elite]

1 minute ago, DaivRules said:

Unfortunately in the US, the entire 1980's shifted the direction of worker protections down the toilet so unions are the only hope of any kind of worker protections. We'll never see legislation or worker protections re-implemented or strengthened to match civilized countries around the world.
 

 

Unions or.... depending on job, get hurt and be covered by insurance. But yeah its stupid no matter what. There's so many things that go on with unions and non-unions. It definitely doesn't make anything easy. Few people try to form a union and fail, chances are they get fired. Cant do a thing about it. 

[BlindMango]

A lot of the current trends of triple-A gaming are unsustainable, such as every company wanting to make the next big multiplayer cash machine and failing miserably at making it fun so they lose millions on a flop, Game Pass relying on buying studios to keep enough titles in it to continue upward subscription growth, people spending years making safe generic single player games, sometimes hiring people who just aren't qualified to either manage or develop a game, and so on

 

All the recent layoffs are unfortunately the result of that. Even Sony isn't immune to some of these bad decisions, like their decision to "buy" Bungie and their desires to pursuing "live service" games. Seems like Nintendo is doing fine to be honest lol

[OmegaRejectz]

Another round of layoffs, once again in the gaming sector. Unfortunately, 2024 will probably surpass 2023 in terms of layoff numbers.

 

Although I do find it funny how OP is so antagonistic towards Xbox's fanbase in the first paragraph and completely neglects the bean counters at Microsoft HQ.

Edited January 25 by OmegaRejectz

[majob]

59 minutes ago, Infected Elite said:

Layoffs are common. Its just more documented now. It sucks, unions should happen. In this aspect. However unions also have their faults. 

Being in a union won't prevent you from being laid off

49 minutes ago, Sendai-Horatio said:

Xbox has reportedly now also shut down all departments that bring physical Xbox games to retail. Looks like they're going all digital.

IIRC their new console model from the leaks was digital only. This was probably in the pipeline for a while

Edited January 25 by majob

[Infected Elite]

3 minutes ago, majob said:

Being in a union won't prevent you from being laid off

no, you're right. But it can help keep your job. But since these layoffs didnt happen to me, i dont care 😂

[majob]

The good thing out of this? Apparently a good chunk of the COD team was laid off. Maybe they can go solo and make a competitor

[Rozalia1]

3 hours ago, Conor said:

You have to admire the dedication of Xbox fans, speaking as a former such fan.

Is it Stockholm syndrome? An abusive relationship? Sunken cost fallacy? 

 

All of them apply and you can add hatred of PlayStation into the mix, but the abusive relationship is the worst element. The astroturfing Xbox does consisting of bots, shill accounts, paid influencers and media – are all in play to control Xbox fans to limit them going against Microsoft and of course, heavily be against PlayStation. This is why I've not been all that fussed with how limited PlayStation and Nintendo are in there fan relations. Better that than the lies and control that Microsoft deploys.

 

2 hours ago, Yendoron said:

I'm willing to bet these layoffs would still occur if Sony acquired Activision

 

#SonyToo. The most common argument you'll see Xbox fans real or otherwise deploy. It can be literally anything, just point at Sony and say they'd do it too. Classic.

 

In this case we have to look at Bungie as it is the closest thing (still very far) to ABK, which PlayStation instead of doing quick layoffs instead spent an extra 1.2 billion I think it was to retain the workforce. Eventually Bungie ran into trouble and from what I recall made cuts themselves to maintain healthy monetarily. ABK likely would go the same way, keeping them as is and management at ABK making cuts if they run into issues. 

 

Which is what Xbox should have done. ABK's people are seemingly actually good at their jobs while Xbox's aren't. So naturally they're getting rid of ABK's people to give their responsibilities to the Xbox people who already can't handle their existing responsibilities.

 

2 hours ago, DaivRules said:

Unfortunately in the US, the entire 1980's shifted the direction of worker protections down the toilet so unions are the only hope of any kind of worker protections. We'll never see legislation or worker protections re-implemented or strengthened to match civilized countries around the world.

 

Considering that several unions were completely fooled (or bought) by Microsoft in submitting letters to the regulators stating what good boys Microsoft are... yeah, I wouldn't count on them being saviours.

 

2 hours ago, Sendai-Horatio said:

X-Box has reportedly now also shut down all departments to bring games to physical X-Box games to retail. Looks like they're going all digital.

 

Even if the 'refresh' doesn't end up releasing, they seem to be keeping to the plan regardless. Reportedly they have been buying back physical stock and getting the discs out of the stores. Means that already small Xbox game sections are disappearing and retailers are going to start questioning if they should even be stocking the consoles.

 

Also, as it often comes up. There is this narrative that physical is dead and digital is king. Digital is ahead yes, but not to the extent many think. The physical to digital share includes PC and Mobile. Once you take those out physical looks much better... well, for PlayStation and Nintendo anyway.

 

2 hours ago, OmegaRejectz said:

That's unfortunate. Another round of layoff, once again in the gaming sector. Unfortunately 2024 will probably surpass 2023 in terms of layoff numbers.

 

Although I do find it funny how OP is so antagonistic towards Xbox's fanbase in the first paragraph and completely neglects the bean counters at Microsoft HQ.

