Bonum Certa Men Certa

XBox is Rapidly Turned Into a Slopfarm by Microsoft

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 14, 2025,
updated Jul 14, 2025

Silly gimmicks as a smokescreen while Microsoft's gaming division is collapsing and "Copilot" staff too is subjected to mass layoffs because it is based on lies

Microsoft’s new AI “Copilot for Gaming” struggles to justify its existence

We are hardly astounded or surprised that Microsoft is closing down many studios [1], as the writings have been on the wall for years already. As someone put it about a day ago: "Xbox is crashing before our eyes, but lets see if they can compete with PS6. Windows 11 is sluggish and full of bugs. Why is Xbox raising their prices at the end of their console lifecycle? Lucky PS5 hasn't change in that department. However, Xbox integration with Windows is the only neat thing. They missed the phone market."

Pro-Microsoft sites are protesting the slop experiments [2], arguing that it kills the company by wasting a ton of money. Given that even slop (so-called 'hey hi') staff is being laid off, it's clear that even Microsoft is begrudgingly throwing in the towel.

Today there are many articles (examples include [3-5]) about Microsoft using slop in XBox, having previously angered people with the lie about slop being viable for making games - a lousy claim soon to be blasted and dismissed as PR lies. Once the media called out the "BS", Microsoft mostly stopped repeating these claims.

Slop isn't about efficiency and saving money. It's about putting a bunch of monkeys in a circus that no longer attracts audiences, hoping to pretend the circus is still financially viable despite issues or in spite of missing income sources. Eventually this circus too will shut down.

Earlier today Aaron Wolf wrote: "The purpose of AI [sic] in most of this context is **not** about improving productivity!! It's about taking away tech-worker labor power. Cory Doctorow explains it all very clearly: There will be a day when AI is actually productively helpful, but that's not today for most things. Today, it is a cudgel for bosses to use to take away power from workers, even if the results for productivity are worse."

Related/contextual items from the news:

  1. Xbox’s Recently Closed Studio The Initiative Was Said To Be ‘AAAA Team’

    Xbox’s latest wave of layoffs was followed by multiple cancellations and studio closures. Among the more disheartening announcements was the revelation that Perfect Dark was cancelled and The Initiative was being shut down.

    This information becomes even more surprising when considering the fact that Xbox previously referred to The Initiative as a fully AAAA team.

  2. The Xbox Layoffs Make It Clear That It’s Past Time To Stop Playing With AI

    Microsoft laid off more than 9000 employees earlier this month. This has resulted in long-gestating games like Perfect Dark and Everwild getting axed, alongside an unannounced MMO project from the makers of The Elder Scrolls Online.

    In each individual case, you can point to potential causes for their demise. The Initiative and Rare were arguably taking too long to deliver their games, and both seemed to be struggling through its own troubled development cycle. The ground has shifted for live-service games in recent years and a new offering, even one from a proven MMO developer like Zenimax Online, has no guarantee of success. More broadly, Xbox has made puzzling decisions in recent years — like going all-in on Game Pass at the expense of its hardware — that may have finally come back to bite it.

  3. Fresh from telling laid-off employees to console themselves with AI, Microsoft doubles down by advertising Xbox jobs with pathetic AI image: 'So tone deaf I hope it is satire'

    The rollicking clown car that is Microsoft corporate leadership has outdone itself once again. Earlier this month Phil Spencer said Microsoft's gaming business has "never looked stronger" as he announced mass layoffs, which was swiftly followed up by an Xbox exec suggesting that affected employees use AI to console themselves. And now?

    A round of slow claps for Xbox's principle development lead Mike Matsel, another victim of terminal LinkedIn brain, who took to the social networking site this past weekend to announce some good news: we're hiring! Except…

  4. Microsoft Employee Criticized for Advertising Xbox Graphics Role Using AI 'Slop' Artwork, Just Weeks After Mass Layoffs

    A Microsoft employee has drawn criticism for sharing a widely-ridiculed AI image to advertise empty roles on Xbox's graphics team.

    The image, which features a woman sat at a computer typing code — shown on the rear of the monitor, rather than its screen — is clearly made by AI. Accompanying text states: "Xbox Graphics Is Hiring".

    Reaction to the post, which went live on LinkedIn over the weekend and is still available at the time of writing, is a mixture of bafflement and outright anger — with many responses criticising the "embarrassing" quality of the image, and the timing of the post, just weeks after mass layoffs at Xbox as Microsoft doubles down on AI.

  5. Xbox Graphics Lead Puts Out Tone-Deaf Hiring Call With AI-Slop, Shortly After Devastating Layoffs

    July 2025 kicked off with devastating news for Microsoft employees, as it laid off 9,000 workers across the entire company, with a significant number of those layoffs hitting Xbox and Microsoft's gaming division. Studios and game projects were shut down, veteran developers were either laid off or left because of the cuts, and amid reports that the layoffs are directly related to Microsoft wanting to invest more in its AI efforts, Microsoft and Xbox executives have failed to read the room multiple times.

