From Cancelled Games to Closed Studios, There’s a Trail of Carnage in the Wake of Microsoft’s Layoffs

Peter_Brosdahl

Peter_Brosdahl

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Microsoft's layoffs have littered the gaming landscape with cancelled projects, studio closures, and veteran leaders are leaving their companies.

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It was always a matter of when, not if, with Microsoft

I feel sorry for those involved, and hopefully it’s clear now - if you get acquired by Microsoft, if you get any buyout cash or severance offer, take it and run. If you don’t, get your resume polished up and start hunting immediately
 
  1. Buy every studio possible
  2. Close them down before any project is completed
What was the strategy here, scorched Earth?
 
Brian_B said:
It was always a matter of when, not if, with Microsoft

I feel sorry for those involved, and hopefully it’s clear now - if you get acquired by Microsoft, if you get any buyout cash or severance offer, take it and run. If you don’t, get your resume polished up and start hunting immediately
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It's not something I have picked up upon with MS, usually it's EA that's famous for pulling crap like this.
 
MadMummy76 said:
  1. Buy every studio possible
  2. Close them down before any project is completed
What was the strategy here, scorched Earth?
Click to expand...
Who knows, IP hoarding?
Executives are likely planning a future of fast and cheaper AI fueled development.
What we will get is a bunch of cookie cutter games, full of corporate beige.
 
Denpepe said:
It's not something I have picked up upon with MS, usually it's EA that's famous for pulling crap like this.
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EA only shut down studios after they released a game, not before they even had a chance.
 
Denpepe said:
It's not something I have picked up upon with MS, usually it's EA that's famous for pulling crap like this.
Click to expand...
9000 this go

6000 employees one month ago

The carnage with the gaming studios is legendary:

www.polygon.com

Microsoft has never been good at running game studios, which is a problem when it owns them all

The latest Xbox layoffs are about a long history of mismanagement as much as recent overexpansion
www.polygon.com www.polygon.com

Last year they shuttered 4 studios, including one that had a breakout hit

This page hasn’t been updated in a couple of years but:

 
Microsoft is done caring about making a billion all at once... they want RMR. Expect more live services investment from them with subscriptions tied to it.
 
It's been a blood bath in the entire gaming industry over the last two years. It's not surprising Microsoft is reacting this way. The more surprising bit is that they waited so long to do so.

The problem is that publishers are expecting 2020 revenue streams for games with 2016 politics shoe horned into them to appease the 2% of the population that cares about that crap and as it turns out, only a small percentage of those people actually play games in the first place. We've also seen stagnation and even regression in the game space due to bad hiring practices. Developers are often less skilled than they were a few years.

Add to that bloated costs, absurd development times and Microsoft was left with little choice but to trim the fat. That's not to say every studio or game deserved the axe, but there are a lot of games in development for 5-7 years with little to show for it. When studios are often preoccupied with chasing trends, those kinds of cycles simply don't work.

I can go on and on, but none of this is surprising.
 
You know what everyone in the gaming industry has started ignoring all at once... card makers, game makers... just... everyone.

I hate to say it really... but it's true...

Sex Sells.

They have largely removed the 'sex' from videogames and hardware. We used to have silly marketing gimmicks and 'sexy' characters selling hardware. I mean... look at over seas products like the 'Waifu' card. The Solar blade game or whatever it was called... pretty much any MMO with staying power has bad *** sexy characters for people to play. Yet the modern market acts like that is some broken rule.

Remember Dead or Alive beach volleyball? Considered a financial success that actually probably brought MORE people to the Dead or Alive Franchise. Studios have moved away from this stuff.

Hell look at modern Anime... they still do 'fan service' and it's still popular stuff.

It's clear that 'sexy' doesn't excuse poor development, but really folks... it still generates base interest and more people will give it a shot if it at least has that and perhaps expose a greater game underneath the shiny veneer.
 
Grimlakin said:
Sex Sells.
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I'd change that to "sexy sells".

There was no overt sex in games before the crackdown on the "male gaze" has begun in the 2010s. Ironically the only game that I know of that has crude sex in it is the last of us 2, which is considered "safe horny".

So it's not that people want sex in games, we just want complex and attractive characters fighting for a just cause. But for the modern activist developer everything has to be a blob of grey. Of course people tune out when they make the protagonist an insufferable brat in a burlap sack, and try to make the clearly evil antagonist sympathetic.

I think Stellar Blade is an overcorrection, it's a mediocre game and had it come out between 2000-2015 it would have flown completely under the radar.
 
MadMummy76 said:
I'd change that to "sexy sells".

There was no overt sex in games before the crackdown on the "male gaze" has begun in the 2010s. Ironically the only game that I know of that has crude sex in it is the last of us 2, which is considered "safe horny".

So it's not that people want sex in games, we just want complex and attractive characters fighting for a just cause. But for the modern activist developer everything has to be a blob of grey. Of course people tune out when they make the protagonist an insufferable brat in a burlap sack, and try to make the clearly evil antagonist sympathetic.

I think Stellar Blade is an overcorrection, it's a mediocre game and had it come out between 2000-2015 it would have flown completely under the radar.
Click to expand...
yea that is correct the marketing blurb was "sex sells" which is what I was focusing on of course.
 
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