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[Pelta88]

On the Xbox side, it seems Microsoft is once again cutting into its publishing layer. There are fresh layoffs at the acquired ZeniMax Studios arm of its gaming operation, despite the successful launch of action game Hi-Fi Rush as recently as a couple of weeks ago. Xbox has also cut into some of its teams that handle content partnerships, marketing, and other business-oriented operations.

MSN

 

[Mikey Jr.]

70 billion.

 

[Jennings]

On the Xbox side, it seems Microsoft is once again cutting into its publishing layer. There are fresh layoffs at the acquired ZeniMax Studios arm of its gaming operation, despite the successful launch of action game Hi-Fi Rush as recently as a couple of weeks ago.

Was Hi-Fi Rush expected to stop Microsoft layoffs? If anything the success of the shadow-dropped game shows they didn't need a publishing arm for it.

 

[Hobbygaming]

These layoffs wouldn't look as bad if they weren't trying to spend 70 billion on Activision at the same time

 

[twilo99]

Microsoft is very bloated.

Give it to Musk so he can clean house just like he did with Twitter.

Focus on top tier engineers and get most of the HR and marketing bloat out of there.

 

[anthony2690]

On the Xbox side, it seems Microsoft is once again cutting into its publishing layer. There are fresh layoffs at the acquired ZeniMax Studios arm of its gaming operation, despite the successful launch of action game Hi-Fi Rush as recently as a couple of weeks ago. Xbox has also cut into some of its teams that handle content partnerships, marketing, and other business-oriented operations.

MSN

Clicked the link wondering what GitHub was, then ended up on an article about the giraffe woman

 

[feynoob]

3 worlds in 2 paragraph.
{The layoffs are emblematic of how little big corporations actually care about their employees. Microsoft ballooned during the pandemic to create wealth for its shareholders and take advantage of the mass shift to work-from-home culture, but as that boom time ends, it seems regular employees are here to foot the bill.

As part of this latest round of layoffs, Microsoft has targeted employees seemingly at random, with veterans with decades' worth of experience and legendary creations under their belts. Microsoft has also callously targeted brand-new hires, some of whom were literally still in the process of expensive relocations to Redmond, uprooting their families in the process. CEO Satya Nadella has a reported net worth approaching $1 billion dollars based on the value of the shares in Microsoft he owns, and is among the highest-paid CEOs in tech, with bonuses in the tens of millions. It's hard to fathom, for me, as a regular mortal, what someone could possibly want with such insane amounts of cash — while those who actually build the products you are selling are cast aside with reckless disregard. }

Fuck these ultra rich CEO's.

 

[Dorago]

The economy has been in a recession for two years. The only reason these companies didn't do massive layoffs earlier is the huge piles of cash they were sitting on after 10 years of near 0% interest rates.

 

[Hobbygaming]

Clicked the link wondering what GitHub was, then ended up on an article about the giraffe woman

 

[YeulEmeralda]

 

[Bragr]

3 worlds in 2 paragraph.
{The layoffs are emblematic of how little big corporations actually care about their employees. Microsoft ballooned during the pandemic to create wealth for its shareholders and take advantage of the mass shift to work-from-home culture, but as that boom time ends, it seems regular employees are here to foot the bill.

As part of this latest round of layoffs, Microsoft has targeted employees seemingly at random, with veterans with decades' worth of experience and legendary creations under their belts. Microsoft has also callously targeted brand-new hires, some of whom were literally still in the process of expensive relocations to Redmond, uprooting their families in the process. CEO Satya Nadella has a reported net worth approaching $1 billion dollars based on the value of the shares in Microsoft he owns, and is among the highest-paid CEOs in tech, with bonuses in the tens of millions. It's hard to fathom, for me, as a regular mortal, what someone could possibly want with such insane amounts of cash — while those who actually build the products you are selling are cast aside with reckless disregard. }

Fuck these ultra rich CEO's.

This is just a bait angle. Most of these workers were contracted or short-term and very few "relocated to expensive homes".

Satya Nadella is worth 1 billion. The employees are not and none of them would give away any money if they had a billion. The employees would spit on you if they could, just like anyone else. Fuck em, they are no better than any rich person.

 

[FF:Enhanced_Reality]

Just making room for all it's soon to be, new employees.

 

[poppabk]

Hope the team who came up with the Xbox controller cozies and the Xbox toiletries are still there. And the team who managed to wrangle that key Hot Pocket/Halo tie-in.
And hopefully the Mighty Poo drink tie in for a non-exiatant Conker game earned the team responsible a reprieve.

 

[ByWatterson]

People at Activision should expect redundancy layoffs if the acquisition actually goes through.

