I am the first to admit that I was not a fan of the Xbox One when it was first talked about early last year, the issues surrounding the original announcement have been well documented, but now six months after launch and with what feels like a complete 360 over nearly every feature and idea they originally talked about and Microsoft might finally be on the right track with the console. Focusing on what the public might actually have wanted to buy, an entertainment unit priced reasonably.
After laying off almost 2,000 people, Xbox finds itself in a position at odds with the community-first image it has cultivated for itself.
lol I’m not a big MS gamer but Sony and a number of others have laid off ton of people as well. Where are the ridiculous articles about them not being your friend? Gaming news is such a joke and these sites wonder why they have to beg for money/patreons or flood with 5x more ads.
ok here is a reality check. Tech companies have been firing thousands of employees the last couple of years.
I find it odd that the percentage of employees sacked from MS
QUOTE
"Microsoft announced approximately 1,900 job cuts across its gaming division, including Activision Blizzard, ZeniMax, and Xbox. 8.6% of its colossal 22,000-strong global workforce. "
is worth writing an article condemning the company, when Sony Interactive fired 8% of its workforce (900 people approximately).
https://news.crunchbase.com...
Is the writer concerned about the percentage of the workforce fired or the number of employees?
Lets not forget that Unity laid off 25 percent of its workforce (1800 people) and Discord laid off 17 percent of its employees.
You also have to take into account the AI issue reported in the article. MS is heavily invested in A.I. They have invested in Open A.I (chatgpt 4+Dalle 3), in Abu Dhabi’s G42 and in French AI company Mistral.
These LLMs have already replaced thousands of jobs as A.I usage becomes more common
https://www.cbsnews.com/new...
https://www.theverge.com/20...
https://tech.co/news/compan...
This is the new reality. Even nvidia CEO said that games will fully A.I generated.
https://www.pcgamer.com/sof...
Nevertheless, no company should be ever viewed as "your friend". MS had numerous anti consumer practices in place and the same is true for Sony (not only in video game space) and Nintendo (60$ dollar games without permanent discounts, remasters of 10 year old game with full price, no console price cuts, expensive joy cons which are prone to drift, to name but a few).
As part of its plans to cut 1,900 jobs, Microsoft has reportedly shut down operations at Bethesda France, letting go roughly 15 people
Bethesda France was made up of roughly 15 people... they couldn't of being doing much
Bethesda France mainly did publishing and marketing within the region
Bethesda France focused on publishing and marketing in the region. And 15 people lost their jobs as part of the closure.
I wonder if this is part of Microsoft's strategy to abandoned physical media or possibly gamepass advertising makes their roles redundant you don't need to market a game as hard when the majority of players get the game as part of a sub which already promoted upcoming games
Tbh Microsoft I think Bethesda being 3rd party same with Activision would probably more competitive than thus scenario imo
The recently purchased Activision French offices might take over all the licensing and marketing for Microsoft in France from now on.
Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"
Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”
Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever
Nice one ☝️
This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.
No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.
Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.
Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?
Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.
They definitly are..atleast I've noticed that some of my pals (who wernt interested in the console before) are now looking forward to owning one.
While I still remain a PS fan and nothing probably will change that because I started with the amazing PS1 and the legendary PS2 after that I agree that MS is now pulling all the right triggers for me to make me buy a secondary console (which I already did). I am a gamer first. All console competitors should learn from each other and take the best part out of it to make their console the best for their fans! You gain nothing but praise from your fans for keep improving and admitting wrongs and doing things better and better!
The most important to come away with this is that they are giving us options that the majority have been craving for for the longest, so in that sense, they are doing it right.
-People complain about too much TV. Haven't heard a thing about TV ever since the first reveal in May of last year, it is all about games. checked
-People complain that apps shouldn't be behind paywall and a model similar to PSN+ regarding free games should be implemented. Checked
-People want discount of XB1 digital games. Starting in Jun, each month will have discounts on XB1 digital games up to 50-70% off. checked
-Gamers want a Kinect free sku at a cheaper price. checked
-Gamers want to use their own external hardrive, not forced into buying a more expensive proprietary HDD. checked and it is up to 16tb
We can keep saying 180 or they lost their original vision all we want and no doubt MS is doing this mostly to compete better and getting trust from gamers, but it is a good thing that they are listening and actually doing what they said they were going to do. That is a win in my book.
Make the games and everything else will follow. It's not rocket science.
Xbox One will be just fine. All the bad publicity will die down soon enough...and if it doesn't?
I'm sure it won't prevent X1 owners from enjoying the games/experiences.
Shame we all just can't move on now though.