Back in 2005, a gaming company named Nintendo announced that it wanted to try something different. Ignoring the booming business around it, with its Call of Dutys and Halos and its Half-Lifes, Nintendo threw the gaming world a complete curveball, right out of left field: nice, simple motion control!
The previously rumored mass layoffs at Xbox are expected to happen on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, according to a new rumor.
They will have fired close to 20,000 people all up after this round of lay-offs coming, since the ABK deal announcement in January 2022. Shocking really
January 2023:
Microsoft laid off 10,000 employees, which was a significant workforce reduction.
January 2024:
Approximately 1,900 gaming employees were laid off following the Activision Blizzard acquisition.
May 2025:
Microsoft announced a further 6,000 layoffs as part of an organizational shift.
June 2025:
Additional layoffs, including 650 in the gaming business, focused on corporate and support functions
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"They will have fired close to 20,000 people all up after this round of lay-offs coming, since the ABK deal announcement in January 2022. Shocking really"
It's not that shocking considering these numbers aren't just Xbox numbers as you're deliberately trying to make it seem for some reason.
Interestingly, another no shocking fact is that whenever Microsoft releases its quarterly earnings reports, you're quick to point out that those numbers aren't exclusive to Xbox. Yeah... go figure.
They also fired around 2500 people across Microsoft's gaming divisions and Zenimax shortly after buying it, and before they closed down 4 studios including Arkane and Tango.
I remember Satya boasting about how compassionate he was for splitting the list 50/50 across the two companies.
"They also fired around 2500 people across Microsoft's gaming divisions and Zenimax shortly after buying it"
Bring your sources. I´ll wait.
Let's hope its not as bad as socials are making it, good luck to those that unfortunately lose their jobs.
Could be not as bad could be horrible. But it's Ms so I'm expecting the absolute worst.
Sometimes I feel like they brought in Sarah to take the heat away from Phil.
Phil has always stuck his nose into everything Xbox related when it's something positive or at least neutral but as soon as they went the multiplatform root he's stood back and let Sarah do most of the talking in terms of PR. Now they are doing the same with layoffs.
The person who should be let go is Phil himself.
"Phil has always stuck his nose into everything Xbox related when it's something positive or at least neutral but as soon as they went the multiplatform root he's stood back and let Sarah do most of the talking in terms of PR. Now they are doing the same with layoffs."
You have no idea what you´re talking about.
*IF* Microsoft decides to address the upcoming layoffs, Matt Booty will be the one in the spotlight since he is the president of XGS.
Phil will probably be on some bs drama later doing interviews telling people how "devastated" and "sorry" he is for those affected while wiping away his tears with money.
Sarah is the President of Xbox (hardware) so she will be better off taking care of hers business and let both Matt and Phil face the backlash.
Amen to that, All of Phil's industry peers have left or moved on in the time he has been at Xbox. He is like a football manager that doesn't know when to go. I'm almost convinced he just wants to keep holding on so he can leave on a high (egotistical). But he is just causing more damage than good.
One of the founding members of the Xbox team has questioned Microsoft’s multiplatform gaming strategy, and said they believe the Xbox hardware business is effectively “dead"
Replies(3)Think that rumor that they'll still make a new console but at a profit at $1000 will be true though. The series consoles will remain their cheap alternative throughout next gen I would say. Keep in mind that game pass and pretty much going 3rd party is their main focus. They want to bring xbox everywhere.
If they don't maintain some kind of console presence, I think they will lose gamepass subscribers and just become a 3rd party publisher who eventually sells everything off
Xbox games are releasing on all platforms. Who needs this hardware? PS or PC is all you need
Even if they could get it down to $800 for a box that can run with comparable performance to a PS6 (at, say $200 cheaper) the population of people willing to buy such a thing would be so limited.
It would be the worst of both worlds.
TNS: Based on its most recent ESG data, Nintendo boasts a remarkably low staff turnover rate of just 1.9%, with virtually no reported layoffs.
