Xbox first party studios will cost $2.1 billion a year in staff costs alone

[nongkris]

Thanks to the ABK acquisition, Xbox is now larger than Ubisoft by staff count, which was already a huge company.



With AAA games development costing 100s of million per game, I shudder to think what MS will be spending per year on these gamepass giveaways.

 

[Remember_Spinal]

Will also be interesting as they all unionize

 

[MiyazakiLovesKojima]

Microsoft will fail, regardless of what the FatLady sings.

 

[Johnic]

Good, means they'll be horribly mismanaged. Hopefully, the actual devs can find better employment.

 

[MiyazakiLovesKojima]

Looks like Xbox "gonna spend them(selves)out of business"

 

[Gods&Monsters]

They think that Activision will manage itself but that was before Overwatch, Diablo and COD all went downhill.

Sony will stop COD marketing and the 80% split. They are stuck doing MWIII this year but the rest? Microsoft will have to pay out of pocket for everything. Game Pass cannibalize sales so they can't rely on that.

Forza is flopping hard right now (3.5k CCU first weekend). Starfield underperformed. Consoles are not selling. The whole division is an expensive mess.

 

[shrike0fth0rns]

Thanks to the ABK acquisition, Xbox is now larger than Ubisoft by staff count, which was already a huge company.



With AAA games development costing 100s of million per game, I shudder to think what MS will be spending per year on these gamepass giveaways.

Expect to see lay offs next yr just like they did a year after the Bethesda purchase to reduce cost. Gamepass + gold was bringing in less than one billion a quarter in revenue at 30 million subs.

 

[shrike0fth0rns]

Thanks to the ABK acquisition, Xbox is now larger than Ubisoft by staff count, which was already a huge company.



With AAA games development costing 100s of million per game, I shudder to think what MS will be spending per year on these gamepass giveaways.

The last few cod games took 9 to 11 studios and estimated to cost around 300mil + in development and advertising. Watch Microsoft say Fck u to their smaller studios reduce their budgets and reduce staffing.

 

[Danja1187]

They will suffer a lot of brain drain over the coming 2 years as well. Plus we know lay offs will eventually happen.

I'm actually very curious to see how this all plays out. EA and Ubisoft are definitely happy about this acquisition because their biggest rival will now have incompetent leadership.

 

[shrike0fth0rns]

They think that Activision will manage itself but that was before Overwatch, Diablo and COD all went downhill.

Sony will stop COD marketing and the 80% split. They are stuck doing MWIII this year but the rest? Microsoft will have to pay out of pocket for everything. Game Pass cannibalize sales so they can't rely on that.

Forza is flopping hard right now (3.5k CCU first weekend). Starfield underperformed. Consoles are not selling. The whole division is an expensive mess.

Wow has also seen a drop in players, hearthstone laid off a bunch of devs and it’s profits are down and candy crush has seen a drop for almost the whole 2nd half of the year so far. Microsoft announced the abk deal when both corporations were still riding the pandemic bump now that things have return to normal and almost 2yrs have passed things aren’t looking as great.

 

[Heisenberg007]

And with ever-decreasing software sales and a stagnant subscription service, this will be their downfall.

 

[Box]

Disney of videogames - No quality but a lot of quantity

 

[Petekilla]

If anybody can afford this, it’s MS.

 

[SLB1904]

If anybody can afford this, it’s MS.

Tell that to Nokia, zune and a bunch of failed business they try in the past

 

[Dr Bass]

8k per month per person? Maybe 8k per pay period lol. There is no way in hell they average sub 100k total costs per year, per employee.

Here is the average for MS software employees with zero years experience.

Microsoft SDE Software Engineer Salary | $140K-$190K+ | Levels.fyi

The median total compensation package for a SDE at Microsoft is $162,614. View more Software Engineer salary ranges with breakdowns by base, stock, and bonus amounts.

www.levels.fyi

Note, this is just comp. This does not include additional costs for the company like benefits and payroll taxes. Now imagine all the actual experienced people out there working on these games.

Their expenses are surely much higher than 8k per month per person.

 

[laynelane]

I wonder how bad the upcoming layoffs will be. Bethesda already experienced this while they were working on Starfield. There's also the fact that MS favours contract workers and the inevitable parting of experienced developers (eg. Shinji Mikami). It makes me wonder how future CoD games will look, especially given the output of once prestigious studios like Arkane with Redfall.

 

[Cool hand luke]

I wonder how bad the upcoming layoffs will be. Bethesda already experienced this while they were working on Starfield. There's also the fact that MS favours contract workers and the inevitable parting of experienced developers (eg. Shinji Mikami). It makes me wonder how future CoD games will look, especially given the output of once prestigious studios like Arkane with Redfall.

Bethesda should be the most worried of the studios that are left. Their sales potential is being cut by being forced to release on GP and not release on PS, unlike what is happening to ABK in the near term. Another few high profile flops and they'll be dead in a ditch.

 

[kuzon]

nothing a 2 trillion dollar company can handle

 

[Kokoloko]

2.1 billion really means nothing to them. They just spent 70+billion. Have trillions.
And make billions from “other stuff”

 

[Sircaw]

8k per month per person? Maybe 8k per pay period lol. There is no way in hell they average sub 100k total costs per year, per employee.

Here is the average for MS software employees with zero years experience.

Microsoft SDE Software Engineer Salary | $140K-$190K+ | Levels.fyi

The median total compensation package for a SDE at Microsoft is $162,614. View more Software Engineer salary ranges with breakdowns by base, stock, and bonus amounts.

www.levels.fyi

Note, this is just comp. This does not include additional costs for the company like benefits and payroll taxes. Now imagine all the actual experienced people out there working on these games.

Their expenses are surely much higher than 8k per month per person.

100% and don't forget the subsidized daily canteen meals for Arron Greenburg, those won't be cheap.

Here is just the starter menu.