Recently, former Microsoft Exec and indie-dev Peter Molyneux stated that the backlash Microsoft got is unfair despite reversing policies for the Xbox One. While Molyneux continues on further to defend Microsoft’s vision of the future, my reason behind why the corporate giant deserves the flak that it is receiving because that Microsoft failed to focus on the core gamer audience that brought them up to where they are as well as the kind of message they sent out about the Xbox One and its gamer base. - Lazy Tech Guys
The cuts are expected to be announced next week.
Microsoft is also planning thousands of job cuts that will impact other parts of it businesses
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MFs has been beating their chests over great quarterly results and big profits to shareholders while firing people by the thousands just like Sony.
I wonder if at the top of those rumored layoffs they´ll also cancel upcoming or unannounced games while shutting down more studios as well.
Always got to throw shade at Sony smh.
Yes we get it,
MS good Sony bad
MS bad Sony is also bad lmao
F* them both!
Just for the record, I don´t care about your victim complex crap either. Find someone else who cares.
@Blacktiger
Im not offended , that’s just his formula lol
He can’t help help himself, he needs to bring Sony down when the topic involves MS.
Whether is good news for MS or bad, it some how leads to Sony doing bad lmao.
It’s actually hilarious.
He's not wrong but im tracking what youre saying. In this case is should just be MS bad. Thats a lot of people fired
"just like Sony"
Gosh you're insufferable, not everything needs to be both-sides'd. Sony's had layoffs, but nothing like what Microsoft has been doing and is continuing to do.
I mean, no offense, but this is why you’re not some corporate business person running a major corporation. Big profits don’t mean jobs are safe. Do you understand why things like this happen:
Cutting jobs to maintain or increase profitability, especially in underperforming divisions like parts of Xbox like other gaming divisions.
Corporate restructuring and relocating resources for strategic stability in ever changing markets and consumer behaviors.
Investor expectations and optimizing operations to maintain investor confidence. Whatever boosts stock prices and improves future margins.
And there’s many other factors at play. It’s never as simple as business doing well, everyone’s safe. That’s just you not understanding at all how corporations work and have been working since the beginning. This isn’t something that’s specific to Xbox, you can bet your ass Sony and Nintendo do this and if it’s not clear by now, game development is not a stable job nor has it ever been for many. A lot of developers are contractors and guess what happens when a project is done?
Nintendo said they have no plans for layoffs, and you can't seriously claim that the scale of Sony's layoffs most of which involved Bungie which is self managed as even close to the same scale as what Microsoft has done since they purchased Zenimax. And that significantly less layoffs would have happened if those publishers had stayed independent. Keep in mind that much of these layoffs have been due to redundancies specifically related to these buyouts.
@Ganif
Nintendo:
https://gamerant.com/ninten...
Sony:
https://gamerant.com/playst...
https://techxplore.com/news...
I don’t think it’s realistic to treat Sony’s layoffs as somehow outside the norm for the industry right now. Even if Bungie is self-managed, Sony’s cuts went far beyond that like Naughty Dog, Insomniac, London Studio being shut down completely, and multiple teams across the globe took hits. These weren’t just minor adjustments.
Nintendo, I had to look up and you’re right. They seem to be an outlier, but rest assured at some point it happens. And even then there’s been layoffs, albeit a smaller amount and contractors.
Would fewer layoffs have happened if studios from acquisitions stayed independent? Maybe. But even independents have been hit hard and look at what’s happened with Embracer’s fallout, or smaller devs like Digic, Roll7, or Volition. This isn’t just a “Microsoft problem” or strictly tied to acquisitions; it’s a broader correction happening across the whole industry, and unfortunately, layoffs are a big part of that process right now.
From your article:
"According to reports, Nintendo of America restructured its testing operations, leading to layoffs of about 120 contractors, part of a strategy for global integration.
Nintendo of America, publisher of iconic franchises like Mario and Zelda, is shifting some contractors to full-time roles for better development integration."
Contractors are not employees, and even if you want to count them as that, it's 120 people vs around 7500 since Microsoft purchased Zenimax.
In an era of game industry layoffs, Nintendo is hiring more people
https://automaton-media.com...
Nintendo Announces 10 Percent Pay Raise For Devs Despite Lower Profits
https://kotaku.com/nintendo...
