Worthy Read is an ongoing series here at the blog where I link out to a piece I think is worth your valuable time.
What’s clear is that there was one plan before Asha Sharma took over Xbox, and now there is another. Between those opposing poles, it is possible that there was no long-term plan beyond “cut, cut, cut.” During the week of the first round of layoffs in July, remaining employees at heavily impacted studios like Doom progenitor id Software noted that higher-ups failed to give them clear marching orders. They were forced to stew in uncertainty right after crunching to finish critically acclaimed DLC. Employees have since repeatedly insisted that, despite management’s claims, Microsoft did not understand what it was ripping and tearing into—that it has done irreparable damage to studios with decades of accumulated expertise and domain knowledge.
An absolutely scathing takedown of the irrational and seemingly irresponsible cuts that have happened at Microsoft’s Xbox division over the last year.
I’m reminded of a quote from a recent episode of Post Games that changed my perspective on gaming — we think about studios and franchises, but we rarely think about games in terms of the creatives behind it. Not just say, the auteurs like a Hideo Kojima, but even the people working in less celebrated roles. Those teams, that chemistry, are just as important in what makes a game a game as anything else.
It seems that Microsoft has completely lost that.