Microsoft CEO says Xbox's 'streamlining' process is 'great to see' following its most recent round of layoffs
Overview & Key Takeaways
Satya Nadella says that Microsoft has to "invent the right business model" to deliver gaming to "more and more people".
Earlier this week, Xbox laid off 268 people on top of the 1,600 jobs it cut earlier this year. It has shoved Obsidian into Bethesda, handed Halo to Activision, said Sayonara to Double Fine and Compulsion Games, and State of Decay developer Undead Labs, and is primed to close Hellblade developer Ninja Theory.
All of this is part of Xbox's "reset", under its new(ish) CEO Asha Sharma. Sharma has been the public face of the company's deeply controversial restructuring, defending it with statements like "great technology gets better when it gets simpler, not bigger" which, incidentally, is why aeroplanes always perform better when you rip one of the wings off.
But both Sharma and Xbox are ultimately part of a much larger organisation. So what does Microsoft's head honcho Satya Nadella think of all these cuts, closures, and cancellations? Well, he thinks that Xbox's "streamlining" is "great to see".
Latest Videos FromPC Gamer
Speaking on the Sources Podcast with Alex Heath (via Kotaku), Nadella briefly touched upon the subject of the Xbox layoffs as part of a much wider-ranging interview, starting by gassing up all the intellectual property that Xbox has under its belt. "I feel fantastic about the IP we have right now," Nadella stated. "If I look at the studios, the IP portfolio we have, and our ability to then take that and produce great games going forward, I feel fantastic."
Satya Nadella on Copilot, the AI backlash, and Microsoft’s future - YouTube
As for the radical studio reorgs and the cuts which have left thousands of people jobless, Nadella described the process as if Xbox was designing a new Formula 1 car. "There's some amount of streamlining the team is doing, and Asha is doing, which is great to see," he said.
Nadella then quickly turned to Microsoft's future plans for Xbox: "Then we have to invent the right sustainable business model that allows us to deliver gaming to more and more people. That has always been the goal, which is, we want to be a great publisher and a great platform provider to games across both PC and Xboxes." he told Heath. "And so that is sort of our goal. And I think Asha and the team have said that Xbox is going to get growth in the next fiscal year."
If I understand Nadella correctly here, the plan is to embark upon the most dramatic reorganisation of Microsoft's gaming division ever and then come up with the business model that it's going to pursue. Which, to extend my aeroplane metaphor, is a bit like ripping one of the wings off before saying "Right, how do we circumnavigate this 'globe' thing?"
From the creators of Edge: A free weekly videogame industry newsletter, featuring in-depth news, expert analysis and exclusive interviews
But that doesn't mean Xbox is going to stop. Oh no. When the most recent layoffs were announced, Xbox's Chief Creator Officer Matt Booty said the company was "roughly three-quarters of the way through previously announced restructuring". Which means there's more yet to come.
