More layoff pain at Microsoft: Github, Xbox, Mixed Reality, and others hit hard.

[Bryank75]

Four years after being acquired by Microsoft, GitHub keeps doing its thing | TechCrunch

An interview with GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on the company's journey, four years after its acquisition by Microsoft.

techcrunch.com

An article written 1 year ago, like a puff-piece about how Git-hub was still doing great under MSFT, now they have no offices and most of their staff have been fired.

Must check to see if Techcrunch wrote an article about it or if they are just shills, getting a backhander from MSFT, like many places.

EDIT: Nothing on their front page about it...looks like they are MSFT shills.

News | TechCrunch

Read the latest news about News on TechCrunch

techcrunch.com

 

[Sircaw]

Four years after being acquired by Microsoft, GitHub keeps doing its thing | TechCrunch

An interview with GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on the company's journey, four years after its acquisition by Microsoft.

techcrunch.com

An article written 1 year ago, like a puff-piece about how Git-hub was still doing great under MSFT, now they have no offices and most of their staff have been fired.

Must check to see if Techcrunch wrote an article about it or if they are just shills, getting a backhander from MSFT, like many places.

EDIT: Nothing on their front page about it...looks like they are MSFT shills.

News | TechCrunch

Read the latest news about News on TechCrunch

techcrunch.com

I am beginning to think everything Microsoft touches turns to well, shite.

I remember all my friends using skype before they got it, now no one does,

That windows phone Nokia disaster,

github, the list goes on it seems.

 

[anonpuffs]

I am beginning to think everything Microsoft touches turns to well, shite.

I remember all my friends using skype before they got it, now no one does,

That windows phone Nokia disaster,

github, the list goes on it seems.

based on that I'm kind of sad they didn't get tiktok

 

[Sircaw]

based on that I'm kind of sad they didn't get tiktok

or buy ree

 

[Bryank75]

I am beginning to think everything Microsoft touches turns to well, shite.

I remember all my friends using skype before they got it, now no one does,

That windows phone Nokia disaster,

github, the list goes on it seems.

Yup, I used to use skype too and they just killed it. They definitely buy stuff to kill it.

 

[Old Gamer]

or buy ree

How do you know they didn't?

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Xbox has also cut into some of its teams that handle content partnerships, marketing, and other business-oriented operations.

This part sounds rather significant and stood out to me. Definitely seems to verify they are cutting back on Xbox marketing at least for this year, and even 3P content partnerships. They already had a hard time getting AAA 3P games on the platform with marketing rights, but this just makes it even harder. Could even affect indie securement for Game Pass.

Also I'm still kind of shocked at the Zenimax cuts; sounds like more and more of their publishing is going to involve Microsoft Gaming directly, not exactly the way this was all initially pitched.

How can they cut marketing so much but haven't gotten rid of greedberg yet

Greenberg's currency is Mountain Dew, Doritos and donuts. Very cheap things, so they can keep him around.

Microsoft should turn Gamepass into an indie/b tier showcase and store front. They add 50 (or whatever) indie and b tier games to the service every month and see which are most popular. From there, Microsoft can fund more games and create home grown talent like Nintendo and Sony do.

Leave AAA games like Starfield to traditional purchases and maybe offer another gamepass tier that gives all dlc for free for said Aaa games


OT more layoffs are coming

I like that idea. It makes more sense than what they are trying to do right now with the service.

 

[daniel5043]

Greenberg's currency is Mountain Dew, Doritos and donuts. Very cheap things, so they can keep him around.

Don't forget his friendships with xbox fanboys

 

[Zzero]

10,000 layoffs just when they were about to buy ABK with 10,000 employees..... we all know it was to keep the headcount consistent.

It's all calculated. They want to make gaming a monopoly, at least at the high end and they know that PlayStation is the only major competitor standing in their way in terms of platform size and importance / sales.

They are willing to fire thousands of people and eat billions of losses and spending to gain the monopoly position.
I'm just glad more people are aware and still more are waking up to it all.

These are marketing positions, I highly doubt it has to do with headcount.

Anyways, I'm of the opinion that Bethesda was always better at marketing than the regular Xbox team so its sad to see them go but such is M&A. Really, it's weird that they lasted this long.