 

[Bkdk]

Success of hi fi rush is probably very bad news for many Microsoft game studios workers. Not my type of tame but It shows that small nimble teams could be the way to go for many gaming and tech sector jobs. Chatgpt also has a small team overall. Software industry needs a big reset overall. Clearly a lot of them overhired.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Gotta love Pelta88 , if there is a negative Xbox /MS article to be found, he/she will find it and let us know about it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I have never seen an article shared by OP that shines a good light on MS or Xbox.

Now my thoughts on the situation. This never feels good. This move is also not happening in a vacuum, and the majority of big tech have been shedding employees over the past few months. I expect more to come in the following months as big tech course corrects it's work force after 2 years of inflated growth due to pandemic.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Now my thoughts on the situation. This never feels good. This move is also not happening in a vacuum, and the majority of big tech have been shedding employees over the past few months. I expect more to come in the following months as big tech course corrects it's work force after 2 years of inflated growth due to pandemic.

Not just tech either, but any industry that actually benefited by societal changes caused by the pandemic.

 

[feynoob]

Gotta love Pelta88 Pelta88 , if there is a negative Xbox /MS article to be found, he/she will find it and let us know about it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I have never seen an article shared by OP that shines a good light on MS or Xbox.

People thrive on bad news from the other combo.
Whether its MS/Xbox, Sony/PS, or Nintendo, you will see people clamoring for these bad news.
Its what you expect, when people have allegiance to one side.

 

[Gamerguy84]

Gotta love Pelta88 , if there is a negative Xbox /MS article to be found, he/she will find it and let us know about it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I have never seen an article shared by OP that shines a good light on MS or Xbox.

Now my thoughts on the situation. This never feels good. This move is also not happening in a vacuum, and the majority of big tech have been shedding employees over the past few months. I expect more to come in the following months as big tech course corrects it's work force after 2 years of inflated growth due to pandemic.

Yes it's sad what's happening in tech right now. Was Ina conversation that with a guy that made 250,000 a year lost his job, he was asking advice.

He didn't care about his brand new car getting taken by the bank, or being able to buy extra. He was worried about his house he had built in California.

His wife didn't work and she doesn't know it's that bad. Just wants to make his house payment. Said there are no jobs in tech right now and it's ultra competitive.

He asked if he took a min wage job if that would hold off the bank and be enough to keep his house. I'd say he prolly ran the numbers and realized it wouldnt, and this is before food.

Yea you hear about these, and he should have saved and invested but he didn't. Now he's probably losing his house. It's sad really and there are 50,000 out there feeling this way.

I've been through a rough patch but I own my home outright. It's a scary feeling to have a child to feed and not knowing how you were gonns pay for that food.

 

[bluecowboys]

Microsoft is very bloated.

Give it to Musk so he can clean house just like he did with Twitter.

Focus on top tier engineers and get most of the HR and marketing bloat out of there.

Recruiters and HR are usually the first ones to go during a recession or layoffs in general. Since you are slowing down hiring, you don't need as many HR employees for onboarding or managing resources. And the need for recruiters goes down as well since you don't need to hire as many employees.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Just making room for all it's soon to be, new employees.

no

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

the Xbox turmoil era is just beginning.

 

[Fully engaged]

Activision is not worth 70 billion.. MS would benefit from the sale being blocked at this point. The bid was made in the pandemic when every company thougth that consumers would continue to spend on anything.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Activision is not worth 70 billion.. MS would benefit from the sale being blocked at this point. The bid was made in the pandemic when every company thougth that consumers would continue to spend on anything.

the ball is in their court.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

People at Activision should expect redundancy layoffs if the acquisition actually goes through.

is going to be worse than that.

 

[Fully engaged]

the ball is in their court.

Technically I don't think MS can pullout. They already are legally obliged to follow through.. I am only guessing based on what happened with Twitter when Elon Musk tried to pullout of that deal.

 

[thismeinteil]

Clicked the link wondering what GitHub was, then ended up on an article about the giraffe woman

Just great, now I have a new fetish.

 

[bluecowboys]

Technically I don't think MS can pullout. They already are legally obliged to follow through.. I am only guessing based on what happened with Twitter when Elon Musk tried to pullout of that deal.

MS isn't going to pull out as the deal will go through more than likely with conditions that must be met.

If Disney can purchases all of the big studios and ips, MS should be allowed to buy Activision. MS will have to let their ips be multi-platform and allow other companies to pay fair market value to have Activision games on their services as well.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Technically I don't think MS can pullout. They already are legally obliged to follow through.. I am only guessing based on what happened with Twitter when Elon Musk tried to pullout of that deal.

They can, citing the CMA's recommendation to divestiture, and just pay the $2.5 billion penalty to Activision -- which they would be paying anyway if the CMA officially blocks it in April.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Not just tech either, but any industry that actually benefited by societal changes caused by the pandemic.

Not necessarily. PlayStation also benefited from the pandemic, and they are not laying off people.

In fact, PlayStation is hiring and has hired many people that Xbox just laid off.

