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

[SelectiveGamer]

Wow. What a shock. Not. Anyone whose legitimately shocked by this... really shouldn't be. It was pretty clear that this was coming.

 

I want to see how the dumb xbots defend this BS. Actually... no. I really don't. Whatever.

 

I don't like how Xbox is trying to push the 'all digital future' (which I still don't support or like in any way whatsoever) into going into effect faster.

 

I WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT PHYSICAL WHEREVER POSSIBLE. I suggest everyone do the same but you do you and I'll do me.

 

I REFUSE to go all digital unless PlayStation and Nintendo force me to do so as well. Which... whether I like it or not clearly... seems inevitable.

[Rozalia1]

Added information on CoD related studios taking cuts. Named some names, but more were coming out so I've just left it as 'big and small related studios' are taking cuts. This is quite the significant move because it shows that Microsoft is willing to mess with the CoD machine. You would think that would be something they wouldn't dare as they'd want the people there to continue making CoD successful, but you'd be underestimating Microsoft.

 

For those unaware. You know how people speak about how Xbox was good at first and into the 1st half of the 360 era, but then things changed? There was a video put out on the matter by a woman who worked there during that period that I can recall that explained that. Xbox for that period was allowed to be more... free? Less like Microsoft itself? Anyway, once it got successful enough people took notice and so enter the suits. People in power elsewhere in Microsoft just gave their buddies jobs at Xbox. According to her, her new superior under the new management was a nice enough guy, but he basically knew nothing about the business and all of his supposed roles were already being done by someone else. The ending has her believing that Spencer is a good guy and has been trying to turn it around, which is nice of her, but no. With a cavalcade of failure for the last decade to their name, Spencer and his cronies would have been fired several times over at any other company, and yet they have persisted.

 

The point is, don't put it past Microsoft management to put incompetents they're friends with in top positions at ABK. When it comes to the lower down people, I assume they're getting cut to be replaced with contractors.

Edited January 26 by Rozalia1

[Lion_Squid]

All the people cheering on Microsoft buying out Activision and laughing at Sony for trying to stop them are suspiciously quiet.

[TJ_Solo]

6 hours ago, DaivRules said:

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.

 

 

 

Unions don't prevent layoffs. They are merely there to negotiate on behalf of the employee for various situations. If an employee is fired, then the union can step in to make sure firing followed all policies and may help in getting that job back. Layoffs are not the same. When large groups are laid off due to business needs, the union can't do anything about that. Hell, unions can even do much if a company decides to close down buildings and move their operations to different areas on the planet.  The UAW can't stop an automaker from shutting down plants or laying off entire lines.

 

 

 

 

[DaivRules]

5 minutes ago, TJ_Solo said:

 

Unions don't prevent layoffs. They are merely there to negotiate on behalf of the employee for various situations. If an employee is fired, then the union can step in to make sure firing followed all policies and may help in getting that job back. Layoffs are not the same. When large groups are laid off due to business needs, the union can't do anything about that. Hell, unions can even do much if a company decides to close down buildings and move their operations to different areas on the planet.  The UAW can't stop an automaker from shutting down plants or laying off entire lines.

 

 

 

 

I never made the claims you seem to be responding to.
 

 
 

 

[TJ_Solo]

17 minutes ago, DaivRules said:

I never made the claims you seem to be responding to.
 

 
 

 

 Sorry, I thought the comment was in relation to the topic.

[meecegoatsalot]

7 hours ago, VigilantCrow said:

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 industry 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.

I'd argue it is a big deal that it is so normalized for people with jobs in the games industry to be thrown away so casually. 

[majob]

21 minutes ago, meecegoatsalot said:

I'd argue it is a big deal that it is so normalized for people with jobs in the games industry to be thrown away so casually. 

The industry is about to go through a crunch because all of the record covid spending is over now. Expect to see more news on layoffs in the future, even from Sony.

Edited January 26 by majob

[Rozalia1]

Getting some numbers on the cuts to a few studios. Sledgehammer Games has had 30% of their developers cut. Toys for Bob has been cut by 40%. Sledgehammer is one of the main studios for CoD so that is significant. Toys for Bob is a smaller CoD support studio who pro-merger people had put forward would be liberated by Microsoft from CoD and then given Crash/Spyro/Banjo games to work on. I'd say that showed those people, but they were obviously lying to build support for the buyout so this is no surprise to them. I mean just think about it for a second. Soulless Microsoft of all companies is randomly going to take notice of some small studio within ABK and tell them, 'We're no longer going to keep you down creatively. We want you to share your creativity and fun with the world, making games in the Crash/Spyro/Banjo/so forth IPs'. People on industrial grade drugs wouldn't dream that one up.

