IGN journalist Ryan McCaffrey analyzed all the warning signs surrounding the activities of the American giant, and then presented information received from former Xbox employees.
One of the “founders” of the platform, people who had the opportunity to develop Xbox over the years, believes that the brand is absorbed by Microsoft Gaming.
“I spoke separately with two former longtime Xbox employees, and both lamented the current state of the company. One of them told me ahead of this week's terrible studio closures: “I had a long conversation with the Xbox founding group, and we all agreed: it's not Xbox anymore, it's Microsoft Gaming.”
According to a second longtime employee, Microsoft Gaming is now too big, full integration with Bethesda has not yet been completed, and the company is trying to merge operations with Activision.
“The second employee spoke with me long after the Bethesda massacre, and believes that Xbox is now too big to quickly and easily clean up the house. “The scale is just too big. The reality is that we're dealing with three huge companies, and Microsoft hasn't completed the integration with Bethesda. And Activision is about three times the size of Xbox.” He added: “Xbox 360 launched with a few hundred people. From what I've heard, Xbox now has almost 30,000 people.”Xbox has become one of Microsoft's most important divisions. Or rather, “games” have become one of the pillars of the corporation, so important decisions must go through Microsoft as a whole, and not just Phil Spencer.
“ According to an Xbox veteran, this development has led to increased oversight and interference from those further down the Microsoft chain. “The reason this seems inconsistent with previous statements from Xbox management is that these decisions are probably not being made by Phil. Everything is dictated by [Microsoft CEO] Satya [Nadella] and [Microsoft CFO] Amy Hood, and that's it.” this is due to the acquisition of Activision.”
Xbox has changed a lot over the past few years, with challenges such as slowing console sales, the post-pandemic recession and The underperformance of Xbox Game Pass was exacerbated by the overly long battle to acquire Activision – closing the deal and fighting with the FTC could have meant that Xbox lost a lot of time during which it could have focused on integration and coming up with a strong plan.
“I'm 100% sure that this decision at the board level was a huge profit center, so Satya approved a huge merger. Now gaming is slowing down and Microsoft's stock is rising. , and Satya will never let Xbox drag him down. Of course, this is all my opinion, but… I'm pretty sure that such decisions are not made only by Xbox management.”
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Cover author: Xbox. Cover source: IGN