 

[Fredrik]

Gotta love Pelta88 Pelta88 , if there is a negative Xbox /MS article to be found, he/she will find it and let us know about it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I have never seen an article shared by OP that shines a good light on MS or Xbox.

There are plenty of them around here on all sides. Don’t know if they get payed for it and don’t care, I just treat them like bots and don’t waste my time trying to have a conversation.

As for the thread content, the numbers from the earnings report showed that they need to do something so no real surprises. I just think the timing is strange, it’s not like they’ve just released some big titles and can chop off some extra weight no longer needed. Wouldn’t marketing and publishing people be needed right now?

 

[pasterpl]

These layoffs wouldn't look as bad if they weren't trying to spend 70 billion on Activision at the same time

Like these big corporations care
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4573121-amazon-and-irobot-dominating-the-world-seems-farfetched

https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tec...rs-wonder-about-039earth039s-best-employer039

Those layoffs are part of business optimisation, these acquisitions are part of growing the business. One doesn’t exclude the other. Sometimes I feel like some people here have 14 years old and have no clue how business work.

 

[Sony]

Layoffs at zenimax were bound to happen. There are always redundancies post merger.

 

[pasterpl]

Not necessarily. PlayStation also benefited from the pandemic, and they are not laying off people.

In fact, PlayStation is hiring and has hired many people that Xbox just laid off.

There is no hiring freeze that I have heard about at XGS, looking at careers pages of most of the studios they keep hiring/have open vacancies.

Re Sony. They did some layoffs last year, not the same scal as only 90 people go but still. https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-reportedly-laid-off-90-shift-away-physical-sales#

 

[pasterpl]

Layoffs at zenimax were bound to happen. There are always redundancies post merger.

This. Even getting rid of all people working on playstation ports was something that everyone knew will happen, then you have got same roles that exist across both companies, there is no point of keeping both etc. went through 2-3 mergers in my career, and these always end with layoffs.

 

[Ar¢tos]

Private concerts with Sting are expensive!
Money has to come from somewhere...

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Typical

 

[aries_71]

Sometimes I feel like some people here have 14 years old and have no clue how business work.

Why do you think they aren’t 14 yo?

 

[IllegalLemon]

3 worlds in 2 paragraph.
{The layoffs are emblematic of how little big corporations actually care about their employees. Microsoft ballooned during the pandemic to create wealth for its shareholders and take advantage of the mass shift to work-from-home culture, but as that boom time ends, it seems regular employees are here to foot the bill.

As part of this latest round of layoffs, Microsoft has targeted employees seemingly at random, with veterans with decades' worth of experience and legendary creations under their belts. Microsoft has also callously targeted brand-new hires, some of whom were literally still in the process of expensive relocations to Redmond, uprooting their families in the process. CEO Satya Nadella has a reported net worth approaching $1 billion dollars based on the value of the shares in Microsoft he owns, and is among the highest-paid CEOs in tech, with bonuses in the tens of millions. It's hard to fathom, for me, as a regular mortal, what someone could possibly want with such insane amounts of cash — while those who actually build the products you are selling are cast aside with reckless disregard. }

Fuck these ultra rich CEO's.

Corporations & any company really, however big, however small, do not a give a crap about their employees. Employees are disposable, expendable, their health and well-being matters very little to these companies in the grand scheme of things. But, what's that, someone might ask? You worked overtime to get something done quicker? Well, well done(pun intended), you just worked for the upper management's benefit, you just afforded them a new yacht with that overtime and wasted precious moments of your life in the process. So, at the end of the day, an employee means nothing to a company. They're considered a burden, a profit margin decrease for that company. Ceo's and upper management are never to be considered saints, they don't give a flying middle finger about their employees whatsoever.

 

[oldergamer]

There is no hiring freeze that I have heard about at XGS, looking at careers pages of most of the studios they keep hiring/have open vacancies.

Re Sony. They did some layoffs last year, not the same scal as only 90 people go but still. https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-reportedly-laid-off-90-shift-away-physical-sales#

There isnt. I've been told the coalition was hiring after i had that rumor of them having a project cancelled was debunked

 

[Nintendo's Witch]

Corporations & any company really, however big, however small, do not a give a crap about their employees. Employees are disposable, expendable, their health and well-being matters very little to these companies in the grand scheme of things. But, what's that, someone might ask? You worked overtime to get something done quicker? Well, well done(pun intended), you just worked for the upper management's benefit, you just afforded them a new yacht with that overtime and wasted precious moments of your life in the process. So, at the end of the day, an employee means nothing to a company. They're considered a burden, a profit margin decrease for that company. Ceo's and upper management are never to be considered saints, they don't give a flying middle finger about their employees whatsoever.

Nothing more to add.

 

[Duchess]

Could this be why Hi-Fi Rush was "soft launched"? Is just showed up on Game Pass, etc. without any fan fare. Cuts to marketting?