Nintendo CEO’s refusal to layoff staff goes viral following industry-wide cuts
"Satoru Iwata took pay cuts to ensure staff didn’t have to be let go"
https://www.nme.com/news/ga...
And as for Sony you're comparing less than 1000 total jobs to an estimated7500
Has the industry faced layoffs, yes, but that still doesn't account for the mass layoffs due to redundancies that was easily predictable, or that fact that at least 1/3 of Microsoft's layoffs and studio closures happened before the industry downturn.
Take the L, Crimson.
People hate Nintendo, but Ganif proved why they deserve support.
It's like banging your head off a wall, he just can't help himself.
Microsoft can do no wrong, Sony sucks at everything and Nintendo is bigged up because it's less hassle than trying to defend Microsoft all the time
What's going to happen when Microsoft finally turn completely third party, then what?
Did you know that the first n4g was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program.
I wouldn't be surprised at this point if anast and osbcure were both alts for the Admin.
We know how Obscure especially drums up additional comments and clicks with his spam-worthy remarks that somehow never get moderated
Thats business present a strong front to your shareholders while your company burns around you.
Keep shareholders happy at all costs andnif not happy keep them numb to the reality of you organisation
" Just for the record, I don´t care about your victim complex crap either. Find someone else who cares. "
Just for the record, you clearly you do if you have to vent this hard.
AMD CEO Lisa Su talks about the Xbox AMD partnership, next-gen Ryzen + Radeon chips, and AI rendering tech coming to all Xbox devices.
AMD is really building hype around their unique partnership with Microsoft to help and build an advanced and seamless Xbox ecosystem across all Xbox consoles and devices.
I wonder what she meant by "full roadmap of gaming optimized chips" though? Seems ambitious.
Next year´s Xbox Showcase already looks promising and exciting. Here´s hoping they deliver.
Obscure_Observer said “I wonder what she meant by "full roadmap of gaming optimised chips" though? Seems ambitious.” To me, I interpret this to mean rather than having a couple of X/S products for launch and a handheld there is a longer term plan to release new products with higher specs at timed intervals. I’m speculating of course, but this could mean a spec bump every year or two, so that even if the PS6 or Steam Deck Home is released a year after ‘Xbox’ Microsoft can release an updated model that has a higher spec.
It's X3D chips for console. Everyone knows this. And it's been rumored in the PS6 forever.
Correct.
"Sony's PlayStation 6 reportedly will feature an AMD semi-custom APU with a Zen 5 CPU and UDNA GPU, capable of 4K 120FPS and 8K 60FPS gaming. The console will include X3D cache and advanced AI upscaling technology."
https://www.tweaktown.com/n...
"It's X3D chips for console. Everyone knows this. And it's been rumored in the PS6 forever."
I doubt that AMD´s CEO would waste her time making this huge and important partnership announcement over a tech that will be 7 years old by the those next gen consoles will be released.
You should have just lead this comment with the fact that you have zero understanding of technology in the consoles and instead have a Toms Hardware online forum level of education.
"It's X3D chips for console. Everyone knows this. And it's been rumored in the PS6 forever"
I´d told you were on some bs
https://www.pcgamesn.com/wp...
@VenomUK
"I’m speculating of course, but this could mean a spec bump every year or two, so that even if the PS6 or Steam Deck Home is released a year after ‘Xbox’ Microsoft can release an updated model that has a higher spec."
Very interesting theory. Still not sure how MS would actually make it work.
"I doubt that AMD´s CEO would waste her time making this huge and important partnership announcement over a tech that will be 7 years old by the those next gen consoles will be released."
How old is the tech in consoles? It's not a huge announcement. It's marketing and you know it is.
"How old is the tech in consoles? It's not a huge announcement. It's marketing and you know it is."
Dude, what I know for certain is that a tech as old as X3D chips which is actually *older* than both PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, is hardly the reason behind this new partnership between AMD and MS to build new *custom silicon* for next generation of consoles.
And yes it´s a huge announcement since AMD is working closely with MS to co-develop custom SoC which will allow backwards compatibility across all MS´s next gen devices allowing seamless integration between devices and full backwards compatibility across all generations of Xbox consoles.
I also know is that this announcement don´t have anything to do with Playstation and their strategy with AMD for the PS6, so stop comparing the two pretending that you know what´s going on, because you clearly don´t.
If Sony is working on something remotely similar, that´s remain to be seen.