 

For those who aren't aware of the script for team green's shills, here it goes. Some have different timeframes on the following, but their behaviour is going to be to first state that this is a terrible happening. They might even outright say that Microsoft is doing completely the wrong move in an attempt to frame as not being a complete corporate suck-up as they dared 'attack' Microsoft. Then however comes the #SonyToo. Did you know that Bungie cut a small amount developers some months ago when Destiny tanked? That and this are 1 to 1. They'll also frame it as an industry problem and so Microsoft should not be 'picked on' for it. Ignoring of course that those companies cut people because they're having money issues so they have no choice. Money problems that Microsoft doesn't have and if we were to believe the shills neither does Xbox.

 

31 minutes ago, majob said:

The industry is about to go through a crunch because the all of the record covid spending is over now. Expect to see more news on layoffs in the future, even from Sony.

 

PlayStation unlike Xbox never cares about this sort of thing so they'll not have any worries carrying on as normal, and cutting for example a possible future acquisition partner studio if they don't perform within a certain timeframe. That ain't the same as this, but obviously they will be equated. PlayStation going to a top studio and cutting 30% of them though? Not impossible due to them getting so heavily loaded up with new workers the past few years under Jim Ryan (who is out), seemingly to make those service games, of which a number have been cancelled. That said, PlayStation management, unlike Xbox, does seem to know the value of their creative workers. So while they might get rid of those newer workers I think they'll want to keep the talent that has been making their games successful. Nintendo meanwhile is so rock solid that no further comment is needed.

Edited January 26 by Rozalia1

[Eraezr]

8 hours ago, VigilantCrow said:

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.

 

 

 

But-

And it is still January.

 

2 hours ago, Lion_Squid said:

All the people cheering on Microsoft buying out Activision and laughing at Sony for trying to stop them are suspiciously quiet.

I'm still pro-acquisition on that. Microsoft's reverse Midas touch will enervate this shitty company and COD, freeing up consumer spending power for more deserving IPs. Today's news vindicates that.

Edited January 26 by Eraezr

[MidnightDragon]

This just makes things worse. 
 

https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-becomes-the-second-ever-3-trillion-dollar-company-after-laying-off-1900-people

[fenrir54565]

looks like 40% of toy for bob were as so laid off of Couse Microsoft kill the only good developers at Activision typical Microsoft.

 

[Rozalia1]

Mat Piscatella put up a tweet showing the physical split between the three platforms, but did his usual nonsense and seems to now have deleted the tweets.

 

Essentially the information was that the physical sales split, that being only physical being counted, was: Nintendo >50%, PlayStation >40%, and Xbox <10%. From what I remember this particular guy, who we have to rely on American platform information, was the one who actually reveals far less information for us now. Platform splits of games sold and even number of consoles sold (another guy has to estimate off his information). Officially the reason for not giving that information I believe was that people use it to console war... but many suspect it is simply to protect Xbox whose numbers have gotten worse and worse. This particular split for example. Xbox is single digit percentage, and he most certainly could give an exact percentage, but instead gives <10%. It isn't a lie yes, but it means that we don't know exactly if Xbox's % is 1-9%, and any article written is going to use that 10% which as low as it is, is at least a single digit sum.

 

Something to remember with that split is that it is the American split, which is overwhelmingly Xbox's strongest market. If their physical sales are at single digit percentage in America then how does it look elsewhere? 0.X%? Now, with Microsoft being who they are, remember, they can't ever be losing, it means that they have been and will continue to frame their move to digital as 'being ahead of the competition' and physical being 'dead/dying'. No. Nintendo sells great. PlayStation there has been some doubt on in the past, but the Insomniac leaks showed us that 1st party games are enjoying a 65% physical to digital rate.

 

1 hour ago, fenrir54565 said:

looks like 40% of toy for bob were as so laid off of Couse Microsoft kill the only good developers at Activision typical Microsoft.