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Activision is not worth 70 billion.. MS would benefit from the sale being blocked at this point. The bid was made in the pandemic when every company thougth that consumers would continue to spend on anything.

I was thinking this as well. Even with COD, I feel it’s not anywhere worth $68+ billion. Imo, Microsoft shouldn’t buy Activision now especially for that much money. Has the entire COD franchise and other franchises from Activision/Blizzard even come close to achieving anywhere close to that amount?

 

[shaddam]

Some poster here told me they have unlimited money in their WarChest

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

Activision is not worth 70 billion.. MS would benefit from the sale being blocked at this point. The bid was made in the pandemic when every company thougth that consumers would continue to spend on anything.

This is a very poor conclusion. And a very poorly informed one at that. value of any company is determined by its share price multiplied by the number of shares available at any time.

In Feb.2021, it was worth around $80B.

In Nov. 2021,it was worth $47B.

In Jan 17.2022... one d before Microsoft announced it was buying Activision, it had a market valuation of $63B.

So I don't ready know what you are saying. If the argument is that MS should never have tried to buy them, that's a different matter, but MS bid at market value.

if you think that was some spur-of-the-moment decision based on consumer spending, then you have no idea how companies operate. The decision to buy Activision probably started months to a year before it was announced or a bid was made. And allotments for that kinda spending were made at the very least at the start of that fiscal year, which for MS would have been around 9 months before the announcement.

And to dispute what you are saying evermore, you gotta understand that the real focus and clear direction of Xbox is not about hardware anymore, but about subscriptions and gamepass. MS is more interested in having 100M subs to gamepass than 80M of them having an Xbox console. They would be just as happy if 80M of those subs were on PC and 20M were on Xbox. And to a company shifting its focus to a sub-service, $69B is chicken change for them in the grand scheme of things.

Could this be why Hi-Fi Rush was "soft launched"? Is just showed up on Game Pass, etc. without any fan fare. Cuts to marketting?

One has nothing to do with the other. Companies stealth-drop stuff the time. Its a form of marketing called user-generated marketing (its actually a thing). And for it to be most effective, you kinda are best off stealth-dropping it.

Some poster here told me they have unlimited money in their WarChest

How much a company has in its war chest has absolutely nothing to do with hires or fires.

Because they have a war chest doesn't mean they would hold onto assets that they consider are now redundant. If they did that, that's just bad business.

 

[ArcaneNLSC]

Clicked the link wondering what GitHub was, then ended up on an article about the giraffe woman

insert githard joke here

 

[feynoob]

Some poster here told me they have unlimited money in their WarChest

Greed has no limit.

 

[DaGwaphics]

Not necessarily. PlayStation also benefited from the pandemic, and they are not laying off people.

In fact, PlayStation is hiring and has hired many people that Xbox just laid off.

It would depend on how many workers they brought in for the pandemic. I think MS hired about 70k during that period.

On here people console war with this, but in reality the gaming division has only represented a very small percentage of these layoffs, because that division did not suffer from as much pandemic bloat as other areas of the company. The gaming specific layoffs seem to be more about reducing redundancies between Xbox Game Studios and Zenimax (besides the house cleaning at 343), which you knew would happen eventually. At the end of the day MS probably doesn't need two completely distinct publishing arms.

 

[Black_Stride]

GITHUB is going to be a fully remote company?
Ohh shit thats actually the big news here.


Cutting more of ZeniMax actually makes sense.
MS already have a big publishing arm as is, no real reason to have two really big publishing arms under you.
Cut some of the fat off.


Metaverse shit not working out as people seem to have thought it would is the most unsurprising news ive heard in a long time.
Next they gonna tell us a big NFT project got rug pulled and expect us to be shocked.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

At the end of the day MS probably doesn't need two completely distinct publishing arms.

Thats why MS want to buy a third one. To have excuses to do more layoffs in the future?

Jokes aside yes those layoffs are normal and not really gaming centric. But in my country and some others labors laws would have made this kind of move impossible. That is why some of us will always laugh about it : it do not make sense to hire people you know you will fire at the first sign of slow down of your company.

You have to admit : layoff 10 k to then maybe get 10k people if the merger is done seems awfully convenient, even if we know that it is not the same sectors that are concerned, and that when/if Activision will be acquired another round of layoffs will occur. It is sad that so many people will found themselves in a precarious situation when they totally could have been able to stay if the tech compagnies had made better decisions last year.

The use of too many contractors harms Xbox first party in my opinion, and the layoffs they had will not help them to make the games that we want them to make: polished, ambitious, full of new ideas and on time.

Again, Microsoft is not really to blame in doing what they are doing. But it is tone deaf and do not inspire confidence when the competition in the gaming sector( Sony and Nintendo) choose to not fire people.