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

More Microsoft-Red Hat Cross-Pollination as the Company Loses a Managing Director
some people move from Microsoft to Red Hat and some do the opposite
Cloudflare Gives Us All Another Reason to Boycott Cloudflare
If Cloudflare wants to use its vast surveillance network (which is what it does as a CDN) to foist paywalls and maybe something worse (like DRM on top), then Cloudflare should be more widely rejected as a company
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has Un-cancelled the Best People, Just in Time for the Big 4-0
Mr. Oliva should have been there all along (since 2019)
Most "Modern" Technology Makes You Slower and Dumber
Because proprietary software makes you worse off
"What Comes After Free Software?" Wrongly Insinuates We've Reached the Goal (Prison is Not the Goal)
The oil tycoons use similar tactics against environmentalists, giving them fake "wins"
Making More Work Space
I learned the hard way that less is more in circumstances where more means distraction
MAHA is a Lie, Public Officials Never Valued Citizens' Health (They Still Value Private Businesses, Their Sponsors)
Reject demagogues
 
Science is Under Attack
Oligarchy prefers a dumbed-down population
Someone Expiring Certificates on the Day of the 9/11 Attacks is Not Someone I Would Want Controlling My PC (or Deciding What's Authorised for Booting)
"social justice warriors"
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has Reportedly Failed People With Wrong Advice
At the moment the SRA has a PR blunder
The Man Suing Brett Wilson LLP and Gervase de Wilde (5RB)
Now he's probably using the (almost) 200,000 pounds he's supposed to receive to sue Brett Wilson LLP and former colleagues/partners
Slopwatch: A World Wide Web That's Rotting for Companies That Won't Even Exist in a Few Years
some of the junk Google News is promoting
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 23, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Links 24/09/2025: Qt Creator 18 Beta, Microsoft Cannot Bail Out "ChatGPT" Anymore, China and US Intensify Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 24/09/2025: Gemlogs and Politics
Links for the day
Links 23/09/2025: Japan Limits Uses of Skinnerboxes ('Smartphones') With Toxic "Apps", Fentanylware (TikTok) Tapped by "MAGAts"
Links for the day
Brett Wilson LLP Has Just Been Sued (by Their Own Clients!)
Vladimir and Alla Yanpolsky sued Brett Wilson LLP in BL-2025-001167 at the end of last week
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part II - UK SLAPPs for Americans, SLAPPs for Profit
Brett Wilson LLP has a track record of this kind
Mayday: Optus emergency calling crisis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 23/09/2025: Massive Data Breach, Slop Versus Productivity, and Vista 11 Update Breaks Things Again
Links for the day
Code of Censorship
Extortion is peace
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Press Kit for the Weekend After Next Weekend (40th Anniversary)
miles better than social [sic] media [sic] quips, moderated by narcissists and oil tycoons.
Microsoft Had Two Waves of Mass Layoffs This Month (That We Know of) and It'll Get Worse for Microsoft Soon
Will the axe fall again by month's end?
Gemini Links 23/09/2025: Happy Equinox, Photronic Arts, and Perception Cognition
Links for the day
Lessons We've Learned After 17 Years of American Hosting
GAFAM is "all-in" with the "Trump agenda"
Back to Normal Now, We Plan to Do More In-Depth Series (or Multi-part Stories)
Articles (or series thereof) that contain philosophy are important to us
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 22, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 22, 2025
Microsoft Media is Panicking Amid Mass Layoffs Every Month, H-1B Fees, and "Seattle’s Tech Scene in Trouble"
In "late stage Microsoft", copyleft becomes proprietary
The Next Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs Being Discussed Already
Red Hat is sort of disappearing the way Tivoli did
New Techrights Turns 2
Today starts the third year of the SSG-based Techrights
What Scares Them the Most is Independent News Sites That They Cannot Control and Censor
Wikileaks was a good example of this
If You Don't Control Your Online Platform, Then Someone Else is Controlling You
be (or become) independent
Oracle Started This Year With Slop. Then It Stopped.
Passing fads are like this
Distros That Run on PCs Made 20 Years Ago and Don't Use Systemd
Betas for now
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Has a Policy on Racism and Sexism
In then future we'll show the misogyny and racial slurs
The Complaint About Brett Wilson LLP - Part I - Abusing British Women on Behalf of American Men Who Abuse American Women
Transparency is important to us, so we've decided to make this series
Slopwatch: Google News and the Evident Slopfarm Infestation
This is what people get about Linux when they query Google for Linux
Links 22/09/2025: Murdochs Might Join Fentanylware (TikTok) 'Investors' (Masters), United Kingdom Recognises Palestinian Statehood
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Esperanto Music History and Apps For Android
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: More American 'Censorship' (Retaliation for Journalism), Cheeto "Might Be Losing His Race Against Time"
Links for the day
The Blob Slop
Give me more words, give me some text
The 50-Pound Note Experiment and the "War on Cash"
Britain is actually seeing a rebound in cash payments, and it's not a temporary phenomenon
Slopwatch: Blaming the Victims for Microsoft's Failures and Plagiarising Phoronix
That's what Google has been reduced to: slop and slopfarms
Links 22/09/2025: Breaches, Windows TCO, and Arrests
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/09/2025: Rabbit Hole and DeGoogling Fairphone
Links for the day
Links 22/09/2025: Russian War Planes Invade NATO Airspace While Dihydroxyacetone Man Escalates Attack on Free Speech Because of Critics
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, September 21, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, September 21, 2025