 

An interesting detail in all of this is not just that Toys for Bob will likely continue as a CoD support studio, and with the heavily decreased numbers won't be able to do projects that they'll actually like, but of what it means for the studios Microsoft already has.

 

The CoD machine we've been told is so large because it needs to be. It has swallowed up studio after studio to support it. Microsoft is now cutting them hard. Some of the numbers can be replaced with their beloved contractors, but as we know from Halo Infinite, that doesn't work out well when you run so many contractors. So what then when CoD runs into issues and needs more people? Simple. You feed Xbox/Bethesda studios to the beast. As the money men will say if Xbox management questions it, what money do those studios actually make? Some of them like Starfield were able to swindle enough PC players to at least recover a good deal of the cost spent, but you then look at others and the sales are non-existent considering the money and time spent.

 

16 hours ago, Eraezr said:

I'm still pro-acquisition on that. Microsoft's reverse Midas touch will enervate this shitty company and COD, freeing up consumer spending power for more deserving IPs. Today's news vindicates that.

 

Comes off cruel yeah, but having it blow up in Microsoft's face and CoD money getting to go to more deserving games/better companies certainly is a positive in the grand scheme of things. That said, I was against the acquisition. Not only because the small chance always exists of Xbox becoming competent one day (well, more like their corruption/astroturfing becoming really successful), but it is never good to have corruption pick up wins. With the CMA being castrated and the FTC being as smeared as it is, who knows, Microsoft could decide to double down again and try to buy some other major publisher. Something which doesn't happen if they had failed in the ABK buy out to begin with. That said, with the money men now doing all these moves that thankfully appears unlikely. We've never seen Spencer more silent so we might even see him 'leaving the family' soon.

[Zephrese]

The TFB layoffs hits me especially hard as they're a studio I really like, and one I consider to be very talented and passionate with their work.

They were already a pretty small and mistreated studio to begin with (because of ABK), and this news makes me even more concerned for both their future and the future of Crash and Spyro. Absolutely disgusting.

Edited January 26 by Zephrese

[sepheroithisgod]

Damn, this is horrible, but I can't say I am surprised. Even a company like Microsoft can't make a purchase that big and not be forced to optimize it. I hate saying this cause it sounds like some fanboy talk, but almost everything Xbox gets involved with turns to shit.

 

And fuck them for laying off TFB. Those guys have been killing it with Crash & Spyro releases. If anything that studio should be growing.

Edited January 26 by sepheroithisgod

[boaly2008]

On 1/26/2024 at 10:02 AM, SelectiveGamer said:

Wow. What a shock. Not. Anyone whose legitimately shocked by this... really shouldn't be. It was pretty clear that this was coming.

 

I want to see how the dumb xbots defend this BS. Actually... no. I really don't. Whatever.

 

I don't like how Xbox is trying to push the 'all digital future' (which I still don't support or like in any way whatsoever) into going into effect faster.

 

I WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT PHYSICAL WHEREVER POSSIBLE. I suggest everyone do the same but you do you and I'll do me.

 

I REFUSE to go all digital unless PlayStation and Nintendo force me to do so as well. Which... whether I like it or not clearly... seems inevitable.

Most the true Xbox fans arent defending this, honestly feel bad for them at this point tbqh. The problem is that Microsoft has fostered a culture of turbo online twitter fans that do nothing but unpaid marketing and damage control. They sit around doing nothing but slow jerking to fantasy acquisitions and fan made hype trailers. They dont actually play games really. They engage on it purely on the level that best allows them to engage in the console war twitter discourse.

 

Those kinds of people will defend anything, or at the very least ignore anything, because their entire personality is built around getting however many views on their fan made Avowed sizzle reel. (sorry to be mean to Avowed, im sure itll be a fine enough game, its just the most recent one I saw)

 

 

Edited January 27 by boaly2008

[EDGES]

I'm surprised the number is not higher, it's a standatd practice when a bigger company buys a smaller company, MS bought them for the COD IP, internal tech and veteran devs, not the HR, PR, Marketing teams, community leads, support departments, low level devs and so on

Edited January 27 by EDGES

[MidnightDragon]

Now the FTC in their ongoing court battle said that this contradict’s Microsoft’s claiming the teams will be independent.

 

https://www.ign.com/articles/ftc-complains-that-microsofts-1900-gaming-layoffs-contradict-what-was-said-in-antitrust-trial