 

'They' in the first paragraph on the matter of defences is largely referring to Microsoft itself and not what remains of their actual fanbase. Due to all the astroturfing they're the ones who drive a lot of this stuff and not the actual fans who get lead along. I also state that they're lying and that Xbox management is heavily incompetent (this part has been edited away as I redid the OP due to the information coming out). Certainly the first time someone has said I've taken it easy on Microsoft/Xbox management.

Edited January 25 by Rozalia1
Put in brackets that I edited something in the OP

[DaivRules]

11 minutes ago, Rozalia1 said:

Considering that several unions were completely fooled (or bought) by Microsoft in submitting letters to the regulators stating what good boys Microsoft are... yeah, I wouldn't count on them being saviours.

I only saw one, a newly formed Communication Workers union established at one subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Raven Software, endorse the deal on the condition that Microsoft recognizes their union. What were the other unions you're claiming submitted letters in support?

If more game devs were members of an established game dev union, yes, there would absolutely be a chance of things being conducted differently, before, during, and after this acquistion. I never said to "count on them as being saviours", please don't strawman things I didn't say. 

 

 

[Sagaan]

Xbox is trash dats why 😬

[Rozalia1]

3 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

I only saw one, a newly formed Communication Workers union established at one subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Raven Software, endorse the deal on the condition that Microsoft recognizes their union. What were the other unions you're claiming submitted letters in support?

If more game devs were members of an established game dev union, yes, there would absolutely be a chance of things being conducted differently, before, during, and after this acquistion. I never said to "count on them as being saviours", please don't strawman things I didn't say. 

 

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/indies-venture-capitalists-and-unions-rally-behind-microsoft-s-activision-blizzard-deal

 

American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). You could count the minor unions as they're forming as being separate too even if their intention is obviously to eventually join together with one of the existing large ones. In Europe I recalled there being one but all I can find right now is the EGDF - European Games Developer Federation, which doesn't quite fit. Regardless, I wasn't wrong.

 

Likewise. I just said what I said, nothing more to it. Ultimately, as I imagine you would agree, the way towards improvement needs to come at the 'system level'. Unions as they exist in the current system simply can't do the job. That said, we all have seen what the FTC putting up resistance against Microsoft caused. The Microsoft machine had many people really believing that the FTC was some grand evil thing that needed to be even further weakened. In the grand scheme of things ABK's workers (and everyone else) would have been better off with a FTC victory that would have then strengthened their power to take it to companies.

[MidnightDragon]

2 hours ago, Sendai-Horatio said:

Xbox has reportedly now also shut down all departments that bring physical Xbox games to retail. Looks like they're going all digital.

I never want to hear the bullshit that XBox is pro-consumer again!

[The Alchemist]

This news coming just a day after Microsoft crossed $3 trillion in market cap and were even being celebrated for the fact in the press is... absurd, to say the least. 

 

2 hours ago, Sendai-Horatio said:

Xbox has reportedly now also shut down all departments that bring physical Xbox games to retail. Looks like they're going all digital.

 

Aside from the obvious human cost involved here, this is the other big piece of news surrounding this situation that really, really sucks. Xbox has been heading in this direction for a long time now, and it was all but confirmed during the Xbox leaks a while back involving the all-digital Series X revision where Microsoft even had the gall to use the incredibly shitty "adorably all digital" marketing tagline, but this is still bad news for the industry at large.

 

I believe the next generation of PlayStation will probably come digital as standard but will retain physical as an option, much like they're currently doing with the PS5 and optional disc drive, whilst Nintendo will be the last to hold on. I just hope this development doesn't hasten Sony's plans to go the same route or that it will perhaps make them change their minds about having physical as an option at all come next gen (if that is indeed the plan). 

[Rozalia1]

I've added information that has come out in the OP. I'll keep an eye out for anything else, but if you notice anything then feel free to share. I've added the physical team getting scrapped to the title as it is a major moment too.

 

14 minutes ago, The Alchemist said:

This news coming just a day after Microsoft crossed $3 trillion in market cap and were even being celebrated for the fact in the press is... absurd, to say the least. 

 

 

Aside from the obvious human cost involved here, this is the other big piece of news surrounding this situation that really, really sucks. Xbox has been heading in this direction for a long time now, and it was all but confirmed during the Xbox leaks a while back involving the all-digital Series X revision where Microsoft even had the gall to use the incredibly shitty "adorably all digital" marketing tagline, but this is still bad news for the industry at large.

 

I believe the next generation of PlayStation will probably come digital as standard but will retain physical as an option, much like they're currently doing with the PS5 and optional disc drive, whilst Nintendo will be the last to hold on. I just hope this development doesn't hasten Sony's plans to go the same route or that it will perhaps make them change their minds about having physical as an option at all come next gen (if that is indeed the plan). 

 

Physical looks a lot healthier once you take PC and Mobile out of the equation. I agree with you that I think the next PlayStation will be digital, but allow for a physical add on, which is fine. Xbox is a market loser and while they've attempted to bait PlayStation/Nintendo into following them in their terrible moves, neither has done so thus far.

[ChiefMichigan]

That's a lot of people.

 

Also, how likely do you all think it is that Xbox stops releasing physical games even before the Xbox Series X is discontinued? I could see a situation where new games are almost non-existent on disc with Limited Run games and such being the holdouts for small batches of titles. 

[Don_Chipotle]

Hope the people who got fired get a better chance of work