Microsoft lays off 1,900 ABK & XGS employees/ Ybarra left Blizzard/ Odyssey cancelled

I think ABK has 17k+ employees, they were kind off spared from the layoffs last year due to the ongoing acquisition, combine that with redundant positions due to the merger and you get this shitshow.

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Let me guess, in 5 days Microsoft will announce record revenue and profits and Wall Street will rejoice.

Just digusting.

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Yeah, hope people arenā€™t console warring this because it affects actual people and more layoffs to come . This news really sucks and itā€™s all so gross

Thatā€™s not much of a guess, itā€™s what happened last year at the same time. We just forget because weā€™re not monsterā€¦ I mean businessmen

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Unfortunately console warring over this is basically guaranteed, all that matters is their plastic box

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I didnā€™t like it last year (and the years before) and i donā€™t like it now. I think Nadella is a bit too much focused on shareholder value and should care more about Microsofts employees.

But they where voted best company in 2023 with employee satisfaction rank #1. So maybe the ruthless Nadella is right and i am clueless :woman_shrugging:

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A lot of look at me I was right self-congratulating disguised as caring about the employees going on out there right now. Nasty, nasty work.

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Legally he is supposed to be focused on shareholder value, itā€™s not really a choice in the United States

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Created a thread. A mod need to move all the comments.

If there is any mistakes feel free to fix it because Iā€™m still not home. :sweat_smile:

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https://x.com/klobrille/status/1750554900193272119?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ

Microsoft layed off 1,900 people in the gaming workforce, Mike Ybarra left and Odyssey was cancelled. Man what a bummer on every level.

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I always had the worry that Starfield would be up to the typical Bethesda standard but stumble in trying to expand that to a whole new style of open world game - and I think that has kind of been what happened with the game. I think there was definitely some weird expectations of the game - and Iā€™m glad they took an experimental risk with their format, but I donā€™t think it all played to their best strengths.

That said, I am not worried about ES6. I donā€™t see any reason why it wonā€™t be a more traditional Bethesda game and i think they can really do what they do best with it.

Yes, itā€™s a terrible day for Xbox.

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After the D_D and this news today, 2024 is shaping up to be a rough year for Xbox.

This is such a bummer. Hopefully those affected are able to find new jobs swiftly. The amount of layoffs across gaming in 2024 so far is staggering.

These people donā€™t have a clue what theyā€™re talking about and arenā€™t to be taken seriously.

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What was wrong with the Developer Direct? And why is 2024 going to be a rough year for Xbox? Are you concern trolling?

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While I wonā€™t celebrate the layoffsā€¦ People wanted ms to clean house at activision blizzardā€¦ The upper execs get the privilege to leaveā€¦ But large lay offs are part of the cleaning houseā€¦ This should have been expectedā€¦

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Hate to say it, but like death, layoff was inevitable.

Terrible news about the layoffs, hope all impacted land on their feet. 2024 already off to an awful start for the industry.

As for Odyssey, really wouldnā€™t surprise me if that was a quality/saturation issue. MS already have Fallout 76, Minecraft, Grounded, State of Decay (with 3 incoming) and Everwild (incoming) in the survival genre. If its true the game was in dev for 6 years there were probably some major issues and they just decided it wasnā€™t worth the pr/financial hit (similar to Sega and Hyenas).

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Thatā€™s partly it but Bethesda does need to evolve with their games, I enjoy Starfield even though I have many big issues with the game like the skills being too generic, bad UI etc

but one thing they absolutely need to improve on is the NPC interaction, somehow Skyrim 10 years ago feels more natural, the whole zoom in on the face with dead eyes staring back at you, it just ainā€™t it anymore

As for Odyssey, the game has been in dev for many years, if they are cancelling it this late itā€™s clear their was no real confidence in it at all