    While claims were circulating that Microsoft and Xbox are "trying their damndest to replace jobs with AI agents," it was unfortunate, to say the least, that a seemingly automated invite went out to developers inviting them to a roundtable at Gamescom 2025 all about how AI tools can aid in game development. Disdain towards Xbox, Microsoft, and the c-suite executives who didn't lose their jobs compounded when an executive producer at Xbox suggested that laid-off workers confide in ChatGPT to help them cope with being laid off.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Seductive Mirage or Allure of Complex, Proprietary Coffee Machines (or Similar White Elephants)
Software is a lot like those things
Sloppy Reporting About Slop, or How The Register MS Lowers Its Standards
Maybe the management isn't even aware of this
IBM's Strategy: Cull 'Expensive' Workers, Replace Them With Cheaper Ones
So far we saw not even one rebuttal or challenge to the claim of Red Hat layoffs scheduled for tomorrow
The Goal of Coopetition Assumes You're Friends
it will never work with Microsoft
 
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and Other Serial Sloppers
Maybe Microsoft wants to dub this "Web5"
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Residents Management Company, Automation, and Politics
Links for the day
Links 10/08/2025: AOL Ending Dial-up
Links for the day
Links 10/08/2025: Webrings, “AI Sunglasses” and “AI Eyeglasses”, US Administration Intensifies Attacks on Science and Research
Links for the day
Sometimes Newer is Worse
We generally need to reject this dumb notion that "old" means bad
The Code Used to Make Techrights Fits on a Seventh of a Floppy Disk (or 100KB When Compressed)
For the sake of comparison I've just downloaded the latest version of WordPress. The ZIP file is 27.2MB in size, or ~27,200KB.
What They Tell Young Programmers
Coding in 2025
Simpler is Better When Simple is Enough
Over-complicating things to "sell" new versions is so 1990s
Links 10/08/2025: From Social Control Media to Prison, New Examples of Windows TCO
Links for the day
If You Attack Somebody Too Much You Legitimise and Strengthen That Somebody
at the end those attacks add up to a "martyr" status
The Man Who Helped Microsoft Kill Linux is Trying to Delay Our Lawsuits Against Him
By conservative estimates, and based on court documents submitted by them, they're prepared to spend over a million dollars on lawyers, fighting against me and my wife
Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Gen Con 2025 and Framework Laptop
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 09, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, August 09, 2025
The Register MS (Microsoft) or The Register AI (Slop)?
What a slopfest!
Is Red Hat About to Give the Boot to GNOME People Who Helped Microsoft 'Secure' (Monopolised) Boot?
It was always a dumb idea to play along with Microsoft's hardware mischief
Sales of Windows on PCs (Windows Licences) Go Down
Microsoft has a big problem in its hands
The Hype That Microsoft and The Register MS (Among Others) Promote Helps Stage DDoS Attacks on Free Software Sites
Microsoft is, to put it bluntly, pure evil
Links 09/08/2025: Putin Allegedly to Visit Alaska (Which He Deems Part of Russia), Mike Tyson Sued for Copyright Infringement
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, LinuxSecurity, and Google News With Its Slopfarms of Choice
SEO spam, made with LLMs
Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
paid to promote slop
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2025: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies, Slop Future Bleak
Links for the day
After Shutting Down Studios, Divisions, Applications (e.g. Skype) Microsoft is Also Shutting Down 'Apps'
Cuts all around as layoffs persist this month, Microsoft tries to get many people to resign, and debt skyrockets
Most of Geminispace Can Probably Fit on a CD-ROM or a DVD (the Textual Part)
If one excludes very large capsules and ones that contain non-textual contenty
Eventually UEFI 'Secure Boot' Will be Dropped (Users Will Demand Its Removal and Boycott Its Pushers)
we expect OEMs will just listen to users
The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
Call out the culprits
Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
if this persists, we'll need to escalate
There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
there are two many limitations which merit a mention when it comes to assessing magnitude
Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LLM Sloppers in Google News, LinuxSecurity, and More
they also perpetuate some falsehoods as the LLMs lack any comprehension
Links 08/08/2025: China King of Plastics and US Dictator Plans to Meet Russian Dictator
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/08/2025: Cracking a Family Member's Password and Overdose of Slop
Links for the day
Red Hat's Latest Talent Hunt, Day Ahead of Mass Layoffs, is Yet Another Microsoft Executive
Red Hat will apparently commence mass layoffs early this coming Monday
Links 08/08/2025: "Quit Facebook" and High Cost of Microsoft/Windows Shown Again ("BlackSuit")
Links for the day
Good Morning, Readers of The Register MS
Things The Register MS could (but does not) cover this morning
Why Gemini Protocol Has a Bright Future
Maybe Gemini Protocol's promise becomes more appealing as the Web turns to slop and bloat
It's a Lot Easier to Participate in the Unethical System Than to Oppose Injustices in It
Going after powerful and high-budget interests is never easy
Microsofters Filed Two SLAPPs Against Us, Now They Cannot Keep Up With Judges' Orders
For over 4 months already their facilitator in London has been under investigation by British authorities because of what's being done to my wife and I
Censorship Regarding Red Hat Layoffs
Talk about this? They'd rather not.
Struggling to Cut Costs, Microsoft Continues Shutting Down and Cancelling Stuff This Month
There are August layoffs at Microsoft
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 07, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 07, 2025
Fake 'Linux' Articles, Written by Bots to Take Traffic Away From Real Articles
LLM slop helps replace information with junk or misinformation
When Google's Googlebombing of "Gemini" Was Not Enough; They Now Also Googlebomb "Gemini Space"?
We know GAFAM not only worries about Gemini Protocol but also attempts to 'infiltrate' Geminispace
The Register MS Promotes Microsoft Slop, Assumes All Readers Use Microsoft Windows
Microsoft really dominates the site
Gemini Links 08/08/2025: KDE/Qt Development and What's Missing From "Retro"
Links for the day