News today that Xbox has cancelled multiple projects and laid off hundreds of workers, on top of thousands more let go in earlier layoffs over the last 18 months, has shaken an industry already pretty damn shaken after everything that’s happened over the last 3-4 years. This leaves me asking the same question I’ve found myself asking a lot lately: why are the people most responsible for the company’s failures not the ones facing the consequences for them?
Microsoft has stepped on rake after rake in the decade since the launch of the Xbox One. I could make a list here of every mistake the company has made–from first-party development mishaps to confusing naming practices to Game Pass’ undercutting of an entire industry to more recent stuff like devaluing the brand’s identity itself–but you know all this already. You can take your pick as to what you think has been the biggest contributor to a once-dominant console now appearing to be in terminal decline.
Whichever you choose, in whatever order and priority, they’ve all got one thing in common: they’re all strategic mistakes. Everything Microsoft has fucked up since 2013 has come from the very top.
Those fuck ups have consistently pointed the company on a downwards trajectory, to the point where we are now looking at a fourth round of layoffs since 2024. Workers who have poured their lives into making games, or marketing games, or making sure studios are run properly, have been cast aside.
None of those people were responsible for calling it the Xbox Series X But Also Series S. The person answering phones at Arkane didn’t bet the farm on Game Pass becoming the next Netflix then…not becoming the next Netflix. An artist paid to draw spaceships for a Halo game didn’t decide that Xbox should mean an actual Xbox but also kinda mean an Oculus Quest 3 and some handhelds and cloud services but also not really.
Xbox executives made those decisions! They’ve all been bad decisions, one after another, for over a decade now, and as you cast your eyes over the lists of people being affected by these layoffs–their careers and entire lives upended in an instant–that list does not include CEO Phil Spencer.
He remains in his role, wants to be there for a while yet, and will remain receiving total compensation in the millions, pay that should in theory be a result of the scale of responsibility he is entrusted with. Getting paid millions while you’re doing well makes sense! Continuing to be paid millions while your business sucks so badly you think you need to lay off workers because of your terrible decisions, or decisions you’re responsible for, makes no sense.
If Microsoft really wants to reverse a decade of mistakes, and feels the best way to achieve that is to let someone go, maybe they need to be looking at laying off the people–or person–ultimately responsible for those mistakes.