It’s unreal that people are downvoting this when they consistently have the best scoring games on metacritic.
Well it doesn’t surprise me. As much money as they make and how they value their employees. It’s a great company in that regard.
Replies(1)Well, when your games remain full price many years after release.
And you make profit off of outdated hardware.
I would be shocked if they couldn't afford to retain their staff.
I didn't want to say anything but drivxr is right.
Nintendo always sells at a profit because they purposely use tech that's always 5 or more years behind. And it's also true their games hardly ever get price decreases.
Don't get me wrong, it's great they kept most of their workforce, but making a point to have your tech specs behind everyone else affords that luxury.
I don’t think it’s their purpose to use old tech. It’s their purpose to make value of software and know their value. Nobody makes games like them that’s for sure. I just don’t appreciate their customer unfriendly policy.
It’s not impossible to take their status. Companies need to have a selection of 8-bit and 16-bit. Now imagine a split screen for 8 player game for SNES Mario kart and selling at $9.99. The problem is that it doesn’t make profit. So many companies won’t invest in “old” technology. Everyone guns for triple AAA modern technology software but honestly we can enjoy modernized 16-bit creative ideas that allows 8-player mayhem. It’s a pipe dream, possible but impossible.
If they ended up kicking people out after all of that stated above, it would be truly shameful.
Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Tesla and Meta are all trillion dollar companies yet they are laying people off in large numbers.
I believe the reason Nintendo layoffs off less workers may be a result of their culture. It seems Japanese companies believe in giving their workers long term or life long employment opportunities and will exhaust all options before laying off workers. This is something we don't see much of in the west unfortunately.
might be something to do with the fact all those companies hire more than 20x the employees than Nintendo
What the hell are you talking about? It has nothing to do with how profitable they are. Its completely cultural, MS and Sony make stacks of cash and still lay folks off. Nintendo chose not to lay off staff for the same reason their execs took pay cuts to increase staff pay instead; because they value their staff and view them as colleagues, and respect them as such.
If Sony weren't so US centric I fancy they'd fare better too, they should get shot of US and European leadership and go back to when Japanese execs were running the show if you ask me!
They didn't come out and throw a curve ball for the heck of it.
They were UNABLE TO COMPETE with sony and microsoft on the hardware power war. They are still unable to compete. This forced them into thinking of a different way to monetize their system. At 250$ the wii is a rip off which is why Nintendy makes $$ on each one sold, since launch.
They key to Nintendo's success was mimicing the iPod marketing strategy. It worked well and to Nintendo's favor, they just happened to have 1 competitor who priced themselves out of the early running (PS3), because of the power it packed.
Also, keep in mind that Nintedo has ALWAYS created peripherals, which is why they are always profitable. They have constantly, from the start of their videogame buisness, produced toy-like peripherals, because they can monetize each sale.
If anything you need to realize that nintendo has always cared more about the bottom-line then anything else. Virtual Boy, Power Glove, Power Pad, 100 kinds of controllers, Each generations game console sports a unique controller, the reluctance to move to CD (Cartridge was more profitable for Nintendo) etc...
Meanwhile sony's philosophy is lose at the beginning (taking a loss) and win at the end. They have a long-term approach to continually push the videogame buisness forward. Look at the IPs sony has under their umbrella. FLower, Flow, PJ Eden, PJ Racer, Heavy Rain, God of War, GT, Killzone, Little Big Planet etc... That is a list of games that is pushing Videogames as a medium forward, where as the other companies are not.
Microsoft is pushing monetization of the Internet, because they would LOVE to charge people to connect to the net (which they do on the xbox). Locking out a portion of the game simply because of money, not because of neccessity.
Sony might think i'm a fanboy, but i'm well versed and I know my gaming. I know the company philosophies and I give my dollars, as a smart consumer, to the company who I feel will give me the most freedom and provide me with teh most innovative, varied and high quality experiences.
Which is Sony.
(I think there are alot of "new gamers" who should read this for a bit of better understanding into what has been going on)