 

[thelastword]

10,000 layoffs just when they were about to buy ABK with 10,000 employees..... we all know it was to keep the headcount consistent.

It's all calculated. They want to make gaming a monopoly, at least at the high end and they know that PlayStation is the only major competitor standing in their way in terms of platform size and importance / sales.

They are willing to fire thousands of people and eat billions of losses and spending to gain the monopoly position.
I'm just glad more people are aware and still more are waking up to it all.

MS making gaming a monopoly, will also be the collapse of the gaming industry because game quality and pricing will get to ridiculous levels. MS is not the good guy Xfans think they are....They are simply trying to appear as shepherds of the flock till the sheep get in, then they morph into the wolves and tear flesh....

The, employees at these companies were probably thinking....Wooo, trillion dollar company MS is buying us, we are set for life, little did they know.....

Four years after being acquired by Microsoft, GitHub keeps doing its thing | TechCrunch

An interview with GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke on the company's journey, four years after its acquisition by Microsoft.

techcrunch.com

An article written 1 year ago, like a puff-piece about how Git-hub was still doing great under MSFT, now they have no offices and most of their staff have been fired.

Must check to see if Techcrunch wrote an article about it or if they are just shills, getting a backhander from MSFT, like many places.

EDIT: Nothing on their front page about it...looks like they are MSFT shills.

News | TechCrunch

Read the latest news about News on TechCrunch

techcrunch.com

Which is so strange that anything MS/Phil says, people drink it as gospel, when everything around you says otherwise. Phil is like Chemical Ali saying "Everything is fine", when you could clearly see the bombardment behind him in the very interview........Yet, it baffles me, people still believed Phil.....Oh, "gamepass is selling more games, gamepass is profitable", was coolaid to keep the "gamepass is a gamechanger for months on-going.

It's so crazy, Phil actually made Xfans believe that "exclusive games are not necessary" because you can play indie shovelware on gamepass. He actually made Xfans believe that devs working hard on their games should have it shoved on gamepass, where they could never see proper reward or compensation for their hardwork, but people who don't want to pay for their entertainment were all on the bandwagon.....I'm saving so much from gamepass....Yet, never considered, will those devs even be there next round if all their games go for cannon fodder on gamepass, weakening many games purchasing strength and value with it....

This part sounds rather significant and stood out to me. Definitely seems to verify they are cutting back on Xbox marketing at least for this year, and even 3P content partnerships. They already had a hard time getting AAA 3P games on the platform with marketing rights, but this just makes it even harder. Could even affect indie securement for Game Pass.

Also I'm still kind of shocked at the Zenimax cuts; sounds like more and more of their publishing is going to involve Microsoft Gaming directly, not exactly the way this was all initially pitched.



Greenberg's currency is Mountain Dew, Doritos and donuts. Very cheap things, so they can keep him around.

Well, they know forums, youtube and twitter still have a barrage of Xfans speaking the loudest and coming out the woodwork to villainify Sony at every turn. Yet hopefully, they are aware at this time that none of that noise has done a thing to help MS's cause....They are not getting better games, they are not making more profit. Everything seems to be getting worse. Yet it seems, it will get much worse than this. All these people they are losing means less quality or penetration going forward, this is the domino effect of thinking you're fooling gamers year in and year out. In the end, a company will always do what's necessary for the bottomline, sinking money in an endless moneypit or hopes and dreams of when a gamepass chip is implanted in every living creature so MS can cha-ching home, is not happening anytime soon. So eventually, they will need to cut their losses....and make their investments more formidable...

 

[DonFerrari]

I no longer believe these are the only layoffs. They still have many more months of failure leading up to Starfield. Remember they have fucking nothing coming and Redfall is a flop waiting to happen.

This is just the beginning. Whatever… you don’t want to believe this is what MS does? It’s okay… nothing more transparent than watching them destroy game devs in real time.

They literally said when the first round of layoffs happened that there will be more. This wasn’t unexpected. There will be more. Idk why you’re saying this like it’s some bold prediction.

Loads of companies are laying people off.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Don't forget his friendships with xbox fanboys

How could I? They're either promoting the brand 24/7 on Twitter (and attacking PlayStation), or making Youtube videos promoting the brand every chance they get (and also attacking PlayStation).