Some odd, deliberate wording, no branding, not 'Xbox consoles, Xbox handhelds' specifically, feels and sounds like they're building towards hardware that anyone can be used or licensed to/by themselves and other manufacturers.
Multiplatform software and hardware 'Xbox/AMD APU'.
I guess you missed Sarah Bond´s next generation Xbox announcement this week, were she clearly states:
"I´m thrilled to share that we´ve established a strategic multi-year partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices, including, *our* next generation *Xbox consoles*."
But hey, I don´t think you´re entirely wrong, maybe MS will build their own Xbox consoles while licencing other manufactures to build and sell their own Xbox branded consoles. Who knows
I think you watched the wrong video. It's below the description, or you can watch it directly on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/kprpRvsOua...
Shares vision....we provide chips for money, this deal will sell many chips, we will make lots of money...good vision
The marketing behind this is so heavy that I worry about the actual outcome. Why are they just not showing us the product, why all this talking in market speak?
Probably because the next xbox isn't ready to release yet?
The marketing and rumors seem to be heavy out of no where. The rumor was a 27 release but it maybe it could be 26 new console launch instead.
Who knows.
There PR is alrways super heavy handed. No one is acutally buying an Xbox as is.
Also it is very early to be talking so much about a next gen console.
There´s a lot of people interested on Xbox Next and its ability to run games from major stores like Steam.
We know that the PS6 is just around the corner as well, but so far, no news on what it might improve over the PS5 or PS5 Pro.
However, Sony already made public that their priority and actual focus is the PS6. So its not "very early" to talk about next gen when the very console manufactures are talking about it.
With the launch of Call of Duty Season 4, Activision quietly put adverts inside loadouts for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, sparking a backlash in the process.
Putting Ads in a pay-to-play Premium title? Well done Microsoft. Well done /s This is really scummy.
This game will never change because these sweatlords love buying up all the skins and bundles that become obsolete the following year. They're the ones perpetuating Activision's greed.
If Microsoft introduces adverts into its other games I hope it can do them without disrupting the immersion of the game world. So for example in the new Fable game it would look out of place if there was a billboard advertising Cadillacs.
A far better way to do it would be to have a wizard conjure a 'dream cloud' in front of your character and then in the cloud you can see the Cadillac car and see the text with price and availability and hear a booming sales voice promoting the car. That would work so well as it wouldn't be a billboard and completely, 100%, fit in with your character's adventuring in Albion. Doesn't that sound so much better?!
@venom, or how about our of 100 farts in Albion, 1 of them has a Cadillac pop out
"Microsoft failed to focus on the core gamer audience that brought them up to where they are"
Pretty much what i think too. Too much focus on non gaming related content, and the gaming related content is alot of the time kinect focused, so we feel left out sometimes.
Yes microsoft should of modified their check in so it didn't occur everyday, however microsoft should of stayed with the rest of their decisions. It would of left season passes and resale to game publishers, it wouldn't of stopped used game sale, but it would stop dev's and publishers claiming they were being robbed or short changed. This would then still allow the sharing of a digital library in a house hold instead of requiring people to carry games where ever they go.
the author deserves flak for writing incendiary crappy articles that are unnecessary.
It's like the in thing to do now, bash the xbox
While I applaud the article for not going all out mental on the X1...I still find it funny how shortsighted the gaming community is. Why, in 2013 when most devices are more than their main target, do gamers expect consoles to do nothing but game. Why don't they look at this on the business side of things.
There is no way to make a gaming only console, and only appeal to gamers and expect to be successful. More time was spent watching movies on the PS3 than actually gaming. 46%(games)54%(movies) I wish we knew how many of those(54%) people only bought the console mainly for media and only played a few titles here and there.
Then people keep talking about the reveal. Did the internet only work for a select amount of people? They explicitly stated, before the May reveal, that they would have two events. The first was to introduce the CONSOLE and what it does. Then E3 show nothing but games. They did exactly that and people complained.
Exclusives. I maintain quality over quantity. Sony can release triple the exclusives as Microsoft...but if they aren't all up to snuff then what's the point? It's funny the Sony camp brags about the amount of exclusives, yet the Microsoft camp supports their few more. How is it that Xbox exclusives outsold Sony's this whole gen??
Anyway...I was supporting Xbox from day one. The system is only getting better...can't wait.