I mean, Sony & Nintendo have zealots too, but I've never see corporate people there actually openly gaming with them online or frequenting their podcasts to do PR rounds. I'm glad that they respect the boundary of business & customer. If I want to feel personally connected, it should be through the content you produce.

Well, they know forums, youtube and twitter still have a barrage of Xfans speaking the loudest and coming out the woodwork to villainify Sony at every turn. Yet hopefully, they are aware at this time that none of that noise has done a thing to help MS's cause....They are not getting better games, they are not making more profit. Everything seems to be getting worse. Yet it seems, it will get much worse than this. All these people they are losing means less quality or penetration going forward, this is the domino effect of thinking you're fooling gamers year in and year out. In the end, a company will always do what's necessary for the bottomline, sinking money in an endless moneypit or hopes and dreams of when a gamepass chip is implanted in every living creature so MS can cha-ching home, is not happening anytime soon. So eventually, they will need to cut their losses....and make their investments more formidable...

Well, I think the result of this ABK acquisition will heavily play into how things proceed going forward. If they get ABK, but it comes with heavy divestiture (namely COD & Activision), I can see Microsoft playing hardball with more Blizzard IP, and they try expanding King to make that their main foray for multiplatform content across mobile & console, maybe replicating Minecraft in some way to try doing so.

If they don't get ABK whatsoever, I seriously see them shifting the Xbox model from the traditional console business model to a NUC mini-PC style gaming device over the next two years, and bringing all games to all platforms with native support. They might start with porting Pentiment to Switch & iOS, alongside Grounded & Sea of Thieves, and porting Starfield, Hellblade II, Avowed to PS5. Possibly Flight Sim as well. And then with newer releases you'll just see them be multiplat across Xbox, PS, Switch, PC and mobile, as long as the platform can run the game.

I also think in that scenario, Microsoft open up the Xbox Series consoles to run Windows in full, but for an upgrade fee, say $100 or $200, and you can basically use a Series X or S as a PC. Maybe they introduce new Series hardware by then with that functionality built-in and baked-in already. By the time they bring out 10th-generation consoles, they won't call them "consoles" anymore, they'll be fully pushed branding-wise as console-like gaming mini PCs with various upgradability options (CPU, GPU, RAM, storage etc.) and unique form factors. Base specs for at least some model targeting roughly what the PS6 will be able to do. Sold at healthy profit margins.

That's what I can see happening if the ABK deal falls through, or even if the divestitures are so strict that MS basically get little and shareholders on both sides can't agree to anything if the deal has to be renegotiated.

They literally said when the first round of layoffs happened that there will be more. This wasn’t unexpected. There will be more. Idk why you’re saying this like it’s some bold prediction.

Loads of companies are laying people off.

Correction. Lots of big tech companies are laying people off. Those are the main ones that seem to be firing tens of thousands of people.

 

[DonFerrari]

Yes yes, big tech like Yankee Candle, Redfin, Pelaton, Robinhood, Salesforce, etc. When I think big tech, I think Stitch Fix, Goodyear Tires, and United Furniture.

Again, lots of companies are laying people off. Maybe you only pay attention to tech and don’t know about all the other industries being affected, so your ignorance is understood, but still not excusable. It’s almost as if the world is preparing for a recession or something.

I’m going to bow out now, no point in talking anything MS related here.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Yes yes, big tech like Yankee Candle, Redfin, Pelaton, Robinhood, Salesforce, etc. When I think big tech, I think Stitch Fix, Goodyear Tires, and United Furniture.

Again, lots of companies are laying people off. Maybe you only pay attention to tech and don’t know about all the other industries being affected, so your ignorance is understood, but still not excusable. It’s almost as if the world is preparing for a recession or something.

I’m going to bow out now, no point in talking anything MS related here.

You know you're being disingenuous; I mean mainly within the tech market, not companies as a whole. The big tech companies hired like crazy during the pandemic and even somewhat before then (MS for example, due to Azure & Office growth). And now they're shedding tens of thousands of jobs.

All of the companies you listed had similar hiring sprees, and are now laying people off to increase profit margins and satiate shareholders expecting growth. Maybe there's a criticism to be had about the practice of rapid hires & fires these companies employed? After all, many of them could have just docked bonuses and pay of their upper board and CEOs.

Being aware of why these companies are cutting jobs doesn't mean they don't have culpability in padding their numbers for short-term growth and choosing not to cut the pay of the most well-payed in the company to not lay tons of people off ahead of a possible recession.

 

[Deleted member 417]

Xbox has also cut into some of its teams that handle content partnerships, marketing, and other business-oriented operations.

Does this prove the rumours about E3? That it was cancelled due to budget cuts?

Xbox sold to Disney 1st March 2024

 

[AshHunter216]

How could I? They're either promoting the brand 24/7 on Twitter (and attacking PlayStation), or making Youtube videos promoting the brand every chance they get (and also attacking PlayStation).

I mean, Sony & Nintendo have zealots too, but I've never see corporate people there actually openly gaming with them online or frequenting their podcasts to do PR rounds. I'm glad that they respect the boundary of business & customer. If I want to feel personally connected, it should be through the content you produce.



Well, I think the result of this ABK acquisition will heavily play into how things proceed going forward. If they get ABK, but it comes with heavy divestiture (namely COD & Activision), I can see Microsoft playing hardball with more Blizzard IP, and they try expanding King to make that their main foray for multiplatform content across mobile & console, maybe replicating Minecraft in some way to try doing so.

If they don't get ABK whatsoever, I seriously see them shifting the Xbox model from the traditional console business model to a NUC mini-PC style gaming device over the next two years, and bringing all games to all platforms with native support. They might start with porting Pentiment to Switch & iOS, alongside Grounded & Sea of Thieves, and porting Starfield, Hellblade II, Avowed to PS5. Possibly Flight Sim as well. And then with newer releases you'll just see them be multiplat across Xbox, PS, Switch, PC and mobile, as long as the platform can run the game.

I also think in that scenario, Microsoft open up the Xbox Series consoles to run Windows in full, but for an upgrade fee, say $100 or $200, and you can basically use a Series X or S as a PC. Maybe they introduce new Series hardware by then with that functionality built-in and baked-in already. By the time they bring out 10th-generation consoles, they won't call them "consoles" anymore, they'll be fully pushed branding-wise as console-like gaming mini PCs with various upgradability options (CPU, GPU, RAM, storage etc.) and unique form factors. Base specs for at least some model targeting roughly what the PS6 will be able to do. Sold at healthy profit margins.

That's what I can see happening if the ABK deal falls through, or even if the divestitures are so strict that MS basically get little and shareholders on both sides can't agree to anything if the deal has to be renegotiated.



Correction. Lots of big tech companies are laying people off. Those are the main ones that seem to be firing tens of thousands of people.

I could be wrong, but I think Xbox are the only ones who openly reward/ grant legitimacy to their worst fanboys and only cut ties when the PR becomes too negative, like with that guy in Brazil who was sued for harassing a journalist that wrote a negative article about Xbox.

As for what happens if the ABK deal goes South, I dunno if Xbox goes as far as to give up on directly competing with Playstation, but I'd have to imagine that their investors will only give them so many chances, regardless of how deep their war chest is.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Does this prove the rumours about E3? That it was cancelled due to budget cuts?

Xbox sold to Disney 1st March 2024

If they sell to Disney they will need to rename it. Who wants to be associated with that toxic shit blocked in every big market

 

[thelastword]

Does this prove the rumours about E3? That it was cancelled due to budget cuts?

Xbox sold to Disney 1st March 2024

Seems on point to me that they cancelled E3 due to budget cuts. Also, the proof in the pudding that they are now on the "State of Play" bandwagon.....after speaking the "second coming of E3" when Sony disbanded from it....

 

[Vertigo]

Eh, E3 is dead. These “direct” style presentations aren’t designed to make a trade show appearance, cheaper to do, and straight to your phone… and most importantly… when things are ready to show.

I don’t blame anyone for skipping trade shows anymore. GDC is different as it’s also a hiring expo.

 

[Deleted member 417]

Eh, E3 is dead. These “direct” style presentations aren’t designed to make a trade show appearance, cheaper to do, and straight to your phone… and most importantly… when things are ready to show.

I don’t blame anyone for skipping trade shows anymore. GDC is different as it’s also a hiring expo.

It's not about skipping it. It's about the rumours that Microsoft bailed on e3 because of budget cuts. Now in this latest round of job cuts, Microsoft are trimming the xbox marketing budget.